Chapter five hundred and ninety-ninth Southern Tang changes
After entering February, the snow in various places in Lingzhou began to gradually melt, and there was a bit of warmth in the air.
After learning that the Hexi Army had captured Longyou, Cui Kuan, the military governor of Shuofang, was also interested. They turned their attention to the states in Guan Nei Province in the south. Yuanzhou had a special status and Guanzhong had tighter control. He did not dare to attack Yuanzhou.
He paid more attention to the three states of Qing, Yan, and Sui. These three states only had hundreds of state troops stationed there.
But the risk of seizing these three states is also very high. Will Zhu Si let him go?
Cui Kuan had always been very conflicted in his heart. He sent people to Chang'an to inquire about the news and pay attention to Zhu Si's troop movements. As long as Zhu Si sent troops to the Central Plains, it would be the time for him to send troops south.
In the official room, Liang Yundao, who joined the army and recorded affairs, advised Cui Kuandao: "Your Majesty, the Dangxiang people have been peeking at Lingzhou for more than ten years, but both the imperial court and the successive Shuofang Jiedushi are very wary of the Dangxiang people and do not give them any chance. These two
The Dangxiang people have developed too fast in the past year and have already matured. If they are not restrained, Lingzhou will be in danger."
Cui Kuan shook his head and said: "We have discussed this issue many times, please don't talk about it again, so as not to cause some unpleasant emotions between us."
"But I have received some news that the Dangxiang people may have military operations at the end of February. Please be vigilant."
Cui Kuan was silent for a moment and said: "I won't hide it from you now. At the end of February, the Shuofang Army had a military operation, including the Dangxiang Army, but it was not against Lingzhou, but to attack Qingzhou. This is mine.
Decide, I’ll tell you this much, don’t make any wild guesses.”
Liang Yundao was also a little confused. Could it be that the information Guo Song gave him was wrong? He said no more, bowed and retreated.
Cui Kuan watched Liang Yundao's back coldly as he walked away. He had long known that Liang Yundao's nephew Liang Wu was a general in the Hexi Army. Liang Yundao himself had a very good personal relationship with Guo Song. He even went to Hexi last autumn. If not for the fact that Liang Yundao was from Lingzhou.
The leader of the local snake, I had already deposed him.
It seems that I should be careful about this person and not be betrayed by him...
At night, in the lobby of Liangjiabao, the heads of several major families gathered together to discuss measures to deal with the invasion of the Dangxiang people. Cui Kuan might be a little slow towards the Dangxiang people, but these families were extremely wary of the Dangxiang people. Seeing the Dangxiang people coming,
Under Cui Kuan's indulgence, his wings gradually matured, which made everyone feel a thorn in their hearts.
The family heads know very well that the Dangxiang people are different from other nomadic peoples. The Dangxiang people are here to seize land. Once they capture Lingzhou, they will definitely drive out the Han people and wipe out all their families.
Therefore, although the major families have conflicts with each other, they are surprisingly united in dealing with the party members.
"Cui Kuan was blinded by selfishness. He wants to use party members to work for him. He trusts Ma Wencui too much. One day he will be killed by Ma Wencui!"
The speaker was Lin Xiaoran, the head of the Lin family. After Cui Kuan came to power, the Lin family was suppressed, and almost all the family's generals in the military were dismissed. When Lin Xiaoran talked about Cui Kuan, he couldn't help but be filled with righteous indignation.
Liang Yundao waved his hands, "Everyone, let's get to the topic as soon as possible and discuss the response plan! Let me first throw some light on things. I suggest that we implement the joint defense plan we formulated when we were on guard against Xue Yantuo's people. That is the summary of our many years of experience, and it is still the case now.
It can be applied, what do you think?"
"We agree. That plan is very mature. Everyone is familiar with the key points and fully supports it!" Everyone raised their hands in approval.
Seeing everyone's agreement, Liang Yundao said: "Then it's decided. Everyone knows what to do. In addition, I want to remind everyone that if the Party members attack, there will probably not be any troops fighting alongside us. We have to rely on ourselves.
So don’t take chances and train hard!”
...........
At dawn the next day, various families began to take action, summoning soldiers from the fortress and distributing weapons. The wealthy families in Shuofang Prefecture collected weapons and trained their servants. They were specially approved by the imperial court. All the previous military envoys could not do anything, including Cui Kuangang when he came.
He wanted to collect weapons and reorganize his family soldiers into a militia, but he encountered fierce resistance from above and below. Cui Kuan had no choice but to allow this phenomenon to continue to exist.
If the soldiers of all the wealthy families gathered together, there would be about ten thousand people. Every family would have a training ground outside the city, and all the major families would be involved in intense military training.
In early February, the war situation in the Central Plains also changed subtly. An army of Zhu Si entered Dengzhou. Dengzhou was recaptured by Li Sheng last year. There were not many troops stationed in Dengzhou, only more than a thousand people. Shannan East Road Festival
However, Zhang Shengyun, the governor, was targeting Yuzhou and was preparing to seize Yuzhou. However, he did not expect that Zhu Si would come out from behind.
Zhang Shengyun was horrified and immediately led 20,000 troops to turn around and fight back to Dengzhou.
In the wilderness thirty miles south of Nanyang, the two armies met. The Northern Tang army was led by General Yan Feng. His army numbered 15,000.
'Boom! Boom! Boom!'
Amid the thunderous sound of war drums, the two armies launched a fierce battle.
But in just over half an hour, the Northern Tang army could not withstand the attack of the Southern Tang army. General Yan Feng ordered the withdrawal. Zhu Si's army was immediately defeated. The Southern Tang Dynasty took advantage of the situation to pursue them and recaptured Dengzhou in one go.
At this time, Wang Fazhong, the supervisor of the army, sent someone to inform Zhang Shengyun and suggested that he continue to expand his military achievements. This suggestion suited Zhang Shengyun. Li Sheng's achievements were weighing on him like a mountain. He urgently needed to use his military achievements to show that he was stronger than Li Sheng.
.
Zhang Shengyun couldn't hold back his excitement and sent his troops to attack Ruzhou. The Southern Tang army was so powerful that they captured Ruzhou, Xuzhou, and Yuzhou in one go. The army then entered Chenzhou.
In Luoyang, Zhu Si personally led an army of 100,000 people and was stationed in Henan Prefecture. He watched Zhang Shengyun coldly as he attacked the city in the south. He increasingly admired the military counselor Liu Sigu for his beautiful article, using an army of 15,000 people as bait.
Let Zhang Shengyun taste the sweetness.
Zhang Sheng was eager to achieve great results, so he was dazzled by the victory over the enemy and began to expand eastward.
In the lobby, an official was reporting to Zhu Si the latest battle situation of Zhang Shengyun in the south, "Twenty thousand Southern Tang troops captured Ruzhou, Xuzhou, and Yuzhou. Zhang Shengyun's army entered Chenzhou, and the 10,000 troops originally staying in Xiangyang were continuously divided and stationed.
In each state, there are now less than 3,000 troops left in Xiangyang."
Zhu Si turned around and asked Liu Sigu: "Sir, do you think the time is ripe?"
Liu Sigu nodded, "It's time to close the net!"
Zhu Si was overjoyed and immediately ordered: "Order the cavalry to go south to Xiangyang!"
Zhu Si's army launched a blitzkrieg. 30,000 cavalry troops were dispatched overnight and attacked Xiangyang. They passed through Dengzhou and arrived at Xiangyang City in just two days. The supervisor Wang Fazhong was so frightened that he abandoned the city and fled. Zhu Si's army captured the city without a fight.
In Xiangyang, at the same time, Zhu Si personally led an army of 50,000 troops into Ruzhou.
Zhang Shengyun failed to attack Wanqiu County in Chenzhou, but when he heard that Xiangyang had been lost, he realized that he had fallen into the trap of diverting the tiger away from the mountain.
Zhang Shengyun panicked and led his army to retreat westward. In Yancheng, they were surrounded by Zhu Si's 50,000-strong army. Zhang Shengyun was out of food and had no choice but to surrender to Zhu Si.
In just a few days, Zhu Si's army not only recaptured Dengzhou and Xiangzhou that Li Sheng had previously captured, but also successively captured Tangzhou, Suizhou, Yingzhou, and Jingzhou, and captured the entire Shannan East Road.
When the news reached Chengdu, Chengdu was in an uproar. Both the people on the streets and the ministers were overwhelmed with anger. They violently criticized the imperial court for listening to the slander and destroying Chang'an. Under the huge pressure from the government and the opposition, Emperor Li Shi ordered that the people who had escaped back be killed. The supervisor Wang Fazhong and Zhang Shengyun's family were publicly beheaded, and the right minister Lu Qi was dismissed.
However, the consequences of the fall of Shannan East Road this time were too serious, which directly separated Bashu from the eastern Jiangnan states. The ruling and opposition parties were still angry and wrote letters asking the prince to ascend the throne. Li Shi failed to shirk the blame.
In the Ziwei Hall of Yong'an Palace, Prince Li Yi knelt on the ground and said in a deep voice: "I have never had any evil thoughts. I will persuade the ministers to calm down. Now we need to be consistent with the outside world and not cause internal chaos."
Li Shi's face was extremely gloomy. There was a letter of advice signed by more than 500 ministers on his imperial desk, begging him to abdicate and let the prince ascend the throne to fight against the enemy. This accounted for 90% of the total number of ministers in the imperial court. This was unscrupulous The forced palace forced Li Shi to go crazy.
At this moment, he wanted to kill the prince in front of him with his sword. He did not stop more than 500 ministers from signing their names. Now that the joint letter was delivered to him, he pretended to persuade the ministers to calm down. It was simply hypocritical to the extreme.
But this is not the time to get angry. You must deal with it according to the established strategy and use retreat to advance.
Thinking of this, Li Shi slowly closed his eyes, and after a while he slowly said: "My arrow wound has been difficult to heal, and I am unable to handle state affairs. I can abdicate, but I have only one condition. The chief general of the Shence Army must be appointed by me. , to protect my safety, I don’t want to worry about other military and political affairs.”
Li Yi was silent for a moment and said: "If my father decides to abdicate, I am willing to agree to all the conditions proposed by my father."
At this moment, Li Shi felt murderous intent in his heart, but in the end he waved his hand feebly, "Stay back!"
........
That night, Li Shi formally announced his abdication due to his serious injury, and handed the throne to Prince Li Yi. He then moved to Qingcheng Palace and gave up Yong'an Palace.
Three days later, Li Yi ascended the throne of Dabao with the support of hundreds of officials. He honored his father Li Shi as the Supreme Emperor and kept his reign title unchanged. The first thing he did when he ascended the throne was to declare that eunuchs were strictly prohibited from participating in politics, and at the same time he issued an order to kill the treacherous minister Lu Qi. These two things won unanimous applause from the court officials.
Li Yi immediately issued an order to summon Li Sheng to the court, but at this moment, the unfortunate news came that Li Sheng contracted miasma in Lingnan and unfortunately died of illness.