A few months later, Liu Wei finally came to the capital to report on his duties. As expected, he was impeached and held responsible for the defeat of Gu Yuancheng. He was demoted, seized power, and transferred to other places.
In order to fill the defense gap along the Yellow River, Zhu Youzhen ordered Li Ba, the commander of Capture City, to lead a thousand men to Yangliu (now Dong'a County, Shandong Province, one of the ancient ferry crossings on the south bank of the Yellow River). On the day Li Ba set out, he launched a mutiny, set fire to and looted the capital, and attacked the south gate of the imperial city.
Zhu Youzhen personally climbed up the city tower to direct the counter-rebellion. The rebel army poured oil on the cloth, then wrapped the cloth on a long bamboo pole, and then lifted it up high, intending to burn the tower. Wang Yanqiu, the commander of the Longxiang Army, discovered that none of the rebel soldiers were wearing armor. , so he decisively dispatched cavalry to attack; Zhu Youzhen suddenly saw the Longxiang Army cavalry upstairs and exclaimed: "Why is it the Longxiang Army?" Wang Yanqiu quickly explained that the Longxiang Army was to counter the rebellion, and the rebel was only one of Li Ba's men. The camp was strengthened; soon after, Li Ba and his rebel army were all massacred, and the rebellion was put down.
"Zi Zhi Tong Jian" devotes a lot of space to describing the details of the battle, but does not mention a word about the most critical question: Why did Li Ba rebel?
When we extract a few keywords: rebellion, imperial city, Longxiang Army... it’s terrifying to think about it!
If you analyze it in depth, it will become more and more strange:
1. What were the demands of the mutiny? If you are looking for money, just plunder the two cities, why attack the palace? What good would it do them to kill the emperor?
2. Li Ba only had a thousand men and was not particularly well-equipped (the thieves had no armor), but he was able to cause trouble in the capital. Not only did he plunder wantonly, but he also posed a threat to the imperial city, so much so that he almost turned the emperor into a roast duck. . Where are the Imperial Guards? Where are the garrison troops?
3. Long Xiangjun really has nothing to do with it?
4. Why was Zhu Youzhen shocked when he saw Long Xiangjun? When he was surprised, how should he analyze the words he blurted out?
According to historical records, Zhu Youzhen exclaimed, "Who is the leader of the chaos if it is not my fellow Longxiang?" How should this sentence be translated? It is interesting to think about.
Zhu Youzhen's successful rise to power was inseparable from the support of Long Xiangjun. In the process of the change of supreme power in the Later Liang Dynasty, Long Xiang's army was always looming. The relationship between Zhu Youzhen and Long Xiangjun is quite delicate.
What is Zhu Youzhen surprised about?
5. The rebels caused an uproar in the capital, and when Zhu Youzhen recognized the Longxiang Army among the rebels, the rebellion was immediately suppressed, and all the rebels, including the leader, were killed.
Why did the Long Xiang army who suppressed the rebellion pretend to be pigs and eat tigers? Was Li Ba killed and silenced?
I personally believe that Li Ba's mutiny was far from being as simple as recorded in historical records. It was probably a failed palace coup, and there should be high-level figures involved behind it.
This mutiny (coup) had a great mental impact on Zhu Youzhen. From then on, Zhu Youzhen's trust in "outsiders" was gone. He only believed in close associates such as Zhao Yan and the Zhang brothers, and regarded the "foreign relatives gang" as his confidants. , local vassals, veteran heroes, especially clan brothers... are all potential enemies!
[Fall of Hebei]
After Liu Wei's sneak attack on Taiyuan failed, Wang Tan, who replaced Niu Cunjie and was stationed on the Yellow River front line, secretly reported to Zhu Youzhen, requesting the opening of a second battlefield and mobilizing all the troops from Guanxi to go north from the Hezhong area to sneak attack Taiyuan. Zhu Youzhen immediately ordered the Hezhong National Guard Army, Shaanzhou Zhenguo Army, Huazhou Reform Army, and Tongzhou Zhongwu Army to gather more than 30,000 elite troops to leave Yindi Pass and attack Taiyuan.
As analyzed above, the Liang and Jin Dynasties faced off along the Yellow River, and the Taihang Mountains were completely within the sphere of influence east of the river, which was not conducive to mobilizing support from the east and west fronts; and because the area in the middle of the river was under the control of Houliang, the two sides did not actually rule by dividing the river. In the middle section of the Yellow River, Houliang The sphere of influence extended to the north of the Yellow River, which formed a semi-encirclement to the east of the river.
When the Heshuo area east of the Taihang Mountains reaches a stalemate, Houliang can set out from the Hezhong area to sneak attack Taiyuan.
Wang Tan was as fast as lightning and suddenly appeared at the gate of Taiyuan City, launching fierce attacks day and night. All the people in Taiyuan Prefecture are soldiers. Anyone who can handle weapons will go to the city to fight.
Taiyuan City is in danger.
Retired veteran An Jinquan (who served two generations of Li Guochang and Li Keyong) took the initiative to find Zhang Chengye and said that Taiyuan is the foundation of Hedong, my sword will never grow old, and he is willing to go into battle to kill the enemy, and asked for the distribution of weapons and armor.
Zhang Chengye was greatly moved and immediately gave him a sufficient amount of weapons and armor. Veteran general An Jinquan, his children, grandchildren, and other retired veterans, totaling hundreds of people, went out of the city at night to attack the Houliang army and successfully repulsed it.
After Li Sizhao, who was stationed in Luzhou, heard the news, he immediately sent Shi Junli's 500 cavalry to help. Five hundred cavalry set off in the morning and arrived in Taiyuan in the evening. There were about five hundred miles between the two places, and the flexibility of Shatuo's cavalry came in handy.
Shi Junli led five hundred cavalry to break through the obstruction of the Houliang army and rushed to the city. He shouted to the defenders on the city: "The Zhaoyi reinforcements led by Li Sizhao will be here soon!" The morale of the defenders in the city was greatly boosted.
Shi Junli didn't care about rest, so he went out of the city to fight with veteran An Jinquan that night, causing a casualty rate of up to 30% for the Houliang army.
The next day, Wang Tan retreated and Taiyuan relieved the siege.
On the eastern front, Liu Wei was defeated miserably; on the western front, Wang Tan failed.
Zhu Youzhen looked up to the sky and sighed, "The situation is over!"
Li Cunxu took advantage of the remaining power of victory to expand the results and included the former Wei Bojun and Dong Zhaoyi. The governor of Weizhou surrendered to the city, the governor of Dongzhaoyi of Xingzhou, Yan Bao, surrendered to the city, the governor of Cizhou abandoned the city and fled, the governor of Xiangzhou abandoned the city and fled... In the entire area north of the Yellow River, there were only two nails left: Cangzhou and Beizhou. The Hedong Army increased its military input and wanted to unify the north of the Yellow River.
Under increasing pressure, Dai Siyuan, the military governor of Hue in Cangzhou, abandoned the city and fled. The defender Mao Zhang surrendered to Xiancheng in Hedong. Li Cunxu sent Li Siyuan into the city to take over and pacify him, and then ordered Li Cunshen to take charge of Cangzhou and Li Siyuan to take charge of Xingzhou. .
When Hedong controlled Cangzhou, Beizhou in the north of Weibo was completely included in Hedong's sphere of influence and became a veritable isolated city.
Beizhou has been besieged for more than a year. Now it is deep in the enemy's hinterland, isolated and helpless, with no food and grass, and a tragedy of cannibalism is about to take place. The generals discussed with the governor Zhang Yuande and said they planned to surrender. Zhang Yuande firmly opposed it and said he vowed to live and die with Beizhou as long as he stayed in the city.
As a result, the generals killed Zhang Yuande, and then sent representatives to contact the Hedong Army and proposed conditional surrender. The condition for surrender was not to surrender. Because of fear of massacre and retaliation, one had to wear armor and carry weapons out of the city to surrender, and then disarm after the reception was completed.
Hedongjun agreed, no problem, come out.
As a result, three thousand defenders left the city and surrendered, and the Hedong Army entered the city to take over. After the three thousand people took off their armor and handed over their weapons, the Hedong Army suddenly surrounded them and massacred them all.
After that, almost all the land north of the Yellow River was included in the territory of Hedong.
After taking control of Hebei, Li Cunxu sent envoys to visit Huainan and proposed a north-south attack on Houliang. Yang Wei of Huainan readily agreed, so he sent Zhu Jin, the "pig-killing pioneer", to lead Huainan's elite soldiers and brave generals to cross Huainan and go north, echoing Li Cunxu's north and south.
