Chapter 17 Pingfan's Last Battle

After Wu Yuanji's defeat, the domineering vassal town of Lianghe inevitably felt the fear of death. The one who fears the most is Li Shidao from Ziqing. Li Shidao originally thought that if Wu Yuanheng, the prime minister of the hawk faction, would be removed, the imperial court would put down its banners and drums, and call for money to withdraw troops. Unexpectedly, Xianzong resisted all opinions and decided to fight to the death, and appointed Pei Du, who was also a hawk faction, as prime minister.And Pei Du took a trip to Huaixi, and easily settled Wu Yuanji who had been stubborn for many years.It is not difficult to imagine that the next target of the court must be him and Wang Chengzong.

The reversal of the situation made Li Shidao at a loss.One of his officials named Li Gongdu had always been inclined to the imperial court, so he took the opportunity to persuade him to send hostages and land, and apologize to the imperial court, so as not to follow in the footsteps of Wu Yuanji.Li Shidao had no choice but to obey. In the first month of the thirteenth year of Yuanhe (818 A.D.), Li Shidao sent an envoy to Fengbiao, and offered to send his eldest son to the court as a hostage. Emperor Xianzong accepted Li Shidao's surrender, and immediately sent Li Xun, a regular servant of Zuo Sanqi, to Yunzhou (Ziqing Zhisuo, now Dongping County, Shandong Province), named "Xuanwei", in fact urging Li Shidao to fulfill his promise.

As soon as Li Shidao was convinced, those feudal towns in Hebei who were still on the sidelines panicked and expressed their opinions one after another. In February, Cheng Quan, the Jiedu envoy of Henghai (Government Cangzhou), sent an envoy to submit an envoy, willing to bring the whole clan into the court and return Henghai town to the central government. In April, Chengzong Wang Chengzong of Chengde also sent his two sons to the imperial court as hostages, donated the two prefectures of De and Di at the same time, and voluntarily returned the right to tax collection and appointment and removal of officials to the imperial court.

In the same month, Mr. Liu of Lulong also swears allegiance to the court under the persuasion of general Tan Zhong. In just a few months, the Lianghe feudal towns that have been domineering for many years have all made a 180-degree turn, showing unprecedented awe and obedience to the authority of the Li Tang Central Committee.The ruling and opposition parties rejoiced.No one doubts that this catastrophic empire will soon walk out of the dark and long historical tunnel and realize the long-awaited rejuvenation. However, the road to light is never a smooth one.Because in this world, there is a thing called inertia.From small personal living habits to large historical habits, it is impossible to change overnight.This is especially true for the domineering vassals who have been accustomed to being the emperor and have been at ease for more than half a century.

Therefore, Li Shidao, who was the first to bow his head to the court, was the first to repent. ——The consolation of the imperial court made Li Xun come to Ziqing, what he saw was not Li Shidao's sincere smile, but an uncertain face. Among the Lianghe feudal towns, Ziqing is the one with the largest number of soldiers and the widest territory, so it is not so easy for it to give up the privileges it has enjoyed for a long time.Moreover, people are lucky.There is a saying that you will not cry when you see the coffin, and you will not look back until you hit the south wall.For most people in this world, the principle of "being prepared for danger in times of peace" is easy to understand, but few people are willing to do it.

For example, Li Shidao's wife, Wei Shi. When he heard that Li Shidao was going to send his precious son to Chang'an as a hostage, Wei's lungs exploded.In her opinion, if Wu Yuanji of Huaixi can't defeat the imperial court, it is because of his own incompetence, why should we surrender without a fight? Unable to swallow this breath, Wei urged several other concubines to blow pillow wind to Li Shidao together: "Since Situ (Li Na) took possession of Ziqing, we have owned the land of twelve states. Ceded to the imperial court for no reason? What's more, our current military strength is no less than hundreds of thousands. If we don't donate the three states, we can at most fight a battle with the imperial court. Even if we can't win, it will not be too late to contribute again."

Li Shidao was originally reluctant to surrender, but now that he was blown by the wind beside his pillow, he immediately changed his mind. After Xuanwei envoy Li Xun arrived in Yunzhou, he saw that Li Shidao had a ghost in his heart, so he asked him when he planned to let his son enter the court.But Li Shidao laughed at him, saying: "A while ago, because of the love between father and son, I was reluctant to let him go, and the soldiers repeatedly asked him to stay, so there was a delay and I didn't have time to leave. Now there is an imperial envoy coming here in person, how dare I be half-hearted again? It's just that it's a long way to Chang'an, so I have to ask Quanzi to prepare."

Li Xun asked him to give a letter of approval so that he could return to the court and return to life.Li Shidao still hesitated, and Wang Gu talked about him.Li Xun didn't say anything, turned around and left. After returning to the court, he immediately reported to the emperor: "Li Shidao is stubborn and capricious. I'm afraid it will be impossible not to use troops against him." Xianzong was furious and decided to send troops to crusade. No one likes blood, but history has always loved violence.Since ancient times, every time a history guy turns a new page, it seems that it must be soaked in the blood of thousands of living beings, otherwise that page of history cannot be written.

This is really helpless. At the beginning of July in the thirteenth year of Yuanhe, Emperor Xianzong issued an edict to enumerate Li Shidao's crimes, and ordered Xuanwu, Wei Bo, Yiwu, Wuning, and Henghai five soldiers to jointly attack Li Shidao. Thus began the final battle to flatten the strong feudal clan. From the autumn of this year, the Five Route Army began to launch a full-scale attack on Ziqing.With the lingering prestige of Huaixi's new victory, the imperial army was invincible in this battle. It was Li Yan who made the first contribution. In December, Li Yan, who was then the Jiedu envoy of Wuning, fought eleven consecutive battles with the Ziqing army, winning every battle, and conquered Jinxiang (now Jinxiang County, Shandong), a strategically important place in Ziqing, on the 30th.

On the second day of the first lunar month in the fourteenth year of Yuanhe (819 A.D.), Han Hong, the envoy of Xuanwu Jiedu, captured Kaocheng (now Minquan County, Henan); on the thirteenth, Li Yan captured Yutai (now Yutai County, Shandong); On that day, Tian Hongzheng, the envoy of the Weibo Festival, defeated the Ziqing army in Dong'e (now Acheng Town, northeast of Yanggu County, Shandong Province), beheading more than 10,000 people; in early February, Li Ting, the brother of Li Yan, successively conquered the East China Sea (now east of Lianyungang City, Jiangsu Province). , Qushan (now Lianyungang City, Jiangsu Province), Huairen (now Ganyu County, Jiangsu Province); later, Li Yan defeated the Ziqing Army in Yizhou (now Linyi City, Shandong Province) and occupied Cheng County (now southeast of Zaozhuang City, Shandong Province) ).

Less than half a year after the start of the war, the imperial army swept across the entire territory of Ziqing with an invincible force, and there were frequent reports of success on all fronts. The morale of the army in Yunzhou City was fluctuating, and everyone began to nervously think about the way out. Li Shidao is usually domineering and domineering, but in fact he is a strong outsider.After receiving a series of defeat reports from the front line, Li Shidao was in panic all day long, and soon fell ill. Seeing that the army was gathering, Li Shidao urgently mobilized the people of Yunzhou to build the city wall and dredge the trenches, preparing for the final resistance. However, Li Shidao's head was chopped off before the officers and soldiers reached Yunzhou. The person who did it was Liu Wu, the well-known soldier and horse envoy of Ziqing. As early as when the various officers and troops advanced into Ziqing, Liu Wu was already preparing to retreat, so he lost several battles and retreated repeatedly.Li Shidao's staff warned him that Liu Wu had ulterior motives.Li Shidao hurriedly recalled Liu Wu and prepared to kill him.Some people also persuaded Li Shidao, saying that if the enemy is in front of him, if he kills the generals in front of the battle, the morale of the army will definitely be shaken.Li Shidao has always been very soft-hearted, and it made sense after thinking about it, so he adopted a pacification strategy, sent a lot of gold and silk, and let Liu Wu go back. But within a few days, someone warned Li Shidao again, saying that he was going back to the mountain with a tiger, and there would be endless troubles.Only then did Li Shidao make up his mind, and secretly sent two envoys to Liu Wu's barracks, ordering Zhang Xian, the deputy envoy of the soldiers and horses of the camp, to kill Liu Wu.Unexpectedly, Zhang Xian had always been on good terms with Liu Wu, so he secretly reported to him.Liu Wu became angry, killed the two envoys, and led his army back to Yunzhou City overnight on the eighth day of February.The defenders surrendered with only slight resistance.Li Shidao hid in the hut in despair and fear, but was eventually searched out by Liu Wu. Li Shidao lay limp on the ground, kowtowing and begging for mercy. Liu Wu looked at him expressionlessly, and said, "I escorted you to the capital according to the emperor's secret order, but look at you now, what face do you have to meet the emperor?" As soon as the words fell, Liu Wu chopped off Li Shidao's head. On February 21, the 14th year of Yuanhe, Li Shidao's head was sent to Chang'an by a fast horse. Ziqing declared peace. From the reign of Emperor Zong Guangde to the present, in nearly sixty years, across the north and south of the Yellow River, occupying more than 30 prefectures, all the domineering vassals and towns that enjoy their own taxes, officials themselves, and all their own specialties have all returned to the central government of Li and Tang Dynasties.The Tang Empire, which has been divided and turbulent for more than half a century, has finally returned to the track of great unification.Although there are still many hidden dangers that are difficult to eradicate under the superficial brilliance, Emperor Xianzong Li Chun has every reason to be proud of this moment. Thirteen years. It has been thirteen years since he took the throne. Although these thirteen years were full of twists and turns and hardships, everything finally paid off satisfactorily. At this moment, Li Chun is fully qualified to stand in front of the spiritual thrones of the ancestors of the Li and Tang Dynasties, and boldly declare that - I have completed my mission and created a great ZTE. Yes, no one can deny that.Whether it is the spirit of Emperor Li Tang in heaven or the thousands of subjects of the empire, they should all be proud of Emperor Xianzong Li Chun, and they should all celebrate the arrival of this moment. And what should an emperor who has created the great cause of ZTE do next? Is it to make persistent efforts to consolidate the fruits of victory and make further progress?Or should we be satisfied with the status quo, lie on the radiant credit book, and start enjoying life as we please? Xianzong chose the latter without hesitation. History quickly proved that this was a foolish choice. For Li Chun personally, such a choice may be understandable, but it ended the great cause of ZTE that Li Chun had just created, and at the same time opened his personal tragic fate; After stabilizing and rebounding, it turned around again and returned to the downward channel that has repeatedly hit new lows since the Anshi Rebellion... Of course, Li Chun couldn't see all this at this time.