Chapter 487: The Heavenly King Zhang Enters Guanzhong Again

He Ning's judgment was extremely accurate. Faced with the great merit of destroying a state and capturing its king, Zhang Yanze was never going to wait long at Weizhou on the north bank of the Yellow River.

His envoy party had left the Eastern Capital of Kaifeng Prefecture only three days earlier and had just reached Zhengzhou.

Zhang Yanze and the Khitan general Fu Zhu'er, leading four thousand men, crossed the Yellow River at Baima Ford and reached Huazhou, then without pausing pressed straight for the Eastern Capital of Kaifeng Prefecture.

And at that very moment, the Later Jin court's order for the various prefectures of Henan to conscript able-bodied men and organize militia braves had only just been issued.

Shi Chonggui was frantic as an ant on a hot pan, and in desperation ordered his wife's brother Feng Yu to scrape together the imperial guards and organize the defense of the Eastern Capital of Kaifeng Prefecture.

The next day, Feng Yu had managed to scrape together fewer than two hundred imperial guards when Zhang Yanze came charging straight from Huazhou with the Khitan light cavalry.

The defender of Fengqiu Gate, the eastern gate of the Eastern Capital, surrendered without a fight, and the Khitan cavalry rode straight in. By the time Shi Chonggui was startled awake from his dreams, the Khitan cavalry had already charged to the vicinity of Mingde Gate, the southern gate of the imperial palace.

At this moment Shi Chonggui had only a dozen or so imperial guards at his side. The palace was in chaos, with eunuchs and palace women running wildly in all directions, a scene of doomsday.

Worse, eunuchs with ulterior motives began looting the palace treasures amid the chaos, and before long fires had broken out in several places.

At this moment Shi Chonggui did show something of a warrior's courage. He drew his sword and led his guards on a tour of the palace to steady people's hearts, but by now this composure was utterly useless.

At the hour of shen, the Khitan cavalry that had reached Mingde Gate were too few to force it open. Perhaps fearing that Shi Chonggui would burn the palace, the Khitan cavalry shot two letters over the wall into the palace.

One was a denunciation of Shi Chonggui, condemning him for provoking the great war between Jin and Liao, calling him an unrighteous ruler, and bitterly cursing him for making his uncle's wife, Lady Feng, his empress, corrupting ethics and morality, and being without virtue.

The second was a personal letter from Yelu Deguang to Empress Dowager Li. Its tone was considerably more moderate, and it promised not to indiscriminately kill the Shi imperial clan, and so on.

After reading the first letter, Shi Chonggui had already begun driving more than thirty beauties, from consorts downward, to throw themselves into the fire together.

But after reading the second letter, and with the urgent pleas of the guards at his side, Shi Chonggui no longer wanted to die, and so he had the great fire put out.

He then hurriedly sent his sons Shi Yanxu and Shi Yanbao to present the instrument of surrender, and with the state treasures and golden seals of Jin, open Mingde Gate and surrender.

In putting on this act, Shi Chonggui had originally hoped to preserve a little dignity.

He thought that Zhang Yanze was a subject of Jin, and had always been extremely deferential before Shi Chonggui, so he should not come to make trouble for him.

How lamentable! Shi Chonggui had long lived deep within the inner palace, like a hothouse flower that had been protected, and he had forgotten what the warriors of this age were really like.

The moment Mingde Gate opened, Zhang Yanze, besides sending the surrender document, state treasures, and golden seals by fast riders to Yelu Deguang, immediately led his troops to drive Shi Chonggui out of the imperial palace.

He and the Khitan Fu Zhu'er and others, right in front of Shi Chonggui, seized the consorts and palace women.

Zhang Yanze even hoisted Lady Ding of Chu, the birth mother of Shi Chonggui's eldest son Shi Yanxu, onto his shoulder and carried her off, heedless of Shi Chonggui's anguished weeping.

Immediately after, these several thousand cavalry took control of all the gates inside and outside the Eastern Capital of Kaifeng Prefecture, recruited a batch of the city's scum, and then began looting the city's commoners district by district.

They did not dare loot the imperial palace, but toward the meritorious officials of Jin and the common people of the Eastern Capital, they showed no mercy.

For a time, even the great and noble households could not escape. Gold, silver, and silk were stripped clean, beautiful women were almost all carried off, and the wailing of the Eastern Capital spread along both banks of the Bian River.

But all of this no longer had anything to do with Zhang Zhao.

After initially resolving the problems of Li Dechong and An Yanwei, entering Guanzhong could only wait until Yelu Deguang entered the Central Plains.

Zhang Zhao sent out nearly all the Brocade Robe envoys around him, specifically to probe the movements of both the Jin and Liao sides.

On the twentieth of the first month, unable to hold back any longer, Zhang Zhao led five thousand elite cavalry out from Yuanzhou, crossed the Tanzheng Gorge, and camped a little over twenty li west of the Later Jin city of Weizhou (Pingliang).

Now only two hundred paces further east and they would enter Guanzhong, but Zhang Zhao could only wait here for the right moment.

On the twenty-fourth of the first month, word came from Ningzhou: Liu Jingyan, Military Governor of the Jingnan Army of Bin and Ning, had sent his third son as a hostage and handed over the golden seal of the Jingnan Army Military Governor, asking only that Zhang Zhao preserve his tens of thousands of mu of retirement land.

Zhang Zhao agreed without the slightest hesitation, though his heart still itched unbearably.

On the twenty-seventh of the first month, the eldest son of An Yanwei, Military Governor of the Jinchang Army of Jingzhao Prefecture, came in person from Jingzhao Prefecture to report the death.

It turned out that An Yanwei had already been gravely ill, and upon receiving the news that Du Chongwei had surrendered to the Khitan, the shock and distress together had brought about his sudden death.

That this eldest son of An Yanwei did not go to the Eastern Capital of Kaifeng Prefecture to report the death, but instead personally came in mourning clothes to report it to Zhang Zhao, made his meaning very clear.

Zhang Zhao accordingly sent his nephew Zhang Liecun as envoy, with two hundred elite cavalry, to Jingzhao Prefecture to offer condolences for An Yanwei.

On the first day of the second month, Li Congyan, Military Governor of the Later Jin Fengxiang Army and Prince of Qin, sent his eldest son Li Yongxi to present a memorial and come seeking to surrender.

Li Congyan was willing to renounce his princely title himself, move his entire family to Jingzhao Prefecture to reside, hand over Fengxiang Prefecture and Fengzhou, which had already been riddled through and through by Yan Jin's infiltration, and present ninety thousand shi of grain as provisions for the army.

However, Zhang Zhao did not agree to Li Congyan's submission for the time being, because the time was not yet right.

But he spoke kindly to comfort Li Yongxi, and further indicated that he would not pursue the matter beneath Mawei Slope, and Li Yongxi finally breathed a sigh of relief.

On the seventh day of the second month, just as Zhang Zhao was waiting with straining eyes, an urgent messenger in brocade robes, wearing a wrapped gauze cap and with three small red triangular flags stuck in his back, finally appeared in Zhang Zhao's line of sight.

Before the urgent messenger had even reached the camp of the Liang state army, Weizhou city had already erupted in cheers, and by the time he reached the camp gate, the soldiers had already blocked the gate so tightly that not a drop of water could pass.

Two Brocade Robe envoys supported a man dressed in Jin official robes, who had run until he was nearly out of breath, and brought him before Zhang Zhao.

The man raised high a scroll of dark red silk and shouted loudly.

"I, He Jun, son of He Ning, Right Vice Director of the Department of State Affairs of Jin, a foreign minister, come to pay respects to the Great Liang Heavenly King of the Western Han and Golden Mountain. The northern slaves of Liao have invaded our territory and killed our officials and people. My sovereign has ordered me, a foreign minister, to come to Great Liang and request that the Heavenly King send troops to aid us.

My sovereign is willing to give one hundred thousand bolts of silk each year, and to call the Heavenly King 'Grandfather.' I beg the Heavenly King, for the sake that Great Liang and Great Jin are both sons of Tang, to send troops to aid us!"

In that instant, Zhang Zhao felt tears about to burst from his eyes!

After all his years of planning, he had finally obtained the righteous cause to lawfully enter Guanzhong, and it was the sovereign of Jin himself who had personally invited him, asking him to enter the Central Plains in his capacity as a son of Tang.

Amid the heaven-shaking cheers, Zhang Zhao snatched the scroll of silk into his hand, opened it and read it through, then immediately raised it to the sky and displayed it to all four directions.

Luo Tongda and Luo Yingda, old great generals of the Guiyi Army and trusted men from the time of Zhang Zhao's father Zhang Chengfeng, who had come specially from Suzhou (Jiuquan).

Zhang Zhao's elders Zhang Huaiqing and Cao Renrong.

His trusted civil and military officers Ma Yaozi, Fan Shun, Ma Shacai, Murong Xinzhang, Li Cunhui, Liu Zaisheng, and others.

As well as the newly joined Zhang Xichong, Murong Yanzhao, Wang Shenqi, Zhe Deyuan, and others, all dropped to one knee with a crash.

At that moment, the cheering stopped at once. Only Zhang Zhao held the silk scroll high. He swept his hand down forcefully and shouted with all his might.

"Drive out the northern slaves, revive the great dynasty, enter Guanzhong!"

"Drive out the northern slaves, revive the great dynasty!"

"Drive out the northern slaves, revive the great dynasty!"

The soldiers burst into cheers once more.

At Zhang Zhao's single command, the five thousand elite cavalry once more crossed the Jing River and headed east.

Wu Ying'er, Prefect of Weizhou, had long since prepared light cavalry to serve as guides, as well as civilian laborers to transport grain and fodder.

Along the several hundred li from Weizhou to Qian County, supply grain depots had also been prepared well in advance.

Zhang Zhao did not enter Weizhou, but instead followed the main army downstream along the Jing River.

At the same time, the follow-up main force from Yuanzhou also began crossing the Tanzheng Gorge.

Yan Jin of Qinzhou likewise led twenty thousand troops from Qinzhou into the territory of Fengxiang Prefecture.

To the north, Yin Yaozi drew off three thousand elite soldiers who had long been disguised as troops of the Zhangwu Army of Yanzhou, and together with Gao Yunquan's Zhangwu Army, guided by yabing guards of the Bao da Army of Fuzhou who had been bribed by the Brocade Guard agents, broke into Fuzhou city under cover of night.

Guo Jin, Military Governor of the Bao da Army of Fuzhou, was still asleep when he was surrounded inside the Military Governor's headquarters. Apart from Guo Jin's hundred-odd yabing guards putting up a brief resistance, the Bao da Army's soldiers never even mobilized.

With Fuzhou taken, Yin Yaozi immediately removed the threat to the Liang army's eastern flank.

He garrisoned his troops on the upper reaches of the Luo River, absorbed the Bao da Army's soldiers, built boats, and prepared to descend from Fuzhou directly into the territory of the Kuangguo Army's Military Governor at Tongzhou, bringing Guanzhong completely under control.

On the fifteenth day of the third month, Zhang Zhao led the Hanshan Battalion and the elite cavalry of the Left and Right Yulin Guards, passing through Jingzhou ahead of the main force.

Zhang Zhao resisted the urge to head straight for Chang'an in Jingzhao Prefecture, and instead chose to bypass Chang'an, racing through the night toward the seat of the Shunyi Army's Military Governor at Yaozhou.

At this time, Yaozhou had suffered successive floods and droughts. Earlier, the yabing guards and yabing officers of the Shunyi Army had also fallen into dispute with Military Governor Yang Siquan over the amount of grain and fodder to be sent to the court.

So they simply drove out Military Governor Yang Siquan, and a certain Zhang, a Troop Commander of the Shunyi Army's headquarters, proclaimed himself Acting Military Governor and took control.

Zhang Zhao would of course not tolerate such soldiers who harmed the people. He dispatched Li Cunhui with two thousand elite cavalry to make a sudden dash to the walls of Yaozhou, killed the Shunyi Army's headquarters Troop Commander Zhang, and the remnants of the Shunyi Army scattered like stars.

Zhang Zhao left three hundred men to hold the city and await the main army, then set out again with his commanders toward Huazhou.

Zhao Ying, Military Governor of the Zhenguo Army of Huazhou, received Zhang Zhao's notice and, under cover of night, led his trusted followers over the city wall by rope.

The Zhenguo Army of Huazhou was very cohesive, not a mindless rabble like the Shunyi Army of Yaozhou. There had long been few common people left in Huazhou city; those still living in the city were basically the families of the Shunyi Army.

More importantly, the city still held a hundred thousand shi of grain and fodder they had plundered, which was also what Zhang Zhao needed.

So Zhang Zhao had the Fenjin Battalion bury gunpowder at Huazhou's east and north gates under cover of night. After waiting three days for the main army to arrive, Zhang Zhao feigned a fierce assault on the east and north sides.

The Zhenguo Army soldiers never imagined the Liang army would arrive so suddenly. Zhao Ying, who had always been as timid as a rabbit, had actually dared to descend the wall by rope.

Caught off guard, they could only swarm in great numbers to the vicinity of the east and north gates to resist.

Seeing that they had taken the bait, Zhang Zhao suddenly withdrew his troops. Before the Zhenguo Army soldiers understood what was happening, a tremendous explosion rang out, and the east and north gates collapsed simultaneously.

Countless bewildered soldiers were buried directly beneath the collapsing walls. The Liang army seized the moment to attack fiercely and took Huazhou without the slightest effort.

Just as Zhang Zhao was occupying Huazhou, Yin Yaozi also descended along the Luo River, heading straight for Tongzhou city, where the headquarters of the Kuangguo Army's Military Governor was located.

Although Li Chengfu, Military Governor of the Kuangguo Army at Tongzhou, had been born a household servant of Shi Jingtang, the Liang army had been invited to assist by imperial decree from Shi Chonggui. Whatever had happened in the Eastern Capital, that request still stood.

Moreover, the Kuangguo Army's officers and men could see the situation clearly enough; none of them wanted to throw their lives away for nothing. So they seized Li Chengfu and opened the city gates.

At this point, after a year of preparation, Zhang Zhao had moved his troops with lightning speed. In less than a month, he had advanced with light forces and seized Yaozhou, Huazhou, and Tongzhou — three strategic strongholds in Guanzhong.

The next step was to enter the city of Chang'an.

All chapters have been cached for you. Download the APP to view them.