Please call me Your Majesty!

Chapter 75: Restoring the work of Emperor Gaozu and establishing a lasting rule

[In August of the first year of Kaiyang, Zhang Zhengjun, the leader of the Five Pecks of Rice Sect, conspired with his closest followers Wang Shouyi, Li Mi, and Liu Daochen to start an uprising.]

[On September 13th of the first year of Kaiyang, Zhang Zhengjun learned that Ma Su'an, a rioter in Fanyang, had rebelled against the imperial court. He immediately decided that this was the best time to overthrow the Great Zhou Dynasty and quickly arranged for his men to choose a date to start the rebellion.]

[Soon after, Wang Shouyi started an uprising in Changshu near Suzhou Prefecture, Li Mi started an uprising in Kunshan, and Liu Daochen and Zhang Zhengjun started an uprising in Wujiang.]

[After the three parties started the uprising at the same time, a salt smuggler named Song Xun took advantage of the situation and started an uprising in Huating, Songjiang Prefecture.]

[On September 15th of the first year of Kaiyang, Zhang Zhengjun called all the righteous men who followed him in the uprising the "Eternal Life Army", and soon, under his three-way attack, this united uprising army broke through Suzhou Prefecture. From then on, the entire Suzhou was conquered by Zhang Zhengjun's uprising army.]

[Zhang Zhengjun did not impose any restrictions on the rebels like Song Xun who took the opportunity to start a rebellion. He knew clearly that in order to resist the Great Zhou Dynasty, more forces needed to be gathered. There was no need to cause unnecessary trouble at this time. The most important thing was to overthrow the rule of the Great Zhou Dynasty together.]

[On September 19th of the first year of Kaiyang, Zhang Zhengjun set out from Changzhou Prefecture, intending to conquer Yingtian Prefecture as the base of the "Eternal Life Army". In his opinion, Nanjing was the old capital of the previous dynasty and its location was extremely important. If he wanted to continue to expand his own Eternal Life Army, he must conquer Nanjing.]

[However, an accident happened. On his way to attack Yingtian Prefecture, Zhang Zhengjun was ambushed by the local government troops of the Great Zhou Dynasty and was unfortunately hit by a stray arrow and died.]

[This caused the three rebel commanders under his command to part ways immediately due to ideological differences. Wang Shouyi, the most courageous fighter, defeated and killed Li Mi and Liu Daochen successively. On September 25th of the first year of Kaiyang, the Changsheng Army, which was on the verge of disintegration, was finally resolved.]

[When Wang Shouyi started the rebellion, he had few soldiers and generals, and his weapons were very poor. In the early days, he even rode a cow into battle. After a fierce battle, he killed the general guarding Suzhou Prefecture and obtained a war horse.]

[In October of the first year of Kaiyang, the sudden political situation in the south forced Emperor Kaiyang Chu Shixu to issue an edict, ordering Lu En and Yang Fang to go south together to quell the rebellion of the rebels.]

[In the face of Ma Su'an's rebellion, Emperor Kaiyang Chu Shixu ordered Li Jin, who was guarding Jinyang, and Wang Huai, the governor of Datong, to quell the rebellion in Fanyang. ]

[Li Jin sent an army of 10,000 to quell the rebellion, while Wang Huai simply kept his troops in place and watched the changes unfold.]

[Soon, the troops sent out by Li Jin were defeated by Ma Su'an's hasty march. Ma Su'an knew that the situation was dangerous. If he could not gain an advantage on the front line as soon as possible, he would die if he continued to fight. Only a quick battle could lead to victory.]

[Ma Su'an's desire to win far exceeded that of Li Jin's army, so much so that in the field battle, Li Jin's army led by his general Ji Da was almost completely wiped out, with only Ji Da escaping on his own.]

[In November of the first year of Kaiyang, Wang Huai, the governor of Datong, seized Daning Prefecture and killed the governor of Daning Prefecture, on the grounds that the governor of Daning, Lü Zhuo, was secretly communicating with Ma Suan and wanted to rebel against the court together. Wang Huai took the initiative and put down the rebellion that Lü Zhuo might have started.]

[In December of the first year of Kaiyang, Emperor Kaiyang hated Wang Huai's actions very much, but he had to ask Wang Huai to lead his army to intercept Ma Su'an's army immediately.]

[In the first month of the second year of Kaiyang, Wang Huai did send troops to fight Ma Suan this time, but Wang Huai had no intention of rescuing Chang'an. Instead, he led a large army to attack Fanyang directly, trying to alleviate the crisis in Chang'an.]

[On the one hand, Wang Huai did not disobey orders by doing this, and this also helped the Great Zhou Dynasty to ease the difficulties on the front line. On the other hand, Wang Huai conquered Fanyang, and his influence in the north will be further expanded.]

[But everyone knows Wang Huai's intentions. He has undoubtedly disregarded the safety of the court and maximized his own benefits.]

[In February of the second year of Kaiyang, Ma Suan had no way to retreat. He knew that if he returned to Fanyang, he would surely die. This aroused his bloody side. In the absence of food supplies, Ma Suan told his generals that as long as Chang'an was captured, there would be food, money and women. This immediately aroused the desire of the soldiers to fight to the death, and their morale was high. ] [In the same month, the Northern Army, which had not experienced war for a long time, was vulnerable to Ma Suan's troops. Ma Suan broke through Chang'an, which was still guarded by 50,000 Northern Army, with only 20,000 troops. After entering the capital, he seized power, killed the Wang family on the spot, and poisoned Queen Mother Wang Conghui with a cup of poisoned wine. ]

[In March of the second year of Kaiyang, Wang Huai heard about this and burst into tears. He sought an alliance with Li Jin to attack Ma Suan who occupied Chang'an.]

[Ma Su'an had no political foresight and acted only on his own emotions and ideas. When he learned of Wang Huai's plan and thought of his eldest son Ma Wei, who was killed by the imperial court as a hostage in Chang'an, he became increasingly furious in his anxiety.]

[At the same time, he allowed his followers to wantonly execute the aristocratic families in Chang'an, and directly killed Emperor Kaiyang Chu Shixu. ]

[Soon after, he realized that since he had already killed the king, he had to go all the way. How could he tolerate other royal family members in Chang'an? He immediately killed all the Zhou clan members in Chang'an, and even the ministers in the court were not spared. ]

[The historical books call this the "Chang'an Rebellion". Ma Su'an single-handedly slaughtered all the members of the Zhou royal family and the powerful families in Chang'an. His bloody methods massacred most of the prestigious families in Chang'an as barbarians.]

[In April of the second year of Kaiyang, Ma Su'an, who had calmed down, immediately asked Liangzhou for an alliance, but Huan Jie rejected Ma Su'an's request and considered himself a "minister of the Great Zhou" and vowed to punish you, the usurper and traitor.]

[In May of the second year of Kaiyang, Ma Su'an established himself in Chang'an and named his country Yan. Only one month after the establishment of the country, Huan Jie, Li Jin, and Wang Huai jointly sent troops to attack.]

[In June of the second year of Kaiyang, Ma Su'an was defeated and killed, and Chang'an fell into the hands of Li Jin, who was the first to break into the city. When Wang Huai saw that Li Jin had made the first contribution, he did not feel jealous at all, but immediately ordered his troops to attack Jinyang.]

[There was the Chang'an Rebellion, which was initiated by Ma Su'an, and the dispute between Wang and Li. The continuous outbreak of wars caused the population of the Great Zhou Dynasty to drop sharply in a short period of time.]

[At first, the people thought that the fall of the Great Zhou royal family would bring them a better life. However, they did not expect that after the fall of the Great Zhou royal family, frequent wars would completely destroy their previously barely passable lives.]

[In July of the second year of Kaiyang, the only remaining relative of the Great Zhou Dynasty, King Chu Xuanhong of Shu, proclaimed himself emperor in Chengdu, and considered himself the legitimate successor of the Great Zhou Dynasty, which was known in history as Zhou Shu.]

[In the same month, Chu Shizhao raised an army in Jiangling. He had accumulated popularity in many places in Jiangnan for many years. He had been in Jiangling for some time and had been promoting his own theories and his understanding of people, things, and objects.]

[This gave Chu Shizhao an extraordinary status and reputation in Jiangling. ]

[Jiangling prefect Kou Yong regarded Chu Shizhao as a famous scholar, but no one expected that the person who was known as Lu Xin was the King of Jin Chu Shizhao who was missing in Jiangnan in the past.]

[Watching Chu Shizhao raising his army, wearing a crimson robe, a large crown, a silver helmet, and carrying a seven-foot-long green sword, Kou Yong was amazed at Chu Shizhao's heroic appearance.]

[“Restore the legacy of Emperor Gaozu and establish a lasting legacy for all eternity.”]

[Not long after Chu Shizhao started his uprising, Jiangling was quickly restored, and most of the officials there were willing to support Chu Shizhao's uprising.]

(End of this chapter)