Chapter 1280 The fall of a clan

Chapter 1280 The fall of a clan

The fact is that even if the Zhaojun Li family fought back, the result would not change much. The Tang army invested more troops for this operation than when they captured Yecheng before. Although the Zhaojun Li family has a long history and deep roots, it is impossible to withstand the impact of such a powerful force.

Of course, the reason why the Tang army invested so many troops was not just for the Zhaojun Li family. At least on the surface, their target was the remnant of the Northern Qi pseudo-emperor Gao Yu.

Before there was any conclusive evidence, the Zhaojun Li family could only be regarded as suffering from an unprovoked disaster. As luck would have it, Gao Yu led the remnants of the Qi army to this area. In order to eliminate this remnant, the Tang army could only launch a blockade and siege here.

After nearly a month of pursuit and layout, as many as 60,000 to 70,000 troops were invested, and Wei Xiaokuan, Han Xiong, Li Mu and Liang Shiyan, the generals of Guanzhong, personally participated. As the operation officially began, there would naturally be no suspense next.

Gao Yu's Yenan troops were originally lost dogs. They fled all the way in the Taihang Mountains. When they arrived at the north of Fukou, there were only less than 20,000 weak people left. Under the attack of the Heluo Division led by Han Xiong and the Shangdang garrison led by Liang Shiyan, they could only flee to the plains in the east. After leaving Taihang Mountains, they plunged into Liyuchuan.

At this time, Li Mu and Wei Xiaokuan also joined forces in Hebei, and drove them from Zhaojun and Nanzhaojun to Liyuchuan respectively. The Zhaojun Li family settled in this village during the Western Jin Dynasty. During this period, they experienced the extremely chaotic period of the Five Barbarians' Invasion of China. Not only did they not perish in the war, but they also grew and developed. The clan members were distributed between two counties and several counties, and there were at least tens of thousands of villagers who had direct and indirect relations with them.

In the original history, even in the period of the Fanzhen separatist regime in the middle Tang Dynasty, the Zhaojun Li family still had considerable rural power in their hometown of Hebei, which shows the vigorous vitality of this aristocratic family.

But now they are no longer suffering from political oppression, but an organized and large-scale expulsion deep into the countryside. As the Tang army from all directions advances inward, the settlements related to the Zhaojun Li family are uprooted one after another, and the countryside of the two counties is almost wiped out!

When all parties gathered in Liyuchuan, in addition to the Tang army that had already surrounded the place, the military and civilians gathered in the area of ​​dozens of miles around Liyuchuan alone reached nearly 200,000 people!

This includes Gao Yu and his remnants, as well as the direct descendants of the Zhaojun Li family, and of course the innocent people of the two counties who were implicated.

It should be noted that after the rebellion of the Six Towns that had caused a great stir in Hebei in the early years was quelled, the people of the Six Towns were only more than 200,000. No matter how powerful the Zhaojun Li family was, it was impossible for them to have a population of nearly 200,000.

However, because their family was too deeply rooted, the people of the two counties were more or less involved with them. In the process of the army's advancement, it was really difficult to carefully identify them. They could only be expelled here for the time being, and then screened and distinguished.

The Zhaojun Li family members naturally did not know that as early as when Gao Yu was still leading his troops to move in Taihang Mountain, Yecheng had already completed a trial of more than 7,000 villagers.

But even if the people of Yecheng had seen the majesty of the Tang Dynasty's court's decrees, they would never have dreamed that there would be an action involving nearly 200,000 soldiers and civilians next.

Of course, before the end of this action, they did not know the specific number of people involved in this military action. Even Wei Xiaokuan, who planned this plan, could not have imagined that sweeping the two counties would wipe out so many people. This was certainly because Hebei was densely populated, but the main reason was that there were too many people protected by the Li family of Zhaojun.

As all these people were expelled to Liyuchuan, the next thing was even simpler. For Gao Yu's troops who still planned to resist stubbornly, the Tang army sent elite troops to attack Liyuchuan and carried out several attacks and beheadings, successfully beheading Gao Yu and several important generals under his command, and disintegrating the organization of this remnant of the Qi army.

In the process of attacking Gao Yu, the Tang army also seized some personnel records since Gao Yu proclaimed himself emperor, including a list of official titles granted to the Zhaojun Li clan. There were more than a hundred Zhaojun Li clan members involved in the list. It can be seen that after Gao Yu decided to move north, he really regarded the Zhaojun Li clan as his lifeline and appointed almost all the important positions in his small court to the Zhaojun Li clan members.

This list fell into the hands of the Tang army, and it became the most powerful evidence to point out that the Zhaojun Li clan was colluding with the remnants of the Northern Qi Dynasty. The level of official titles received could be used as one of the evidences for judging the size of their guilt.

After killing a group of organized Zhaojun Li clan soldiers, the remaining people all gave up resistance and were trapped in the river and fields of Liyu River waiting to be tried.

The treatment of so many facility personnel also had to be prioritized. The first to be detained from Li Yuchuan were the hundreds of Li clan members and their direct relatives who had accepted Gao Yan's official appointments, which alone reached more than 2,000 people. After all, even if Gao Yan was in poverty, the people who could be selected to be granted titles must be famous figures and powerful clan members of the Zhaojun Li clan, and these people naturally had more direct relatives.

Next are the village warriors who once took up arms to fight the Tang army. These people are also bad in nature, and they are not ordinary bandits, but organized and well-trained local armed forces under the protection of the Zhaojun Li family. They cannot be regarded as ordinary villagers and need to be treated as prisoners of war.

Next, we will make a screening and statistics. There are more than 7,000 households that are confirmed to belong to the Zhaojun Li family. But after removing these, there are still more than 100,000 people whose relationship with the Zhaojun Li family cannot be determined. Some of them are the hidden households in the Zhaojun Li family manor, and some are other powerful rural households. Of course, there are also innocent villagers who have been implicated.

Although the Tang army has invested a lot of troops this time, the actual combat intensity is not high. However, when it comes to post-war handling, the personnel are complicated and headache. Even Wei Xiaokuan, who first proposed this plan, did not expect that so many people would be involved.

Although the court had already issued a punishment and reward order for the people of Hebei, it involved so many people that even Changsun Jian, the Shangshu You Pushe who was in charge of the matter, did not dare to make a decision on his own. Changsun Jian came to Zhaozhou in person, first sorted out the personnel situation here, and then asked the staff to report to the court as soon as possible, asking for instructions on how to deal with the matter.

A few days later, Li Tai, who was far away in Chang'an, learned about this situation. Even though he had long known the strength of the Hebei clans, he was shocked when he saw such a scale of personnel. These Hebei clans really deserve the reputation of being rich enough to rival a country! In comparison, their Longxi Li family came to the country from the west, lacked much local power, and was listed among the five surnames, which was really a bit of a face-flattering.

He also knew that such things should not be delayed, and a plan for handling them should be put forward as soon as possible, otherwise it would inevitably make people think about it and make people feel uneasy.

For those members of the Zhaojun Li clan who accepted Gao Yu's official title, Li Tai instructed Zhangsun Jian to execute them according to the previous order, killing those who should be killed and exiling those who should be exiled, and never leniency!

As for other members of the Li clan, although they did not have obvious evil deeds, they were also suspected of refusing to follow the king's rule and gathering to cause chaos, and they were no longer allowed to stay in their hometown. Based on the age of their heads of households, those over 60 were exiled to Heluo, those over 40 were exiled to Huainan, those over 30 were exiled to Shannan, and those over 20 were exiled to Xiangzhou, Ningzhou and other places. Basically, the younger the age, the farther they were exiled.

As for those villagers involved in the chaos, as long as there was no conclusive evil deeds to be found, in principle they would not be punished and would be returned to the village. As for the households of the Zhaojun Li clan, they were scattered in the prefectures and counties as labor households, and later they would be released at the discretion of the prefectures and counties depending on their performance.

Part of the farmland of the Zhaojun Li clan involved in Zhaojun and Nanzhaojun was allocated to the military office to grant honors, and the other part was subordinate to the prefectures and counties and turned into official settlements, which were handed over to the labor households for cultivation.

The reason why he did not directly release those Zhaojun Li clan's dependent households was because the personal and property dependence relationship of the powerful clans was not simply based on exploitation, but also on various other more complicated situations.

Even if Li Tai now released those dependent households and even registered them for equal distribution of land, he would not be a benevolent ruler who liberated serfs, but a cruel tyrant. In the future, it is unknown how many more dramas of the Orphan of Zhao will be added to this land, and even the decline of his dynasty and the destruction of his descendants will be arranged as retribution.

Therefore, Li Tai still had to control these people and concentrate them for labor, and after some reform, he would release them year by year according to the results of their reform, so that they could return to normal life.

In addition to the treatment of the Zhaojun Li family and the villagers of the two counties, Li Tai also ordered the removal of Li Qian from his post as governor of Jizhou, summoned him to the court to interrogate him for the crime of letting the bandits go, and replaced him with Linghu Yanbao as governor of Jizhou.

The encirclement and suppression of Gao Yu's remnants came to an end. Next, Li Tai ordered Han Xiong to join the Henan troops to march east to Hulao, and Yangzhou General Ruo Feng to lead the Huainan division and advance north from Pengcheng. The two groups of troops will march together to suppress the Qingzhou bandits!