Chapter 138 Why is this so?
A few months passed, and the three counties of Jianghuai under Li Yuanhui's rule became increasingly stable.

Huainan County, Guangling County, and Lujiang County were all under the jurisdiction of Yangzhou. Li Yuanhui, the General Pingnan, was in charge of the three counties of Yangzhou in the north of the Yangtze River.

As for the neighboring states and counties, the situation is different.

The four southern counties of Yangzhou, including Kuaiji, Yuzhang, Danyang, and Wujun, actually faced a better situation than the chaotic state of the northern counties, but not much better.

Cao Yuanjing, a native of Danyang, claimed to be a descendant of Cao Yu, the Prince of Yan and son of Emperor Wu of Wei. He called himself Duke of Wei, led an army of 100,000 people, and ran rampant in Jiangdong.

In addition, there were Shen Huaizhi from Wujun and Zhou Chongxian from Kuaiji, each of whom had tens of thousands of soldiers. They nominally served Cao Yuanjing as their leader, but they actually ruled independently.

Yuwen Tan, Duke of Ju and the general in charge of the four counties south of the Yangtze River, sent troops to attack Cao Yuanjing many times, but to no avail.

In addition, the situation in Xuzhou also improved greatly after the new governor Pei Min took office.

Pei Minzhi was mature and prudent, and used both suppression and appeasement. The rebels in Qiao Peng were no match for this famous general Pei in the northern border, and they all fled to Qingzhou and Yanzhou. Among them, the big thieves Wang Qianyou and Wang Fu probably thought that Li Yuanhui, the governor of the three Jianghuai counties, was young, so it would be better to plunder the rich Guangling County, and then led more than 10,000 people to rush into Jianghuai.
Among all the rebel armies in the world, the most powerful one, the Wagang Army, was fighting fiercely with the left commander Zhao Yi.

Zhao Yi originally commanded a left army of more than 25,000 men. In order to allow him to defeat the Wagang Army as quickly as possible, the Regent Prince Murong Chao directly appointed him as the governor of Yanzhou and assigned him an additional 15,000 elite troops of the central army.

This meant that Zhao Yi was actually able to mobilize more than 50,000 troops at this time, greatly increasing his strength.

The actual strength of the Wagang Army has exceeded 100,000, but in terms of eliteness, it is naturally far inferior to the elite Yan Army under Zhao Yi.

However, even after Zhao Yi received reinforcements and the position of governor of Yanzhou, the war was still very intense.

During the confrontation, the Wagang Army benefited from the joining of many powerful men and scholars, and its overall technical and tactical level continued to improve.

Especially when the remnants of Murong Xuan, the former governor of Qi County and King of Chengyang, came to join them, it was like adding wings to a tiger.

Although Murong Xuan was defeated, his sons, trusted aides, and main generals all escaped.

So much so that Zhao Yi, who was playing against them, was lamenting that the opponent's strength was increasing day by day.

After all, what these people have is almost what the Wagang Army lacks the most, including experience in local governance and experience in methods and methods of standardizing and institutionalizing the reorganization of the army.

The one confronting Zhao Da was still Zhai Rang's brother Zhai Hong. However, as the Yan army increased its troops, Zhai Rang sent his general and old benefactor Huang Junhan to lead an army of 20,000 to reinforce, and instructed Zhai Hong and others not to fight with them easily, but just to delay and confine Zhao Yi's troops to the Chenliu line.

Zhai Rang led his own troops, and together with Cheng Zhijie, Shan Xiongxin, Qi Biao and others who had retreated from Liang County, they reorganized the team and joined forces with Liang Wu, the bandit from Juye Lake, to attack Jibei and Taishan.

We plan to develop some counties in Qingzhou and Yanzhou into bases.

Of the three princes who were away from home, Wu Wang Murong Yang was unusually low-key after he took office as governor of Yuzhou. He never interfered with the orders of Yuzhou Governor Wang Xia, and Yuzhou Governor Fu Xiuzhi was always leading troops outside, busy suppressing bandits and robbers, so there was no chance for them to meet.

Murong Chang, the King of Shu in Yizhou, was similar to Murong Yang after arriving in Chengdu. He read all day long and occasionally consulted Yizhou Governor Li Yuan and Yizhou Governor Anding King Murong Qian on some issues, and he completely regarded himself as a junior.

As for Liang Wang Murongzhan, the governor of Bingzhou in Jinyang, he was the most high-profile of the three. He entertained guests all day, called friends, and made friends with local celebrities, but he also did not participate in military and political affairs.

All these made Murong Ying, who was lying on the sickbed, feel very happy and relieved.

Murong Ying undoubtedly loved these sons very much, even more than Crown Prince Murong Chao.

A big reason for choosing the eldest brother as the successor was that he felt the eldest brother was generous and could tolerate all the brothers.

Therefore, he did not want his sons to have any disloyalty, because once one of the brothers was involved in treason, the other brothers would not be trustworthy.

This is his personal experience. He understands this better than anyone else.

In April, Murong Ying's health suddenly improved. He summoned several ministers in succession and asked them about government affairs.

This inspired the spirits of the trusted ministers in the court who were promoted by Murong Ying.

But after mid-April, Murong Ying suddenly became unable to get out of bed, and by April 17, he fainted several times.

On the 18th, he summoned Shangshu Ling Gao Shize, Zuo Pushe Xue Chu, Zhongshu Ling Liu He, and the new Shangshu of War and Fuguo General Duan Yihong to his sickbed.

The former Minister Wei died of illness in February.

Knowing that he was about to die, Murong Ying began to arrange his final affairs and asked the ministers to assist Murong Chao well.

Perhaps he suddenly felt uneasy about his sons being away, and at the same time, he was also worried about the governors and governors of various states. He instructed Murong Chao to order the governors and governors of various states to return to the capital to attend the funeral.

He also reminded him that after they returned, those who had served in their original positions for more than three years should be transferred to other positions and not allowed to return to their original positions, especially those who were members of the royal family.

Murong Chao knelt in front of the bed and replied with tears in his eyes: "I will definitely keep in mind what your father said."

Murong Ying looked up at his sons and daughters standing beside him and said, "From now on, they will be left to your care."

"Don't worry, Father. I will definitely be friendly to my brothers and sisters."

Murong Ying died with a smile on her face.

Although he left a big mess for Murong Chao, he felt that Murong Chao should be able to handle it.

But obviously, he underestimated the seriousness of the matter.

As white cloths were hung high in various places in the palace and the funeral bells rang, the kings' spies in Luoyang spread the news to all directions at the first opportunity.

The first person to know about it was Murong Yang of Yuzhou. His Royal Highness the King of Wu did not express anything after hearing the news. He did not seem to be sad at all. He just stayed alone in the room, waiting for the arrival of the court messenger.

The second person who knew about it was Murong Zan, the Prince of Liang in Bingzhou.

After learning the news, Murong Zan immediately sent a messenger to write two secret letters.

Both secret letters were sent to the north, one to Daibei and the other to the foot of the Yin Mountains outside the Great Wall.

At this time, after thinking for a long time, Li Xiaoyan, the left minister of the Eastern Palace, directly asked his wife Zheng to bring a letter to the palace to ask for an audience with Princess Jinyang Murong Jiayin who was keeping vigil.

Murong Jiayin was preparing mourning clothes for the wake at her residence. When she heard that her sister-in-law came to ask for a meeting, she knew that something must have happened.

After reading the letter, she immediately changed into mourning clothes and came to the coffin of the late emperor.

After much hesitation, he decided to hand the letter to Murong Chao, the new emperor who was already the de facto emperor.

Murong Chao was kneeling in front of the coffin at this moment, crying loudly with his brothers and sisters. After seeing the letter handed over by Murong Jiayin, he unfolded it and took a look.

Who would have known that after reading the letter, Murong Chao threw the letter directly into the brazier in front of him, and then spoke to Murong Jiayin in a righteous and stern manner.

"Jia Luo, I will pretend that I have never read this letter. The late emperor's body is still warm, how can I doubt my brother?"

Murong Jiayin also nodded and said, "My dear brother, I am sorry for your incompetence. Please forgive me, brother."

Murong Chao shook his head and said, "He has no grudges against the King of Liang in the past or in the present. He is just worried that the Turks will take the opportunity to invade. What crime has he committed? The late emperor's body is still warm, and I cannot allow him to act recklessly. However, this matter should not be made public. You can just write a letter to warn him."

There were still tears on Murong Jiayin's face, but she nodded.

Li Yuanhui did not expect that although his letter did not attract Murong Chao's attention, it earned him the reputation of a prophet.

Just fifteen days after the death of the late emperor, Bingzhou Governor Liang Wang Murong Zan, together with Bingzhou Governor Yuwen She, executed dozens of people including Bingzhou Governor Wang Xian and Jinyang Prefect Xue Tao who refused to join the rebellion.

He claimed that Murong Yang, the King of Wu in Yuzhou, had poisoned Emperor Murong Ying and Crown Prince Murong Chao and seized the throne. As a prince, he wanted to raise an army to punish the emperor.
At the same time, he also made an agreement with the Turkic Khan Shibi to become his father and son, and asked the Turks to send troops to help him conquer the world.

He also asked to marry the daughter of Tuoba Yuqing, Duke of Dai, and asked the Tuoba tribe to send troops to help.

Every step was carried out almost exactly as written in Li Yuanhui's letter.

The new emperor Murong Chao, who had already taken off his mourning clothes, learned about his second brother's rebellion along with the news of the fall of Anyi in Hedong.

In other words, the Hedong rebel army was only a few hundred miles away from Luoyang.

In panic, Murong Chao then said a famous saying in front of a group of ministers that went down in history.

"If Li Yuanhui's words were used, why would it have come to this?"

(End of this chapter)