History of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms

Chapter 1009: "Jin" is within reach 2
In order to capture Taiyuan city as soon as possible, Zhao Guangyi wore armor and went to the front line to inspect and command under the hail of bullets. Whenever his subordinates advised him, he would make an impassioned speech: "The soldiers are competing to die under the sword, how can I bear to sit and watch?" The soldiers of the Song army were deeply moved, so "all the brave men were the first to risk their lives", and their morale was high.

Under the long-range fire suppression, the Song army used the traditional "cave house", commonly known as the "siege vehicle". In film and television works and video games, it is generally a movable wooden house. Soldiers hide inside and slowly move to the city wall or under the city gate. There is usually a huge battering ram in the "house" to knock open the city gate.

In actual combat, in addition to ramming the city gates, the main target of the cave houses was actually the city walls. When they got close to the city walls, the wall guards could be opened (or not at all), and the soldiers could do earthwork on the city walls and dig them open with pickaxes. Even in World War II, cave houses were still seen on the battlefield.

It can be seen from this that the big killer weapon often appears in the simplest image, plain and unpretentious yet durable, sturdy and reliable to everyone.

There are many ways to control the cave house, such as digging trenches and moats to prevent the cave house from approaching; smashing down with big stones and big wood; using long hooks to pick up the "roof" and then shooting with crossbows; using fire attacks; boiling oil and human excrement and pouring it down...

There is a scene in the movie "Eight Hundred" where the Japanese use steel plates to form a human cave house, intending to bury explosives on the wall of the Sihang Warehouse. Long-range shooters suppress our troops on high ground with firepower, while our warriors jump into the "cave house" with explosives and die together with them.

More than a thousand years ago, outside the city of Taiyuan, the Song army, with the blessing of the "Van Fleet ammunition", attacked the city from hundreds of directions. Countless cave houses gathered outside the city of Taiyuan like a terrifying marching ant colony, slowly gnawing at the ancient, hard and dilapidated city walls.

Zhao Guangyi was inspecting Li Hanqiong's defense area and saw Li Hanqiong leading his troops to launch a strong attack on the city wall. Zhao Guangyi nodded with satisfaction and was about to instruct everyone to "learn from Comrade Li Hanqiong" when Li Hanqiong was shot in the head by an arrow in front of everyone (the arrow hit his brain and his finger, causing serious injuries).

When consoling Li Hanqiong, Zhao Guangyi said that he would personally go to the cave house to comfort the soldiers who fought bloody battles there. This sentence made Li Hanqiong sit up in shock from his dying illness and wept: "Taiyuan is an isolated city, and it is in danger. It will be destroyed at any time. Moreover, the cave house is the target of the enemy's concentrated fire, and arrows and stones are raining down. Your Majesty does not need to take such a huge risk on the eve of victory! If Your Majesty insists on going, then I will commit suicide first!"

Under Li Hanqiong's threat of death, Zhao Guangyi finally gave up the idea of ​​going to the bridal chamber to express his condolences.

On May 5, Zhao Guangyi went to inspect the southwest corner of the city. After a day and night of fierce fighting, in the early morning of May 1, under the first rays of sunlight, the Song army captured the city.

Fan Chao, the envoy of the Northern Han Dynasty, went out of the city to surrender, but the Song army mistakenly thought he was going out of the city to fight. Without saying a word, they tied him up and sent him to the commander.

"Hey, let me explain..."

In the fierce battle, who has time to listen to your explanation? The Song army was extremely efficient and beheaded Fan Chao on the spot as quickly as possible.

The Song army did not know that he was coming to surrender, but the Northern Han army knew. Liu Jiyuan ordered the arrest of Fan Chao's wife and children, and the execution of the entire family, with their heads thrown outside the city.

Two days later, another high-ranking official of the Northern Han Dynasty, Guo Wanchao, the commander-in-chief of the cavalry and infantry, came to surrender. This time there was no misunderstanding and the Song army gladly accepted him.

The Xuanhui Envoy, the Privy Envoy, and the Imperial Envoy were collectively referred to as the "Three Envoys" by us. They were the most valuable "envoys" in the Tang Dynasty bureaucracy. The successive surrenders of the Xuanhui Envoy and the Cavalry and Infantry Commander had a great impact on the morale of the Northern Han defenders. Official records of the Northern Han Dynasty said that after that, the trusted ministers either fled or surrendered, and the morale was on the verge of collapse. The next day, Zhao Guangyi came to the position in the south of the city and delivered an impassioned speech to the generals. At the end of the speech, Zhao Guangyi pushed the atmosphere to a climax with one sentence: "Tomorrow at noon, have lunch in the city!" Then he wrote a letter to Liu Jiyuan to persuade him to surrender, which was considered an ultimatum.

In his letter, Zhao Guangyi presented facts and reasoned with Liu Jiyuan, earnestly advising him to understand the current situation. "The King of Yue and the King of Wu offered their lands and returned to the court. They were either granted great fiefs or ranked as generals, and their sons and daughters were all granted official titles. Jiyuan should surrender quickly, and he will be guaranteed wealth and honor."

The fierce battle lasted from day to night. People suddenly found a white cloud in the sky above Taiyuan. The white cloud was shaped like a human, and everyone was puzzled.

The next morning, the deadline for Zhao Guangyi to break the city was approaching. Under great pressure, the Song army soldiers burst into amazing fighting spirit and rushed to the city wall like crazy, just like in a European and American zombie movie. However, Zhao Guangyi suddenly ordered a retreat. The historian explained that it was because Zhao Guangyi was afraid that these bloodthirsty soldiers would massacre the city.

The battlefield, which had been fighting for many days, suddenly became dead silent, giving the defenders a creepy feeling of suffocation. Ma Feng, the retired prime minister and privy councilor of the Northern Han Dynasty, was already seriously ill and had been bedridden for a long time. He had himself carried into the palace to meet Liu Jiyuan. Ma Feng cried while analyzing the pros and cons to Liu Jiyuan, and advised him not to be stubborn. After weighing the pros and cons, Liu Jiyuan finally decided to surrender.

That night, Liu Jiyuan sent Li Xun, the Minister of Foreign Affairs (the Envoy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs), out of the city to present a letter of surrender. Zhao Guangyi gave Li Xun gifts such as clothes, gold and silver, and sent Xue Wenbao, the clerk of the Imperial Court, into the city with an imperial edict to appease the emperor. He then went up to the city gate tower in the north of the city, held a banquet for all the officials, and accepted the surrender.

At dawn the next day, Liu Jiyuan led all the civil and military officials, dressed in plain clothes and gauze hats, and waited for punishment at the foot of the city gate. Zhao Guangyi ordered them to go on stage and let Liu Jiyuan come up for a chat.

With heavy steps, the stairs were so long. Liu Jiyuan climbed the stairs and knelt down to kowtow, "You may not believe it... I heard that Your Majesty came to our city, so I wanted to ask for forgiveness and surrender. The reason why Your Majesty was forced to sleep in the open air for many days and dared to offend the military might of the Celestial Empire was because the treacherous ministers were afraid of death and forced me to kidnap and prevent me from surrendering early..."

Zhao Guangyi expressed his understanding, "Where are those treacherous officials?"

Soon, all these "traitors" were captured, and Zhao Guangyi ordered them all to be beheaded. Looking at the mountains of corpses and the sea of ​​blood under the city, Zhao Guangyi turned to Qian Hongchu who came with him and said: "You can save this area for me and save the people of Liangzhe from this disaster. It is really a great achievement!"

Some historical materials (such as the "Nine Kingdoms Records") record that in this battle to siege Taiyuan, Zhao Guangyi also used water attacks, that is, he opened the Fen River and flooded Taiyuan. However, this is not recorded in the official history and the records. I personally think that it is very likely that the water attacks during Taizu's "three expeditions to the Northern Han" were confused.

With Liu Jiyuan's surrender, the separatist regime of the Northern Han Dynasty entrenched in Taiyuan Prefecture in Hedong was declared extinct, and the Song Dynasty recovered one army, ten states, 41 counties, 35,220 households, and 30,000 soldiers in Hedong.

Thanks to my old friend “江湖刘白” for the monthly ticket support!

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(End of this chapter)