History of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms

Chapter 125: Burning Yangzhou and Flooding Suzhou

Previously, in order to stabilize the southern border, Zhu Wen abandoned Yang Xingmi and recommended Sun Ru as the governor of Huainan, in order to disrupt the stability of the Huainan region and lay the groundwork for future military intervention. Now, this strategy has achieved initial results.

After being recognized by the imperial court, Sun Ru's official title was changed from "Cai Zei" (the remnant of Qin Zongquan in Caizhou) or "Sun Zei" to "Huainan Jiedushi", and he was also given the unshirkable responsibility for the prosperity and stability of the Huainan region. Therefore, eliminating the regional instability factor - Yang Xingmi, also had legitimacy.

Under Zhu Wen's planning, Sun Ru and Yang Xingmi exchanged roles.

When the battle in Hedong was in full swing, Sun Ru gathered almost all his belongings and advanced southward from Runzhou. Yang Xingmi's two most famous generals, Tian Yu and An Renyi, were defeated one after another, which seriously dampened their morale. The other city defenders were all defeated, and Yang Xingmi was in a worrying situation.

Li Congli, a general under Sun Ru, led a commando team, took a shortcut and marched quickly. They suddenly appeared near Xuanzhou, intending to carry out a "beheading" operation against Yang Xingmi.

At this time, Xuanzhou had not yet completed its military deployment, and the army was in great fear.

At the critical moment, Yang Xingmi's other two generals who were both civil and military talents showed their prowess and resisted the avalanche.

One of them was Tai Meng, who led 500 soldiers to sneak into the vicinity of the enemy camp under the cover of night, and then ordered the soldiers to run back and forth and shout loudly to pass on the message. Li Congli fell into Tai Meng's trick of confusing the enemy, gave up the plan of a surprise attack on Xuanzhou, and hurriedly led his troops to retreat.

The other was Li Shenfu, who feigned defeat and retreat to lure the enemy deep into his territory, then led his elite troops to launch a night attack, captured and killed more than a thousand people, and defeated Sun Ru's vanguard.

Although he managed to temporarily preserve the Xuanzhou base camp, Yang Xingmi still suffered more defeats than victories, and the situation was very grim.

A heavy rain caused a flood disaster, saving Yang Xingmi from the brink of death. The flood submerged Sun Ru's camp, forcing Sun Ru to return to Yangzhou.

Yang Xingmi took the opportunity to recover Hezhou and Chuzhou.

At the same time, Zhu Wen flirted with Yang Xingmi, and the two reached a secret agreement to attack Sun Ru from the north and the south.

Zhu Wen repeatedly tossed between Sun Ru and Yang Xingmi, fully demonstrating his strategy of "Balance of Power in Huainan". He always united the weaker party to fight against the stronger party, allowing both sides to consume each other.

Facing the alliance between Zhu Wen and Yang Xingmi, Sun Ru issued a manifesto, listing the crimes of Zhu Wen and Yang Xingmi, and made a bold statement: "When I have conquered Xuanzhou and overthrown Bianzhou, I will personally lead the army to the capital to purge the treacherous villains around the emperor!"

Afterwards, Sun Ru acted as if he was going to burn his boats and ordered the burning of Yangzhou city, slaughtering the old, weak and sick, making their corpses into military rations, and then forcing young and middle-aged men and women to march south with the army.

Xiang Yu's burning of boats and Han Xin's fighting with their backs to the river were both about risking their lives, while Sun Ru's self-destruction of Yangzhou City pushed innocent people into the fire pit. Sun Ru is fundamentally different from Xiang Yu and Han Xin.

Yang Xingmi's generals Zhang Xun and Li Decheng risked their lives to sneak into Yangzhou City, put out the remaining fire, and rescued about 100,000 hu of grain that had not yet turned into popcorn, to feed the hungry people.

Zhang Jian, the governor of Sizhou, requested to borrow grain to supply his hungry troops.

Zhang Xun did not abuse his power for personal gain, nor did he undermine socialism. He donated tens of thousands of bushels of grain to Sizhou in the name of his lord Yang Xingmi. Zhang Jian was grateful to Yang Xingmi.

Sizhou belonged to Xuzhou Shipu's Ganhua Army. At this moment, Xuzhou Shipu and Zhu Wen were fighting fiercely, and Zhu Wen was a strategic ally of Yang Xingmi. Zhang Xun's behavior could be labeled as "aiding the enemy".

However, the warmth of human nature is often reflected in cruel wars.

Just like in the battle for Xichuan, when Wang Jian besieged Chengdu, grain smugglers sold grain into the city, and they should be executed according to the law. However, Wang Jian sympathized with the innocent people in the war, and out of humanitarian spirit, he did not obstruct this "aiding the enemy" behavior, allowing the important strategic resource - grain, to flow into the enemy camp; the same thing happened to Chen Jingxuan in Chengdu.

The fighting among warlords at the end of the Tang Dynasty was almost a fight without justice, just dog-eat-dog. Being able to show the brilliance of humanity in war and show a little humanistic care to the enemy or the people in the hostile camp is worthy of special praise, and it also makes this stinking history one of the few noteworthy things.

Sun Ru burned down the Yangzhou base camp to declare to Yang Xingmi: I will fight you to the death!
Yang Xingmi led his troops to block the attack, but was surrounded. Fortunately, he was able to escape thanks to the risk of his life by one of his generals.

Zhu Wen sent his best soldiers and generals, including Ding Hui, Ge Congzhou, Huo Cun and others, to the south, claiming to support Yang Xingmi's military operations. However, when the army was approaching Suzhou on the way south, it suddenly launched a fierce attack on Suzhou. Zhu Wen deceived the world and Suzhou was his target. All is fair in war.

Suzhou is the southern gate of Xuzhou. It controls Huainan in the south and Xuzhou in the north. It is known as the "key point between the north and the south". Taking Suzhou would cut off Shi Pu's retreat and tie down the reinforcements from Sizhou, making Xuzhou an isolated city.

With Suzhou in hand, I have Xuzhou.

In Zhu Wen's first battle of Xuzhou, Suzhou surrendered to Zhu Wen; when Zhu Wen failed in his first expedition to Huainan, he rebelled and returned to Xuzhou.

Suzhou closed the city and held its ground. No matter how the Bian army challenged the enemy, they refused to fight. What's wrong with being a coward? Being a turtle means you will live longer.

According to the military plan of the Bian Army, Suzhou must fight quickly and decisively, complete the strategic encirclement before Xuzhou Pu has time to react, cut off the nerve center of Xuzhou Ganhua Army, and paralyze it.

Zhu Wen was extremely anxious and asked about the battle situation in Suzhou many times.

Commander-in-chief Ding Hui became even more anxious and summoned all his generals to discuss strategies to break the city.

Ge Congzhou suggested that they should use water attack.

Although Suzhou City has strong fortifications, it was newly built. The rammed earth structure of the city wall is most afraid of flooding. If it is soaked by a flood, it will collapse within ten days. The terrain outside Suzhou City is flat, with high in the west and low in the east. The Tongji Canal passes through the city from west to east. As long as the Bian River is intercepted in the east of the city, Suzhou will immediately become a lake country and collapse without attack.

The generals applauded and praised the plan. Some people were worried that the construction period of this huge water conservancy project would be too long and it would be difficult to implement.

Everyone was arguing, but Liu Kangyi, the trench commander, kept silent and wrote and drew. Then he said confidently, "Okay!"

Liu Kangyi did some calculations for everyone: let the soldiers wrap soil with clothes, and 30,000 soldiers can block the Bian River in one day; to build a 15-li embankment, 100,000 cubic meters of soil and stone are needed. We will select 5,000 people to build the dam, and each person can carry 4 cubic meters of soil every day, and 100,000 cubic meters in five days. The remaining 25,000 people can serve as peripheral security within these five days to ensure the smooth progress of the 5,000 engineers.

Ding Hui immediately agreed to the water attack strategy.

Ge Congzhou and Liu Kangyi were responsible for building dikes and cofferdams;
Huo Cun was in charge of the outer perimeter security;

Ding Hui was responsible for leading thousands of soldiers to besiege the four gates of Suzhou.

Five days later, Suzhou really became a flooded city. The water in the city was so deep that it was difficult to make a fire and cook. The soldiers and civilians suffered from the flooding and panic.

Within ten days, large areas of the city wall had collapsed. The defenders were worried and anxious all day long. There was no sign of reinforcements from Xuzhou, so they knew they were outnumbered. So they opened the city walls again and surrendered to Zhu Wen.

The flooding of Suzhou brought a good start to the second expedition to Xuzhou:

Liu Zhijun, a general of Xuzhou, surrendered to Zhu Wen with 2,000 soldiers because Shi Pu suspected him.

Caozhou (belonging to Zhu Xuan, the commander of the Tianping Army of Yunzhou) surrendered the whole state to Zhu Wen;

Liu Hong'e, the general of Shouzhou (which belonged to Sun Ru in Huainan), hated Sun Ru's cruelty and surrendered the whole state to Zhu Wen.

Generals from the three major enemy camps all surrendered to Zhu Wen. Among them, Liu Zhijun of Xuzhou surrendered with his troops as a whole unit, while Caozhou and Shouzhou surrendered with their cities.

Fire is aided by wind, and wind aids fire. Zhu Wen was strong, so the enemy surrendered, and the enemy's surrender boosted Zhu Wen's strength. Ding Hui flooded Suzhou, which started a good start for Zhu Wen's virtuous cycle.

(End of this chapter)