History of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms

Chapter 159 Liu Rengong Conquers Wei

The first to be hit was Beizhou, the northernmost part of Weizhou.

With an army of 100,000 men approaching, Beizhou was quickly conquered. In order to intimidate Wei Bo and disintegrate the will to resist, Liu Rengong created a horrific event: the Beizhou Massacre.

After the capture of Beizhou City, there were more than 10,000 households in the city. The frenzied Liu Rengong ordered a massacre of the entire city, leaving no one alive, regardless of gender or age! After the massacre, the bodies were thrown into the nearby Yongji Canal. Tens of thousands of bodies even blocked the river (clear water does not flow).

Liu Rengong wanted to let the people of Wei Bo see his cruelty. He wanted to make the people of Wei Bo open the city and surrender trembling in fear and give up resistance.

However, Liu Rengong's brutal massacre further strengthened the people of Weizhou's determination to resist to the death. From then on, all the cities resisted stubbornly, and all the people were soldiers, willing to die in battle rather than surrender. Liu Rengong encountered many obstacles on his way forward.

Putting aside his character and morality, Liu Rengong was quite good at tactics. He adopted the "leapfrog tactic", no longer advancing step by step, but directly attacking Weizhou, the headquarters of Weizhou.

The "leapfrog tactic" is an extremely bold and radical approach, bypassing the enemy's heavily defended strongholds and attacking directly in the heart of the enemy, thus achieving a quick victory. However, its disadvantages are also obvious. If a lone army goes deep into the enemy's hinterland and fails to achieve a quick victory and is dragged into a protracted war, then there will be serious problems with logistics and supply, and it will also fall into a dangerous situation of being surrounded by the enemy on all sides.

During World War II, the U.S. military used this tactic to achieve a great victory in the Pacific battlefield. Thanks to the U.S. military's absolute control of the air and sea, it was able to cut and surround the enemy on one isolated island after another. Although the U.S. implemented the "leapfrog tactic", it was the Japanese on the island who encountered logistical supply problems.

When Liu Rengong used this tactic on land, the risk factor increased dramatically.

Wei Bo Luo Shaowei, who was under attack, asked Zhu Wen for help. As expected, Zhu Wen sent reinforcements. The first batch of rescue forces was led by generals Li Si'an and Zhang Cunjing, while Zhu Wen himself led the army to Huazhou.

Liu Rengong encouraged his son Liu Shouwen, saying: "You are more than ten times more powerful than Li Sian. You should first capture Li Sian alive to dampen Zhu Wen's enthusiasm, and then capture Luo Shaowei alive."

Liu Shouwen agreed with this, so he took his brother-in-law, the general Shan Keji, and led 50,000 elite troops to fight against Li Sian.

Shan Keji was Liu Shouwen's brother-in-law, Liu Rengong's son-in-law, and a fierce general of the Lulong Army. He was nicknamed "Shan Invincible". In the "Muguajian Victory", it was he who defeated Hedong Li Keyong, and since then he has become more famous and well-known. Shan Keji was full of confidence in facing Bian General Li Si'an.

Li Sian sent his general Yuan Xiang to set up an ambush on the east bank of Qingshui, and he personally led a troop to act as bait. After a close combat with the Lulong Army, he pretended to be defeated and fled.

Liu Shouwen was overjoyed, thinking that the Bian army was indeed defeated at the first blow and was truly vulnerable, so he ordered a pursuit and killing.

After the Lulong Army entered the designated battlefield, Li Si'an suddenly turned back and attacked, ambushing from all sides and attacking from the front and back. Liu Shouwen was defeated, more than 30,000 people were captured and killed, Shan Keji was also killed, and Liu Shouwen fled the battlefield in a panic.

Yuan Xiangxian, who was in charge of commanding the ambush troops, was Zhu Wen's nephew. His father was Yuan Jingchu and his mother was Zhu Wen's sister.

The defeat of Liu Shouwen, especially the killing of "Shan Wudi", dealt a heavy blow to the morale of the Lulong Army. They finally realized how powerful Zhu Wen was.

Ge Congzhou was also ordered to go to Weizhou from Dongzhaoyi to provide assistance, leading 800 elite cavalrymen to assist in the defense.

Liu Rengong felt something was wrong, so he made a desperate attempt and launched a fierce attack.

Ge Congzhou and He Delun went out of the city to fight. Before leaving the city, Ge Congzhou told the gate officer that after he left the city, the gate must be closed tightly and no retreat should be left. If they failed, they would die. Because there were too many enemies, once our army retreated, the enemy would surely follow. Ge Congzhou and He Delun fought desperately and finally defeated the enemy with fewer troops, repelling Liu Rengong and capturing the Lulong generals Xue Tujue and Wang Kuilang alive.

The next day, the Bian army and the Wei Bo army launched a counterattack and destroyed eight camps of Liu Rengong in one go. Seeing that the situation was hopeless, Liu Rengong and his son set fire to the camp and led their troops to retreat.

The drawbacks of the "leapfrog tactics" were finally exposed during the retreat. Since they could not win quickly, the road to retreat would not be smooth.

The Bian-Wei coalition forces caught up with the defeated Lulong army in Linqing (now Linxi County, Hebei Province), and killed and hacked them all away, forcing the defeated Lulong army into the Yongji Canal in the west, where countless soldiers drowned.

The west bank of the Yongji Canal is Beizhou. Liu Rengong massacred Beizhou and threw all the bodies into the Yongji Canal. Now, his troops have also been driven into it, eating only knife-cut noodles and wontons. The world is a cycle, and no one can escape from the heavens? Sooner or later, you will pay for what you have done.

When the wall falls, everyone pushes it, and when the drum breaks, everyone beats it.

Wang Rong of Zhenzhou also sent troops to ruthlessly attack the defeated army of Lulong. Liu Rengong was already a public enemy in the Heshuo area, and it was everyone's responsibility to attack Liu Kutou, not to mention that it was a good opportunity to attack a fallen dog.

Liu Rengong was defeated miserably and almost all of his army was killed. According to historical records, from Weizhou to Cangzhou, a distance of 500 miles, corpses were lying on top of each other.

Now here comes the math problem:
Hypothesis: The average height of the soldiers is 1 meters. They lie down one by one with their feet on their heads. One hundred thousand soldiers are connected with their heads and feet.

计算：1.6×10万=16万米；又：1里=0.5公里=500米，则16万米=160公里=320里。

Conclusion: Don’t be picky about words. Chinese characters are broad and profound. “A waterfall plunges three thousand feet.” This is an exaggeration in words, used to describe the tragedy of 100,000 people falling to the ground.

Although Liu Rengong and his son escaped from the battlefield, the Youzhou Lulong Army suffered a severe blow and never recovered. Liu Rengong's peak moment came to an abrupt end.

It is worth mentioning that while Luo Shaowei of Wei Bo was asking Zhu Wen for help, he also sent a letter to Li Keyong for help. In the letter to Li Keyong, Luo Shaowei expressed his willingness to restore the old friendship with Li Keyong and hoped that Li Keyong would put aside the past grudges and carry on the past.

Although Li Keyong and Wei Bo had a grudge for killing their son, politicians always put personal grudges aside and political interests always come first. Since Wei Bo was willing to reconcile, Li Keyong certainly wanted it, so he hurriedly dispatched Li Sizhao to lead his troops for reinforcement.

By the time Li Sizhao led his troops to arrive, Zhu Wen had already defeated Liu Rengong.

So Luo Shaowei broke off relations with Li Keyong again, "I've reconsidered it, and I think we should still keep a certain distance. Go back, I won't see you off." Luo Shaowei refused to open the border, and Li Sizhao could only return the same way with the good guy card.

The gap between Wei Bo and Hedong further deepened.

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(End of this chapter)