History of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms

Chapter 184: Return to Qingzhou
[Descend to Qingzhou Again]

Zhu Wen will arrive at the battlefield in five seconds, please be prepared.

In March, Zhu Wen returned to Bianzhou. After a brief mobilization, he led the troops from the four towns and joined forces with the friendly forces of Wei Bo, totaling 100,000 troops, and marched towards Shandong.

Wang Shifan sent his brother Wang Shilu to besiege Qizhou, which is today's Jinan, the capital of Shandong Province. To this day, Jinan is also an important transportation hub in East China, especially east-west trains. Most trains in and out of the Shandong Peninsula (such as Qingdao and Weihai) must pass through Jinan, and trains from East China to Beijing (Beijing-Shanghai Line) must also pass through Jinan. Jinan is a veritable crossroads connecting the North China Plain and the East China Plain, and its strategic location is self-evident.

If Wang Shifan wants to leave the peninsula, he must first control Qizhou. The battle of Qizhou is Wang Shifan's first step and is of great significance.

Zhu Youning led his troops to rush to the aid of Qizhou and easily lifted the siege of Qizhou. He then turned around and besieged Yanzhou, repelling Wang Shifan's reinforcements, making Yanzhou an isolated city. He then divided his troops and organized a counterattack, targeting Wang Shifan's base camp - Qingzhou.

Wang Shifan hurriedly asked Huainan Yang Xingmi for help, "For the sake of the party and the country, please lend a hand, brother!"

Yang Xingmi sent 7,000 reinforcements to Shandong and tens of thousands of main forces to attack Suzhou. Suzhou is also a star city that appears frequently in this book because of its important strategic position. It is a bridgehead for forces on both sides of the Huai River. The control of Suzhou will determine the initiative of the Huai River crossing campaign.

Zhu Wen sent General Kang Huaizheng to reinforce Suzhou, and Yang Xingmi fled.

Zhu Youning besieged Bochang, northwest of Qingzhou, for a month without making any progress. Zhu Wen was furious and sent his trusted general Liu Han to supervise the battle.

This is a very dangerous signal, indicating that the commander has become suspicious of the frontline generals, and needs to "supervise" the commander in the "battle" to see whether he is passive and lazy, or suspected of collaborating with the enemy. In either case, the commander will not have a good ending. Since Zhu Wen became suspicious, he even killed his own son.

The commander who received this signal naturally would not dare to be negligent and would do his best to prove his ability and loyalty.

Zhu Youning forcibly conscripted more than 100,000 local civilians, drove them to the south of the city to dig soil, carrying wood and stones, and leading oxen, horses, donkeys and mules, and then piled them outside the city wall.

This is a common siege method, which uses manpower to build a mountain as high as the city wall, so that the city wall loses its defensive advantage of being high above. Obviously, this siege method is simple and crude, and it is effective. The only disadvantage is that it is time-consuming and laborious. Usually, the attackers will drive the local people to work as coolies.

When the project was nearing completion and all that was left was to fill the ditch and encircle the site, Zhu Youning issued a cruel and bloody order: all construction materials, cattle and horses, livestock, and the people involved in the project would be used as filling materials.

Buried alive!

The cries and wails could be heard for dozens of miles.

Under Zhu Youning's frenzied attack, Bochang City was declared captured. Zhu Youning issued another cruel military order:

Massacre the city!

Afterwards, Zhu Youning continued to advance towards Qingzhou, captured Linzi, and went to the city of Qingzhou. He then divided his troops and went deep into the hinterland of the peninsula to attack Dengzhou and Laizhou. Dengzhou was soon captured.

If Zhu Youning could capture Laizhou, he would be able to complete a major detour to Qingzhou, not only completing the encirclement from the west, north and east, but also tying down the reinforcements within the peninsula.

Qingzhou was in danger, and Wang Shifan urgently built two camps in the west of the city and repaired the defensive fortifications.

Under the tremendous pressure of "supervising the war", Zhu Youning showed terrifying cruelty and almost crazy bravery. After conquering Dengzhou, Zhu Youning rushed to Qingzhou without stopping and launched an attack overnight.

The situation was urgent, and Wang Shifan urged Huainan to send reinforcements to fight, but the Huainan general Wang Maozhang kept his troops in place and just watched from the front.

Zhu Youning captured one camp in a row and launched a tireless attack on the last camp. In the darkness before dawn, Wang Shifan was almost in despair.

Just as the sky was about to brighten, Wang Maozhang suddenly called the troops together and said that the Bian army was exhausted after days of fighting. They traveled all day yesterday and fought all night. Now they are at the end of their strength. It is the best time for us to attack! So, Wang Maozhang and Wang Shifan's Qingzhou soldiers suddenly launched a counterattack, and the Bian army collapsed in one fell swoop.

Zhu Youning's pupils were bloodshot, veins bulged, and he shouted loudly, and galloped into the enemy camp, leading the way, trying to reverse the situation. Unexpectedly, his horse stumbled, and Zhu Youning was thrown heavily to the ground. A young general named Zhang Tu from the Pinglu Army was quick-witted and stepped forward, chopped off Zhu Youning's head with a knife.

The Bian army was defeated, losing tens of thousands of soldiers and horses, and the Wei Bo reinforcements were also completely wiped out.

Wang Shifan sent Zhu Youning's head to Huainan, diverting Zhu Wen's anger to Yang Xingmi in Huainan.

When the news of Zhu Youning's sacrifice came, Zhu Wen was filled with grief and indignation. He personally led an army of 200,000 and rushed to Qingzhou day and night.

After Zhu Wen's main force arrived, Wang Shifan was defeated repeatedly, and Wang Maozhang also closed the gates of the village to show weakness. However, when Zhu Wen's troops relaxed a little, Wang Maozhang immediately dismantled the fence and attacked quickly, catching Zhu Wen off guard. When Zhu Wen reacted and assembled a little, Wang Maozhang retreated like lightning.

After Wang Maozhang retreated, he set up a celebration banquet in the camp and gathered all the generals to drink and celebrate. After drinking for a while, he led his troops to attack the Bian army camp.

Unexpectedly, coming and going like the wind, this is exactly the same as what Zhu Wen did when he was young to deal with Qin Zongquan of Caizhou. Zhu Wen found his own shadow in the enemy, "Your awesomeness is very similar to the charm of my youth."

Zhu Wen asked the surrendered soldiers and generals and learned that the enemy commander was Wang Maozhang. He could not help but exclaimed: "If I can get this general, I will have no worries about not ruling the world!"

Although Wang Maozhang had some strategies and had achieved small victories many times, the disparity in numbers between the enemy and us was too great. He knew that Qingzhou would inevitably fall and there was no need for Huainan to be buried with Qingzhou, so he quietly withdrew his troops that night and returned to Huainan.

The alliance between Wang Shifan of Qingzhou and Yang Xingmi of Huainan was a naked alliance of interests. Huainan's assistance to Qingzhou was definitely not free aid.

At the beginning of the assistance, Wang Maozhang and Wang Shifan's brother Wang Shihui captured Mizhou, and the position of Mizhou governor was taken by Huainan general Zhang Xun. Mizhou and Yanzhou were the only fruits of Wang Shifan's victory. Yanzhou was captured by Liu Xun alone, so it naturally belonged to Wang Shifan without dispute, while Mizhou, which was captured by the two armies together, was given to Huainan as a reward.

Wang Maozhang helped Qingzhou kill Zhu Youning and repel the exploratory attack by Zhu Wen's main force. He has done his best.

After hearing the news of Wang Maozhang's withdrawal, Zhang Xun, the governor of Mizhou, also gathered all the generals and said that Qingzhou would definitely not be able to resist Zhu Wen, and our small Mizhou was definitely not Zhu Wen's opponent, so we had to preserve the strength of Huainan and make a strategic shift. The generals proposed to empty Mizhou, move all the important materials such as grain back to Huainan, and then let the troops plunder, loot Mizhou, and then burn Mizhou to the ground, leaving Zhu Wen with a scorched earth.

However, Zhang Xun rejected this inhumane proposal and ordered all government warehouses to be blocked and flags to be planted on the city walls to create an empty city plan. He then ordered the old, weak and sick to go first, and Zhang Xun personally led the elite troops to cover the rear.

Zhang Xun also appeared as a humanitarian hero in the previous article. At that time, Sun Ru and Yang Xingmi were fighting for Huainan. The unscrupulous Sun Ru "burned his boats" and burned Yangzhou City. Zhang Xun risked his life to rush into the fire and rescued about 100,000 hu of grain, which was then used to relieve the starving people in Yangzhou. The governor of Sizhou in the enemy camp asked Zhang Xun to donate grain to help the army, so Zhang Xun donated it to Sizhou in the name of his lord Yang Xingmi.

Now, although Yang Xingmi and Zhu Wen are irreconcilable, this hostility is a game between politicians, and the people are innocent. The people of Huainan are innocent, and the people in Zhu Wen's sphere of influence are also innocent.

Zhu Wen's vanguard troops chased to Mizhou and saw flags flying on the city walls from afar. They became suspicious and did not dare to approach for several days. Zhang Xun's empty city plan bought enough time for the army to retreat safely and orderly.

After the Bian army entered the city, they found that important facilities such as warehouses and houses were all intact, and the people were not harmed at all. The Bian army general Wang Tan was in awe of Zhang Xun, so he ordered: Do not pursue them. Let them go home safely.

The history of the late Tang Dynasty and the Five Dynasties was full of wars. The killing of prisoners, the killing of surrendered people, the massacre of the city, and cannibalism were common, and they repeatedly questioned the bottom line of human civilization. However, against the cruel and bloody background, there are also warm clips that shine with the glory of humanity.

Thanks to my old friend “Bedroom King” for his recommendation and support!
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(End of this chapter)