History of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms

Chapter 234 Solar Eclipse
【eclipse】

On the first day of the first lunar month in the fifth year of Kaiping (911), there was a solar eclipse.

23年前，文德元年（888）3月1日，日食。3月2日，时年27岁的唐僖宗旧病复发，6日驾崩。

This solar eclipse was on the first day of the Lunar New Year, which was called "solar eclipse at the beginning of the year". People thought of the story of Emperor Gaozu of Han, Liu Bang, in his later years and thought it was very unlucky. At this moment, a decisive battle was about to start, and Zhu Wen was seriously ill, so "Liang Zu hated it very much".

At that time, people developed a set of rituals to resolve ominous celestial phenomena:

The emperor wore plain clothes, avoided the main hall, and reduced his meals; all officials also had to wear plain clothes and wait in the office, stopping all work at hand; they also had to set up a formation in the palace, with "five soldiers, five drums, five flags, halberds in the east, spears in the west, crossbows in the south, shields in the north, and a drum in the center."

This time, the relevant departments reported in time: "The clouds are dark and cloudy, so it's like there is no eclipse." It's okay, the clouds blocked the view for a while, so this solar eclipse doesn't count.

So all the officials came to the court to congratulate him, and Zhu Wen was very pleased.

On the front line, under Zhou Dewei's arrangement and deployment, the Battle of Baixiang went exactly as he expected. The battle line of the Later Liang army was stretched and logistics supply problems arose. The Hedong Army sent cavalry to harass the supply line of the Later Liang every day, arrested the soldiers who went out to collect wood and firewood, and sent elite troops to the front of the Later Liang camp to provoke the enemy.

The Later Liang army no longer had enough fodder to feed their war horses, so they had to remove the thatch on the roof and the seats on the beds to use as feed for the horses. Many war horses died as a result.

On the second day of the first lunar month, Hedong generals Shi Jiantang and Li Siyuan came to challenge the enemy again, using vulgar language that was simply unbearable to listen to. Wang Maozhang and Han Qing could no longer tolerate this, and finally urged the army to attack!
Zhou Dewei and others fought and retreated with them. South of Gaoyi, the two armies formed their own battle arrays and prepared for a group battle.

The Later Liang army had a numerical advantage, and the battle line stretched for several miles from east to west, a dark mass that could not be seen at a glance. At Wang Maozhang's command, the Later Liang army waved flags and shouted, scrambling to seize the pontoon bridge.

Li Cunxu said to his general Li Jianji: "The floating bridge is our only barrier. Once the enemy troops cross the bridge, our army will no longer be able to resist them."

Li Jianji then selected 200 brave warriors, rushed to the front with a fearless attitude of death, and actually repelled the vanguard troops of the Later Liang Dynasty.

Li Cunxu climbed up a hill and looked at the battlefield. The Later Liang army was shouting and killing, and the Hedong army was unmoved. They advanced and retreated in an orderly manner and their formations were neat. Li Cunxu was very pleased and said that the Later Liang army was large and arrogant, while our army was small and fearless, so our army would win!
The fierce fighting lasted from morning to noon, and the two armies were evenly matched with no clear winner.

Li Cunxu said to Zhou Dewei: "Success or failure depends on this one move. I will personally charge into the enemy camp, and you will lead the army to follow. Let's fight with Hou Liang!"

Zhou Dewei quickly stopped Li Cunxu's horse and said, "Don't do that! Being brave is not the same as being reckless, and you must not be brave. Our army is well-rested, while the Houliang army has traveled more than 30 miles to fight. Up to now, they haven't even had time to eat. In a while, they will be hungry and thirsty, and they will definitely be unable to hold on. They will definitely retreat. At that time, we will send out cavalry to attack, and we will definitely win a great victory!"

Zhou Dewei's judgment was once again fulfilled.

The western wing of the Later Liang army was the first to retreat. Zhou Dewei took the opportunity to shout: "The Later Liang is defeated!" Immediately afterwards, the Hedong army cheered and followed suit.

The battle line of the Later Liang army was six or seven miles long, and communication was not smooth. When other troops saw the flags of the western wing troops moving backwards, they also thought that the front line had collapsed, and the army was in chaos. Li Siyuan, the general in charge of attacking the eastern wing, shouted at them: "They have escaped, why don't you run quickly?" The soldiers of the Later Liang army looked at each other and said, "Yes, what are you waiting for? Run!"

Almost in an instant, the Later Liang army was defeated, abandoned their weapons and fled in all directions.

Li Cunzhang immediately led his troops in pursuit and killed them, and explained the policy to the soldiers of Later Liang: "Chinese do not fight Chinese, and you will not be killed if you surrender your weapons!" The defeated soldiers of Later Liang rushed to throw away their weapons, take off their armor, and surrender on the spot.

Since the Later Liang had carried out massacres in Shen and Ji states before, the Chengde army bore a blood feud with the Later Liang troops. No one coveted the armor, staffs and baggage abandoned by the Later Liang army, but continued to pursue them relentlessly. Blood debt must be repaid with blood!
As a result, the elite troops of the Later Liang were hunted down and killed. From Yehe to Baixiang, the bodies of the Later Liang soldiers covered the road and blood flowed like a river. Wang Maozhang, Han Xing and Li Si'an fled the battlefield with only a few dozen cavalrymen.

The Hedong army then chased to Baixiang and found that the main force of Houliang had already retreated, and the abandoned food, weapons, armor, gold, silver and treasures were piled up like mountains, too many to count.

Li Siyuan led his troops to pursue the enemy all the way to Xingzhou, while Li Cunxu collected the spoils and returned to Zhaozhou.

Upon hearing the news of the defeat, the eunuchs stationed in Shenzhen and Ji, such as Du Tingyin, hastily abandoned the cities, forced young men and women from the two states to serve as slaves, and killed all the elderly and children, leaving two empty cities behind. It was a horrific sight.

The first phase of the "Battle of Baixiang" came to a temporary end with the Hedong Group's great victory.

Zhu Wen dismissed Wang Maozhang and appointed Yang Shihou as commander, stationed in Heyang area to take in the remnants of the defeated army, and gathered 10,000 people in ten days. He also ordered a special force of 1,000 people to take a shortcut and enter Xingzhou at night to assist the governor Wang Tan in defending Xingzhou.

The Hedong army took advantage of the victory to advance towards Xingzhou, while sending troops to Weizhou to publicize policies and analyze the benefits and disadvantages. Military offensive was supplemented by political inducement to surrender, and both hands were used.

The "Battle of Baixiang" has entered its second phase.

Zhang Chengye and Li Cunzhang attacked Xingzhou and were about to swallow up Dongzhaoyi; Li Cunxu personally attacked Weizhou and wanted to take over Weizhou; Zhou Dewei swept across the eastern territory of Weizhou with a devastating force, from Beizhou to the south, Xiajin, Gaotang, Bozhou, Dongwu, Chaocheng, Chanzhou, Linhe, Qimen... and faced Huazhou, the headquarters of the Xuanyi Army, across the Yellow River.

Zhu Wen appointed Li Zhen, a great strategist, as the deputy governor of Weizhou and sent Du Tingyin to lead a thousand men to escort Li Zhen into the city to assist in the defense. The purpose was to help Luo Zhouhan, but in reality it was to supervise the Weizhou army to prevent them from being unsteady and defecting to the Jin Dynasty.

On February 2, the young hero Li Cunxu, full of high spirits, personally visited Liyang to inspect the front line. It happened that more than 8 Later Liang troops were about to cross the river and head north.

When the Later Liang troops heard that Li Cunxu was in front of them, they jumped off the boats and fled in panic. No one thought of taking action and capturing the bandit king. This shows that in terms of military morale, the Hedong army was completely in a crushing advantage.

The Later Liang army was terrified at the mere mention of the tiger. In order to boost morale, the 60-year-old Zhu Wen had to drag his sick body and personally lead the army to the south bank of the Yellow River.

The time for the decisive battle has arrived.

At this time, the Hedong army suddenly moved northward, lifted the siege on Xingzhou and Weizhou, left Zhou Dewei to garrison Zhaozhou, and Li Cunxu led his troops back to Taiyuan Prefecture. Later Liang's commander-in-chief Yang Shihou took the opportunity to enter Weizhou.

The Hedong army was in high spirits and seemed unstoppable, but why did they give up halfway and retreat strangely?

Because the famous problem child in Hebei Province, Youzhou Liu Shouguang, is about to cause trouble again.

(End of this chapter)