History of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms

Chapter 371 Battle for Yuezhou

Keeping Jingnan and maintaining its integrity and independence is equivalent to building a strategic buffer zone for Nanchu. Moreover, Gao Jichang is a restless problem child who often gets into trouble. Every time he gets into trouble, Nanchu, as its neighbor, can take advantage of the situation and profit from it. If it is annexed, Nanchu will be targeted by its powerful neighbors and will incur heavy diplomatic costs, which is not worth the loss.

Ma Yin suddenly realized something, his anger turned into joy, and he praised Wang Huan highly.

Wang Huan was a brave man, well-versed in military tactics, and loved his soldiers like his own sons, winning the hearts of the soldiers. In every battle, he would lead the troops, share the joys and sorrows with them, and carry wound medicine and surgical equipment with him. After each battle, he would have the wounded carried to his tent, where he would personally treat their wounds and apply medicine.

The officers and soldiers assigned to Wang Huan's troops would congratulate each other and say, "We have finally arrived at the place where we are willing to serve and die!" Therefore, every time there was a battle, Wang Huan's troops would bravely take the lead and achieve brilliant results one after another.

Wang Huan defeated Huainan six times and Jingnan twice, and his power was so great that he dominated the two lakes.

After reaching a peace agreement with Jingnan, Ma Yin of the newly established country could no longer suppress the restlessness in his heart. In the same month that Wang Huan returned from the war, he shifted the focus of his work to the south and turned to attack Liu Yan of Southern Han.

Ma Yin was an old man who wanted to rekindle his youthful passion. To the east was the powerful Huainan, to the west was Nanzhao and the Liangchuan region controlled by the central government, and to the north was Gao Jichang, who had just admitted defeat. Only the Southern Han regime in the south could allow him to vent his youthful hormones.

After Liu Yan proclaimed himself emperor, he always regarded Nanchu as his outer defense line, just as Nanchu viewed Jingnan. He tried his best to please Ma Yin, for example, asking for Ma Yin's daughter in marriage, and even named her as queen after he proclaimed himself emperor.

However, Ma Yin still attacked Nan Han without any warning. Why would a father-in-law need a reason to beat his son-in-law?

The Southern Chu fleet, with the momentum of its victory over Jingnan, won the first battle and defeated the unprepared Southern Han army at Hejiang.

Liu Yan was terrified, and his first reaction was to take out his best weapon, the Book of Changes, and divine the good and bad luck. He got the hexagram of "Da You", which means "Heaven blesses you, good luck, and nothing will go wrong". He was very happy, and announced a general amnesty and changed the year, changing "the fourth year of Bailong" to "the first year of Da You", and ordered General Su Zhang to lead a hundred warships and three thousand archers to meet the enemy.

"Bai Long" and "Da You", just from these two reign titles, we can see that Liu Yan of the Southern Han Dynasty is definitely a man with a story. He consulted with fortune sticks before making decisions on military and national affairs, and created his own character... His absurdity and weirdness will be presented later. The Southern Han Dynasty is a strange place with a low sense of existence, but it has a lot of stories, which deserves to be presented in the form of a special topic.

After Su Zhang arrived at Hejiang River, the tactics he used were not sophisticated, but common ones, perfectly paying tribute to Zhang Wu's "Locking Gorge". In advance, he sank a huge iron chain to the bottom of the river, connected large capstans at both ends, and hid them behind the riverbanks on both sides; he sent light boats to feign defeat to lure the enemy, and when the enemy ships entered the ambush circle, the strong men on both sides turned the capstans, and the large iron chain stretched across the river, making the enemy ships unable to move; then the strong bows and crossbows on both sides fired thousands of arrows at the same time, and the arrows and stones rained down, wantonly pouring out the anger of revenge on the invaders.

The Southern Chu army was defeated, the surface forces were annihilated, and the ground forces hurriedly rescued and retreated.

After driving away his father-in-law, Liu Yan promoted Su Zhang to be the commander of the regiment in Fengzhou. Su Zhang was "brave and good at fighting, and his marching was mostly in accordance with the ancient methods". He was also a general with both civil and military skills. He became famous in the battle of Hejiang and was hailed as a famous general. He had five sons. As the saying goes, a good father will have good sons. All five sons were "heroic and willful", and were collectively called "Five Langjiang".

When Ma Yin suffered a defeat in Fengzhou, his neighbors in Huainan mobilized their troops to attack him.

Yuezhou's geographical location is extremely important. It is not only a noose around Jingnan's neck, but also the lifeline of the strategic alliance between Jingnan and Huainan. Both Jingnan and Huainan urgently need to control Yuezhou. Huainan sent generals Miao Lin and Wang Yanzhang (who has the same name as "Wang Tieqiang", but is not the same person) to lead 10,000 naval forces to Yuezhou in a menacing manner and sent a request for joint operations to Gao Jichang of Jingnan.

Ma Yin sent General Xu Dexun with a thousand warships to resist.

Xu Dexun said to his subordinates: "The Huainan people want to take advantage of our defeat by the Southern Han and take advantage of the situation. Once they see our army coming, they will definitely scatter like birds and beasts and will not suffer any substantial losses. We must hide our strength in order to inflict heavy damage on them!"

So he ordered Wang Huan to lead 300 warships to bypass the Huainan navy under the cover of night and cut off their return route, thus formulating a pocket tactic of blocking the enemy from the front and back.

The next day, the Huainan fleet advanced towards Yuezhou, intending to join forces with the Jingnan navy to attack Yuezhou.

Xu Dexun first sent light boats to lure the enemy, and then dispatched main warships to attack head-on. Ambushes rose up everywhere, and Huainan was defeated. The main generals Miao Lin and Wang Yanzhang were captured alive.

Huainan apologized to Ma Yin of Nanchu and asked for reconciliation, returning Miao Lin and Wang Yanzhang. Ma Yin accepted the reconciliation and ordered Xu Dexun to hold a farewell banquet for the two defeated generals.

At the banquet, Xu Dexun said to the two, "Although our Nanchu is small, the older generation of entrepreneurial elites are still alive. Please don't target us anymore. Tell your master, if you really want to target us, you must be patient and wait until the foals compete for the trough. It won't be too late to target us then."

The "little foals" mentioned by Xu Dexun are Ma Yin's sons. Ma Yin's successors also failed to escape the "second generation curse", and their stories will be presented one by one in the following text.

In this brief battle of Yuezhou, Gao Jichang of Jingnan did not send troops as promised, because he needed a status. He had previously requested Huainan to submit but was rejected, which made him very passive and his political situation very embarrassing.

Today, Jingnan is neither affiliated with the Later Tang nor with Huainan, and is not subordinate to any political force. However, it is not strong enough to be independent and has become a homeless social outcast without political legitimacy.

This situation is extremely dangerous. Jingnan, which has lost its legal foundation, is like a kite with a broken string, in danger of falling at any time.

He didn't even want to see Huainan win the battle of Yuezhou, because if that happened, Huainan's attitude would be even higher, and he would have no bargaining chips at the negotiation table. So how could he really help Huainan to attack Yuezhou?
When Huainan lost in Yuezhou, the value of this tiny place of Jingnan was indirectly reflected. Although the weight is small, it can bear thousands of pounds. Without me, Huainan will never be able to penetrate the middle reaches of the Yangtze River! How about we talk?
Gao Jichang once again sent envoys to Huainan to express his willingness to submit.

At this time, Huainan can already be described as "Southern Wu", because half a year ago, Huainan Yang Pu (the fourth son of Yang Xingmi) officially ascended the throne and proclaimed himself emperor, known as "Southern Wu" in history, and ranked as one of the "Ten Kingdoms". Obviously, the Southern Wu regime was an illegal separatist regime. We will add more about the development of Huainan's power later.

(End of this chapter)