History of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms

Chapter 547: Er An's Rebellion 7
After receiving the news of An Zhongrong's rebellion, Shi Jingtang mobilized troops and actively responded. He ordered Du Chongwei to lead the army to quell the rebellion and ordered Anzhou Jiedushi Ma Quanjie as deputy commander.

Obviously, it was Ma Quanjie who led the team and Du Chongwei who lay low and gained experience. Many times, the commander-in-chief was just a figurehead, and the deputy commander-in-chief was the one who really contributed.

On December 941, 12, the Zhenzhou rebels encountered the imperial army in the southwest of Zongcheng (now Wei County, Hebei Province), and fierce fighting broke out.

An Zhongrong had a large number of troops and deployed the偃月阵.

The偃月阵 is like a “＞”, with its mouth opening to attack the enemy, and the commander at the corner of the center coordinating and commanding the two wings. The formation is also like a big pocket, luring the enemy into the seemingly weak point in the center, and then outflanking the two wings to encircle the enemy; if the enemy attacks the left and right wings separately, the two wings can support each other and change the formation into a circular formation (first change from ＞ to =, and then circle around to form ○), encircling the enemy in the center of the circle.

One of its disadvantages is that it requires sufficient troops. As Sun Tzu's Art of War says, "surround the enemy with ten of them." Otherwise, the thin skin and large fillings will be a dead end, and the enemy can successfully break through by simply choosing a direction.

In this encounter, An Zhongrong had an absolute advantage in numbers, so he deployed the偃月阵 very confidently.

Comrade Du Chongwei, a figurehead, planned and cooperated very well in launching three meaningless exploratory attacks in a row, helping An Zhongrong verify the invincible advantage of the偃月阵, successfully boosting the enemy's morale and effectively undermining their own morale.

Therefore, Du Chongwei decided to avoid the enemy's attack and planned to order a retreat.

Commander Wang Zhongyin hurriedly stopped him, saying that the two armies had already entered the battle range, and retreating at this time was a taboo in military strategy. The enemy would take advantage of the situation and attack us, and our army would surely scatter and flee. It was impossible to retreat, and we could only rout. If we rout a thousand miles, we would be finished. We should now allocate elite forces to attack the enemy's two wings respectively. I would like to lead the Khitan cavalry to attack their core. Only in this way can we make them lose their composure and our army win.

In fact, Wang Zhongyin's intention was to use himself as bait and actively throw himself into the enemy's pocket, luring the enemy's two wings to converge towards the center, and then our army would detour to the outermost side to form an encirclement of the enemy.

Let's make a simple sketch to vividly outline Wang Zhongyin's plan to break the formation:

Initial: Three>

Bait: 21＞

Baiting: 2-1-2

Biting: 2-3

Day 2

Closing the net:
The elite forces of the偃月阵 are all in the middle, with the main general, because this is their bait. They must withstand the enemy's attack and delay the enemy before the two wings can close in and attack.

Wang Zhongyin's strategy was to lead the elite Khitan cavalry to attack this tough nut to crack. After being surrounded by the enemy's two wings, although he was trapped in a tight encirclement, he also exposed the enemy's weaker two wings to the friendly forces, allowing the "two" to eat the "day".

Du Chongwei readily accepted this suggestion. So Wang Chongyin was ready to die and led the Khitan cavalry company to plunge into the enemy's trap to win a chance for his comrades. The Zhenzhou soldiers really fell into the trap. Just as Wang Chongyin had predicted, the two sides quickly turned into a "Geng"-shaped massacre formation. The Zhenzhou soldiers realized that they had been tricked by the Central Army and that they were the clowns. Their morale was frustrated and they began to retreat, showing signs of defeat. The balance of the battlefield gradually tilted towards the Central Army.

At this critical moment, a small incident occurred on the battlefield, which directly led to the complete collapse of the Zhenzhou rebels.

Before An Zhongrong became rich, he had a good friend, Zhao Yanzhi. At that time, they were low-level scattered commanders (without military power). They were in love and had a good relationship. They probably made a vow similar to "If you become rich and powerful, don't forget me." Later, An Zhongrong made the right bet in the Hedong War and was promoted to the governor of Zhenzhou. As a friend in need, Zhao Yanzhi continued to be a scattered commander in Guanxi, eating and waiting for death. When he heard that his best friend had become rich, he traveled thousands of miles from Guanxi to Zhenzhou to seek help from his brother.

An Zhongrong was very happy, "If I have something to eat, you will have something to eat too. We are brothers." An Zhongrong really treated Zhao Yanzhi well and put him in charge of recruiting soldiers and expanding his strength.

Zhao Yanzhi was also very happy, but he didn't know a political unwritten rule. The poorer the brothers were when they were in hiding, the more they would be suspected. We have analyzed many political struggles of military and political entities before. Among them, the "following the dragon faction", "meritorious officials faction" and "veterans faction" have always been the number one targets of attack. On the contrary, the surrendered generals are more trusted and reused. In business activities, entrepreneurial groups cannot escape this rule.

Generally speaking, the top leaders would give generous treatment to the founding fathers in terms of material conditions, but not give them real power. So although An Zhongrong gave Zhao Yanzhi generous treatment, he only gave Zhao Yanzhi a small position when he started the rebellion, which made Zhao Yanzhi very resentful.

Now the two armies were in a stalemate, at this extremely critical moment, Zhao Yanzhi suddenly led his troops, rolled up the flags and rode their horses, rushing towards the central army of the Later Jin Dynasty and surrendering on the battlefield.

Zhao Yanzhi's surrender to the enemy on the battlefield not only destroyed the Zhenzhou soldiers' position, but also severely damaged the morale of Zhenzhou. An Zhongrong was shocked when he heard this, and actually hid in the baggage train behind him and quietly slipped away.

An Zhongrong's escape caused the Zhenzhou soldiers to completely collapse. The soldiers had no desire to fight anymore and they threw down their weapons and armor and fled in all directions.

The central army of the Later Jin Dynasty took advantage of the situation and killed 15,000 enemies in one breath. An Zhongrong had just gathered the remnants and retreated to Zongcheng County, but the central army did not give him a chance to catch his breath. They pursued him all night and launched a night battle. At three o'clock in the morning of the same day, they broke through the county and seized 3,000 war horses, more than 30,000 pieces of silk, and some other supplies. An Zhongrong's general Shi Qianwu tied himself up and surrendered.

In the end, An Zhongrong fled back to Zhenzhou with only a dozen personal cavalrymen and closed the city to defend it.

A cold front from Siberia arrived in Zhenzhou before the Central Army. The temperature dropped suddenly and nearly 20,000 Zhenzhou defenders were frozen to death.

It is said that when An Zhongrong led the hungry people southward, a folk expert predicted that An Zhongrong would be defeated. Because An Zhongrong's surname is "An", which is homophonic with the word "An" in "saddle", which means "saddle with back", and "saddle with mane" means stability, while "saddle with mane" means danger. So if An Zhongrong went down through Beizhou, he would have to go through the back of the saddle, but he chose to go through Zongcheng, which means "saddle with mane", so he was doomed.

Puns are not something that have become popular on the Internet in recent years. Ancient people more than a thousand years ago were already enjoying them.

Zhang Jianwu, the governor of Jizhou, led his troops to capture Zhaozhou, which was under the rule of Chengde Army in Zhenzhou, and opened the southern gate leading to Zhenzhou.

The troops led by Zhao Yanzhi who revolted on the battlefield had their armor and saddles inlaid with silver decorations. Du Chongwei, in pursuit of money, killed Zhao Yanzhi and his troops and seized their property.

(End of this chapter)