History of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms

Chapter 68 Three Hundred Days in Chenzhou

[The Great Retreat from Chang'an]

After the Battle of Liangtianpi broke out, Huang Chao keenly sensed the approach of doomsday. Although he refused to admit it, his actions were honest. He and his loyal lackeys were ready to withdraw from Chang'an.

Huang Chao chose to break out to the southeast, going through Lantian Pass, crossing the Blue Bridge, and rushing to Shangzhou (now Shangluo City, Shaanxi Province). He discarded a large number of rare treasures along the way, which was the result of years of struggle experience.

As expected, after the "Hundred Regiments Offensive", the Tang army repeated the scene of the first recovery of Chang'an, raping, looting, smashing, looting and burning. The poor people of Chang'an were repeatedly ravaged by both officials and bandits in less than three years. Few survived the disaster, and Chang'an City was almost reduced to a pile of smoking ruins.

Even if there were pursuers coming to kill them, they would be greedy for the property discarded along the way, and they would fight for it, and there was no team to chase after the Cao army.

In this way, Huang Chao led the Cao army to evacuate Chang'an calmly and orderly. Although he suffered a crushing defeat, he still preserved most of his fresh troops and still had considerable destructive and deterrent power.

There is a kind of victory called retreat.

Huang Chao withdrew from Chang'an twice, and both times he was forced to do so after suffering a disastrous defeat in a decisive battle. However, Cao's army was defeated but not collapsed, and both retreats can be regarded as successful strategic shifts, comparable to the Dunkirk evacuation.

Huang Chao could no longer stay in Chang'an. Where should he go?

Go out of Lantian Pass and pass Shangzhou, to the southeast is Caizhou, from Caizhou to the north, after crossing the Mengshui River is Chenzhou, further north is the Bianshui River, and further north is Huang Chao’s hometown, Yuanju.

The magic of love has been spinning in circles for five years, and now I’m going home for the New Year.

Caizhou had just been upgraded to Fengguo Army by the Tang Dynasty, and Qin Zongquan, the governor of Caizhou, was promoted to the defense envoy. Qin Zongquan was originally a general of the Zhongwu Army. During the "Xuzhou Mutiny", he took advantage of the chaos to establish Caizhou. With the support of the court's united front policy, he successfully became the governor of Caizhou and then the defense envoy of Fengguo Army.

Now, the heavy responsibility of stopping Cao's army fell on Qin Zongquan's shoulders.

After the "Liangtianbi Battle" broke out, Qin Zongquan had been taking a wait-and-see attitude. Commander-in-Chief Wang Duo repeatedly urged him to send troops to help, but he always refused with various reasons.

Qin Zongquan of Caizhou sat in the front row and saw the battle in Chang'an thoroughly. He saw clearly that Huang Chao, who chanted poems about chrysanthemums, was already a bygone era and was struggling to survive. When Meng Kai, the vanguard of the Cao army, led his troops to attack, Qin Zongquan resisted.

Qin Zongquan obviously underestimated the strength of the Cao army, and Meng Kai taught him a lesson in every minute.

Qin Zongquan judged the situation and changed his flag again without hesitation. He joined the Cao army and submitted to Huang Chao.

So the Cao army was able to cross the border smoothly.

Meng Kai, the vanguard of the Cao army, was armed to the teeth and led the troops. He personally served as the vanguard of the army, clearing roads through mountains and building bridges across rivers. He issued edicts to prefectures and counties along the way, and conquered Qin Zongquan, the Fengguo army of Caizhou, in the first battle after leaving Lantian Pass. The Cao army became even more unstoppable. The way home was not far away.

Next stop, Chenzhou.

No one had ever thought that Chenzhou was the beginning of the real demise of the Huang Chao gang.

The small Chenzhou taught Huang Chao a truth: the farthest place in the world is not the end of the world, but it is very close.

【Three Hundred Days in Chenzhou】

When Meng Kai arrived at Xiangcheng near Chenzhou with a high-spirited attitude, he was suddenly attacked head-on and almost his entire army was annihilated. Meng Kai was captured alive and beheaded. The person who organized this Xiangcheng blocking battle was Zhao Chu (pronounced the same as "chou"), the governor of Chenzhou.

Unofficial history says that Meng Kai is Huang Chao's illegitimate son, which is not credible, because unofficial history also says that Huang Chao's nephew Lin Yan is Huang Chao's illegitimate son, and some say that Meng Kai and Huang Chao have a love of Longyang, a habit of Duanxiu, good friends, good comrades... These are just gossips, and there is no positive response in official history. Huang Chao's favor for Meng Kai is obvious to all. Meng Kai is definitely a member of the core power circle of Huang Chao's group. If the Huang Chao group is to be ranked, the number one person is Huang Chao, the number two person is Shang Rang, the number three person is Lin Yan, and the number four person should be Meng Kai. Of course, this is my personal ranking of the direct lineage of the Cao Army, and some people may disagree with this.

But no matter how we argue, it is indisputable that Meng Kai ranks among the top five.

Now, his beloved general Meng Kai was defeated and killed in Chenzhou, with his head and body separated. Huang Chao was filled with grief and indignation, and personally led an army of more than 100,000 to surround Chenzhou.

Zhao Dun was a descendant of a military family. His family had been generals of the Zhongwu Army for generations and had made many military achievements. Since Huang Chao's rebellion, Zhao Dun had been a staunch advocate of war and had led his troops to drive away the bandits who had harassed Ruzhou and Dengzhou. When Huang Chao entered Chang'an, he was elected governor by the military and civilians of Chenzhou.

Zhao Dun had predicted today's battle situation when Huang Chao proclaimed himself emperor. He said that if Huang Chao was not killed in Chang'an, he would definitely flee eastward, and our Chenzhou would become the first target. The hatred between Chenzhou and the bandits has a long history, and we are bound to fight a fierce battle.

At that time, Zhao Dun had already actively prepared for the "Battle of Chenzhou", while Huang Chao and Meng Kai thought that it would be smooth sailing and the battle would be won with a single order.

Seeing the big picture from the small. "The best strategy is to attack the enemy's strategy." Huang Chao had already lost the battle before it even started.

In terms of personnel deployment, Zhao Dun's entire family went into battle. His second brother Zhao Chang, third brother Zhao Wei, eldest son Zhao Lu, and second son Zhao Lin all went to the front line. As the saying goes, brothers fight together and fathers and sons fight together.

Repair the city walls, dig moats, and build defensive fortifications; store food, repair armor and weapons, and prepare swords, spears, bows, crossbows, arrows and stones; all the people within a radius of sixty miles must bring food into the city, and the scorched earth policy will be softened; recruit and train brave warriors, and carry out ideological education for the soldiers, strengthening their ideas of loyalty to the emperor and serving the country, and firming their belief in victory.

In addition to the above routine operations, Zhao Dun's third brother Zhao Wei was thoughtful and thought of an easily overlooked matter: relocating the grave.

At that time, the digging of ancestral graves would not only cause emotional harm to the military and civilians, but would also shake their belief in victory because they would not have the protection of their ancestors.

Zhao Wei was very thoughtful in moving the graves before the war. At the same time, Zhao Wei personally improved a batch of broken crossbows, making their range reach more than 500 steps. Within their effective range, they could shoot through people, which was extremely deterrent.

Zhao Dun's second brother, Zhao Chang, was no ordinary man either. He took full advantage of the superstitious mentality of ordinary people and often performed tricks such as "possession by gods" in public at night, using "help from gods and ghosts" to soothe those restless little hearts under the silent night sky.

The soldiers and civilians believed this without a doubt, and firmly believed that there were ghost soldiers leading the way, so everyone fought bravely and rushed to be the first. Although they were outnumbered, they were still able to win every battle.

Huang Chao and Qin Zongquan joined forces, claiming to have hundreds of thousands of troops, and marched to Chenzhou to avenge Meng Kai. Unexpectedly, Zhao Dun took the initiative to open the city gate, and the warriors filed out and dealt another heavy blow to the rebel army.

Huang Chao was both frightened and angry, so he dug a large trench and attacked the city from hundreds of directions. The battle was comparable to the Battle of Guangzhou that year, with hundreds of thousands of bandits attacking the city from all directions, regardless of whether they were feinting or attacking, and all the troops were the main attacking troops.

Faced with the powerful offensive of Cao's army, the soldiers of Chenzhou showed some fear. Zhao Dun personally went to the front line, made an impassioned speech, explained the reasons and moved them with emotion, and enforced strict military discipline: anyone who dared to object would be beheaded!
Zhao Dun was ready to fight, and even more ready to die. Killing Meng Kai showed his determination to die.

A general should be prepared to die, and a soldier should not be greedy for life.

Inspired by Zhao Dun, the soldiers and civilians of Chenzhou risked their lives and fought hard. Although they were outnumbered and trapped in an isolated city, they always found the right opportunity, opened the city gates, and released the death squads to attack the Cao army.

The brave Chenzhou death squad repeatedly took advantage of the enemy's unpreparedness and unexpectedly won every battle. Maybe they did not cause too many casualties to the Cao army, but the psychological blow to the Cao army was fatal.

Huang Chao was so angry that he was on the verge of collapse. At this time, Huang Chao had lost his mind and the overall concept, and only Chenzhou was in his eyes.

Huang Chao had to pay a heavy price for his feelings for Chenzhou.

(End of this chapter)