History of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms

Chapter 789 People are on the wrong road

Lost on Journey

At that time, the northeast wind was strong and the two armies were in a stalemate.

Suddenly, the northeast wind turned into a south wind.

Wang Yansi, the deputy privy councilor of the Northern Han Dynasty, instructed Li Yi, the astronomer, to tell Liu Chong: "The wind direction is favorable to our army, so let's march quickly!"

Liu Chong ordered an attack. His privy councilor Wang Dezhong rushed over and stopped Liu Chong's horse, shouting, "Li Yi should be killed! Going against the wind, is this going to help our army?"

The Northern Han army was in the north, and the Later Zhou army was in the south, with the two sides facing each other from north to south. At first, the wind was northeast, with the Northern Han army having a favorable wind and the Later Zhou army having a headwind; but now it is south wind, with the Northern Han army having a headwind and the Later Zhou army having a favorable wind. A favorable wind is an advantage, and a headwind is a disadvantage. This is basic military common sense.

Liu Chong was very impatient and shouted, "I have made up my mind. If you, an old scholar, don't talk nonsense, I will kill you first!"

Under the intriguing command of Liu Chong, Zhang Yuanhui of the Eastern Front launched the first attack.

On the east side of the two armies, Zhang Yuanhui VS Fan Ainen and He Hui.

As soon as the two armies clashed, Fan Aineng and He Hui fled from the battlefield, followed by the cavalry, which fled backwards, scattering the infantry behind them. Then the army was defeated and could not be stopped. The cavalry ran fast and followed the commander to the south, while thousands of infantrymen took off their armor and surrendered, shouting "Long live the Northern Han".

According to historical records, the surrendered soldiers of the Later Zhou Dynasty shouted "Long live" and their voices shook the valley.

In an instant, the Later Zhou army was on the brink of collapse.

At this critical moment, Chai Rong shouted loudly, rode his horse to charge, and led 5,000 cavalrymen straight to Liu Chong's tent to fight with Liu Chong.

In order to show that he was confident, Liu Chong deliberately drank and danced in front of the battle line to show his leisure time, waiting to be recorded in history as "the masts and oars were reduced to ashes while chatting and laughing". Unexpectedly, Chai Rong, a young man, rushed over, frightening Liu Chong so much that he was almost speechless, except for a sentence of "Oh my god".

Seeing Chai Rong trapped in the enemy camp, at the critical moment, a general of the imperial guards stepped forward and shouted, "The lord is in such danger, why should we not die?" He called on his comrades to sacrifice their lives to save the lord, and said to the commander of the imperial guards Zhang Yongde, "The arrogant enemy army will surely be defeated. As long as we hold on, we will surely win the final victory. You have many left-handed sharpshooters. Please lead them to the high ground and attack the left wing. I will lead the people on the right wing. The survival of the country depends on this!"

Zhang Yongde readily agreed, so he and he each led 2,000 men, divided into left and right, cooperating with each other, and fighting to the death to protect their master.

This imperial guard general led the troops and fought hard. The soldiers he led also risked their lives. Each of them fought one against a hundred men and actually blocked the offensive of the Northern Han army.

This imperial guard general was brave, resourceful and courageous. He successfully saved the Later Zhou army from decline and ultimately reversed the situation. The reason why the "Battle of Gaoping" left behind relatively detailed historical records is also thanks to his existence.

His name was Zhao Kuangyin.

Under the leadership of Zhao Kuangyin, the imperial guards showed amazing fighting power:

The imperial guard general Ma Renyu also shouted "If the lord is humiliated, the minister will die", jumped on his horse and fought, shooting arrows without missing a single target, killing dozens of enemies in succession, and boosting the morale of the Later Zhou army;
The imperial guard general Ma Quanyi advised Chai Rong to move back a little. If the Northern Han took any blood, we would be finished. Let us kill the enemy for Your Majesty. Then he led hundreds of cavalrymen to bravely go against the flow and rush into the Northern Han formation.

Liu Chong was confused and could only urge Zhang Yuanhui to push the front line forward. Zhang Yuanhui resisted the pressure and charged hard, but unexpectedly his horse stumbled and he fell off, and was immediately killed by the Later Zhou army.

Zhang Yuanhui was a general under Liu Chong. When Liu Chong was stationed in Hedong, Zhang Yuanhui served as Liu Chong's deputy general. When Liu Chong established the Northern Han Dynasty, he promoted Zhang Yuanhui to the commander of the cavalry and infantry. During this southward march, Zhang Yuanhui made the first kill, successfully annihilated the Luzhou vanguard army by pretending to be defeated and ambushing, killed Mu Lingjun, frightened Li Yun, and made a great name for himself in Hedong.

"Zizhi Tongjian" says: Yuan Hui was a brave general of the Northern Han Dynasty.

"Spring and Autumn Annals of the Ten Kingdoms" says: Yuan Hui was a great general of the country.

As a result, Zhang Yuanhui accidentally fell off his horse and was shot dead, which seriously undermined the morale of the Northern Han army. "The officers and soldiers were all demoralized and the army was no longer able to recover."

Liu Chong, who had lost his beloved general, made another wrong decision. He personally waved the red flag and ordered the troops in the front to retreat, rest temporarily and stabilize the situation.

However, the two armies were in a stalemate and could not withdraw from the battle. The first to withdraw would die. Sure enough, the Northern Han army's retreat immediately turned into a rout. Under the pursuit of the Later Zhou army, the Northern Han army trampled on each other and countless people died.

By evening, Liu Chong gathered more than 10,000 defeated soldiers and formed a battle array along a mountain stream, using it as a barrier.

At this time, Liu Ci of the Later Zhou also arrived with his troops. With the reinforcement of manpower, the Later Zhou army took advantage of the victory to attack. The Northern Han army was defeated again. The Deputy Privy Envoy Wang Yansi was killed, and Liu Chong fled back to Taiyuan in a panic.

The Later Zhou army pursued closely, and the Northern Han army's "zombies with abandoned armor filled the valley."

In this battle, thousands of Northern Han soldiers were captured, and countless baggage, weapons, camels and horses were seized. At the same time, the emperor's ceremonial guards, carriages, dragon robes, etc. used by Liu Chong were also seized. That night, the Later Zhou army killed more than 2,000 surrendered soldiers, and those who surrendered to the Northern Han during the initial battle during the day were killed without mercy.

Liu Chong fled north in a panic, and his journey was as embarrassing as that of Lost on Journey, because he had never thought that he would fail, so he never made a retreat plan. In order to escape, he took off his dragon robe, gave up the emperor's carriage and ceremonial guards, put on a brown tattered cloak, rode a yellow horse given to him by the Khitans, and took more than a hundred personal cavalrymen to take a shortcut and run all the way.

Liu Chong ran until midnight, and then he found a major problem: he was lost. It was dark and windy, in the wild mountains and wilderness, with no map or navigation... Fortunately, there was always a way out, so Liu Chong captured a few mountain villagers and ordered them to be his guide. As a result, due to the accent, the enthusiastic villagers heard "Jinyang" as "Pingyang" and led Liu Chong westward.

Jinyang, namely Taiyuan, is located in the north of Luzhou; Pingyang is today's Linfen, located in the west of Luzhou, which was under the control of the Later Zhou Dynasty at that time.

In this way, Liu Chong walked more than a hundred miles on the road to surrendering himself. It was not until dawn that he realized something was wrong. "My fellow villagers, I am not a Japanese devil, why are you Wang Erxiao?" He killed the enthusiastic villagers, then turned his horse around and continued to flee northward.

Liu Chong was so desperate that he forgot to eat and sleep. He traveled day and night without daring to sleep or even eat or drink. According to records, Liu Chong had just picked up his chopsticks and was about to take a few bites of the imperial meal when someone suddenly shouted, "The Zhou soldiers are coming!" Liu Chong threw away his chopsticks as if by reflex, mounted his horse and ran away, more agile than Pavlov's dog.

Liu Chong was old and weak, and could hardly withstand such turbulence. Supported by a huge desire to survive, he barely escaped back to Taiyuan. His health deteriorated rapidly, laying the foundation for his death.

However, the international friend, Yelu Dilu, remained inactive from beginning to end, watched the defeat of the Northern Han army with cold eyes, and withdrew from the battlefield in time without losing a single soldier or a piece of baggage, and escaped unscathed.

After Liu Chong returned to Taiyuan, he built a luxurious villa-level stable for the yellow horse. All the decorations in the stable were either gold or silver. The food standard was based on the salary of a third-rank official, and he gave the horse the title of "General Zizai".

Liu Chong gathered the remnants of the fleeing soldiers and mobilized the army to repair the defenses of Taiyuan City, preparing for the "Battle of Taiyuan". He sent Wang Dezhongli to escort Yelu Dilu back to the country, and continued to request the Khitan to send troops for support, and obtained the consent of Liao Muzong Yelu Jing.

Let’s talk about the Later Zhou Dynasty.

Chai Rong returned to Gaoping County to rest, and then reorganized his army and advanced to Luzhou.

During this period, Chai Rong dealt with the captives of the Northern Han. Those who were willing to stay were incorporated into the Later Zhou army, and those who were unwilling to stay were given resettlement fees and travel expenses and released. In the end, two thousand captives expressed their desire to go home, and the Later Zhou gave them two pieces of silk each, plus clothes and bags, etc.; thousands of others expressed their willingness to stay, so they were reorganized into "Xiaoshun Du" and led by Tang Jingsi, and sent to the Huai River to garrison.

At the same time, more than 70 senior generals including Fan Ainen and He Hui were beheaded in public, the reason being, of course, that they deserted the battlefield.

At that time, the two armies had not yet come into contact. Fan Aineng, who was leading the cavalry in the front, retreated without fighting, which triggered a large rout of the cavalry, and then dispersed the infantry. He Hui, who was the commander of the infantry in the rear, also fled backwards, and the situation was out of control. The two fled to the rear and looted the supplies in the rear. Chai Rong sent people to intercept the two, but the two not only refused to listen, but also killed the messenger and spread rumors that the Later Zhou army had been defeated by the Khitan army.

Liu Ci, who led the rear army, met the two men. They said that the king's army was defeated and advised Liu Ci not to go to his death. Liu Ci did not listen and led his troops to continue his journey north. He arrived at the main battlefield at night and participated in the finishing blow to Liu Chong.

In the evening, after hearing the news of Later Zhou's victory, Fan Ainen and He Huicai returned to report.

Chai Rong first killed Fan Ainen, He Hui and more than 70 others. After arriving in Luzhou, he ordered a strict investigation of those who had deserted from the battlefield that day. All those above the military commander and the guarding envoys were to be executed.

Where there is punishment there must be reward.

Li Chongjin, Xiang Xun, Zhang Yongde and other meritorious generals were all promoted to higher positions. There is no need to list them in detail.

After reorganizing the army, Chai Rong ordered an attack on Hedong Taiyuan Prefecture!
The army of the Later Zhou Dynasty took advantage of the victory of the "Battle of Gaoping" and pointed its sword at Taiyuan.

(End of this chapter)