History of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms

Chapter 790: Showing Off the Army in Taiyuan (Part )
【Show your military prowess in Taiyuan】

We can completely call this military conflict between the Later Zhou and the Northern Han the "Luzhou Self-Defense Counterattack", but it has already had a household name in history - the "Battle of Gaoping". After the battle in Gaoping, the Later Zhou immediately organized a counterattack, and a new round of conflict broke out under the city of Taiyuan. In a broad sense, the "Battle of Gaoping" or "Gaoping Campaign" should include the subsequent series of military operations of the Later Zhou against Taiyuan.

Taiyuan has been threatened by military forces more than once since the end of the Tang Dynasty. The most threatening threat was Zhu Wen's "six armies encircling Taiyuan", which forced Li Keyong to consider abandoning Taiyuan and fleeing to the northern desert. However, Taiyuan has always stood firm. Taiyuan's city defense system has also been gradually strengthened.

With the natural barrier of the Taihang Mountains and the geopolitical advantage of connecting to the Khitan in the north, Hedong Taiyuan Prefecture became the toughest bone to chew north of the Yellow River, and the Hedong Jiedushi also became a major concern for the Central Plains dynasty during the Five Dynasties period. Among the Five Dynasties, four of the founding monarchs were "Hedong Jiedushi", which is very telling.

Therefore, although Chai Rong won a great victory in Gaoping, he was not carried away by the victory. He did not think of taking Taiyuan and Hedong in one fell swoop. The strategic task of this self-defense counterattack was to have a sufficient deterrent effect on the Northern Han pseudo-regime entrenched in Hedong. "He only wanted to show off his troops at the foot of Jinyang City, but did not discuss attacking it."

Plans are not as good as changes. As the army moved north, the actual situation was unexpectedly smooth.

First of all, there are the enthusiastic people in the "occupied areas".

Although Liu Chong was crowned emperor, the actual territory of the Northern Han regime was only a military governorate in Hedong. Even he himself mocked himself with great sadness, saying that he was called the Son of Heaven, but in reality he was just the governor of Hedong. Although the Hedong region was geographically important, the land was relatively poor. In addition, many years of war made the Hedong region poor and the people were poor. In addition, Liu Chong wanted to curry favor with his Khitan father, so he squeezed the people dry and licked the Liao Dynasty, which made the people of Hedong even worse.

The military and political leaders were playing political games, while the people of Hedong were living in dire straits.

When the army of the Later Zhou Dynasty crossed the border, a touching scene was staged: wherever the royal army went, wherever the righteous flag pointed, the people offered food and drink to welcome the royal army.

According to the "Zizhi Tongjian", "After entering the territory of Northern Han, the people scrambled to welcome the Zhou army with food, cried about the heavy taxes and labor service imposed on the Liu family, and were willing to provide military supplies and assist Jinyang."

The people of Northern Han vied with each other to serve as "guides" for the Later Zhou army, welcoming the royal army to liberate Taiyuan, liberate Hedong, and liberate all of China.

Secondly, "counties and prefectures in the Northern Han Dynasty continued to surrender."

Many times, these "guides" who welcome the royal army with food and drink and complain about the debauchery and tyranny of their country's monarchs may not be the true people's will. For example, when the previous article talked about the civil war in Southern Chu, Ma Xiguang of Tanzhou sent troops to attack Ma Xi'e of Langzhou. The people of Langzhou also lined the streets to welcome the Tanzhou soldiers. However, these people were all extras and spies arranged by Ma Xi'e. They played the role of Wang Erxiao and eventually led the royal army of Tanzhou into an ambush.

Compared with the recognition of ordinary people, the surrender of the county city of Beihanzhou moved Chai Rong more.

In March of the first year of Xian De (954), Chai Rong led Shi Yanchao as the vanguard and marched north from Luzhou; Wang Yanchao and Han Tong were in charge of the western line and marched out of Yindi Pass; Liu Ci and Bai Chongzan escorted the emperor, and Chai Rong personally led the main force to follow.

In early April, Wang Yanchao and Fu Yanqing joined forces to besiege Fenzhou. The generals were eager to seize the credit of "reaching Taiyuan first" and suggested attacking the city immediately. However, Wang Yanchao believed that the morale of the Hedong defenders had collapsed and they had no fighting spirit. If they attacked hastily, they would surely become desperate and suffer the loss of our elite soldiers. It would be better to surround the city without attacking, giving the defenders time to become fearful. He believed that within a day, the defenders would surrender.

As expected, the next day, Fenzhou Defense Commander Dong Xiyan opened the city and surrendered.

In less than a month after the Later Zhou Dynasty moved north, the news of victory continued to come in:
Yu County surrendered;

Dong Xiyan, the defender of Fenzhou, opened the city and surrendered;
Zhang Hanchao, the governor of Liaozhou, opened the city and surrendered;
Han Guang, the governor of Xianzhou, was willing to open the city and surrender;
Lanzhou Governor Guo Yan opened the city and surrendered;
They conquered Shizhou and captured the governor An Yanjin alive;
Li Tinghui, the governor of Qinzhou, opened the city and surrendered;
Xinzhou military supervisor Li Xing killed the governor Zhao Gao and the Khitan garrison commanders, and opened the city to surrender...

In May, Chai Rong personally led his troops to the city of Taiyuan, and Zheng Chuqian, the defense envoy of Daizhou, surrendered the city.

Chai Rong issued an edict to promote Daizhou to a military governorship and set up the "Jingsai Army", with Comrade Zheng Chuqian as the governor of the Jingsai Army of Daizhou; he beheaded the former Shizhou governor An Yanjin under the city of Taiyuan as a public display, "because he resisted the royal army"; he sent Fu Yanqing, Guo Congyi, Xiang Xun, Bai Chongzan, Shi Yanchao and others to lead an army of more than 10,000 to Xinzhou.

Among a series of victories, only Shizhou did not surrender in time, but put up a little resistance, so Chai Rong beheaded it. According to convention, those who surrendered would usually be promoted to higher positions to reward their knowledge of current affairs, such as Zheng Chuqian, who was promoted from defense envoy to Jiedushi. However, Chai Rong's attitude towards Xinzhou was obviously different from that of other prefectures and counties. He not only sent more than 10,000 elite troops, but also concentrated Fu Yanqing, Xiang Xun and other brave generals. So why did Chai Rong attach so much importance to Xinzhou?
To the west of Taiyuan, the four states of Lan, Xian, Shi, and Fen were connected from north to south. The northernmost Lanzhou was connected to Khitan in the north, Fuzhou in the west, and Xinzhou in the east. At that time, Fuzhou was under the control of Zhe Dejian, the son of Zhe Congyuan. Zhe Dejian was loyal to the Central Plains Dynasty and maintained a hostile state with the Northern Han Dynasty from beginning to end. When the Later Zhou took over these four states, it completed the semi-encirclement of Taiyuan from the west and south.
Daizhou was the northern gate of the Northern Han regime, directly bordering the "Sixteen Prefectures of Youyun" controlled by the Khitan, and was an important hub for the Northern Han to collude with the Khitan; Xinzhou was located between Daizhou and Taiyuan, and was an important strategic buffer zone and supply transit station. The surrender of Daizhou and Xinzhou meant that the Later Zhou not only completed the encirclement of the north of Taiyuan, but also cut off the connection between the Northern Han and the Khitan;
As for the east of Taiyuan, it is the majestic and long Taihang Mountains, which have always been controlled by the Later Zhou Dynasty. In other words, within less than a month after Chai Rong's Northern Expedition, he had occupied half of the Northern Han Dynasty and completed the strategic encirclement of Taiyuan.

Originally, the Northern Han was about to be wiped out in a team battle on the river (Gaoping). Chai Rong only wanted to take the opportunity to push the tower, steal the dragon, and counter-jungle, so as to create continuous pressure on the Northern Han and expand the results of the battle. However, he did not expect that not only did he clear all the opponent's wild monsters, but he also pushed down the highland towers and the crystal in all three lanes.

Therefore, Chai Rong immediately adjusted his strategic plan and considered conquering Taiyuan and destroying the Northern Han in one fell swoop.

However, if one wants to destroy the Northern Han, the most difficult problem is not the Northern Han’s struggle, but the godfather behind the Northern Han - the Khitan.

"Maintaining the status quo" is the biggest interest of the Khitan. The Khitan has benefited from the troubles in the Central Plains for a long time. The unification of the Central Plains is what they least want to see. Whether it is the Later Zhou Dynasty destroying the Northern Han Dynasty or the Northern Han Dynasty destroying the Later Zhou Dynasty, from a macro perspective, it will weaken the influence of the Khitan on the Central Plains. Only when the two sides fight against each other will they become dependent on the grassland hegemon, and the Khitan can reap the benefits.

Needless to say, the Northern Han Dynasty, which paid tribute to the Khitan, naturally paid tribute to the Khitan. Even the Central Plains dynasty had to do its best to please the Khitan in exchange for a relatively stable external environment.

Now, the Later Zhou Dynasty has a strong momentum to unify the north, and the Northern Han Dynasty is in danger. This hurts the fundamental interests of the Khitan. Therefore, this time the Khitan will definitely change its previous perfunctory attitude of working but not contributing, and will do its best to resist the Zhou Dynasty and aid the Han Dynasty.

Therefore, Daizhou and Xinzhou were the key battlefields of the "Battle of Taiyuan". If one wanted to take over Taiyuan, one had to keep the Khitans out of Daizhou and Xinzhou. Once the two states were lost, the "Battle of Taiyuan" would evolve into the "Battle between Zhou and Liao".

Neither the Later Zhou Dynasty nor the Khitan were prepared for such a large-scale war, so the success or failure of Daizhou and Xinzhou would become the end of the "Battle of Gaoping".

Chai Rong was very clear about the significance of Daizhou and Xinzhou, so he sent elite troops and generals to garrison in Xinzhou.

Great minds think alike. The Khitan side also attached great importance to Daizhou and Xinzhou, and sent Yelu Dilu to assist the Northern Han, and also sent the Southern Court King Yelu Talie to help.

Since Daizhou, further north, was the transportation bottleneck between Northern Han and Khitan, why didn't Chai Rong send troops to Daizhou, but instead chose to station troops in Xinzhou?

This is because there is still Khitan military force between Xinzhou and Daizhou.

There were Khitan garrisons in important towns of the Northern Han Dynasty, just like the Lighthouse Kingdom had garrisons in Korea and Japan. In name, they were helping the Northern Han regime to look after the situation, but in reality they were supervising and plundering the Northern Han Dynasty.

As early as when Yelu Dilu retreated from Gaoping, he suspected that Zheng Chuqian, the defense envoy of Daizhou, was weak in his will and was suspected of "defecting to Zhou". So he sent Khitan cavalry to take over the city gate of Daizhou, and invited Zheng Chuqian to come for discussion. He set up a Hongmen Banquet for him and prepared to capture and kill him.

Yelu Dilu's taking over the city gate greatly stimulated Zheng Chuqian, and the old routine of the "Hongmen Banquet" was even more of a show. So Zheng Chuqian took the opportunity to "mutiny", took the initiative, killed the Khitan soldiers stationed, took back control of the city gate, refused Yelu Dilu to enter the city, and sent people to contact the Later Zhou to express his willingness to surrender.

Yelu Dilu had no choice but to lead thousands of homeless Khitan cavalrymen to wander between Xinzhou and Daizhou, and reported to the Khitan court, so the Khitan sent the King of the Southern Court, Yelu Tale.

In other words, although Daizhou surrendered to the Later Zhou, the Later Zhou was not yet able to actually take over Daizhou. The Later Zhou had to take over Xinzhou first, and then defeat Yelu Dilu between Xinzhou and Daizhou, before it could open up the connection with Daizhou. Yelu Dilu, who had thousands of Khitan cavalry under his command, was no joke.

Later Zhou general Fu Yanqing led more than 10,000 infantry and cavalry out of Xinzhou and headed north to drive out Yelu Dilu. Yelu Dilu avoided the enemy's attack and retreated to Xinkou Village.

(End of this chapter)