History of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms

Chapter 805: Battle of Zhengyang (Part )

【Battle of Zhengyang】

In November of the second year of Xiande of the Later Zhou Dynasty (955), good news came from all three fronts.

Northern Route: Luzhou reported that the rebel army of Hedong (Northern Han) was defeated in Qi County; Xingzhou reported that Liu Chong of Hedong was dead.

Western Route: Wang Jingzou, Commander-in-Chief of the Southwestern Front Army, recovered Fengzhou. At this point, the four states of Qin, Feng, Cheng and Jie were all recovered. Hou Shu begged for peace, and the "Qin-Feng War" ended.

South Route: Li Gu on the Huainan front reported that the vanguard commander Bai Yanyu defeated the Huai bandits in Laiyuan Town.

In December, Chai Rong received two consecutive reports of victory from the front line: 12 Huai bandits were defeated at the foot of Shouzhou city; and more than Huai bandits were defeated in Shankou town.

The people of Central Plains welcomed the festive and peaceful Spring Festival in joy of victory.

On the first day of the first lunar month in the third year of Xian De (956), Chai Rong refused to receive congratulations. Although he was excited, he was still engaged in a brutal war, and generally speaking, the emperor would not accept congratulations when there was a war, natural disasters, or the empress dowager was seriously ill.

On the third day of the first lunar month, good news came from the front line: the Huai bandits were defeated in Shangyao.

After a series of victories, the Later Zhou army was unstoppable. Chai Rong was in high spirits and issued an edict: On the eighth day of the first lunar month, I will lead the army in person!
At the beginning of the war, the successor of the Southern Tang Dynasty to Shouzhou Jiedushi was the famous general Liu Renzhan (also known as Liu Renshan). Liu Renzhan's father was Liu Jin, a veteran of the Huainan Group and one of Yang Xingmi's "36 Heroes". Liu Renzhan's brother Liu Rengui was happy to marry Yang Xingmi's daughter.

When Wu Tingshao, the military supervisor of Shouzhou, petitioned to dismiss the "Baqian", Liu Renzhan hurriedly wrote a petition to dissuade him. Although Liu Renzhan was of good family background, in Li Jing's eyes, he was a military governor, a warlord of a vassal state, a local power, and a group of warriors, while Wu Tingshao was a military supervisor and "one of his own". So Li Jing chose to believe Wu Tingshao without hesitation and dismissed the "Yuan Huai Baqian soldiers". Liu Renzhan was deeply distressed about this, but he could do nothing about it.

When the Later Zhou officially declared war on Huainan in November, the soldiers and civilians in Huainan were caught off guard and panicked. Only Liu Renzhan remained calm and commanded the troops in an orderly manner. As a result, the morale of the army in Shouzhou gradually stabilized. Liu Renzhan had expected this day and had made corresponding preparations.

When Li Jing got the news that the Later Zhou Dynasty had really marched south, he immediately thought of Liu Yanzhen. "Brother, I wronged you. The wolf is really coming."

Let's look at Li Jing's response: he appointed Liu Yanzhen as the commander (the commander of the northern camp) and led an army of 20,000 to station in Shouzhou; he appointed Huangfu Hui as the commander-in-chief of the reinforcements (the relief envoy) and Yao Feng as the military supervisor of the reinforcements (the chief supervisor of the relief), and led 30,000 troops to station in Dingyuan County, Haozhou; he summoned Song Qiuqiu to the court to discuss national crisis.

Haozhou is located east of Shouzhou and is also an important town along the Huai River. Going upstream to the west can support Shouzhou, and going north can threaten Suzhou and Xuzhou, and it can also prevent the Later Zhou from making a feint to the east and attacking from the west, and launching a surprise attack from the lower reaches of the Huai River. So Li Jing sent Liu Yanzhen to lead 20,000 people to Shouzhou, but sent 30,000 people to Haozhou.

As for summoning Song Qiuqiu to the court, needless to say, this old fox, who is shrewd, insidious and cunning, can still make use of his remaining energy at this time.

Due to the strategic misjudgment of the Southern Tang in the early days, the vanguard troops of the Later Zhou Dynasty quickly advanced to the city of Shouzhou. Li Gu of the Later Zhou Dynasty built a floating bridge in Zhengyang Town. Zhengyang Town, today's Zhengyang Town in Shou County, Anhui Province, was also part of Shouzhou at that time. It was located between Shouzhou and Yingzhou, sandwiched between the Huai River and was an important strategic location. When Zhu Wen conquered the Huai River and failed to capture Shouzhou, he retreated from Zhengyang to Huaibei.

After the battle started, Wuyue sent envoys to pay tribute to the Later Zhou and wish Chai Rong a happy new year. Chai Rong took the opportunity to issue an edict to Qian Hongchu of Wuyue: to cooperate with the king's army to attack Southern Tang, and instructed Wuyue to attack from multiple directions. Wuyue did not dare to neglect it and sent troops to attack Southern Tang that month (December 955).

Obviously, this was the implementation of Wang Pu's strategic policy, which was to launch harassing attacks from multiple directions along a 2,000-mile-long battle line, so as to make the Southern Tang exhausted, consume its strength, expose its weaknesses, and wait for an opportunity to encircle and attack its reinforcements.

On the sixth day of the first lunar month in 956, Chai Rong appointed Xiang Xun as the governor of Bianzhou, Wang Pu as the deputy governor, and Han Tong as the commander-in-chief of the capital garrison. He also appointed Li Chongjin as the vanguard to station at Zhengyang Floating Bridge first, and Bai Chongzan led an army of to station at Yingshang County, Yingzhou, as the defense depth of Zhengyang Town. On the eighth day of the first lunar month, Chai Rong personally led the main army to Shouzhou.

On the Shouzhou front, although Li Gu advanced to the outskirts of Shouzhou city, the defense of Shouzhou city was strong, which was a tough nut that even Zhu Wen could not chew. In addition, the famous general Liu Renzhan was in command, so Li Gu was unable to capture the city after a long siege.

At this time, Huai general Liu Yanzhen led 20,000 reinforcements into the battle.

When Liu Yanzhen entered Laiyuan Town, he first dispatched hundreds of warships to rush straight to Zhengyang Floating Bridge along the Huai River. According to records, Liu Yanzhen's attack was fierce, "with chariots and flags stretching for hundreds of miles, and warships following closely and covering the Huai River."

The army stretched for hundreds of miles, and the surface ships could fill the Huai River. This frightened Li Gu, who hurriedly summoned all the generals, saying that our army lacked surface forces. If the pontoon bridge was cut off by the enemy army, we would be caught in a dilemma and attacked from both sides. At that time, I am afraid that no one would be able to leave Huainan alive. It is better to save the Zhengyang pontoon bridge first and wait for the emperor to come.

Therefore, Li Gu urgently lifted the siege of Shouzhou, and the whole army burned the camp and retreated to Zhengyang. The retreat soon turned into a rout, not only did they lose a lot of military supplies, but some soldiers took the opportunity to escape, and many laborers recruited from the rear were also captured by the enemy.

As soon as Chai Rong left Bianzhou, he received the news that Li Gu had withdrawn from Shouzhou. He was furious and immediately sent people to stop the attack. However, when the messenger arrived at the front line, it was too late. Chai Rong immediately ordered Li Chongjin to speed up and gave combat instructions: the Tang army is coming, we should attack them quickly.

However, four days later, Chai Rong received Li Gu's latest report:
"The enemy's ships are sailing in the middle of the Huai River, out of our range. If the floating bridge is lost, the morale of the army will be shaken, which is extremely disadvantageous to our army. That's why I retreated to the floating bridge. Now, the enemy's ships are gathering more and more, and the water level of the Huai River is rising day by day. Our army is quite passive. If the emperor comes here, if the enemy cuts off the supply line, the consequences will be disastrous.

Therefore, I ask Your Majesty not to come in a hurry. Let's stay near Chenzhou and Xuzhou now. When Li Chong comes in, I will discuss with him the strategy to deal with the pirate ship and study the plan to preserve the floating bridge. Then I will report to Your Majesty, and Your Majesty will make the final decision.

If we can't come up with a good countermeasure, we can just slowly waste time, as spring turns to winter, as flowers bloom and fall, until the enemy becomes tired and lax, which may be a good thing for us."

After reading this, Chai Rong was almost furious. Civil servants are civil servants after all, and sometimes they are too calculating and too rational, which makes them timid and hesitant.

Just when it seemed that Chai Rong had lost his initial advantage and was on the verge of collapse, the enemy army provided timely assistance and helped our army stabilize its advantage.

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(End of this chapter)