History of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms

Chapter 806: Battle of Zhengyang (Part )

After Liu Yanzhen scared Li Gu away, he immediately developed a mysterious confidence in his reputation. Liu Yanzhen had a conceited gene because his father was Liu Xin, who compared himself to Han Xin.

According to historical records, Liu Yanzhen was a descendant of a general and was proficient in archery, earning him the nickname "Liu Yijian". However, he was brave but not wise, and was not capable of standing on his own (he was arrogant, had no talent, and was not familiar with military skills). Nevertheless, he was a "famous general" renowned in the Southern Tang Dynasty at that time.

First, it was because of his background, the son of the famous general Liu Xin; second, he bribed the powerful with a lot of money, and the "Four Evils and Five Demons" vied to praise him, saying that he governed the people like Gong and Huang (Gong Sui and Huang Ba, good officials of the Han Dynasty) and used troops like Han and Peng (Han Xin and Peng Yue, good generals of the Han Dynasty), and praised him as the living Great Wall of the Southern Tang; third, he predicted the massive invasion of the Later Zhou Dynasty several years in advance when he was in Shouzhou...

In short, one dared to say it, and the other dared to believe it. Li Jing really believed that Liu Yanzhen was the best general of the dynasty, "so when Zhou's army arrived, the Tang emperor first used him."

Seeing Li Gu fleeing, Liu Yanzhen summoned all the generals and said that the Later Zhou army was no better than this. They burned their camp and retreated without seeing me or hearing my voice. They were extremely cowardly! Now is the time to pursue the victory and not give the enemy a chance to breathe!

Liu Yanzhen's deputy generals, such as Xian Shilang, were also brave but not wise. When they heard the thought-provoking speech of Comrade Liu Yanzhen, the top general and their immediate superior of the dynasty, they immediately liked and forwarded it, and regarded it as a wise saying.

So Liu Yanzhen ordered a hasty pursuit. How urgent was it? "Before breakfast, they ordered the advance." The soldiers did not even have breakfast and rushed to Zhengyang on an empty stomach.

Shouzhou Jiedushi Liu Renzhan and Chizhou Governor Zhang Quanyue tried to stop them. Liu Renzhan was very careful with his words and tried to say something that Liu Yanzhen would like to hear, "The enemy was scared away just after you arrived, which means they are afraid of your reputation. If that's the case, why bother seeking a quick battle? You can just stay here and scare them to death sooner or later. If you fight a quick battle and fail, wouldn't that be a miscalculation?"

Liu Yanzhen was unmoved. Humph, you just want to share my credit? No way, you stay here and watch me take the credit alone!
If you don't want to hear nice things, then say something unpleasant.

Liu Renzhan said: "If you retreat without fighting, there must be an ambush. If you blindly pursue, you will definitely be defeated!"

Zhang Quanyue also said: "If the enemy retreats before the battle, we should not pursue them."

Liu Yanzhen was furious. Liu Renzhan was at least my equal. How dare you, a mere provincial governor, teach me a lesson? You are so disrespectful and courting death. "How did you know the enemy had an ambush? Anyone who dares to spread rumors and confuse the people and disrupt our army's morale will be killed!"

Liu Renzhan looked at Liu Yanzhen's receding back and could only sigh that good words could not change the damned ghost, "If we meet him again, we will surely lose!" He then increased the number of soldiers on alert and guard on the city wall, and prepared to gather the remnants of Liu Yanzhen and resist the Later Zhou army that was taking advantage of the victory to attack the city.

Liu Renzhan was the real famous general of Southern Tang. He was very foresighted and always made preparations for the next step in advance.

Chai Rong was very good at predicting things. When Li Gu reported that he was retreating to Zhengyang, Chai Rong made a prediction and accurately simulated the war game: if I retreat, the enemy will chase me. So he immediately urged Li Chongjin to go to Zhengyang to assist Li Gu in defending, and gave combat instructions, saying that if the Tang soldiers chased him, don't hesitate, go up and fight!
Now, everything was going according to Chai Rong's script. Liu Yanzhen arrived, and Li Chongjin also arrived. On January 956, 17, the two sides met east of Zhengyang Town.

Liu Yanzhen immediately deployed the battle array: sharp knives were inserted into the caltrops, which were arranged in a row and connected with iron chains; hideous monsters with bared fangs and claws were carved out of wood, and they were made to wave swords, draw bows and shoot crossbows, and were placed in front of the battle array; caltrops were wrapped in leather and placed all over the battle array.

Seeing this, the morale of the Later Zhou soldiers doubled. Because the enemy was not in an offensive posture, but a defensive posture. The chevaux de frise, "Jie Ma Pai", and iron caltrops, it seems that the Huainan people really have "horse phobia". They are not good at cavalry warfare, and their fear of cavalry has reached an extreme.

Li Chongjin was even more impressed with Chai Rong's judgment, so he ordered an attack.

The historical records describe the battle in four words: "One blow defeated them."

The Later Zhou Dynasty won a great victory. The main general of Huainan, Liu Yanzhen, was killed, the deputy general Xian Shilang was captured alive, more than 3,000 soldiers surrendered, and more than 10,000 remaining soldiers were killed. The corpses were scattered for 30 miles, and more than 300,000 weapons and supplies were confiscated.

Huangfu Hui and Yao Feng retreated to Qingliu Pass in Chuzhou. Huangfu Hui and others were originally in Haozhou, and Chuzhou was located south of Haozhou, between Haozhou and Shengzhou. In other words, the mobile forces that were supposed to support Shouzhou directly abandoned the first line of defense and retreated into the hinterland of Huainan.

Only Zhang Quanyue gathered the remaining defeated troops and retreated to Shouzhou. Liu Renzhan recommended Zhang Quanyue as the commander-in-chief of the left wing.

Although the specific process of the Zhengyang Battle was very brief, with only four words "defeated in one blow", its impact was far-reaching.

Lu You pointed out in "History of Southern Tang": "Southern Tang lost thousands of miles of territory and almost perished. Its defeat began with Yan Zhen."

The "Spring and Autumn Annals of the Ten Kingdoms" also states: "Huainan lost a thousand miles of territory. Its defeat actually started with Yan Zhen."

Liu Yanzhen's crime was too great. It was more than just a victory in a battle. Later generations generally believed that Liu Yanzhen's defeat in Zhengyang started the countdown to the fall of the Southern Tang Dynasty and pushed down the first domino. This infamy is something Liu Yanzhen cannot bear, and it is also worth discussing. Regardless of the various loopholes in Li Jing's court, even if the fall of the Southern Tang Dynasty was 100% due to this "Zhengyang Battle", should Liu Yanzhen bear 100% of the responsibility?
To put it another way, when Ma Su lost Jieting, Zhuge Liang demoted himself by three ranks, citing the misapplication of personnel. Liu Yanzhen certainly had to bear some responsibility, but not all of it. Li Jing also had to bear the responsibility of misapplication of personnel and misselection of personnel.

The historians in the Jianghuai region threw all the dirty water on Liu Yanzhen, which was really unfair. After all, Liu Yanzhen died for his country, refused to surrender, refused to flee, and died on the battlefield.

His sacrifice did not earn the forgiveness of the Huainan people. The Huainan people did not promote him as a hero, and the final verdict on him was "he deserved it" (Yanzhen's teacher was Zhengyang, so he deserved it). It was not until two years later that he was posthumously awarded the title of Zhongshu Ling and the posthumous title of "Zhuang", but his descendants never enjoyed the treatment of the children of martyrs (his orphan was no longer recorded).

The front line suffered a disastrous defeat, and Chai Rong led the army in person. Li Jing could no longer sit still, so he planned to lead the army in person as well, with soldiers against soldiers, generals against generals, and emperor against emperor.

Li Jing convened a meeting in front of the emperor and announced that he would lead the army personally to confront Chai Rong. What did the ministers think?

Zhongshu Sheren Qiao Kuangshun gave strong advice and remonstrance.

Qiao Kuangshun was proficient in writing. Before Xu Zhigao usurped the throne, he was appointed as the official in charge of the Secretariat, which was roughly equivalent to today's newspaper editor. After Xu Zhigao became emperor, Song Qiqiu appointed him as his staff. Being able to be Song Qiqiu's staff should generally mean a bright future. However, Song Qiqiu secretly formed cliques and engaged in small group politics, so ability was put aside first, and loyalty to Song Qiqiu was the first priority. An important criterion for testing loyalty is the degree of flattery to Song Qiqiu. The more you flatter, the more it means you are "one of us".

Qiao Kuangshun was upright and never flattered or fawned on Song Qiuqiu. Therefore, although Song Qiuqiu admired his talents, he never recommended him to Xu Zhigao.

Good wine needs no bush. Xu Zhigao knew Qiao Kuangshun's name through other channels. He was not willing to poach Qiao Kuangshun directly because of Song Qiuqiu's face, so he always looked for opportunities to make indirect suggestions and issued an edict asking the officials to recommend talents regardless of their background, and those who may not have high emotional intelligence and do not understand the ways of the world, but are outstanding in talent and work ability. "Qiqiu, please recommend Kuangshun."

Song Qiuqiu was really good at pretending to be confused. Since Your Majesty did not mention any names, I'm sorry, I really don't understand. So he submitted a petition to recommend others, but did not mention Qiao Kuangshun at all.

Faced with Song Qiuqiu's deafness and dumbness, Xu Zhigao was angry and helpless, and sighed to Chang Mengxi: "I didn't expect Song Qiuqiu to be so reluctant to part with Qiao Kuangshun!"

Chang Mengxi, Xiao Yan, Han Xizai and others had always been at odds with Song Qiuqiu and disliked his personality, so they warned him not to always suppress Qiao Kuangshun, as the emperor was unhappy.

Song Qiqiu refused to give in to any persuasion and just kept pressing Qiao Kuangshun. In the workplace, being suppressed by a top boss like this, Qiao Kuangshun had no chance of making a breakthrough.

It was not until Song Qiuqiu was exiled to Hongzhou that he recommended Qiao Kuangshun as the secretary of Hongzhou Jiedushi.

After Li Jing ascended the throne, he summoned Qiao Kuangshun to the court and promoted him to the positions of Langzhong of the Imperial Guards and Zhizhigao and Zhongshu Sheren.

Now Li Jing proposed to personally lead an expedition to resist Zhou, and the upright Qiao Kuangshun made a strong appeal, which angered Li Jing. Li Jing accused Qiao Kuangshun of "frustrating state affairs and stirring up people's hearts" and exiled him to Fuzhou.

Afterwards, Li Jing asked the opinions of the commanders of the imperial guards, Zhu Kuangye and Liu Cunzhong.

Zhu Kuangye shook his head and recited a poem by Luo Yin, a talented scholar from the south of the Yangtze River:
"When times come, heaven and earth all work together to transport heroes without freedom."

The general idea is that when the wind is blowing, even pigs can fly; when you are unlucky, even gods can do nothing. In a word, your majesty is in trouble.

Li Jing was furious, "Liu Cunzhong, what do you think?"

"Your Majesty, Zhu Kuangye is right."

Zhu Kuangye was demoted to deputy envoy of Fuzhou and Liu Cunzhong was exiled to Raozhou.

However, Li Jing was still self-aware despite being angry. He only hoped that his ministers would give advice in a tactful way instead of being so blunt. Without the "stumbling blocks" of Qiao Kuangshun, Zhu Kuangye, and Liu Cunzhong, Li Jing's plan to lead the expedition in person was cancelled.

(End of this chapter)