History of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms

Chapter 817: The Battle of Chuzhou

[The Battle of Chuzhou among the Three Major Campaigns of the Huai River Campaign]

The attitude depends on the performance on the battlefield. In order to fill the military vacuum on the eastern front, Chai Rong dispatched troops and sent Li Chongjin, the commander-in-chief of the imperial guards, as the commander-in-chief of Luzhou and Shouzhou, Hou Zhang as the commander-in-chief under Shouzhou, and Wu Xingde, the governor of Xuzhou Wuning Army, as the commander-in-chief under Haozhou. Subsequently, Chai Rong set out from Shouzhou, went east along the Huai River, and arrived in Haozhou.

At the same time, Southern Tang general Lu Mengjun set out from Changzhou and led more than 10,000 people to attack Taizhou. The Zhou army abandoned the city and fled, and Southern Tang recaptured Taizhou.
Afterwards, Lu Mengjun sent Chen Decheng to garrison Taizhou, while he led his troops to attack Yangzhou. Lu Mengjun led his troops to station in Shugang, a strategic location in the north of Yangzhou and the throat of the northern troops entering and leaving Yangzhou. Seeing that his retreat was about to be cut off, Zhou general Han Lingkun in Yangzhou abandoned the city and returned north, and Yangzhou was recaptured by Lu Mengjun.

Upon hearing the news, Chai Rong was furious and immediately sent the commander-in-chief of the palace, Zhang Yongde, to lead his personal soldiers to Yangzhou to help Han Lingkun stabilize the situation. He also sent Zhao Kuangyin to lead 2,000 men to garrison in Liuhe County.

Liuhe County was under the jurisdiction of Yangzhou, 130 miles northwest of Yangzhou, and was the throat of the Later Zhou army entering and leaving Yangzhou. Zhao Kuangyin stationed troops here to protect our army's retreat and to support the front troops.

Zhao Kuangyin was fully aware of Chai Rong's good intentions. After leading his troops to Liuhe County, he immediately issued a military order: Any soldier from Yangzhou who passes through Liuhe will have his feet broken!
In a word, there is only advancement and no retreat. If you dare to run away, I will break your legs!

The history books say, "To return northwest from Yangzhou, one must pass through Liuhe, so it is said so."

After hearing Zhao Kuangyin's order, Han Lingkun dared not retreat anymore and had to bite the bullet and attack Yangzhou again.

If you advance, you will be considered a martyr if you die; if you retreat, you will be considered a traitor if you die, and a lame traitor at that. If you wait to die, you will die with the country.

Han Lingkun and Zhang Yongde fought hard and defeated the Southern Tang army, capturing Lu Mengjun alive.

Lu Mengjun first recaptured Changzhou with Chai Kehong, and then recaptured Taizhou and Yangzhou alone. He became famous overnight and became a famous general of Southern Tang. Now that he has been captured, he is naturally a high-level prisoner with great value. He should have been sent to Haozhou to report his merits and ask for rewards. However, Han Lingkun killed him without authorization, and the reason was that he was furious for a beautiful woman.

Not long ago, Han Lingkun conquered Yangzhou. Ma Xichong, who lived in Yangzhou, gave Han Lingkun a beautiful woman. Han Lingkun liked this beautiful woman very much and loved her very much.

When Han Lingkun regained control of Yangzhou, the concubine suddenly burst into tears.

Han Lingkun asked her the reason.

It turned out that during the civil strife in Southern Chu, the Southern Tang general Lu Mengjun took advantage of the chaos to massacre the family of Yang Zhaoyun, the former governor of Shuzhou, almost wiping out the entire Yang family and looting all their property.

The concubine said that she was the daughter of Yang Zhaoyun and the only survivor of the disaster in Tanzhou. Now she saw the enemy who wiped out her family, so she burst into tears.

How many men would get angry for a beautiful woman. Han Lingkun immediately disregarded the military order and military discipline, and with one order, Lu Mengjun was beheaded.

According to the "Old History of the Five Dynasties", Yang Zhaoyun was a native of Tanzhou. He was first the governor of Shuzhou and later the governor of Hengzhou. He had long-term collusion with the powerful group in Southern Chu. He was very well-connected and had a great background. He was one of the most powerful men in the world at that time. He used his power to compete with the people for profit. He was the richest man in Tanzhou at that time and built a luxurious villa in Tanzhou. His two sons were also generals of the Ya Nei. Let's put it this way, they were the second generation of rich people with military power. They were arrogant and domineering at ordinary times, bullying men and women. Not to mention the common people, even the literati avoided them. They couldn't afford to offend them.

When Ma Xi'e and Ma Xi Chong were killing each other, the Southern Tang sent troops to intervene. During this period, a mutiny broke out in Tanzhou. In the chaos, someone instigated Lu Mengjun to take justice for the heavens. After learning about the bullying behavior of the Yang family father and son, Lu Mengjun was extremely angry and said that the Yang family was abusing their power and harming the country and the people, and they should have died long ago! So he exterminated the Yang family and robbed the richest man in Tanzhou.

One of Yang Zhaoyun's daughters was so beautiful that the rebel soldiers could not bear to kill her, so they gave her to Ma Xichong. After Southern Chu was destroyed by Southern Tang, Ma Xichong moved to Southern Tang with her and was settled in Yangzhou. It was not until Han Lingkun took over Yangzhou not long ago that Ma Xichong gave her to Han Lingkun again.

This is the cause and effect of Lu Mengjun's extermination of Yang Zhaoyun.

After Lu Mengjun was killed, Li Jingda approached Liuhe County and set up camp only 20 miles away from Liuhe.

Zhao Kuangyin's generals requested to attack, but Zhao Kuangyin rejected the request. Zhao Kuangyin said that they were afraid of us because they didn't know that we only had 2,000 people and they had tens of thousands. If we attacked, they would know that we were outnumbered. So we should just pretend to attack and wait for them to tire themselves out.

Sure enough, a few days later, the Southern Tang soldiers were the first to lose their seat and gave up the defensive advantages of their camps, taking the initiative to come forward to challenge.

The Battle of Liuhe was Zhao Kuangyin's highlight, with 2,000 men fighting against tens of thousands. The result was a great victory for Zhao Kuangyin, who captured and killed 5,000 men. The remaining 10,000-plus Southern Tang soldiers fled in extreme fear, and countless people killed each other or fell into the water while fighting for the ferry on the Yangtze River.

This battle dealt a heavy blow to the Southern Tang.

The first was a physical blow. Historical records record that "the elite troops of the Tang Dynasty were wiped out". From then on, the elite troops of the Southern Tang Dynasty were almost wiped out. The remaining ones were either old, weak, sick or disabled, or had their own ulterior motives. They all became frightened birds and were terrified of the Later Zhou Dynasty.

The second was psychological breakdown. At the beginning of the war, the famous general Liu Yanzhen, who was regarded as the "Great Wall", was killed; in the Battle of Changzhou, two new stars emerged - Chai Kehong and Lu Mengjun, one died before arriving, and the other was captured and beheaded; the emperor's younger brother Li Jingda, who was the focus of everyone's attention, had just taken command, but tens of thousands of people were slaughtered by only two thousand Zhou soldiers...

Finally, it was detrimental to the international image. Yangzhou was to Huainan what Chang'an and Luoyang were to the Central Plains. It was the second core of the Southern Tang Dynasty and the old revolutionary base of the Huainan forces. The fact that it was so easily occupied by the Later Zhou Dynasty made the Southern Tang Dynasty lose face in the international community and its international status plummeted.

However, Li Jingda cannot be blamed for the Battle of Liuhe. The previous article detailed the thrilling process of Li Jing's ascension to the throne. Li Jingda was the one who almost ascended the throne. Li Jing was suspicious of him from the bottom of his heart and would rather trust Chen Jue than Li Jingda. The reason why Li Jingda was sent to lead the war was just to use his prestige.

According to historical records, although Li Jingda was titled Marshal, all military affairs were decided by the military supervisor Chen Jue, and Li Jingda was only responsible for signing the documents (all military and political affairs were decided by Jue, and Jingda just signed the end of the documents and made the final decision).

Although Li Jingda had no intention of usurping the throne, he sincerely hoped that the country would be on the right track, and he especially couldn't stand the ugly faces of the "Four Evils and Five Demons". Previously, Li Jing held an internal banquet, and the "Four Evils and Five Demons" party members shouted and yelled at the table without any rules or etiquette, but Li Jing laughed and responded to them, not feeling it was inappropriate. Li Jingda couldn't stand it anymore, so he stepped forward and reprimanded them, and advised Li Jing to stay away from treacherous villains. Li Jing was very unhappy.

Another time, Feng Yanji got drunk and tried to get close to Li Jingda, and even put his arm around his shoulders. Li Jingda was so angry that he pushed him away, and then ran to Li Jing, insisting that Li Jing kill Feng Yanji. Li Jing tried to comfort him with kind words for a long time before finally persuading Li Jingda to leave.

This time, Li Jing asked Chen Jue to supervise Li Jingda, and his real intention was clear. So when Han Xizai asked the soul-searching question, "Does the emperor's brother still need a supervisor?", he didn't know whether the question itself was ridiculous or the answer was ridiculous. Not all the soldiers of the Later Zhou Dynasty were made of steel. Faced with such a huge disparity between the enemy and us, some soldiers were inevitably cowardly. Zhao Kuangyin personally supervised the battle. Anyone who showed fear and retreat, Zhao Kuangyin would chop his helmet (leather hat) with a sword to mark it, and then review the troops the next day. Anyone with a mark on his hat was pulled out of the queue and beheaded as a warning to the public.

Zhao Kuangyin had a profound understanding of Chai Rong's "Gaoping Spirit" and actively implemented it. If anyone dared to cross the Liuhe River, his feet would be broken; if anyone retreated in battle, his head would be chopped off.

The Battle of Yangzhou-Liuhe was the clarion call for Li Jing's counterattack after his great victory in Changzhou, and it was also a turning point in the Huainan battlefield. Therefore, Li Jing attached great importance to this battle. He not only sent Lu Mengjun and Li Jingda, but also ordered all nearby garrisons to participate.

Soon, Han Lingkun defeated more than 15 reinforcements from Chuzhou at Wantou Weir, miles north of Yangzhou City, and captured Qin Jinchong, the governor of Lianzhou, alive. Lianzhou was originally Lianshui County, which was upgraded from a county to a prefecture during the Southern Tang Dynasty. In today's terms, it is a county-level city. Zhang Yongde defeated more than reinforcements from Sizhou at Quxi Weir.

At this point, the direction of the turning point was clear. Nan Tang did not bottom out and rebound, but instead encountered a larger-scale sell-off after a brief pull-up to absorb funds. Li Jing was hit hard and was pressed against the limit down board.

At the same time, on the Shouzhou battlefield, Chen Yanzhen and 13 other Southern Tang generals surrendered to the Later Zhou.

If he is not beaten till his face is covered with bruises, he will not know why the flowers are so red. Chai Rong had no intention of stopping, and appointed Xiang Xun as the governor of Huainan and the commander of the Huai River, and led his troops to station in Yangzhou.

According to convention, the post of "Yangzhou Huainan Jiedushi" should be held by Han Lingkun, who conquered Yangzhou. However, Han Lingkun had the intention of "abandoning the city" before, so Chai Rong urgently summoned Xiang Xun to the front line, and granted Xiang Xun the Huainan Jiedushi, and let him take charge of the front line, with Han Lingkun as the deputy commander.

After Xiang Xun arrived at the front line in Yangzhou, he found that generals Zhao Chao, Bai Yanyu and others were arrogant and difficult to control. They disregarded military discipline and acted recklessly in Yangzhou, even allowing their soldiers to plunder, smash, loot and burn (they were only interested in corruption and some even kidnapped women).

Xiang Xun was furious. You guys are living such a good life. He immediately picked out a few typical examples and executed them in front of the army. From then on, the army was in awe.

Chai Rong had already arrived in Haozhou. Wokou (where the Wo River flows into the Huai River) reported that the floating bridge had been completed, and Chai Rong went to inspect it in person. Chai Rong's next plan was to go to Yangzhou in person.

Prime Minister Fan Zhi cried and advised the emperor to stop.

Fan Zhi was intelligent and studious since childhood. He could write poems at the age of 9, and taught students at the age of 14. He became a local rural teacher and passed the imperial examination at the age of 22. He first served as a judge of the Xuzhou Zhongwu Army, and later as a county magistrate of Fengqiu. Later, he was appreciated by Sang Weihan, a famous official of the Later Jin Dynasty, and was promoted to the position of Supervisory Censor. Later, he was gradually promoted to Hanlin Bachelor and Zhizhigao.

During the "Jin-Liao War", Shi Chonggui ordered fifteen generals to go to the battlefield, and the imperial edict was written by Fan Zhi.

Whenever Guo Wei led his army to fight, he was amazed by the imperial edicts issued to him. He could not help asking who drafted the edict. The messenger replied that it was Fan Zhi. At that time, Guo Wei exclaimed and said that Fan Zhi was truly a prime minister material!

After Guo Wei proclaimed himself emperor, he appointed Fan Zhi as prime minister.

From Guo Wei to Chai Rong, most imperial edicts were drafted by Fan Zhi. Chai Rong's perfect essay "The Proclamation on the Conquest of Huai River" was most likely written by Fan Zhi.

Faced with Chai Rong's high-spirited attempt to go to the front line in Yangzhou and annex Southern Tang in one fell swoop, Prime Minister Fan Zhi and Wang Pu strongly advised against it, citing the reasons that the army was old and the soldiers were tired and the logistical supplies were insufficient, and they firmly opposed it.

Before Chai Rong came to Haozhou, the situation on the Shouzhou battlefield had already turned unfavorable to the Later Zhou Dynasty.

The siege troops of Shouzhou launched fierce attacks day and night, but Shouzhou resisted stubbornly under the command of Liu Renzhan, and the Later Zhou could not capture it for a long time. It also happened to rain heavily, and the water in the camp was several feet deep. There were serious problems with logistics and supply, and the soldiers suffered terribly.

At that time, the logistics supply and troop deployment of the Later Zhou Dynasty mainly went by water, going down the Fei River and arriving at Shouzhou. The siege equipment was transported by cannon boats, and the soldiers were transported by "bamboo dragons". The history books did not record the appearance of the cannon boats, but only recorded the form of the "bamboo dragons", which were simply bamboo rafts with roofs installed. Due to heavy rains that caused the Fei River to surge, the cannon boats and "bamboo dragons" were washed to the south bank and then burned by the Southern Tang soldiers. The Later Zhou Dynasty lost a large number of siege equipment and soldiers.

The most disturbing thing was the shortage of food and grass. Chai Rong waited for Li Deming for five days as agreed, but there was no reply from the Southern Tang because Li Deming had been executed for treason. Therefore, the generals suggested that Chai Rong return to the capital.

Just when Chai Rong was about to return to Bianzhou, Southern Tang won the "Changzhou victory". Chai Rong realized that Li Jing would definitely use Changzhou as a swing to counterattack, so he hurried from Shouzhou to Haozhou and instructed Li Chongjin, Zhang Yongde, Xiang Xun, Zhao Kuangyin and others to fill the gap on the eastern front and nip Southern Tang's counterattack in the bud.

In other words, before the "Yangzhou-Liuhe Battle", Chai Rong did not change the main task. The strategic demand of the Later Zhou Dynasty was still to force peace through war. By exerting military pressure on the areas south of the Huai River and north of the Yangtze River, he forced Li Jing to cede land and seek peace, and compressed the Southern Tang to the south of the Yangtze River.

However, after the "Yangzhou-Liuhe Battle" achieved impressive results, Chai Rong made the same mistake as in the "Battle of Gaoping" and wanted to change his strategic goals. He planned to go to Yangzhou and further cross the Yangtze River.

Prime Minister Fan Zhi and Wang Pu hurriedly advised against repeating the mistake of showing off their troops in Taiyuan during the Battle of Gaoping.

For a war of this scale, it is best not to blindly modify the established strategy, because it involves many aspects and there are too many constraints that need to be maintained in dynamic balance and coordination. One link after another, it is easy to fall short. For example, propaganda, recruitment of soldiers, preparation of food and grass, etc. The larger the scale of the war, the lower the tolerance rate.

When the stock price turns red, they chase high, and when the stock price turns green, they sell at a loss. This is a common operation of the leeks in the stock market. The strategic goal is like setting a profit-taking and loss-taking line for yourself. Although you cannot make a big profit by mechanical operation, you will never lose a lot of money.

Although the "Battle of Gaoping" had positive returns overall, it is an indisputable fact that Chai Rong's profits were greatly reduced due to the temporary change of strategic goals.

It was also because he had learned the lessons from the "Battle of Gaoping" that when the prime ministers cried and advised him against it this time, Chai Rong finally stopped acting on his own and listened to the advice of his ministers. He left Li Chongjin and others to continue to put pressure on Shouzhou and set up the "Zhenhuai Army" in Wokou. Afterwards, Chai Rong went north from Wokou and returned to Bianzhou.

Some people are accustomed to calling this war "Emperor Shizong's Expedition to Huai" or "The Three Expeditions to Huainan". As usual, this book prefers to call it the "Three Major Battles".

In May of the third year of Xian De (956), Chai Rong returned to Bianzhou, and the first battle of the Huai River expedition - the Battle of Chuzhou ended.

(End of this chapter)