History of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms

Chapter 818 I think I can save it a little more

[I think I can still save it]

Although Li Jing suffered successive defeats on the Huainan battlefield and was seriously injured, Chai Rong's departure gave Li Jing the illusion that "I am able to do it again". The "war factions" in the court regained their confidence that "a spent bow cannot pierce the silk cloth of Lu", and the belief in a protracted war became increasingly popular.

Under such circumstances, two Taoist priests who claimed to be able to turn the tide came into being. In July 956, Southern Tang took advantage of Chai Rong's absence and launched another counterattack.

"The Taoist Priest Goes Down the Mountain"

Li Ping, whose original name was Yang Ne, was a Taoist priest in Songshan. After graduation, he and his classmate Shu Yuan went down the mountain to look for work and got a job with Li Shouzhen, the governor of Hezhong. Soon, Li Shouzhen took Hezhong and rebelled against the Han Dynasty. Guo Wei and others attacked him fiercely, so Li Shouzhen gave them a glorious and arduous task - to go to Huainan to ask for reinforcements.

So Yang Ne changed his name to Li Ping, and Shu Yuan changed his name to Zhu Yuan. They changed their names, disguised themselves, crossed the enemy territory, and came to Huainan to meet Li Jing. The two of them were eloquent and actually persuaded Li Jing to agree to send tens of thousands of troops to support Li Shouzhen.

However, before the troops were dispatched, Li Shouzhen was defeated and killed. Therefore, Li Ping and Zhu Yuan stayed in Huainan and both served as Shangshu Lang.

In order to please his new master, Zhu Yuan often submitted memorials to the emperor, commenting on the current situation. He believed that the reason why Southern Tang was able to dominate the Jianghuai area was not because of its strong national strength, but because of the many troubles in the Central Plains. Once the Central Plains was freed up from northern affairs, it would inevitably move south. If Southern Tang wanted to not lose out in future confrontations with the Central Plains, it had to take Hunan in the west, swallow up Zhejiang in the east, and completely unify the south. Only in this way would it be possible to compete with the Central Plains and rule along the Huai River.

At the same time, Zhu Yuan repeatedly asked Li Jing to grant him military power, claiming that he could help Li Jing conquer a vast empire.

Zhu Yuan's remarks greatly stimulated the "Four Evils and Five Demons" group that controlled the government. An old Taoist priest who is not serious and a stray dog ​​in the river, who do you think you are? How can we in Huainan give you instructions?
The "Four Evils and Five Ghosts" group offered slanderous words one after another, the general idea being that those who are not of our race must have different hearts, covet military power, and must have other ambitions!
As a result, Zhu Yuan was dismissed from office by Li Jing.

Zhu Yuan was greatly disappointed. Like all newly graduated college students, he always thought that he had the talent to rule the country, but he was born at the wrong time and did not meet a wise leader. He was buried and expressed indignation and dissatisfaction with the injustice of society. So he drank with Li Ping all day, expressing his frustration while drunk.

Li Jing showed the utmost tolerance towards these two crazy students, and "the imperial court also tolerated them."

After that, Zhu Yuan and Li Ping's daily routine was to brag, drink, and curse. This continued until Emperor Shizong's expedition to Huai.

The two of them were excited, "What did I say? The Central Plains invaded the south!"

So the two of them found Li Jing again and took the initiative to talk about military affairs. The two of them were very good at talking and talking about military affairs on paper. Li Jing was overjoyed and hated himself for burying talents. Why did he only think of these two great gods when the war had come to this point!

At their initiative to volunteer, Li Jing finally allowed them to follow his younger brother Li Jingda to fight and recover the lost territory.

Judging by today's standards, Zhu Yuan and Li Ping should be considered as pyramid scheme leaders. If they were in today's world, they would be first-line lecturers on success studies or something like that, the kind who understand applause.

In the army, Zhu Yuan often gave psychological massages to the soldiers, which moved them to tears. His pre-war speeches were very inflammatory. After listening to his passionate speeches, the originally cowardly Huainan soldiers all burst into tears and wished they could bite a few northern soldiers to death on the spot. After entering the battlefield, everyone took the lead and fought bravely, and their morale was high.

Li Jingda also expressed his regret for meeting them too late, and reported their performance truthfully to Li Jing, who was very pleased. Although Li Jingda's military operation to rescue Yangzhou ultimately failed, Zhu Yuan and Li Ping gained Li Jing's trust.

After Chai Rong left, Zhu Yuan and Li Ping once again volunteered to help Li Jing drive out the northern army and recover Jiangbei.

Li Jing also regarded these two as Sleeping Dragon and Phoenix Chick and readily agreed.

Zhu Yuan led his army to attack Shuzhou, and Guo Lingtu, the governor of Shuzhou of the Later Zhou Dynasty, abandoned the city and fled; Li Ping attacked Qizhou, and Qizhou was also conquered after an order was issued.

This was the biggest victory for the Southern Tang since the beginning of the war. Li Jing immediately appointed Zhu Yuan as the commander of the Shuzhou militia and Li Ping as the governor of Qizhou.

Zhu Yuan smiled slightly and said, "We have only just begun. Just wait and see - let's go!" He led his troops straight to Hezhou.

Hezhou was declared recovered again.

As Zhu Yuan and Li Ping advanced, the people in Huainan awakened and a peasant uprising broke out, expelling the Later Zhou occupying forces.

"White Armor Uprising"

After Chai Rong returned from the expedition, he issued an edict granting amnesty to all the prefectures in Huainan.

"Before June 11 of this year, all violations, no matter how serious, will not be questioned; when it was first under the jurisdiction of Jiangnan, there should be non-rational corvée and no-name exile rate, all of which will be suspended."

By reducing taxes and corvee labor and granting amnesty without limits, the people of the newly acquired land in Huainan could be blessed by the emperor's grace and his rule could be consolidated.

Because the taxation system of the Southern Tang Dynasty was harsh, it first monopolized the tea and salt trade, then imposed high taxes on the people, called "excessive taxation", and launched the "land-building" movement, which made the people miserable. So when the Later Zhou Dynasty went south, the people welcomed them with food and drink.

However, the soldiers of the Later Zhou Dynasty regarded the people of Huainan as slaves of a conquered country, and showed no sympathy, smashing, looting, burning, and killing innocent people. At first, the people of Huainan thought that they had welcomed the people's soldiers, but they didn't expect that they were the devils who came to the village to work, so they fled to the swamps and forests and built fortifications to protect themselves. There were serious problems with the logistics supply of the Later Zhou Dynasty. In addition to factors such as weather, losing the support of the local people was also one of the reasons. Therefore, after Chai Rong returned, he issued an edict to make up for the loss and announced the abolition of the high taxes of the Southern Tang Dynasty in order to gain the trust of the people of Huainan.

Ran and egg.

The occupying army left, and the motherland's army advanced layer by layer and began to recover the homeland, and the people of Huainan were excited. In the counties occupied by the Later Zhou Dynasty, the people rose up, using farm tools as weapons and white paper as armor, gathered together to revolt, calling themselves "Baijiazi", also known as "Baijia Army". The mighty "Baijia Army Uprising" broke out in Huainan.

The Later Zhou occupying forces went to suppress the rebellion, but were repeatedly defeated by the "White Armor Army".

At first glance, it seems incredible, but the reason is actually very simple. Because the Later Zhou occupation army mainly occupied states and counties, and the administrative units below the town lacked sufficient military strength, the "White Armor Army" was similar to a guerrilla army, always looking for places with weak defenses of the Later Zhou to concentrate superior forces to attack, and once the support of the Later Zhou arrived, they would break up into small groups and never launch a frontal decisive battle. To use a familiar saying, it is to surround the city with the countryside.

Not to mention the cold weapon era more than 800 years ago, even now, the beacon country with satellite positioning, infrared night vision goggles, modern communications, Black Hawks in the sky, and Hummers on the ground, the casualties in the Afghan war mainly came from the occupation period.

Xiang Xun, the governor of Huainan in the Later Zhou Dynasty, sent a letter to ask for help, suggesting that Yangzhou should be abandoned, the defense line should be narrowed, and the forces should be concentrated on attacking Shouzhou. After receiving approval, Xiang Xun did not choose to systematically destroy Yangzhou, but sealed up the treasury and handed it over to the former generals of Huainan for management, and arranged for the former generals of Huainan to maintain order in the city, and then led his troops to evacuate in an orderly manner without harming anyone.

Xiang Xun's actions won the goodwill of the people of Huainan. According to historical records, when Xiang Xun left, the people of Huainan spontaneously held a farewell ceremony with food and drink. "Uncle, come and visit often."

Subsequently, the Chuzhou occupation forces also took the initiative to retreat and jointly defend Shouzhou.

In just one month, Southern Tang recovered Yang, Shu, Qi, Guang, He, Chu and other states. Only Shouzhou was still under siege by Later Zhou.

It is worth mentioning that although the Southern Tang had a brilliant record, the Later Zhou did not suffer a serious blow and did not suffer any substantial damage. For example, Yangzhou and Chuzhou were all abandoned voluntarily. The Later Zhou did not retreat, but made a planned strategic shift, concentrating the scattered troops in various places in Huainan to Shouzhou.

Li Jing sent Lin Renzhao and Guo Tingwei to lead troops to support Shouzhou, and attack Xiacai Floating Bridge by land and sea.

Lin Renzhao, the "Tiger of the Lin Family", led a death squad of 1,000 men, stuffed the boats with firewood and fire starters, and launched a semi-suicidal attack on the Xiacai floating bridge. General Zhang Yongde fought desperately. At the critical moment, the wind suddenly reversed, and Zhang Yongde immediately rushed forward, and the Southern Tang was defeated.

Lin Renzhao rode alone to guard the rear of the army. Zhang Yongde was skilled in archery and shot Lin Renzhao in the arm. However, Lin pulled out the arrow and used it for himself.

Zhang Yongde was stunned and sighed, "The enemy has such brave men, we must not press them too hard." So he withdrew his troops and returned to the camp.

Afterwards, Zhang Yongde hurriedly made a large iron chain over a thousand feet long, and placed it across the Huai River more than ten steps away from the floating bridge. He also used huge wood to make a river-blocking chain. From then on, the Southern Tang could no longer launch an effective sneak attack on the floating bridge.

However, Nan Tang did not give up and dispatched surface forces to attack the pontoon bridge again a few days later.

Zhang Yongde recruited a group of "frogmen" at a large expense, who dived to the bottom of the Nan Tang warships and fixed them together with large iron chains. This scene was just like when we were in school and tied the shoelaces of our classmates in the back seat together under the pretext of picking up erasers.

Afterwards, Zhang Yongde took the initiative to launch an attack. The Southern Tang navy then discovered that their ships were out of control and could not advance or retreat. They were defeated, and countless of them jumped into the water and drowned in panic.

Zhang Yongde took off his gold belt and rewarded the "frogman" handsomely.

On the Shouzhou front, there were two heavyweights of the Later Zhou Dynasty - Zhang Yongde and Li Chongjin. There was no room for two tigers in one mountain, and there was a deep personal conflict between the two.

Li Chongjin was the nephew of Guo Wei, the founder of the Later Zhou Dynasty. His mother was Guo Wei's sister. Zhang Yongde was Guo Wei's son-in-law. Their military positions were similar and their reputations were equally great.

Zhang Yongde secretly reported to Chai Rong that Li Chongjin had ulterior motives, but Chai Rong just laughed and didn't believe it at all.

At that time, Li Chongjin was at the foot of Shouzhou City and Zhang Yongde was at Xiacai Floating Bridge. Each of them commanded a large number of troops. The army was in panic and the morale was unstable. There was fear that the two would fight each other like Zhu Zhen and Li Tangbin.

One day, Li Chongjin suddenly rode alone to Zhang Yongde's camp and asked him to drink. After a few drinks, Li Chongjin said, "We are both generals because we are the confidants of Emperor Taizu. Why should we be suspicious of each other? If we put personal interests above public interests, how can we face Emperor Taizu again in the afterlife?"

Zhang Yongde felt guilty. There was no need to say anything, it was all in the wine. The two men put aside their past grudges and smiled at each other. The army on the front line of the Later Zhou Dynasty also settled down.

When Li Jing heard the news of the discord between the two commanders, he immediately became excited and hurriedly wrote a wax ball letter to Li Chongjin, which was full of slander and divisive words.

Li Jing would never have thought that this letter would lead to the death of a loyal minister of the Southern Tang Dynasty and would also cause dramatic changes on the battlefield.

After receiving the letter, Li Chongjin submitted it to the court of Later Zhou to prove his innocence.

After Chai Rong received the letter, his face changed drastically, "Come, call Sun Sheng to me!"

(End of this chapter)