History of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms

Chapter 825: The Battle of Chuzhou during the Huai River Expedition (Part )
On the first day of the first lunar month in the fifth year of Xian De (958), Chai Rong celebrated the Spring Festival at the foot of Chuzhou City and accepted congratulations from his officials.

Chai Rong delivered a New Year's speech, and then personally inspected the front line of Chuzhou Water Fort to boost morale. There was a watchtower in Chuzhou Water Fort, more than 100 feet high, which was the commanding height of the water fort. Chai Rong stopped more than 200 steps away from it and discussed with the generals around him how to conquer it.

At this time, the guard on the upper floor also saw Chai Rong. He cursed at Chai Rong with a loud voice and vulgar words, and cursed Chai Rong's ancestors for eighteen generations.

Chai Rong was furious and ordered his men to shoot him to death, but the man was on a building over a hundred feet high, two hundred steps away.

At that time, one step was about five feet, and one foot was about 0.33 meters. One hundred feet is more than 33 meters, the height of a ten-story building. Li Bai has a poem that says "a dangerous building is a hundred feet high, and you can pick the stars with your hands", so the more than a hundred feet here may be an exaggeration, but it is an indisputable fact that the archer is more than 300 meters away from him horizontally. More than 300 meters away, nearly ten stories high, Lu Ban would be silent when he saw it, and Hou Yi would cry when he saw it.

None of the archers from the Later Zhou Dynasty could match him, and the guy became even more unscrupulous when seeing this.

At this time, Chai Rong suddenly thought of someone, who was the national archer - Ma Renyu.

Ma Renyu showed amazing talent since he was young. He was the ancestor of all "poor students" and the leader and idol of problem children. When he was about ten years old, his father sent him to a regular school to study. As a result, he skipped classes and was expelled by the principal. His father had no choice but to transfer him to a private school. The beginning of this book tells about the educational system of "six schools and two halls" in the Tang Dynasty. Private schools are basically "literacy classes". The highest goal of teaching is to recognize a few common characters. There is usually only one textbook for all the textbooks. For example, Zhu Wen's father only taught the "Five Classics", so his old friends gave him the nickname "Zhu Wujing". The private school where Ma Renyu came could only teach "The Book of Filial Piety".

His father did not ask for his name to pass the imperial examination, but only asked for him to recognize the words on the list.

The teacher patiently taught him for more than ten days, but Ma Renyu didn't learn a single word. The teacher got angry and beat him with a ruler. This beating opened up Ma Renyu's Ren and Du meridians. That night, Ma Renyu sneaked into the school and set a fire, turning the school into ashes. Even the teacher almost died on the spot, "only escaping with his life".

Ma Renyu is definitely an idol-level figure, as she can burn down the school over a disagreement.

After the fire, Ma Renyu bid farewell to his school life completely and officially became a street kid. His true talent gradually emerged at this time: Ma Renyu gathered dozens of problem children like him from nearby villages, and they gathered together to play every day. They also played children's house games. Ma Renyu called himself the general and the other children were soldiers. Ma Renyu commanded them to form an array and play real-life CS every day, which was a lot of fun.

Ma Renyu played very seriously and required everyone to be serious. For example, everyone had to gather before the specified time every day. Those who were late would be whipped, which was slightly more humane than "if you miss the deadline, you will be beheaded." Therefore, the children were in awe of him and dared not disobey his orders.

At the same time, Ma Renyu often paid out of his own pocket to buy snacks and fruits that the children liked, and then shared them with everyone.

With such clear rewards and punishments, the children became more attached to him and elected him as the "leader of Xiajin County". Xiajin County, now Xiajin County, Dezhou City, Shandong Province, was under the jurisdiction of Daming Prefecture (Weizhou) at that time.

Generally speaking, those who can call the shots among their friends need to have a good physique, in addition to being clear about rewards and punishments. Fists are the most effective pass. Ma Renyu was born with supernatural strength. When he was in his teens, he could pull a 200-jin hard bow.

When Guo Wei was in Weizhou, he heard about this Weizhou gangster and Xiajin County leader, so he called him for tea. After seeing him in person, he liked him very much and immediately placed him by his side as his bodyguard. After Guo Wei proclaimed himself emperor, Ma Renyu naturally became a general of his personal army.

After Chai Rong ascended the throne, he conducted a basic test for the guards left by Guo Wei, asking them to compete in archery in the royal garden. Ma Renyu won the first place, shooting far and accurately, so Chai Rong rewarded him with a brocade robe and a silver belt.

During the Battle of Gaoping, Fan Aineng and He Hui deserted the battlefield, causing the right flank to be defeated. Ma Renyu shouted "If the lord is humiliated, the minister will die", jumped out on his horse, and shot and killed dozens of Northern Han soldiers in one breath, which greatly boosted the morale and stabilized the battle. After the war, Ma Renyu was also one of the few generals who was promoted.

Although the Chuzhou defenders were not good at team battles and laning, they were very good at talking. They started cursing in the streets, and Chai Rong was unable to block it. In a rage, he finally remembered Ma Renyu, who was good at shooting, and summoned him over.

Ma Renyu took off the hard bow, and with a "zhiya-gabangbang" sound, he pulled the bow into a full circle. He then prepared a powerful move, and with a "whoosh" sound, the man upstairs was killed instantly.

The Hou Zhou camp was filled with jubilation and gave thumbs up, “So cool”, “666”, “High-end operation”.

On the fifth day of the first lunar month, Wang Hanzhang reported: Haizhou was captured.

Chai Rong still ordered Han Lingkun to temporarily take charge of the military affairs of Yangzhou, and then considered transferring the surface forces from the Huaihe River to the Yangtze River. There is a Beishen Weir in the north of Chuzhou City, which is the mouth of the ancient Han Canal into the Huaihe River. Because the water level of the ancient Han Canal is higher than that of the Huaihe River, a weir was built here to prevent backflow. Now, due to the existence of Beishen Weir, Chai Rong could not transport Chuzhou's warships directly to the Yangtze River, so he prepared to dig the Laoguan River northwest of Chuzhou.

After the craftsmen made an on-site inspection, they said that the terrain was complicated and not conducive to excavation. Chai Rong personally inspected the site, transformed himself into an engineer, taught construction techniques on the spot, and then mobilized civilians from the prefectures and counties near Chuzhou. The project was completed in about ten days, saving time, labor and materials, which made the engineers ashamed. Soon, more than a hundred Qiyun giant warships appeared on the surface of the Yangtze River, and the Southern Tang was shocked, thinking that the gods had descended from the sky.

On the tenth day of the first lunar month, the Later Zhou conquered Jinghaijun, an important stronghold east of Hailing County, Taizhou. After conquering Jinghaijun, the Later Zhou officially bordered the Wuyue Kingdom.

Prior to this, Chai Rong sent envoys to the Wuyue Kingdom and said to them: "Although you have to take the risk of sailing across the sea when you go, by the time you return, Huainan will have been pacified and you can travel by land." Now, Chai Rong has fulfilled his promise.

Haizhou was an important town in the northeast of the Southern Tang Dynasty. It was the bridgehead for the Southern Tang Dynasty to extend its power into the Huaibei area and the last stronghold of the Southern Tang Dynasty in the Huaihe River Basin. Jinghaijun was the eastern gate of the heartland of the Southern Tang Dynasty. With the fall of the two places, the Southern Tang Dynasty's defense line had shrunk to the south of the Yangtze River. Chuzhou, the last stronghold on the Huaihe River, was about to follow the footsteps of Haozhou. The Southern Tang Dynasty could only watch helplessly as the Later Zhou Dynasty took it into its possession.

Now, Chuzhou had been under siege for more than 40 days. Chai Rong was stationed in the north of the city to supervise the battle, and all the generals were fighting for the lead. Among them, Zhao Kuangyin led his troops to attack the city day and night and commanded his troops to climb the city.

It must be said that although the overall performance of the Southern Tang was very poor, in the regional battles, many heroes emerged from the Southern Tang. On the Huai River, Liu Renzhan created the Shouzhou miracle, Guo Tingwei in Haozhou was also remarkable, and a legendary hero appeared in Chuzhou - Zhang Yanqing.

Faced with the powerful offensive of the Later Zhou Dynasty, Chuzhou Defense Commander Zhang Yanqing remained unmoved. He commanded the defenders to persist in resistance and vowed to live and die with Chuzhou.

One day, Zhang Yanqing and his generals were commanding a battle on the city wall. Suddenly, a man knelt in front of Zhang Yanqing and said in tears: "Zhou is strong and Tang is weak. We are not strong enough to support it. There is no help from outside. The city will fall at any time. Why should we let the soldiers and civilians in the city die in vain? It is better to surrender quickly to reduce unnecessary casualties!"

The situation has come to this point. Even if they surrender, it will be considered surrender under duress, just like Liu Renzhan and Guo Tingwei, and they will be respected by both the enemy and us. All the generals looked at Zhang Yanqing in unison, waiting for his decision.

Zhang Yanqing was silent for a moment, then nodded slightly and pointed behind the generals, "Look there!"

The generals hurriedly turned around to look, wondering if the Later Zhou had withdrawn its troops or if our side had come to help?

It happened in a flash. At the moment when the generals turned around, Zhang Yanqing drew out his sword with lightning speed and beheaded the man who was weeping and advising to surrender to Zhou.

Everyone turned around and saw the head rolling on the ground, and they were all stunned.

Because the man whose head was chopped off was Zhang Yanqing's biological son.

Zhang Yanqing picked up the head by the hair and showed it to the generals. Tears were flowing from his eyes, but his look was more determined. He made an impassioned speech to the generals: "He is my own son, and he advised me to surrender to Zhou. I have received great favors from the Li family, and I can only repay them with my death. This city is where I will be buried. If you plan to surrender, please do as you please, and I will not stop you. But don't try to persuade me, otherwise you will be like him!" After that, he threw his son's head to the ground.

The generals were stunned at first, then they were all moved to tears and pledged to live and die with Chuzhou.

Finally, the Later Zhou used cave houses to get close to the city wall. Under the cover of the cave houses, they dug holes in the city wall, filled them with firewood, and set fire to them, causing the city wall to collapse. After suffering huge casualties, the Later Zhou finally conquered the city wall of Chuzhou.

However, Zhang Yanqing did not give up the fight. Under his command, the remaining defenders formed an array in the city and engaged in street fighting with Hou Zhou.

The street fighting lasted from morning to night. Due to the disparity in numbers, Zhang Yanqing fought and retreated, and finally retreated into the Chuzhou government office. He still used the government office as his last stronghold and continued to fight.

The arrows were used up, the spears were broken, the swords were blunt... Zhang Yanqing had used up all his weapons (both long and short), so he continued fighting while swinging a stool (Huchuang).

Zhang Yanqing and his subordinates fulfilled their promise. From the Defense Envoy Zhang Yanqing to the more than a thousand people including the Military Supervisor Zheng Zhaoye, all were killed in the battle, and no one surrendered until their death.

(End of this chapter)