History of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms

Chapter 826: The Battle of Chuzhou in the Huai River Expedition (Part )
Chuzhou was conquered, but Chai Rong paid a huge price for it.

First, the Chuzhou offensive brought extremely heavy losses of war resources to the Later Zhou Dynasty, including casualties and material consumption, which seriously weakened the Later Zhou Dynasty's endurance.

Secondly, it had an impact on the strategy of the Later Zhou Dynasty. Although Chuzhou only held out for more than 40 days, it had already caused serious constraints on the shift of the strategic focus of the Later Zhou Dynasty, making Chai Rong's "Crossing the River Campaign" completely a bubble;
Finally, we can indirectly feel the anger that Chuzhou brought to him through Chai Rong's reaction. According to records, after conquering Chuzhou, Chai Rong issued an outrageous order for the first time in history - to massacre the city.

In the "Old Five Dynasties History·Book of Zhou·Chronicle of Emperor Shizong", it is ambiguously recorded that "the six armies plundered, more than ten thousand soldiers and civilians in the city died, and all the houses were burned down." More than ten thousand people died and all the houses were burned down, but it is not clearly stated whether all this happened during the battle or after the battle. It is very vague.

In Lu You's version of "History of Southern Tang", it is directly recorded that "Emperor Shizong was furious and massacred all the residents in the city and burned their houses."

The "Spring and Autumn Annals of the Ten Kingdoms" also said, "The Zhou soldiers also suffered heavy casualties. Emperor Shizong of Zhou was furious and massacred all the people in the city and burned their houses."

Liu Renzhan resisted in Shouzhou for more than a year, but Shouzhou was not massacred. However, Chuzhou was massacred after only holding out for less than two months. This shows the huge damage that Chuzhou caused to the Later Zhou Dynasty.

Although Chai Rong massacred the people of Chuzhou, he still had great admiration for Zhang Yanqing, who refused to surrender until his death, and did not kill Zhang Yanqing's other son, Zhang Guangyou.

Li Jing issued an edict to posthumously award Zhang Yanqing the title of Shizhong.

Historical records evaluate Zhang Yanqing, saying that he used an isolated city to resist enemies that were a hundred times larger than his own, and would rather die than live in disgrace, with unwavering determination, and was on par with Liu Renzhan; and his military supervisor Zheng Zhaoye was also ready to die and would rather die than surrender, which was far greater than Zhou Tinggou and Sun Yu of Shouzhou.

In addition, Ma Ling's edition of "History of the Southern Tang Dynasty" recorded "Zhang Yanqing" as "Zhang Yanneng".

Li Jing upgraded Tianchang County, south of Chuzhou and north of Yangzhou, to Xiongzhou, and appointed Yi Wenyun, commander of the Tianchang Army, as the governor of Xiongzhou.

If we unfold the map of Huainan, it is not difficult to find that the deep defense of Southern Tang is basically three-line:

On the way, the Huaihe River defense line, from west to east, consists of Shouzhou, Haozhou, Sizhou, and Chuzhou;
The middle route, the Jiangbei defense line, consists of Luzhou, Chuzhou, Yangzhou, and Taizhou from west to east;
The lower route, the Yangtze River defense line, is composed of Hezhou, Shengzhou, Runzhou and Changzhou from west to east.

Tianchang County is located north of Yangzhou and south of Chuzhou. Now, the main force of the Later Zhou Dynasty is moving south from Chuzhou to the Yangtze River. Tianchang County is an important throat, so Li Jing urgently upgraded it from a county to a prefecture, hoping that Comrade Yi Wenyun would be grateful to the party and the country, learn from revolutionary predecessors such as Liu Renzhan of Shouzhou and Zhang Yanqing of Chuzhou, hold on to Tianchang County, and buy time for Shengzhou to survive.

Yi Wenyun was very conflicted.

Firstly, Li Jing had taken the initiative to destroy the eastern capital Yangzhou and shrink the defense line to the south of the Yangtze River, but let a small Tianchang County take on the heavy responsibility of blocking the enemy.

Secondly, Chai Rong had already conquered Chuzhou, and even Zhang Yanqing could not resist Chai Rong. What power could I, a small county official, have to turn the tide?

After much thought, since Your Majesty has promoted me to be mayor, I can only surrender as mayor.

On February 2, the Later Zhou army arrived at Tianchang County, and Yi Wenyun took the initiative to open the city and surrender.

Afterwards, Chai Rong set out from Chuzhou and came to Yangzhou to guide the work. On the 15th, he ordered Han Lingkun to mobilize more than laborers in Yangzhou to build a new city in the southeast corner of the original city ruins.

On the 16th, Chai Rong sent people to pay homage to the tombs of Yang Xingmi, Xu Wen and others. It was an old political showmanship, implying that he was the legal heir of the region; then he came to Yangzidu and appreciated the magnificence of the Yangtze River. In the next ten days, Chai Rong repeatedly traveled between Yangzhou and Taizhou.

During this period, Huangzhou Governor Si Chao and Imperial Army General Wang Shenqi attacked Shuzhou, killing more than 3,000 enemies and capturing Shuzhou Governor Shi Renwang of Southern Tang alive; Xizhou reported that they had repelled the invasion of Northern Han. At that time, Sun Yi, the governor of Xizhou of the Later Zhou, suddenly fell ill and died on duty. Xizhou was an important town on the western border between the Later Zhou and Northern Han, and was on par with Luzhou in the middle. Li Qianpu, the military supervisor of Xizhou, was ordered to take charge of the affairs of the prefecture temporarily.

Li Qianpu had a clear understanding of the strategic importance of Xizhou and ordered to increase the level of combat readiness, dig deep trenches and repair city defenses. As expected, just a few days later, the Northern Han army dispatched a large army to surround Xizhou.

Although Liu Chengjun of the Northern Han Dynasty was determined to recuperate, he heard that Chai Rong had been in Jianghuai for a long time and the governor of Xizhou had died suddenly of illness. He thought this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, so he decisively sent troops.

Facing the aggressive Northern Han army, Li Qianpu paid tribute to Zhuge Liang's "Empty City Plan". According to records, Comrade Li Qianpu wore a fine gauze jacket, waved a feather fan, and climbed up the city gate tower with two little servants, strolling leisurely in the courtyard to show his leisure time (Qianpu wore gauze clothes, waved a feather fan, and led two small officials to climb the city gate tower and walk slowly).

Although there was no touching of the strings or dancing to disco music, the final effect was the same, "The people of Jin looked at it and dared not move their troops."

Afterwards, Yang Tingzhang, the governor of Jianxiong Army in Jinzhou, who was more than 200 miles away, came to rescue.

Yang Tingzhang's subordinates suggested that he launch an attack immediately to prevent Xizhou from falling. However, Yang Tingzhang shook his head and said that the Northern Han had suffered repeated defeats over the years and had long been afraid of our army. Even though they were outnumbered, they might not dare to act rashly. We should take advantage of their fear and wait for an opportunity to launch a surprise attack. If we blindly pursue a quick victory, we will be using our own weaknesses to attack the enemy's strengths. If there is a mistake, the consequences will be disastrous.

Great minds think alike. Yang Tingzhang sent people to sneak into Xizhou to communicate with Li Qianpu. The two of them surprisingly had the same ideas. So, they each secretly recruited more than a hundred death squads with a large sum of money, and then attacked at night with the help of internal and external forces. The Northern Han army was immediately defeated and more than a thousand people were killed. The two led their troops to chase and kill for dozens of miles before returning.

The North Han once again became an international clown.

Chai Rong's sightseeing steps on the Yangtze River gradually moved upstream. On March 3, he arrived at Yingluan Town (formerly Baisha Town, now Yizheng City, Yangzhou City, Jiangsu Province). Yingluan Town is located west of Yangzhou, east of Shengzhou, and on the south bank of the Yangtze River. Chai Rong sent Li Jixun, a general of the imperial army, to lead ships to patrol the river and land on a small island in the river to investigate the movements of Shengzhou.

After discovering dozens of warships of the Southern Tang on the river, Chai Rong immediately ordered Zhao Kuangyin to lead the warships to attack.

When the Southern Tang warships saw the Later Zhou navy, they immediately turned around and fled. Zhao Kuangyin chased them all the way to the south bank, landed and burned the Southern Tang camp, destroyed its dock, and then returned to the north bank. He also heard that the Southern Tang had deployed hundreds of warships on Dongbuzhou (a small island at the mouth of the Yangtze River, now connected to the mainland). This fleet hid at the mouth of the sea and could either attack Suzhou and Hangzhou by sea or go upstream to seize control of the Huaihe River and the Yangtze River and cut off the Later Zhou's retreat.

Chai Rong's tactical thinking was clear: he had to eliminate the surface forces of the Southern Tang in order to ignore the natural barriers of the Huai River and the Yangtze River and seize the initiative on the battlefield. Therefore, Chai Rong sent the imperial army generals Murong Yanzhao and Song Yanwo to lead the infantry, cavalry and navy to jointly attack the Tang Dynasty by land and sea.

Soon, good news came that the Southern Tang navy entrenched in Dongbuzhou was almost wiped out.

In the face of the terrifying combat power of the Later Zhou navy, the Huainan people's impregnable defense line - the natural barrier of the Yangtze River - disappeared. The Later Zhou navy successively defeated the surface forces of the Southern Tang on the Yangtze River and gradually gained control of the Yangtze River.

It is rare for the northern army to gain an advantage on the water. As mentioned above, Chai Rong used the surrendered soldiers and generals from Huainan to train the navy, which achieved amazing results. With strong economic support, the Later Zhou Dynasty built a batch of giant ships like dumplings. The historical records called them "Qiyun Giant Ships". From the name, you can imagine what it looks like.

After gaining control of the Yangtze River, Chai Rong held a grand military parade on the other side of Shengzhou to show off his military power and intimidate Li Jing across the river.

In order to further stabilize the battlefield in Jiangbei, Chai Rong also sent General Li Chongjin to lead his troops to attack Luzhou. Luzhou was the last important town in Jiangbei and the best place for the Huainan Group. Yang Xingmi started from there and took Xuanzhou and Yangzhou, laying the foundation for the Huainan Group.

Li Jing was restless under Chai Rong's pressure. He also heard that Chai Rong had already deployed troops on the other side of the river. He listened carefully - "Yamamoto, I say to your ancestors, give me a straight answer, do you surrender or not?"

(End of this chapter)