History of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms

Chapter 857: Battle of Zelu 3 - Meeting at Taipingyi
【Taipingyi League】

Liu Chengjun led thousands of Northern Han troops to Taipingyi (80 miles northwest of Luzhou), where Li Yun had been waiting for a long time. However, this exciting meeting at Taipingyi did not achieve a satisfactory result for both parties. Both sides came with high hopes but returned with disappointment.

The first person to feel dissatisfied was Li Yun.

According to records, Liu Chengjun brought all the elite troops of the Northern Han with great enthusiasm. However, after Li Yun saw it, he felt mixed emotions, because the elite level of this army was so shocking that it was so heartbreaking that the Beggars' Sect could only shed tears silently, and a sense of déjà vu arose spontaneously.

After seeing the "national elite" of Northern Han, Li Yun felt extremely regretful and hated himself for not doing a good job of preliminary research. How could he have so blindly committed himself to the leader of the Beggars' Sect?

"Yun saw that the Northern Han ruler's guards were few and weak, and he regretted it deeply" - "Continued Zizhi Tongjian"

"Seeing that Jun's soldiers were few and weak, he regretted it very much" - "History of Song Dynasty"

"Yun saw that the emperor's guards were not prepared, not like a king, and he felt very regretful." - "Spring and Autumn Annals of the Ten Kingdoms"

In short, the blind date failed. After removing the beauty filter, Liu Chengjun made Li Yun feel disappointed and regretful. So Li Yun also did something that made Liu Chengjun disgusted, deliberately destroying the internal unity of the "Han-Lu Alliance" and paving the way for future divorce and separation.

In fact, Liu Chengjun was quite satisfied with this blind date at the beginning, because Li Yun was waiting by the roadside and met him with courtesy. Liu Chengjun granted Li Yun the privilege of "praising and worshipping without naming" on the spot, gave him 300 horses, and conferred him the title of King of Xiping (some say King of Longxi County), ranking above Prime Minister Wei Rong, and was treated with great favor.

At this moment, Liu Chengjun was still immersed in the joy of gaining a new younger brother, and did not notice that Li Yun's expression was quietly changing until the formal meeting.

According to convention, as a "traitor", Li Yun needed to give an acceptance speech. On the one hand, he wanted to clear his name as a "traitor", and on the other hand, he wanted to flatter his new master by saying things like how corrupt and decadent the Song Dynasty was, how it oppressed and suspected me, a noble of the previous dynasty, and how I was forced to give up darkness and join the light, and so on.

However, Li Yun acted out of character and vigorously reiterated the kindness shown to her by Comrade Guo Wei, the founding emperor of the Later Zhou Dynasty. She said that the reason she wanted to be an enemy of the Song Dynasty was to restore the Zhou Dynasty and she was willing to pay the price of her life for this. She cried her eyes out.

Liu Chengjun's face was first shocked, then turned into anger.

The Northern Han and the Later Zhou had a feud. Liu Chengyou, the emperor of the Later Han, killed the entire families of Guo Wei and Chai Rong. Guo Wei staged a mutiny and forced Liu Chengyou to death. He then tricked Liu Yun into death, thus forcing Liu Chong of Hedong to rebel and giving birth to the Northern Han regime. Liu Yun, who was killed by Guo Wei, was Liu Chong's son and Liu Chengjun's brother. "Uncle Liu" Murong Yanchao was Liu Chengjun's uncle and also died at the hands of Guo Wei.

The Northern Han and the Later Zhou had a close relationship of hatred, killing each other's families. However, Li Yun kept saying "I can't bear to betray Zhou's kindness" and "I am willing to repay Guo Wei's kindness with my death", which made Liu Chengjun very unhappy.

One is a failed internet celebrity who turned off the beauty filter, and the other is a pseudo straight man who praised his ex. "Taipingyi Blind Date" has become a popular copywriting for blind date variety shows.

The meeting between the two sides finally ended in disharmony. Although it was unpleasant, the overall situation had to be taken into consideration after all, and the "Han-Lu Alliance" barely survived.

When Li Yun was about to leave, Liu Chengjun sent his confidant, Xuanhui Envoy Lu Zan, to be Li Yun's military supervisor and control Li Yun's armed forces, which made Li Yun even more indignant. I don't like you at all, but you want to confiscate my salary card and add your name to the property certificate?
So in the subsequent work, Li Yun deliberately did not cooperate with Lu Zan. When Lu Zan came to discuss official business with him, Li Yun closed his eyes and pretended to be deaf and dumb, blind and stupid, as if Lu Zan did not exist at all, which made Lu Zan so angry that he threw his sleeves and walked out, and then reported to Liu Chengjun.

Liu Chengjun hurriedly sent Prime Minister Wei Rong to mediate.

Li Yun left his son Li Shoujie in Luzhou to look after the family, while he led 30,000 troops to continue southward. The "Han-Lu Alliance" had serious cracks from the beginning. Let's take a look at Zhao Kuangyin's response.

After Li Yun officially announced his rebellion, Zhao Kuangyin convened a meeting in front of the emperor to discuss countermeasures. The Privy Councilor Wu Yanzuo set the strategic idea of ​​"quick battle and quick decision" and the tactical concept of "encircling a point and attacking the reinforcements" for Zhao Kuangyin.

Wu Yanzuo pointed out that the terrain in Luzhou area is dangerous and relying on the steepness of Taihang Mountain, it is easy to defend but difficult to attack. If the enemy holds out, I am afraid we may not be able to capture it after years and months. At that time, if the Northern Han and Khitan jointly respond, it will be extremely disadvantageous to us; however, Li Yun is a man of few strategies and wisdom. As long as we send troops quickly and pretend to move north, he will definitely give up his defense and lead a large force to fight us. In this way, it will fall into our strategy of encircling and attacking the reinforcements. He will be like a beast leaving the protection of the mountains and forests or a fish leaving the river, and can be captured in one blow!
According to Wu Yanzuo's design, the Song Dynasty's counterattack must be fast and fierce. It must be fast enough to leave Li Yun no time to think, and fierce enough to make Li Yun lose his composure.

Zhao Kuangyin agreed with this and sent his trusted generals Shi Shouxin and Gao Huaide to lead the elite imperial guards as the vanguard. Before leaving, Zhao Kuangyin gave the highest instructions: march quickly and hold the dangerous passes. If Li Yun breaks through the Taihang Mountains and goes south, you must bring your heads to me!
Zhao Kuangyin asked the two to defend Tianjing Pass, one of the "Eight Passes of Taihang Mountain", which is located south of Zezhou and is the throat of the Taihang Mountains. Li Yun controlled Zezhou. If he passed Tianjing Pass, he would be on the north bank of the Yellow River, and across the river would be Luoyang. Therefore, Zhao Kuangyin asked Shi Shouxin and Gao Huaide not to let Li Yun's forces cross the Taihang Mountains at all costs.

Zhao Kuangyin summoned Zhang Mei, the third official, to be in charge of the supply of food and grass. Zhang Mei reported an unexpected good news, saying that Ma Lingcong, the governor of Huaizhou, had long seen that Li Yun had a rebellious heart, so he secretly stored a large amount of food and grass, waiting for the king's army to march north.

Think ahead of the leader and do ahead of the leader. Zhao Kuangyin was very happy and immediately announced that Comrade Ma Lingcong was promoted three levels in a row, from governor to military commander. Prime Minister Fan Zhi hurriedly added that he could be promoted, but he should not move to another place, as he still needed to contribute to the supply of military supplies. So Zhao Kuangyin upgraded Huaizhou to Tuanlianzhou and promoted Ma Lingcong to Huaizhou Tuanlianshi on the spot.

Afterwards, Zhao Kuangyin sent Murong Yanzhao and Wang Quanbin to lead troops out of Chanzhou and Xiangzhou, marching from east to west of Taihang Mountain to join forces with Shi Shouxin and Gao Huaide; he also upgraded Mingzhou from a training state to a defense state, and appointed Mingzhou Defense Envoy Guo Jin as the Inspector of the West Mountain, responsible for defending against surprise attacks from the Northern Han.

Mingzhou, formerly under the jurisdiction of Dongzhaoyijun, was a neighbor of Xizhaoyijun of Luzhou, separated by the Taihang Mountains.

Speed ​​is of the essence in war. Military action should be launched against Zezhou and Luzhou with lightning speed. The emperor should lead the army in person to exert tremendous military pressure on Zezhou and Luzhou. Only in this way can the simple-minded and stubborn Li Yun be lured to take the initiative to attack, lure the enemy out of its hole, and surround and attack the reinforcements.

The vanguards of both sides met outside Zezhou. The soldiers of Luzhou exclaimed that the Song soldiers were divine soldiers sent from the sky, and they were caught off guard. Shi Shouxin and Gao Huaide won the first battle.

Under the guidance of Wu Yanzuo's "fast and ruthless" strategy, the Song army had no time to enjoy the joy of victory, and they would not give Li Yun any chance to breathe.

Zhao Kuangyin ordered "all the troops to attack" and took advantage of the victory to reduce the encirclement of Zezhou and set up a pocket formation for Li Yun. Afterwards, Zhao Kuangyin issued an imperial decree to lead the army in person, with Privy Councilor Wu Yanzuo as the garrison commander of Bianzhou, his younger brother Zhao Guangyi as the chief inspector of the palace, and General Han Lingkun stationed troops in Heyang (south bank of the Yellow River, across the river from the Zezhou battlefield). Han Lingkun was stationed here to support the front line when advancing or to cover Zhao Kuangyin's rear when retreating.

The Song army appeared on the battlefield of Zezhou with the force of a mountain pressing down on one's head and a huge rock hitting an egg. Li Yun was really confused. He ignored the advice and led 30,000 troops to fight the Song army in the wild. As expected, the 30,000 Luzhou soldiers were defeated and Li Yun fled into the city of Zezhou in a panic.

In this battle, Li Yun's main force was exhausted, and the Northern Han reinforcements that came to support were almost wiped out. Thousands of Northern Han soldiers surrendered, Fan Shoutu, the Heyang Jiedushi appointed by the Northern Han, was captured alive, and the military supervisor Lu Zan was killed.

The Song army killed all the surrendered Northern Han soldiers, and then took advantage of the victory to surround Zezhou.

The battlefield of Ze and Lu is located at the foot of Taihang Mountain. The terrain is steep and there are many rugged mountain roads. When Zhao Kuangyin came, he personally carried bricks (Tai Taizu once carried several stones on horseback). The entourage then rushed to carry bricks, and within one day, the mountain road that was originally "blocked" immediately became a highway.

At the same time that Li Yungui entered Zezhou, Fuzhou Zhe Dejian reported that he had captured the Northern Han stronghold and beheaded 500 people; Li Yun's generals Wang Yanlu and Wang Quande led their troops to surrender in an organized manner. Li Yun's situation was precarious and not optimistic. His only hope was to hold on to Zezhou and look forward to the support of the Khitan father.

(End of this chapter)