History of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms

Chapter 891: Destroying Shu (Part )

【Destroy Shu】

The Song army was divided into two routes. One route started from Fengzhou, and the planned route was "Fengzhou - Xingzhou - Jianmen Pass - Lizhou - Chengdu"; the other route started from Guizhou in the former Jingnan territory, went up the Yangtze River, and took the route of "Guizhou - Kuizhou - Suizhou - Chengdu".

Let's look at the deployment of the Shu army: Wang Zhaoyuan led his troops to guard Lizhou and Jianmen Pass to resist the Song army in the north; Han Baozhen and Li Jin advanced to the Xingyuan area, which is located between Xingzhou and Jianmen, and is considered the vanguard of the Shu army in the north; Kuizhou Jiedushi Gao Yanchou was responsible for defending against the Song army in the east.

From the perspective of strategic deployment, both sides are using conventional tactics, and all we can do is wait and see how the soldiers on the front line perform.

In December, the Song army entered Shu territory and defeated 12 Shu soldiers with overwhelming force. They captured Xingzhou and seized more than hu of military grain. Then they continued to advance southward and captured more than military strongholds. The Song army won the first battle.

Han Baozhen, the vanguard of the Shu army stationed in Xingyuan, was terrified when he heard the news that Xingzhou had been captured. He immediately abandoned Xingyuan and made a strategic shift to the rear.

Shi Yande, the commander-in-chief of the Song Army's cavalry and a pioneer who set the goal of "going to heaven and into earth", led the cavalry in pursuit and caught up with Han Baozhen's troops in Xi County.

Han Baozhen commanded tens of thousands of Shu soldiers, relying on the mountains and backing the city, forming a formation to defend themselves.

In the face of absolute strength, any skill is futile. Shi Yande gave an order and defeated the Shu army, captured Han Baozhen and Li Jin alive, and seized more than 300,000 hu of grain and grass. The Song army continued to pursue and kill many people.

The Shu army retreated all the way. In order to delay the pursuit of the Song army, the Shu army set fire to the plank road and the remaining troops retreated into Jiameng Pass northeast of Jianmen Pass.

As soon as the war started, the Northern Song Army had advanced halfway, penetrated deep into the heart of Hou Shu, and approached the Jianmen Pass. Now let's look at the performance of the Eastern Song Army.

The people of Shu have long attached importance to controlling the river. As early as the Former Shu period, the general Zhang Wu in Kuizhou erected large iron stakes on both sides of the river and connected them with a large iron chain, which was called "locking the gorge" to make it impossible for ships to pass. Using this method, Zhang Wu defeated the larger force with a smaller one and defeated Gao Jichang of Jingnan who was going upstream.

Everyone knows the danger of Jianmen Pass, but few have heard of the majesty of Kuimen Pass. The Yangtze River narrows abruptly here and rushes past like a thousand horses roaring, with turbulent water and dangerous currents. At its throat is the famous Baidi City. To this day, the iron pillar that Zhang Wu erected to "lock the gorge" still stands. During the flood season, when the water level rises, the iron pillar gradually disappears under the water. In order to eliminate safety hazards, it has now been moved to the mountains on both sides, telling people about that passionate time.

The might of Kuimen firmly guarded the eastern gate of Shu. The people of Jingnan still remembered the painful lesson of "locking the gorge", which was also emphasized by Mu Zhaosi to Zhao Kuangyin. If you want to go by water, you must have a strategy to deal with "locking the gorge".

Before setting off, Zhao Kuangyin took out a map and "pointed out the mountains and rivers and taught Liu Guangyi the strategy in person", saying that the Shu people had set up a triple line of defense here, with artillery batteries on both sides of the river (Shu built a floating bridge to lock the river in Kuizhou, with three layers of enemy fences on it and artillery batteries lined up on both sides of the river). When you advance here, you must not confront them head-on, but disembark in advance, change the navy into the land army, sneak attack their camp, and after repelling them, use the navy.

Liu Guangyi followed the order and disembarked 30 miles away from Kuimen, launching a surprise attack. The Song army did not follow the routine and the Shu army was defeated. The commander of the warships, Yuan Dehong, was captured, the general Nan Guanghai was killed, more than 12,000 Shu soldiers were killed, and more than 200 warships were captured. The Song army occupied Baidi City and then approached Kuizhou.

Gao Yanchou, the commander-in-chief of the Shu army's eastern route, said to his deputy commander-in-chief Zhao Chongji and military supervisor Wu Shouqian: "The Song army has come from afar, so it is better for us to fight quickly and decisively. Our army just needs to hold on and not move out."

Wu Shouqian firmly disagreed and led more than a thousand soldiers out of the city to fight, but was defeated by the Song army. Wu Shouqian fled into the city, but the Song army held on tightly, and the Song army rushed into the city at the same time as the Shu army, and then captured the city in one go.

Gao Yanchou organized a resistance, and the two sides entered into a brutal street fight. Gao Yanchou was shot more than ten times and bled profusely, while his followers fled in all directions. Seeing that the situation was hopeless, Gao Yanchou also fled back home, wiped the blood off his body, changed into clean and tidy clothes, bowed to the northwest again, then tidied his clothes, held his head high and walked up the tall building with generous and resolute steps, and burned himself to death for his country.

A few days later, Liu Guangyi completely captured Kuizhou, found Gao Yanchou's remains in the ashes, and then buried them with proper ceremony.

As for the northern army, Wang Quanbin could not attack Jianmen Pass directly because the plank road was burned down, so he could only go around "Mantian Mountain", which is also called "Mantian Ridge". The name shows its danger. Meng Zhixiang set up "Big Mantian Village" and "Small Mantian Village" respectively, and Meng Zhixiang's attention to them can be traced back to when he first arrived in Xichuan.

It stands to reason that the battle for the towering Big and Small Mantian Villages must have been extremely brutal, but history books only briefly mention it, and some history books even omit it.

In short, Wang Quanbin captured all the strongholds and chased them all the way to Lizhou. The capture of Mantian Stronghold and the surprise attack on Jianmen Pass should have been a thrilling action movie, but the historical records only mentioned it briefly, leaving only a small detail, saying that Wang Zhaoyuan burned Jibaijin and retreated to Jianmen Pass. Just when Wang Quanbin was suffering from no way out, the surrendered soldiers of the Shu army offered a plan to break through the pass and explained a "small road to Su" that could bypass Jianmen Pass and meet the main road at Qingjiangdian in the south of the pass.

So Wang Quanbin played a trick of repairing the plank road in public while secretly attacking Chencang. He led the main force to repair the plank road, and sent the cavalry commander Shi Yande to take the "Laisu Road" to capture Jianmen Pass in one fell swoop.

Wang Zhaoyuan, the Shu commander who compared himself to Zhuge Liang, waved his iron ruyi all the way, pointed out the country and wrote inspiring words, and looked down on Zhuge Liang. However, when he heard the news that Jianmen Pass had been conquered, he was so scared that he collapsed into a ball.
"When he heard that Jianmen had been breached, he became terrified and lost his words."

All the generals were ready to listen to his strategizing, waiting to see him destroy the enemy's ships and sails in a moment of laughter and chatter. In desperation, General Zhao Chongtao bravely took on the heavy responsibility of deploying troops and generals for the next battle.

"...The above is my opinion. Please give your instructions, Mr. Wang."

Wang Zhaoyuan slumped in the chair, unable to stand up.

"Before the battle, Zhaoyuan sat on a Huchuang, unable to get up." - "Spring and Autumn Annals of the Ten Kingdoms"

Although Zhuge Liang was also sitting in the car, Wang Zhaoyuan's tribute was really ridiculous.

As a result, Zhao Chongtao was defeated in three battles and was captured by the Song army. Lizhou was also captured by the Song army, and the 800,000 hu of grain stored in Lizhou was seized by the Song army.

Wang Zhaoyuan planned to flee to Dongchuan and hide in a granary. He was not bragging. While chatting and laughing, the masts and oars were indeed reduced to ashes, but they were his own.

Wang Zhaoyuan was in a state of embarrassment and loneliness, filled with mixed feelings and remorse. He could not suppress his inner sorrow and burst into tears. His eyes were swollen from tears. Finally, he was caught up by the Song army and taken to Bianzhou.

Zhao Kuangyin questioned him face to face and asked why he instigated Meng Chang to collude with Northern Han and provoke war?

Wang Zhaoyuan replied that he was just blindly loyal to his master.

Zhao Kuangyin then stopped making things difficult for him, gave him a sinecure, and kept him in Bianzhou. He died of illness in Bianzhou a few years later.

According to eyewitnesses who participated in the arrest, when Wang Zhaoyuan was arrested, his eyes were swollen and tears were streaming. He howled and repeated the same words at the top of his lungs - "The hero is gone, but he is not free."

This sentence comes from Luo Yin's poem. As mentioned in the previous article, Luo Yin was a great talent in the Jianghuai region in the late Tang Dynasty, but he was unsuccessful in his life because of his ugly appearance. In this poem, he used Zhuge Liang to express his feelings:

"Abandoning Nanyang is a matter of concern to the Lord, and making all the best plans for expeditions to the north and east.

When luck comes, heaven and earth are on your side; when luck is gone, heroes are helpless." (Excerpt)
The most widely circulated line in the whole poem is "When good luck comes, heaven and earth are on your side; when bad luck is gone, even heroes cannot be free." This line is easy to understand. The general meaning is that if you stand in the right place, even pigs can fly, but when you are unlucky, even farts hit your heels.

As the saying goes, a dying man's words are good. At the most desperate moment, Wang Zhaoyuan kept shouting "When luck is gone, heroes cannot be free". It seems that he did not really realize his mistakes. He was still stubborn and blamed all his mistakes on luck, thinking that he and the Later Shu were in this situation because of bad luck.

Zhao Chongtao, the son of Zhao Tingyin, the founding hero of the Later Shu, was brave and decisive, and inherited his father's style. He was highly valued after Meng Chang ascended the throne. In the "Qinfeng Battle", Chai Rong tried to go deep into the Shu territory, but was repelled by Zhao Chongtao. This was one of the reasons why Chai Rong decisively withdrew his troops and changed to Beiding Sanguan. Later, Meng Chang married his daughter to his son Zhao Wenliang. In the battle, Zhao Chongtao killed more than a dozen Song soldiers with his own hands, and was finally captured due to exhaustion.

(End of this chapter)