History of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms

Chapter 900 Liu Chengjun's Collapse (Part )

On this day, Liu Chengjun had the opportunity to make his dream come true. His once powerful rival, Li Yun, a general of the Later Zhou Dynasty who was stationed in Luzhou, wrote to him asking for help, expressing his willingness to submit to the Northern Han Dynasty and join forces to destroy the Song Dynasty.

As mentioned above, Li Yun mobilized people on a large scale, first publishing a "many rude" manifesto, officially announcing anti-Song, and then sending private messages to key groups, such as Yang Tingzhang of Jinzhou and Li Chongjin of Yangzhou, and even climbing over the wall to call on separatist regimes such as Hou Shu. The "anti-Song alliance" was in full swing.

At the same time as Li Yun officially declared his rebellion against the Song Dynasty, he dispatched troops to attack Zezhou, and sent the governor of Zezhou, the military supervisor of Luzhou and others to the Northern Han Dynasty as a token of his allegiance, demonstrating his unscrupulous attitude with practical actions.

Liu Chengjun was overjoyed. He didn't expect happiness to come so suddenly, so he mobilized the best troops from all over the country and rushed south.

Next came the epic "Taipingyi Alliance" where Li Yun thought he was too shabby, and he called Li Yun a scumbag.

After all, Liu Chengjun had been the only one in power for several years. Although he was unhappy, he tried his best to act righteously and tolerated Li Yun's rude offense. He left his confidant Lu Zan as the military supervisor of Luzhou, and then sent Prime Minister Wei Rong to be the peacemaker between Lu Zan and Li Yun, and sent Heyang Jiedushi Fan Shoutu to lead his troops to assist Li Yun and complete the control over Li Yun.

The stubborn Li Yun gave up the route of protracted war and chose to go south from Zezhou to Taihang Mountain to fight a decisive battle with the Song Dynasty on the front battlefield, hoping to achieve victory in one battle. He eventually lost the "Battle of Zelu" and burned himself to death. His son Li Shoujie surrendered by offering Luzhou.

In this battle, Northern Han Prime Minister Wei Rong was captured, Xuanhui Envoy Lu Zan was killed, and thousands of soldiers were lost. The Song Dynasty took advantage of the victory to counterattack and invaded Northern Han. Liu Chengjun had no choice but to use a big move - calling the Khitan father. With the support of Khitan famous general Xiao Siwen and others, Northern Han finally saved half of its life.

The "Battle of Zelu" during the reign of Liu Chengjun and the "Battle of Gaoping" during the reign of Liu Chong have many similarities. They both caused irreparable and lasting damage to the Northern Han regime. Below we will take a closer look at the collapse of the Northern Han after the "Battle of Zelu" from the perspective of the Northern Han.

1. Overdoing something

Liu Chengjun's strategic intention was obviously to get rid of the Khitan's control, so he seized the opportunity to develop a subordinate (Li Yun), but suffered a disastrous defeat. Not only did the Northern Han fail to get rid of the Khitan's control, but it deepened its dependence on the Khitan.

2. We have many traitors.
Under the constant threat of the Song army, the army and civilians of Northern Han were in a state of panic, so the front-line troops revolted and surrendered in an organized manner, and even the people in Taiyuan city fled to the Song on a large scale.

In April 962 AD alone, 4 Taiyuan citizens robbed the Song Dynasty. Liu Chengjun set up a special patrol team (Zhuasheng) for this purpose. However, ironically, the patrol team commander Lu Gui and eleven others took advantage of their positions and robbed the Song Dynasty in July.

In August 963, the border conflict between Han and Song reached a small climax: Wang Quanbin won three battles and conquered Leping County of Northern Han. In this battle, 8 Northern Han soldiers surrendered, and villages including Jingyang surrendered. The Song Dynasty renamed Leping County "Pingjin Army" and reorganized the surrendered soldiers of Northern Han into "Xiaoshun Army".

In September, the Northern Han counterattacked Leping County with the help of Khitan reinforcements. The two sides lined up, but before the battle began, the Khitan cavalry made a strategic shift, leaving the Northern Han soldiers in disarray, and the counterattack ultimately failed. Before the battle, a low-ranking officer in the Song Dynasty's Xishan garrison went to Bianzhou to appeal to the higher authorities and report on Xishan's chief general Guo Jin. Zhao Kuangyin tied him up with ropes, sent him back to Xishan, and handed him over to Guo Jin, allowing him to kill his enemy with his own hands.

Guo Jin looked him up and down and said, "You actually dare to tell on me about my misdeeds. You're quite courageous! If you're really brave, go into battle and kill the enemy. After you've performed meritorious service, I will not only spare you, but also reward you according to your merit. If you fail, just surrender to Hedong and run for your life." Then he released him.

The officer was so grateful that he followed the army to Leping and fought bravely, and indeed made great contributions. Afterwards, Guo Jin fulfilled his promise, pardoned his past mistakes, restored his military post, and rewarded him according to his merits.

On February 964, 2, Liaozhou Governor Du Yantao, Imperial Army General Ji Jin, and Military Supervisor Hou Mei led 1 soldiers and horses to surrender the city to the Song Dynasty. This was a joint rebellion of local armed forces, the central imperial army, and the supervisory department, which was extremely bad in nature and had a very bad social impact. The surrendered soldiers were reorganized into the Xieshun Army and the Huai'en Army;

In March, Yaozhou Tuanlianshi Zhou Shenyu and four others surrendered to the Song Dynasty;
In March 967, Yan Zhang surrendered to the Song Dynasty with Shipen Fortress; in April, the chief of Hongtang Fortress, Fan Hui, killed the military supervisor Cheng Zhao and surrendered to the Song Dynasty;
In the first month of 968, Ren En, the chief of Piancheng Village, and 7 other generals surrendered to the Song Dynasty; in July, Hu Yu, the chief of Wuyu Village, and 139 other generals surrendered to the Song Dynasty...

3. Late-stage drastic measures

When Liu Chengjun led the elite troops of the whole country to the south to assist Li Yun, all the civil and military officials of the Northern Han Dynasty supported Liu Chengjun's decision. Only Zhao Hua expressed his concerns, saying that Li Yun would not be able to accomplish anything, so it was better not to rush in. Liu Chengjun was angry with Zhao Hua at the time. When he returned from the defeat, the first thing he did was to apologize to Zhao Hua and promote him to a higher position and invite him to the decision-making level. However, Zhao Hua was completely disappointed with Liu Chengjun, so he politely declined and retired to his hometown. Liu Chengjun also valued Confucian scholars more, so he asked his close ministers to recommend scholars for him.

Prime Minister Wei Rong was captured by the Song army, and Xuanhui Envoy Lu Zan was killed. Liu Chengjun was in urgent need of restoring the organizational structure. Privy Envoy Duan Chang recommended the hermit Guo Wuwei to him.

Guo Wuwei, also known by his courtesy name Wubuwei, has a playful name and a more humorous appearance: "Fangqian Niaobei", with a square forehead but a pointed face. He is eloquent and worked as a Taoist priest in Mount Wutai in his early years. When Guo Wei was fighting against Li Shouzhen in Hezhong, Guo Wuwei took the initiative to surrender and chatted with Guo Wei. Guo Wei praised his talent and wanted to keep him by his side as a counselor. Someone reminded Guo Wei that you are now holding a large number of troops and are on the expedition, but you are recruiting followers, especially Taoist priests, so you should be cautious! Guo Wei suddenly realized and reluctantly gave Guo Wuwei a good guy card.

So, Guo Wuwei came to Hedong and lived in seclusion in Baofu Mountain. After the "Battle of Zelu", Privy Councilor Duan Chang recommended Guo Wuwei to Liu Chengjun, and he was appointed as a counselor, and soon promoted to the Minister of Personnel and the Councilor of the Central Secretariat, entering the core power circle.

Liu Chengjun trusted Guo Wuwei without any bottom line or principles. For example, after his recommender Duan Chang was killed for "rebellion", Guo Wuwei was not demoted. Instead, he combined the positions of prime minister and privy councilor in one person and monopolized all power.

Guo Wuwei is one of the famous powerful ministers in Chinese history. There are too many mysteries about him, which will be explained in detail later.

(End of this chapter)