History of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms

Chapter 926 Shaozhou Battle
Wang Ming was actually a glorious failure. He took the imperial examination in the Later Jin Dynasty but failed. Yao Yuanfu, the general who was the governor of Yuanzhou (now Yuanzhou District, Guyuan City, Ningxia), offered this failure a job and made him his staff. Wang Ming reluctantly left the capital and participated in the development of the western part of the motherland. Later, Feng Hui took charge of Lingwu and recruited him to his side. This failure became a hot commodity in the northwest region.

In the early years of the Later Zhou Dynasty, Yao Yuanfu again recommended him to be the "acting judge". Later, Yao Yuanfu was ordered to reinforce Jinzhou to resist the invasion of the Northern Han Dynasty. During this period, Wang Ming participated in many decisions.

Once, Yao Yuanfu ordered the nearby counties to transport grain and grass to the front line. As a result, due to excessive fear, the workers fled overnight after transporting the grain and grass. Yao Yuanfu was furious, and tied up the officials in charge of escorting the food and grass, intending to execute them all in front of the army on the grounds of poor supervision. At the critical moment, Wang Ming rushed to the execution ground, shouting "spare their lives", then analyzed the pros and cons with Yao Yuanfu, and finally rescued these people successfully.

Yao Yuanfu was stationed in Jinzhou and recommended Wang Ming as his chief of staff (secretary). However, Yao Yuanfu was proud of his achievements and did many illegal things. Wang Ming, who was upright, advised him many times, which touched the interests of Yao Yuanfu's petty people. As a result, he was repeatedly slandered and Yao Yuanfu gradually distanced himself from him. Wang Ming left Yao Yuanfu and fled from the place of right and wrong, saying that his father was sick and needed to go home to visit him. Later, Yao Yuanfu wrote to him many times to call him back, but Wang Ming refused.

Later, Wang Ming took the initiative to apply for a job in the imperial court, and successively served as the county magistrate of Linqing County and Yancheng County. In the early Song Dynasty, Zhao Kuangyin summoned him to the central government and appointed him as the Left Picker of Relics. After conquering Shu, he became the governor of Rongzhou, and was promoted to the Right Assistant. Zhao Kuangyin planned to march south and appointed him as the "Jinghu Transport Envoy". When he officially marched south, he appointed him as the Transport Envoy accompanying the army.

It was this civil servant in charge of the transportation of food and fodder who, while the generals were hesitating, led more than a hundred delivery boys and thousands of migrant workers to complete the preparations for the assault.

Wang Ming gave all the generals including Pan Mei a vivid military lesson called "Strategic Deterrence."

The Art of War says that there are battles to fight and battles not to fight. Sometimes, when the enemy is sure that you will use a big move, you have already achieved the effect of the big move, so there is no need to really use it. For example, when the moat outside the city is filled, the defenders already believe that the attackers will attack next, so they choose to surrender, and Pan Mei does not have to really attack.

Hezhou was occupied by the Song army.

Pan Mei is indeed a learning-oriented person. He learned and applied what he learned, drew inferences from one instance, and after realizing the essence of deterrent power, he immediately announced to the outside world that he would go downstream and head straight to Guangzhou.

As expected, Liu Xiong was in a state of panic and had no idea what to do. As a last resort, he shamelessly asked Pan Chongche to come out of retirement and appointed him as the Grand Tutor and the Commander-in-Chief of the Cavalry and Infantry, allowing him to lead an army of 50,000 and station it in Hejiang as the outer defense line of Guangzhou.

Pan Mei did not rush to go south along the river, but instead made a feint to the east and attacked in the west, conquering Zhaozhou west of Hezhou, then turned back north and conquered Guizhou in the northwest and Lianzhou in the northeast.

It's like after pushing down the second tower in the middle lane, Pan Mei typed on the public screen that a wave had come to the middle lane, so Liu Xiong gathered under the middle lane highland tower to prepare for a team fight, and Pan Mei took the opportunity to push down the first and second towers in the upper lane and the first and second towers in the bottom lane.

Pan Mei wanted to clear the periphery and advance steadily, rather than marching straight into the hinterland and taking a gamble. Liu Xiong fell into the trap.

Facing Pan Mei's "General's Chariot" tactic, Pan Chongche, who was in charge of the outer periphery of Guangzhou, did not move and did not provide support or containment. Therefore, the Song army's actions were unusually smooth. Zhaozhou at least put up a round of resistance, but after losing hundreds of people, the governor abandoned the city and fled; the governor of Guizhou did not even resist and directly abandoned the city and fled; Lianzhou's defender Lu Zhi was betrayed by a traitor, and Lianzhou was also conquered without bloodshed.

Compared to Pan Chongche's inaction, Liu Cong's attitude was even more jaw-dropping. When Liu Cong heard that Zhaolian and other states had been lost, he actually said to his people: "Zhao, Lian, Gui, and He originally belonged to Hunan. Now the northern army has taken them. I know I won't go south again." I don't know if Liu Cong was heartless or brainless, or if he was deceiving himself. What he meant was that the reason the Song army started the war was to take back the land of the former Southern Chu. Now that it has been taken back, there is no reason to continue to go south. Well, the war is over.

wishful thinking.

After capturing Lianzhou, northeast of Hezhou, Pan Mei continued to march eastward, aiming for Shaozhou. Shaozhou was an important hub between Southern Han and Southern Tang, and the ancients called it the northern gate of Lingnan. Once occupied by the Song army, Southern Han would face the prospect of being surrounded, completely cutting off the possibility of international support (such as Southern Tang) for Southern Han.

The Battle of Shaozhou was a decisive battle for Southern Han, and its strategic significance was no less than the Battle of Stalingrad.

Liu Xiong attached great importance to the battle of Shaozhou and sent General Li Chengwo to lead more than 100,000 troops to reinforce. Li Chengwo not only brought 100,000 elite soldiers of the Southern Han, but also brought a special type of soldiers of the Southern Han - elephant soldiers. Li Chengwo led his troops to station at Lianhua Peak west of Shaozhou.

The two armies lined up, and the Southern Han army used its ultimate move at the beginning: elephant soldiers. Specially trained elephants were used as armored vehicles, and each elephant carried a dozen soldiers holding spears, halberds, strong bows and crossbows. Compared with charging into battle, elephant soldiers had a greater deterrent effect, intimidating the enemy and boosting their own morale.

Pan Mei remained calm in the face of danger, and gathered the archers and crossbowmen to focus fire on the elephants.

As expected, the elephants were frightened and turned and ran away. You can imagine the horror of the scene at that time. The Southern Han army was instantly broken up, and the soldiers and horses were thrown to the ground. Countless people were trampled to death by the elephants. The Song army took the opportunity to attack and surrounded the Southern Han army. Li Chengwu was the only one who escaped.

The strategic town of Shaozhou was immediately occupied by the Song army. Xin Yanwo, the governor of Shaozhou, and Zou Wenyuan, the counselor, were captured alive by the Song army. The encounter took place at Lianhua Peak, so it is usually called the "Battle of Lianhua Peak". It is one of the few battles recorded in history books that involved elephant soldiers.

Along with the news of the fall of Shaozhou came a letter of surrender from Xin Yanwo. He had already submitted to the stick of the Song army and became an active advocate of the "Great Song Co-Prosperity Sphere".

Up to this point, Liu Xiong's performance was always stable, from "no plan" to "increasingly desperate", in short, he was always in a state of confusion. After receiving the letter of persuasion to surrender, Liu Xiong, who was at a loss, asked the civil and military officials in the court. The eunuch Li Tuo firmly opposed surrender and advocated persisting in the struggle and resisting to the death. Liu Xiong then remembered that he should dig a trench outside Guangzhou City.

The old palace maid Liang Luanzhen recommended her godson Guo Chongyue again, saying how rare this little Yueyue was in military genius. So Guo Chongyue was appointed as the commander-in-chief, and he led 60,000 troops with the general Zhi Tingxiao to station in Majing (now Ma'anshan, north of Guangzhou) to build the outer defense line of Guangzhou.

(End of this chapter)