History of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms

Chapter 940: Southern Tang 3
Looking at the eastern front, after taking Changzhou, the Wu Yue Kingdom marched into Runzhou and penetrated into the heartland of Southern Tang.

Liu Cheng, the governor of Runzhou, was Li Yu's close confidant. When Li Yu was seeing Liu Cheng off, he had tears in his eyes and said, "We have never been apart. Now Runzhou can only rely on you. I really can't bear to see you go!"

Liu Cheng also burst into tears and showed Li Yu his luggage - several large carts of gold, silver and jewelry.

Li Yu's tears froze instantly. It is said that in ancient times, great generals carried coffins to the battlefield. What are you doing...

Liu Cheng looked ready to die and said that these were all rewards given to me by Your Majesty over the years. I brought them all to Runzhou and distributed them to the soldiers without leaving a single cent left, encouraging them to fight bravely. I am sacrificing my family to help others in need and to be loyal to my country!

When Li Yu heard this, tears welled up in his eyes again. You are such a loyal minister!
Liu Cheng blatantly transferred his assets to Runzhou. He really wanted to take Runzhou. After arriving in Runzhou, he secretly contacted the Song army and the Wuyue army, expressing his willingness to surrender as long as he could keep his property. After the Wuyue army arrived, they built a camp on the periphery. The generals of Runzhou requested to send troops to attack the enemy before the camp was completed, and to strike the enemy head-on while they were still breathing, but Liu Cheng refused.

Li Yu was worried that Runzhou could not be defended, so he considerately dispatched 8,000 naval forces for support.

The chief general of the reinforcements was none other than the "hawkish" Lu Jiang mentioned above. Lu Jiang had always been hostile to the Wuyue Kingdom and had long ago asserted that the Wuyue Kingdom would become accomplices when the Song Dynasty marched south. Therefore, he had always strongly suggested taking the initiative to destroy the Wuyue Kingdom.

After Lu Jiang arrived in Runzhou, he saw that something was wrong and suspected Liu Cheng of betraying the country. Liu Cheng planned to kill him to silence him. It happened that Lu Jiang punished a certain general for some reason. Liu Cheng privately encouraged the general to assassinate Lu Jiang, but he could not find an opportunity to do it. So Liu Cheng turned to Lu Jiang and said, "I heard that Shengzhou is in danger and Shengzhou can no longer be defended. Why are you guarding here? Go quickly!"

The crystal is almost gone, and you are still fighting for the bottom lane tower? "Go back to defend the high ground!"

After persuading Lu Jiang's reinforcements to leave, Liu Cheng formally opened the city and surrendered.

Lu Jiang was a man of vision and loyal to his master. When the rescue of Shengzhou failed, Lu Jiang led his troops to retreat to Xuanzhou. The surrounding counties all surrendered, but Lu Jiang preferred death to surrender. Later, he was forced to retreat southward. When passing Shezhou, Shezhou governor Gong Shenyi closed the city and refused to accept him, so Lu Jiang killed him. Later, Zhao Kuangyin sent his younger brother Lu Xi to persuade him to surrender. Lu Jiang immediately ordered Lu Xi to be beheaded to show his determination to never surrender. However, he was persuaded by his generals and Lu Xi fled back in embarrassment.

After Li Yu returned to Song, Lu Jiang still insisted on resisting. Later, Zhao Kuangyin persuaded him, saying that your master had surrendered, why are you still insisting? Lu Jiang then gave up resistance and returned to Song, and was granted the post of Jizhou Tuanlianshi. After arriving in Bianzhou, the doctor of praise, Gong Ying (nephew of Gong Shenyi), cursed him and had him arrested, crying, "This guy is the murderer who killed my uncle!"

Cao Bin, who was the Privy Councilor at the time, said that this was a different time and they each served their own master. Moreover, this man was a man of both civil and military talents, loyal and brave, and the court still wanted to use him, so there was no need to mention the old things.

However, when Zhao Kuangyin took a look at Lu Jiang, he was shocked and said, "This guy looks exactly like Hou Barong, how can we keep him? Drag him out and kill him!" Hou Barong was an official of the Northern Han Dynasty who killed Liu Jie'en and established Liu Jiyuan.

There is also a record that Lu Jiang would rather die than surrender, and when he saw Zhao Kuangyin, he stood up instead of kneeling, and shouted that he only knew his master's surname was Li, and didn't know what a Zhao was. Zhao Kuangyin had no choice but to kill him.

Lu Jiang was one of the few strong men in the Southern Tang Dynasty and won the respect of historians.

After taking Runzhou, the Wuyue army and the main force of the Song army successfully joined forces outside Shengzhou City. The two battlefields merged into one, forming a strategic encirclement of Shengzhou.

Under heavy pressure, Li Yu was confused and issued several orders in a row, urging Hongzhou to come to Beijing to defend the king. Hongzhou, today's Nanchang, Jiangxi, was the southern capital of the Southern Tang at that time. It was stationed with the last armed force of the Southern Tang - 15 elite navy. This navy was well-equipped and equipped with the most advanced weapons at the time, which was also the secret weapon of the Southern Tang - the kerosene machine. Simply put, it is similar to the flamethrower in modern weapons. It is a black technology in the era of cold weapons, and it is also the ceiling of firepower output. During the period of Zhu Youzhen of the Later Liang Dynasty, Huainan sent a batch of "fierce fire oil" to the Khitan. It is said that its power is devastating and can be used to deal with strong cities and high walls, so that the Khitan will form military pressure on the Later Liang, thereby reducing the threat of the Later Liang to Huainan.

Hongzhou was of great significance to the Southern Tang Dynasty, especially after the "Three Expeditions to Huainan", it became the secondary capital of the Southern Tang Dynasty. Li Jing even moved the capital directly to Hongzhou in his later years.

Shengzhou, today's Nanjing, Jiangsu, is close to the Yangtze River. Once the Central Plains army breaks through the natural barrier of the Yangtze River, they will be at the gates of the city. After the "Three Expeditions to Huainan", the Later Zhou and the Song Dynasty often conducted large-scale live-fire exercises on the surface of the Yangtze River to provoke and intimidate Shengzhou on the other side, which frightened Li Jing to hastily move the capital.

Hongzhou has a more adequate strategic buffer than Shengzhou because there are the majestic Lushan Mountain and the vast Poyang Lake between Hongzhou and the Yangtze River.

The generals stationed in Hongzhou were all well-chosen generals with both civil and military skills, such as Lin Renzhao, the "Lin Tiger". After Lin Renzhao was killed by Li Yu, Zhu Lingyun came to station in Hongzhou.

Zhu Lingyun was born into a prominent family. His grandfather was a veteran of the Huainan faction, the brother-in-law of Yang Xingmi, and the "Huainan Zhu San" Zhu Yanshou. He was very fierce and once defeated Zhu Wen at his peak with a small force in Shouzhou. From then on, he was famous throughout the world and was later killed by Yang Xingmi for treason.

His father was Zhu Kuangye. When Zhu Yanshou was killed, Zhu Kuangye was still young and survived. Later, he was reused by Xu Zhigao. The reason was simple. Zhu Kuangye and Yang Xingmi had a grudge for killing their father. Xu Zhigao usurped the Yang family's kingdom and would certainly reuse such people. During the "Three Expeditions to Huainan", Zhu Kuangye repeatedly made military exploits and won the trust and appreciation of Li Jing. He was also taken care of and wooed by the "Four Evils and Five Ghosts" group. After Li Ping defected and surrendered to Zhou, Li Jing planned to lead the expedition in person and asked Zhu Kuangye for his opinion. Zhu Kuangye opposed it, so he was demoted and sent out. After Li Yu ascended the throne, he recalled him and died of illness soon after.

Historical records say that Zhu Lingyun was Zhu Kuangye's "nephew", nephew or adopted son. This person has a very distinctive appearance, "a sharp forehead and eagle eyes", that is, deep eye sockets, and was nicknamed "Zhu Shenyan". He was agile and good at shooting, both civil and military, brave and resourceful.

Nowadays, many people question Zhu Lingyun's military ability, and even directly say that he did not know how to use troops, and watched the Song army drift downstream and missed the opportunity to fight. In fact, this is a very irresponsible and unwarranted accusation.

The Song army created a man-made miracle in history. They built the Yangtze River Bridge in three days and quickly advanced to Shengzhou. This was beyond everyone's cognition. Even Li Yu could not predict it, let alone a small Jiedushi. Moreover, the main force of Hongzhou was far away from the Yangtze River. Even if they found the movement of the Song army, they would not have time to stop it. At this time, Hongzhou's strategic depth advantage became a disadvantage of delaying the advance. Even if Hongzhou was close to the Yangtze River like Shengzhou, it would have become the target of the first wave of attacks by the Song army, and it would not have stayed until today.

When Shengzhou was surrounded, Zhu Lingyun immediately led his troops northward and stationed them at Hukou, the intersection of Poyang Lake and the Yangtze River, a strategic location. If they advanced, they could cut off the Yangtze River waterway, cutting off the Song army's retreat and food supply. If they retreated, they could rely on Poyang Lake to preserve Hongzhou and defend half of the country for the Southern Tang. This was obviously the most correct approach, which was enough to show Zhu Lingyun's outstanding military talent.

After the Song army surrounded Shengzhou, they delayed launching a large-scale offensive, which was to some extent because they were afraid of Zhu Lingyun in Hukou. Once the front was caught in a siege battle and Zhu Lingyun cut off the Yangtze River waterway, the Song army under Shengzhou would become an isolated army and even face the danger of being surrounded by Zhu Lingyun.

Zhu Lingyun's troops stationed in Hukou posed a great strategic deterrent and tactical constraint to the Song army, making the Song army fearful on the Shengzhou front.

The Art of War says that there is fighting and there is fighting without fighting. Effective deterrence is better than hand-to-hand combat, and defeating the enemy without fighting is the best strategy.

The one who really had no military talent was Li Yu in Shengzhou City. He was frightened by the Song army outside the city and kept ordering Zhu Lingyun to advance quickly to lift the siege of Shengzhou.

(End of this chapter)