History of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms

Chapter 943: The Lost Country

[Long shot of the fall of a nation]

The Song army sounded the charge and Shengzhou was captured.

When Shengzhou was captured, what were the rulers and ministers of the Southern Tang doing? If it were a movie, it could be expressed in a series of long shots, which would be very artistic:
The camera takes an aerial shot from the outskirts of Shengzhou, passes through the streets and alleys, and finally enters the palace.

The first thing that takes center stage is the smoke-filled city walls. The Song army surges up the city walls like a tide, unstoppable. Some of the Southern Tang defenders are still putting up a desperate resistance, and at the edge of the camera, the main force of the Song army can be seen breaking through the city gates and rushing into the streets.

The camera quickly swoops down from the fierce battle on the city wall to the main road in the city. Here, the Southern Tang generals Ma Yan, Ma Chengxin and his brother Ma Chengjun led hundreds of warriors to fight in the streets, but they were soon all killed because they were outnumbered.
After passing the bodies of Wang Yan and the Ma brothers, the camera rose again, and was slapped and blocked by the flags of the Song army. Under the flags were 45 high-ranking officials of the Southern Tang Dynasty, including Yin Chongyi, who were bare-chested and backless. They knelt on the ground with their upper bodies naked, shouted that they were willing to surrender, and accepted the body searches of the Song army soldiers.
The camera does not stop, but continues to cross a courtyard wall and enters the home of Zhong Qian, a scholar of the Qinzheng Palace. Zhong Qian is wearing court robes and sitting in the middle of the courtyard. His family is being slaughtered by the rebels, but he remains unmoved until the rebels chop off his head.
The camera passes through the wall. Here is the home of Liao Cheng, a veteran official of three dynasties. Someone advises him to surrender quickly to save his life. Liao Cheng holds a wine glass in his hand and says that he is not greedy for life. Then he drinks the poisoned wine and commits suicide for his country.

The camera takes off again, passing over the thousands of houses in Shengzhou City, and speeds up to the palace. On the ground, there is a crowded street fight, and the background sound is the "clang, clang, clang" sound of swords colliding and shouting. Gradually, the background sound gradually becomes stronger and stronger, and the sound of two men arguing appears. Finally, when the camera arrives at the palace, we can hear the content of the argument clearly;

The two who had a fierce argument were the hawkish figures of Southern Tang, Chen Qiao and Zhang Li. Previously, whenever Li Yu was discouraged and wanted to surrender and negotiate peace, the two would try their best to dissuade him, expressing their willingness to die for the country. Chen Qiao even killed his entire family to show that he had no selfish motives. Now, when the city was broken, Chen Qiao and Zhang Li met and came to the palace.

Chen Qiao knelt down and cried, "I have failed Your Majesty. Please kill me."

Li Yu looked at him dejectedly and said, "Now that things have come to this, your death will be useless. You and I, the king and subject, should surrender and head north together."

Chen Qiao said: "If the Emperor of Song holds you responsible for the war, how will Your Majesty respond? It would be better to kill me now, and then Your Majesty can put all the blame on me."

Li Yu looked up to the sky and sighed, then left dejectedly.

Chen Qiao burst into tears and looked back at Zhang Li, "Let's go, kill ourselves for the country, sacrifice our lives for justice, the time is now." Chen Qiao asked Zhang Li to commit suicide together for the country.

"No!" Zhang Li suddenly regretted and said, if we both die, who will defend the master in the future? How about this, you die first, I will accompany the master to the north, and I will be the master's defense lawyer...

Chen Qiao was furious and immediately had a fierce argument with Zhang Li. This was the background sound just now.

As the camera moves from far to near, the two gradually come to the center. Chen Qiao walks out with his sleeves swung, and the camera follows him to the Political Affairs Hall. Chen Qiao calls out to two grassroots clerks, "Come on, you two, take the rope and strangle me to death."

The two refused.

Chen Qiao's eyes widened with anger. "This is an order!" He then untied his belt and said, "After we are done, please help me collect the body. Thank you."

The two dug a shallow pit in the open space under the corridor, removed the door of the office, and hastily buried Chen Qiao's body. In order to prevent it from being destroyed by the enemy, the two did not build a grave or leave any marks, allowing Comrade Chen Qiao to sleep forever on this land he loved so much.

When the two were burying the soil, the camera moved again, passing through the corridor and coming to the inner hall. If you look carefully, you will find that the corridor is full of firewood, but the camera did not stay, nor did it give a close-up, it just moved quickly past.

What is incredible is that the quiet and peacefulness here forms a sharp contrast with the noise and disorder outside, because there is only one quiet and handsome man here, his name is Li Yu.

Li Yu's expression was the loneliness and calmness after a sudden rain, the indifference and composure after despair. He was holding a pen, continuing his literary and artistic creation that had just been interrupted.

The camera slowly moved down from his face to the manuscript on the table. This was the "Linjiangxian: The Cherries Have Fallen and Spring Is Gone" that was widely circulated in later generations.

The camera continued to move slowly downwards, disappearing into the desk, and the camera was completely blocked.

At this point, the long shot ends and the scene switches. Outside the palace, there is an orderly formation of Song troops, led by Song generals Cao Bin, Pan Mei and others.

Li Yu brought along hundreds of civil and military officials, presented a letter of surrender, and surrendered outside the palace. He first met Pan Mei, who returned the greeting; then he met Cao Bin, who clasped his fists slightly and said, "I'm sorry that I can't return the greeting because I'm wearing armor." Cao Bin then sent more than a thousand elite soldiers to guard the palace gates, and stipulated that no one was allowed to enter. Anyone who dared to trespass would be killed without mercy. When the soldiers were moving, Cao Bin suddenly whispered to Li Yu, "Hurry back to the palace to pack up your things. Take as much gold, silver, and other valuables as you can. If you bring them out, they will be considered your private property. If they are registered by my soldiers first, they will be considered as spoils of war. Go!"

Li Yu thanked him profusely, then returned to the palace to rob himself.

According to prior information, Li Yu had piled up firewood in the palace, ready to burn his entire family to death. When Cao Bin asked Li Yu to return to the palace to pack his luggage, his generals tried to dissuade him, saying that if he committed suicide by jumping into the fire, how would he explain to the emperor?

Cao Bin smiled but did not answer. Generals Liang Jiong, Tian Qinzuo and others were anxious and wanted to disobey his military orders and rush into the palace to bring Li Yu back.

"Don't worry, Li Yu doesn't have the courage!" Cao Bin sneered sarcastically.

According to historical records, when Li Yu first negotiated peace, Cao Bin, Pan Mei and others were waiting on a boat outside the city, and then invited Li Yu to the boat for tea. There was a narrow wooden board connected to the bow of the boat. Li Yu was lingering on the dock and dared not move forward. Cao Bin ordered two attendants to help him onto the boat. So Cao Bin said to his generals that Li Yu was afraid to walk on a single-plank bridge, which showed his cowardly nature of being greedy for life and afraid of death. Moreover, the emperor had promised to spare his life, so why would he throw himself into the fire at this time? The generals praised Cao Bin's courage.

According to the "Jiangnan Wild History", at the beginning of the war, Li Yu had repeatedly told people around him that if the Song army was at the gates of the city, he would put on his armor and climb the city wall in person to fight with the soldiers to protect the country. If he really couldn't win, he would gather firewood and burn himself with his whole family. The king would die for the country and never be captured! When Zhao Kuangyin heard this, he smiled contemptuously and said that this was a fool (Cuo Daer) who was just having fun, just talking nonsense and deceiving others to be cannon fodder. If he really had this courage, how could Sun Hao and Chen Shubao become prisoners?

Can you speak out what's in your heart? Can what you say be what's in your heart? Despicable!
Sure enough, after packing up his belongings, Li Yu left the palace as promised and headed north to Bianzhou under the escort of 500 elite Song troops.

When the city was captured, there was a ten-zhang-high pavilion in Shengyuan Temple, where hundreds of scholars, officials, wealthy people and their families hid. The Wu Yue soldiers who broke into the city set fire to the downstairs and burned it all down. Hundreds of people turned into ashes amid screams and cries that resounded through the sky.

After Li Yu surrendered, Cao Bin ordered him to lay down his arms and accept the management of the Song Dynasty's occupying army. All states surrendered one after another, except Jiangzhou generals Hu Ze and Song Deming, who refused to obey and insisted on resisting. Cao Bin then sent the vanguard commander Cao Han to pacify the rebellion. Jiangzhou was a strong city that was easy to defend but difficult to attack. It took Cao Han more than half a year and suffered heavy casualties before he finally conquered the city and captured the two rebel generals.

The mastermind Hu Ze was already seriously ill at the time. He was tied to a bed and carried before Cao Han. Cao Han sternly accused him of refusing orders. Hu Ze defended himself by saying "a dog barking at a master other than its master", which was a common excuse used by captured generals, meaning that everyone served their own master. Cao Han beheaded Hu Ze and executed Song Deming, and then ordered a massacre in the city. According to historical records, "tens of thousands of people died, and the gold and silk stolen amounted to hundreds of millions".

On December 975, 12, good news was sent back to Bianzhou: Li Yu was captured alive and the Southern Tang Dynasty was destroyed!

In this battle, a total of 19 states, three armies, 108 counties, and 655,065 households were captured.

All the ministers came to the court to congratulate him, but Zhao Kuangyin burst into tears, "The country is divided, and the people suffer from it. When the city is attacked, some will be killed by the sword. This is really sad!" Everyone admired Comrade Zhao Kuangyin's mind and awareness.

In the first month of the ninth year of Kaibao (976), Li Yu, the king of the fallen country, arrived in Bianzhou. Cao Bin then delivered the "Pingjiang Nanlubu", which is commonly known as the "good news". However, this kind of good news did not need to be encrypted or sealed, but was meant to let more people know the good news earlier.

In this "Pingjiang South Proclamation", there are expressions such as "treacherous ministers in the isolated city" and "false officials", as well as praises such as "the sky and the sky help to obey, and the sea and the mountains know when to return", and "when the wise emperor is in power, it is the day when the civil and legal systems are confused".

At a discussion meeting on the ceremony of surrendering captives, some people advocated using the ceremony of surrendering captives used by Liu Yan of the Southern Han Dynasty.

However, Zhao Kuangyin finally decided not to treat Li Yu with the ritual of national destruction, "no announcement", Li Yu and others only needed to wear white clothes and gauze hats and wait for punishment under the Mingde Building, and then Zhao Kuangyin issued an edict to pardon and comfort them. After all, the Southern Tang Dynasty had been the legitimate dynasty. From a legal point of view, the Southern Tang Dynasty could no longer be regarded as an "enemy". The rituals of announcing and offering captives were only for enemy countries, and it was obviously inappropriate to use them on Li Yu, which was not conducive to national unity.

Zhao Kuangyin granted Li Yu the titles of Guanglu Dafu, Jianxu Taifu, and General of the Right Thousand Oxen Guard, and conferred him the title of Weiming Hou.

After Emperor Taizong of Song, Zhao Guangyi, ascended the throne, he changed Li Yu's title to Duke of Longxi County.

On the Chinese Valentine's Day in the third year of Taipingxingguo (978), Li Yu died in Bianzhou at the age of 41, leaving us prematurely.

Li Yu is the most well-known historical figure during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period. The following will deeply restore this king who lost his country, who is both familiar and unfamiliar to us, from three perspectives:
Thanks to old friends "Jiang Hu Liu Bai" and "Yang Kui" for their monthly ticket support!

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(End of this chapter)