subvert the late Tang Dynasty

When Shang Rang arrived at Jiangling, Jiangling City had already become an empty city, or it could be said to be in ruins.

Jiangling City has been an important town in the south since ancient times. During the Spring and Autumn and Warring States Periods, Ying, the capital of the Chu State, was Jiangling in the Tang Dynasty. As the seat of Jingzhou and the residence of Jingnan Jiedushi, Jiangling naturally has its unique political and military significance.

Jiangling City faces the Yangtze River in the south, the Han River in the north, Bashu in the west, and Hunan and Guangdong in the south. The transportation is convenient, the people are rich, and the military status is dangerous.Jingzhou occupied by Liu Biao during the Three Kingdoms period was Jiangling City.

But such a thousand-year-old city was burned because of Wang Duo's cunning and Liu Hanhong's cruelty, leaving Shang Rang with nothing but charred rubble.

Shang Rang originally wanted to take down the ancient city of Jiangling, which did not have many troops, and take advantage of the momentum to occupy the entire Jingzhou, so as to save some face in front of Huang Chao.Unexpectedly, this was the result. In a fit of anger, he first captured the nearby county town, and then continued northward to Xiangyang, an important town in northern Hubei that is as famous as Jingzhou.

Xiangyang City, as the residence of the Jiedushi of Shannan Dongdao, is no less important than Jiangling.

Ke Shangrang maintained a strong military force, but Liu Jurong, who had just taken office as Jiedu envoy, didn't pay attention to him, so he didn't report to Huang Chao, but made his own claim, and led the army straight to Xiangyang.Shang Rang just wanted to surprise Huang Chao and earn face for himself, but he never expected that Liu Jurong and Cao Quanzhu would give him a blow, and let Shang Rang, who was greedy for success, learn a bloody lesson.

Shang Rang went north from Jiangling to Jingmen, where he met Cao Quanzhen's men and horses. The two sides fought fiercely. Cao Quanzhen was outnumbered and retreated northward.Shang Rang led his men in hot pursuit, and chased for about ten miles. When he saw the men who were about to catch up with Cao Quanzhen, suddenly arrows were fired from the forest on both sides of the road. He also turned around and killed him.

Shang Rang knew that he had fallen for the enemy's treacherous tricks, and he had no intention of fighting. After sending his confidant general Li Tangbin to stop him, he retreated to the way he came.

Li Tangbin is also a brave general, but when Shangrang's army suddenly saw densely packed ambush soldiers, he felt a little timid in his heart. After all, they were all just common people, how could they compare with the regular army?Seeing the main general retreating, the morale was even lower. Although Li Tangbin was brave, he was also weak. He fought Liu Jurong and Cao Quanzhen for a long time and suffered heavy losses.

Li Tangbin thought that Shang Rang should have gone far, and followed Shang Rang's path back.

In this battle, more than [-] rebels were killed or injured, but more than [-] people were separated in panic. It can be seen that Shang Rang's soldiers lacked strict training, which was the reason for this defeat.

Liu Jurong and Cao Quanzhen chased after them all the way to Jiangling, and Li Tangbin turned east and entered Bazhou.At this time, Baling City (now Yueyang), the seat of Bazhou, had been occupied by Zhu Wen. Shang Rang came straight to Baling after hearing the news, leaving clues along the way, and Li Tangbin followed all the way.

Liu Jurong stopped chasing him when he reached Jiangling. Cao Quan asked puzzledly, "Why didn't General Liu take advantage of the victory to pursue and annihilate this group of bandits in one fell swoop, eliminating this confidant's trouble?"

Liu Jurong's generals also advised Liu Jurong to continue chasing the bandits.

Liu Jurong sighed: "Nowadays the eunuchs are in power in the court, and the Holy One is young, how can we know the sufferings of our wars abroad? Only when the court is in trouble can we think of people who are generals. Once we wipe out Huang Chao and let this force Rogues, what awaits us may be the end of all birds and dogs. Isn’t Kang Chengxun, who wiped out Pang Xun’s 20 troops, a role model?”

No matter how you say it, Liu Jurong is a veteran in the battlefield. He and Song Wei followed Kang Chengxun in the war to encircle and suppress Pang Xun.That's why Song Wei had the opportunity to wipe out Wang Xianzhi and Huang Chao back then, but he kept them on purpose to raise the bandits' self-respect.

Liu Jurong is old and cunning, and of course he also understands the principle of raising bandits to respect themselves. He said to Cao Quan: "General Cao, you are the deputy envoy for the camp in the south, and this position is a temporary position for suppressing bandits. Once you really wiped out the bandits, you will be the deputy envoy to recruit. Why do you suppress when there are no bandits? What else do you recruit? You have to go back honestly and be your governor of Zizhou, After the Jiedu Envoy of the Tianping Army stayed, you were not even given the title of a regular Jiedu Envoy, and you might be dismissed with an edict someday."

Liu Jurong saw Cao Quanzhen's face was dark and silent, so he hit the iron while the iron was hot: "Since exterminating them is self-destructive, it is better to keep them, and we can maintain a long-term wealth. Why not do it?"

Cao Quanzhen sighed for a long time, and said: "General Liu is right, but after all, we eat the king's salary and we must be loyal to the king. What's more, if the fight continues like this, the people will suffer. Such perennial wars, food, grass, Gold and silk cost countless money, and now that the national treasury is empty, isn’t it all collected from the common people? In this way, how much suffering will the common people have to suffer?”

Liu Jurong took a deep look at Cao Quanzhen, and said with a light smile, "I really didn't realize that General Cao is a loyal and patriotic hero, but the officialdom is like a battlefield, even more cruel than a battlefield. A defeat in a battlefield means death at most, but Once there is any omission in the officialdom, it may be a disaster for the family to be wiped out. Is there not enough things done by the court? Why do you have to make it difficult for yourself?"

Liu Jurong's words are very meaningful. It's not that Cao Quanzhen is not clear, but he can't do it. He can't watch this great river and mountain in a situation where wars are raging all the time. The future of the bandits is self-respecting.Cao Quanzhen couldn't do this kind of thing.

Although he was not an upright man, he couldn't erase the last trace of conscience in his heart. He didn't want to be cast aside by future generations after thousands of years.

Cao Quanyi bowed deeply to Liu Jurong and said: "Cao Mou will always remember the words of General Liu, but Cao Mou is a rough person, and I don't want future generations to say that Cao Mou is a coward and villain when they mention me Cao Mou. The general doesn't want to chase, and I, Cao, don't force me, so Cao will leave now..."

Cao Quanzhen took Zhu Xuan, Zhu Jin, Zhu Qiong and other confidantes and generals and continued to chase eastward.

Liu Jurong looked at the back of Cao Quanzhen going away, and a blush could not help appearing on his weather-beaten old face. He shook his head and said, "After all, I am still a young man, and I have not experienced any setbacks. If I, Liu, were 20 years younger , will definitely capture Shang Rang alive with you, and wipe out Huang Chao... Alas, it’s a pity, time is not forgiving, it’s better for this old bone of mine to enjoy two more years of happiness.”

However, Liu Jurong's thinking is still too simple. Even if he is made 20 years younger, even if he is allowed to chase Shang Rang with Cao Quanzhen, it may not really be able to do anything to Shang Rang, let alone there is Zhu Wen waiting in front of Baling City ?What's more, there is an even more powerful Huang Chao behind Zhu Wen!

Liu Jurong returned to Xiangyang and immediately reported his victory to the imperial court. The report said that he and Cao Quanzhen joined forces to ambush Huang Chao's army, broke it, and killed more than [-] thieves. Seven out of ten casualties...

Which battle report in history was not reported in this way?This is why the same war has different records of victory and defeat in different historical versions.What's more, the larger the number of enemies wiped out, the more you write, the better, so that it will appear that you have made great contributions!

These exaggerated records have become the history of later generations, which makes us modern people feel that many places are illogical when reading history, but because it is recognized as official history for many years, no one doubts it.If you really study history seriously, you will find that there are many places where the donkey's mouth is wrong with the horse's lip in the historical records.

It's a bit far away, let's get down to business.

Cao Quanzhen led more than ten thousand men to chase Shang Rang. Can he really capture Shang Rang alive?Or is Shang Ranghui, who has many times more troops than him, coming back to give him a head-on blow, or let our pig-footed Comrade Zhu Wen go out of the city to fight Cao Quanzhen?Let's wait and see!