With the morale of the Battle of Gaoping, Chai Rong began the war against the Northern Han. Liu Chongjie retreated. But Chai Rong attacked so quickly, Liu Chong really didn't have time to react, but at the same time, Chai Rong was also not ready to attack. Conquering a country requires not only morale, but also long-term preparation, adequate food and wages, and sufficient soldiers. This is not something that can be done so easily.

After Chai Rong besieged Taiyuan for a month, Chai Rong's food and salary began to be unable to keep up, and Hou Zhou's combat strength began to fail. During the period of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms, the soldiers could not eat enough and even the emperor dared to offend, as a result, the common people in the Northern Han Dynasty were unlucky, the mass base plummeted, and Chai Rong needed to face the regular army of the Northern Han and the guerrillas in the Northern Han at the same time. The form has taken a sharp turn. At this time, the bad news came, and Shi Yanchao, the general of the Later Zhou Dynasty, was defeated by the Liao reinforcements and died in his life. The reinforcements of the Liao State were pressing step by step, and the form was even worse, at this time, Chai Rong had only one choice, to withdraw the army.

Well, Chai Rong retreated. This was good news for the Northern Han Dynasty, but although Chai Rong did not break through the Northern Han Dynasty, it greatly damaged the vitality of the Northern Han Dynasty, and he no longer had the ability to enter the Central Plains. Such a transformation and military exploits were only in Chai Rongji's half a year. On Chai Rong's way back to Beijing, a new news also came that Liu Chong had died. Liu Chong wanted to take advantage of the death of other people's parents and take the opportunity to make a profit, but he didn't expect that he couldn't steal the chicken, so he also got in. It's a cycle of retribution.

After Chai Rong returned to Beijing, the first thing was still not to celebrate, but to start a new round of thinking, the topic was why I didn't take the Northern Han in one fell swoop, of course, there are many aspects to this problem, such as insufficient preparation, Khitan reinforcements. But the main problem is that the quality of his army is not good, otherwise he should have taken Taiyuan City in a month. So, Chai Rong had a new idea, I can form a new army from scratch, it will become the main force of the Later Zhou army, and it must absolutely obey my orders, have super high combat effectiveness, and have the strongest morale. As soon as he said it, Chai Rong began to select the best soldiers across the country. At the same time, recruit excellent generals and talents from all over the world, as long as you can command the war, whether it is a fugitive or a robber, you can be an official. And this task is in charge of Zhao Kuangyin, the capital of the palace.

Zhao Kuangyin in this Taiyuan battle is in the limelight, when the battle situation is in crisis, Chai Rong ordered the troops to charge several times to no avail, Zhao Kuangyin led the troops to kill the bottom of Taiyuan City, the history records say that "Zhao Kuangyin took advantage of the victory to attack Hedong City, burned the city gate, his left arm was shot by a stray arrow, and he still fought to the death, and Zhou Shizong ruled it." "It's really brave. After this battle, Chai Rong personally summoned Zhao Kuangyin, held Zhao Kuangyin's hand, and cordially inquired about Zhao Kuangyin's injury. Moreover, the newly selected soldiers and talents will be placed in Zhao Kuangyin's troops.

Now it is necessary for us to explain what the two words in front of the palace are. The so-called palace is actually the abbreviation of the highest command organization during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period, the highest commander is the palace commander, and the palace commander is the palace commander (referred to as the palace marshal), Zhao Kuangyin and his father held this position. There is also a waiting in front of the palace in the lower row, and Zhao Kuangyin is now holding this position. When we read "Water Margin", we always have an illusion, how can there be Yu Hou everywhere, this Yu Hou and that Yu Hou, we always think that this is a gangster who works as an errand in the yamen, but in fact, this official is quite big. But the front division of the palace is not a big department that covers the sky with one hand, and the emperor is always worried about whether the chiefs of the front department of the palace will rebel or something. There is a special department called the Guards and the Guards Ma Bujun are under the command of the Embassy Division, referred to as the Guards Division, this system is not under the command of the front of the palace, and is directly responsible to the emperor, and sometimes even has more troops than the front of the palace.

Now we have to talk about a list of talents selected in this national audition, the names of the people in this list are too familiar, they are all famous generals in the early Song Dynasty, and they can be seen almost everywhere in the history of the Song Dynasty, these people are: Hu Yanzan, Pan Mei, Cao Bin, Gao Huai, etc., you open the history of the Song Dynasty and take a look, the first few pages are all written about these people, Zhao Kuangyin found these people in the vast sea of people, and all of them were placed in their own troops, all of them are cronies. Zhao Kuangyin because of the position of Yu Hou in front of the palace, he also officially entered the list of senior cadres in the Later Zhou, and we also have to take a look at a list, these people are: Yang Guangyi, Shi Shouxin, Li Jixun, Wang Xianqi, Liu Qingyi, Liu Shouzhong, Liu Tingrang, Han Chongyun, Wang Zhengzhong, etc., these people are all senior generals of the Later Zhou, Zhao Kuangyin befriended them, and each of them formed a brother of life and death with Zhao Kuangyin, and they also have a collective name for the Ten Brothers of the Righteous Society. Zhao Kuangyin was quickly promoted, becoming the person who benefited the most in this battle except Chai Rong, history gave Zhao Kuangyin a little sunshine, Zhao Kuangyin quickly began to take off, this year Zhao Kuangyin just turned twenty-eight years old.

Not only that, Chai Rong began to actively select talents, worshipping Fan as a disciple and a subordinate squire, Ping Zhangshi, and Hongwenguan University Scholar; Li Gu is the guardian of Situ and the servant of the disciple, Ping Zhangshi, and the supervisor of national history; Wang Pu is a scholar of the Chinese book and the secretary of the Ministry of Rites, Pingzhangshi, and Jixian Palace. Wei Renpu, who was not hired by the first branch of science and technology, was hired as a privy envoy and inspector of the Taibao, and said to the speakers: "Gu Cai is like an ear!" As long as he is talented, Chai Rong will be entrusted with important tasks regardless of his background, this is Chai Rong.

The campaign against the Northern Han Dynasty ended like this, and what interesting stories did there have after that? We'll talk about that next time.