In September, Wang Jing led his troops to defeat the Houshu army and captured 300 people.

On the 12th, Meng Chang sent Wu Tai Jiedu to envoy Yi Xianzheng to the front line to comfort the troops and supervise the battle at the same time.

In October, the Shu general Li Tinggui sent the vanguard to command Li Jin to occupy Malingzhai, and sent a force to be stationed in Baijian, and at the same time divided the troops to the north of Fengzhou, Tangcang Town and Huanghua Valley, cutting off the grain route of the Later Zhou army. Not long after, Wang Jing sent his general Zhang Jianxiong to Huanghua with a force of 2,000 men, and another 1,000 to Tangcang, controlling the retreat of the Houshu army. Later Shu's dyeing institute made Wang Luan set out from Tangcang, encountered Huanghua in Zhang Jianxiong's department, and was defeated by Zhang Jianxiong. The Later Shu army retreated to Tangcang, and on the way encountered a thousand Hou Zhou troops that had arrived before, and were defeated again. Wang Luan and his troops of 3,000 men were all taken prisoner. After this battle, all the troops stationed in Maling and Baijian in Houshu collapsed. Li Tinggui and Gao Yanyu retired to Qingniling. Later Shu Xiongwu Jiedu made Han Jixun abandon Qinzhou and flee back to Chengdu, and Zhao Wei, the judge of the Later Shu army, surrendered the city. The Houshu reinforcements who rushed to Qinzhou from the Xiegu Valley all retreated. Chengzhou and Jiezhou were also all captured by Hou Zhou, and Hou Shu was in a panic. After discussing with the ministers, Zhou Shizong appointed Zhao Wei, who had surrendered, as the assassin of Yingzhou.

Things have progressed to the present, exactly the same as Zhao Kuangyin's prediction at the time, you will find that Zhao Kuangyin is a very strategic talent, but why does he have such a strategic vision? Could it be that this is the legendary natural military strategist? Maybe yes. In fact, we are more inclined to an old saying: natural generals don't have to read military books for a long time. If you think about the later Yue Fei and the strongest military strategist in human history, Temujin is only a catty, one is a farmer and the other is a savage. Who taught them to fight. There won't be anyone. So resign yourself to fate, maybe some people are really legendary geniuses.

What is Zhao Kuangyin's character? It's a super huge proposition. No one can figure out Zhao Kuangyin's heart. Zhao Kuangyin's heart seems to be a super complicated mess, in the deepest part of his heart, there is the foundation of Zhao Kuangyin and even the founding of the Zhao Song Dynasty. Since the founding of Zhao Kuangyin, China has been sinking into continuous self-denial, and until today we are still trying to find a way to achieve China's great rejuvenation, why is all this? It seems that the answer can be found in Zhao Kuangyin.

On November 5, Hou Zhou Baiguan congratulated Zhou Shizong. On November 17, Li Tinggui went to the court to plead guilty. On the 24th, Yi Xianzheng pleaded guilty to Meng Chang. Meng Chang did not hold the two accountable. Meng Chang sent a letter to the Later Zhou court, proclaiming himself the "Emperor of Dashu", but Zhou Shizong thought the letter was completely impolite and did not respond in a fit of rage. Meng Chang was even more frightened, and hoarded a large number of troops in Sword Gate and White Emperor City to defend. With a large number of conscriptions, accompanied by a lack of logistics, Hou Shu began to build a large number of iron money, and forcibly expropriated iron weapons from the people, making the people miserable.

In December, Wang Jing led his troops to besiege Fengzhou, and Han Tong, the general of the Later Zhou army, divided his troops to Chenggu Town, thus blocking the reinforcements of the Later Shu army. On the 30th, Fengzhou was conquered by the Later Zhou army, and Wang Huan, the envoy of the mighty army, Zhao Yanpu, and the 5,000 Hou Shu troops in the city were all captured. Zhao Yanpu died of hunger strike.

On January 6, 956, Zhou Shizong ordered an amnesty for all captured Hou Shu soldiers, leaving them to decide for themselves whether to go or stay.

As the war continued, the eyes of the Hou Zhou people looking at Zhao Kuangyin gradually changed. Every second of the battle is the same as Zhao Kuangyin's prediction, it seems that Zhao Kuangyin is not a fierce general with blood on his hands, but a wizard who can predict the future.

Zhao Kuangyin's status in Chai Rong's mind has also quietly changed at this time. In Chai Rong's mind, Zhao Kuangyin is no longer an ordinary general, but a handsome man who can stand alone and lead his troops to kill.

At the same time as the end of the Battle of Tanshu, Chai Rong, who had relieved his worries, immediately launched a campaign to conquer the Southern Tang Dynasty, with the goal of capturing the Huai River area in the north of the Yangtze River. The Jianghuai area, open the map of China, here has always been the most prosperous generation in China. Here, together with the south of the Yangtze River, the land north of Zhejiang was the sphere of influence of the Southern Tang Dynasty.

The national strength of the Southern Tang Dynasty can be summed up in two words, rich. In terms of troop allocation, the best thing in the Southern Tang Dynasty is the naval army. The strength of the navy made the Later Zhou people helpless, and even the later Northern Song Dynasty suffered a lot. Since ancient times, it is an ironclad fact that northerners ride horses and southerners operate boats.

Since this is the case in the Southern Tang Dynasty, what about the Hou Zhou?

We can understand from the previous story that the land of Houzhou has not stopped at all for decades, and the national strength can only be summed up in one word, that is, poverty.

If there is no money, there is no everything, and Chai Rong will not be able to realize the plan in "Pingbian Ce" without money. Chai Rong wants to unify China, the first task is to find people, and the second task is to find money. Then, just as Wang Pu said, there are more than 2,000 miles of national borders waiting for him in the Southern Tang Dynasty.

Chai Rong looked at the empty and poor treasury, and suddenly had an idea, why couldn't he ride a horse and wield a knife like the Khitans to rob the Southern Tang people?

However, Chai Rong still had to solve one thing before setting off, that is, to equip the soldiers with knives, guns and war horses, as well as the military rations that had been continuously supplied to the front line for many years. But it all takes money.

Finally, Chai Rong set his sights on the richest and most idle group of people in the Later Zhou Dynasty, monks. There are also monks' fellow disciples, nuns.

It is also ridiculous to say that the five dynasties and ten kingdoms have been in chaos to this point, but the monks are getting richer and richer. Exactly why this is still debated.

Some data show that only at that time in the Later Zhou Dynasty, there were many monasteries, and the number of monks and nuns reached one million, what kind of number is this. Could it be that in the troubled times, there will be so many people who have seen through the red dust and have the heart to cross the dust and get rid of the dust? Naturally impossible, how dare we joke with our family.

Let's talk about the composition of these monks and nuns at that time, first of all, this is the category of evading state taxes, after all, temples did not pay taxes at that time. Deserters: This is a category. Runaway slaves and maidservants, this is one category. Criminals are in this category. When these men entered the empty door, they were empty on all sides. From then on, eat fasting and pray for Buddha to live a pure life. It's not right, it's really nothing else, no matter when a monk is a big sum. Bodhisattvas will never give up any opportunity to get rich. This is well documented, the profession of pawnshop was pioneered by monks during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period. And as long as it is a temple property, there is no tax at that time. As a result, Chai Rong was miserable, and the taxes that should have been paid slipped away like this, and the monks took the money and spent it as they wanted, and what was even more hateful was that some Diao people saw that it was profitable, and handed over their land to the monks, and collaborated with the monks to extort the country.

Chai Rong finally couldn't bear it anymore, and Chai Rong, who had never been able to bear it, ordered and began to destroy the Buddha. In May of the second year of Zhou Xiande (955 AD), Chai Rong of Zhou Shizong announced to the world, "Those who are not given to the temple are abolished", that is to say, as long as it is not a temple that can be retained by Chai Rong, it will be demolished. Only one temple is allowed to stay in each county, and from now on, whether it is a prince or a relative of the emperor, it is not allowed to invite monks and nuns, some people can't help but want to become monks, they must get the consent of the emperor and their parents, and they can also apply to become monks in front of the government commissioner by seventy Buddhist scriptures in public. This kicked off the prelude to the movement to exterminate Buddha. For the process of the extermination of Buddhism, the "History of the New Five Dynasties" brushed it off, "Jiaxu, the great destruction of Buddhist temples, the prohibition of the people without service and for monks and nuns and those who live privately." However, the "History of the Old Five Dynasties" is quite rich, and Chai Rong's edict is mostly recorded. The reasons for Chai Rong's destruction of the Buddha, the prescribed methods and even the scale of punishment are all recorded one by one.

In just two or three months, Chai Rong demolished 336 temples and returned nearly one million monks and nuns. This brings nearly a million laborers to the country. Alright, comrades, celebrate the new life. Chai Rong encourages you to go to the land to farm, get married, and have children. If you want to be an officer or a soldier, Chai Rong will give you the same opportunity as everyone else. By the way, there is one more thing, Chai Rong confiscated all the monastery's land and Buddha statues. Of course, the land became a military salary. As for the Buddha statues, now even the state doesn't have the money to make weapons out of copper, and you even built such a big Buddha statue, and all of them melted and turned into knives, guns, bows and arrows.

In this way, with the help of the "selfless" monks, Chai Rong was very quickly ready to attack the Southern Tang Dynasty, poor Southern Tang people, you will be unlucky.

As for how Chai Rong wants to attack the Southern Tang Dynasty, and how the Southern Tang people will resist Chai Rong's attack, we will talk about it next time.