By the beginning of April, the Later Zhou army had captured the Southern Tang prefectures of Guang, Tai, Yang, He, Shu, and Qi in Jiangbei. Suddenly, the Southern Tang Dynasty became an enclave in the four prefectures of Shou, Hao, Si and Chu on the Huai River.

It is a pity that the weather is unfavorable, at this time the water level of the Huai River has risen sharply due to heavy rainfall, and the supply of the Later Zhou army in the Jianghuai region is suddenly difficult.

The time has entered April, and it has gradually entered the summer in the south. Summer has arrived, the "harsh winter" of the Hou Zhou people has also arrived, the weather is gradually raining, the water level of the Huai River and the Yangtze River is rising, and the invincible Southern Tang naval army begins to play a role. What's even more fatal is that the people of the Later Zhou Dynasty are still landlubbers, and they don't even dare to take a boat to cross such a wide water surface as the Huai River.

Under the city of Shouzhou, the problem of the Hou Zhou people became more serious.

Although the reinforcements of the Southern Tang Dynasty were all defeated and Shouzhou became an isolated city, Liu Renzhan held on, and Zhou Shizong also came to the front line to command. Liu Renzhan saw Zhou Shizong's umbrella cover, picked up his strong bow and shot it, shooting only a few steps in front of Zhou Shizong. Left and right hurriedly asked Zhou Shizong to retreat, but Zhou Shizong was not afraid, and actually moved to the middle of Liu Renzhan's shot just now and shouted: "General Liu, you didn't shoot just now, now I'll stand closer, please shoot again!" Liu Renzhan was not polite, and when he shot another arrow, he was only a few steps away! Zhou Shizong laughed and said, "General Liu, please keep shooting, and I will send you the arrows after shooting!" Liu Renzhan was shocked: "Could it be that he is really the true son of heaven?" It seems that this city will be destroyed, and I can only repay the country with death!" Say goodbye, throw your bow on the ground, look up to the sky and howl. Although Liu Renzhan had understood that the general trend of the world no longer belonged to the Southern Tang Dynasty, he was still loyal to his duties, and the Zhou army was never able to conquer Shouzhou. At this time, the lord of Tang was completely helpless, and sent Sikong Sun Sheng to sue for peace. Zhou Shizong cherished Liu Renzhan's loyalty and asked Sun Sheng to persuade him to surrender under the city of Shouzhou, Sun Sheng agreed, and when he came to the city of Shouzhou, Zhou Shizong was overjoyed.

But as soon as Sun Sheng saw Liu Renzhan, he shouted: "General Liu! You are a loyal minister of the Tang Dynasty, and surrendering to the enemy will leave a stench for 10,000 years, which is not something you can do. Now stuck in this city, there is no way to live, don't think about returning to Jinling alive to see the emperor, be loyal to the festival of death!" Liu Renzhan wept bitterly after hearing it in the city, wore armor and bowed to Sun Shengsan to thank him, and then kowtowed in the direction of Jinling, vowing to be loyal to the Tang Emperor! A similar story happened seven hundred years later, when Zhu Wannian, the governor of the Ming Dynasty under the city of Laizhou, pretended to surrender for Kong Youde, but shouted four words to the city that will be immortalized in the annals of history: "Shoot at me!" The descendants of Confucian civilization never induced the greed of soldiers through the benefits of wars of aggression, but whenever the time of loyalty and death came, the Confucian idea of loyalty and the fierce bearing of the samurai fused together to burst out the strongest power in the depths of the human heart. This great power may not be understood by some "martial" people who despise Confucianism, but it can always move countless righteous people and turn it into the essence of human civilization.

Although Chai Rong was angry, he also felt the loyalty of the two, and did not kill Sun Sheng, but sent him back to Bianjing under house arrest. But after entering April, the situation became even worse, according to historical records, "Zhulu generals went deep into Huainan and went to Kejie." After the siege of the city, the water depth of the Zhou barracks was several feet, and the boats and rafts were scattered and destroyed", and the water in the camps of the Zhou people could reach several feet, the roads were muddy, and the military grain and grass could not be transported, and the various armies had the problem of not being able to supply grain and grass.

What's more, Chai Rong, as the king of a country, can't leave his country for too long, after all, the country still has so many different things to deal with.

As a last resort, Zhou Shizong could only leave Li Chongjin to lead a small number of troops to maintain the situation, and returned to Daliang with the main force. Zhao Kuangyin, Han Lingkun and other famous generals followed Chai Rong back to China. In this way, the vigorous First Southern Expedition was over.

But the war is not over.

In history, the people of the Southern Tang Dynasty suffered from the brutal conquest of the first place, and they welcomed the arrival of the Later Zhou army. But they soon discovered that the Later Zhou army was also a group of ruffians who burned, killed and looted. Disappointed, the people in the Jianghuai area spontaneously organized themselves to resist the Later Zhou army.

At this time, the reinforcements recruited by the Southern Tang Dynasty crossed the Yangtze River again under the leadership of Li Jingda. Liu Renzhan, a famous general in Shouzhou, also went out of the city and began to regain lost territory.

As a result, with the cooperation of the people, most of the Jiangbei prefectures that were originally captured by the Later Zhou army were regained by the Southern Tang Dynasty. In this way, Li Chongjin had no choice but to lead the already small number of soldiers and horses to retreat to various important strongholds. Zhao Pu had to give up the important town of Chuzhou for various reasons, and also led the troops and horses to return to the north, in general, the first southern expedition can basically be said to be in vain, except for getting a lot of money and a small amount of land in the Southern Tang Dynasty, the Later Zhou did not get any substantial benefits.

Chai Rong returned to Kaifeng, he was not idle, and now there are many things waiting for him to deal with. First of all, he had to find food for Li Chongjin's army, who was fighting on the front line. Although Li Chongjin didn't have many troops there, it was still a lot of money for the poor jingle Hou Zhou.

A few days after Chai Rong returned to Kaifeng, Chai Rong issued a new order to continue to optimize and reform on the basis of Guo Wei's optimization reform. At that time, because of the perennial war, a large amount of unowned wasteland was generated, and Chai Rong ordered that no matter who could cultivate these unowned wasteland, and all the grain harvested belonged to him. And Chai Rong ordered that if the owners of these wastelands returned, those who came back within three years only needed to return half of them, and those who came back within five years would return one-third, and after five years, they would not need to be returned.

But there is a special situation, that is, the owner of the wasteland was plundered by the Khitan, and you can return two-thirds of it within five years, half of it can be returned after ten years, one-third can be returned after fifteen years, and you can go to reclaim other land after fifteen years.

In addition, all farmers who cultivate unowned wasteland and reclaim new land can enjoy the preferential treatment of no land tax for the first year.

In this way, the economy began to prosper in the following week.

Then, Chai Rong began civil engineering. To tell the truth, during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms, Kaifeng was not a prosperous city, at most a small city at the county and city level. In the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period, it was completely because Zhu Wen felt that the walls of Kaifeng City were thick enough and the moat was deep enough, and there must be a sense of security here, and the other Zhu Wen didn't care. But Chai Rong is different, Chai Rong began to widen the streets of Kaifeng, and built the outer city, and finally made Kaifeng City open and majestic, with the appearance of a capital. and also built his new home for Zhao Kuangyin later.

In addition, Chai Rong also took time out to care about cultural undertakings, correct Yale, correct the shortcomings of the imperial examination, search for books, carve ancient books, and promote culture and education. Recruit scholars of literature and implement an examination system; Attach importance to the country's book collection and cultural construction. He visited the history museum many times to inspect the collection of books, and when he saw that the collection of books was too small, he issued an edict to adopt an incentive policy, and all those who donated books were given preferential gifts. Gather and school, select 30 permanent counselors, proofread, correct, and copy the books in the collection, and order the school book title to be signed at the end of the book. It laid the foundation for the national collection of books in the Later Zhou Dynasty. He also sent Wang Pu and others to revise the "Great Zhou Criminal System", so that the people of the Later Zhou Dynasty had a law to follow. The most rare and commendable thing is that Chai Rong also took the time to revise the "Records of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms", and revised his own records for every emperor during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms, basically achieving impartiality.

Chai Rong kept doing things as if he knew that his short life was coming to an end.

Unfortunately, the Yellow River flooded again during Chai Rong's short reign of several years. Chai Rong not only sent people to repair the Yellow River, but also personally went to the banks of the Yellow River to investigate, and lived on the banks of the Yellow River for more than ten days. On another occasion, Chai Rong sent someone to clean up the river, and even gave away the water level of the Yellow River, the amount of silt he inspected, and his own opinions on how to clean up the river.

It should be pointed out that these are all Chai Rongxian's boring side hustles, and he also did a crucial big thing during this period, and Chai Rong, who couldn't stop, did a big thing, which completely changed the military contrast between the Later Zhou and the Southern Tang Dynasty, and the Southern Tang Dynasty was almost powerless in the future war. What is the specific matter, we will not press the table for the time being, and will talk in detail in the future.

Zhao Kuangyin also returned to Kaifeng in this year, and he also received the sad news that his father had passed away, the world is impermanent, Zhao Kuangyin has not yet recovered from the grief of his father's sudden death, and received Chai Rong's order. Zhao Kuangyin was promoted because of his merits, and was promoted to the envoy of the Later Zhou Kuangguo Army, with a fief in Shaanxi, and was promoted to the commander of the palace. Zhao Kuangyin finally became the real power figure of the Later Zhou Dynasty and the official of the frontier.

In the second year, Chai Rong faced another difficult choice, is he still attacking Nantang now? The time has come, the scorching summer is over, and the cavalry of the Later Zhou can gallop again. And now it has reached the point where it is necessary to go on an expedition, and Li Chongjin has led his troops to continue to fail. Guo Wei finally proved his foresight, Li Chongjin is definitely not a suitable successor to the empire, Li Chongjin has his own absolute flaws, Li Chongjin is brave on the battlefield, and even Chai Rong can't compare to him. But in other aspects, Chai Rong is far superior to Li Chongjin, in order to shrink the front, Li Chongjin actually gave up the important towns of Yangzhou, Taizhou, and Chuzhou, and concentrated almost all the main forces under the city of Shouzhou. This step is like putting a knife against the throat of the Southern Tang people, asking you if you resist, if you resist, the Southern Tang people will face the crazy attack of the military genius Li Chongjin. If you don't resist, Shouzhou City is at risk of falling. The Southern Tang Dynasty seems to have recovered a lot of towns, but the strategic initiative is still in the hands of Li Chongjin.

But Li Chongjin also exposed his most serious flaw, the idiocy of domestic affairs. He robbed his troops of grain and killed people everywhere, as a result, the army of the Later Zhou Dynasty was beaten everywhere, and a large number of rebels of the Southern Tang Dynasty spontaneously attacked Li Chongjin stationed in the army guarding everywhere, and Li Chongjin was forced to start a two-front battle. And Li Jingda led the army to cross the Yangtze River, and Li Chongjin was bitten to death in Shouzhou and surrounded by the Southern Tang people.

The situation continued to deteriorate, and Chai Rong was forced to requisition soldiers and horses from all over the country again in this year, and once again conquered the Southern Tang Dynasty.

Li Jing, I, Chai Rong, are back again.