The Khitan destroyed the Jin Dynasty, and Feng Dao went to Bianjing to meet Yelu Deguang. Yelu Deguang accused Feng Dao, thinking that he served for Houjin, but had no merit, and Feng Dao was speechless. Then he asked, "Why did you come to see me?" Feng Dao replied: "I have no territory, no soldiers and horses, how dare I not come." Yerod sneered, "What kind of old man are you?" Feng Daodao: "I am a talentless, virtuous, stupid and dull old man." Later, Yelu Deguang went around fighting the autumn wind, and Feng Dao said to Yelu Deguang: "The people are the foundation of the country, and they cannot be moved." In this sentence, Feng Dao allowed countless people to live, and for this reason, after Feng Dao's death, countless people spontaneously mourned Feng Dao. No matter how the Confucians belittle Feng Dao in the future, Feng Dao is a gentleman.

Feng Dao died, and Zhou dropped out of the dynasty for three days. Three days later, the sadness gradually dissipated in the following week. Chai Rong restored the previous dynasty, and from now on, the nightmare of the various countries around Houzhou began. As we said earlier, the place where Hou Zhou is located is a place of four battles, that is, there are enemies in either direction. If we had a map of that time, we would have found out. The north of the Later Zhou is the Northern Han and Liao, the south is the Later Shu and the Southern Tang, and the Han region is the Later Zhou and the Southern Tang. Chai Rong to the east is quite assured, there will be no enemies in that direction. There is the sea over there, and the Koreans and the Japanese are still primitive societies, and no matter how chaotic China is, they will not have a part in it. The party leaders and the Tubo people in the west are still fighting to the death, and they can't distinguish between high and low, Chai Rong said that he has no interest in them.

Chai Rong faced so much fat at this time, but he did not immediately start the next round of war, but gave his ministers two homework questions. It is a very famous activity written by later generations as "It is not easy for a monarch to be a minister" and "Pingbian Policy". This activity has two purposes, the first is to tell the courtiers that I, the emperor, is also very difficult to be, and the courtiers should be like a courtier, and the emperor should be like an emperor, and they should be internally united. The second purpose is to tell all the nations of the world that your days of comfort are over, and that I am coming to fight you. These two articles constructed Chai Rong's strategic guiding direction, that is, the policy of "first the south and then the north" to gradually sweep the world. And Chai Rong also discovered a great talent, that is, Wang Pu, who was the head of the household department and the deputy envoy of the privy council, in charge of the country's finance and taxation, and was Chai Rong's right-hand man, and always sat in the rear when Chai Rong went on the expedition. This person not only made Chai Rong very respectful, but Zhao Kuangyin also respected Wang Pu very much, as evidenced by history: after Song Taizu ascended the throne, he passed by the Meritorious Pavilion one day and saw the portrait of Wang Pu. ”

Wang Pu said to Chai Rong, "The way to attack, starting from the change, should first open the knife to the weak enemy, the first should be to deal with the Southern Tang Dynasty first, the Southern Tang and our adjacent land is nearly two thousand miles long, we start from the place where his defense is weaker, every time we take the method of assault, with a small number of troops to constantly harass, the Southern Tang is exhausted, and the national strength will be exhausted in a short time, and then the land north of the Southern Tang Dynasty will be at your fingertips." After getting the land of Jiangbei, the national strength of Hou Zhou will increase exponentially, and then after cultivating for a period of time, it will annex the entire Hou Zhou, and then conquer the weak countries of Hou Shu and Wu Yue. Finally, look for an opportunity to go north to sweep the Northern Han and Liao, because the Liao people are strong and are natural mortal enemies, there is absolutely no time to annex little by little, and it must be decided by a war, which requires strong national strength as the foundation. It can't be done now in the next week. At this moment, Chai Rong was sure that he had found the right person, Wang Pu was not only loyal to Chai Rong and had the ability to help Chai Rong complete the great cause, but also had similar personalities to Chai Rong, they were both aggressive, young and enthusiastic, and had great dreams. Facts have proved that not only that, but Wang Pu and Chai Rong were both defeated by their lives, and the two of them had the same short life, which made people sigh. But what does it matter? Chai Rong and Wang Pu began to constantly start the war machine, step by step to complete the expected goal. However, it was a little different from the expected plan, and the first target of their attack was not Southern Tang, but Houshu.

Why fight first and then Shu? Because Houshu Mengchang once took advantage of the chaos in the Central Plains and took the opportunity to capture Qinzhou, Fengzhou, Chengzhou, and Jiezhou, these places are relatively small in area and relatively small in population, but the geographical location is very important, they are like four daggers on Chai Rong's soft underbelly, if you don't take this land, it will be difficult for Hou Zhou to attack the Southern Tang Dynasty with all your strength.

Soon, Chai Rong launched a campaign against Hou Shu.

In 955 AD, Chai Rong ordered Xiang Xun and Wang Jing to attack Houshu, and at the beginning of the war, he demolished the eight military camps of the Houshu army, and achieved a great victory. However, Hou Shu also quickly sent reinforcements, and the Later Shu Emperor Meng Chang sent Zhao Jizha to Qinzhou and Fengzhou to inspect the frontier. After Zhao Jiza returned, Mao Sui recommended himself and replaced Han Jixun, the envoy of the Xiongwu Festival who was originally stationed in the local area, and Wandi, the assassin of Fengzhou, and assumed the position of the highest military general in the local area. Ten days later, Meng Chang sent Wang Zhaoyuan of the Privy Council to the Liangzhou region to arrange troops.

Zhao Jiza, who had been recommended by Mao Sui, had just walked to Deyang, and after hearing that the Hou Zhou army had arrived at the battlefield, he was so frightened that he did not dare to continue to advance, and wrote to Meng Chang, asking for dismissal, and at the same time sending the army's baggage back to Shu with his concubines and actors. On June 12, Zhao Jizha returned to Chengdu alone. Everyone thought that the Hou Shu army had suffered a defeat on the front line, and the whole city was in a panic. Meng Chang asked about the front-line war, but Zhao Jizha couldn't answer anything. Meng Chang was very angry, and directly arrested Zhao Jizha and killed him.

In June, the Later Shu army, led by Li Tinggui, defeated the Later Zhou army in the east of the mighty city, and the troops' training officer, Puzhou Assassin Shi Hu Li and other generals were captured. On the 27th of the same month, Meng Chang asked for help from the Northern Han and Southern Tang Dynasty, and received support from the Northern Han and Southern Tang Dynasty.

Soon, the war began to stalemate, and officials large and small in the Later Zhou gradually began to question the feasibility of the plan to attack Houshu, and the prime minister Li Gu even asked for a boycott, and both the Northern Han and Southern Tang began to mobilize troops to the border. Under pressure, Chai Rong had to send someone to the front line to inquire about the situation, mainly to ask Wang Jing if he could win. Who is this task entrusted to? This person must be proficient in military affairs, and he must be loyal to Chai Rong, and he is willing to tell the truth to Chai Rong, and in the end Chai Rong chose Zhao Kuangyin. However, did Zhao Kuangyin agree? You must know that as long as Zhao Kuangyin said in public that he wanted to ask for leave, and excused himself with something like his mother's death, Chai Rong would not be able to force Zhao Kuangyin to go. Even Zhao Kuangyin agreed, on the way back, as long as Zhao Kuangyin "accidentally" fell off the horse, and said to Chai Rong: "Your Majesty, I can't go", Chai Rong will take him without a problem. However, unexpectedly, Zhao Kuangyin agreed to Chai Rong's order, rode a fast horse and went to the front line, not only brought back Wang Jinghe's assurance, but also his own views and expectations of the battle situation, Zhao Kuangyin said: "This battle will be won, the four states can be taken, and we will attack Fengzhou first, Fengzhou can be taken down, we can cut off the connection between Qinzhou and Houshu, Qinzhou can be easily taken, and then the remaining two states will definitely surrender automatically." Zhao Kuangyin talked eloquently, and Chai Rong also agreed with Zhao Kuangyin's opinion. The war soon developed as Zhao Kuangyin had predicted.

How will the wars in Hou Zhou and Hou Shu develop? How will the war against the Southern Tang Dynasty proceed? We'll talk about that next time.