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(The second personal expedition of Guo Rong, the Son of Heaven)

Since the third year of Xiande, on the sixth day of the seventh month, Guo Rong, the son of heaven, returned to Kaifeng, and said in his heart that this time the Tang State Sailor was too strong, but the Zhou State Sailor was weak, and he had been worried about it.

In the second year of Xiande last year, Guo Rong ordered the people to dredge the congested river from Bianshui Yongqiao (Suxian County, Anhui) to Sizhou (Xuyi, Jiangsu), which has now been almost dredged. This is thanks to Zhao Dezhao's plan to Guo Rong at that time. Guo Rong immediately followed it and properly arranged various things, which were tried and tested.

The canal has been dredged, and then after the discussion of Fan Zhen and other ministers, Guo Rong issued an edict ordering people to start building hundreds of warships in Kaifeng, on the west side of the Bianhe River, and began to train sailors and teach water warfare with the Tang generals, intending to attack the Tang sailors in the south.

The construction of the ships required a large number of craftsmen, lumberjacks and others, trees and other equipment, Guo Rong ordered people to the prefectures and counties around Kaifeng, and sent a large number of people and craftsmen into the city to supervise the construction of the ships needed by the sailors.

During that time, a large number of laborers poured into Kaifeng City.

At home in Kaifeng, I saw that Zhao Dezhao had not returned for a long time. Du Shi felt that something was wrong, so he asked the subordinates in the family, and learned from the subordinates that Zhao Dezhao was in Huainan here.

Du Shi was very worried about his grandson, so he wrote to the Huainan army.

Later, Zhao Hongyin reported to the Kaifeng family, Du Shi and others were stunned after receiving the news, Zhao Hongyin also specifically mentioned in the letter that Zhao Dezhao is all right, don't worry about the family. Although Du Shi was not at ease, she was also out of reach, and she planned to write another letter so that Zhao Dezhao could come back.

Although Du asked the person who sent the letter to send the letter to the army, Zhao Dezhao insisted on his behavior and did not plan to go back now, he planned to go back with his grandfather and father before the winter, and remotely control the affairs of Kaifeng in the army, as well as the affairs of Changchun Hall in Jiangning Mansion, and observe the march and battle in the army by the way.

The Du family had no choice but to pray every day for the safety of their ancestors and grandchildren.

Xiande three years, August passed, the time entered September, Zhou Guodian commanded the envoy, Yicheng Jiedu made Zhang Yongde stationed troops in Xia Cai Town, when the Tang general Lin Renzhao from both sides of the land and water to support Shouzhou City. Zhang Yongde attacked, and the Tang army could not approach the pontoon bridge.

In October, Zhao Dezhao received a letter from Bai Gucheng, saying that the Bai family's Shanwaishan Restaurant in the West Mansion of Wuyue Kingdom has become a chain restaurant under the Guangwei Group, and now it has attracted the love of some local restaurants, and it can be said that the Guangwei Group has taken a successful step in Xifu.

In the next step, Bai Gucheng asked Zhao Dezhao's opinion on whether it was necessary to push this sign out in the Jiangning Mansion of the Tang Kingdom.

Zhao Dezhao replied: Don't worry, now that the two countries of Zhou and Tang are at war, the Tang State is very vigilant about the forces of the Zhou State, and it is better to wait for the end of the war before making a decision.

In late October, Zhao Dezhao received a report from the Kaifeng Liangcheng Inn, saying that everything was fine and looking forward to the young master's return to Beijing. Zhao Dezhao replied to the sixteen words, saying: This place is fine, don't worry, watch the battle in front of the army, and return to Beijing before the year.

In November, the Tang State attacked the Tang Dynasty, and was defeated by Wang Yansheng, the commander of the Zhou State Iron Cavalry, and led the army to defeat more than 3,000 people.

On November 28, at Xia Cai, when the Tang army attacked the Zhou army in a big way, Zhang Yongde sent his soldiers from Huishui to tie iron locks on the Tang army's boats to immobilize them, and then defeated the Tang army again.

On November 30, Zhao Kuangyin was appointed as the envoy of the Dingguo Festival, concurrently serving as the commander of the palace capital, and let Zhao Pu, the military judge of Weizhou, serve as his own festival magistrate. This resolution was promised, and Zhao Pu finally became Zhao Kuangyin's subordinate.

On November 31, Zhao Dezhao left Shouzhou in Huainan and returned to Kaifeng. I plan to go to Shouzhou City in February of the following year. Stepfather Yang Meng asked him to invite Liu Renzhan out of Shouzhou City, but this matter was indeed tricky. But he wants to ensure that Liu Renzhan is not sick in Shouzhou City, and there is still room for it.

Soon after, the old year passed, the new year passed, and in the blink of an eye, it was the fourth year of Xiande (957 AD).

On January 17, Zhang Yongde was appointed as the inspector of the palace.

In the past year, from the third year of Xiande to the fourth year of Xiande, after a few months, the Zhou army still could not capture the city of Shouzhou, so they besieged Shouzhou.

Ranshou Prefecture had been besieged by the Zhou army for several months, the grain and grass in the city were almost exhausted, and the defensive pressure in the city was great, so Liu Renzhan sent soldiers to ask for help from Li Jingda, the king of Qi in Haozhou.

After that, Li Jingda, the king of Qi of the Tang Dynasty, sent Xu Wenzhi, the envoy of Yong'an Jiedu, Bian Hao, the envoy of the overseer, and Zhu Yuan, the envoy of the Tang Dynasty, led tens of thousands of troops to go upriver along the Huai River and rushed to support Shouzhou.

The Tang army traveled all the way to the west, stationed in the Purple Mountain, more than a dozen military villages lined up in a line, echoing each other in Shouzhou, with this reinforcement divided into mountains, each other in pairs, out of the Zhou army, into the retreat of the mountains, so as to reduce the pressure on Shouzhou.

However, the Zhou army besieged Shouzhou City, and the Tang army had no way to start transporting grain, so they had to dig tunnels to transport military rations, which were later discovered by the Zhou army.

The Tang army was defeated, with 5,000 killed, and fled abandoning the two armies.

The armies of Zhou and Tang continued to stalemate, and the food supply in Shouzhou City was poor, and there was commotion in the army.

Liu Ren's Feishu asked Bian Hao to guard the city of Haozhou, and he led the army out of the city to fight a decisive battle with the Zhou army, but the letter was vetoed by Li Jingda.

……

In Kaifeng, in the Liangcheng Inn

The military report from the front line came back, Yang Meng took the military report from Shouzhou and asked Zhao Dezhao how to protect Liu Renzhen, Zhao Dezhao couldn't think of a plan for a while, it was impossible to knock him out and send him out of Shouzhou City.

In order to protect Liu Renzhen, Zhao Dezhao plans to go to Shouzhou again in February.

At the beginning of February, Zhao Dezhao led Lao Jiu and the man in black to Huainan this time.

On the way, Zhao Dezhao learned that Liu Renzhan was ill soon after, and at this moment he and Lao Jiu acted separately and assigned them to wait on the edge of the Huai River, not far from the small hill south of Shouzhou City, and they must wait for Liu Renzhan's son Liu Chongzhi.

According to historical records, Liu Renzhan's son Liu Chongji saw that the situation in Shouzhou City was not optimistic, and although Tang Guo was very concerned about Shouzhou City, Li Jing did not say anything.

Zhao Dezhao remembered that it was recorded in the "Zizhi Tongjian": his youngest son Chongzhi crossed the Huaibei by boat at night, and was executed by the primary school. The court made a request for help from Mrs. Yu, and Mrs. said: "The concubine is not unloved, but the military law is not private, and the name can not be lost. "Kill it, and then mourn. The soldiers wept.

Therefore, Zhao Dezhao was entrusted by his father-in-law to try his best to rescue, and perhaps saving Liu Chongji could also change the situation in the entire Shouzhou.

Later, at the beginning of February, Zhao Dezhao and his entourage rushed to the Huainan military camp, and Zhao Hongyin was very happy to see his grandson coming again, and asked some trivial matters at home.

Soon after, Liu Renzhen became ill in anger.

In mid-February, within a few days, as in history, Liu Renzhen's youngest son, Liu Chongji, was ready to cross the Huai River at night to join the Zhou State, but he had already been discovered by Lao Jiu, who was waiting there, and Liu Chongjian happened to be discovered by a small Tang officer and was arrested.

Then they still saw Lao Jiu who was ambushed on the side, so they came out, killed the junior officer of Tang State, and rescued the trembling Liu Chongji.

Liu Chongji saw that he was safe, and arched his hand to Lao Jiu and them: "Thank you for the rescue, I don't know the name of the righteous man?" ”

"It doesn't matter if the young general is a young acquaintance, if your father and I are old acquaintances, you can still call me Uncle Nine."

"Hello Uncle Nine!"

"Is the young general going to report to the Zhou army, we happened to go all the way, and when we crossed the hill, it was the camp of the Zhou army, escorted here, and then separated."

"Uh...... Don't hide it from Uncle Jiu, the nephew is indeed sincere to Zhou Jun! Liu Chongzhi was not obscure, and directly said the action.

Lao Jiu chattered endlessly: "This young master of my family asked me to give an order, in the next few days or a period of time, you will go to Shouzhou and not go back, the young master is now also in the tent of the Zhou military camp." If you go back, you will lead the army of Zhou back to the city, and it is possible that General Sun Yu under Zun will soon surrender to Zhou, and when Shouzhou dedicates the city, the young general can return to the city. Another point is that the emperor of Zhou will not harm Ling Zun's life, on the contrary, Ling Zun will be promoted. ”

"Nephew, thank you Uncle Nine for your advice! But how can the young master in your mouth know the situation of our army? ”

"Uh...... This is a secret of my church, so don't tell it. ”

"Okay, Uncle Nine, let's go now."

"Yes!"

After escorting Liu Chongzhi across the hills, Lao Jiu and they took their leave, and then haunted the barren grass, and soon Zhao Dezhao received the news that Liu Renzhan's son was safe.

That night, outside the tent of the Zhou army, there was a young general of the Tang State who claimed to be Liu Renzhan's son, Liu Chongji, and asked to see the chief general of the Zhou army, saying that there was an important matter to discuss.

Soon after, Li Chongjin came out of the tent and met with Liu Chongji, and then heard that he had defected to the Zhou army, Li Chongjin smiled and accepted the surrender. After that, Li Chongjin wrote a letter and told the Son of Heaven Guo Rong about the military situation.

The Son of Heaven was very happy to hear this, so on 22 February, he personally issued an edict to personally inspect the front line of the Huai River in March.

At that time, Zhou ** thought that the Tang State reinforcements were strong, and most of them asked for a boycott, and Guo Rong, the son of heaven, was also hesitant about this.

On March 12, when Li Gu was ill, Guo Rong sent his minister Fan Zhen and Wang Pu to ask Li Gu for advice, and Li Gu said: "Shouzhou is in danger, broken in the vein, if I am the son of Zhou Tianzi Luan to drive a personal expedition, then the soldiers will fight, the Tang reinforcements will be terrified, and the city will know that it will be destroyed!" Guo Rong was very happy to hear it.

On March 20, Guo Rong appointed Wang Pu to stay in Tokyo and take charge of Kaifeng Prefecture; With the three divisions, Zhang Mei was appointed to inspect the inner capital, and the guards were all Yu Hou Han Tong to be inspected inside and outside the capital.

On March 21, the army of Zhou Guo set out from Kaifeng. Wang Huan, the general of the Right Xiaowei, led the naval army from the Min River and entered the Huai River along the Ying River, which frightened the Tang troops stationed there.

On March 31, Guo Rong went to Xia Cai.

On the evening of April 4, Guo Rong crossed the Huai River and arrived at the foot of Shouchun City.

On April 5, early the next morning, Guo Rong's army was stationed at the southern foot of the Purple Mountain, and Zhao Kuangyin was appointed as the vanguard.

Zhao Kuangyin faced against the Tang Army's pioneer village and a military village at the northern foot of the Purple Mountain, and within one day, he captured the second village and killed more than 3,000 people. Tang Junyong was intercepted and had no time to take care of himself.

As it was getting dark, Guo Rong divided his troops to guard the newly occupied military village, and he returned to Xia Cai.

……

Over there, Tang ** Zhong

In the Tang Army, Zhu Yuan regained Shuzhou and Hezhou by himself, and said that he had meritorious service and did not listen to Li Jingda's dispatch.

The relationship between Chen Jue, the superintendent of the king of Qi, and Zhu Yuan was not good, and he cross-examined Zhu Yuan in front of the king of Qi, and then went to Li Jing in Jiangning Mansion.

Li Jing listened to his words and replaced Zhu Yuan's position with Yang Shouzhong, who was appointed by Wuchang Jiedu. After that, Chen Jue pretended to use Li Jingda's military order to summon Zhu Yuan to Haozhou to "discuss the military", hoping to take the opportunity to seize his military power.

Zhu Yuan was aware of Chen Juezhi's conspiracy, sighed indignantly, and wanted to commit suicide. Later, Zhu Yuan's guest Song Xun successfully persuaded Zhu Yuan to raise tens of thousands of people in the whole village to surrender to Zhou.

Zhu Yuan's surrender laid the groundwork for the surrender of the Tang army, and after that, many Tang troops heard about Zhu Yuan's surrender and surrendered to the Zhou state.

……

The Tang army was defeated, Guo Rong, the son of heaven, sat in Xia Cai, dispatched troops from all over the country, and considered that the Tang army should flee eastward along the Huai River, so he sent Hu Jie Zuoxiang to command Zhao Chao to lead thousands of sailors down the Huai River.

On April 7, Guo Rong's army garrisoned in Zhaobu and besieged the Tang army's Zijin Cottage, beheading tens of thousands of Tang troops, and Tang generals Xu Wenzhi, Bian Hao, Yang Shouzhong and other generals were all captured alive.

The remnants of the Tang army fled eastward along the Huai River, Guo Rong personally led hundreds of cavalry to pursue along the north bank of the Huai River, and Zhao Kuangyin and other generals pursued along the south bank of the Huai River.

At the same time, the navy launched a pursuit on the Huai River, and the Tang army killed, drowned and surrendered a total of more than 40,000 people.

In this battle, the Zhou army captured hundreds of thousands of ships, food, and weapons.

At dusk that day, Guo Rong's army rushed to Jingshanhong, more than 200 miles away from Zhao Bu.

On 9 April, Guo Rong ordered thousands of Ding Fu from nearby counties to build two cities against the banks of the river in Zhenhuai.

After that, the Xiacai pontoon bridge was moved here to guard the way of reinforcements from Haozhou and Shouzhou.

In the past few days, it is the peach blossom flood of the Huai River, and the water is rising.

Guo Ting, the governor of Haozhou in the Tang Dynasty, went upstream, and wanted to sneak attack the Zhenhuai army and burn the pontoon bridge, but was discovered by Zhao Kuangzan, the commander of the right dragon army, and the Tang army was defeated and fled.