Only two days after Liu Chong became emperor, he ordered his son Liu Chengjun to send a letter to the Liao Emperor Yeluwu, to the effect that the emperor of his country was dead, and now he was inherited by the contemptible people, and he wanted to have a good relationship with the powerful Liao State and jointly build a "Great Northeast Co-prosperity Circle", I don't know if it can be allowed by the Liao Emperor.

After Yeluwu wanted to receive the letter, he was very happy, because since the Jin Emperor Shi Chonggui started a war with the Khitan, the Liao State and the Central Plains have been in an antagonistic relationship, and the benefits that Shi Jingjiao promised to the Khitan in the early years are gone, so the Liao Emperor Yeluwu wants to pick up the benefits in this regard again.

So the two sides began to come and go, send envoys to each other, formally negotiate, and finally in the spirit of friendly consultation, an agreement was reached in April of that year: that is, the Northern Han Dynasty paid an annual tribute of 100,000 yuan to the Liao State, and made an appointment with the Great Liao about the country of uncles and nephews, that is, Liu Chong, who was 57 years old at the time, recognized the 34-year-old Yeluwu as his uncle and proclaimed himself the nephew emperor. The Liao State fulfilled its obligation to support and protect the Northern Han Dynasty, and officially canonized Liu Chong as Emperor Shenwu of the Han Dynasty.

It can be seen that the Northern Han Dynasty is actually a traitor regime. On the surface, the treaty signed by Liu Chong was superior to the treaty that Shi Jingjiao had back then, because the first annual tribute was reduced from 300,000 to 100,000, and the second did not cede land. But in fact, Shi Jingjiao worshiped the Khitan with the entire Central Plains, while Liu Chong only used Hedong to tie up the Liao State, so in fact, Liu Chong had to work harder.

As for the lack of land, the main reason is that the territory of the Northern Han Dynasty is too small, and if it is cut, there will be nothing. is really stronger than Shi Jingjiao, that is, that name. Because Shi Jingjiao recognized the thief as his father and called himself the "child emperor".

And Liu Chong recognized the thief as his uncle and called himself the "nephew emperor". The grade is a little higher than Shi Jingjiao, but it is only a little higher, and the difference is not very much.

After Liu Chong got the help of the Liao State, the first thing he thought of was to attack Hou Zhou, and this time was indeed the best time for him. Because at this time, Hou Zhou had just opened the country, and the hearts of the people in the country could not be completely attached, and many local feudal towns were still holding a wait-and-see mentality. Moreover, feudal towns like Murong Yanchao that may rebel at any time still exist, these are very favorable conditions for Liu Chong. Of course, this does not mean that Liu Chong will definitely win if he sends troops at this time. Or what advantage can be taken. Rather, if he misses this time period, Liu Chong will have no hope of winning.

In July of that year, Liu Chong (Liu Chong changed his name to Liu Min that month, but the book was unified in writing. The following is still Liu Chong) sent Hanlin scholar Wei Rong and others to Liao State to thank him. At the same time, he explained to Emperor Yeluwu of Liao that the Northern Han had a plan to send troops to attack Hou Zhou, and asked Liao to send troops to help.

Yelu Wu also wanted to take advantage of this opportunity to reenact the story of Yelu Deguang's conquest of the Central Plains, so he immediately agreed. Tell Wei Rong to go back and tell Liu Chongda's nephew to let go and prepare to go! Our army then arrived. Wei Rong completed the task very smoothly, and went back to hand over happily. However, after he left, there was a civil strife within the Liao State because of the dispatch of troops to help the Northern Han.

Here's the thing. More than a month after Wei Rong left, Emperor Yeluwu of Liao wanted to hear that Liu Chong had sent the vanguard. He marched south from Tuanbai (southeast of present-day Qi County, Shanxi) and invaded the territory of the Later Zhou Dynasty, and felt that he should also send troops, so he gathered all the chiefs of the tribes in the country and held a military conference at Jiujiuquan (north of Zhuozi County, Inner Mongolia), and ordered everyone to go with him.

But I didn't expect that these chiefs were too unconscious, and none of them wanted to go south to fight. Jeruwu was furious, and regardless of whether they wanted to do it or not, he dragged these chieftains into the ranks, and at the same time forced their tribes to open immediately, which caused a resentment in the whole army, and provided an opportunity for those who were planning to cause rebellion.

As mentioned above, Yeluwu wanted to be the emperor of Liao, and his imperial uncle Yeluan made the first contribution (see the Five Dynasties Fengyun Scroll for details). Therefore, after Yeluwu wanted to be the emperor, he named Yelu Anduan as the king of Ming, and at the same time named Cha Cau, the son of Anduan, as the king of Taining, and this Cha Chai was the one who was planning to make trouble.

Cha Che is very cunning, very good at pleasing the pleasure of Yelu Wu desires, the people of the grassland people are generally relatively simple by nature, and they are not very skilled in the business of whiskers and horses, but Cha Che is an exception.

Whatever he wanted to hear, he would say whatever he wanted, and whatever he liked, he would do it immediately, and he would do it very well.

And this person also has an innate advantage, that is, he looks very honest, so he is very trusted by Yeluwu. But in fact, Chacth had been looking for an opportunity to kill Jeruvu so that he could establish himself as king. And this time, Yeluwu wanted to force the chiefs of the various tribes in the country to send troops to the south, which made Chacz feel that this opportunity had come.

On September 4, the Liao army reached Huoshendian in the west of Xinzhou (present-day Zhuolu, Hebei). This day happened to be the birthday of Yelu Wuxi, and Yelu Wuxu was also very happy, so he came down from the garrison and invited the chiefs of the tribes to eat and drink together, and they all got drunk.

Cha Che took the opportunity to collude with Yin Dishi's son Yan Wang Yelu Shuyan, killed Liao Emperor Yelu Wu, and then established himself as emperor. Then he went on a killing spree, killing all the queen mothers and the sons of Yelu Wu who accompanied the army. This time, the Liao army was in chaos, and the children of the clan who accompanied the army fled one after another, and many tribal leaders also fled.

Among those who escaped, one was the son of Yelu Deguang of Liao Taizong, the twenty-one-year-old King of Qi Yelu Shulu, who fled to Nanshan for refuge at that time.

This is a big name, and many of the clan and tribal chiefs who have escaped have gathered under his command. This time, there were more men and horses, and as a result, everyone discussed it, and simply embraced Yelu Shulu as the leader, and turned around to attack Chachel and Yelu Shuluo.

Cha Che and the others originally wanted to take advantage of the dissatisfaction of the tribes with the Liao Emperor Yelu Wu to launch a rebellion, but they did not expect that although these chiefs were dissatisfied with Ye Lu Wu Desire, they were even more dissatisfied with his plot to kill Ye Lu Wu Desire.

No one supported him. As a result, although he killed Yelu Wuxi, he failed to control the situation, and the chiefs ran away, turning him into a bare-bones commander, who was defeated by Yelush's army in a few strokes. He was also captured, and in the end, along with his people and henchmen, were all killed.

After the end of the rebellion. Everyone elected Yelu Shulu as the emperor, which was later known as Liao Muzong. This is a very famous and very characteristic emperor in the history of Liao, known as the "sleeping king", and I can talk about it later.

Jerodul himself was not interested in fighting, so when the rebellion had subsided, he returned with his army. But since he had just ascended the throne, he didn't want to leave people scared. Or it is the reputation of not keeping promises, so he still sent Zhangguo (ruled in Yingzhou) to make Xiao Yuju take 50,000 Khitan and Xi soldiers and horses to the south to assist Liu Chong in attacking Hou Zhou.

October 16th. Liu Chongqin led 20,000 horses to join the Khitan, and then went out of Yindi Pass (now Lingbao, Shanxi), and went straight to Jinzhou (now Linfen City, Shanxi) to pounce, and the Northern Han and Liao joined forces to attack the Battle of Houzhou.

Liu Chong sent troops this time. chose the route that Liu Zhiyuan took when he entered the Central Plains. The first target of the southward attack was Jinju (present-day Linfen, Shanxi).

Jinju originally belonged to Hedong Province, but at this time it was owned by Hou Zhou. Here is adjacent to Fenzhou (now Fenyang, Shanxi) in the north, Taihang in the south, and the Fenshui runs through it, which is an important passage from the southeast of the river to the Central Plains.

Through here, you can go directly to the Huaimeng area of the Later Zhou (Qinyang, Mengzhou and other places), and then go to Luoyang, directly into Kaifeng.

In general. It's a shortcut. When Liang and Jin competed for hegemony, Li Cunmiao often chose to send troops from Jingjing (the fifth pass of Taihang Mountain). Enter Hebei first. This is mainly because Li Cunmiao is fighting a battle for hegemony, and the power of Houliang is also relatively stable, so Li Cunmiao's strategic focus is to compete with Houliang for living space, and at the same time to consume its national strength.

In addition, there is another way to go southeast of the river to the Central Plains, that is, to send troops directly from Luzhou (now Changzhi, Shanxi), this road is actually closer.

However, Luzhou is a military town, and the terrain of Changzhi-Shangdang is too complicated, and it is difficult for Liu Chong to break through here, so it is still very wise for him to take Jinzhou as the first stop in the south.

However, this battle was not very smooth as soon as it was fought, the troops in Jinju City were not very large, and Jinju did not have such a strong city defense as those large military towns.

Therefore, Liu Chongman thought that since he had come with such a large army, he would definitely break through very easily. Unexpectedly, Wang Wandare, the defender of the Later Zhou Dynasty here, was a dead brain, and when he saw the Northern Han army attacking, he immediately closed the city gate, and defended the city hard, and resolutely refused to surrender.

Liu Chong led an army of 70,000 or 80,000 to besiege the city on three sides, attacking day and night, and fought for more than a month, but the city did not move at all.

This time, Liu Chong couldn't help but feel very anxious. At the same time, the Later Zhou Emperor Guo Wei had also sent the prime minister Wang Jun to serve as the camp capital to deploy and control all kinds of troops and horses to rescue Jinzhou, and arrived in Jinzhou in early December. At this time, Liu Chong's army had been stranded in Jinju for more than fifty days.

Moreover, since he attacked the city, it has snowed heavily, and the men and horses have no food, and there is no food and grass. The local people's consciousness was low, and they refused to stay at home and wait for them to rob, so they fled into the mountains one after another, armed to protect themselves, leaving the wilderness empty and deserted, and unable to think of any way. The Liao army was looking forward to returning to China as soon as possible, and refused to contribute to the battle, and the army's morale was already in chaos.

At this time, Liu Chong also made a more serious strategic mistake, that is, in the south of Jinzhou there is a place called Mengqi (in the northwest of Quwo County, Shanxi Province), where the terrain is dangerous, is a natural barrier, originally Liu Chong should send a team of men and horses to defend here, but he is smart, he thinks that if Jinzhou is besieged to death,

The defenders didn't dare to escape, so they only besieged the city in the east, west, and north directions, deliberately leaving this gap, hoping that Wang Wandang would understand him and lead the Jinju defenders to run away from here early. However, this decision created an opportunity for the rescuers in the coming week.

On December 18, Wang Jun led the rescue troops into the territory of Jinzhou, and at this time he was most worried that Liu Chonghui would send men and horses to fortify Mengqiu, but it did not take long for the strikers to report that Mengkeng was empty and had passed smoothly. Wang Jun was overjoyed when he heard this, looked up to the sky and laughed: "I can do everything!" Then he immediately led the whole army to rush through Mengqi and reach the city of Jinju.

At this time, the combined forces of the Northern Han and Khitan were already without fighting spirit, and when they heard that the rescuers of Hou Zhou had arrived, they immediately set fire to the camp and fled overnight before the battle began. It was chased by the Hou Zhou army in the rear, and there were countless people who fell off the cliff and died, and were killed by the pursuing soldiers, and when they returned to Jinyang, they lost three or four out of ten, and the casualties were extremely heavy.

At that time, Yao Yuanfu, the general of the Later Zhou Dynasty, suggested that Wang Jun should take this opportunity to lead his troops to sweep away Hedong in one fell swoop. But Wang Jun was not very interested in this matter, and the generals of the various armies did not want to march again, so they returned to the court.

The Northern Han Dynasty fought a very poor battle, sent troops for more than 50 days, failed to win a battle, did not win a city, and returned with a crushing defeat, and also killed many Khitan uncles, so there was no strength to peep into the Central Plains anymore, which enabled Guo Wei's Later Zhou regime to successfully remove the threat from the north. However, before the smoke of this war settled, another rebellion broke out in the Later Zhou Dynasty, that is, the Taining (ruled in Yanzhou) Festival of the Later Zhou Dynasty made Murong Yanchao finally rebel.

Murong Yanchao is Liu Zhiyuan's younger brother (the same mother as Liu Zhiyuan), and he is also half of the clan of the Later Han Dynasty.

After Guo Wei's rebellion, Emperor Liu Chengyou of the Han Dynasty relied on him very much, and Murong Yanchao felt very good about himself, and boasted in front of Liu Chengyou, saying: "The Northern Army is just a group of thieves, and I don't need to do anything, just shout, I can scare them." ”

As a result, as soon as the battle was fought the next day, Murong Yanchao was beaten by Guo Wei and fled back to Yanzhou in embarrassment, and the Later Han Dynasty also perished (see the Five Dynasties Wind and Cloud Scroll for details).

Later, Guo Wei sent people to appease him, and still appointed him as the envoy of Taining Jiedu, Murong Yanchao knew that he was unable to compete with him, and hurriedly handed over the surrender table to Guo Wei, so that he officially became a prince of a town in the Later Zhou Dynasty.

However, after all, Murong Yanchao had been seriously opposed to Guo Wei, so after the surrender, he was still panicked, always ready to rebel, constantly recruiting troops and horses, hoarding grain and grass, and writing letters to the Northern Han Emperor Liu Chong and the Southern Tang Emperor Li Jing, wanting to seek their support, but they were intercepted by the patrol officials of the Later Zhou.

Guo Wei can still understand his feelings, so he sent Zheng Haoqian, the general secretary (royal protocol officer), to Yanzhou to appease him, saying: "Your behavior is very wrong, but I can understand it, so I won't blame you, so please don't do it again." ”

and asked Zheng Haoqian to swear to the sky for himself, claiming that he would never harm Murong Yanchao.

However, the more polite Guo Wei was to him and the more sincere he spoke, the more afraid Murong Yanchao became, only thinking that Guo Wei was fooling him, so he began to prepare for war more frantically, always ready to rebel.

Of course, Murong Yanchao has a certain reason for doing this, because it is really difficult to say whether Guo Wei fooled him or not.

On the one hand, the Five Dynasties did have an old tradition of appeasing the feudal towns, which fought against the central government, and as long as they were willing to surrender, the emperor often did not kill him, in order to keep him so as to show his mercy to the other feudal towns. But on the other hand, even after surrendering, it is not surprising that he was really killed by the emperor,

Because after all, the emperor also has a lot of reasons to kill him. Therefore, Guo Wei's appeasement of Murong Yanchao is whether he sincerely wants to pardon him, or whether he wants to paralyze him first, and finally find a suitable time to kill him, no one can estimate this. (To be continued.) )