The last battle

It is said that nomads are born to fight people, but the failure of the two Khitan invasion wars tells the world: under the fame, it is difficult to live up to the truth, no matter how good the legend is, it is just a legend.

God's balance seems to have been tilting towards the Later Jin Dynasty, and in July 916, good news came from the mouths of visitors from Youzhou, saying that Zhao Yanshou had the intention of returning to the south.

The successive victories made the privy envoys Li Song and Feng Yu convinced of Zhao Yanshou's surrender, and immediately ordered the Tianxiong Festival to make Dewey write a letter to Zhao Yanshou, explaining to Zhao Yanshou the meaning of the imperial court and the fictitious Ruogu, and sparing no expense, using sugar-coated shells to bombard Zhao Yanshou constantly.

Zhao Xingshi, the general of Luozhou, had worked under Zhao Yanshou, so he sent him as a messenger to go back and forth between Zhao Yanshou and the imperial court, Zhao Yanshou replied: "I have been in a foreign country for a long time, I really want to return to the Central Plains, and I beg the imperial court to send a large army to respond, and I will get out and go south." The words in the letter were sincere and sincere, which moved those who heard it and wept those who saw it.

The imperial court was very happy, thinking that it was a plan, and sent Zhao Xingshi to contact Zhao Yanshou, and the two sides agreed on a date for surrender.

In September, Liu Yanzuo, the assassin of Yingzhou in the Khitan, wrote a letter to Wang Luan, the commander of the Later Jin Dynasty, asking to lead the whole city to surrender, and said: "The Khitan defenders in the city are less than 1,000, please send troops to attack quickly, and I will act as an internal response at that time."

Also, there is a lot of rain this autumn, from the north of the tile bridge, the water is boundless, the Khitan lord has gone back to the tooth tent, even if he hears that there is a change in the south of the Guannan, the road is far away from the water, and he can't come to the rescue immediately. ”

Wang Luan and Dewey played repeatedly, thinking that they could take advantage of this God-given opportunity to recapture Ying and Mo Erzhou, and it happened that at this time, Murong Qian, the assassin of Shenzhou, presented "Ying Motu" again, which really responded to the words, when you want to do something. The whole world will help you, Feng Yu and Li Song believed it at this time, so they actively prepared and planned to send a large army to meet Zhao Yanshou and Liu Yanzuo.

The next step is to consider the question of the candidate for the commander of the army. Shi Chonggui's first favorite person was Dewey, but the ministers all said that Dewey was disloyal and could not be reused. So he temporarily decided to switch to Li Shouzhen.

Here it is necessary to introduce these two people first. Dewey, a native of Shuozhou, formerly known as Du Chongwei, changed his name to Dewey because of the avoidance of stone and nobles, and when he was young, he followed Li Siyuan of Later Tang Mingzong, and later married Shi Jingjiao's sister as his wife. After Shi Jingjiao ascended the throne, he appointed Dewey as the assassin of Shuzhou and put him in charge of the royal army.

In the second year of Tianfu (937). Zhang Congbin provoked a disturbance and occupied Bishui, and Shi Jingjiao sent Dewey and Hou Yi to lead the army to attack, and was awarded the Luzhou Festival Envoy for his merits.

Later, he and Yang Guangyuan forced Fan Yanguang to surrender in Yecheng, and was reappointed as the envoy of Xuzhou Jiedu, and the deputy commander of the Ma Bujun of the guard's pro-army, and was crowned with Tongping Zhangshi. Soon after. He was also transferred to Yunzhou and promoted to the commander of the guards, the pro-army, and the Ma Bu Army.

After An Chongrong raised his troops. Shi Jingjiao ordered him to go to the crusade, defeated An Chongrong in Zongcheng, An Chongrong fled to Changshan, Dewey immediately conquered Changshan City, cut off An Chongrong's head and sent it to the capital, so he was reappointed as the envoy of Chengde Festival again. The family wealth of An Chongrong and the public property of Changshan are all owned by himself.

After Shi Chonggui and the Khitan became enemies, every time the Khitan army invaded, Dewey closed the city and defended himself, and the Khitan soldiers drove the people under his jurisdiction through the city. He just went to the city to watch, indifferent, and put on a posture that he didn't care about himself. In the first year of Kaiyun (944), Dewey was appointed as a conscriptor to the northern camp. In the second year, he led the army to attack Taizhou and conquered Mancheng and Suicheng.

The Khitan army had already retreated to Gubeikou, and suddenly returned to the army to fight back, Dewey led the army to the south, walked to Yangcheng, and was besieged by the Khitan army.

The generals were ready to pursue, and Dewey said timidly: "It is a great fortune to be able to save your life when you encounter a strong enemy, can you expect greater blessings?" ”

So he gathered his troops and horses and hurried back to the city. Due to Dewey's brutal raids, the population of Chengde was scattered, and he was worried that the Khitan would suddenly attack, so he continued to ask to return to Beijing, and before receiving a reply from the imperial court, he hurriedly went on the road.

At that time, he left 100,000 grains of corn in Zhenzhou, and the palace supervisor Wang Qinzuo was ordered to negotiate with the people to buy military rations, so he registered and reported his private grain, and the court gave him tens of thousands of silk cloth to compensate, Dewey did not comply, and said angrily: "I am not a rebel, why should I confiscate my grain into the official!" ”

This is Dewey, a timid and fearful man, insatiable, inadequate, and repeatedly reused.

Let's take another look at Li Shouzhen's resume. Li Shouzhen, a native of Heyang, when Shi Jingjiao was guarding Heyang, he made him a guest general, and the guest general is also known as a pawn, mainly responsible for receiving envoys, guests, envoys and other diplomatic work.

After Shi Jingjiao became emperor, he appointed him as the envoy of the guest province and let him continue to do his old job, responsible for receiving envoys from foreign countries and ethnic minorities and taking charge of the worship ceremony. It wasn't until after Ma Quanjie's army overcame Li Jinquan that he was classified into the ranks of military generals.

Later, the Khitan army was defeated in Majiakou, and Yang Guangyuan was defeated in Qingzhou City, and he gradually emerged in the army. But like most of the generals of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms, Li Shouzhen is also a very greedy person.

After Yang Guangyuan surrendered, he took Yang Guangyuan's gold and silver treasures, BMW beauties all for himself, and after occupying Yang Guangyuan's residence, he seized the surrounding houses one after another, making his mansion the largest private residence in the capital.

As a rule, after the rebellion was pacified, the imperial court would reward the soldiers, but Li Shouzhen would privately withhold the rewards issued by the imperial court every time, and distribute them to the soldiers in exchange for moldy inferior tea and dyed wood. ”

Every time he sent troops, Li Shouzhen had to ask for money like the imperial court, calling it "hanging armor money", and when he won the battle and collected the troops, he continued to ask for it, which was called "armor removal money", and he collected it once he came out, often not less than 300,000 yuan, which greatly increased the deficit of the imperial court and impoverished the people.

As the saying goes, things gather by like, people by groups, Dewey is very greedy for money, and Li Shouzhen is also very fond of money, so the two are naturally attracted together.

When Dewey was stationed in Weizhou, Li Shouzhen often led his troops through Weizhou City, and Dewey was very generous to him, often giving him a lot of halberd armor, gold and silver silk.

After Li Shouzhen entered the court, Shi Chonggui said to him: "I heard that Aiqing, as a general, often uses his own money to reward soldiers. ”

Li Shouzhen is also very practical. He thanked him and said, "These are Dewey's loyalty to the country, and he financed me with gold and silver, so how dare I plunder his virtues?"

If Your Majesty uses troops, I am willing to cooperate with Dewey to eliminate the enemy in the desert. Shi Chonggui discussed with Feng Yu and Li Song again, so he changed his decision again. Dewey was appointed marshal and Li Shouzhen was appointed deputy marshal.

Zhao Ying said to Feng and Li in private: "Dewey is a relative of the emperor and a noble general, but his ** is not satisfied, and he is often dissatisfied, how can he be granted military power again!"

If you must use troops against the north, it is better to appoint Li Shouzhen alone. But Feng and Li did not listen to him.

On October 14, the imperial court officially issued an edict appointing Dewey as the commander of the northern camp. Li Shouzhen is the supervisor of the soldiers and horses, and Taining Jiedu makes An Xianqi the commander of the left and right compartments.

Wu Ning Jiedu made Fu Yanqing the commander of the left wing of the horse army, Yicheng Jiedu made Huangfu Yu the commander of the right wing of the Ma army, Yongqing Jiedu made Liang Hanzhang the commander of the horse army, and Song Yanyun was the commander of the left wing of the infantry army.

Fengguo commanded Wang Rao as the commander of the left wing of the infantry army, and Xue Huairang was the commander of the vanguard. And issued an edict saying: "The imperial court specially dispatched a large army. Go to Sweeper and Trap.

Take Yingzhou and Mozhou first, and settle Guannan; Secondly, recover the Youyan. Pingding Saibei. Shi Chonggui was full of confidence in this battle, and soon issued an edict saying: "If there is a person who captures the Hulu monarch alive, appoint the envoy of the upper town, and reward 10,000 taels of money, 10,000 horses of silk, and 10,000 taels of silver." ”

Then. Since June, it has rained for several days, and it has not stopped, and it has been very difficult for the army to march and transport military rations.

After Dewey and Li Shouzhen joined forces in Guangjin, they continued to march north. On the way to the army. Dewey repeatedly asked the princess to enter the palace to play, asked for more troops, and pretended to be worried and said: "Now to go deep into the border of Hulu, we must rely on everyone's strength!" Shi Chonggui couldn't do it, so he had to rely on him and allocate all the forbidden troops to him, so that the palace guards were empty.

On the tenth day of November, the imperial court sent Li Shouzhen to preside over the affairs of the Youzhou government.

On the twelfth, Dewey led the army to arrive at the city of Yingzhou, and the whole army was dumbfounded, only to see the city gate open, and a Confucian general sat on the city, smiling, burning incense and playing the piano.

On the left is a scholar holding a sword; There is also a scholar on the right, holding a whisk in his hand.

Inside and outside the city gate, more than 20 people who looked like people were bowing their heads and sweeping, if there was no one around, did they feel a little familiar?

Of course, this plot is made up by me, the actual situation is: there are no Confucian generals, no scholars, no people who look like ordinary people, the whole city of Yingzhou is lifeless, there is no people, Dewey looks left and right, looks up and down, 360 degrees without dead ends for a long time, but he doesn't dare to go in.

At this time, the Malay newspaper said that the Khitan general Gao Mohan had already led his troops out of the city and slipped away, and Dewey immediately sent Liang Hanzhang to lead two thousand cavalry to pursue quickly, Liang Hanzhang did not fail in his mission, and finally encountered the Khitan army in the Nanyang area, but it was not a good thing for Liang Hanzhang to catch up with the Khitan army, and soon, the Jin army was defeated and Liang Hanzhang was killed.

When the news came, Dewey panicked and immediately led his troops south. At that time, Shucheng and several other county towns had asked for surrender, but Dewey ignored them, burned, killed, looted, and ran wildly all the way. Yelu Deguang led a large army, followed by a large-scale invasion, from Yizhou and Dingzhou to Hengzhou. When Dewey arrived at Wuqiang, he heard that the Khitan main force was chasing after him, and planned to continue to retreat south from Beizhou and Jizhou.

Zhang Yanze was stationed in Hengzhou at that time, and quickly led the troops to join Dewey, and stated the reason why he could defeat the Khitan, Dewey hesitated again and again, and led the army back to Hengzhou, appointing Zhang Yanze as the vanguard. On the 27th, the Jin army came to Zhongdu Bridge, but at this time the bridge had been occupied by the Khitan, Zhang Yanze led his troops to fight, the Khitan army was defeated, burned the bridge, and retreated.

At the beginning, the Khitans saw that the Later Jin army was mighty, and went to fight for the bridge and did not win, worried that the Jin army would force the Hutuo River, and then jointly attacked with the Hengzhou army.

Li Gu, the assassin of Cizhou and the envoy of the northern transport, persuaded Dewey: "Now the army is close to Hengzhou, and each other's fireworks can be seen." If you put three strands of wood in the water and spread firewood and grass on them, the pontoon bridge will be erected immediately.

Then secretly contact the defenders in the city, light a fire as a code, and organize the soldiers to cut down the fence of the enemy's camp at night and rush in. ”

The generals thought so, but Dewey hesitated and thought it would not work, but instead sent Li Gu to Huai and Meng Erzhou to supervise the transportation of military rations. At this time, the Khitan blocked the front of the Later Jin army with a large army, and sent the general Xiao Han and the general Liu Chongjin to lead a hundred cavalry and a small number of infantry, and quietly went around the back of the Later Jin army along the West Mountain, cutting off the grain route and retreat of the Later Jin army.

When the woodcutters who were collecting firewood met them, they were all captured, and some of them escaped and came back, and there were also rumors everywhere that the Khitan army was strong and difficult to defeat, which made the people in the Later Jin army panic.

Xiao Han and others arrived at Luancheng, and there were more than 1,000 defenders of the Houjin in the city, which could have been a battle, but because they did not expect the Khitan army to suddenly attack, they all surrendered without a fight in a panic.

The Khitan tattooed the faces of the captured Hou Jin people with the four big characters of "Feng Yi does not kill", and then let them flee to the south.

On the first day of December, Li Gu secretly played to Shi Chonggui, detailing the critical situation of the Later Jin army, and asked the emperor to come to Huazhou in person, send Gao Xingzhou and Fu Yanqing to follow, and ask him to send troops to guard Lanzhou and Heyang to prevent a sudden attack by the Khitan army.

On the fourth day of the first month, Dewey asked for more troops, and Shi Chonggui issued an edict to dispatch hundreds of soldiers guarding the palace to Zhongdu Bridge, and sent 500,000 grains and grass to Hebei and Hua, Meng, Ze, and Lu prefectures to the barracks.

Because the time for supervising the transportation is urgent, the urging is urgent, and the disturbance is boiling in various places. On the fifth day of the first month, Dewey sent his subordinate Zhang Zuo to report the emergency, and Zhang Zuo was captured by the Khitan on the way back, and from then on, the news between the court and the army was cut off.

Sang Weihan, who was the Yin of Kaifeng at the time, believed that the situation was in danger and asked the emperor to report the situation. Shi Chonggui was playing with the falcon in the imperial garden, and he couldn't excuse himself. Sang Weihan went to state to the ministers in charge of the government, and those ministers were not impressed, Sang Weihan retreated and said to the left and right: "The temple of the Jin clan cannot be sacrificed!" ”

On the sixth day of the first month, the imperial court issued an edict to return to the Dejie Du to make Gao Xingzhou deploy for the north, and ordered Fu Yanqing to serve as his deputy to guard Lanzhou together, and ordered Xijing to stay in Jingyanguang to guard Heyang, and set up a posture to meet the battle. (To be continued.) )