In the next few days, Chai Rong commanded several of his generals to lead troops to clear the periphery of Haozhou, and uprooted all the gates and fortresses outside the city.

On 14 November, Chai Rong sent an envoy to Guo Tingwei, the defender of Haozhou, telling him to surrender immediately. Guo Tingwei had the intention to surrender and wanted to wait and see again, so he wrote back to Chai Rong: "The minister's family is in the south of the Yangtze River, if he surrenders immediately, I am afraid that the family will be destroyed by the Tang State, please ask Your Majesty to send an envoy to Jinling to ask for his life, and then surrender." ”

Chai Rong knew his true thoughts, but he still cherished Guo Tingwei very much, so he granted his request and turned around to attack the Tang army troops near Haozhou.

After Chai Rong invaded Huainan, the Southern Tang Emperor Li Jing appointed Chen Chengzhao, the envoy of Baoyi Jiedu (empty title, at this time the Baoyi army belonged to Hou Zhou), as the envoy of Hao, Si, Chu and Haizhou, and mobilized tens of thousands of sailors and hundreds of warships to assemble on the east bank of Surabaya (specifically in the territory of present-day Wufeng County, Anhui), intending to reinforce Haozhou.

Li Jing also has high hopes for Chen Chengzhao, because for several years in succession, the Southern Tang Dynasty has been defeated repeatedly against the Later Zhou, the territory is declining, and the national strength is not as good as before, so he really can't afford to win and lose. In order to win this battle, Li Jing sent almost all the troops he could raise to Chen Chengzhao, hoping that he could turn things around and successfully repel the Zhou army.

But this Chen Chengzhao's talent may not be much stronger than Li Jingda, although this time it is the next big job, but I don't know how to hand in the errand, and after the team is assembled, he just leads the army to retreat in the camp, and does not dare to send a soldier to Haozhou.

On November 19, Chai Rong found out the location of this army and personally raised the army on the same day. Run along land and water. On the evening of the next day, the Zhou army arrived in front of the camp of the Southern Tang Water Division. Take advantage of the darkness to lurk. In the second half of the night, the Zhou army divided into several ways to wade and sneak. approached the Tang army camp, and suddenly killed in one fell swoop. The Tang army was caught off guard, and was breached at once, and in a blink of an eye, the Zhou army swarmed in and fought fiercely with the Tang army.

This battle lasted until dawn, when the Tang army was defeated, and more than 5,000 people were killed in battle, and more than 2,000 people were captured. Chen Chengzhao could not resist the fierce attack of the Zhou army, so he had to flee along the river by boat with the remnants. After Chai Rong broke through the camp of the Tang Army's naval division, he immediately marched eastward and led the army straight to Sizhou (in present-day Xuyi County, Jiangsu Province).

On November 23, the Zhou army arrived at the city of Sizhou, and the general Zhao Kuangyin took the lead and led his troops to storm the south gate. Commanded the Zhou army in battle. The Sizhou defender Fan Zaiyu resisted for several days, but he could not continue to resist, so he had to raise the city and surrender to the Zhou army.

At this time, someone reported to Chai Rongyu. It is said that Chen Chengzhao led the rest of the Southern Tang Naval Division to retreat to Qingkou (now southwest of Huaiyin City, Jiangsu Province, where the Qinghe River enters the Huai River), and Chai Rong immediately ordered his troops and horses after hearing the news. Divided into two roads of water and land, along the Huai River to the north. Go after the remnants.

At that time, because the Huai River had always been the dividing line between the Zhou and Tang dynasties, it was sparsely populated. Overgrown with weeds, ravines, and reeds, it is extremely difficult to walk.

But at this time, the Zhou army won successive battles, and when the official spirit was the highest, and Chai Rong personally led the team, so along the way, he overcame thorns and thorns, filled ditches and buried ravines, and his morale was like a rainbow, and he didn't feel tired. On December 8, the men and horses of the Later Zhou Dynasty finally caught up with the defeated troops of the Southern Tang Dynasty, and immediately marched with noise, covering the past on all fronts, and the sound of war drums spread dozens of miles away.

The Southern Tang was a defeated army here, and its morale had long been low, and it could not resist the fierce attack of the Zhou army at all, and it was defeated in a battle, and the remnants continued to flee north along the river. Chai Rong then waved his army to cover up and kill, and pursued and killed all day. On the second day, the Tang army was again defeated in Chuzhou (now Huai'an, Jiangsu), capturing Chen Chengzhao, the chief general of the Tang army, capturing more than 300 enemy ships, more than 7,000 enemy troops, and most of the rest of the ships and soldiers were killed. At this point, the water division that Li Jing had high hopes for had been wiped out.

The fall of the Southern Tang Navy Division directly led to another incident, that is, Guo Tingwei, who was trapped in Haozhou, immediately surrendered. Originally, although Guo Tingwei felt that the situation in Haozhou was critical, he still had a wait-and-see mentality. Because of the surrender of this kind of thing, although it is easy to say, but if you really want to do it, at least there is a problem of face.

But by this time, the reinforcements had been wiped out, and the envoy he sent to Jinling had also returned, and Li Jing had already given a clear answer to him - the reinforcements had been sent, and there were no more troops and horses to adjust. In this case, Guo Tingwei had no choice but to obediently open the city gate and surrender to Chai Rong.

Fortunately, Chai Rong did not embarrass him, but praised him, to the effect that since he started the war against the Southern Tang Dynasty, the generals he met were either defeated or fled, and they were completely vulnerable. This comment can be regarded as saving some face for Guo Tingwei.

The successive losses of Shou, Hao, Si and other states opened the door of the Southern Tang Dynasty in Huainan. On December 18, Chai Rong Tiecai commanded the envoy to lead the army to attack Yangzhou. Yangzhou was the eastern capital of the Southern Tang Dynasty, and its strategic position in the country was self-evident.

But at this time, the Southern Tang Dynasty lost all the troops in the entire Huainan, and was unable to defend Yangzhou at all, so it began to retreat on its own initiative without waiting for the Zhou army to attack, and adopted a very obscene scorched earth anti-war strategy, burning all the officials and houses in Yangzhou City, and driving the people of the city across the river. It took several days for the Zhou military to arrive, but there were only a dozen dying patients left in the city.

After the Zhou army conquered Yangzhou, Chai Rong appointed Han Lingkun as the commander of the Yangzhou military government, and then prepared to cross the Yangtze River from the south of the Huai River. However, due to the serious silting up of the river at that time, the big ships could not pass, Chai Rong from Chuzhou (now Huai'an, Jiangsu) and other places to draw people, and personally went to the field to inspect, after careful analysis, precise measurement, repeated demonstration, and finally came up with an optimal construction plan, only ten days to open the river, and then led hundreds of giant warships into the Yangtze River.

The news of Chai Rong's entry into the Yangtze River frightened the Southern Tang monarchs and ministers, and they all thought that he had received the help of heaven, and they panicked from top to bottom.

First of all, the emperor's younger brother Li Jing was connected with ten seals, thinking that the country was in trouble, but he could not save it, and he was really disappointed in the identity of the heir to the throne. Therefore, he resolutely asked Li Jing to withdraw his canonization and appoint Li Hongji, the eldest son of the emperor, as the crown prince.

Li Jing disagreed at first. However, Li Jingsui's attitude was very resolute, and he could not be redeemed at all. Li Jing had no choice but to respond to his request, renamed him the king of Jin, and awarded the title of General Tiance, Generalissimo of Jiangnan West Province, Hongzhou Jiedu Envoy, Taiwei and Shangshu Ling. In addition, the prince Li Hongji was named the crown prince.

As soon as Li Jingsui put down his pick, Li Jingda, the fourth brother of the emperor, also followed the book, saying that he had been defeated repeatedly, and he was really entrusted by His Majesty. Therefore, he asked to resign from the post of generalissimo of soldiers and horses, and Li Jing had no choice but to comply.

These two brothers have retired from the second line, and Li Jing has also been infected, and after thinking about it again, he finally came to a relatively sensible conclusion - simply retire himself.

So he officially appointed Chen Jue, a squire of the military department, to go to Chai Rong with a watch seal, asking Chai Rong to forgive his sins and allow him to pass the throne to his son Li Hongji, and then cancel the emperor's honorific title and proclaim himself a vassal to Later Zhou.

At this time, Chai Rong was facing another difficult choice. If he agrees to this request, it means that the two countries will be at peace from now on, and although Hou Zhou can obtain a large area of Huainan, he must also give up the continued attack on Southern Tang. Then that means: As a sovereign and independent country, the Southern Tang Dynasty will exist for a long time, which is for Chai Rong, who has absolute control over the battlefield. It must be said that it is a great pity.

But if this request is denied, then the battle must be fought resolutely. Until the Southern Tang Dynasty is completely wiped out. Then this means that the Zhou army will be there for a long time after that. They all had to go as far as the south bank of the Yangtze River, and on the land south of the Yangtze River, they used the method of water warfare that they were not familiar with to start the final battle with the Tang army.

The end result should be that the Zhou army can still achieve the final victory, but they will also consume a lot of troops and precious time because of this. This is also what Chai Rong very unwants, because at this time, he has a more ambitious plan in his heart, that is, the Northern Expedition to Khitan.

The root of Chai Rong's idea came from a long-term pain of the Chinese nation at that time. As early as the end of the Later Tang Dynasty, Hedong Jiedu made Shi Jingjiao lead the Khitan soldiers to rebel, and after the fact, the north of Yanmen and the entire Lulong military town were ceded to the Khitan, which is now known as the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun (see the Five Dynasties Fengyun Scroll for details).

After the sixteen states of Yanyun were ceded, the gateway of the entire Hebei land was opened, there was no danger to defend, and the Khitan iron horse was entrenched in the city of Youzhou, and the horse's hooves moved, and it could go directly to the north bank of the Yellow River. Since then, the Han compatriots living in the vast area north of the Yellow River and east of the Taihang Mountains have always suffered from the ravages of foreign races.

Therefore, Chai Rong's idea, in a small way, is to fulfill the political promise of "ten years to calm the world" put forward when he ascended the throne. In general, it is to establish the majesty of a great country, solve the trillions of people in the upside down, and set the foundation for thousands of years. So no matter how big or small, this is a very pragmatic and very responsible idea.

It is precisely based on this point that Chai Rong achieved an absolute advantage on the battlefield on the southern front, and unexpectedly easily let go of the Southern Tang Emperor Li Jing, not only agreeing to his request to stop fighting and quitting the army, but also to him with kind words and comfort, replying to the letter that "the Emperor of the Great Zhou respectfully asks the lord of Jiangnan", which gave Li Jing enough face.

However, the analysis of political issues cannot be based solely on morality. Chai Rong's behavior is undoubtedly glorious, and there is no doubt that his spirit is more than one step ahead of those political leaders who are "insiders in civil wars and outsiders in foreign wars". But at this time, whether it is the most beneficial choice for him to make such a choice is necessary for a brief discussion here.

As far as the situation at that time is concerned, in the south of China, there were seven independent regimes in the Southern Tang Dynasty, Later Shu, Jingnan, Wuyue, Zhangquan, Hunan, and Southern Han Dynasty at the same time as the Later Zhou Dynasty, of which there were only three states in Jingnan and only two states in Zhangquan, all of which were small regimes.

Hunan and Wu Yue have always regarded the Later Zhou as the suzerain, the Southern Han Dynasty and the Later Shu are politically corrupt, the domestic contradictions are sharp, the leaders are mediocre and incompetent, and they are all vulnerable, only the Southern Tang Dynasty has the largest region, the largest number of troops, and the strongest national strength, that is to say, as long as the Southern Tang Dynasty can be killed, the unification of the south is not a problem for Chai Rong.

However, in the face of such a bright prospect, Chai Rong did not choose to continue to use troops in the south, but turned around and began to prepare for the Northern Expedition to the Khitan. You must know that since the founding of Yelu Abaoji, the national strength of the Khitan has been thriving. In the hands of Yelu Deguang, it reached its peak, and even entered the Central Plains for a time.

In terms of territory, the Khitan is vast and far larger than the area ruled by the Later Zhou Dynasty. In terms of military strength, the Khitan has hundreds of thousands of elite cavalry, and it is by no means below the Hou Zhou, and its combat effectiveness is far from being comparable to those weak small southern countries.

So why did Chai Rong abandon the weak and attack the strong at this time, and why did he have to challenge such a powerful Khitan? In addition to Chai Rong's character of not being afraid of strong enemies, being arrogant, and having the courage to be responsible, I am afraid it is also related to the unprecedented appearance of Yelu Jing, an unprecedented, in the Khitan at this time.

Yelu Jing's original name was Yelu Shulu, the son of Yelu Deguang, and the fourth emperor of the Khitan. Yelujing's first characteristic is that he can sleep very well, and the quality of sleep is very high, basically he passes with a pillow and wakes up after a few days, so he is called the "sleep king".

Why Yelu Jing is sleepy, there is no clear statement in history, but he is not close to women, there is only one queen Xiao in the harem, and he never gets close, and he doesn't like men, and he doesn't have sex after drinking, and he has never had a scandal in his life style, which is not in line with common sense, so it is very suspicious that he has a physical defect, so he has to borrow high-quality sleep to anesthetize himself.

The second characteristic of Jerechen is that he is very cruel. Yelu Jing became the emperor because of the rebellion, and after he became the emperor, there were several rebellions in the country one after another, which caused him to be very suspicious, and he was ready to kill people at every turn, and his methods had reached a very perverted level.

Yelu Jing kills people, it can be said that it is a new trick, there are many killing methods such as piercing face, waist beheading, cannon branding, iron comb, shooting ghost arrows, cutting off hands and feet, rotten shoulder and thighs, bending waist and shins, cutting and breaking teeth, etc., and the reasons for killing are also strange.

Some were killed because he was slow to hand chopsticks at a banquet, some were killed because he failed to raise deer, some were killed because he shot and injured the prey he hit, and many were killed simply because he didn't look good, completely treating killing as child's play. (To be continued.) )