After Zhao Kuangyin captured Chuzhou, the Zhou army's gateway to the Southern Tang Dynasty and Liangjing had been opened, which could not help but make Li Jing panic. So only a few days later, Li Jing personally wrote a letter and sent someone to Shouzhou to present it to Chai Rong, and said in the letter: "The Tang Emperor sent a letter to the Emperor of the Great Zhou, please rest the army and repair it, and is willing to use the brotherly courtesy to help the military expenses." "This is to sign a treaty with Hou Zhou to lose power and humiliate the country, so that Chai Rong can withdraw from the army as soon as possible.

However, Chai Rong was very unhappy because he saw Li Jing proclaiming himself "Emperor of the Tang Dynasty" in his letter, and not only refused to express his position, but instead sent the guard Ma Jundu to command Han Lingkun to lead the army to attack Yangzhou, the eastern capital of the Southern Tang Dynasty.

This made Li Jing even more frightened, and hurriedly sent Zhong Mo, a bachelor of Hanlin, and Li Deming, a waiter of the Ministry of Works, to ask Chai Rong for reconciliation again with the seal of the minister and a large amount of gold and silver, cattle and sheep, and wine syrup.

On February 19, Zhong Mo and Li Deming came to the city of Shouzhou. Chai Rong knew that they wanted to persuade him to retreat with eloquence, so he set up heavy troops outside the city in advance, and when the two of them arrived, before they could speak first, he sharply accused: "You Tang Kingdom claim to be a descendant of the Li Tang Dynasty and the Miao Dynasty, and you should know what etiquette is. But there is only one Huai River between you and me, when did the Tang State send an envoy to make peace with each other?

Instead, he crossed the ocean and went to collude with the Liao State. Abandoning China and serving the barbarians, where is the ceremony? Where is righteousness? You want to persuade me to withdraw from the army with my incorruptible tongue, but I am not the mediocre monarch of the Six Kingdoms, how can I be moved by your tongue?

Go back and tell Li Jing to put down his shelf and come over and kowtow in person to apologize, and I will ensure that he is safe and sound. Otherwise, I should personally raise the army and go straight to Jinling. Reward my soldiers with the goods that are in your treasury. At that time, I am afraid that you kings and ministers will have to regret it. ”

Zhong Mo and Li Deming were so frightened by Chai Rong's posture that they had to swallow all the words in their stomachs and didn't dare to say a word.

Li Jing's desire to make peace was once again frustrated, and the pressure he faced was increasing. After Chai Rong personally arrived in Shouzhou, he sent people to contact Hunan and Wu Yue respectively. Let them send troops to help. These two were also two southern regimes attached to the Later Zhou, and they had always been at odds with the Southern Tang Dynasty, so after seeing the envoys sent by Chai Rong, they each raised their troops and began to attack the prefectures and counties of the Southern Tang Dynasty. In this way, Li Jing's situation is even more embarrassing.

On the evening of February 22, Han Lingkun, the general of the Zhou army, quietly arrived at the city of Yangzhou with his troops. At this time, the Southern Tang Dynasty was attacked on three sides, and most of the troops were pinned down on the front line, and the defense of Yangzhou was insufficient. Unexpectedly, he failed to detect the arrival of the Zhou army, and was led by Han Lingkun to break into the city early the next morning, and Yangzhou had fallen into the hands of the Zhou army that day.

Yangzhou is not only the eastern capital of the Southern Tang Dynasty, but also a military town in Huainan, where the main roads of water and land converge, and there are a large number of gold and silver, grain and grass, and armor stored in the treasury, which can be said to have both political and military nature. And the economic value is very high. The fall of the city made Li Jing unable to sit still any longer. had to send Sun Sheng, the right servant of the Southern Tang Dynasty, to carry the seal and ask Chai Rong for peace.

This is also the third time that Li Jing has asked Chai Rong for peace in a month, and his words are also very humble, he praised in his seal: "Since Tianyou (the end of the Tang Dynasty), the sea has collapsed, and the princes have guarded it. or divide one side, or have established themselves and stand on their own. I inherited the ancestral business, and I am dying on the surface of the river, like a crow circling, and I can't find a place to stay. I have the heart to climb the dragon and the phoenix, but I don't know where the dragon and phoenix are?

And today's fate is returned, Your Majesty's prestige and education spread far and wide, I would like to compare the two Zhejiang, Hunan, the emperor to the emperor, the Great Zhou as the Zhengshuo, the year into the contribution, guard the territory. I beg your Majesty to revoke my crusade against me, to forgive me for the sins I have finally surrendered, and to grant me permission to be a vassal of Your Majesty outside the borders. If Your Majesty can have this kindness from afar, then the people who have cracked the earth in the sea will be subjugated one after another. ”

Then he prepared 1,000 taels of gold, 100,000 taels of silver, and 2,000 horses of silk, and ordered his right servant to shoot Sun Sheng and take them to Shouzhou as a reward for the army. He also expressed to Chai Rong that he was willing to cede the land of the six Jiangbei prefectures such as Shou, Hao, Si, Chu, Guang, and Hai, and contribute another million yuan of property to Hou Zhou every year, and asked for a boycott.

Li Jing not only ceded the land this time, but also paid compensation, and even prepared to eliminate the emperor's name, which is not insincere. However, Chai Rong felt that the six states in Jiangbei that Li Jing was preparing to cede were either surrounded by his heavy troops or had been occupied by the Zhou army, so he had no interest, and still refused to agree, and instead transferred the general Zhao Kuangyin back from Chuzhou, and wanted to increase his efforts to attack Shouzhou.

In the days that followed, the Zhou army launched a fierce attack on Shouzhou City, and Chai Rong personally commanded it, and led by example, lifting a stone and placing it on the siege cannon for its use.

And Zhao Kuangyin did not care about life and death, personally led the soldiers, rowed a cowhide dinghy, and went straight to the city of Shouzhou along the moat.

The Zhou army's siege of the city this time can be regarded as a bloody investment, but it is a pity that Liu Renzhen, who defends Shouzhou, can really be regarded as a brave and resourceful all-round talent, which is quite difficult to deal with, so the effect is still not good. Especially Zhao Kuangyin, who also experienced the biggest danger in his life here, almost sacrificed his life for the country.

This is when he led people to attack the city of Shouzhou in a small boat, the city suddenly fired strong crossbows, and they used the most advanced and powerful crossbow arrows at that time, the arrow shaft was thick and long, like the rafters on the house.

Zhou Jun was not fully prepared for this new weapon, and the shield in his hand could not resist it at all, and he was shot down at that time. Zhao Kuangyin saw that the situation was not good, and hurriedly ordered to retreat, but it was too late, and the huge arrows in the city were already flying towards them like locusts. One of them shot straight to Zhao Kuangyin's chest, and he was about to dodge, thanks to his battalion officer Zhang Qiong, who saw that the situation was not good, and at the last moment, he flew up and blocked the arrow with his body.

Zhang Qiong is also a fierce general at the beginning, and he is very strong. When that arrow came, he rushed over to block it for Zhao Kuangyin, but he was shot in the thigh by this arrow and went directly into the bone. Zhang Qiong fainted from the pain on the spot, and did not wake up until she went ashore.

But this kind of arrow is very annoying, because the arrow is too big, and it can't be pulled out if it is stuck in the bone, and the people next to it are so anxious that they turn around. Only Zhang Qiong had nothing to do, just wanted a bowl of wine, drank it in a big gulp, and then ordered someone to break the bones, and then took out the arrow.

Due to the poor medical conditions at that time. There was not even the necessary anesthesia for such a major surgical operation, it was all brutal. When he smashed his bones, several liters of blood spurted out, and the sound of broken bones was so piercing that no one around him could bear to watch, and even the bone chisel doctor was so frightened that his face was pale. Only Zhang Qiong was calm. It's no different from usual.

Chai Rong besieged Shouzhou for many days, but he was never able to break the city. At the beginning, Li Jing kept making concessions in order to make Hou Zhou retreat, and even did not hesitate to cut land, pay compensation, and eliminate the emperor's title, but he still could not satisfy Chai Rong. At this time, there was no room for concession, so we had to let go of the idea of peace and go all out to meet the battle. In fact, the Southern Tang was at this time. The national strength is still very strong, and it was not completely defeated because of this blow in the coming week. The reason why Li Jing made so many unequal treaties for himself when the two countries were just at war is inseparable from his cowardice.

At the end of March of that year, Li Jing ordered the emperor's fourth brother Li Jingda to take command and lead the army to resist the Later Zhou. A few days later, Li Jingda led an army of 20,000 to cross the river and go north, with the intention of recapturing Yangzhou from the Zhou army. This one comes. Han Lingkun, who was guarding Yangzhou, was very panicked. Because before that, Lu Mengjun, the right guard general of the Southern Tang Dynasty, had also led 10,000 soldiers and horses. After killing from Changzhou, Han Lingkun was afraid that he would go deep alone and be locked in the door, so he took the initiative to abandon the city and flee without waiting for the Tang army to attack, so that Yangzhou was easily recaptured by the Tang army.

The news was transmitted back to Shouzhou. It made Chai Rong extremely angry, but Han Lingkun did have his difficulties in escaping without a fight, and it was not good to blame him too much. So Chai Rong had no choice but to send an envoy in a hurry to order Han Lingkun to return to Yangzhou and recapture Yangzhou, and on the other hand, he sent the general Zhang Yongde to lead the army to rush to reinforcements. At the same time, he ordered Zhao Kuangyin to lead another army to enter Liuhe (130 miles west of Yangzhou) to deal with Han Lingkun's right flank.

Zhao Kuangyin was already famous at this time, and his style was very strong, Han Lingkun was originally his friend from childhood to adulthood, but he was not emotional. After leading the army to Liuhe, an order was immediately issued - those who dared to retreat from Liuhe were immediately beheaded. This time, Han Lingkun's retreat was cut off, and he had to turn back to compete with Lu Mengjun for Yangzhou.

At the same time that Han Lingkun and Lu Mengjun were competing for Yangzhou, Li Jingda also led the army to Liuhe. But Li Jingda and Li Jing, the lord of the Southern Tang Dynasty, are worthy of being the brothers of the same mother, and the degree of timidity is generally the same, I heard that Zhao Kuangyin arrived one step earlier than him, and he refused to move forward, so he set up camp at a distance of twenty miles from Liuhe and confronted the Zhou army.

At this time, someone advised Zhao Kuangyin that he should take advantage of the unstable foothold of the Tang Army and give a head-on blow. But Zhao Kuangyin was very old and spicy, and analyzed: "The Tang army is encamped, this is a fear of us, and it should have been attacked.

But our army is small, only a few thousand, and once we take the initiative to attack, they will see the weakness. In order to save Yangzhou, they cannot confront us forever, and sooner or later they will attack our army, and that is the best time for us to win. ”

Sure enough, a few days later, Li Jingda was forced to pull out the camp and attack the Zhou army. Zhao Kuangyin immediately waved the whole army, launched a fierce attack on the Tang army, and won a big victory, killing more than 5,000 Tang troops in battle, and the rest rushed to the edge of the Yangtze River, because there were not so many boats crossing the river, the Tang army fought with each other, and drowned a lot.

In this battle, Zhao Kuangyin defeated 20,000 elites of the Tang Army with thousands of soldiers and horses, and made a great contribution to the Later Zhou.

At the same time, Han Lingkun also defeated the Tang army in the east of Yangzhou, and captured Lu Mengjun, the main general of the Tang army, and recaptured Yangzhou. This made the Zhou army even more prestige in the Jiangbei area. However, at this time, Chai Rong was in trouble in Shouzhou. This is not because the Tang army can do anything here, but because the Zhou army has besieged Shouzhou for more than three months and has exhausted its manpower, but it is still blocked out of the city by Liu Renzhen, and the grain and grass are gradually unable to help.

After entering April, heavy rain fell in the sky for several days, the water was several feet deep, and the siege equipment and soldiers suffered heavy losses, which caused great difficulties to the military operations in the following week. Fortunately, at this time, Zhao Kuangyin and Han Lingkun both won battles in the Jiangbei area, so they were not very tight militarily.

Entering May, the siege of Shouzhou still failed to make great progress, and the grain and grass were even tighter. Chai Rong had the intention of withdrawing the army, but he was unwilling to lift the siege of Shouzhou, and when he was in a dilemma, news suddenly came from the rear that Empress Fu was seriously ill. Chai Rong was taken aback when he heard the news, because this Empress Fu was not an ordinary person, she was originally the daughter of Fu Yanqing, the envoy of the Tianxiong Army and the King of Wei, and married Li Chongxun, the son of Li Shouzhen, as his wife in her early years.

During the Later Han Dynasty, Li Shouzhen rebelled in Guanzhong, Guo Wei led troops to quell the rebellion, and on the day of the city, Li Chongxun killed his family and raised his sword to kill Fu. But Fu already knew the news, so he hid behind the screen. Li Chongxun committed suicide in a hurry, so he didn't wait for Fu's and died by himself.

After the Han army entered the city, they burned and looted in the city, and carried out the three-light policy. Fu was also discovered by a group of rebels, and when this rebel army was about to do that kind of thing to her, Fu was solemn and shouted to those rebels: "My father and Guo Gong are old friends, you dare to offend me, be careful that he cuts off your heads." After hearing this, no one dared to move again, but protected her and handed her over to Guo Wei. After Guo Wei heard about Fu's deeds, he felt that she could be at a critical juncture, so he accepted her as a righteous daughter, and married her to Chai Rong as his wife soon after.

Fu is virtuous and virtuous, and can understand the general situation, in the early years when Chai Rong was suppressed by Wang Jun, his mood was very depressed, Fu was always by his side, and he was relieved, which relieved Chai Rong's depressed mood a lot. This little couple has always been very affectionate, so Chai Rong heard that Empress Fu was seriously ill, so he hurriedly ordered the guards and pro-army to command Li Chongjin to continue the siege of Shouzhou, and he took a part of the soldiers and horses to withdraw to Daliang. In this way, Chai Rong's Southern Tang Dynasty campaign can be regarded as an end for the time being.

Just a month before Chai Rong withdrew to the Central Plains, the Southern Tang general Chai Kehong defeated Wu Yue's army in Changzhou (now Changzhou, Jiangsu), killing more than 10,000 people in battle, and the rest of Wu Yue's troops fled back to China, so that the threat of the Eastern Front of the Southern Tang Dynasty was gone. The Hunan regime of Zhou after the southern pro-annexation also broke out at this time, and the Yuezhou regimental training made Pan Shusi kill him in a fit of anger because he could not bear the blackmail of Wang Kui, and then enshrined the power of Hunan to Zhou Xingfeng, but he did not expect Zhou Xingfeng to show people that he did not participate in the killing of Wang Kui's intentions, so he designed to behead Pan Shuhei.

In this way, the situation in Hunan was chaotic, and there was no energy to join forces with Hou Zhou to attack the Southern Tang Dynasty, and the pressure on the southern front of the Southern Tang Dynasty was also lifted.

At the same time, the Southern Tang lifted the threat in both the eastern and southern directions, thus allowing it to concentrate on dealing with the Zhou army on the northern front. After Chai Rong withdrew, even the situation in Huainan changed unfavorably in the later Zhou side.

First of all, the Zhangxin Festival of the Later Zhou Dynasty made Li Jixun lead his troops to camp in the south of Shouzhou City, but before the camp was firmly established, Liu Renzhen suddenly led his troops out of the city, Li Jixun couldn't resist it, and retreated in panic.

In this battle, the Zhou army lost hundreds of soldiers, although it was not much, but this was the first defeat of the Zhou army since entering Huainan, and it still had a certain impact on morale. (To be continued.) )