At the same time, he sent an edict to Wu Yue, appointing Qian Yu as the envoy of the camp in the southeast of Shengzhou, and ordered him to lead the army to attack the Southern Tang Dynasty on the eastern front.

On October 10, the seventh year of Kaibao (974), Zhao Kuangyin personally boarded the embankment of Bianshui and ordered the warship to set off. However, at this time, Li Yu was still delusional about being able to spend money to buy peace, and sent his younger brother Li Congyi, the Duke of Jiangguo, to bring a large number of gold and silver treasures to Daliang to pay tribute.

The Song army's southern expedition was the result of many years of meticulous preparation, and the strategic deployment was extremely appropriate. The main force is divided into two routes, water and land, the naval army is led by the commander Cao Bin along the east of the river, the goal is to conquer the strategic places on the south bank of the Yangtze River, and finally seize the quarry rock, build a pontoon bridge to meet the main force of the Mabu army to cross the river; The army, led by the governor Pan Mei, rushed overland to the riverside of Hezhou (present-day Hexian, Anhui) to assemble, and waited for the naval army led by Cao Bin to meet the crossing of the river, and then the two armies merged into one and marched to capture Jinling.

On 18 October, Cao Bin led the main fleet from Jiangling and went east along the north bank of the Yangtze River.

The garrison troops of the Tang army on the south bank mistakenly thought that the Song army was routinely patrolling the river and did not take precautions, so that the Song army could smoothly pass through Hukou, a strategic point in the Southern Tang Dynasty. Hukou is located in the territory of Jiangxi, for the mouth of Poyang Lake into the Yangtze River, known as "the key to the rivers and lakes, the thoroughfare of the three provinces", has always been the first line of defense in the south of the Yangtze River to resist the invasion from the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, the Southern Tang Dynasty has as many as 100,000 troops stationed here, it can be seen that its geographical location is important.

However, even if such an important pass was broken through by the Song army, it failed to attract the attention of the relevant parties in the Southern Tang Dynasty. The Song army sailors were still swaggering in the Yangtze River, unhindered.

October 24th. The Song army came to Xiakou Village (now Guichixi, Anhui) and conquered this village in one fell swoop. Later, the land and water marched together, approaching Chizhou (now Guichi, Anhui), the Chizhou guard general Ge Yan actually mistakenly thought that the Song army was coming to patrol the river, and hurriedly prepared the cattle and sheep wine syrup to go to the reward, but only to find that the atmosphere was not right, and it was too late to organize resistance, so he had to abandon the city and flee, and Chizhou immediately fell into the hands of the Song army.

It was only at this time that Li Yu finally understood. The "appeasement policy" that he has been pursuing for so many years has suffered a shameful failure, and the water of calamity, whether it is diverted to the south or to the north, has finally flowed to his own land.

Although Li Yu was cowardly, he was not willing to sit still, so he ordered martial law to resist the Song army.

By this time. Li Yu finally made up his mind to turn his face with the Northern Song Dynasty, and he could be regarded as the emperor in the true sense, but unfortunately it was too late, he was destined to be the emperor for a short time.

After the Song army conquered Chizhou. In order to ensure that the plan to cross the river from the quarrying pontoon bridge was foolproof, Hao Shoujun led craftsmen to test the pontoon bridge across the river at Shipaikou (now Huaining, Anhui), and it was successful in a few days.

Cao Bin was overjoyed when he saw it. He then ordered Lu Wanyou, the former defense envoy of Ruzhou, to stay on the pontoon bridge, and he personally led the army to continue to advance eastward along the waterway.

At this time. Li Yu also felt that the situation was serious, so he had to urgently dispatch troops and horses to resist the Song army. At the same time, he wrote to Qian Yu, the king of Wuyue, saying: "Without me today, how can there be a king tomorrow!" Once the Son of Heaven changes places, you will be just a piece of cloth for the beam. Li Yu's statement was by no means alarmist, but Wu Yue had become accustomed to obeying orders in the Central Plains, and Qian Yu did not dare to compete with Zhao Kuangyin, so he not only ignored it, but also hurriedly sent the letter to Zhao Kuangyin to show his heart.

However, the army of the Southern Tang Dynasty, because it has always been influenced by Li Yu's right-leaning capitulationist ideology, is not active in training, the soldiers are backward in equipment, and the combat effectiveness is extremely low, and it is not the opponent of the Song army at all.

On the 23rd day of the leap month, Cao Bin led the army to arrive at Quarry, and defeated the 20,000 troops of the Southern Tang Dynasty stationed here in the first battle, and captured Yang Shu, the deputy deployment of soldiers and horses, Sun Zhen, the supervisor of soldiers and horses, and others, and captured 300 war horses. By this time, the fate of the Southern Tang Dynasty had been basically decided, because the national strength of the Southern Tang Dynasty was weak, and all it relied on was this Yangtze River moat.

Earlier, when the Song army erected a pontoon bridge at Shipaikou, Li Yu not only disagreed with the information after receiving the information, but felt very strange, so he asked his confidant Zhang Xun to inquire, Zhang Xun did not take this seriously, and said to Li Yu with a big grin: "Your Majesty don't worry, since the book is published, there has been no such thing, since it is not written in the book, they will definitely not succeed." ”

After listening to this, Li Yu was even more relieved and said: "It's also true, if there is such a possibility, how can there be no record in the book?"

I'm calling it a child's play. After the quarrying was conquered, Li Yu couldn't help but be a little panicked, so he summoned the ministers again to discuss, and the ministers said that this season, it is the yellow flower flood season of the Yangtze River, and the river water will inevitably soar, so the pontoon bridge is impossible to build.

After listening to this, Li Yu put down his heart again, but he didn't expect that Fan Ruoshui's plan to cross the river this time was not only very creative, but also quite feasible.

After Cao Bin conquered the quarrying, Zhao Kuangyin immediately sent an edict to move the pontoon bridge of Shipaikou to the east, and it took only three days to build the pontoon bridge of quarrying, the size was exactly the same, the army passed, such as walking on the ground, the main force of the army led by Pan Mei crossed the Yangtze River along the pontoon bridge on the same day, and the main force of the navy led by Cao Bin successfully joined the division on the south bank.

For a long time, Li Yu did not know that the Song army had crossed the Yangtze River. After the war, Li Yu's close ministers Chen Qiao, Zhang Xun and others gave him advice, to the effect that the country has the Yangtze River moat, and the Song army must not be able to fly across, as long as the key passes are guarded everywhere, they are not afraid of the Song army attacking.

Li Yu listened to what they said was very reasonable, so he entrusted them with all the confidential matters, and entrusted all the military affairs to the emperor's Fu Jixun, and he went back to the palace to serve the Buddha and talk about it, and no longer paid attention to political affairs. But in fact, the Song army crossed the river very smoothly, and after crossing the river, it blossomed in all directions in the south of the Yangtze River, and succeeded one after another, since the end of November, only a little more than a month connected to Xinlinzhai, Bailuzhou and Xinlin Port in the southwest of Kejinling, and then approached Jinling, the national capital of the Southern Tang Dynasty.

At this time, there were still more than 100,000 Tang troops assembled on the front line of Jinling, and they were not at a disadvantage in numbers. It's a pity that the combat effectiveness cannot be compared with the Song army. In the first month of the eighth year of Kaibao (975), Pan Mei took the lead in arriving outside Jinling City. The Tang army went out of the city to greet each other, relying on the Qinhuai River to form a water village. Have the heart to fight against the water and save the situation.

Pan Mei is the commander of the Song army when he destroyed the Southern Han Dynasty, and he is also the original form of the traitor Pan Renmei in the "Romance of the Yang Family" series of books, but at this time, Pan Mei's performance is obviously not linked to the image created in the commentary. Launch a fierce assault on the Don army. The Tang army was caught off guard and was defeated by Pan Mei, but fortunately there were many people, so they barely kept the water village.

On the seventeenth day of the first month, Cao Bin led the main force to reach the outside of Jinling City, and then ordered the Ma army to command Li Hanqiong to lead his troops to cross the river on a huge ship, and fill the huge ship with fuel, light a fire with the wind, and storm the Tang army's water village. The first month of the year is the season of the north wind. The fire borrowed the wind, and the Tang Army Water Village had become a sea of fire in the blink of an eye.

At this time, Cao Bin ordered all Song armies to march together and launch a fierce offensive against the Tang army's water village. The Tang army could not resist, and was killed and wounded, and the water village was broken that day. The remnants retreated to Jinling in panic.

From this day on, the Song army began to besiege Jinling. But it took a long time. Li Yu didn't even know that the Song army had arrived in the city, but he hid in the palace every day and talked to a group of monks and old Taoists about those advanced Buddhism and Yili. counted the past life and the afterlife, but he couldn't figure out when the Song army arrived in Jinling.

Until one day in May of that year, Li Yu suddenly had a whim and personally climbed the city tower to inspect, but suddenly found that the Song army under the city was waving flags and camps, and it was obvious that he had been camping here for a long time.

Li Yu was suddenly shocked, and hurriedly summoned someone to ask, and only after asking did he know that the emperor Jixun, who had high hopes for him, was actually a more complete capitulationist than him.

Li Yu's capitulationism was based on maintaining relative independence, that is, he could pay tribute to the Song Dynasty, but he was still a small emperor of a country behind closed doors. Huangfu Jixun, on the other hand, advocated complete surrender.

Huangfu Jixun is the son of Huang Fuhui, a general of the Southern Tang Dynasty. Huang Fuhui has been introduced before, and he is also a very strong figure, the mutiny in the fourth year of Tongguang in the Later Tang Dynasty was initiated by him, Li Cunqiao died because of this mutiny, and Li Siyuan became the emperor because of this mutiny, which shows the important position of Huang Fuhui in the history of the five dynasties.

Huangfu Hui was defeated and died at the hands of Zhao Kuangyin in the third year of Zhou Xiande, so it stands to reason that Huangfu Jixun and the Northern Song Dynasty had a grudge against his father, but he didn't care about this, not only did he not want to avenge his father, but he wanted to surrender to the Song army.

Since the beginning of the war, he has repeatedly said to his subordinates: "The northern army is strong, who can defeat it?" Every time he heard that the Tang army was defeated, he would say to people with a happy face: "I know that it is invincible." "The most infuriating thing is that since the Song army besieged Jinling, his generals have wanted to organize death squads to go out of the city and rob the camp several times, but Huangfu Jixun not only did not approve, but tied up these generals and whipped them, so the soldiers and generals of the Southern Tang Dynasty all hated him and gritted their teeth.

Li Yu has believed in Buddhism since he was a child, and his heart is very kind, and he has been in retreat in the palace for half a year, so he is even more tolerant of people. However, even so, when he heard about Huangfu Jixun's surrender, he was still so angry that he couldn't help himself, and immediately ordered him to be taken down and beheaded. Huangfu Jixun was the one who aroused public indignation in the army, and as soon as Li Yu's will was announced, he was swarmed by all the sergeants and cut into pieces.

After Li Yu beheaded the emperor, he urgently summoned Zhu Quanyun of Hukou to go to King Qinwang of Jinling, but at this time the fighter plane had been lost, and Zhu Quanyun was afraid that after sending troops, he would be taken out of the nest by the Song army, so although he had 100,000 troops, he did not dare to be called, so he shirked to Li Yu and said that he was guarding the important land of Hukou, and once he led the army back to help, the Song army would inevitably take advantage of the weakness to enter, so not only could not solve the siege of Jinling, I am afraid that even Hukou would be lost, and the situation would be even more erosive.

Then he sent a letter to Chai Kezhen, who stayed in the southern capital, asking him to send troops from Nanchang and watch the lake mouth for himself first, so that he could lead the army to King Qin of Jinling.

Zhu Quanyun perfunctory Li Yu, Chai Kezhen also perfunctory him, and the reason was even more simple - he wrote back that he was sick. However, Zhu Quanyun was not in a hurry, and kicked the ball to Li Yu again, saying that since Chai Kezhen couldn't come to Hukou and couldn't go to Jinling, he really couldn't help, and then let Li Yu urge him in every way, Zhu Quanyun just didn't move.

In the blink of an eye, it was September, and the situation in Jinling was even more critical, and Li Yu had no choice but to order Xu Xuan, a scholar from the Xiuwen Pavilion, to send an envoy to Liang, wanting him to persuade Zhao Kuangyin to withdraw from the army.

Xu Xuan is a famous scribe in Jiangnan, and his moral articles are first-class, and Li Yu himself is also a giant in the literary world, so he has always cherished Xu Xuan and has a very good personal relationship.

At the time of this national disaster, Li Yu had no choice but to send him to Daliang, and he couldn't bear it in his heart, and couldn't help but feel the kindness of a woman again, and said to him: "Aiqing can go with confidence!" After you leave, I will send a message to the Hukou soldiers for the time being. ”

Xu Xuan was taken aback and said: "The minister's trip may not be helpful, Jinling is full of reinforcements from Hukou, why should Your Majesty stop it?" Li Yu said: "Aiqing went to Daliang to seek peace, if I call for reinforcements again, I'm afraid that Aiqing may have an accident." Xu Xuan sighed and said: "State affairs are like this, Your Majesty should be subordinate to the outside of the ear!" Li Yu cried when he heard this, silently wrote down the title on the paper, handed it to Xu Xuan to take away, and sent someone out of the city to ask Cao Bin to let him go.

In October of that year, Xu Xuan and his entourage came to Daliang under the escort of the Song army and invited Zhao Kuangyin to meet him. Xu Xuan is well-known in the south of the Yangtze River, and all the civil and military officials of the Song Dynasty know that he is erudite and eloquent, since Li Yu sent him, he must have wanted to take advantage of his tongue to persuade the court to withdraw the army, so they have made suggestions, asking Zhao Kuangyin to prepare early, don't be bluffed by him.

Zhao Kuangyin didn't care, and said with a smile: "Just ask Xu Xuan to come up, I want to see what good words he can say." ”

Xu Xuan is indeed extraordinary, he was not cowardly after going to the palace, and said loudly to Zhao Kuangyin: "Jiangnan is not guilty, Your Majesty is unknown."

Your Majesty Li Yushi, like a son and a father, has never been at fault, so how can he see it? Then he began to vigorously publicize Li Yu's efforts to maintain peace between the two countries over the years, and pointed out that Zhao Kuangyin should not bully others and brazenly send troops to attack the Southern Tang Dynasty for no reason.

Xu Xuan's own personality is very good, and he has been preparing for a long time, opening his mouth is a set of long speeches, sprinkling hundreds of sentences, laying facts, reasoning, and bitter words, and talking about the Manchu Dynasty's civil and military affairs, but Zhao Kuangyin has always been calm, smiling silently, and waiting for him to finish very patiently, before he slowly asked: "Since it is father and son, why should it be divided into two families?" Xu Xuan was speechless when asked on the spot, and he couldn't reply a word.

Although Zhao Kuangyin's sentence was short, it was just on the point, Xu Xuan thought about it after going down, but he couldn't find a rebuttal, so he had to resign to Zhao Kuangyin and return to Jinling. (To be continued.) )