It is difficult for outsiders to speculate whether Zhao Kuangyin's southern expedition was really to hang the people and kill the people, but Liu Gang's brutal rule over the country gave him a righteous cloak for sending troops this time.

In September of the third year of Kaibao in the Northern Song Dynasty (970), Zhao Kuangyin officially appointed Pan Mei, the defense envoy of Tanzhou, to deploy the soldiers and horses of the Hezhou Daoxing battalion, and ordered him to take command of the expedition, and led the Langzhou regiment to train Yin Chongke, Daozhou Assassin Wang Jixun and other generals, together with the soldiers and horses of the Daozhou to attack the Southern Han Dynasty.

Pan Mei is the original form of Pan Renmei in "The Romance of the Yang Family", and she is also one of the most famous traitors in Chinese history, and her popularity is roughly equivalent to that of Qin Hui, the prime minister in the early years of the Southern Song Dynasty. However, Pan Mei's image of a traitor is very wronged, which is completely due to the slander of novelists. "The Romance of the Yang Family" was written in the middle of the Ming Dynasty and tells the story of the four generations of the famous general Yang Ye's family in the early Northern Song Dynasty who resisted Liao.

Because of the author's profound literary skills, vivid language, full of characters, and ups and downs in the plot, the book has all the necessary conditions to become a bestseller. Therefore, once listed, it immediately entered the top of the major domestic book market rankings, and became popular at home and abroad, and in the following hundreds of years, the book was reprinted in one edition, and the sales momentum continued unabated, and was adapted into a variety of versions of Peking Opera, drama and other stage plays and film and television works, has become one of the few popular books in Chinese history.

When the author of the book was creating, in order to meet the needs of readers, he portrayed Pan Mei as a heinous traitor, in order to set off the tall image of Yang Ye, the protagonist of the book. This method of writing is a common technique used by novelists, but because of the great success of this work, the main characters in the book are deeply rooted in the hearts of the people. Pan Mei was also discredited because of this, and has been wronged to this day.

Pan Mei's real identity is a famous general in the early years of the Northern Song Dynasty and one of the main founding heroes. His seniority is still very old. As early as when Chai Rong was appointed as the Yin of Kaifeng Mansion in the Later Zhou Dynasty, Pan Mei served Chai Rong as a Zhongjuan official, and at this time Zhao Kuangyin was the Ma Zhi military envoy of Kaifeng Mansion, so as early as before Chai Rong ascended the throne, Pan Mei had already had dealings with Zhao Kuangyin.

After Chai Rong became emperor, he also reused these old people in the domain, and immediately made Pan Mei an enshrined official. Zhao Kuangyin was transferred to the forbidden army, and these two people became middle-level cadres in Hou Zhou, and the difference in status was not very much.

But it didn't take long. The Gaoping War broke out, and Zhao Kuangyin was promoted by Chai Rong to the capital of the palace army because of his outstanding performance in this battle, and became the leader of the forbidden army. And Pan Mei's performance in this battle was ordinary. was only promoted to the deputy envoy of the West Upper Cabinet Gate. distanced himself from Zhao Kuangyin. But the relationship between these two people did not become estranged because of this, but became closer and closer.

At the time of the Chenqiao Mutiny, Pan Mei went out with the army as a guest provincial envoy and participated in the whole process of the mutiny, and after the mutiny, he was sent back to the capital by Zhao Kuangyin to report the incident to the Later Zhou royal family.

Soon after, Zhao Kuangyin heard that Yuan Yan was repairing the city and repairing weapons in Shaanzhou, and there were signs of rebellion. He sent Pan Mei to the Baoyi Army as a supervisor, trying to stabilize the situation in Shaanzhou. After Pan Mei was ordained. Without hesitation, he rode into Shaanzhou City alone, and immediately persuaded Yuan Yan to return to the dynasty to accept the order, and made a great contribution to Zhao Kuangyin.

After Hunan was recovered by the Song army, due to the unstable situation in the territory, Zhao Kuangyin transferred Pan Mei to Tanzhou (now Changsha, Hunan) as a defense envoy, and still relied on him very much. After Pan Mei sat in Tanzhou, he led the army to repel the invasion of the Southern Han Dynasty many times, and conquered the barbarian tribes in the area of Xitong in Xiangxi, making outstanding contributions to stabilizing the local situation.

Tanzhou is bordered by the Southern Han Dynasty, so this time the Song army conquered the Southern Han Dynasty, and Zhao Kuangyin ordered Pan Mei to take command of the expedition. I also want to say here that Pan Mei is not only the commander of the Southern Han Dynasty, but also the capital supervisor of Cao Bin's expedition to the Southern Tang Dynasty, the deputy commander of the party's expedition to the Northern Han Dynasty, and the commander of Taizong's destruction of the Northern Han Dynasty.

In September of that year, Pan Mei was ordered to go on an expedition and led all the troops and horses to Hezhou (now southeast of Hexian County, Guangxi). After the news reached Guangzhou, Liu Gang did not panic excessively, but ordered Gong Chengshu, the eunuch in power, to ride a horse to Hezhou to visit and inspect, and did not even send soldiers to him.

Since the founding of the Southern Han Dynasty, there have been few wars, and the emperors of all dynasties have been addicted to wine, and they do not pay attention to army construction at all, and the soldiers have not been trained for a long time, and even the weapons in their hands have been rusted, and the combat effectiveness is extremely low, so Gong Chengshu knows very well in his heart that the Han army is not the opponent of the Song army at all, but after receiving the holy order, he can't help but go, so he has to rush to Hezhou.

A few days later, Gong Chengshu arrived in Hezhou, the local soldiers because they had not been valued by the imperial court for a long time, lived in extreme poverty, and it was easy to catch up with the war, thinking that Gong Chengshu would bring a large number of rewards to the army, who knew that Gong Chengshu only had a holy decree on his body, and there was nothing else, so he could only comfort the soldiers with spiritual comfort without any material reward.

When the soldiers saw this, they were greatly disappointed and immediately dispersed and ran away. Gong Chengshu did not expect that the consciousness of the local soldiers was so low, and there was no way to deal with it, and soon after hearing a report that the Song army had arrived in Fanglin (now north of Hexian County, Guangxi), he immediately panicked and hurriedly fled back to Guangzhou by boat.

As early as when Gong Chengshu just got up from Guangzhou and rushed to Hejiang, Liu Gang held a meeting in the court to discuss how to resist the Song army, and the ministers recommended the veteran general Pan Chongche to lead the army to rescue, Liu Gang also expressed his approval, and then sent an edict to Pan Chongche and ordered him to lead the army to the battle.

Pan Chongche is a veteran of the Southern Han Dynasty, people like him were almost killed by Liu Gang, and even he himself was dismissed from the military for no reason before, so he was already disheartened, and after receiving the order, he deduced that he had a disease in his eyes and refused to accept the appointment.

After Liu Gang received the messenger's report, he was furious and said loudly: "Why do you have to use Pan Chongche? Can't Wu Yanrou quit the army for me? So he ordered the general Wu Yanrou to lead the water division to aid Hezhou.

Wu Yanrou did not refuse, and after receiving the order, he led more than 10,000 sailors to sail out of the Xijiang River into Heshui (now Hejiang) to the north, and arrived outside the city of Hezhou on the evening of September 20, and then ordered to camp in Nanxiang (now south of Hexian County, Guangxi) to prepare to enter the city on the second day. At this time, Pan Mei had already led his army to besiege He Jiang. When he learned the news of the arrival of the Southern Han reinforcements, he had a plan and immediately ordered the whole army to retreat twenty miles. But he set up an ambush on the shore of Heshui overnight.

Early in the morning of the second day, Wu Yanrou heard the news of the retreat of the Song army, and was immediately overjoyed, thinking that the Song army was frightened back by him, so he proudly sat on the Hu bed (Jiao Chair) and ordered the whole army to march to Hejiang City. However, as soon as he passed through Heshui, he was ambushed by the Song army. In a hurry, the Han army was unable to cope with the battle and was completely wiped out. Wu Yanrou was captured and killed, and the Song army immediately took advantage of the victory to conquer Hejiang.

After the news was transmitted back to Guangzhou, Liu Gang had no choice but to use Pan Chongche again. He was crowned as the commander of the Inner Taishi and the Mabu Army. Led 30,000 troops out of the mouth of the Zhenhe River to prevent the Song army from going downstream.

This time, Pan Chongche did not refuse, but after taking office, he only sought self-protection and never fought with the Song army. Pan Mei took advantage of this opportunity to conquer Zhaozhou (now Pinglexi, Guangxi), Guizhou (now Guilin, Guangxi), Lianzhou (now Lianxian, Guangdong) and other prefectures.

By this time, the situation was very unfavorable to the Southern Han Dynasty, and the civil and military forces of the Manchu Dynasty were shocked. Only Liu Gang still didn't panic, but turned around to comfort his subordinates. said: "Zhao, Gui, He, and Lian belong to Hunan, if the northern army wants to take it, let them take it, you can rest assured, after the northern army gets these states, it will definitely not go south." ”

However, not long after Liu Gang said this, he received news that Pan Mei had not stopped for a moment after conquering the above-mentioned prefectures, and had now led his troops to approach Shaozhou (now Shaoguan, Guangdong).

Shaozhou is the gateway to Guangzhou, and if the state is lost, Guangzhou will not be able to protect it. At this time, Liu Gang felt that the situation was serious, so he had to raise more than 100,000 elite soldiers in the country, appoint the general Li Chengwu as the commander, and go north to meet the Song army.

The two armies met at Lianhuafeng (present-day Qujiangnan, Guangdong) and lined up opposite each other. At this time, the Song army and the Han army were almost the same in numbers, but there was an elephant army in the Han army, each elephant could carry more than ten soldiers, all holding weapons, which was the most advanced type of troops in the world at that time.

The Song army was all northerners, and they had never seen elephants, the largest animals on land, so they were all shocked by the momentum of the elephant army and did not dare to move forward. Only Pan Mei was calm, and after seeing that the Han army discharged the elephant army, she immediately dispatched the strong crossbow shooters in the army in front of the formation and gave the order to shoot. In the blink of an eye, the Song army fired thousands of arrows and shot towards the Han army overwhelmingly.

The elephants in front of the Han army couldn't bear the pain, turned around and ran wildly, and suddenly rushed the Han army's feet into chaos. Pan Mei took the opportunity to order the whole army to attack, defeated the Han army, beheaded countless prisoners, and the Han army commander Li Chengwu fought desperately, only to be spared, and fled back to Guangzhou in embarrassment.

After Li Chengwu was defeated, Pan Mei took advantage of the situation to capture Shaozhou. This time, at the entrance of the gateway to Guangzhou, Liu Gang was frightened, and only then did he remember to send people to build fortifications, and convened his ministers to discuss the strategy of defending against the enemy. However, after Li Chengwu's defeat, the Southern Han Dynasty had no generals to send, and Liu Gang was at a loss.

At this time, there was an old woman named Liang Luanzhen in the palace who recommended her adopted son Guo Chongyue to Liu Gang, but Liu Gang was in a hurry to go to the hospital, so he really named Guo Chongyue as a solicitor, and ordered him to lead an army of 60,000 to guard the horse trail (now north of Guangzhou, Guangdong).

Guo Chongyue was originally a scoundrel, without the slightest military talent, after taking office, he would not do anything, every day he knew to set up incense tables, pray to God and worship Buddha, and pray that the Song army could retreat on its own.

At this time, it was already the fourth year of Kaibao (971) of the Northern Song Dynasty, and Pan Mei led the Song army to conquer the two states of Ying (now Yingde, Guangdong) and Xiong (Zhizhenchang, now Nanxiong, Guangdong).

Pan Chongche, who originally supported troops to guard the mouth of the Hejiang River, also took the initiative to surrender to the Song army because he saw that the general situation had gone, and Pan Mei took advantage of the situation to march to Majing. Guo Chongyue did not dare to fight, turned around and ran, and returned to Guangzhou to persuade Liu Gang to surrender.

Liu Gang had no choice, but he was unwilling to surrender, and after thinking about it, he decided to send his cronies Wang Qi and Zuo Servant Xiao Yi and others to the Song army to sue for peace.

When the battle reached such a point, it was impossible for the Song army to accept peace, so Pan Mei laughed when she saw Xiao Yi and the others, and took out the secret decree issued by Zhao Kuangyin before to show them, which read, "If the enemy can fight, he will fight with him, if he can't fight, persuade him to defend, if he can't defend, he will be asked to surrender, if he can't surrender, he will die, and if he can't die, he will be told to escape. Then he escorted Xiao Yi and the others back to Daliang and sent them down after listening.

When Liu Gang learned that this was the result, he had to try to make a dying struggle, gathered all the defeated soldiers in the country, Qinwang troops, and innocent people, gathered a rabble of 150,000 people, and ordered his younger brother Liu Baoxing, the king of Zhen, to lead and go out of the city to refuse.

Towards February, Liu Baoxing led his army to Zhatou, one hundred and twenty miles north of Guangzhou, and relied on the high mountains and deep valleys to lay a defensive line.

At this time, Pan Mei also happened to lead the army to arrive, and took the opportunity to order the troops to rest on the spot, and at the same time held a military meeting, and discussed with the generals: "The enemy army is made of bamboo as a fence, and the enemy will be defeated by fire, and then the elite soldiers will be flanked on both sides, this is a foolproof strategy." So that night, thousands of elite soldiers, each holding two torches, sneaked along the path under the fence of the Han army, and then fired thousands of torches and threw them into the Han army camp.

Coincidentally, at this time, a strong wind suddenly blew, and the fire took advantage of the wind, burning more and more, and the Han army was burned to a daze, trampling on each other, and suffering from dead and wounded. Immediately afterwards, Pan Mei led the main force of the Song army to kill, and the Han army was defeated in a battle, almost completely annihilated.

This is the last army of the Southern Han Dynasty, after the defeat, Liu Gong has no danger to defend, and no soldiers to send, so he had to think of escaping, so he ordered people to find more than ten large ships, full of treasures, ready to flee to sea.

However, as soon as the ship was ready, it was stolen by the eunuch Le Fan and his team of guards. Liu Gang had no way to escape, and he thought it was clever that the Song army sent troops entirely because they coveted their treasures, so as long as they destroyed the treasures first, and let the Song army enter the city and find nothing, they would withdraw soon after, so he immediately ordered the city to be set on fire. Overnight, the treasury palace in Guangzhou was burned to the ground, and countless treasures were reduced to ashes.

However, the Song army did not withdraw because of Liu Gang's arson. On 4 February, Pan Mei led his army to the city of Guangzhou, when the Song army gathered, waving flags and covering the sky and the sun, which was daunting.

Liu Gang knew that he was powerless to resist and had nowhere to escape, so he had to lead his close family out of the city and surrender to Pan Mei. Since then, the Southern Han Dynasty perished and enjoyed the country for 66 years. Its 60 prefectures, 214 counties, and 170,263 households were all owned by the Northern Song Dynasty.

Although Liu Gang is ignorant and cruel, he is not without strengths. One is Liu Gang's handiwork is very skillful, when he has nothing to do in the palace, he often uses pearls and jade, and even fish brains as raw materials, compiling or carving Jackie Chan, horses and other works of art, no matter how expensive the materials are, as long as the works he made by himself, all of them are meticulous and detailed, which can be said to represent the highest level at that time, and even many famous craftsmen sighed to themselves after seeing it.

After Pan Mei returned to the teacher after victory, she brought back Liu Gang's private wealth to Zhao Kuangyin, who did not love property and returned the original to Liu Kuangyin without looking at it. In order to express his gratitude, Liu Gang specially used pearls and gemstones to weave a dragon-shaped handicraft to Zhao Kuangyin. Zhao Kuangyin watched it for a long time after seeing it, and then said to the left and right with praise and admiration: "Liu Kuang is so skillful, and his habits and temperament are successful, if he can move the country, why will he perish?" (To be continued.) )