On the first day of the fifth month of the 2nd year of Zhou Xiande (955), the war of Chai Rong to unify the world officially began! According to the "Pingbian Policy", the first target should be Huainan, but there is a slight deviation. Chai Rong appointed Fengxiang Jiedu to make Wang Jing the main general, Xiang Xun as the supervising army, and the first knife pointed to the 4 states of Qin, Feng, Cheng and Order in Houshu! This is when the Khitan destroyed the Later Jin Dynasty and ravaged the Central Plains, the four states took refuge in Meng Chang of Houshu in order to protect themselves, and now Chai Rong is considered to have recovered the lost land. But Shu is dangerous, how can it be so easy to get in? Meng Chang was not in a hurry at all, and sent Zhao Jili to inspect the border defense. When Zhao Jili arrived in Deyang, a military report came from the front: Zhou soldiers had entered the Dasan Pass and were advancing to Qinzhou, and Lianke Huangniubao and other Bazhai. Zhao Jili was suddenly trembling, and fled back to Chengdu on May 20. Meng Chang was taken aback: Could it be that the 4 states have been lost? Zhao Jili squeaked: Not at that time. But at this time...... Perhaps, perhaps, it has been lost, right? Meng Chang was furious: I asked you to resist the enemy, and you fled halfway! What's the use of keeping you? Ordered to cut!

Meng Chang had no choice but to mobilize his forbidden army: Li Tingqi, Gao Yanyu, and Zhao Chongtao led the army to the rescue! On June 5, the Zhou army and Li Tingqi's army fought in the east of Weiwu City, the Zhou army suffered a small setback, and Hu Li was captured. Li Tingjun trembled and reported to Chaoyan for a reward. On the 11th, Meng Chang went to contact the Northern Han and Southern Tang Dynasty, and the three parties worked together to resist the Zhou soldiers, and Liu Chengjun and Li Jing agreed. He also ordered the soldiers to embroider an axe on the back of their clothes, and Li Tingqi's department became an axe gang that went up the mountain to chop wood (Rong). The ministers of Hou Zhou were quite a bit of a wall, and they all said, quickly transfer Wang Jing back, don't fight! Chai Rong didn't listen. In July, Zhao Kuangyin was ordered to go to the front line to check the military situation. Emperor Taizu once again showed his unparalleled strategic vision: Your Majesty, I have gone to see it, and I promise that I will definitely be able to take 4 states. And in my opinion, we should focus on Fengzhou, which is the throat of the four states. Attack Fengzhou, and Qinzhou will be isolated. If Qinzhou is conquered again, the other 2 states will automatically surrender......

Sure enough, in August, Wang Jing reported a victory: a small victory, capturing more than 300 people under Jiang Hui of the Houshu Military Academy. This back and forth, a tie. Next? Li Tingqi made the first move. In September, Li Jin, the pioneer of the army, occupied Malingzhai. Then divide a strange army out of the valley and enter the white stream. Then send Wang Luan out of Tangcang Town and seize Huanghua Valley. This is the only way for the Zhou army to transport grain. Shu is easy to defend and difficult to attack, and the difficulty lies in the danger of Shu Road and the difficulty of transporting grain. At that time, Zhuge Kongming, a genius in the world, came out of Qishan without success, because he could not solve the problem of military rations, and the wooden ox and flowing horse were just legends after all. Wang Jing naturally knew that the opponent of the Dao Dao was fighting his own grain road. In leap September, Wang Jingjian ordered Zhang Jianxiong to lead 2,000 light horsemen to Huanghuagukou, and it was necessary to seize the advantageous terrain before Wang Luan. He also led more than 1,000 elite soldiers to make a detour to Tangcang Town, and attacked the Shu soldiers before and after.

In the battle of Huanghua Valley, Wang Luan was defeated, and he ran back to Tangcang Town and encountered ambushes, and Wang Luan and more than 3,000 soldiers were captured. Wang Jing took advantage of the victory to march, and the Shu soldiers retreated. The two Shu soldiers of Malingzhai and Baijian escaped cleanly. Li Tingqi and Gao Yanyu can only surrender to Qingniling. The Axe Gang was scattered.

As soon as the army leaves, how can the 4 states protect themselves? Han Jixun, the envoy of the Xiongwu Festival and the defender of Qinzhou, left Zhao Arsenic behind and fled back to Chengdu by himself. Han walked on the front foot, and Zhao opened the city and descended on the Zhou with the back foot. Cheng and rank 2 states also fell. Wang Huan, the mighty envoy and Fengzhou guard, still has some backbone and is still resisting. But it won't last long. On September 17, the good news came, Chai Rong was overjoyed, and said to Prime Minister Wang Pu, "The four states are attached, and the secretary recommends the merit of the border marshal"

At this time, Meng Chang, who was helpless, could only send a letter to Chai Rong: We are all emperors, and we have something to discuss. The land in Hanzhong was originally yours, but now it is returned to you, and I don't want it anymore. We're still good neighbors, don't fight. Chai Rongxiao: There are two emperors in the world? Meng Changwei was angry: In terms of qualifications, when I was the emperor, you didn't have any hair on your mouth! Yes! I'm not afraid of you! The natural danger in the middle of the river is still there! Sword Gate, White Emperor, I'm waiting for you! See if you can come in? This is exactly what Chai Rong wants: I really don't want you Shudi. I can't get in if you close the door, but you can't get out either! Let's leave it at that! On November 14, Wang Jing conquered the most rearly Fengzhou, and Chai Rong ordered Wang Jing to guard Qinzhou and guard against Shu. Okay, now that the north side and the west side are settled, it's time to take care of the south side.

Tracing the history of the Southern Tang Dynasty, the founding father is named Li Yu. In all fairness, if such a person does not die, it is difficult to say whether Chai Rong can or dares to develop southward. Li Yu was an unfortunate orphan who lost his parents in the war, and barely lived in a Buddhist temple to make a living. In the 2nd year of Tang Qianning (895), when Li Yu was 8 years old, Huainan Jiedu made Yang Xingmi capture Haozhou and got an unexpected trophy, which was the little monk named Peng Nu. Yang Xingmi liked him very much, so he decided to let him be his adopted son. But Yang Xingmi's biological sons seemed to have some kind of premonition, and they hated it when they saw Peng Nu. forced Yang Xingmi to give this child to his subordinate general Xu Wen as an adopted son, so the child had a name named Xu Zhihe. Later, in the 2nd year of Tang Tianfu (902), Yang Xingmi became the king of Wu. In the 5th year of Tianyou (908), Xu Zhihe helped his adoptive father Xu Wen kill Yang Xingmi's eldest son, Yang Wu, the king of Wu, and Zhang Hao, the powerful minister, and supported Yang Xingmi's second son, Yang Longyan, to take sole control of the military and political power of Wu. In June of the 15th year of Tianyou (918), when Xu Wen's eldest son Xu Zhixun was killed by the general Zhu Jin, Xu Zhihe crossed the river from Runzhou to quell the rebellion with lightning speed, thus gaining Xu Wen's praise and began to take charge of the government of Wu State. After the death of Xu Wen in October of the 7th year of Wu Shunyi (927), Xu Zhihe quickly pacified the internal state of Wu with superhuman political skills, and in November he helped Yang Xingmi's fourth son Yang Yu to become emperor, and successfully squeezed out Xu Wen's other biological son Xu Zhixun, and quickly promoted himself to the first power minister in Wu. Less than a year after the fall of the Later Tang regime in the north, on October 5, the 3rd year of Wu Tianzuo (937), he accepted Yang Xu's Zen throne and became the founding emperor of another Tang regime, the Southern Tang Dynasty. Said that he was the fourth grandson of Li Ke, the third son of the great Heavenly Khan, King Wu (who was actually the same generation as Li Yu of the Tang Dynasty, I don't know how to calculate it?) It has only been passed down for four or five generations for so many years), and he changed his name to Li Yu. This Southern Tang Liezu was an outstanding statesman. Under his policy of repaying the country and reassuring the people and making good friends with his neighbors, in just over five years as an emperor, he actually accumulated more than 10 million copper coins. The last words of the 56-year-old Li Yu to his eldest son, Li Jing of Tang Yuanzong, were: "You must keep in mind: if you use troops against the surrounding small countries, the Central Plains Dynasty will definitely send troops to the south, so you must try to maintain friendship and good-neighborliness with the surrounding countries." And the Central Plains Dynasty is the sworn enemy of my Southern Tang Dynasty. However, the Northern Expedition was full of difficulties, and it was necessary to wait until the right time for the great chaos in the north before sending troops to the Northern Expedition, and the surrounding small countries would not dare to act rashly. I have left you a huge reserve of munitions. What you have to do now is to be a king of success and wait patiently for the opportunity in the north" It's a pity that Li Jing did not abide by his father's last words, and twice used troops on the left and right at an inopportune time, and finally exhausted his national strength......

In August of the 3rd year of Baoda in the Southern Tang Dynasty (945), Li Jing took advantage of the split of the Wang brothers, and the general company encountered the opportunity of the mutiny again and sent troops to destroy Fujian. Li Renda, the defender of Fuzhou, first surrendered to the Southern Tang Dynasty, and then transferred Fuzhou to Wu Yue. The Fujian lord Wang Yanzheng, Quanzhou Wang Jixun, Zhangzhou Wang Jicheng, and Tingzhou Xu Wenwei surrendered to the Southern Tang Dynasty successively, and Li Jing established a new Jianzhou. On the surface, there were 5 more states in the Southern Tang Dynasty, but 2 years later, the Qingyuan Army Jie Du who was appointed by himself was expelled from the 2 states of Zhang and Quan. In the past two years, the military affairs of Fujian were linked, and Li Jing only nominally occupied Fujian after the last time. At this time, it was the year when the northern chaos was to the extreme (947), in this year, the Khitan destroyed the Later Jin, and Liu Zhiyuan went home like going home, from Taiyuan to Kaifeng, and easily became the ancestor of the Later Han Dynasty. Imagine that at this time, if Li Jingru did not have the trouble of Fujian and sent troops to the north, who would be in charge of the bull's ears in this world?

Li Jing, who failed to learn a lesson, in October of the 9th year of Baoda (951), took advantage of the split of the Ma brothers and sent the general Bian Hao to destroy Chu. The territory of the Southern Tang Dynasty seems to have more than 10 states at once, but in less than a year, Bian Hao, who is known as 'Bian Buddha, Bian Bodhisattva, and Bian Monk', has made a mess of Chudi. Ma Xifan's old general, Liu Yan, drove him out of Hunan. The Lingnan land of Chu was acquired by the Southern Han Dynasty, and the remaining states submitted to the new lord of Hunan, Liu Yan. And 951 is the year when Guo Wei changed the dynasty. If he hadn't fallen into the quagmire in the west again, Li Jingru and Liu Chong of the Northern Han Dynasty would have attacked from the north and south, and who would have chased the deer of the Central Plains? Looking at Li Jing's two use of troops, it can be said that they were both false victories, and he only obtained the land of Ting and Jianzhou (the two states of Zhang and Quan are also nominally counted as Southern Tang. As for Chu, he didn't get it in name only), but he exhausted the rich inheritance left by his father and missed the best 2 opportunities for the Northern Expedition. Now under Chai Rong's soldiers, Li Jing is about to swallow the evil consequences of not listening to his father's last words......

At present, there are 35 prefectures in the whole territory of the Southern Tang Dynasty, of which 14 prefectures are between the Huai River and the Yangtze River. These 14 states in Huainan are a fertile ground for Chai Rong Nianzi. The area is about the same as the 16 states that Shi Jingjiao ceded to the Khitan, and it is several times the size of the 4 states he just recovered. And the production is abundant, the economy is developed. More importantly, throughout history, except for the Southern and Northern Dynasties, no regime that split the North and the South was truly bounded by the Yangtze River, and it was absolutely impossible to hold the Yangtze River alone (the Eastern Jin Dynasty, the Qi, Liang, Southern Song Dynasty and the Northern regimes were all bounded by the Huai River, the Wu and Wei of the Three Kingdoms was between the Huai River and the Yangtze River, and the Song of the Southern Dynasty and the Northern Wei Dynasty were far north of the Huai River). But Chai Rong probably wouldn't have thought that in order to win these 14 states, he would have to spend more than 2 years and 3 personal expeditions, and only 10 states were won in the end. The remaining 4 states were ceded to him by Li Jing......

On the first day of November in the 2nd year of Zhou Xiande (955), Chai Rong took Li Gu as the main general and Wang Yanchao as the deputy general, and led 12 generals such as Han Lingkun to go to Huainan and erect a pontoon bridge in the Zhengyang section of the Huai River. In December, the army arrived at the foot of Shouzhou. Liu Renzhan, the Shouzhou guard of the Southern Tang Dynasty, was a strongman. No matter what kind of enemy he faced, even if it was the highest-level figure like Chai Rong and Zhao Kuangyin, his Shouzhou City had endured a strong attack for more than a year, and he still stood still. Until his death, Chai Rong still had nothing to do with Liu Renzhan and Shouzhou City. After Ouyang Xiu looked at all the courtiers of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms in the "History of the New Five Dynasties", he only gave the highest honor to Wang Yanzhang of the Later Liang Dynasty, Pei Yue of the Later Tang Dynasty, and Liu Renzhan of the Southern Tang Dynasty, calling them the first class of loyal ministers - the people of the dead festival.

Liu Renzhan was stationed in Shouzhou City, and Li Jing also reacted immediately. Liu Yanzhen led 20,000 troops to reinforce Shouzhou. Huang Fuhui and Yao Feng led 30,000 troops into Tundingyuan. Li Gujiu attacked Shouzhou for a long time, and encountered water and land reinforcements from the Southern Tang Dynasty. Liu Yanzhen's rescuers arrived far away, and instead of going to rescue Shouzhou City, they went down the river to burn the pontoon bridge built by Li Gu in Zhengyang. Li Gu could only retreat from Zhengyang on the one hand, and wrote to ask for support.

In the first month of the 3rd year of Zhou Xiande (956), Chai Rong was busy with another major event: expanding the capital city of Bianliang. On the 4th day of the first month, Chai Rong levied 100,000 dingfu to build another outer city wall outside Bianliang City. At the same time, the buildings in the city will be demolished again. After the event, the Bianliang city is high and the pool is deep, and the road in the city is wide and flat. After doing all this, Chai Rong issued an edict on the 6th of the first month to conquer Huainan. Stay in Xiangxun as a stay, Wang Pu as a deputy stay, and Hantong to maintain law and order in the capital. Ordered Li to re-enter as a pioneer! And sent an envoy to tell Li Gu: My relatives are here! The siege and reinforcements are up to me. You continue to besiege Shouzhou City for me! However, Li Gu is a scholar, and it is inevitable that he is a little timid and afraid. Before the emperor's envoy arrived, Li Gu had already burned the military rations and retired to Zhengyang. Not only that, Li Gu also wrote that this battle was difficult to fight, and implored the emperor to withdraw his troops. When spring goes to winter, it's not too late to take it.

On the 8th of the first month, Chai Rong had left Daliang City. On the 18th, he came to Yongning Town. If you let the emperor go back now, you should come out to Huainan for a trip? Will Chai Rong be willing? On the 20th, Chai Rong arrived in Zhengyang, immediately stripped Li Gu of his position as commander of the army, and ordered Li Chongjin to rush to Zhengyang to replace Li Gu to eliminate the Southern Tang reinforcements. Liu Yanzhen had arrived at the city of Shouzhou at this time, and when she heard that the Zhou Dynasty army burned grain and fled, she couldn't help but be arrogant and wanted to beat the water dogs. Liu Renzhan persuaded: "Now the enemy army will automatically flee as soon as he hears the name of the general. The general has made great contributions. Or don't chase it. In case of an ambush, it will ruin the name of the general "Liu Yanzhen does not listen, and will definitely chase it." Liu Renzhan sighed, "If you go here, you will be defeated" Liu Yanzhen rushed to Zhengyang and met Li Chongjin. In a fierce battle, more than 10,000 Tang soldiers were killed and wounded, Liu Yanzhen was beheaded, and 3,000 troops were surrendered. Li Gu said: "It's better to send the Jingshi" Li Chongjin: "Okay." But do you have military rations for the army to escort" Li Gu was gloomy and "has been burned clean" Li Chongjin made a look, and the general Zhao Chao went out. 3,000 troops marched to the pontoon bridge, Zhao Chao retreated, and Zhou soldiers went out. Three thousand soldiers died, and blood stained the Huai River. The other reinforcements of the Southern Tang Dynasty, Huang Fuhui and Yao Feng, retired to the Qingliu Pass in Chuzhou (the king of Chuzhou, Shaoyan, had already fled and disappeared).