As one of the three route armies, which was responsible for luring the enemy and feintting, the Northern Route Army led by Tang Chao was the first to attack the Southern Han Dynasty. On the 21st day of the second lunar calendar of the sixth year of Jianlong, Tang Chao led the army to cross the Mengzhu Ridge and killed Baixia City, the northwest barrier of Hezhou. Seeing that the Zhou army was menacing, the general Bai Xia knew that it would be difficult to hold it on his own, so he hurriedly sent people to Hezhou for help.

Baixia City is an important barrier in the northwest of Hezhou, once lost, there is no danger to the west and north of Hezhou to stop the enemy. Therefore, Chen Shouzhong, the assassin of Hezhou, heard that the Zhou army had arrived in Baixia, and immediately panicked. On the one hand, he sent people to the Xingwang Mansion to report the urgency and ask for reinforcements; On the one hand, he stepped up the repair of the city, organized the young people in the city to participate in the defense of the city, and sent 5,000 soldiers and horses to support Baixia.

It's just that since Liu Gong took power, many old generals in the Southern Han Dynasty have either died of treacherous slander, or dismissed from office, and worked as a family at home, and the clan surnamed Liu has almost been wiped out. As a result, most of the moats in various places were decorated by the local governors and guards to look like palaces and ponds, and almost lost their function to defend against enemies. The blades, armor, and defensive equipment of the defenders in various places have been rusted and rotted due to long-term maintenance, and they are unusable. With such city fortifications and military equipment, it is said that the other party is a well-equipped, well-trained, and almost armed Zhou army to the teeth, even if it is replaced by those armies with average equipment and acceptable training, the Southern Han army has no chance of winning. Otherwise, some time ago, they would not have been defeated by the Qingyuan army, which was not very stable in the north, and the wolf bèi fled.

Therefore, without waiting for the arrival of reinforcements from Hezhou, Baixia City quickly fell in the first wave of attacks by the Zhou army, and the 5,000 defenders surrendered except for a few hundred soldiers who were killed or wounded in the Zhou army's artillery bombardment and a few soldiers who fled after the city was broken. After receiving the news of the fall of Baixia from the fleeing soldiers, the leading generals did not even send a horse to visit the army, so they ordered to immediately turn around and retreat to Hezhou. It's just that the Southern Han army turned around quickly, but it was not as fast as the Zhou army, and it was caught up by the Zhou army who came from the victory after walking only more than 50 miles. After a period of cover-up, more than half of the 5,000 Southern Han reinforcements were lost, and only 23 out of 10 were able to escape back to Hezhou.

Bai Xia was lost, and less than 2,000 of the 5,000 reinforcements fled back, and Chen Shouzhong, the general of Hezhou, was even more panicked in his heart, and sent messengers to Xingwangfu for help.

In the face of Chen Shouzhong's letter for help sent like snowflakes, the Southern Han monarchs and ministers were very frightened. Liu Gang hurriedly sent Gong Chengshu to Hezhou with a decree to comfort the soldiers, in order to inspire the morale of the people, stick to Hezhou, and buy enough time for the arrival of imperial reinforcements.

Hezhou, as a border town in the Southern Han Dynasty, is close to Wuling, and its economy is far less rich than that of Panyu and other coastal prefectures and counties. In the past, when the north of Wuling was still under the rule of the Southern Tang Dynasty, the border army could also take the opportunity of crossing the border to go to the border states and counties of the Southern Tang Dynasty to loot and make up for their families a little. But since the Zhou army recovered the Southern Tang Dynasty in the second year of Jianlong, the cross-border attack of the Southern Han army can no longer take any advantage. In the past two or three years, no one has dared to cross the border to plunder, so that most of the sergeants' families are poor and have a difficult life.

When they learned that the imperial court had sent ministers to come to express their condolences, the border troops thought that in the face of the great enemy, when the soldiers needed to use their lives, the imperial court would reward them greatly to boost their morale. Therefore, all the soldiers were overjoyed and full of expectations. Which Cheng thought, except for a copy of Huang Aya's "holy decree", Gong Chengshu brought no wealth. Although the holy decree is full of encouraging words asking the border soldiers to sacrifice their lives to defend their homes and the country, not only can it not increase the morale of the border troops who have been extremely disappointed with the imperial court even a little bit, but on the contrary, their already low fighting spirit has been reduced to the extreme and almost collapsed. With such a soldier guarding the castle, the result can be imagined.

In this regard, Gong Chengshu is well aware. He knew very well that it was impossible to inspire the determination of the Hezhou defenders to defend their territory against the enemy and fight to the death by relying on an empty holy decree alone. Therefore, when the Zhou army passed Baixia and pulled Feng Cheng, and the forward was only ten miles away from Hezhou, Gong Chengshu didn't say a word, even if he didn't say goodbye, hurriedly went out of the city, boarded a light boat, and fled to Panyu without looking back.

Over there, Gong Chengshu fled in despair, and Liu Gang, who was still unaware here, convened court meetings one after another to discuss with the ministers which general should be sent to Hezhou for reinforcements.

As the saying goes, "a thousand troops are easy to obtain, but one general is hard to find", and as the saying goes, "one general is incompetent, and three armies are exhausted", which shows how much influence the leading general has on the soldiers and horses under his command. At the time of this national crisis, some ministers who still had the public heart and did not want the Southern Han River and Mountains to collapse no longer remained silent, stepped forward, and elected the veteran general Pan Chongche as the commander one after another, and led the army north to reinforce Hezhou. Although Liu Gang was afraid of Pan Chongche and was afraid that he would support the army and respect himself, but now that the Hezhou Dynasty was in danger and the Southern Han regime was also in danger, coupled with the unanimous recommendation of the ministers, he could only accept the construction of the capital head-on, and ordered Pan Chongche to be the commander of the capital and lead the army north for reinforcements.

Unexpectedly, Pan Chongche has long been disheartened since he was relieved of his military power and idle at home because of Liu Gang's suspicion, and he has no intention of working for this faint monarch anymore. Therefore, after the appointment was issued, he did not accept the order, but excused himself on the grounds that his eye disease had recurred, his vision was blurred, and he could not lead the troops. Liu Gang couldn't help but be furious when he heard this, and said hatefully: "But tens of thousands of Zhou troops, why do you need him Pan Chongche to go out, and the general Wu Yanrou doesn't know the strategy and can't fight?" Immediately, he ordered Wu Yanrou to be the commander of the capital, and led 30,000 boats to go up the river to reinforce Jiazhou.

Liu Gang is full of confidence in Wu Yanrou, but war is not a dinner party, whether there is real talent and real learning, it will be undoubtedly exposed on the battlefield. On the sixth day of the third month of the lunar calendar in the sixth year of Jianlong, the Southern Han Boat Division led by Wu Yanrou was resting at night on the bank of the Hejiang River in the southeast township of Hezhou because of the light enemy's rash advance and negligence in reconnaissance, when it was suddenly attacked by the Zhou army that had already detected its whereabouts and was ambushed on both sides of the bank in advance.

Under the repeated bombardment of hundreds of artillery pieces from the artillery regiment of one division and the artillery battalion of three regiments of the Zhou army, as well as the rapid assault launched by the infantry of the three regiments, the Southern Han Zhou Division only held out for only half an hour before the whole army was dispersed. Wu Yanrou, who came ashore to command, was captured by the Zhou army before he could board the ship. The 30,000 horses under his command scattered and fled, and less than 5,000 were able to escape, go down the river, and retreat to Fengzhou alive. The rest of the people either sank to the bottom of the river or surrendered to the Zhou army, and the loss of the 30,000 boat division exceeded eighty percent, and the entire army was almost wiped out.

When the news reached the Xingwang Mansion, the Southern Han monarchs and ministers became more and more afraid. For the sake of his own country, Liu Gang had no choice but to lower his noble head, put down his body, and successively sent envoys and important ministers of the court to Pan Chongche's mansion, asking him to go out of the mountain and lead the troops to resist Zhou. In the face of several wills a day and the court officials who kept coming to the door, even if Pan Chongche was unwilling, he had to give Liu Gang this face and follow the order. Otherwise, if Liu Gang is forced to be ruthless, in the case of losing face, it is likely to kill Pan Chongche himself and even his family.

On the tenth day of the third month of the lunar calendar in the sixth year of Jianlong, Pan Chongche took over the post of commander of the capital, led an army of 50,000 to the north to reinforce Hezhou, and five days later entered Fengzhou, which was 200 miles away from Hezhou.

Although Pan Chongche has not led troops for nearly ten years, as a famous general of the Southern Han Dynasty, his attention and sensitivity to military affairs have never decreased. Since the "Qingyuan" brothers took advantage of the situation and became famous in one fell swoop with the Battle of Youyun, and thus established the Beiping Army and created a foundation, it attracted the attention of Pan Chongche, who was thousands of miles away. When the Beiping army took advantage of the situation to go south, wiped out Zhao Kuangyin and his henchmen, and controlled the authority of the Great Zhou court, Pan Chongche became more aware that this was a force that could influence the shape of the world, and it was a force that could sweep away the world and unify the world. The ensuing conquest of Jinghu, Southern Tang, Houshu, etc., a series of battles to destroy the country, without exception, proved the correctness of his judgment. In fact, when the news of the Zhou army's southern expedition and attack on Hezhou came, Pan Chongche already knew very well that the time of the small court of the Southern Han Dynasty was short, and any resistance would be vulnerable and unwinnable in the face of the "Flying Dragon Army", which was called the "first army in the world" - this was another important reason why he refused to lead the troops in command before.

With such an understanding and idea, although he was now forced to lead the army to reinforce, Pan Chongche had no intention of fighting to the death with the Zhou army at all, and let his soldiers and generals make senseless sacrifices. Therefore, after the troops entered Fengzhou, Pan Chongche stopped moving, refused to get close to Hezhou for half a step, and instead stationed in the same place to protect himself.