At the end of the Tang Dynasty, Ma Yin and Yang Zaisi were both frontier members of the imperial court, with heavy troops. In the troubled times, they expanded their territories under the banner of rebellion authorized by the imperial court.

Ma Yin was powerful and soon occupied most of Hunan. The governor of Xuzhou, Shi Yang Zaisi, is a member of the "Feishan Barbarian" tribe, with half Han blood, he feels that his strength is weak, the road to expansion is difficult, and his territory is narrow, and he only occupies a small part of Tanyang and Langxi counties in Xuzhou and their surrounding areas.

Ma Chu has always focused on "doing good deeds in China", and its core is to reduce wars, rest with the people, and develop peacefully. Ma Yin, the king of Southern Chu, was a shrewd strategist, not a reckless horseman. His main forces were to be stationed in the eastern and northern regions to defend against the attacks of Yang Wu and other powerful feudal separatist forces, and for the time being, he could not care about completely exterminating the barbarians in the southwest.

Ma Yin (852-930), a native of Yanling, Xuzhou (now Yanling County, Henan), was the founding monarch of Southern Chu during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period. He was born in the grassroots class, and in his early years he worked as a carpenter, and later joined the army of Qin Zongquan and was subordinate to Sun Ru's subordinates. After Sun Ru's death, Ma Yin, as Liu Jianfeng's vanguard, went south to Hunan, captured Tanzhou and other places, and became the commander of Ma Bu's army.

In the third year of Qianning (896), Liu Jianfeng was killed, and Ma Yintui was the commander-in-chief, gradually unifying the whole territory of Hunan (except for the Feishan Barbarian region). The Tang Dynasty appointed him to stay in Hunan, sentenced the Hunan military government, and moved the military to Wu'an. After that, Ma Yin gradually expanded his territory, annexed the Jingjiang army, and seized several states in Lingnan.

In order to defend his territory and prevent Southern Chu from continuing to expand westward. Yang Zaisi formed an alliance with several important tribes of the "Feishanman" in Jingzhou, and agreed to hold the favorable terrain and jointly resist the Southern Chuma clan. So Pan Jinsheng, Yang Chenglei, Chang Shiyi, and Yang Zaisi formed an alliance, called brothers, and swore to live and die together.

The four of them are all strong in martial arts, Pan Jinsheng uses a weapon as a door panel knife, Yang Chenglei uses a weapon as a pair of bronze sledgehammers, Chang Shiyi uses a weapon as a ten-section long whip, and Yang Zaisi uses a weapon as a divine light flying sword.

Pan Jinsheng lives in the southeast of Batong, also known as Feishan Mountain, and dominates the areas of Huizhou (Suining) and Chengzhou (Jingzhou). Yang Chenglei lives in the southwest of Wutong, also known as Yingzhou Mountain, and leads the Tonggu (channel), Suining, Chengbu, and Wugang areas. Changshi Yiju in the West Santong, also known as Lao Santong, dominates the Langxi (Tuokou), Yuankou, Tianzhu, Jinping area. Yang Zaisi lives in the four northern mountains, also known as Langxi Mountain, and dominates the Wuzhou (Hongjiang), Longbiao (Qiancheng), Wuyang (Zhijiang), Huangzhou (Xinhuang), and Yuping areas of Xuzhou Prefecture.

At that time, the Miao, Yao, and Dong ethnic groups in Xuzhou (now Qiancheng) gradually prospered under the leadership of Pan Quansheng, the head of the four major sections, and formed a national group organization "Xuzhou Man" centered on Xuzhou.

"Feishan Man" is composed of multiple tribes, Yang Zaisi is far away in Xuzhou, because it is an alliance, not a subordinate, it is difficult to control. Some tribal leaders who thought they were powerful saw that Southern Chu was rich, so they took advantage of the melee between Southern Chu and the surrounding separatist forces to unite and send troops to attack and harass Southern Chu, which made Ma Yin anxious.

Yang Zaisi advised several sworn brothers many times: "Don't be greedy for small gains, otherwise Ma Yin is not a fuel-efficient lamp because of small losses." ”

Pan Jinsheng disagreed: "If you don't attack today, when will you wait?" If you don't eat for nothing, you won't eat for nothing, and if you rob it, you will rob it for nothing. ”

Chang Shiyi said: "Brother, why are you so timid and afraid now?" ”

Yang Zaisi said: "If people don't offend me, why should they offend?" ”

Yang Chenglei said: "Brother doesn't go, let's go, when the time comes, you will grab good things, don't be blushing." ”

Yang Zaisi was silent for a while, and there was really nothing he could do about the three of them: "Whatever you want, in the long run, my Feishan clan people are in danger!" And so they parted unhappily.

In 897 AD, Pan Jinsheng and Yang Chenglei ignored Yang Zaisi's warning, and without communicating with Yang Zaisi in advance, they led thousands of people from Feishan Pass to kill all the way to Wugang City (where the governance is located in Rulin Town, Chengbu County).

The garrisoned Southern Chu army resisted desperately and stubbornly waited for reinforcements, causing great casualties to Pan Jinsheng's men. For this reason, Pan Jinsheng was furious and ordered the rebels to erect a ladder and storm the city.

Seeing that the city was about to be breached, suddenly a cannon rang out, and the rebels outside the city were blown up. It turned out that Shaozhou Assassin Shi Lu Zhou led 5,000 Hengshan soldiers to kill, the artillery on the city fired a salvo, the rocket salvo, the righteous army suffered heavy casualties, and the success was lost.

"Withdraw! Evacuate! Pan Jinsheng ordered the rebel army to shrink along all lines and retreat beyond the range of the Chu army's artillery. The righteous army ran three or four miles in one go, and Pan Jinsheng looked back and saw no half of the Chu army, so he ordered the troops to stop retreating and rest on the spot.

Strange! Lü Shizhou did not open the city gate to pursue the victory. Lv Shi Zhou is Ma Yin's fierce general, the Chu army and the horse infantry army are all commanding envoys, Shaozhou assassin history, many times and Feishan Yi Army, familiar with its tactics, once into the mountains, ambushed not to mention for the time being, artillery can not exert power, can only melee combat, deep mountains and dense forests can not take any advantage, so do not chase and kill.

As a result, Pan Jinsheng was able to preserve his strength, retreat to Feishan Pass, and defend on all fronts. Feishan, the peak of the mountain, is located in the western suburbs of Chengzhou (now Jing County), with an altitude of 744 meters. People say that the three peaks on the top of the mountain are from the top of the Ten Thousand Buddhas of Sichuan's "Emei Mountain", one of the four famous mountains of Buddhism.

This mountain shape is like a bell tripod, like a crown again, the top of the mountain is flat, the twin peaks are abrupt, piercing the sky straight to the clouds, ascending on it, you can collect the pastoral mountains and rivers in the bottom of the eye, enjoy the breeze and the bright moon in the clouds. Easy to defend and difficult to attack, if you want to attack Feishan, ordinary generals can't do it.

Therefore, in the tenth year of Wanli, Li Jing's general Deng Zilong Dengjingzhou Feishan inscribed a poem saying: Come to the south to lean on the sword and go to Yanyao, and the eyes are full of smoke and smoke. The artifact is free without ghost moths, and there is a pride in the sky. The rock waterfall is covered with deep holes, and the wind sends the bell to the distant seedlings. Looking west at the six hundred and eighty acupoints, I want to sweep back to the Heavenly Empire.

Since then, the Feishan Barbarian and the Southern Chu army have formed a bad alliance. And Pan Jinsheng was very unconvinced, always thinking about revenge, and often went to Lu Shizhou's garrison to make trouble and fight for Wugang City.

Ma Chu was busy fighting with Yang Wu and other feudal towns in the east, and he couldn't spare his hands to deal with Pan Jinsheng and Yang Chenglei with all his strength for the time being, but Ma Chu's territory was constantly expanding, and the army and population were growing rapidly, which was definitely not good news.

In the first year of Kaiping (907), Zhu Wen, the king of Liang, forced the emperor of the Tang Dynasty to let him, and was the Taizu of Later Liang, and officially canonized Ma Yin as the king of Chu, and set the capital of Tanzhou (now Changsha).

In the fourth year of Kaiping in the Later Liang Dynasty (910), Pan Quansheng couldn't sit still, and united Song Ye, the chief of Chenzhou, and Chang Shiyi, the chief of Xuzhou, according to Chenzhou, and attacked the border of Ma and Chu, Kexiang Township, and went straight into the realm of no one.

Shaozhou, where Lü Shizhou was stationed, was most seriously harassed by the "Feishan Barbarians", and often asked the King of Chu for help, so Southern Chu had an excuse to send troops to crusade against the "Feishan Barbarians", and the battle between the troops of Pan Jinsheng and the "Salt King" Ma Yin was about to break out......

Pan Jinsheng and Lu Shizhou had a deep grudge, and Yang Zaisi reminded him more than once that it was best not to take the initiative to attack the Chu army, go to Ma Yin's territory to rob property, and then cause trouble for himself.

Pan Jinsheng said: "You are my eldest brother and Ma Yin's son-in-law, who to help, take care of it yourself." ”

Yang Chenglei said: "Lu Shizhou has killed countless people in my clan, and if he is not destroyed, he will not be happy!" ”

Yang Zaisi was convinced of Pan Jinsheng and the others, and shook his head again and again: "I have to eat people inside and outside, don't listen to me, and there will be no tears when you cry!" ”

In the first month of the first year of Qianhua (911), Ma Yin sent Shaozhou Assassin Shi Lu Shizhou to lead tens of thousands of Chu troops, starting from Shaozhou and entering Wugang, and soon defeated Pan Jinsheng's righteous army that occupied Wugang.

Pan Jinsheng was forced to return to the division, so Lu Shizhou's troops went deep into the "Feishanman" area lightly, and did not bring much grain and grass except for equipment, so they had to fight to feed the war.

In order to obtain the supplies needed by the troops, Lu Shizhou frantically plundered the "Feishan Barbarian" village and implemented the three-light policy. Many of the mountains are high and densely forested, and the terrain is precipitous, which has caused great difficulties to the attack and plunder of the Southern Chu army.

There was no better way for Lu Shi to do it on Monday, and Ma Yin urged him to sweep the Flying Mountain as soon as possible and not to be trapped in the Flying Mountain area for a long time. Therefore, he simply ordered the soldiers to set fire to the mountain in order to drive away the "Feishan Barbarian" tribesmen and sweep away the "Feishan Man" village. The beacon fire ignited by Feishan burned all over the village of "Feishan Man", and the smoke covered the sky and the sun for hundreds of miles.

The fire continued to burn for more than two months, and the north wind continued to urge the spread of the wildfire. The damp trees burned incompletely, emitting a black, poisonous smoke that suppressed the Feishan area. The charred corpses of the "Feishan Barbarians" are scattered all over the mountains, and the beautiful "Feishan" in the past has become a purgatory on earth.

The surviving "Feishan Barbarians" had almost no way to escape under the massacre of Lü Shizhou's troops and the raging wildfires, so they had to flee along the river valley to the swamps near Yang Zaisi's Chengzhou City to hide.

Yang Zaisi was far away in Xuzhou, standing at the head of the city, seeing the smoke billowing from the south from a distance, and thought that the Feishan tribesmen had accidentally lost the mountain fire, so he immediately sent a horse to investigate the truth.

Soon the horse returned to the village and reported that it was Lu Shizhou's Chu soldiers who attacked Feishan Pass. Knowing that his brother was in trouble, Yang Zaisi immediately personally led Langxi Miao to the rescue.

How did Lu Shizhou copy the path, arrived at the eastern foot of Feishan Mountain, had to level several places, and only took one day to build the camp (now Mawangping), and adopted the sneak attack tactics of avoiding the defense post and taking a shortcut to climb the vine edge cliff, and the battle was quickly resolved.

Tens of thousands of Chu soldiers suddenly appeared outside Pan Jinsheng's base camp, and Pan Jinsheng was shocked and said: "This soldier has fallen from the sky!" Brother Chenglei, hurry up! So he hurriedly ordered Yang Chenglei to lead thousands of people out of the village gate to fight against the Chu army.

Yang Chenglei held a bronze sledgehammer in his hand and smashed it fiercely at the swarming Chu army, and the two sides were stuck together. Lu Shizhou saw that Yang Chenglei was extremely powerful, and the Southern Chu army was killed by his bronze sledgehammer, and most of the people who were killed were shocked.

Lu Shizhou immediately ordered the artillerymen to attack, so the Chu army moved out to scatter the star artillery, and the artillery roared, destroying Yang Chenglei's forward troops in a few moments, and tied the surrendered Feishan tribesmen as guides to continue to advance.