At that time, Emperor Chai Rong of the Great Zhou Dynasty visited Yangzhou and invited Li Chongjin to come to Yangzhou to discuss military affairs. After Li Chongjin left, the 20,000 troops of the right wing of the Hujie Army were all under the command of Li Jixun, the commander of the infantry of the Imperial Guard Division, and stationed in the southern part of Tushan, waiting for reinforcements from the Southern Tang.
Sure enough, the Southern Tang had already sent a fleet of ships to transport military supplies from the south bank of the Huai River in Haozhou to the east of Shouzhou downstream, intending to support Shouzhou by water. Most of the troops were old and weak soldiers, just to escort the transport ships. But the commander was an extraordinary figure.
Chai Kehong was regarded as one of the most capable generals who could guarantee the throne by the Southern Tang king, and he was also the governor of Fenghua Army of the Southern Tang. He had just arrived in Haozhou to deploy defenses; not long ago, he asked for permission to lead his army to reinforce Liu Renzhan as Shouzhou had consumed a huge amount of military supplies such as fierce fire oil and arrows.
Chai Kehong was the spiritual leader who ensured the morale of the Southern Tang army. One month ago, the Wuyue Kingdom took advantage of the Zhou army's attack on the Southern Tang and sent troops to stab Changzhou in the back, almost losing the city. Chai Kehong led his people to Changzhou and defeated the Wuyue army in one battle, killing more than 10,000 Wuyue soldiers and capturing dozens of generals on the spot. The morale of the people of the Southern Tang was greatly boosted. Chai Kehong became famous in one battle. Wherever he went, people blocked the road to greet him. People preferred to listen to the anecdotes about his relationship with his mother and his teachings.
Chai Kehong went to Xuanzhou again and reorganized the city defense in ten days, making Xuanzhou as impregnable as a rock.
But when Chai Kehong was halfway on the boat, he heard that Shouzhou had fallen. He was shocked and sighed, looking back at the generals and asked: "Who can capture the city guarded by Liu Gong?"
A general said: Guo Shao, the Zhou army’s Shouzhou recruiting envoy.
After hearing this, Chai Kehong sighed again and called him "Mr. Liu", then became excited again: He must find a time to meet Guo Shao and learn a few tricks.
Soon another scout reported: There were more than 20,000 Zhou troops forty miles south of Tushan, and it was said that the leading general was Li Jixun.
Haha, Chai Kehong laughed immediately and said, "I will avenge Liu Gong and order the whole army to go ashore and build a camp."
The general hurriedly advised: "The Zhou army is elite, and the great country is afraid of it. Our troops are weak, and we are no match for the Zhou army if we go ashore and build a camp; now Shouzhou has been lost and there is no point in rescuing it, so it is better to turn back to Haozhou as soon as possible."
Chai Kehong disapproved and said: I know Li Jixun, a villain with a sharp sword in his hand is just a piece of scrap copper and iron. Let me teach him how to use troops and let him broaden his horizons.
Chai Kehong is very proud. Even his mother can't persuade him. How can the generals persuade him
He also said to his generals: "I heard that Liu Gong went out of the city to attack the enemy a while ago, but Li Jixun did not move his troops. Li Jixun and Shouzhou Recruiting Envoy must be at odds. Now that Shouzhou City has been broken, Li Jixun must be impulsive and eager to seek success. Isn't this exactly what I want? Li Jixun led his troops to station in the south of Tushan, just waiting to attack our reinforcements. Now give him a chance to let him have a taste of it."
The Southern Tang army then set up camp on the south bank of the Huai River, with a depth of ten miles.
As expected, Li Jixun could not believe that Guo Shao, whom he despised the most, could actually capture Shouzhou. He felt ashamed, so he led his army to attack Chai Kehong's troops, and rushed to the Southern Tang army camp, as if he was afraid that they would run away. Chai Kehong was defeated by the old and weak, and ran back to the camp of Huaishui'an. Li Jixun's troops pressed back and attacked, and rushed into the Tang army camp. Suddenly, a cannon with gunpowder stuffed in a bamboo tube was fired, and flames shot up from all directions. The fierce fire oil and wet straw burned and filled the air with smoke, which quickly spread to the Zhou army. The Zhou army was divided by the fire and smoke, and could not look back, left, and right. The generals could not find the soldiers, and the soldiers could not find the generals. It was a mess.
At this time, drums were beating loudly and arrows were raining down from all directions. Chai Kehong led a small number of elite soldiers to break the enemy's formation, and the main army rushed in to kill them. Li Jixun was ambushed and defeated, and fled for dozens of miles before he gradually gathered the scattered soldiers and formed a formation.
At this time, he heard that a surprise Tang army had appeared behind Tushan's southern camp. Li Jixun had never expected that the Tang army would come so far to attack his camp, and he had no scouts and was careless in defense; the baggage and food in the rear were all burned by Chai Kehong's small group of cavalry.
When Li Jixun looked back, he saw thick smoke rising into the sky from the camp. His face turned pale and he almost cried.
Li Jixun was furious and wanted to gather a large army to overwhelm the Southern Tang army camp with overwhelming elite force. However, due to the hasty preparation and eagerness to achieve success, the soldiers only had some wheat cakes with them. Now the food was destroyed and there was nothing to eat. How could they fight a war? The morale of the army was low. Seeing the fierce burning of food and baggage, they had to worry about whether they would have food to eat. Li Jixun had to retreat to Xiacai first, and sent people to urge Li Gu for food supplies.
Li Gu was already under great pressure to prepare food and fodder for the hundreds of thousands of troops in Huainan, and he was often unable to meet the food and fodder needs of each army. Upon hearing the news, he sent a fast horse to Yangzhou without saying a word to report Tu Shanhu's army's defeat and to sue Li Jixun.
At this time, Li Chongjin had just arrived in Yangzhou and met the emperor in the palace. He was not shy in front of the civil and military officials, and his dissatisfaction was evident in his words: Guo Shao is an incompetent man who only holds a position but does nothing. It is impossible for him to capture Shouzhou. Liu Renzhan does not even have any pressure. I have said in the army that if Guo Shao can capture Shouzhou, I will reward him with fried fish. Now the deadline has expired. Please send someone to Shouzhou immediately to arrest this guy. I recommend Li Jixun, the commander of the Infantry Division, as the Shouzhou Recruiting Envoy. He must be more useful than Guo Shao.
Li Chongjin was very pleased with himself after saying this, thinking that Li Jixun was on Zhao Kuangyin's side, so this couldn't be considered as abusing his power for personal gain.
Chai Rong pondered for a moment and said: There are still several days before the deadline, and I cannot go back on my word before the time comes.
Li Chongjin said: "Your Majesty's imperial edict can be written by a civil servant first, and when the time comes, the inner palace guards can deliver it two days in advance to capture Guo Shao, otherwise he might flee out of fear of punishment."
As soon as the words fell, there was a loud shout from outside: "Victory report! Great victory in Shouzhou! Shouzhou city was broken! The Great Zhou army captured the Southern Tang general Liu Renzhan and tens of thousands of others alive!"
Everyone looked at each other in confusion at first, and soon there was an uproar.
Li Chongjin's face turned pale. Many civil and military officials who were watching the show without any concern for the matter suddenly found this matter too interesting. They all looked at Li Chongjin, as if to say: Can you really fry fish in your palm
Li Chongjin broke out in a cold sweat, and felt that the eyes around him were like sharp arrows piercing him, and he felt very uncomfortable. He was anxious and blurted out: "How could it be fake?" Guo Shaoqing knew that he could not escape death, and he was already panicking and dared to deceive the emperor.
Chai Rong was very calm. He waited for the general to pass on the victory report, opened it with his own hands, and then passed it to the ministers for observation. Chai Rong's face suddenly smiled and said: "Send a fast horse to tell Guo Shao immediately. I really want to see him right away."
At this moment, a eunuch suddenly rushed over and whispered something in the emperor's ear, and Chai Rong's face immediately fell. The eunuch handed over Li Gu's report, and the emperor read it and passed it to the ministers for observation.
There was an uproar in the hall again, and people cursed: Li Jixun is too outrageous. He had 20,000 elite infantry and cavalry, but he was defeated by a small force of the Tang army. The baggage was burned. It was all because of the commander's dereliction of duty and underestimation of the enemy. Li Jixun was not worthy of leading the army.
Even the Privy Councilor Wei Renpu had nothing good to say: "It was an undeserved defeat." Originally, the strong capture of Shouzhou would have greatly dampened the arrogance of the Southern Tang ruler, and hopefully forced him to cede all the land north of the Yangtze River and end the Huainan Campaign as soon as possible. The Great Zhou army was defeated again, and the impact was huge. Li Jixun could not let it go easily.
But Chai Rong was just very unhappy and didn't say anything for a while. The emperor's mind was unpredictable, and no one knew what the emperor was thinking.
The emperor simply said: "Order Li Gu to temporarily lead the right wing of the Tiger and Jet Army to retreat to Shouzhou first, and ask Li Jixun to come to see me."
Haha, Guo Shao and his generals were drinking happily. He held the lamb leg presented by the wealthy family in Shouzhou in his left hand and the bowl in his right hand. He just told a joke that made the generals laugh. With a bang, Luo Mengzi threw the wine bowl directly, and the wine spilled all over the floor. He rolled on the ground holding his stomach, but he knocked over a food table, and the cups and plates were immediately overturned.
There were dozens of large boxes on it, containing copper coins, gold, silver and various treasures from the Shouzhou treasury.
Guo Shao staggered to a box, grabbed a handful of copper coins and threw them into the air, shouting: "We robbed the money openly, and we will share it with you!"
The generals' eyes lit up and they laughed out loud, some even slammed their hands on the table, causing the bowls and plates on the chopping board to clink and clatter.
Guo Shao said: Gather all the wealthy families and ask them to pay. Those who have paid can post notices on their doors. Strictly order the soldiers not to harass us again. Those who are stingy can rob us of everything. Those who cannot rob can be burned.
Ha ha
Those who killed civilians and raped women, all the looted items will be confiscated, and no penny will be given. Those who are serious will be beheaded on the spot. Guo Shao said loudly, I promised Liu Gong not to kill innocent people indiscriminately, I can't break my promise. If someone doesn't give Guo face and doesn't listen, I won't be polite to him.
As soon as he finished speaking, Zuo You stood up calmly, holding a piece of paper: "I have summarized what you said just now into a petition for the people and a military order. I have made some minor revisions to make it sound better. Please review it. If there are no problems, I will send people to read it out in each camp and inform the whole army."
Guo Shao didn't even look at it. It was an article without punctuation. He was too lazy to read it. It gave him a headache. He immediately said: Go ahead.
Guo Shao picked up the wine bowl and said: "Before Mr. Zuo leaves, let's drink a bowl of wine for victory."
Yang Biao held the wine bowl calmly and said: It's a pity that there are no good snacks to go with the wine.
The generals hurriedly said: "We have talent and meat here, what would you like to eat with wine, Brother Yang?"
Yang Biao said: The fish that Marshal Li Chongjin fried with his hands must be delicious.
Hahaha, all the generals burst into laughter unrestrainedly again.
But someone said: Don't think about eating it. Marshal Li is the head of the Imperial Guard. It would be bad if the grudge becomes too big.
Zuo You smiled but said nothing. After a while he said: Let's do it first. I have something else to do. Thank you, my lord and everyone for your support.
Dry