When Chai Kehong returned home at night, he suddenly heard a letter from his mother. He quickly lit a lamp and read it carefully.
If there is one person in this world that Chai Kehong dares not despise and respects, it is his mother. Although she is just a woman, she can have a great influence on Chai Kehong.
Before the conquest of Wuyue, Chai Kehong was still unknown and many ministers did not trust him. But Chai's mother wrote a letter saying that her son could lead troops and be a general, and if he did not do well, she was willing to bear the death penalty with her son.
Chai Kehong quickly read his mother's handwritten letter and was immediately shocked.
The content was completely different from the previous encouragement, and he even suspected it was a fake letter. But after checking it carefully again, he found that the handwriting and wording were definitely from Chai's mother. If he couldn't even tell the letter from his mother, Chai Kehong could still make that judgment.
Chai's mother advised him to pretend to be sick and not to accept the military power in Haozhou. She wrote in the letter: You are too famous now. The emperor and the soldiers and people of Southern Tang have too high expectations. Once you encounter setbacks, you can't afford the consequences. It is not only about the honor and disgrace of yourself and your family, but also about the rise and fall of Southern Tang and the morale of hundreds of thousands of soldiers. Such a big responsibility is not something you can bear alone.
Moreover, because of his military achievements, his son was promoted too quickly and did not have enough experience. Now the entire Haozhou has nearly 100,000 troops, which is beyond his ability. Your father often said that an army of 10,000 people can be defeated by trickery, but 100,000 people can only win by direct attack. Your ability and the combat effectiveness of the Southern Tang Army are not enough to take on such a heavy responsibility. If you fail, you will be ashamed of the emperor's gift and trust in you.
If the person who was defeated in the battle of Haozhou was not Chai Kehong, but a general who was not loved and had high hopes by the people of Southern Tang: what was lost was just a state, not the morale of the entire Southern Tang army.
After reading the letter, Chai Kehong was deeply shocked and very unhappy.
He thought about it overnight, and the next day he regained his pride and did not intend to listen to his mother's advice. When Chai Kehong summoned his generals, he said: We have captured a scout of the Zhou army, and the troops coming are from the left and right wings of the Hujie Army. Zhao Chao, the commander of the right wing, started with this person.
The generals were puzzled and asked the reason.
Chai Kehong sneered: "A few months ago, the army of Zhengyang was defeated and more than 3,000 people surrendered. The captives were handed over to Zhao Chao, who slaughtered them all that night. This man is bloodthirsty, but there are millions of soldiers and civilians in our Southern Tang Kingdom. Can he kill them all?"
There were hundreds of thousands of peasant soldiers stationed in Shouzhou and Haozhou, but because of the poor management of the court officials, these people surrendered immediately after the Zhou army entered the country and paid tribute. It was necessary to let these stationed soldiers understand the brutal nature of the Zhou army and arouse their resistance; in this way, the tens of thousands of Zhou troops in Haozhou would not only face 50,000 people in Haozhou City, but hundreds of thousands of violent rebels. Zhao Chao was the breakthrough point.
When Chai Kehong said this, he had completely forgotten the unhappiness of last night and laughed: By then, countless men from Southern Tang will harass the scouts and sentry camps on their food supply routes, and the Zhou army will be trapped deep in the territory of Haozhou.
There are wars everywhere, and the Zhou army has been exhausted for a long time. The food supply is even more difficult to transport. I will deploy city defenses and guard Haozhou strictly to delay the time and tire out their army. When we find an opportunity to fight, we will defeat the Zhou army.
All the generals bowed in submission.
Chai Kehong deployed the defense of Haozhou City. He first strengthened the defense of the city wall, summoned officials to build the city wall, and conducted a detailed investigation of the foundation and feng shui of the city wall.
Chai Kehong once sent people to observe the gap in Shouzhou and learned that the city wall was blown open by gunpowder buried in the tunnel. No one knew exactly how the Zhou army blew up the city wall, but the fact was that the city wall could be blown open; Chai Keyong inspected and deployed the defense of Haozhou city specifically for this matter.
His plan was to coordinate with the Southern Tang rebels in Haozhou and fight the Zhou army for a year or two, or even one or two years. So he had great hopes of holding on to Haozhou City.
If a certain part of the city wall is breached, that's great. Taking the enemy by surprise is really Chai Kerong's magic weapon to win.
Chai Kehong and his generals said: "Since ancient times, city defense has not been familiar with street fighting. Now I will do the opposite. Arrange ambush troops in the city. If the Zhou army enters the city from a certain place, they will rush to the city gates and the central cross avenue. At that time, we will fire cannons as a signal, use smoke and fire to disrupt their formation, and then use elite troops to defeat them one by one. Counterattack the city wall, fight repeatedly, and Haozhou City will not be reduced to scorched earth, and the Zhou army will have no chance of capturing this city."
Lu Mengjun and Chai Kehong served in Haozhou at the same time, and he was the deputy general of the military inspector Chai Kehong.
At that time, Luo Yanhuan's troops of the Zhou army were the vanguard and entered Haozhou first, sending out scouts in all directions to gather intelligence. One scout pretended to be a civilian and went deep into the area controlled by the Tang army, but he was discovered because of his different accents, so he turned around and fled on horseback.
The horse's leg was injured on the way, so the scout had no choice but to kill the horse, hastily cover it with straw, and hide in a civilian's house.
The scout was found by a young couple in the woodshed, and he knelt down and begged in desperation, saying that he had fled to Huainan because he was being hunted by his enemies, and that he would die miserably if caught.
The young woman saw that the scout was young, tall and strong, and was a strong labor force that could support a family. It would be a pity if he died. The woman felt sympathy for him and advised her husband to save his life.
The husband knew that Huainan was in the midst of war, and that this man with a northern accent might be a scout of the Zhou army. However, in the eyes of ordinary people, the Zhou and Tang armies were similar, and they were all Han people in the fight. In times of crisis, he saved a brave man and established a friendship with him. Despite his parents' opposition, the husband hid the scout in the cellar and sent him food and water.
The Zhou scout was so grateful that he asked the family's name and swore that when the war was over, he would bring his wife to Huainan to express his gratitude and establish brotherhood. However, the dead horse was soon found by the Tang army's pursuers, who searched the area nearby. They found the Zhou scout from the clues.
The young general of the Tang army found out the situation and found out that the family had only taken in the spy out of sympathy and was not aware of the situation, so he robbed a buffalo from the family as a punishment.
Unexpectedly, Lu Mengjun happened to be patrolling on the road with his personal soldiers and heard about this. He immediately led his personal soldiers to the commoner's house and ordered the whole family to be tied up in the main hall. But when he saw that the young woman was a bit pretty, he wanted to order his personal soldiers to insult her on the spot.
The general advised: It seems inappropriate to do such a thing.
Lu Mengjun ignored him and cursed that spies should be severely punished, so he and his personal soldiers watched for fun. He looked at the Zhou army scout again and shouted: "There must be an affair. This woman is a loose woman, so she stayed with the man to cheat on him. I will let you die with your eyes closed today." Then he asked the woman to have sex with the Zhou army scout.
The Zhou army scout cursed: "Kill me if you want. I am not a beast. How can I do such a thing to the wife of my life-saving benefactor? I would rather die than obey you. I just want to be quick."
Lu Mengjun drew his sword to kill the woman's child: Go and have sex with that man, or I'll dig out his eyes first
The woman was very anxious and had to obey with tears in her eyes.
But after Lu Mengjun had done all the evil, he still killed the woman's child with a sword. The woman burst into tears, and her sorrowful cry was unbearable to hear.
An aide outside the door heard the noise inside, shook his head and sighed: Mr. Lu cannot accomplish anything, I have chosen the wrong person.
The general who had just admonished Lu Mengjun was standing next to him. He hurriedly asked him the reason and said: Although Lord Lu is cruel, he is still very brave in battle and is not afraid of death.
The staff disagreed and said: "Mr. Lu has done this more than once. Before killing someone, he would make the person suffer a fate worse than death and torture them in every possible way. It's not that the person was killed for a heinous crime, but Mr. Lu just likes this and enjoys it."
What's the point of him not fearing death? He doesn't value life and has no attachment to life. But more people in the world just want to live and live well. So no one is willing to follow a person like Lu Gong.
He immediately took off his official hat, threw it on the ground, stomped on it a few times and cursed, "Cao, it's really embarrassing to wear this thing on my head." Then he said to the general, "Just say that I'm going back to my hometown to farm and study."
The staff rode south for a distance, thinking that Lu Mengjun might send people to catch him, so he turned to a small road. Unexpectedly, he lost his way and ran into Zhou Jun's cavalry and was arrested.
The aide was arrested and brought back to Luo Yanhuan's army. Luo Yanhuan rode forward and asked: "Who is this?"
The civil servant said: I am Zhou Duan from Yangzhou, an official of the Southern Tang Dynasty.
Luo Yanhuan accepted him and invited him to his tent for a drink. He found that they did not get along well. He was too talented and unrestrained, and very aloof. Luo Yanhuan did not like him and was afraid that he was a spy deliberately sent by the Southern Tang army, so he sent someone to send him to Guo Shao, the commander of the Haozhou vanguard army.
Guo Shao spoke very directly. He laughed as soon as he was welcomed into the tent: Luo Yanhuan did not dare to accept you because he was afraid that you were a spy sent by Chai Kehong from Haozhou.
After hearing this, Zhou Duan shook his head and sighed: There are many good horses, but there are few good horse trainers.
Li Chuyun, who was standing next to him, laughed out loud: "Mr. Zhou is so arrogant. If you want to know if it's a good horse, you have to run one to show it to others. How can there be so many good horses that people can just grab and hold?"
Guo Shao and Li Chuyun and other generals laughed together and said: "I only ask you one question. If you surrender to the Zhou army, are you not afraid that your family members will be retaliated against?"
Zhou Duan sneered: Did I say I would join the Zhou army? It's Lu Mengjun, he can take revenge on the people of the Zhou family. When the old Duke of Zhou Jun Tai retired, he was the Minister of the Interior, and he once served as the Minister of Internal Affairs. Lu Mengjun was a surrendered general of the Chu State, and he was treated well by the emperor to keep his position. How dare he touch the people of the Zhou family
Who is Zhou Juntai? Guo Shao asked in surprise.
Zuo You reminded: Zhou Zong’s daughter is quite famous, her name is Zhou Xian and her courtesy name is Ehuang.
Guo Shao thought about it for a while and decided not to make things difficult for Zhou Duan. He sent someone to send Cai Zhen down and lock him up first.
It will be available next week.