The tenth day of April in the fifth year of Datong in the Han Dynasty
Liu Ling's envoy returned to Shuzhou from King Xing, the capital of the Southern Han Dynasty. The envoy brought a personal letter from Liu Ling, the emperor of the Southern Han Dynasty, to the emperor of the Southern Han Dynasty. Liu Ling, the king of Han Dynasty, proposed that the two Han Dynasties jointly send troops to attack the Tang Dynasty and divide the territory of the Southern Tang Dynasty equally after destroying the Tang Dynasty.
Jizhou, Wujian, and Jianzhou are the dividing lines. The territory of the Southern Tang Dynasty to the south belongs to the Southern Han Dynasty, and the territory to the north belongs to the Northern Han Dynasty.
Emperor Liu Yue of the Southern Han Dynasty, regardless of the objections of his courtiers, mobilized an army of 100,000 in early May. The troops were divided into two groups, with General Liu Chen as the main general and Huben General Liu Xing as the main general. They left Xiongzhou and marched to Jingzhou.
Northern Expedition to the Tang Dynasty. Almost at the same time, Liu Ling's envoy to Chu also brought back good news.
The Emperor of Chu, Ma Xi'e, sent General Ma Hui to lead an army of 60,000 people out of Wu'an Mansion to the east to launch a massive attack on the Southern Tang Dynasty.
At the end of June of the fifth year of the reign of the Han Dynasty, the Han army was invincible and conquered Chizhou, Xuanzhou, and Hezhou. The army marched straight in. The Southern Tang general Li Liaoyuan gathered the remaining troops and established a defense line in Beiraozhou, Nanchang, in an attempt to stop the Han army.
Attacked Nanchang, the capital of the Southern Tang Dynasty.
In mid-June, the Southern Han Army encountered fierce resistance from the Tang Army when they invaded the Southern Tang Dynasty and encircled Tingzhou. During the siege, the Southern Han Army's general Liu Chen was shot to death by a stray arrow, and the morale of the Southern Han Army was suddenly dampened. The Tang Army took the opportunity to counterattack, and the Southern Han Dynasty
The army was defeated. The Tang army pursued for more than 100 miles, and the Southern Han army suffered heavy losses. At the same time, another group of Southern Han army was frustrated when attacking Nanzhou and ran out of food and grass, so they had to retreat slowly. Emperor Liu Su of the Southern Han Dynasty was furious and ordered the Minister of War to
Li Huan was the commander, and he mobilized 150,000 Southern Han troops to attack Tingzhou. The Tang army resisted vigorously, and the two sides fought several battles, resulting in heavy losses.
The Chu army conquered Yuanzhou and marched directly to Nanchang.
Li Yu was horrified and recruited brave soldiers, with the Forbidden Army as the main force, and raised an army of 80,000 to resist the Chu army. The two armies fought in the field, and Li Yu personally led the expedition, and the soldiers fought with their lives. After defeating the Chu army, they pursued them for more than 200 miles, and the Chu army had 60,000 soldiers.
The army was almost completely wiped out. After this battle, the Tang army reversed the unfavorable situation on the southern front. Li Yu sent general Li Guchen to lead the victorious division to aid Tingzhou, and fought a decisive battle with the Southern Han army in Tingzhou.
Emperor Ma Xi'e of the Chu State was furious and beheaded the general Ma Hui who had fled back to Wu'an. He mobilized 200,000 troops from across the country, and Ma Xi'e personally conquered the Southern Tang Dynasty. The Chu State had always been at a disadvantage in the conflict with the Southern Tang Dynasty, and lost the country one after another.
Several states cover nearly a thousand miles of territory. This time the Chu State, the Southern Han Dynasty, and the Northern Han Dynasty attacked the Southern Tang Dynasty with all their strength. Naturally, Ma Xihe would not give up this opportunity to avenge his past humiliation.
An army of 200,000 people set out from Wu'an, and Ma Xihe's personal expedition was extremely grand. Forbidden troops, ceremonial guards, and a procession of chariots and horses stretched for more than ten miles. However, other troops and horses were squeezed into the road and marched, trampling many crops along the way.
At the end of July, the Chu army was so large that it almost encountered no decent resistance before advancing to the gates of Jizhou City again. Li Yu urgently transferred Li Guchen, who was fighting the Southern Han army in Tingzhou, to lead his army north, and also transferred Li Liaoyuan to divide 50,000 troops to help Jizhou.
.The Southern Tang Dynasty was surrounded by enemies on three sides and was in a desperate situation.
After the Han army conquered the nine states in the north of the Southern Tang Dynasty, the army held a stalemate with the Tang army in Raozhou to recuperate. The Emperor of Chu, Ma Xi'e, devoted all his power to attack the Tang Dynasty and personally commanded the Chu army to attack Jizhou. After holding on for half a month, the Tang army was finally defeated and the Chu army was defeated.
Jizhou was captured again. Ma Xi'e was overjoyed and took advantage of the victory to march to Nanchang, the capital of the Southern Tang Dynasty. They met with reinforcements from the Tang army in the plains. The two sides fought and the Chu army won again. They pursued the Tang army for nearly 200 miles and were less than a hundred miles away from the capital of the Southern Tang Dynasty.
Li Guchen, the general of the Southern Tang Dynasty, led his army back to Nanchang to help and fought with the Chu army in Nanchang. The Chu army had many soldiers, and Li Guchen failed to break through the Chu army's camp despite several attacks. Ma Xihe sent an envoy to recruit Li Guchen to surrender.
Gu Chen and Li Gu Chen killed the Chu envoys and vowed to destroy the Chu State with their blood. Ma Xi'e was furious and personally led an army to attack Li Gu Chen. Li Gu Chen only had 30,000 troops and was surrounded by the Chu army.
The Tang army bravely broke through the encirclement and killed tens of thousands of enemies, but only about 4,000 people protected Li Guchen from breaking through the encirclement.
Ma Xi'e won consecutive battles and was so heroic that he ordered the army to besiege Nanchang.
At this time, the Southern Han army was still blocked from moving north by the Tang army who was holding Tingzhou. The two sides fought for days, and the Tang army refused to retreat. The Southern Han army continued to attack the city and failed, and its morale gradually declined.
Emperor Liu Yuan of the Southern Han Dynasty sent an envoy to meet the Emperor of Chu, Ma Xihe, hoping that Ma Xihe would divide his troops to attack Tingzhou from north to south. The two armies would attack Tingzhou from the north and south and annihilate the Tang army in Tingzhou in one fell swoop. After Ma Xihe met with the envoy of the Southern Han Dynasty,
He said angrily: "I am the king of the above country, how dare the barbarian leader of the Southern Han Dynasty give orders to me?" Then he ordered the sergeants to beat the Southern Han envoys out of the military camp with sticks, and ignored Liu Yuan's suggestion. The envoys returned to the Han army camp.
Later, he reported the truth to Liu Yuan. Liu Yuan was furious, abandoned Tingzhou and sent his army north to attack the Chu army's retreat.
At this time, the envoys of the Han Dynasty arrived in the Southern Han Dynasty. The envoys expressed to Liu Yuan what the King of Han Liu Ling meant. The King of Han said that the two Han Dynasties had the same roots and should share the same hatred. The Emperor of Chu, Ma Xi'e, was a clown who slandered the dignity of the Han Dynasty and looked down upon him.
His Majesty Liu Yun just looked down on the King of Han. The King of Han decided to send a general to lead an army of 100,000 to join forces with the Southern Han Army to wipe out the unscrupulous Ma Xi'e in one fell swoop.
Liu Yuan was overjoyed, and he made an appointment with Liu Ling's envoy to prepare the troops and prepare the troops. He waited until the agreed date to send troops to attack Chu.
On the eighth day of the eighth month of the fifth year of the reign of the Han Dynasty, on the agreed date, the Southern Han army set out to attack the Chu army with all its strength. Ma Xihe was furious and led his army to attack. The two sides fought a decisive battle eighty miles south of Nanchang, but the Tang army in the city was dumbfounded.
I don’t know what happened. Liu Yuan led his army to fight hard. He thought that the Chu army would not be attacked from two sides for long. As the two sides fought day and night, the Chu army gradually gained the upper hand. Liu Yuan sadly discovered that the Northern Han army did not appear at all.
On the tenth day of August, the Southern Han army was defeated.
The Chu army took advantage of the victory and pursued it, and the Southern Han army was routed thousands of miles away.
Just when the Emperor of Chu, Ma Xihe, was feeling proud and satisfied, a large army of the Northern Han Dynasty, led by Du Yi, borrowed a road from Nanping to enter the territory of Chu. The Han army suddenly launched an attack and captured Wuping Prefecture in the Western Capital of Chu. Chu State
In the chaos, the emperor was away from the court. The ministers who stayed behind hurriedly mobilized Chu troops from various places to piece together an army of 50,000 to rescue Wuping Mansion. The reinforcements were ambushed by Du Yi. The Chu army was almost wiped out, and only less than 3,000 people fled back.
Wu'an.
When the news reached the Chu army's camp, Ma Xihe was so angry that he fainted. Before the decisive battle between the Chu army and the Southern Han army, Liu Ling sent an envoy to meet Ma Xihe. He told Ma Xihe that the Han Dynasty was willing to form an alliance with the Chu army.
They jointly attacked Liu Sui of the Southern Han Dynasty and agreed on a date. The Han army attacked the Southern Han army from the flank. As a result, the Han army did not show up during the decisive battle, but Ma Xihe still won. Ma Xihe, who was already resentful and angry towards Liu Ling,
When Xi'e heard that Liu Ling had taken advantage of Chu's lack of troops to attack Chu, he was so angry that he vomited blood. After Ma Xi'e woke up, he sighed and ordered his army to return west immediately to rescue Wu'an Prefecture.
When the Chu army arrived in Jizhou, they were attacked by the Hua Ling tribe of the Han army. The Chu army was already panic-stricken, but suddenly encountered an ambush and was greatly confused. Hua Ling led his army to pursue them all the way, and the Chu army was defeated.
Ma Xi'e led the remaining army back to Wu'an, and since then he has been ill.
Du Yi led the Han army to conquer Wuping Mansion and then went south to attack Wu'an, the capital of Chu State.
Hua Ling led the Han army from the east into Chu State, and joined forces with Du Yi's army to besiege Wu'an. The Chu army's elite troops were all over the Tang State, and now there was no available troops in the country. After half a month of siege by the Han army, Ma Xihe died of illness. All the officials of Chu State discussed
Afterwards, he actually captured Ma Xi'e's family members and opened the gate of Wu'an City to surrender to the Han army.
Du Yi led his army into Wu'an. The capital of Chu State was destroyed and the emperor died of illness. A country was destroyed just like that. Du Yi sent troops to guard Wu'an and personally led the army all the way to the west to suppress the other state capitals of Chu State. The Chu army was completely lost.
The state capitals had no troops to fight, and although many places were still resisting the invasion of the Han army, the Han army was powerful and unrivaled. It only took Du Yi three months to occupy the entire Chu state.
In this way, no one expected that the first country south of the Yangtze River to be destroyed by the powerful Han army was not the Southern Tang Dynasty, but the Chu Kingdom.
After the disastrous defeat of the Southern Han army, Emperor Liu Yun of the Southern Han Dynasty retreated to Prince Xing's Mansion in embarrassment. After this battle, Liu Yuan became well aware of the ruthlessness of the Han king Liu Ling. He rectified the country's armaments and deployed troops on the border to prevent the Han army from taking advantage of the victory and attacking the Southern Han Dynasty.
In November of the Han Dynasty, the Han army besieged Nanchang, the capital of the Southern Tang Dynasty.
Qian Chu, King of Wu and Yue, sent envoys to the Han army camp to proclaim themselves ministers to the King of Han.
Liu Ling appeased the Wuyue envoy, rewarded him with countless treasures, and asked him to tell Wuyue King Qian Chu that the Han Dynasty was a monarchy and Wuyue was a Shu Kingdom. The two countries had been on good terms for generations and would never raise armies. The Wuyue envoy was overjoyed and rushed back to Wuyue Kingdom day and night.
King Qian Chu of Wu and Yue reported the good news. King Qian Chu of Wu and Yue breathed a long sigh of relief after receiving Liu Ling's reply. Wu Yue's national strength was not as good as that of the Southern Tang Dynasty, and he was worried that the Han army would attack Wu Yue after destroying the Tang Dynasty. It was not Qian Chu who did not
Integrity, but the strength of the Wuyue Kingdom is not as strong as that of the Han Dynasty after all. King Liu Ling of Han is now attacking Khitan in the north, destroying Zhou Dynasty in the south, and raising troops to attack Tang, destroy Chu, and subdue Nanping. Who else in the world can stop the attack of King Han?
Qian Chu was not sure, he did not want Wu Yue to perish in his hands.
Therefore, he chose to surrender to the King of Han.
In the twelfth lunar month of the fifth year of the Han Dynasty, the Han army captured Nanchang!
In the same month, the Han army gathered at the western border of Chu to intimidate Hou Shu!
In the same month, the people and court officials of Wuyue Kingdom, who were still immersed in the joy of not having to use weapons rashly, suddenly heard the bad news. At the beginning of the twelfth month, the Han navy went down the river and boldly sent troops to attack Wuyue!
Liu Ling stood at the top of Nanchang City, overlooking the devastated land outside the city.
The wind blew over his body and ruffled his long hair.
Liu Ling stood at the top of the city, ignoring the emperors and ministers of the Southern Tang Dynasty kneeling behind him.
"Anzhi, tell me, am I not too militaristic?"
Liu Ling asked Zhao Da, who was standing behind him.
"Your Majesty wants to create a prosperous world and bring peace to the world, and we must fight to achieve this."
Liu Ling smiled and said: "Let the common people suffer for a few more years. They have indeed become more militaristic. In the past few years, wars have been going on everywhere without stopping, and the common people's lives are also miserable. The Han treasury is empty, and the military strength is maintained at full strength.
We rely on war to support war. But after all, there is a limit to plundering. No matter how you occupy a place, you must leave 70% of the vitality. The people are suffering, and the soldiers are suffering. Just suffer for a few years. I hope they don’t blame me. I fight
, it will take a few years to fight to bring peace to the world. If we stop without a fight, sooner or later they will suffer even more. If the situation of the ten-party divisions is not crushed and then unified, the suffering of the people will last longer.
.”
He looked back at the Emperor Li Yu of the Southern Tang Dynasty who was kneeling on the ground shivering. He thought for a while and said: "You are much better at writing poems and speeches than being an emperor. I will grant you the title of An Le Gong and choose a place with beautiful mountains and clear waters to live in."
, leaving a few more wonderful lines for future generations will be considered a great merit. Don’t worry, no one will dare to kill you if I let you live.”
He smiled, looked at the sky and said to himself: "It took ten months to destroy the Southern Tang Dynasty, but it was still too slow. The King of Wuyue must be calling me a despicable villain. If you are despicable, just be despicable. Submit? After all, it is better to destroy the country and surrender."
I feel at ease."
"Send someone to see King Qian Chu of Wuyue. If he is willing to give up the throne and move his entire family to Suzhou, I will grant him the hereditary title of Duke of Yong'an, so that the people of Wuyue will not suffer from the war. If he chooses to resist...the clan will be exterminated."
Zhao Da glanced at Liu Ling fearfully, then bowed and said: "I obey my orders." (To be continued)
