Previously, in order to stabilize the southern border, Zhu Wen abandoned Yang Xingmi and appointed Sun Ru as the Huainan Jiedushi, thereby disrupting the stability of the Huainan region, laying the groundwork for future military intervention, and fishing in troubled waters. Now, this strategy has achieved preliminary results.
After being recognized by the court, Sun Ru's official title was changed from "Cai Thief" (the remnant of the Qin Zongquan in Caizhou) or "Sun Thief" to "Huainan Jiedu Envoy". At the same time, he shouldered the unshirkable responsibility for the prosperity and stability of the Huainan region. . Therefore, the elimination of regional instability factors - Yang Xingmi, also has legitimacy.
Under Zhu Wen's plan, Sun Ru and Yang Xingmi completed the role exchange.
When the fighting in Hedong was in full swing, Sun Ru gathered almost all his belongings and advanced southward from Runzhou. The two most famous generals under Yang Xingmi, Tian Kai and An Renyi, were defeated one after another, causing a serious setback in morale. The rest of the city guards were invincible, and Yang Xingmi was in a worrying situation.
Sun Ru's general Li Congli led a commando team, marched quickly through a small road, and suddenly appeared near Xuanzhou, intending to "behead" Yang Xingmi.
At this time, Xuanzhou had not yet completed its military deployment, and the military was greatly frightened.
At the critical moment, Yang Xingmi's two other generals, both civil and military, showed their prowess and withstood the avalanche.
One was Tai Meng, who led five hundred soldiers to sneak into the vicinity of the enemy camp under the cover of night, and then ordered the soldiers to run back and forth shouting and spreading messages loudly. Li Congli fell into Taimeng's trick of suspecting soldiers, gave up his plan to raid Xuanzhou, and hurriedly led his troops to retreat.
The other one was Li Shenfu, who pretended to be defeated and retreated, luring the enemy deeper, and then led an elite night attack, captured and killed more than a thousand people, and drove back Sun Ru's vanguard.
Although the Xuanzhou base camp was temporarily saved, Yang Xingmi still lost more than he won, and the situation was not optimistic.
A heavy rain caused floods and saved Yang Xingmi from the brink of death. Floods flooded Sun Ru's camp, forcing Sun Ru to return to Yangzhou.
Yang Xingmi took the opportunity to take back Hezhou and Chuzhou.
At the same time, Zhu Wen flirted with Yang Xingmi again, and the two reached a secret agreement to attack Sun Ru from the north and the south.
Zhu Wen went back and forth between Sun Ru and Yang Xingmi, vividly embodying his "Huainan balance of power" strategy, always uniting the weak side to fight against the strong side, causing both sides to consume each other.
Facing the north-south alliance between Zhu Wen and Yang Xingmi, Sun Ru issued a proclamation, enumerating the crimes of Zhu Wen and Yang Xingmi, and uttering heroic words: "When I have conquered Xuanzhou and overturned Bianzhou, I will personally lead the army to the capital to purge the emperor." The evil villain next to you!"
Subsequently, Sun Ru acted like he was burning the cauldron, ordered the city of Yangzhou to be set on fire, slaughtered the old, weak, sick and disabled, and made their corpses into military rations. Then he tied up the young and middle-aged men and women and followed the army southward.
Xiang Yu's desperate act and Han Xin's last-ditch effort both cost him his life, while Sun Ru's self-destruction of Yangzhou City pushed innocent people into a pit of fire. Sun Ru is fundamentally different from Xiang Yu and Han Xin.
Yang Xingmi's generals Zhang Xun and Li Decheng took the risk to sneak into Yangzhou City, put out the remaining fire, and rescued about 100,000 dendrobiums of grain that had not been turned into popcorn to help the hungry people.
Zhang Jian, the governor of Sizhou, asked for grain to feed his hungry army.
Zhang Xun did not pretend to be a public servant for personal gain, nor did he poach socialist corners. He donated tens of thousands of grains to Sizhou in the name of his lord Yang Xingmi. Zhang Jian was grateful to Yang Xingmi.
Sizhou belonged to Xuzhou Shipu's probation army. At this moment, Xuzhou Shipu and Zhu Wen were fighting fiercely, and Zhu Wen was Yang Xingmi's strategic ally. Zhang Xun's behavior could be labeled as "capitalizing the enemy."
However, the warmth of human nature is often reflected in cruel wars.
Just like in the battle for Xichuan, when Wang Jian besieged Chengdu, grain smugglers sold grain into the city and were punished by law. Wang Jian, on the other hand, sympathized with the innocent people in the war. Out of a humanitarian spirit, he did not obstruct this act of "benefiting the enemy" and allowed important strategic resources, food, to flow into the enemy camp; the same was true for Chen Jingxuan in Chengdu.
The melee between warlords in the late Tang Dynasty can almost be said to be unjust wars, in which dogs bite dogs. Being able to reflect the brilliance of humanity in war and give a little humanistic care to the enemy or the people in the hostile camp is worthy of special praise, and it also makes this stinky history one of the few remarkable things.
Sun Ru burned the Yangzhou base camp to declare to Yang Xingmi: I will fight with you!
Yang Xingmi led his army to intercept, but was heavily surrounded. Fortunately, some generals risked their lives and managed to escape.
Zhu Wen sent elite soldiers and brave generals, including Ding Hui, Ge Congzhou, Huo Cun and others to lead his troops south, claiming to assist Yang Xingmi in his military operations. However, on the way south, when the army approached Suzhou, they suddenly launched a fierce attack on Suzhou.
Zhu Wen concealed his secrets, and Suzhou was his target. Soldiers never tire of deceit.
Suzhou is the southern gate of Xuzhou, straddling Huainan to the south and controlling Xuzhou to the north. It is known as the "hub between the north and the south". Capturing Suzhou cut off Shi Pu's retreat, and could also contain Sizhou's reinforcements, reducing Xuzhou to an isolated city.
I have Suzhou in hand, and I have Xuzhou.
In Zhu Wen's first battle of Xuzhou, Suzhou surrendered to Zhu Wen; when Zhu Wen failed in his first expedition to Huainan, he rebelled and returned to the embrace of Xuzhou.
Suzhou closed the city and stood firm. No matter how the Bian army provoked the enemy, they refused to fight. What happened to being a turtle? Being a bastard means having a long life.
According to the Bian Army's military plan, Suzhou must fight quickly to complete the strategic encirclement before Xuzhou Shipu could react, cut off the nerve center of Xuzhou's probation army, and paralyze it.
Zhu Wen was extremely anxious and repeatedly asked about the situation in Suzhou.
Commander-in-chief Ding Hui became even more anxious and summoned the generals to discuss strategies to break the city.
Ge Congzhou offered a plan and said that we should attack with water.
Although Suzhou City is heavily fortified, it is newly built. The rammed earth structure of the city wall is most afraid of flooding. If it can be soaked in heavy water, it will collapse in less than ten days. The terrain outside the city of Suzhou is flat, with the west high and the east low. The Tongji Canal passes right through the city from west to east. As long as the Bian River is intercepted in the east of the city, Suzhou will immediately turn into a lake country and a country without attack.
All the generals were amazed and praised the plan. Some people worry that the construction period of this huge water conservancy project will be too long and will be difficult to implement.
Everyone was arguing, but Liu Kangyi bowed his head in silence and only wrote and drew, and then said confidently: "Okay!"
Liu Kangyi calculated an account for everyone: let the soldiers cover the Bianshui River with clothes, and 30,000 soldiers will block the Bianshui River, which can be completed in one day; building a dam for fifteen miles will require 100,000 square meters of earth and stone, and we will mobilize 5,000 people to build it. Dam, each person can carry four cubic meters of earth every day, which is exactly 100,000 cubic meters in five days. The remaining 25,000 people can serve as peripheral security within these five days to ensure the smooth progress of the 5,000 engineers.
Ding Hui immediately agreed to the water attack strategy.
Ge Congzhou and Liu Kangyi were responsible for building embankments and cofferdams;
Huo Cun is responsible for perimeter security;
Ding Hui was responsible for leading thousands of troops to surround the four gates of Suzhou.
Five days later, Suzhou turned into a water city. The water in the city was so deep that it was difficult to light a fire for cooking. The soldiers and civilians suffered from waterlogging in the city, and people were panicked.
In less than ten days, a large area of the city wall had collapsed. The defenders were on tenterhooks and were in panic all day long. Reinforcements from Xuzhou had not been seen for a long time. Knowing that they were difficult to defeat, they opened the city again and surrendered, surrendering to Zhu Wen.
The flooding of Suzhou brought a good start to the second expedition to Xuzhou:
Xuzhou general Liu Zhijun led 2,000 troops to surrender to Zhu Wen because he was jealous of Shi Pu;
Caozhou (belonging to Yunzhou Tianping Army Zhu Xuan) surrendered to Zhu Wen;
General Liu Hong'e of Shouzhou (belonging to Sunru in Huainan) hated Sunru's cruelty and surrendered to Zhu Wen.
Generals from the three enemy camps surrendered to Zhu Wen. Among them, Liu Zhijun of Xuzhou surrendered with his troops in an organized form, and Caozhou and Shouzhou surrendered with their cities.
Fire borrows the power of wind, and wind aids the power of fire. Zhu Wen was strong, so the enemy surrendered, and the enemy's surrender boosted Zhu Wen's strength. Ding Hui flooded Suzhou, which started a virtuous cycle for Zhu Wen.
