At that time, Sun Ru was unstoppable and his army was at its peak. Under the planning of the think tank Yuan Xi, Yang Xingmi gave up Yangzhou after making two symbolic gestures and turned to capture Xuanzhou to take care of himself. Cai Chou, the guard of Luzhou, was shaken and believed that Yang Xingmi was no match for Sun Ru. So he acted according to the prevailing situation and immediately offered the city to Sun Ru and surrendered the whole state.
Unexpectedly, Sun Ru would now be eliminated by Yang Xingmi. Cai Chou in Luzhou smelled the breath of doom. He searched his guts and finally came up with a "clever plan" to save himself.
First, he dug Yang Xingmi's ancestral grave to show that he was not in conflict with Yang Xingmi.
Then, he sent envoys carrying official seals and other documents to Bianzhou to surrender to Zhu Wen. He also played a clever trick and roped in Ni Zhang, the governor of Shuzhou, to strengthen his momentum.
Cai Chou was indeed a little smart. He knew that Zhu Wen's dream was to get involved in the Huainan area. Now that Yang Xingmi had just defeated Sun Ru, his vitality had not yet recovered, and his control over the Huainan area was quite weak. This was a great opportunity for Zhu Wen to extend his tentacles into Huainan. If Luzhou was offered at this time, Zhu Wen would definitely accept it happily. The next step, of course, is to send troops to Luzhou, and the reward for Cai Chou must be very generous.
People who love to be clever will suffer big losses sooner or later.
Cai Chou collected the certificate by digging up his ancestor's grave. The certificate could be given to anyone, but not to Zhu Wen. Zhu Wen attacked Shi Pu, and Shi Pu sent people to Dangshan to dig Zhu Wen's ancestral graves; Zhu Wen attacked Yanyun Erzhu, and Zhu Jin sent people to Shan County to dig Zhu Wen's mother's ancestral graves...
Of course Zhu Wen wanted to capture Huainan, but now that the eastern front was tight, he was unable to compete with Yang Xingmi for supremacy in Huainan. Stabilizing the situation in Huainan is Zhu Wen's most urgent demand at present.
Cai Chou made the wrong calculation and stepped on the wrong beat.
Zhu Wen retained Cai Chou's official seal and accepted Luzhou's surrender, but refused to send any soldiers into the city to assist in defense. He also notified Yang Xingmi to report Cai Chou. Benefit from both ends.
Yang Xingmi sent Li Shenfu to lead an army to attack Cai Chou in Luzhou, and was grateful to Zhu Wen. Zhu Wen did not make any substantial investment, but gained the favor of the Huainan authorities and temporarily stabilized the southern border.
Li Shenfu surrounded Luzhou as an advance army. Yang Xingmi then personally led a large force to join forces with Xuanzhou Tianbo outside Luzhou City and launched a fierce offensive against Luzhou.
Cai Chou's general Zhang Hao climbed over the wall and surrendered to Yang Xingmi.
Zhang Hao, a "Cai Thief", initially served under Qin Zongquan, and was later assigned to Sun Ru's department. After Sun Ru's death, he submitted to Yang Xingmi. Yang Xingmi treated Sun Ru's surrendered generals favorably and sent him to station in Luzhou; When Cai Chou betrayed him, he was loyal to Cai Chou again; now that Yang Xingmi was storming Luzhou, he climbed over the wall and surrendered to Yang Xingmi again.
Regardless of past suspicions, Yang Xingmi assigned Zhang Hao to the "Silver Spear Capital" and subordinated him to Yuan Zhen. Yuan Zhen informed Yang Xingmi that Zhang Hao was erratic and it was best to kill him to avoid future troubles.
Yang Xingmi was worried that Yuan Zhen could not tolerate Zhang Hao, so he placed Zhang Hao among his bodyguards.
From then on, Zhang Hao became a very important person in Yang Xingmi's group, and even became one of Yang Xingmi's important advisors in the future, and his famous history is more than just being a mentor, which will be described in detail later.
Three months later, Luzhou was captured, and Yang Xingmi killed Cai Chou. All the generals advised Yang Xingmi to treat him the same way as he did, and suggested that Cai Chou's ancestral grave should be dug up to take revenge.
Yang Xingmi shook his head and said that Cai Chou was condemned and reviled by people all over the world just because of what he did. How could I learn from him?
After taking over Yangzhou and Pingluzhou, Yang Xingmi did not stop his efforts to unify Huainan and sent Tian Wei to attack Shezhou. Shezhou surrendered conditionally.
Ni Zhang, the governor of Shuzhou, who was deceived by Cai Chou, abandoned the city and fled in fear of crime. Yang Xingmi appointed Li Shenfu as the governor of Shuzhou.
Huangzhou, which was affiliated with the Wuchang Army, also surrendered to Yang Xingmi.
After Yang Xingmi killed Sun Ru and took control of Yangzhou, his reputation was greatly shaken. Shezhou, Shuzhou, Huangzhou and other places surrendered one after another. Among the many cities that surrendered, Sizhou was among them.
This follows two important foreshadowings from the previous article:
1. The envoys sent by Zhu Wen to Sizhou were arrogant and insulted Zhang Jian, the governor of Sizhou. Zhang Jian surrendered to Yang Xingmi in anger;
2. In response, Zhu Wen arrested Tang Linghui, a Huainan official who was selling tea in the territory, and confiscated more than 10,000 kilograms of tea from him.
The relationship between Bianzhou and Yangzhou dropped to a freezing point.
【Joint Pig Killing】
Yang Xingmi had a broad mind, knew people well and cared about people's power. He was widely praised in the Huainan area, supported by generals and gathered scholars. During the late Tang Dynasty and the Five Dynasties period, Yang Xingmi could be regarded as one of the few commendable warlords in the feudal circle. It was under his leadership that the Huainan region gradually recovered from the devastation of the war.
Yang Xingmi also quickly got out of the predicament and became the emerging overlord in the Jianghuai area.
In the first month of the second year of Qianning in the Tang Dynasty (895), Yang Xingmi went to the court to enumerate Zhu Wen's various criminal acts, and requested the central government to issue an edict to unite Huainan, Ningguo, Yiwu, Taining, Tianping, Hedong and other towns to attack Zhu Wen.
Yang Xingmi was very wise and the "allies" he attracted were Zhu Wen's mortal enemies such as Yanyun Erzhu and Hedong Li Keyong.
Before waiting for a response from the court, Yang Xingmi set an example and went up the Huaihe River to inspect the Sizhou front line. He sent troops to conquer Haozhou in one fell swoop, and then surrounded Shouzhou non-stop.
After several attacks, Shouzhou stood still. Yang Xingmi planned to retreat first and wait for the response of Hedong Li Keyong and Yan Yun Er Zhu, so as to form a north-south pincer attack on Zhu Wen.
Zhu Yanshou, one of Yang Xingmi's strong generals and his brother-in-law, came out in a flash squad. He said that he was going to be strong, but failed again, and was exhausted. At this time, he retreated, and all the previous efforts were wasted. He was willing to issue a military order and make one last charge. If it failed, , it’s not too late to withdraw.
Yang Xingmi's brother-in-law was a well-known fierce general in the Huainan area and had great military exploits. Yang Xingmi approved his request.
Zhu Yanshou lived up to expectations and successfully captured Shouzhou City with one wave of charges. Yang Xingmi ordered Zhu Yanshou to guard Shouzhou and wait for Zhu Wen's counterattack.
Soon, Zhu Wen's tens of thousands of reinforcements arrived in Shouzhou. At this time, Yang Xingmi had led the main force to leave, leaving Zhu Yanshou with only a few thousand men defending the city. The disparity between the enemy and ourselves was too great, and the soldiers and people of Shouzhou were terrified.
Zhu Yanshou threw his hat to the ground and said, "Damn it, aren't there only tens of thousands of people? I'm so afraid of him!" He immediately ordered the cavalry to be regrouped into groups of 25 people, holding a flag, and ordered the elite "Black Captain Li Hou of "Yundu" (general Sun Ru was demoted) led the team and led ten groups to charge against the Xuanwu Army of Bianzhou outside the city.
There are 25 people in one group and 250 people in ten groups. 250 cavalry attacked an army of tens of thousands.
After several rounds of fighting, there was no progress. Zhu Yanshou was furious, "Trash! 250 people can't even kill tens of thousands of people. I still want your hair? Come here, drag me out - chop it off!"
Li Hou yelled: "It's not men who are afraid of death! If you want to die, you will die on the battlefield. Do you dare to give me a few more people and give me another chance to charge? If I don't succeed this time, I will kill or chop him into pieces." ,it's up to you!"
General Chai Zaiyong also interceded for Li Hou, "Please use it again."
So, Zhu Yanshou sent five more groups of cavalry, "125 people, is that enough?"
Li Hou entered the battlefield and charged desperately. Chai Zaiyong responded from the flank, and Zhu Yanshou also led all the troops to charge together.
Zhu Yanshou and his team perfectly interpreted "the brave man wins when we meet on a narrow road". The general will have the heart to die, and the scholar will not be greedy for life.
In the end, Zhu Yanshou defeated the many with less, and the Bian army was defeated and fled.
Yang Xingmi led the main force to capture Lianshui (now Lianshui County, Jiangsu Province).
When Yang Xingmi in Huainan was marching northward and encroaching on Zhu Wen's territory, Li Keyong also annexed the Lulong Army in Youzhou and sent more than 10,000 cavalry to the Yanyun battlefield to assist Yanyun and Zhu Wen in their fight against Zhu Wen.
This is the node in the previous article. More than 10,000 cavalry went south, Zhu Wen's troops retreated south, and the battle line shrank.
The situation Zhu Wen faced was very severe. Li Keyong in the north and Yang Xingmi in the south formed a north-south pincer attack on him. Yanyun and Zhu, who were stubbornly resisting, saw the hope of spring and started to fight with the support of reinforcements from Hedong. Organize a counterattack.
If Yang Xingmi's "joint pig killing" plan is approved by the court, Zhu Wen will face the danger of being surrounded and suppressed from all sides.
If you come out to fool around, you will have to pay it back sooner or later.
In the past few years, Zhu Wen's active operation promoted the imperial court's four-sided encirclement and suppression campaign against Li Keyong in Hedong. Now, Yang Xingmi is following the example of a cat and a tiger, and wants to unite with Zhu Wen's enemies to launch the "Bianzhou Encirclement and Suppression".
Under this potential threat, Zhu Wen had to make major strategic adjustments, switching from offense to defense, and shrinking the front line.
However, this major crisis turned out to be thunder but no rain, and the dark clouds gradually dissipated in a strange atmosphere.
