The first one to bear the brunt is Beizhou, the northernmost city of Weibo.
A hundred thousand troops pressed on the border, and Beizhou was quickly captured. In order to frighten Wei Bo and undermine his will to resist, Liu Rengong created a shocking event: the Beizhou Massacre.
After Beizhou City was captured, there were more than 10,000 households in the city. The frantic Liu Rengong ordered the massacre of the city. No one, no matter male, female, old or young, was left alive in Beizhou City! Afterwards, the corpses were thrown into the nearby Yongji Canal. Tens of thousands of corpses even blocked the river (clear water would not flow).
Liu Rengong wanted the people of Weibo to see his ferocity. He wanted the people of Weibo to tremble and open the city to surrender and give up resistance.
However, it had the opposite effect. Liu Rengong's frenzied massacre of the city strengthened the determination of the people of Weibo to resist to the death. From then on, all the cities resisted tenaciously, and all the people were soldiers. They would rather die in battle than surrender. Liu Rengong encountered many obstacles on the way forward.
Putting aside the moral character and talking about tactics, Liu Rengong still has two skills. He adopted the "leapfrog tactic" and instead of advancing step by step, he directly jumped to attack Weizhou, Weibo's headquarters.
The "leapfrog tactic" is an extremely bold and radical approach, bypassing the enemy's tightly defended strongholds and directly attacking the enemy's heart, thereby achieving a quick victory. However, its disadvantages are also obvious. If a lone soldier goes deep into the enemy's hinterland, if a quick victory cannot be achieved and a protracted war is dragged into, then serious problems will arise in the logistics supply and the enemy will be surrounded by enemies on all sides.
In World War II, the U.S. military used this tactic to achieve a great victory in the Pacific battlefield. It benefited from the U.S. military's absolute air and sea supremacy, which cut and surrounded the enemy on isolated islands one after another. Although the U.S. implemented the "leapfrog tactic", there was a shortage of logistical supplies. The problem is the Japanese on the island.
When Liu Rengong used this tactic on land, the risk factor increased sharply.
Wei Boluo Shaowei, who was under attack, asked Zhu Wen for help. As expected, Zhu Wen sent troops for reinforcements. The first batch of rescue forces was led by generals Li Sian and Zhang Cunjing, and Zhu Wen himself led an army to Huazhou.
Liu Rengong encouraged his son Liu Shouwen, saying: "You are more than ten times better than Li Sian. You should capture Li Sian alive first to dampen Zhu Wen's spirit, and then capture Luo Shaowei alive."
Liu Shouwen was convinced, so he took his brother-in-law, General Shan Keji, with 50,000 elite troops to fight against Li Sian.
Shan Keji was Liu Shouwen's brother-in-law and Liu Rengong's son-in-law. He was a fierce general of the Lulong Army and was nicknamed "Shan Invincible". In the "Victory of Papaya Stream", he was the one who defeated Li Keyong of Hedong. From then on, he became even more famous and famous far and wide. Shan Keji is confident about facing Bian general Li Sian.
Li Sian sent his general Yuan Xiang to set up an ambush on the east bank of Qingshui, while he personally led a troop to act as a decoy. After a close encounter with Lu Long's army, he pretended to be defeated and fled.
Liu Shouwen was overjoyed and thought that the Bian army was indeed on the verge of collapse at the first touch and was really vulnerable, so he ordered a chase.
After Lu Long's army entered the preset battlefield, Li Sian suddenly turned around and counterattacked, ambushing troops everywhere and attacking from both sides. Liu Shouwen was defeated and more than 30,000 people were captured and killed. Shan Keji was also killed. Liu Shouwen fled the battlefield in a hurry.
Yuan Xiangxian, who was responsible for commanding the ambush troops, was Zhu Wen's nephew. His father was Yuan Jingchu, and his mother was Zhu Wen's biological sister.
Liu Shouwen's defeat, especially the death of "Shan Wudi", was a huge blow to the morale of the Lulong Army. They finally realized how powerful Zhu Wen was.
Ge Congzhou was also ordered to send reinforcements from Dong Zhaoyi and led 800 elite cavalry into Weizhou to assist in the defense.
Liu Rengong felt something was not good, so he gave up and launched a fierce attack.
Ge Congzhou and He Delun went out to fight. Before leaving the city, Ge Congzhou told the city gate official that after he left the city, he must close the city gate tightly and leave no escape route. If he loses, he will die. Because there are too many enemies, once our army retreats, the enemy troops will inevitably follow us.
Ge Congzhou and He Delun fought desperately and defeated Liu Rengong with less, and captured Lulong generals Xue Tujue and Wang Haolang alive.
The next day, the Bian Army and Wei Bo Army took advantage of the victory to launch a counterattack and defeated Liu Rengong's eight camps in one go. Seeing that the situation was over, Liu Rengong and his son set fire to the camp and led their troops to retreat.
The shortcomings of the "leapfrog tactic" were finally exposed during the retreat. Since victory cannot be won quickly, the retreat will not be smooth either.
The Bianwei allied forces caught up with Lu Long's defeated army in Linqing (today's Linxi County, Hebei Province), and they cut and killed them, forcing Lu Long's defeated army into the Yongji Canal in the west. Countless people drowned.
The west bank of this Yongji Canal is Beizhou. Liu Rengong massacred Beizhou and threw all the corpses into Yongji Canal. Now, his troops were also driven into it, eating noodles and wontons. The world goes through reincarnation, who will God spare? If you come out to fool around, you will have to pay it back sooner or later.
When the wall falls down, everyone pushes it, when the drum is broken, thousands of people beat it.
Wang Rong of Zhenzhou also sent troops to ruthlessly attack Lulong's defeated army. Liu Rengong is already the public enemy of the people in the Heshuo area. It is everyone's responsibility to attack Liu Kutou, not to mention beating a drowned dog and making a cheap fight.
Liu Rengong was completely defeated and his entire army was almost annihilated. According to historical records, during the five hundred miles from Weizhou to Cangzhou, corpses were lying on each other's pillows.
Then comes the math question:
Assumption: The average height of the soldiers is 1.6 meters. One by one, they lie flat with their feet on their heads. One hundred thousand soldiers are connected head to foot.
Calculation: 1.6 × 100,000 = 160,000 meters; and: 1 mile = 0.5 kilometers = 500 meters, then 160,000 meters = 160 kilometers = 320 miles.
Conclusion: Don’t bite the bullet. Our country's writing is broad and profound, "flying down three thousand feet". The text is exaggerated to describe the tragedy of 100,000 people rushing into the streets.
Although Liu Rengong and his son fled the battlefield, the vitality of Youzhou Lulong Army was severely damaged and never recovered. Liu Rengong's peak moment came to an abrupt end.
It is worth mentioning that while Wei Boluo Shaowei asked Zhu Wen for help, he also sent a letter of distress to Li Keyong. In a letter to Li Keyong, Luo Shaowei expressed his willingness to restore the old friendship with Li Keyong and hoped that Li Keyong could ignore the past and move forward.
Although Li Keyong had a grudge against Wei Bo for killing his son, politicians always put aside personal grudges and put political interests above all else. Since Wei Bo was willing to reconcile, Li Keyong certainly couldn't ask for it, so he hurriedly dispatched Li Sizhao to lead his troops for reinforcements.
By the time Li Sizhao arrived with his troops, Zhu Wen had already defeated Liu Rengong.
So Luo Shaowei once again severed ties with Li Keyong, "I reconsidered and felt that we should keep a certain distance and go back without sending him away." Luo Shaowei refused to open the border, and Li Sizhao could only take the good person card and return the way he came.
The gap between Wei Bo and Hedong further deepened.
