【The end of the traitor】
There was a fire in the backyard, and Yang Xingmi urgently ordered Li Shenfu on the Ezhou front line to return to the army to quell the rebellion.
Li Shenfu was worried that he would be pursued by Du Hong's counterattack after relieving the siege, so he announced that he would counterattack Jingnan along the Yangtze River to the west. He prepared ships on the Yangtze River, and when night fell, he led his troops eastward along the river to wait for the departure. After a certain distance, the real combat tasks are assigned to grassroots commanders and fighters.
Tian Kai captured Li Shenfu's wife, children, and children in Shengzhou, and wanted to use this as a threat. He sent an envoy to tell Li Shenfu: "If you cooperate with me, we can divide Huainan equally; otherwise, I will kill your whole family!"
Li Shenfu said to his subordinates: "When I was an ordinary soldier, I followed the King of Wu (Yang Xingmi), and was promoted to the position of general step by step. I will never forget the kindness of the King of Wu because of my own selfish interests! Tian Bo, my son, There is an old mother, but regardless of the life and death of the old man, he raised an army and rebelled, abandoning the three cardinal principles and five permanent principles. It is unfaithful, unfilial, and unkind!" Then he beheaded the envoy Tian Kai in public, and ordered to continue moving forward. The officers and soldiers in the whole army were deeply moved and their morale was greatly boosted. Everyone strived to be the first and worked bravely.
Tian Kai sent his general Wang Tan and others to fight against Li Shenfu.
Wang Tan took Li Shenfu's son Li Chengding to the front of the battle, firstly to undermine Li Shenfu's morale; secondly, to make Li Shenfu throw a rat weapon.
Unexpectedly, Li Shenfu immediately ordered the archers to shoot arrows at his son.
Wang Tan's hostage card backfired. Li Shenfu's righteous act of killing relatives made the whole army share the same hatred and inspired an unprecedentedly strong fighting spirit.
Li Shenfu told the generals that there were many people in Wangtan and we were few, so it was not appropriate to attack by force and we could only defeat them wisely. So in the evening, Li Shenfu ordered to engage the enemy in battle, pretended to be defeated, headed west against the current, and retreated backwards.
Wang Tan fell into the trap and chased him all the way.
Li Shenfu suddenly turned the ship's bow and attacked downstream.
Wang Tan raised a torch to illuminate the boat, and Li Shenfu ordered: "Shoot where there is fire!" After a while, Wang Tan realized that he had been helping the enemy draw a bullseye, so he quickly ordered to put out the torch.
In the night, the ships of both sides fought in the dark, crossing each other in confusion, making it difficult to distinguish between ourselves and the enemy. Li Shenfu took advantage of the wind direction and launched a fire attack, burning Wang Tan's building and ship. Wang Tanjun fell into chaos and collapsed instantly.
At dawn the next day, Li Shenfu completely wiped out the remnants of Wang Tan. Wang Tan only escaped with his body and fled the battlefield in embarrassment. In this battle, Li Shenfu not only defeated the greater number with less, severely defeating Tian Kai's rebels, but also captured an important prisoner alive - Xu Wan.
Yang Xingmi put Xu Wan into the prison car and gave it to Qian Liu.
Qian Liu disemboweled Xu Wan and dug out his heart to pay homage to Gao Wei. Gao Wei was the son of Huzhou Governor Gao Yan. When Xu Wan and Xu Zaisi launched a rebellion last year, Gao Wei led his troops to help. He was ambushed by Xu Wan in Lingyin Mountain and was defeated and killed.
During the "Xu Xu Rebellion", Yang Xingmi firmly supported Qian Liu's legal rule and helped him quell the rebellion; now during the civil strife in Huainan, he sent the culprit of the "Xu Xu Rebellion" to Qian Liu. The meaning is obvious: Brother, Time to return the favor.
Therefore, during the civil strife in Huainan, Qian Liu did not take advantage of the situation, but looked far ahead and helped Yang Xingmi put down the rebellion.
When Tian Kai received the news that Wang Tan's entire army had been annihilated, he was horrified, and immediately led his main troops out in full force, upstream to face Li Shenfu.
Li Shenfu was able to maintain a clear mind despite his great victory. Not being arrogant in victory is the basic quality of a good general. Li Shenfu said to the generals: "The thieves abandon the strong city and engage in field battles with us, which is their own destruction." So he ordered the fleet to anchor by the river, build a water stronghold, and hold on. At the same time, it was suggested that Yang Xingmi send another ground force to cut off Tian Kai's retreat.
Yang Xingmi then sent General Tai Meng to carry out this task.
Tian Kai made the same mistake as Sun Ru. "Contrary but inorganic", a brain is a good thing, but it's a pity that he doesn't have it.
Tai Meng ordered the entire army to maintain combat readiness throughout the entire process, advance step by step, and take turns. The soldiers all laughed at his timidity. Tai Meng said to them, Tian Bo has been on the battlefield for a long time and is very resourceful. We must be cautious and never underestimate the enemy's carelessness.
Tian Kai's intelligence showed that Taimeng's troops only had about 2,000 troops, and they were afraid of enemy patrols, so there was nothing to worry about. Therefore, Tian Kai stationed the main force in Wuhu to stop Li Shenfu, while he personally led a partial division to fight against Taimeng. Tian Kai didn't take Tai Meng seriously.
Tian Wei and Tai Meng encountered each other in Guangde, east of Xuanzhou.
Before the war began, Taimeng first sent Yang Xingmi's letter to Tian Kai's generals for viewing. These generals all dismounted and accepted it, with faces full of shame. Taking advantage of this moment when the army's morale was weakened, Taimeng launched a fierce attack. What Tian Kai didn't know was that Taimeng not only had 2,000 people at this time, but also received a supporting army, whose leader was Wang Maozhang. After Wang Maozhang returned from Qingzhou, he was ordered to attack Anrenyi in Runzhou, but the effect was not good, so he was transferred to the front line of Xuanzhou to join forces with Taimeng.
Tian Kai's first division suffered a setback. Taimeng took advantage of the victory to pursue and defeated Tian Kai again. Tian Kai had no choice but to retreat into Xuanzhou and urgently ordered Wuhu's elite troops to return for reinforcements.
However, this elite force, led by Wang Tan and other generals, surrendered collectively.
As mentioned earlier, when Yang Xingmi Group encountered this civil strife, Qian Liu did not take advantage of the situation, but extended a helping hand to Yang Xingmi. Qian Yi ordered General Fang Yongzhen to aid Runzhou, his cousin Qian Yi to aid Xuanzhou, and General Yang Xi to attack Muzhou. Regarding sending troops to Muzhou, we will discuss it in detail later.
Tian Wei, who retreated into Xuanzhou, not only lost Wuhu elites, but also increased his enemies in Hangzhou. The situation was not optimistic.
Two flowers bloom, one on each side.
At the beginning of the rebellion, An Renyi of Runzhou attacked Changzhou. Li Yu, the governor of Changzhou, bravely faced the battle and cursed An Renyi before the battle. An Renyi is suspicious by nature, saying that Li Yusu is no match for me, but he dared to insult me like this today, so there must be an ambush. So he led his army to withdraw.
As An Renyi expected, Li Yu indeed ambushed the ambush. Seeing An Renyi retreat, the ambush hurriedly appeared to pursue him.
An Renyi raised his flag high, then disarmed and ate, "Don't you want to chase me? Come on, I'm here." An Renyi's confidence made Li Yu's pursuers even more frightened, and he did not dare to step forward and watch for a while. The whole army retreated. An Renyi was also able to return the entire army to the Runzhou base camp.
Subsequently, Wang Maozhang, who had returned from the Qingzhou battlefield, was ordered to attack Runzhou but could not capture it. So Yang Xingmi sent Xu Wen to lead his troops to replace Wang Maozhang, and transferred Wang Maozhang to the Xuanzhou front line.
Xu Wen ordered his troops to change into the uniforms of Wang Maozhang's troops and use the flags of Wang Maozhang's troops. The strategy worked. An Renyi didn't know about the major change of troops outside the city. He thought it was still Wang Maozhang's troops, so he underestimated the enemy and advanced rashly, and was severely wounded by Xu Wen.
Among the Yang Xingmi group in Huainan, An Renyi's archery skills were second to none. Equally famous with his archery skills were Zhu Jin's crossbow and Mi Zhicheng's crossbow, both of which were ranked first among the Huainan army. However, An Renyi often threatened: "The power of ten times the rice Zhicheng crossbow is not as powerful as 10% of Zhu Jinshu; the power of ten times Zhu Jinshu is not as powerful as 10% of my bow and arrow." "Jin Yan Shi, not one of my bows" is so confident.
As a general, An Renyi was also good at running the army and had a lot of morale among the troops. The army's combat effectiveness was so strong that even if there were only a few hundred people defending the city, the attackers could not get close. That's why it was difficult for Wang Maozhang to achieve significant results.
Yang Xingmi wrote to An Renyi to persuade him to surrender, saying that I will not forget your previous achievements. As long as you can return from your own way, I will still appoint you as deputy commander and enjoy the treatment of that level, but you will no longer lead troops.
An Renyi felt that what he said was reasonable and wanted to surrender, but his son firmly opposed it, so he gave up.
Tian Kai was trapped in Xuanzhou with only a few hundred loyal subordinates. He reorganized them and named them "Minions Capital". Tian Bo personally led the "Minions Capital" out of the city to break out of the siege.
Taiwan and Mongolia showed weakness and retreated.
Tian Kai was fooled again and pursued across the ditch. Taimen immediately counterattacked. Only then did Tian Kai realize that he had fallen into a dilemma.
During the melee, Tianbo's horse lost its front hoof, fell to the ground, and was beheaded. The "minions and claws" were still resisting desperately. Taimeng ordered people to lift Tian Kai's head high to show them, and then they broke up and fled.
Tai Meng flew a letter to announce victory: defeat Xuanzhou and kill Tian Kai. What came with the book was Tian Kai's head.
In the city of Yangzhou, all the civil and military officials celebrated, but Yang Xingmi could not see the joy of victory at all on his face.
Yang Xingmi opened the wooden box containing Tian Bo's head and looked at his childhood friend, sworn brother, close comrade-in-arms, and veteran veteran. He couldn't hide the sadness in his heart, tears flowed down uncontrollably, and he cried bitterly.
Yang Xingmi ordered that Tian Kai's mother Yin be pardoned. Not only that, Yang Xingmi also treated Aunt Yin kindly, served her wholeheartedly with the courtesy of a junior, and provided for her to take care of her until she died.
Previously, during the "Xu Xu Rebellion", when Tian Wei retreated from Hangzhou, he took Qian Liu's son Qian Yuanguan as a hostage. Now that Qian Liu sent troops to help besiege Xuanzhou, Tian Liu was furious and wanted to kill Qian Yuanguan to vent his anger. His mother, the Yin family, and the Xuanzhou gendarmerie leader (Du Yuhou) Guo Shicong had been secretly protecting him and saving Qian Yuanguan's life.
When Tian Kai led the last "minion capital" to break through, he left his last words: "If we don't win today, we will kill Yuan Guan!" Under the strong protection of the Yin family, Qian Yuan Guan was finally saved.
After Xuanzhou was pacified, Yang sent Qian Yuanguan back to Hangzhou with a secret gift. After Qian Liu's death, his successor was Qian Yuanguan. This is a story for later.
The destruction of Tian Wei was a big blow to An Renyi of Runzhou. Wang Maozhang also returned to the front line of Runzhou from the Xuanzhou battlefield, and besieged Runzhou together with Xu Wen and others.
An Renyi's archery skills are well-deserved. He can pierce through the poplars with a hundred steps, and his arrows are always fired. Whenever he goes into battle, he must first snipe the enemy camp generals to demoralize the enemy troops.
Runzhou was besieged for more than a year and still could not be conquered. Later, Wang Maozhang secretly dug tunnels and successfully dug into Runzhou City. He launched a surprise attack and was a great success. An Renyi led his whole family to climb a high building and resisted. The soldiers were afraid of An Renyi's invincible arrow skills and did not dare to get close.
An Renyi knew that the situation was over, so he looked from afar and searched among the generals who were fighting the rebellion, and finally set his sights on Li Decheng.
In the previous battle, all the generals cursed An Renyi when they saw him, but Li Decheng was the only one who remembered his old friendship and did not insult An Renyi. An Renyi waved to Li Decheng, called him to come forward and speak, and then said to him: "You are polite to me, and I will repay you a favor today, and I will give it to you as my first contribution to defeating the thief." After that, he first He gave his favorite concubine to Li Decheng, entrusted his wife to sacrifice his son, then threw his magic bow to the ground and surrendered to Li Decheng.
The loyal Li Decheng took An Renyi's arm and went downstairs to accept the surrender. Later, An Renyi and his son were kidnapped and taken to Yangzhou, where they were beheaded in public display.
The highlight of the "Three Rebellions in Huainan" is undoubtedly Zhu Yanshou. We will put it at the end and introduce it separately.
