[Wang Maozhang’s expedition to Huai]
After Zhu Youzhen ascended the throne, there was an urgent need to heal the political wounds of the Later Liang Dynasty and restore the empire to its glory.
Within the imperial court, meritorious officials were awarded and rewarded for their efforts in bringing order to order.
Outside the imperial court, they first sent envoys to contact Zhu Youqian in Hezhong to offer comfort. Zhu Youqian then returned to Houliang and changed to "Three Years of Qianhua". However, Zhu Youqian was unfaithful when he saw profit and went back and forth between Houliang and Hedong. This is a story for later.
When Zhu Youzhen ascended the throne, Generalissimo Yang Shihou presented a congratulatory gift: he led 80,000 troops into the territory of the Chengde Army and looted wantonly, raping and plundering all the way, and burning the outer city of Zhenzhou; then approaching Cangzhou, the Hue Army of Cangzhou was "the wallflower" Jiedushi Zhang Wanjin was so frightened that he rushed to Shu and asked to be transferred to the south of the Yellow River.
Therefore, Yang Shihou petitioned Zhang Wanjin to be the military envoy of Pinglu Army in Qingzhou, and asked Liu Shouqi, who had previously defected to Houliang, to take charge of Cangzhou.
Although Houliang failed to avenge his humiliation, Yang Shihou still caused a great shock to the Heshuo area and saved a bit of face for Houliang.
Zhu Youzhen granted Jingnan Gao Jichang the title of Prince of Bohai County to win over him. In addition to building cities, hoarding food and supplies, and recruiting rebels, Gao Jichang also built a huge surface force with as many as 500 warships. He also had secret conversations and flirtations with the Huainan side and the former Shu King Jian. Hou Liang has lost control over him. Although Gao Jichang still respects Hou Liang as orthodox on the surface, it has actually become a separatist regime in name only.
Expand the map, and the importance of the Jingnan region to the Houliang regime is clear at a glance: the current Houliang version looks like a gourd, with the overall shape of an "8". The upper circle is the main body of the Hou Liang regime, with Bianzhou as the core, extending to the sea in the east and Guanzhong in the west; the lower circle represents today's Zhejiang, Fujian, Guangdong and Guangxi, and Jiangxi; and the place where the two circles meet is the two lakes. area.
The most important link that helped Houliang girdle his waist into the figure "8" was the Huainan forces entrenched in the Jianghuai area.
It is precisely because of the existence and hostility of the Huainan forces that the southeastern regions such as Zhejiang and Fujian can only enter the Shandong Peninsula by detouring through the East China Sea, or taking a long way to the two lakes area.
Although these southern vassal towns were nominally vassal to the Later Liang Dynasty, they were actually independent and separatist regimes. As we have analyzed before, they and Zhu Wen were incompatible with each other and had almost no intersection. The only intersection was to unite to deal with the Huainan forces.
They recognized the Hou Liang regime based entirely on reality, holding together for warmth and each getting what they needed. The southern vassals enjoyed a high degree of autonomy, which was an important reason why almost all of the "Ten Kingdoms" were in the south.
To briefly summarize: the central government of the Later Liang Dynasty only had actual control over the circle above the "8". For the circles below, it could only maintain a very fragile relationship through the two lakes area.
There are two important vassal towns in the Lianghu area, Mayin in Tanzhou in the south and Gaojichang in Jingnan in the north.
Although the southern vassals only maintained a fragile superficial relationship with the central government, this was also an important part of the legitimacy of the Later Liang regime and the political cornerstone of the Later Liang Dynasty.
Therefore, Jingnan Gao Jichang not only strangled the neck of the Back Liang Empire, but also stepped on the lifeblood of the Back Liang Empire.
Facing Gao Jichang's domineering behavior, the strong Zhu Wen could only tolerate and tolerate, while the weak Zhu Youzhen could only appease and compromise.
Of course, if Houliang can level Huainan, then Jingnan will not be so important.
Therefore, Zhu Youzhen fulfilled his father's promise to Wang Maozhang and appointed him as the commander-in-chief of the Huaihe Campaign, leading an army of 10,000 to attack Luzhou and Shouzhou.
Xu Wen, a powerful official in Huainan, and Zhu Jin, the "pig-killing pioneer", led their troops to resist. When the two armies met in the wild, Xu Wen only had 4,000 troops at hand. Facing Wang Maozhang's 10,000 troops, he could only retreat backwards. Wang Maozhang seized the opportunity and launched an attack.
Seeing that the Huainan army was about to be driven into the canyon by the Houliang army, once they entered the canyon, the Huainan army would be trampled on by men and horses, and dumplings would be made by the Houliang army. The Huainan soldiers were shocked and thought they would die.
At this time, Huainan general Chen Shao suddenly turned his horse's head, waved his spear, and shouted loudly: "The stage of luring the enemy deep is over, now start the counterattack!" Then he turned around and rushed into the enemy's position.
The soldiers in Huainan suddenly realized, "Oh - it turns out that we are deceiving the enemy. We have an ambush and the enemy has fallen into the trap." So with high morale, they followed Chen Shao and turned around to fight.
The pursuing troops of Houliang also mistakenly thought they had fallen into the trap of luring the enemy deep into the enemy's territory, and hurriedly withdrew their troops.
The Huainan Army was saved from annihilation. Xu Wen patted Chen Shao on the back, praised him for his wisdom and courage, and rewarded him with a large amount of gold and silver. Chen Shao gave all the treasures to his subordinates.
Soon after, reinforcements from all directions in Huainan arrived, and with great momentum, they fought again with the Houliang army and were defeated in one battle. Wang Maozhang personally led the cavalry to cut off the rear and retreat with difficulty.
The battle took place in the twelfth lunar month, when the Huaihe River entered the dry season. Some places could be crossed on foot. When the Houliang army came, wooden signs were placed in all the shallow water areas that could be crossed on foot as markers for use during retreat.
Huainan general Zhu Jing secretly tampered with these wooden signs, pulled them out and inserted them into the deep water...
The troops of Houliang retreated to the Huaihe River and scrambled to cross the river according to the instructions on the wooden sign. As a result, more than half of the troops drowned.
The Huainan army collected the corpses of Houliang soldiers and built a Jingguan on the bank of the Huaihe River.
The Huaihe River has become a gap that the Zhu Wen Group can never cross. Zhu Wen couldn't cross it, and Zhu Youzhen couldn't cross it either.
Zhu Youzhen's conquest of the Huaihe River has only a few words left in history, but it reflects the secretive political game within the Later Liang Dynasty.
The most intuitive thing is that the scale of this military operation was only 10,000. Compared with the large-scale military operations of Zhu Wen's era, which often cost more than 100,000, Zhu Youzhen's action was simply too shabby.
Zhu Youzhen has his own difficulties.
First of all, Huainan is not the primary strategic goal of Houliang at this stage, and it is not the core interest. The biggest threat to Houliang came from the north, and its primary enemy was Li Cunxu from Hedong.
Secondly, the elite forces of the rear beam were basically in the hands of Yang Shihou, and Zhu Youzhen could not mobilize them.
The relationship between Zhu Youzhen and Yang Shihou is very subtle. Deep in Zhu Youzhen's heart, the biggest enemy of the Later Liang Empire is not Li Cunxu, but Yang Shihou! This will be fulfilled soon.
Third, Zhu Youzhen's prestige in Houliang was very low. Not only Yang Shihou, but also many people with real power were openly dissatisfied. Zhu Youzhen's throne as emperor was not stable.
Therefore, Zhu Youzhen urgently needed to establish her prestige, cultivate her own team, and seize power. On this basis, the "three-no product" with no background, no foundation, and no real power, the surrendered general Wang Maozhang, was naturally Zhu Youzhen's primary influence and target.
When a new king takes the throne, he establishes his prestige, seizes power, and cultivates his troops through war. This is a normal operation. Why target Huainan? After all, Houliang and the Huainan Group have maintained a relatively peaceful state for a long time.
Because apart from Huainan, Zhu Youzhen really couldn't find a suitable opponent.
There are three enemies in Houliang: Hedong forces in the north, Qishu forces in the west, and Huainan forces in the south.
If we attack the north, we can strengthen Yang Shihou; if we attack the west, we can strengthen Gao Jichang; only if we attack the south, we can strengthen Zhu Youzhen. So Zhu Youzhen must attack Huainan.
In fact, just when Zhu Youzhen launched force against Huainan, a military action also broke out between Jingnan Gao Jichang and the former Shu Wang Jian. Gao Jichang used his huge fleet to challenge the control of the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, but was defeated miserably. .
Some people suggested that Wang Jian take advantage of the rising waters of the Yangtze River in summer and autumn to break the dams, flood Jiangling, and let Gao Jichang die in the belly of the fish. Hanlin scholar Mao Wenxi (who was almost tortured to death by Wang Zongyi in the "Prince's Rebellion Case") hurriedly objected, saying that Jiangling Gao Jichang was indeed a bastard, but the people in his jurisdiction were innocent. How could His Majesty kill countless people in vain for punishing one person's fault? Woolen cloth? So Wang Jian gave up the plan of causing floods.
Using ten thousand men who were scarce to attack Huainan was Zhu Youzhen's helpless move to consolidate imperial power, and it was the epitome of the internal contradictions in the Later Liang Empire.
However, the failure of Zhenghuai extinguished Zhu Youzhen's little illusion, which backfired, and his emperor's majesty fell to the bottom. As a result, the undercurrent finally turned into a huge wave.
Zhu Youzhen is about to face the biggest challenge since the founding of the Later Liang Dynasty.
