Jingnan's version is like a hairtail, distributed in a long strip along the Yangtze River, long from east to west and narrow from north to south, and the length from east to west is supported by the five states that have just been blackmailed, and its core area is only Jiangling Prefecture. It is just an isolated city. It is a small place worthy of the name. It does not have any strategic depth at all. Once the war starts, it will be a battle to defend Jiangling.
Facing the fierce three-pronged army, Gao Jichang closed the city gate tightly and could not get out. At the same time, he urgently asked for help from Huainan to the east.
The Jingnan area was humid, hot, and suffered from continuous heavy rains. The logistics supplies of the Pingjing troops could not keep up, and a large number of officers and soldiers fell ill. Even the commander-in-chief Liu Xun could not afford to fall ill; Dong Zhang of Dongchuan also wanted to separatist rule at that time. Ma Yin sent general Xu Dexun to Yuezhou, contacted Liu Xun, and made an appointment to attack Jiangling Mansion from the north and south. He also expressed his willingness to donate bows, arrows, armors and other equipment, but the delivery was delayed.
The start of the Pingjing War was extremely unfavorable to the Later Tang Dynasty.
Li Siyuan sent Privy Councilor Kong Xun to inspect the front lines to assess the feasibility of the war.
This is interesting. Gao Jichang, Dong Zhang, and Kong Xun were all adopted sons of Zhu Wen's adopted son Zhu Yourang, and the Pingjing War became a family affair for the three grandsons.
Kong Xun arrived at Jiangling City and then launched a fierce attack on Jiangling City, but to no avail. So Confucius sent envoys to the city to persuade him to surrender.
What you can't get on the battlefield, you can't get at the negotiation table. If Kong Xun's attack achieved certain results and caused a certain deterrent to the city, it would naturally be possible to cash in politically through negotiation; how could the other party surrender when the military attack failed? Kong Xun was really at his wits' end, and he was really out of his mind.
As expected, Gao Jichang refused with a very arrogant attitude. If you have the ability, come in; if you don't, get out. Stop talking nonsense to me.
Kong Xun had no choice but to truthfully report the battle situation on the front line to the central government.
Li Siyuan sent 10,000 sets of summer military uniforms to Ma Yin in Tanzhou, and also presented pommel, horse, jade belt and other items to Ma Yin, asking him to help finance the frontline food and grass supplies to support military needs.
Ma Yin accepted the order, saying that he would do his best, but - there were floods here, the roads were blocked, reinforcements from Huainan had arrived, the war was stalemate... In short, he gave various reasons to shirk it, but in the end he did not support a single grain of food. .
Li Siyuan really couldn't afford the expense, so he ordered the withdrawal of troops on May 20, hastily ending the Pingjing War.
Ma Yin sent Shi Guangxian to Luoyang to pay tribute, and Li Siyuan rewarded him with ten BMWs and two beauties. On the way back with the BMW beauty, Shi Guangxian was robbed by Gao Jichang.
Gao Jichang has been practicing robbery professionally for thirty years. He took Shi Guangxian as a hostage, transferred the beautiful BMW to Huainan, and expressed that he would abandon the Tang Dynasty and return to the Wu Dynasty, and raised the whole territory of Jingnan to surrender to Huainan.
Xu Wen, the powerful minister in Huainan, kept a cool head and believed that Jingnan was close to Luoyang and far away from Huainan, so it would be easy for the later Tang Dynasty to attack, while Huainan was far away and difficult to rescue. Once he accepted Gao Jichang's surrender, he would be dragged into the water and kidnapped. On the chariot of Jingnan, the place where Jingnan fought four battles, if you save it, you will lose the military, if you don't save it, you will lose politics, so... Xu Wen accepted all Gao Jichang's gifts, and then refused to accept Jingnan's surrender. .
This is the first time Gao Jichang, the "rascal", has been played rogue by others. When a gangster meets a gangster, it's a matter of fact.
In this war between Jing and Jing, only good news came from the governor of Kuizhou, Xixi Ye. He recaptured Kui, Zhong, and Wanzhou in one fell swoop, cutting the hairtail fish in Jingnan into two. Li Siyuan immediately allocated these three states to the Ningjiang Army, with Kuizhou as the headquarters and Xingfang Ye as the military envoy.
The Pingjing War was too futile, and Li Siyuan was angry and confused, so he ordered the former prime ministers Douluge and Wei Shuo to commit suicide and hold them responsible for agreeing to cede territory; Liu Xun was demoted to the governor of Tanzhou.
Those who are close to vermilion are red, those who are close to ink are black. Those who approach Jingnan are scoundrels.
Ma Yin sent envoys to Luoyang to ask for the construction of Xingtai. Xingtai is an institution set up by the central government at a local level that can issue orders on behalf of the central government. Generally speaking, the establishment of a row platform is a prelude to the establishment of an independent country. When local military and political leaders take the initiative to request the establishment of a platform in their own jurisdiction, they are tantamount to a tactful expression to the central government that they want to be independent.
This was Ma Yin's attempt to take advantage of the situation. Since Li Siyuan couldn't even handle a small Jingnan, let alone an expedition across Jingnan to Tanzhou. Ma Yin seized the opportunity and took advantage of Li Siyuan.
"Comrade Ma Yin has worked hard and made great achievements. Just setting up a platform is not enough to express his tenderness and comfort. So, let's just confer Comrade Ma Yin as the king of Chu, open up the country and establish a country, and install hundreds of civil and military officials." Li Siyuan's face. Smiling, my mother is selling her.
In August of the second year of Tiancheng (927), the envoys of the Later Tang Dynasty arrived in Tanzhou, and King Ma Yin of Chu formally established the Chu State, which was known as "South Chu" (one of the "Ten Kingdoms") in history. The Nanchu regime was a legal regime entrusted by the central dynasty, which was essentially different from the illegal separatist regimes such as the Southern Han Dynasty and the Southern Wu (Huainan) that had established themselves before.
After this battle, Gao Jichang stepped up the construction of city defenses, expanded the inner city, built the Jianghan Tower at the east gate of the inner city, and garrisoned a large army in Dangyang County, named "Jingmen Army" to strengthen the strategic depth of Jingnan. Be prepared for the next war.
The war started again half a year later. This time Gao Jichang faced the new enemy Nanchu Mayin.
In the last Pingjing War, Ma Yin responded passively and took a wait-and-see attitude. The main reason was that he was unwilling to take chestnuts from the fire for Li Siyuan. This time, Ma Yin wants to monopolize the victory.
Ma Yin sent general Yuan Quan as commander, Wang Huan as deputy, and his son Ma Xizhan as supervisor, and dispatched surface troops to go upstream and enter Jingnan; he himself went to Yuezhou on the border of Jingchu to support the army.
Yuezhou is located to the north of Tanzhou, which strangles the main connection between Dongting Lake and the Yangtze River. It is located at the junction of the four spheres of influence of Nanchu, Jingnan, Huainan, and Later Tang. It controls the water surface of the Yangtze River, and its geographical location is extremely important. Ma Yin was personally in charge of Yuezhou, where he could support Yuan Quan's troops entering Jing, retreat to protect the border of Southern Chu, and block the reinforcements from Huainan coming against the current.
It can be seen from later records that Ma Yin's strategic intention this time was to annex Jingnan.
Jingnan Gao Jichang also led the surface troops to fight. Encountering an ambush by Ma Xizhan at Liu Langfu (where Liu Bei married Sun Shangxiang), he was defeated and returned with thousands of losses. Taking advantage of the victory, the Southern Chu army advanced towards Jiangling City.
Gao Jichang was horrified and hurriedly returned the hostage Shi Guangxian, apologized, and asked for reconciliation.
Wang Huan, the general of Southern Chu, accepted the settlement and returned to his command.
Ma Yin was very angry and blamed Wang Huan for being greedy for petty profits instead of taking advantage of the victory to capture Jiangling.
Wang Huan said that Jingnan is located between Huainan, Later Tang, Bashu and Southern Chu. It was the site of the Four Wars and should be retained as a barrier to Southern Chu. It should not be greedy for a temporary fame and lose its influence.
Wang Huan's attitude toward Jing Nan was exactly the same as Wang Jian's attitude towards Feng Xiang, and it was similar to Huainan's refusal to accept Jing Nan. The so-called heroes think alike. Blind expansion of land is not necessarily the best choice. Making rational use of geopolitics to maximize interests is the upgrade of politicians.
