Liu Chengyou saw that the escort team was very strong, which strengthened his determination to fight in person, "A few days ago, the arrow was on the string and had to be fired. Now, the arrow has already left the string, where is the reason to stop?"
Empress Dowager Li tried hard to persuade Nie Wenjin to no avail, so she sent an envoy to warn Nie Wenjin, "Be careful!"
Nie Wenjin made a bold statement, "As long as I, Nie Wenjin, are here, even if there are a hundred Guo Wei, they will still be captured alive by me!" Then he held a banquet and drank with his soldiers, talking and laughing freely, looking confident.
The confrontation lasted all day on the 20th, and no conflict broke out between the two armies.
That night, Murong Yanchao patted his chest and praised Liu Chengyou, "If there is nothing important in the court tomorrow, your Majesty, please come and see me defeat the thief with your own eyes! In fact, there is no need to fight, I just need to give a loud shout in front of the battle , the thieves will definitely turn against each other, capture Guo Wei and offer him!"
Early in the morning on the 21st, Liu Chengyou couldn't wait to go to the front line to watch the performance of "Uncle Liu Huang" Murong Yanchao. Empress Dowager Li once again tried her best to dissuade him, but to no avail.
The two sides formed their own formations and continued the confrontation.
Guo Wei announced to his subordinates that we are here only to help the emperor eradicate a handful of treacherous officials around him, not to assassinate the king or seek to usurp the throne. Without my order, you must not act rashly!
Knock on the blackboard and mark the key points: We are not a rebel, so when someone labels us as a "rebellion" later, don't accept it, let alone believe their temptations, don't betray me; I said I won't go against the emperor, But he didn't say that he couldn't hurt the emperor. He didn't say things like "I want Zhao Yun to live, not Zilong to die" or "don't hurt my uncle". If you really want to take action, you know.
Guo Wei has been on the battlefield for a long time and has rich experience. When two armies are confronting each other, the most important thing to avoid is impatience.
Murong Yanchao, on the other hand, was so impatient that he couldn't hold it any longer. The emperor was still waiting to watch the show. It was my turn to perform. Murong Yanchao personally led the light cavalry out of the formation.
As soon as the two armies came into contact, Murong Yanchao's horse suddenly stumbled and fell to the ground, almost being captured alive. Murong Yanchao was heartbroken and fled back in embarrassment. More than a hundred cavalrymen who followed him to the battle were all killed in order to cover his retreat.
The morale of Guo Wei's army was high, while the morale of the imperial army was low. People from various departments in the imperial court continued to surrender to Guo Weijun. The army was defeated like a mountain.
Murong Yanchao was so frightened that he took dozens of personal cavalry and fled back to the Yanzhou base. The main generals of the imperial army, Wu Qianyu and Zhang Yanchao, defected to Guo Wei camp one after another and surrendered.
That night, Hou Yi, Liu Chongjin, Yuan Yi, Jiao Jixun and other major generals also secretly ran to Guo Wei's camp under the cover of darkness to express their allegiance.
Guo Wei comforted them with kind words, and then asked them to return to Liu Chengyou. I didn't come to kill the emperor for rebelling, I came to defend my rights. Everyone misunderstood.
Guo Wei found Song Yanwo again and told him that the emperor is your brother-in-law. Now the emperor is in a very dangerous situation. You should use your troops to protect him. By the way, he sent a message to the emperor, asking him to come to my camp to take shelter. To avoid unexpected events.
Guo Wei is thoughtful and achieves multiple goals with one stone:
First of all, if Hou Yi, Wu Qianyu and others are pretending to surrender, then these time bombs can be eliminated;
Secondly, if they really surrender, they will definitely try their best to protect the families of the Weizhou soldiers in Bianzhou City after they return, and prevent Liu Chengyou and his "little brother-in-law" from jumping over the wall and tearing up the hostages, so as to calm the military morale of the Weizhou soldiers;
Third, please carefully read Guo Wei's explanation to Song Yanwo, "Your Majesty, please rush to the army as soon as possible to avoid being plotted by the left and right." Song Yanwo, you protect the emperor with your troops and horses, and you must not let the emperor die at the hands of the rebels. Don't let any accidents happen... Listen carefully, don't let any accidents happen. Do you understand what I mean?
In the end, this was a successful public relations image, showing Guo Wei's generous and benevolent side.
It is more effective to place "your own people" next to the enemy as undercover agents than to surround yourself.
Song Yanwo understood that if he did this, he would be sorry for his conscience, and he would probably be punished and killed; if he did not obey Guo Wei's order, his life would not be easy. Therefore, Song Yanwo had an idea and wanted to "go", but he did not "go". He came back halfway and replied that the imperial army was in chaos and could not approach the imperial tent.
That night, Liu Chengyou, the three prime ministers (Dou Zhengu, Su Fengji, Su Yugui) and dozens of accompanying officials did not return to the palace, but stayed at the front line of Qilidian, hoping to stabilize the situation. They were naive and were defeated like a mountain. Even if the emperor personally suppressed the battle, they could not resist the decline.
In the early morning of the next day (22nd), Guo Wei saw Liu Chengyou's emperor's guard of honor standing on a high slope from a distance, fluttering in the wind, so he said to his left and right: "Where is the emperor, I will go to communicate and explain." So he took off his clothes. Throw away your armor and weapons, dismount, and go on foot.
Everyone hurriedly tried to dissuade him, saying it was too dangerous.
Guo Wei burst into tears and said frankly, "My king is here, why should I worry?"
But when Guo Wei came closer, he found that the place was already empty. He couldn't help but sigh for a long time, "We are late!"
Where did Liu Chengyou go?
Before dawn, Liu Chengyou was almost a bare commander and had to return to Bianzhou with a few followers. When they reached the northeast gate, Liu Zhu stood guard on the city gate tower and asked his entourage, "Where are the soldiers and horses?"
The attendants on the left and right hesitated and couldn't answer, so Liu Zhu ordered people to fire arrows to drive them away.
Liu Chengyou was frightened and hurriedly galloped on horseback with Su Fengji, Guo Yunming and others, detouring to the northwest. When they reached Zhao Village (southwest of Bianzhou), Guo Wei's vanguard troops pursued him. Liu Chengyou hurriedly hid in a private house.
Seeing that the situation was over, Guo Yunming killed Liu Chengyou and then committed suicide. Su Fengji, Yan Jinqing, Nie Wenjin and others also committed suicide.
There are different records about the death of Liu Chengyou and his cronies. It is generally agreed that it was suicide, especially Guo Yunming, who first killed Liu Chengyou and then committed suicide.
But is this really the case?
"Zizhi Tongjian" records, "The emperor dismounted his horse and entered the people's houses, and was killed by the rebel army." This sentence is very vague. Whose rebel army? Is it Liu Chengyou's escort troops or Guo Wei's troops?
"Old History of the Five Dynasties" and "New History of the Five Dynasties" conclusively stated that Guo Yunming killed the emperor with his own sword and then committed suicide.
The three authoritative history books were all written in the Northern Song Dynasty. As explained before, due to historical and political reasons, the Song Dynasty had a certain degree of beautification and packaging of the Later Zhou regime established by Guo Wei.
From another perspective, who is most beneficial to Liu Chengyou's "death in the rebellion"? Obviously Guo Wei. Guo Wei had previously sent Song Yanwo to lead troops to "protect" Liu Chengyou, specifically emphasizing that Liu Chengyou was in a very dangerous situation and must not let him be killed by those around him. In the end, he was killed by the people around him.
