On this day, Liu Chengjun had the opportunity to make his dream come true. His former strong rival Li Jun, the general of the Later Zhou Dynasty who dominated Luzhou, wrote to him asking for help, expressing his willingness to surrender to the Northern Han Dynasty and join forces to destroy the Song Dynasty.
As mentioned above, Li Jun went on a large-scale campaign to sway people. He first published a "too much rhetoric" statement to officially declare his opposition to the Song Dynasty, and then sent separate private messages to key groups, such as Jinzhou Yang Tingzhang, Yangzhou Li Chongjin, etc., and even called over the wall Later Shu and other separatist regimes. The "Anti-Song Alliance" was in full swing.
At the same time that Li Jun announced his rebellion against the Song Dynasty, he sent troops to attack Zezhou. He packed up the governor of Zezhou and the supervisors of Luzhou and sent them to the Northern Han Dynasty.
Liu Chengjun was overjoyed, but he didn't expect happiness to come so suddenly, so he recruited elites from all over the country and quickly went south.
Next is the "Taiping Yihui Alliance" at the epic car rollover scene. Li Jun thought he was too shabby, so he called Li Jun a scumbag.
After all, Liu Chengjun had been a loner for several years. Although he was displeased, he could act as sanctimoniously as possible and tolerated Li Jun's rude offense. He left his confidant Lu Zan as the supervisor of Luzhou, and later sent Wei Rong, the prime minister. As a peacemaker between Lu Zan and Li Jun, he sent Heyang Jiedu envoy Fan Shoutu and his troops to assist Li Jun and complete control of Li Jun.
The self-willed Li Jun gave up the route of protracted war, chose to go south from Zezhou to Taihang, and launched a decisive battle with the Song Dynasty on the frontal battlefield. He wanted to complete his achievements in one battle, and finally lost the "Battle of Zelu" and committed suicide by committing suicide. After his death, his son Li Shoujie surrendered to Luzhou.
In this battle, Wei Rong, the prime minister of the Northern Han Dynasty, was captured, Xuanhui envoy Lu Zan was killed, and thousands of soldiers were lost. The Song Dynasty took advantage of the victory to counterattack and invaded the territory of the Northern Han Dynasty. Liu Chengjun had no choice but to resort to his ultimate move - calling Khitan father. With the support of the famous Khitan general Xiao Siwen and others, the Northern Han Dynasty finally saved half of his life.
The "Battle of Zelu" during Liu Chengjun's period had many similarities with the "Battle of Gaoping" during Liu Chong's period. They both caused irreparable and lasting trauma to the Northern Han Dynasty. Below we will stand from the perspective of the Northern Han Dynasty and take a closer look at the collapse of the Northern Han Dynasty after the "Battle of Zelu".
1. Self-defeating
Liu Chengjun's strategic intention was obviously to get rid of the control of the Khitans, so he seized the opportunity to develop and go offline. As a result, he suffered a disastrous defeat. Not to mention his ambition to conquer the Central Plains, even his old nest in Hedong could barely hold on with the help of the Khitans. The Northern Han Dynasty not only failed to get rid of the control of the Khitan, but also deepened its dependence on the Khitan.
2. We have many traitors among us
Under the continuous threat of the Song army, the soldiers and civilians of the Northern Han Dynasty were in panic all day long, so the frontline troops organized an uprising and surrendered. Even the people in Taiyuan City fled to the Song Dynasty on a large scale.
In April 962 AD alone, 470 Taiyuan people came to the Song Dynasty. Liu Chengjun set up a special patrol team for this purpose. However, ironically, the commander-in-chief of the patrol team, Lu Gui, and other 11 people took advantage of their positions to protect the Song Dynasty in July. It belongs to guarding and nourishing oneself.
In August 963, the border conflicts between Han and Song Dynasties reached a climax: Wang Quanbin won three out of three battles and captured Leping County of the Northern Han Dynasty. In this battle, 1,800 Northern Han soldiers surrendered, and Jingyang and other eighteen villages surrendered. . The Song Dynasty renamed Leping County "Ping Jin Army" and reorganized the troops surrendered by the Northern Han Dynasty into "Xiaoshun Army".
In September, the Northern Han Dynasty counterattacked Leping County with the help of Khitan reinforcements. The two sides formed an array, but before the group could start, the Khitan cavalry made a strategic shift, leaving the Northern Han soldiers in a mess in the wind, and ultimately the counterattack failed.
Before the war started, a low-level officer in the Xishan garrison of the Song Dynasty went to Bianzhou to appeal to the higher level and made a small report to the Xishan general Guo Jin. Zhao Kuangyin tied him up with a rope and sent him back to Xishan. He handed it over to Guo Jin and allowed him to kill the enemy with his own hands.
Guo Jin looked him up and down and said, "How dare you accuse me of my crimes? You are very courageous! If you are really brave, go into battle and kill the enemy. After you have performed meritorious service, I will not only spare you, but also reward you according to your merits; If you lose, surrender directly to Hedong and escape for your life." Then he was released.
The officer burst into tears with gratitude. After following the army to Leping, he fought bravely to kill the enemy and indeed made a great contribution. Afterwards, Guo Jin fulfilled his promise, put aside the past, reinstated his military post, and rewarded him according to his merits.
On February 1, 964, Du Yantao, the governor of Liaozhou, Ji Jin, the general of the Forbidden Army, and Hou Mei, the supervisor of the army, led 3,000 soldiers and horses under their command to surrender to the Song Dynasty. This is a joint rebellion by the local armed forces, the Central Forbidden Army, and the supervision department. It is extremely bad in nature and has extremely negative social impact. The surrendered troops were reorganized into the Xiaoshun Army and the Huai'en Army;
In March, Yaozhou Tuanlian envoy Zhou Shenyu and four others surrendered to the Song Dynasty;
In March 967, Yan Zhang surrendered to the Song Dynasty with Shipen Village; in April, Fan Hui, the leader of Hongtang Village, killed the supervisor Cheng Zhao and surrendered to the Song Dynasty;
In the first month of 968, Ren En, the leader of Piancheng Village, and 150 other people surrendered to the Song Dynasty; in July, Hu Yu, the leader of Wuyu Village, and 139 people surrendered to the Song Dynasty...
3. Strong medicine in the later stage
When Liu Chengjun mobilized the country's elite to go south to aid Li Jun, all the civil and military officials of the Northern Han Dynasty unanimously supported Liu Chengjun's decision. Only Zhao Hua raised concerns, saying that Li Jun would not be able to achieve anything big, so we had better not give up. Liu Chengjun was angry at Zhao Hua at that time. When he came back from the defeat, the first thing he did was to find Zhao Hua to apologize, and to give Zhao Hua an official position and invite him to the decision-making level. Zhao Hua was completely disappointed with Liu Chengjun, so he politely declined and returned home. Liu Chengjun also valued Confucian scholars more, so he asked his ministers to recommend scholars to him.
Prime Minister Wei Rong was captured by the Song army, Xuanhui envoy Lu Zan was killed, and Liu Chengjun was in urgent need of re-maintaining the organizational structure. Duan Chang, the privy envoy, recommended the hermit Guo Wuwei to him.
Guo Wuwei, also known as Wubuwei, has a very playful name, and his appearance is even more humorous: "square beak", with a square forehead but sharp beak and monkey cheeks. He is eloquent and worked as a Taoist priest in Mount Wutai in his early years. When Guo Wei was attacking Li Shouzhen in the river, Guo Wuwei took the initiative to join him and chatted and laughed with Guo Wei. Guo Wei praised his talent so much that he wanted to keep him by his side as a counselor. Someone reminded Guo Wei, saying that you now hold a heavy army and are out on an expedition, but you are recruiting followers, especially Taoist priests, melons, fields and plums. You must be cautious! Guo Wei suddenly realized it and reluctantly sent Guo Wuwei a good guy card.
So Guo Wuwei came to the land east of Hedong and lived in seclusion in Baofu Mountain. After the "Battle of Zelu", Duan Chang, the privy envoy, recommended Guo Wuwei to Liu Chengjun and was appointed as an admonishment official. He was soon promoted to Minister of the Ministry of Civil Affairs and Secretary of the Council, entering the core power circle.
Liu Chengjun had a bottomless and unprincipled trust in Guo Wuwei. For example, after his recommender Duan Chang was killed for "rebellion", Guo Wuwei not only was not demoted, but instead gathered the prime minister and privy council members to monopolize power.
This Guo Wuwei is one of the famous powerful officials in Chinese history. He contains too many mysteries, which will be detailed later.
