This year, the country of Fujian was in chaos. Wang Yanzheng proclaimed himself emperor in Jianzhou and established the Yin regime. The country of Fujian was divided into two, and the civil war entered the most intense stage. Soon after, Fuzhou Forbidden Army generals Zhu Wenjin and Lien Chongyu killed Wang Yanxi and established themselves. Wang Yanzheng sent troops to attack Fuzhou. General Li Ren defected before the battle and defected to Zhu Wenjin of Fuzhou.
After all, the Fujian state was the foundation of the Wang family for generations. Generals and officials from all over the Fujian state responded to Wang Yanzheng, executed the traitors Zhu Wenjin and Lian Chongyu, and welcomed Wang Yanzheng into Fuzhou. The Fujian state ushered in a brief unification. Later, the Southern Tang Dynasty took advantage of the situation and stabbed Jianzhou in the back. Wang Yanzheng hurriedly rescued his old nest and had no time to cultivate Fuzhou intensively.
Li Renda had betrayed Wang Yanzheng before, so he was uneasy. He was worried that Wang Yanzheng would counterattack after handling the affairs of Jianzhou, so he took advantage of Wang Yanzheng's return to rescue Jianzhou to launch the "Fuzhou Mutiny" to control Fuzhou. Li Renda knew that his strength was not enough to compete with Wang Yanzheng, so he supported a monk, Zhuo Yanming, as the puppet emperor, and proclaimed himself a minister to the central court, the Later Jin Dynasty.
Soon, Li Renda killed the unsteady general He Zhuo Yanming and took charge of Fuzhou affairs. At the same time, he professed his tribunalship to the Southern Tang Dynasty and the Later Jin Dynasty to prevent Wang Yanzheng's counterattack.
At that time, the Later Jin Dynasty was caught in the "Sin-Liao War" and was declared destroyed in the second year, so it had no time to look south. Although it acknowledged Li Renda, it could not provide any valuable help to Fuzhou; Li Jing of the Southern Tang Dynasty was fighting fiercely with Wang Yanzheng in Jianzhou , The enemy of my enemy is my friend, so I happily accepted Li Renda's surrender and recognized his separatist rule over Fuzhou.
Soon, Jianzhou was captured by the Southern Tang Dynasty, Wang Yanzheng was captured, and the Southern Tang Dynasty annexed three-fifths of the Fujian state, leaving only Fuzhou and Quanzhou. In order to expand his power, Li Renda of Fuzhou found trouble and attacked Quanzhou. Unexpectedly, the general of Quanzhou stayed and became a fisherman, separatized Quanzhou and became a vassal of the Southern Tang Dynasty.
At this point, the Southern Tang Dynasty annexed all the territory of Fujian except Fuzhou. Therefore, Li Jing expressed affection for Li Renda of Fuzhou and said, "Come on, come to the court and drink tea." In order to seize the credit of Fuzhou, Chen Jue, the leader of the "Four Evils and Five Ghosts" group, faked the imperial edict and mobilized troops, attacked Fuzhou without authorization, and advanced all the way to Under Fuzhou City, the outer city of Fuzhou was captured.
Li Renda was desperate, so he changed his name to Li Da in October 946. He took the initiative to avoid Qian Hongzuo's warning and sent his confidants Xu Renyan, Li Ting'e and others to Hangzhou to profess vassalage to the Wuyue Kingdom and request military assistance.
Qian Hongzuo summoned all civil and military officials to discuss countermeasures. As a result, almost everyone expressed their opposition to sending troops to Fuzhou. Just like the last time they opposed sending troops to establish a state, everyone opposed sending troops to Fuzhou. With the painful lessons learned from the last time establishing a state, the voices of the opposition were louder this time. They presented facts and reason. The money-losing business of stealing the chicken but losing the rice must never be done again.
Only Shuiqiu Zhaoguan, the governor of the inner government, insisted on sending troops. Shuiqiu, a compound surname. Comrade Shuiqiu Zhaoqian is also a "relative of the emperor and the country". Qian Liu's mother is Shuiqiu, which means Qian Liu has a grandfather named Shuiqiu. It is said that when Qian Liu was born, the house was filled with red light. Qian Liu's father, Qian Kuan, was frightened and thought that a monster was born, so he wanted to throw little Qian Liu next to a big well. After learning about this, Shuiqiu family After trying his best to dissuade him, Qian Liu's life was saved, so Qian Liu's nickname was "Po Liu", and the well was also named "Po Liu Well" by future generations. Shuiqiu was kind to Qian Liu for his rebirth.
However, it is difficult to verify the seniority of Shuiqiu Zhaoqian and Qian Liu. It is not known whether they are nephews or cousins. In short, he entered the core power circle as a "relative of the emperor" and became the governor of the inner government.
Comrade Shuiqiu Zhaoguan was far-sighted and said that the Wuyue Kingdom and the Fujian Kingdom were closely interdependent, and that rescuing neighbors and caring for disasters was an ancient custom, so there was no reason not to send troops. The Southern Tang Dynasty annexed Jianzhou yesterday. If it annexes Fuzhou today, it will be time to come to Hangzhou tomorrow.
Qian Hongzuo deeply believed this, so he said: "The lips are dead and the teeth are cold, but the spring and Autumn period are clear. I am the commander-in-chief of the world. I have never been able to forgive my neighbors for their difficulties and use them safely. All the generals are galloping on horses and eating meat, but they are not willing to put themselves before me? Do you have any objections? Whoever, kill!"
Just half a year ago, the Later Jin Dynasty had just awarded Comrade Qian Hongzuo the honorary title of "Marshal of the Military and Horses of the World", and Qian Hongzuo used it as an excuse.
Just because you are the "marshal of all the soldiers and horses in the world", do you have to do justice for heaven? Obviously this is just an official slogan. So is the reason why Qian Hongzuo decided to send troops? This is just Qian Hongzuo's excuse.
War is a continuation of politics. Qian Hongzuo was young and isolated, and many civil and military officers were dissatisfied. Therefore, a foreign war was urgently needed to integrate political resources, establish prestige, train the team, and quickly establish a power system with Qian Hongzuo as the core. . This was the key factor in Qian Hongzuo's decision to send troops to Fuzhou.
Qian Hongzuo ordered Shuiqiu Zhaoguan to take command, red-top businessman Cheng Zhaoyue to be in charge of logistics, Prime Minister Yuan Dezhao to be the military advisor, and generals Zhang Jun and Zhao Chengtai to be the military envoys. He led an army of 30,000 people to advance by land and water to assist Fuzhou.
So the "Battle of Baixiapu" mentioned in the previous article on Fujian was staged.
The Southern Tang Dynasty had long been prepared to resist the armed intervention of the Wuyue Kingdom. It built strong fortifications and deployed heavy troops at various locations along the coast of Fuzhou that were suitable for landing. However, only Baixiapu in the south of Fuzhou was relatively lax in its defense. This is not an oversight by Nan Tang, because the natural conditions of Baixiapu are not conducive to landing operations. The beachhead is a large muddy tidal flat and swamp. If the enemy chooses to land here, it will be tantamount to seeking death and becoming a living target for the defenders' shooters. .
Wu Yue's army finally chose to try their luck at Baixiapu, because Wu Yue's ground troops had already entered Fuzhou City to assist in the defense, but their counterattack failed and they were compressed into the inner city by the Southern Tang army, cutting off internal and external connections; if Wu Yue's surface troops had If the gap cannot be opened in time, then the Southern Tang Dynasty will most likely make dumplings of Wuyue Kingdom's ground troops and Li Renda.
Wu Yueguo made certain preparations for this landing, using bamboo rafts as landing craft to deal with the tidal flats and swamps. However, the effect was not ideal, and they were forced to retreat by the super-saturated firepower coverage of the Southern Tang defenders.
At this time, the Wuyue Navy was anxiously wandering offshore, in a dilemma, seeming to repeat the Battle of Jianzhou a few years ago to comfort Comrade Yang Renquan who died of depression.
In the Southern Tang Army, there was a Fujian general named Meng Jian. He had a very clear view of the situation of the Wuyue reinforcements and revealed the secret in one sentence: Fuzhou is an isolated city, with no ammunition and food. The Wuyue reinforcements at sea are out of power and in a dilemma. They only need to Use strong bows and crossbows to defend Baixiapu and contain the sea. The city of Fuzhou can be destroyed in a day or night.
However, Feng Yanlu, the coach of the Southern Tang Dynasty, issued an incredible order: the defenders withdrew from Baixiapu and allowed the Wuyue Navy to land.
It was this order that allowed Wu Yue's reinforcements to stage a desperate counterattack and achieve a comeback. However, the Southern Tang army, which was originally guaranteed to win, collapsed thousands of miles away, and its national power was severely damaged. It never recovered from the fall until it was annexed by the Song Dynasty. Mainstream historical views agree that this battle was the "battle of annihilation" of the Southern Tang Dynasty. The Southern Tang Dynasty was destroyed by Li Yu, and the fault was caused by Feng Yanlu's Baixiapu.
Why does Feng Yanlu not benefit himself but only benefit others?
Some people say that it is because Meng Jian talks too much, and the leader Feng Yanlu does not want to be upstaged by a surrendered general. Since he is sure of victory, Feng Yanlu will naturally make whatever waves he wants. Some people think that Feng Yanlu does not know how to fight, and even " You don’t even understand "attacking thieves halfway across the border", you are simply a military idiot...
In the special topic of the Southern Tang Dynasty, we have already understood Feng Yanlu, one of the "Four Evils and Five Ghosts", and the political environment of the Southern Tang Dynasty at that time. Although Feng Yanlu's actions led to a very tragic failure, we do not want to brag or make any accusations. Let's do a little analysis. , you will know why Feng Yanlu issued this order, and it can even be said that Feng Yanlu has the possibility of victory:
Meng Jian's idea is a very traditional old trick, one word - procrastination. Surround the city, isolate the inside and outside, and surround the points to call for reinforcements. When the food and grass in the city are cut off, victory can be declared. The advantage of this is that the casualty rate is low and the success rate is high. The biggest cost is the time cost, which often lasts from three to five months. Moreover, behind the time cost is the huge material cost, hundreds of thousands of troops and several months of people eating horses. , spending money is like peeing pants.
To summarize, the advantages of this routine are: safety; disadvantages: money and time consuming.
In contrast, another method of siege is a more bloody siege, including cave houses, ladders, tunnel digging... the so-called hundred-channel siege. Inflicts heavy casualties, but saves time.
Your life belongs to you, and your money belongs to the country.
Most soldiers like to use the old routine of traditional attrition warfare. Everyone forms a circle, throws and throws handkerchiefs, waits for half a year or two, and then receives rewards and money. What, a strong attack? The casualty rate is 90%+, do you think you will be among the 10%? Yes once, yes twice, can you guarantee that it will be the same every time?
The butt determines the head. As the commander-in-chief of the army, Feng Yanlu had deeper considerations. You laugh at him for not understanding military affairs, and he laughs at you for not understanding politics; you laugh at him for not understanding politics, and he laughs at you for not understanding Southern Tang Dynasty.
Feng Yanlu's idea was to fight quickly and achieve victory in one battle. He said that the reason why Fuzhou City is still resisting is because of the support army on the sea, which is their spiritual support. As long as we can defeat this support army, Fuzhou will naturally surrender in despair. How can we defeat them? Then we can only let them ashore, and then encircle and annihilate them in one fell swoop.
Strictly speaking, Feng Yanlu's style of play is the original and authentic ancient method of encirclement and support. From a military perspective alone, it cannot be said that Feng Yanlu made any mistakes. But why did he fail?
Feng Yanlu won in the military, but lost in politics.
First of all, the Southern Tang Dynasty was forced to get involved in this war. The reason was that Chen Jue sent troops and falsely preached the imperial edict because of his greed for merit. A wrong war broke out at the wrong time, in the wrong place and with the wrong enemy. The Southern Tang's logistical preparations were quite inadequate. Food, grass, baggage, reserve troops, etc. were all stretched thin and could not support a huge war of attrition.
This was one of the main reasons why Feng Yanlu gave up the long-term siege and attrition. It's not that he doesn't want to consume it, it's that Nan Tang can't afford it.
Because Chen Jue mobilized troops without authorization and pushed the Southern Tang Dynasty into the bottomless pit of war, the "Qingliu Party" launched a crazy impeachment against the "Four Evils and Five Ghosts" group, demanding that Li Jing stop the war and severely punish the war criminals; There are also conflicts of interest, and pressure is also put on the front lines. Feng Yanlu was under tremendous political pressure. Even if he had enough food and supplies, he had to adopt a quick and decisive approach and could not fight a protracted war or a war of attrition to avoid long nights and long dreams and fires in the backyard.
This is the second main reason why Feng Yanlu gave up the war of attrition.
The above is the reason why Feng Yanlu made the plan to lure the enemy deep and encircle the point for reinforcements, but it is not the reason for the failure of the battle. What was the reason for the failure?
It’s still about politics.
Although the Southern Tang Dynasty nominally annexed all the territory of Fujian except Fuzhou, it actually controlled only a corner of Jianzhou. The rest, such as Quanzhou, were under the control of the former Fujian warlords. Most of the Fujian generals who surrendered were forced to surrender due to the situation. They were on the sidelines, and they were inseparable from the Southern Tang Dynasty. For example, Liu Congxiao tried his best to make the Southern Tang Dynasty lose the war.
Among the local soldiers of the Southern Tang Dynasty, some were jealous of Feng Yanlu's military exploits, and some preferred a conservative war of attrition and opposed the more radical encirclement and reinforcement... These people were also unwilling to use their own interests to pay for Feng Yanlu's decision-making.
The Fujian people let go of the water, and the local people are working hard for foreign workers. Feng Yanlu's jokes are made by everyone inside and outside. When Wu Yue's reinforcements landed, the Southern Tang army fought half-heartedly. As soon as Wu Yue's army launched its charge, the Southern Tang army scattered and fled thousands of miles away.
Li Renda of Fuzhou was saved and submitted to Wu Yue.
The young British leader Qian Hongzuo finally avenged his previous humiliation, which greatly boosted domestic morale, won enough prestige for himself, and consolidated his political status.
Just one month before Li Renda surrendered, in February 947, Qian Hongzuo finally eradicated Cheng Zhaoyue.
Cheng Zhaoyue relied on his money-making ability to defeat Du Zhaoda and Kan Fan, the powerful people of Wuyue Kingdom, and quickly entered the core power circle. Then he backhandedly sent lunch boxes to these two people. Political upstarts with no foundation are most afraid of this kind of magic operation.
It's hard to say what role Cheng Zhaoyue played in bringing down Du Zhaoda and Kan Fan. Cheng Zhaoyue wants them to die, and some "big shots" also want them to die, so the big shots are pushing things along behind the scenes, while Cheng Zhaoyue performs on the front stage. He is just a pawn in the political struggle of Wu Yue Kingdom. The big shots only need to change the script. Let this little actor disappear completely.
As a result, someone secretly reported that Cheng Zhaoyue had committed three felonies: gathering too many guests, hoarding weapons, and traveling with sorcerers.
Qian Hongzuo handed over the important task of eradicating Cheng Zhaoyue to Shuiqiu Zhaoqian. How many steps does it take to eradicate Cheng Zhaoyue? Answer: Three steps. The first step is to lead more than a thousand soldiers to surround Cheng Zhaoyue's residence; the second step is to rush in; the third step is to kill him.
Shuiqiu Zhaoqian rejected the appointment, "If he is guilty, he should be brought to justice in an open and fair manner, and should be publicly tried and executed in accordance with the law and regulations, rather than assassinating him."
In fact, this reflects that Qian Hongzuo does not have enough confidence in his own strength and is afraid that Cheng Zhaoyue will jump over the wall in a hurry, so he wants to not practice martial ethics. Young people do not practice martial ethics.
In the end, Qian Hongzuo handed over this important task to his confidant Zhu Wen, the commander of Nei Ya, and asked him to wait for an opportunity to arrest Cheng Zhaoyue. Zhu Wen lived up to his domineering name and successfully arrested the unsuspecting Cheng Zhaoyue, then sentenced him to death and executed him immediately. Later, he vindicated Comrade Qian Renjun who was under house arrest and regained his freedom.
