People generally look at their own problems and do not see them clearly or objectively.
But when you look at other people's problems, it's called having a thorough understanding of the situation.
Therefore, generals like Zhang Zhaojun (Ma Shacai) who can clearly realize that the time to attack the Southern Han Dynasty has not yet come, and who can resist the temptation of destroying the country and remain cautious, are really rare.
Generally speaking, those who have this ability can be said to have the basic conditions to become a famous general.
Compared with Zhang Zhaojun, Liu Sheng, the leader of the Southern Han Dynasty, could only see others clearly, but not himself.
He could clearly see that King Duan Sicong of Dali was a withered bone in the grave, and Dali's army was wasted in Wumeng Mountain and Lu River, unable to move. When the country's money and food were wasted and people's resentment boiled, Dali should be subjugated.
But he still had quite a bit of misjudgment, or wishful thinking, about the situation inside and outside the Southern Han Dynasty.
This Liu Sheng was already a little schizophrenic, but now he has gone straight to the top of his head.
He frowned and thought that as long as he could marry a daughter of the Zhang family, he would be treated like Qian Hongchu.
Not only can he keep his family temple, but he can also gain the power to open a government. He can even make Zhang Zhi trust him and let him continue to govern in Lingnan.
The reason for Liu Sheng's misjudgment was that, in addition to his abnormal brain, it must have been caused by me, Zhang Shengren.
Looking at the royal families that were destroyed by Zhang Tie over the years, except for Yelu Deguang and Yelu Ruan who died on the battlefield, and Ma Xi'e who committed suicide and was beheaded, the rest are still alive and well.
Qian Hongchu, the wisest among them, became King of Lu and had the power to open a government. King Gao Baorong of Jing also did big business in Tokyo and lived a very happy life.
The coy Li Jing not only became the king of Wu, but Zhang Zhi also left him hundreds of thousands of dollars of property.
Now this man has completely let himself go and has become the happy king of Kaifeng Mansion in Tokyo. He either listens to music or holds poetry conferences every day.
Although Queen Zhong is very beautiful, I, Zhang Shengren, still held back and did not cause any trouble.
So after letting go of the burden of family, country, and country, Li Jing still lived a very happy life.
Sometimes he can even let the memory of being a loner come to mind, and then he becomes unreasonable no matter what happens.
Whenever there is a verbal conflict with someone and the debate is over, they like to use physical methods to reason. Most people take their status into consideration and most of them will choose to give in at this time.
But if you walk at night for a long time, you will see ghosts. Last month, Li Jing had "sparks" with Zhang Huaiqing's son, Nanyang County Duke Zhang Chengfu, when they were arguing whether the younger Li Du could rival the older Li Du.
Others may give in to Li Jing, but Zhang Chengfu claims that he is also the son of the emperor, and his blood status is not inferior to that of Li Jing. In addition, he is not well-educated, so I don't know what to give.
These two high-ranking nobles of the Zhang Zhou Dynasty had a big fight outside Xinzheng Gate, and there was a Lakhsir ceremony in full view of everyone.
Li Jing had been pampered for many years, but he was no match for Zhang Chengfu, a vulgar man from the northwest. His nose was bruised and his face was swollen, his nose and mouth were bleeding, and his eyes were wide open.
In anger, Zhang Gao asked Zhang Huaiqing to beat Zhang Chengfu twenty times with his own hands, and then rushed to Jingzhao Chang'an Mansion.
Li Jing was also punished by being grounded at home for three months for fighting against his elders, and was not allowed to go out to wander.
This is a small episode, the talk of Tokyo people after dinner, but it also reveals an essence.
That is, a man like Li Jing, who had subjugated his country, had a really good life in Tokyo. Zhang Gao did not deliberately restrict his freedom, and Li Jing did not live in panic all day long.
Because if it weren't for the extremely relaxed political environment and absolute trust in his own safety, Li Jing would not be in the mood to wander around and dare to argue with people.
Except for Li Jing, the king who was reluctant to donate his land and lived well, the others were simply Meng Chang who was captured, Ma Xiguang who had no real power and was simply promoted to power, Shi Chonggui who was rescued from the Andong jungle, etc. All living well.
This gave Liu Sheng the illusion that he could decide whether to donate soil at the last moment. Anyway, even if he was captured, he would still receive good treatment.
So in his heart, he knew that he could not fight against the Central Plains Great Zhou, but he still wanted to win as many benefits as possible for him before the last moment came, such as marrying a daughter of the royal family.
In addition to these, Liu Sheng did also make some good gestures.
For example, when the Great Zhou Dynasty transferred all its water forces to Goryeo and the Japanese Kingdom to provide support for Murong Nobunaga's Eastern Expedition, the Southern Han Dynasty, as the only country in the world that still had a good naval force, did not choose to harass Jiangnan.
Liu Sheng even wrote a letter to Zhang Yan, stating that he would not do this, and received praise from Zhang Yan.
In addition, when Zhang Zhi encountered resistance in promoting Champa rice in Jiangnan and Jiangxi provinces, Liu Sheng also took over the task and actively asked Zhang Zhi to distribute some Champa rice seedlings to the Southern Han Dynasty for trial planting.
In addition to the Pearl River Delta, the Southern Han Dynasty also had a lot of sloping land and dry land. Liu Sheng forcibly ordered one kind to be planted on more than 100,000 acres, which was almost more than the entire Jiangnan Province.
This provided a lot of help for Tiangong Institute to further screen rice seeds and expand the scope of experiments. Now there are officials and students from the Department of Agriculture and Forestry of the Ministry of Housing and Tiangong Institute in Nanhan.
As for other small moves to avoid taboos such as changing Zhaoyang Hall into Tongming Hall, there are countless others.
This was Liu Sheng's confidence, and it was also the reason why Zhang Zhaojun said that the time to attack the Southern Han Dynasty had not yet come, and he personally wrote a memorial to Zhang Gao to explain the situation in detail.
Lingnan was far away from the Central Plains, so it was naturally separated from the Central Plains people. Although the two kings of the Southern Han Dynasty, Liu and Liu Sheng, were cruel to the ruling class and their own relatives, they did not impose excessive taxes on the people.
On the contrary, because a large number of civil servants were appointed as governors and county magistrates, the people of Lingnan lived reasonably well in troubled times.
Now Liu Sheng is considered very respectful, and Zhang Yan himself has issued an edict and praised him. If he still knocks on the door without any reason, it will easily arouse the resentment of the Lingnan people.
They would turn Zhang Zhou's move to unify the world into the Central Plains people bullying the Lingnan people. In addition, Liu Sheng was not without means. With a little organization, he could turn this war into a bad war.
Of course, this does not mean that Zhang Zhou has no way to defeat the Southern Han Dynasty. If he really wants to fight at all costs, with the elite troops and generals of Zhang Zhou's court, it will not be difficult to destroy the Southern Han Dynasty in a year and a half.
But what happens after that? If the people are dissatisfied, the cost of governance will increase exponentially, just like how Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty destroyed South Vietnam in the past. The South Vietnam country was destroyed, but it has never been able to effectively govern.
If Zhang Zhi only wanted to be an old-fashioned feudal emperor, he didn't have to care about these things. He just wanted to unify them quickly, and the rest could take his time with the locals.
But what Zhang Yan wants to do is to be the next king of Xia and the Yi people after King Wu Jifa. This requires him to restore the vitality of the Central Plains as soon as possible and minimize internal friction in the country.
And in the next thousand years, China's economic center of gravity will gradually shift southward, which is a historical trend. In the future, Nanyang, including Jiaozhi, will become more and more important.
If you want to select some Chinese people to slowly develop Southeast Asia, who else can you count on besides the Guangdong and Guangxi people in Lingnan and the Fujian people next door?
To expand overseas, you can't just send people there.
Let's put it this way, if you want to send people from Hedong and Hebei to Cochin and come from the south of Cochin, you will kill them. A narrow escape is no exaggeration, because their physique and living habits simply cannot adapt.
But if you go to Fujian and Guangdong and Guangxi, you can still barely survive three deaths and seven lives. Only with a survival rate can you talk about colonization.
Therefore, Zhang Zhang was unwilling to attack the Southern Han Dynasty, and he did not want to make the people of the Southern Han Dynasty miserable. He did not even want to make the Han people in Lingnan have a rebellious mentality of being bullied.
Because they are the precious wealth of this country, it is enough to change the war to the upper class and relocate a group of middle class, but the people at the bottom still need to be protected.
It can be said that Zhang Yan's unification war basically followed this path.
The Southern Tang Dynasty wanted to take the initiative to attack because they had recruited Huchile and Du Chongwei.
Meng Shu even sent troops to attack Guanzhong when Zhang Yan was still fighting against the Liao army.
Ma Chu wanted to help the legitimate king Ma Xiguang to quell the chaos.
Jingnan was negotiated with Gao Congjie and Gao Baorong. Wu Yue simply offered Qian Hongchu to donate his country, and Liu Congxiao from Zhangquan Prefecture also volunteered to donate his land.
In this world, the only three countries in the world that were really attacked by Zhang Yan without any reason were Dali, Goryeo, and Japan.
Among these three, Dali's fight to the end will definitely end with the forced surrender of Duan Sicong. After all, white people and Han people have the same origin, so there is no need to make it too ugly.
Therefore, the only ones who were attacked for no reason and severely ravaged were pure outsiders like Goryeo and Japan.
This domestic tone was set by Zhang Yan himself based on his needs, and he must abide by it and not mess around.
Otherwise, when the envoy from Dali came last time, Zhang Yan deliberately humiliated the envoy from the Southern Han Dynasty.
He just wanted Liu Sheng to do something irrational after being stimulated, but it turned out that this kid was very stable!
Therefore, the military operation against the Southern Han Dynasty must be slowed down for a while. If Dali can be successfully captured, it may be possible to change the starting point of Liu Sheng and the Southern Han Dynasty.
. . . .
The Wumeng Mountains are a huge mountain range that runs through Yunnan and Guizhou provinces in later generations. It is high in the northwest and slightly lower in the southeast.
The average altitude in the west is more than 2,000 meters, and the slightly lower southeast is 1,500 to 6,000 meters above sea level.
The entire Wumeng Mountains are filled with deep ravines and canyons, with huge drop-offs. Rivers of various sizes such as the Niulan River, Pudu River, Beipan River, and Nanpan River pass freely through the mountains, cutting the high mountains into canyons and dams of different sizes. .
It can be said that the Wumeng Mountains are the most important and last line of defense of the Dali Kingdom at this time. The Central Plains imperial court has always come to attack, and the natural dangers of the Wumeng Mountains alone are enough for them to drink a pot.
And if Wumeng Mountain cannot be defended, then the Dali monarchs and ministers can send people to Shanchan Mansion (Kunming) and use the thousands of miles of Wumeng Mountain to consume the supplies of the Central Plains court, infinitely increasing the difficulty of transporting supplies. At the same time, Various tribes in the mountains and forests can also wait for opportunities to make sneak attacks.
After achieving this step, there is often no need to fight, and the imperial army can be wiped out just by exhaustion.
But today is different from the past. The opponent Dali encountered this time was Guo Rong, who had a great strategic vision and was extremely cunning.
Zhang Xiao's deputy to Guo Rong, Zhang Xiaobao, Zhang Laizi, Zhang Fei, is also a very calculating, insidious guy who doesn't care about shame.
The most important thing is that Zhang Fei's existence greatly makes up for Guo Rong's shortcomings of being irritable and easy to get angry.
Guo Rong could turn a deaf ear to what others said, but Zhang Fei could not.
He married the daughter of Meng Chang's brother Meng Yiye, and also pretended to be the uncle of Zhao Rongniang, the emperor's favorite concubine, and now the lie has become true. Zhao Rongniang always said "meeting her uncle" when she met Zhang Fei.
His brother Zhang Cheng is the emperor's most trusted general. In the past few decades, he is the first and only one who can win the title of "Four Eagle Dogs" from among the four men known as the Four Eagle Dogs: Barbarian Bear, Dunzhu, Qiongre Duojin, and Wang Tongtong. Squeezing into the saint's side.
With a strong background and extraordinary abilities, even Guo Rong must respect Zhang Fei's opinions, thus achieving perfect complementarity between the two.
There are two people like this who have stayed in Nanxi Prefecture (Yibin) for four years. How could Duan Sicong, a third-generation Quan who loves luxury and fun, be able to outwit these two people.
So in the past four years, Guo Rong successfully made all the tribes north of the Wumeng Mountains lower their guard, then captured them all, and finally organized them again, and even Wumeng City (Zhaotong) was captured.
Therefore, what Dali can still defend now is not the entire Wumeng Mountains, but only this small piece of Wumeng Mountains in Shanchanfu (Kunming).
But this mountain range is not a dangerous pass from a high place. Instead, it is on the opposite side, and the geographical advantage is almost completely lost.
At this time, Dali could only form a defense system along the valleys and dams along Shicheng County (Qujing)-Changcheng County (Haoming)-Shihma City (Xundian), which were not very dangerous.
And this time, they did not dare to give up Shanchan Mansion. It turned out that Shanchan Mansion could be used to clear the country. That was because it was difficult for the imperial army to supply supplies through Wumeng Mountain.
But now, 21 of the thirty-seven tribes of East Yunnan Black Cuan in Wumeng Mountain have returned to the imperial court. Now that Shanchan Mansion has been given away, people can come in directly and act as earth tigers, which will be troublesome.
But that's not the most terrifying thing. The most terrifying thing is that when Dali's army shrinks its defense line along these three cities, it is tantamount to handing over control of most of the Wumeng Mountains.
They were in the city, and the Zhou army was in the mountains and forests. The Zhou army could easily overlook the deployment of the three cities and observe the movements of Dali's army from a high place. Therefore, only a small number of troops were stationed in the mountains and forests to achieve perfect monitoring.
However, the Dali army did not know the situation in the mountains and forests, and did not know how many Zhou troops were outside the city. If the army was withdrawn, if the Zhou troops suddenly appeared, there would be no time to recruit them.
This is the reason why Liu Sheng said that Duan Sicong was dead. It seemed that the Dali army blocked the Zhou army and prevented it from advancing a step, but in fact it was the Zhou army that used a small amount of force to drain the Dali army on the front line and could not move at all.
It seems that it can still be sustained now, because the treasury of Dali State is still alive, but the cost is very high. Not only do you have to provide military rations, but you also have to take care of the families of the 50,000 to 60,000 troops.
They were stationed at the front line, and all the farming at home was supported by the elderly, weak women and children. If Duan Sicong did not provide money and food subsidies or reduce or exempt land rent and taxes, the army might mutiny.
Guo Rong and Zhang Fei are such thieves! Upon seeing this situation, he immediately ordered people to build a stronghold in the Wumeng Mountains opposite the Dali Army to defend first.
Then he built a wooden observation tower on the high mountain to overlook the situation of the three cities, and divided his 15,000 troops and 10,000 Dongdian 21 troops into four groups to take turns to repair.
This confrontation lasted for fourteen months. Although it was true that there were too few troops to attack directly, the bigger idea was to consume Dali's national power.
. . . .
In Shanchan Mansion, Tuodong Jiedu envoy office was established, and Duan Sicong, the king of Dali, was stationed here.
Speaking of this Dali country, it is somewhat similar to the Northern Song Dynasty.
Duan Siping, the founding emperor of the country, can be regarded as a southwestern Zhao Kuangyin. He was born in a general, had a wide network of friends, had superior force, was good at winning people's hearts, and was known as a great talent and general strategy.
Before Duan Siping, the real power of the Dali Kingdom in Nanzhao had been controlled by the Han people since the time of King Ge Luofeng of the Five Dynasties. At that time, the Qingping officials (prime ministers) in Nanzhao were basically Han people.
These Han people were either captured or came directly to defect. Because of their outstanding abilities, they were entrusted with important tasks by the Nanzhao royal family. Of course, they also wanted to use foreign forces like the Han people to suppress the local lords.
After hundreds of years of development, the power of the Han Qingping officials in Nanzhao grew rapidly, from Zheng Maisi who established the Great Changhe Kingdom, to being supported by Zhao Shanzheng, who was promoted to the Great Heaven Xingguo, to later being promoted to Qian Zhen by the Great Righteous Ning Kingdom. Basically, they all come from the Han Qingpingguan family.
In this case, Duan Siping, who was born white (Bai ethnic group), offended King Yang Qianzhen and was constantly persecuted, forcing him to rebel.
During this period, Duan Siping sized up the situation and put forward the slogan "Reduce taxes and grain by half and exempt you from corvee service for three years." This successfully attracted the support of people in this land that had been torn by war and turmoil.
Therefore, in less than eight years, Duan Siping successfully overthrew Dayining and restored the territory to the heyday of Nanzhao.
However, before Duan Siping could completely solve the domestic problems, he suddenly gave up and returned to the west like Zhao Kuangyin, and then Duan Siping's son Duan Siying succeeded to the throne.
But at this time, Dali Zhao Guangyi and Duan Siriang appeared. Duan Siping's second brother quickly ousted his nephew from power and forced his nephew to become a monk.
Poor Duan Siying, who only lasted eleven months as king in total, had no choice but to retreat into Buddhism.
The current King of Dali, Duan Sicong, is the son of Zhao Guangyi and Duan Siliang of Dali. His character is simply possessed by Song Zhenzong.
She likes luxury, loves literature, loves face, has a soft ear, and is thick-skinned. She wants to engage in some intrigues, but she also values friendship, which makes what she does in the end really frustrating.
You may say that he is incapable, but it seems to be a little bit. You may say that he is capable, but his work seems to be a bit eye-catching.
Zhu Xi's evaluation of Zhenzong of the Song Dynasty, "Zhenzong enshrined people in the east and worshiped in the west, wasted countless efforts, and never accomplished anything." It is really more appropriate to use it to describe Duan Sicong.
Now, after the initial excitement, Duan Sicong, Song Zhenzong of Dali, began to feel that something was not right.
Because in the past fourteen months, he traveled from Yangju City to Shanchan Mansion three times. The scenes he saw and the reports he heard were that it was more and more difficult to mobilize military rations, and the resentment of the people became visible to the naked eye.
In the office, to the left of Duan Sicong stood Gao Fang, the Qingping official. This was the old man who followed Duan Siping in the uprising. The Gao family was the largest white family.
With the addition of seniority and strength, and the fact that Duan Sicong was not very involved in affairs, the political power had actually fallen into Gao Fang's hands.
Gao Fang was not a confused person, so he realized that Zhou Jun wanted to bring down Dali.
But what Zhou Jun used was considered a conspiracy, and Gao Fang had no good way to counter it for the time being.
He could only choose to slightly reduce the frontline troops and return some of the levies from each ministry to each ministry to slow down the consumption of supplies.
Gao Fang took the written memorial and presented it to Duan Sicong, "Sage, I summoned officials at all levels, including Santuo and Liucao, and made precise calculations. We only need to keep 40,000 people on the front line.
Among them, Changcheng County (Qujing), which was the most important, left 15,000 people, Shicheng County and Cimicifuga each left 7,000 people, and the remaining more than 10,000 people stayed in Shanchan Mansion as backup. This can greatly save the supply of military food and materials. "
Duan Sicong nodded. Although he didn't know how much military rations could be saved, it was certain that there would be a loss of 20,000 people.
Just eating these 20,000 strong men for a day would cost 500 to 600 dan, and even the transportation of 1,500 dan would not be enough.
He was about to agree, but he heard a cold snort next to him, and the army general Dong Sankuo standing on the right suddenly said:
"Qingping officials said it is easy. It is easy to disband this army, but it is difficult to recruit it. If the Zhou army suddenly attacks at this time, 40,000 people can defend the Great Wall, Shicheng, Shengma City, and large and small forts. ?
Even if we can hold it, forty thousand troops will be out for a long time, how long can we hold on?
Now the Zhou army is still conquering Goryeo, and the army has not arrived yet. Let's continue to defend. When the Zhou Lord's entire army comes, who can resist it?
I think we should take advantage of the gathering of troops now to take the initiative to recapture Wumeng City and bring back the 21st Black Cuan, otherwise there will be big problems sooner or later. "
Dong Sankuo's father, Dong Jialuo, was Duan Siping's national advisor. He had a high status and made great contributions in establishing the Dali Kingdom. The Dong family was also the most wealthy family in Dali under the Duan family.
As a result, Dong Jialuo did not support the process of Dali Zhao Guangyi and Duan Siliang usurping the throne of his nephew. Therefore, after Duan Siliang came to power, the Gao family who supported him in usurping the throne received a great reward, while the originally prosperous Dong family was suppressed.
Therefore, the Gao family and the Dong family are very difficult to deal with. Basically, if the Gao family agrees, the Dong family must oppose it. There is currently a fierce internal fight.
Duan Sicong heard what Dong Sankuo said and felt that it seemed to make sense. The Zhou army only had a partial division in the Wumeng Mountains. If we don't attack them now, what chance would Dali have when the Lord of Zhou sends troops to arrive?
Gao Fang's eyes were about to burst into flames. He pointed his halberd at Dong Sankuo and shouted angrily:
"The Zhou army occupies a strategic location, strong armor and weapons, as well as large and small forts. Hei Cuan has already been used by him. If we abandon the strong city to counterattack, how can we win?"
Duan Sicong thought again, this makes sense!
However, neither attacking nor defending is good, so how should we fight this battle?
I've been on a business trip and was escorted by my boss to drink yesterday. I really couldn't spare the time. I'm sorry.
(End of chapter)
