In November in the border town, it was raining and snowing. The Yuan Rong command was strict, but the men and horses were light and fat. The Qiang and Hus had endless days, when would they return from the battle?
——"Miscellaneous Songs and Songs·Five Poems from Jimen" by Gao Shi (Tang Dynasty)
…
In early November of the first year of the Yuan Dynasty, after a period of intensive and careful planning, Liu Zhan led 7,000 direct soldiers and horses, surrounded by envoys from various states and counties, and marched toward Guangling in a mighty manner.
He shot himself in the foot. Only then did Xing Yanen realize what a stupid mistake he had made.
Xing Yanen panicked and galloped through the starry night, rushing to Guangling before Liu Zhan's army. Together with Li Long, the former commander of Jianghuai and Huainan East Road, and Deng Jingshan, the former military governor of Huainan East Road, he mobilized his troops and generals, arranged their troops in formation, and prepared to defend against the enemy.
Li Hong and Deng Jingshan sent a message to the states and counties within their jurisdiction, announcing that Liu Zhan had launched an army to rebel.
However, at the same moment, Liu Zhan, the new governor of the Yangtze River and Huaihe River, also issued a similar message to the states and counties, announcing that Li Long and Deng Jingshan would not listen to the imperial order and rebelled.
Faced with two almost identical appeals, officials from various states and counties were dumbfounded and at a loss as to what to do.
The old and new Jianghuai governors each declared that the other party was rebelling. Who can represent the Li Tang court? Who should listen to it?
Li Ao and Deng Jingshan were unable to get off the tiger, so they could only hurriedly assemble their troops, lead their own troops, and stationed in Runzhou (today's Zhenjiang, Jiangsu) and Xucheng (today's northwest of Xuyi County, Jiangsu), forming a tense situation and preparing for the attack.
After Li Ao crossed the Yangtze River south, he followed Wei Yan, the prefect of Runzhou (today's ZJ City, Jiangsu), and Hou Lingyi, the military governor of the Western Zhejiang War Zone, to garrison at Jingkou (the city where the Runzhou Prefecture government is located).
Liu Zhan marched concurrently. After the army arrived in Xucheng, Deng Jingshan occupied the city and could not leave.
With Liu Zhan's military strength, it was easy to defeat Li Xi and Deng Jingshan. However, under the advice of general Zhang Jingchao, Liu Zhan decided to use Yang to defeat the conspiracy and play a cat and mouse game.
Liu Zhan sent an envoy to question Deng Jingshan on the spot: "I have come to take office on orders, and you, Deng Jingshan, mobilized an army and sent troops to defend it. Are you planning to rebel?"
Seeing that Deng Jingshan refused to reply, Liu Zhan went into battle himself.
Liu Zhan held the seal talisman in his hand, came to the city, and shouted to the soldiers guarding the city: "You are all soldiers of the Tang Dynasty. How can you disobey the imperial generals' orders and be loyal to the traitor Deng Jingshan?"
Open up the city quickly and I will let bygones be bygones!"
Just when Liu Zhan was galloping to the city with his spear, Xing Yanen, who had made a big mistake, was in Deng Jingshan's military camp, looking embarrassed and ashamed.
The soldiers guarding the city were moved by Liu Zhan's tearful performance. They looked at Deng Jingshan, then at Liu Zhan, and were at a loss what to do. The generals were whispering to each other, and there was a lot of discussion.
Liu Zhan was really old-fashioned. Seeing this scene, he knew that the morale of the army was unstable. After teasing Xing Yanen and Deng Jingshan, Liu Zhan quickly ordered his generals Sun Daifeng and Zhang Farei to lead his troops to attack the city.
As expected, the soldiers guarding the city had no intention of joining the battle. As soon as the two armies engaged, Deng Jingshan's soldiers collapsed at the first touch.
Seeing that the situation was not good, Deng Jingshan and Xing Yanen abandoned the city in a hurry and fled to Shouzhou (now Shou County, AH).
Liu Zhan captured Guangling without any bloodshed, and then sent his general Qu Tu Xiaobiao (Qu Tu, compound surname) with 3,000 soldiers to attack Haozhou (northeast of Fengyang County, AH Province, Linhuaiguan),
March into Chuzhou (HA City, JS Province).
Liu Zhan also sent his general Wang Xun with 4,000 soldiers to attack Huaixi (the upper reaches of the Huaihe River) and other places.
Li Ao was shocked to hear that Guangling had fallen, so he urgently mobilized his troops to Beigu Mountain north of Runzhou (north of ZJ City, JS Province), blocked the Yangtze River port with wooden fences, and advanced on Guangling.
Liu Zhan immediately sent troops to Baisha (Yizheng City, JS Province) and spread suspicion around Guazhou (a small island in the Yangtze River south of YZ City, JS Province). For several days in a row, he beat war drums during the day and lit torches at night, making the impression that he would attack Beigu Mountain at any time.
posture.
Li Ao's army was frightened when he heard the news, and hurriedly reduced its defense line, gathered all the elites, and stood firm on Beigu Mountain.
Just when Li Hong was guarding the entrance of Jingkou and had trouble sleeping and eating, Liu Zhan had personally led the main force to make a detour, crossed the Yangtze River from the upper reaches, crossed the river for a surprise attack, and captured Shu (North Yangtze River Ferry of Jurong City, JS Province) in one fell swoop.
The retreat of Li Hong's army formed a situation of catching a turtle in an urn.
There was no way out, only a dead end. Li Ao's soldiers immediately became uproar, knowing that something was going wrong, and they were scattered and defeated before Liu Zhan could attack.
Li Hong was panic-stricken and had no choice but to flee to Xuancheng (today's AH Xuanzhou City) with hundreds of soldiers.
On the eighth day of November, Liu Zhan took advantage of the victory and pursued Runzhou in one fell swoop.
On the same day, 15,000 Tang troops stationed in Shengzhou (today's NJ City, Jiangsu Province) suddenly mutinied and rebelled in response to Liu Zhan. Hou Lingyi, the governor of the Western Zhejiang War Zone, abandoned the city and fled, entrusting the soldiers with the responsibility of defending the city against the enemy.
The horse envoy Jiang Changqun and the military envoy Jiang Luqun saw that the situation was over, so he sent his general Zong Xi to meet with Liu Zhan and Kaicheng surrendered.
On the tenth day of November, Liu Zhan occupied Shengzhou. He appointed Zongxi as the Sima of Runzhou and the commander-in-chief of the Danyang Army, Jiang Changqun as the prefect of Shengzhou, and Liu Boying, Liu Zhan's nephew, as Jiang Changqun's deputy.
In December, Liu Zhan sent generals Fu Zi'ang and Zong Xi to attack Xuanzhou where Li Hong lived. Zheng Jiongzhi, the governor of the Xuanshe War Zone, abandoned the city and fled without a fight. Li Hong was like a bereaved dog, and fled to Hongzhou (now Jiangxi NC)
city).
In the following period, the originally peaceful and prosperous Jianghuai area suffered an unprecedented catastrophe. Liu Zhan's rebel soldiers pointed out that Tang officials fled. Suzhou, Huzhou, Changzhou and other places fell one after another.
Liu Zhan's general Zhang Jingchao occupied Suzhou, and Sun Daifeng captured Huzhou (HZ City, ZJ Province). Liu Zhan ordered his generals Xu Yi to be the prefect of Runzhou, Li Kefeng to be the prefect of Changzhou (CZ City, JS Province), and Yang Chibi to be the prefect of Suzhou.
, Sun Daifeng was also the prefect of Huzhou, Li Huang was the prefect of Sizhou (North Bank of the Huaihe River, Xuyi County, JS Province), and Zong Xi was the prefect of Xuanzhou.
Immediately afterwards, Liu Zhan's rebel troops divided into two groups and advanced step by step:
On the South Road, General Fu Ziang garrisoned Nanling (now Nanling County, AH), preparing to go south to attack Jiangzhou (now JJ City, Jiangxi Province), and then seize Jiangnan West Road (now JX Province);
On the North Road, Qutu Xiaobiao captured Haozhou (now Linhuaiguan in the northeast of Fengyang County, AH) and Chuzhou (now HA City, Jiangsu); Wang Xun captured Shuzhou (now AH Qianshan City), Hezhou (now AH He
County), Chuzhou (now AHCZ City), Luzhou (now AHHF City) and other places.
In just two months, Liu Zhan's rebel army assembled a total of 10,000 infantry and 3,000 cavalry, sweeping across the Yangtze River and Huaihe River, as if entering an uninhabited country...
…
There were endless arguments in the court about how to put down the rebellion, and the quarrel turned into a pot of porridge.
After resigning from the court, Bai Fu returned to his mansion and ordered people to invite Iron Hammer, Lone Wolf, Xiucai and others to come to the mansion to discuss matters.
While waiting for everyone, Bai Fu looked at the large Jianghuai map hanging on the wall, thinking about it, and stood there for a long time.
After the generals arrived, they did not dare to disturb Bai Fu. He did not enter the meeting hall until Bai Fu returned to the couch to drink tea.
Bai Fu briefly described the situation on the Jianghuai battlefield.
Everyone was a scout, and they paid the most attention to military intelligence reports. Before that, they had heard a lot about the Jianghuai Rebellion. After Bai Fu told it, they already had preliminary insights.
Bai Fu said to the generals: "Your Majesty hopes that I will go to Jianghuai to lead the troops and put down the chaos in Jianghuai."
Lone Wolf said: "Jianghuai is a tax-rich area in the Tang Dynasty. It is related to the overall situation of suppressing the rebellion and is of great importance. That's why Your Majesty asked you to conquer it yourself?"
These things in the Chang'an court are so chaotic that it is really annoying. Since Bailong is allowed to lead the army, why not take the opportunity to pacify the Jianghuai River and let the tiger occupy Jinling?"
Tie Chui said: "Guo Linggong was guarding Pizhou (today's Binzhou City, Shaanxi Province) in the name of defending the Dangxiang tribe, but he was actually idle at home. Why not ask Guo Linggong to come forward? Is it possible that he is still blaming the old Linggong for the battle of Yecheng?"
Everyone couldn't help but sigh when they thought that Guo Ziyi had great ambitions and devoted himself to serving the country but received such a cold reception.
Tang Huanxin spoke bluntly and said: "General, Liu Zhan is an ordinary general of the Tang army and has no extraordinary military achievements. What should he be afraid of?
Let Yuchi's hussars and Li Fei garrison lead the army, and we can pacify it, so why bother with the general's command."
Bai Fu smiled and said to Tang Huan: "I really don't take Liu Zhan seriously. But the Jianghuai Rebellion is by no means as simple as Liu Zhan's "holding troops in Henan and harboring different aspirations."
I suspect that there are insiders instigating and instigating, working together vertically and horizontally to shape and influence His Majesty's attitude and strategy towards Liu Zhan.
Liu Zhan's rebellion is likely to be a kerosene, and if it is not handled carefully, it will definitely bring disaster to the people of Jianghuai."