Great Zhou Empire: Kill Zhao Kuangyin at the beginning

Chapter 24 The Battle of Xingzhou (Special thanks to book friend Dongfang Aiqing for her monthly ticket!)

Bianjing, the capital of the Great Zhou Dynasty, is not far from Xingzhou, the famous capital, only more than 600 miles away.

Zhang Yongde, the commander of the guards' army, and Han Hui, the deputy commander, led the army to march for three days and arrived less than twelve miles away from Xingzhou.

Seeing that it was almost evening, Zhang Yongde ordered the entire army to camp at the foot of a hill by the Ziya River, light a fire and cook food, and summon his generals to the commander's tent to discuss the battle plan.

Zhang Yongde, who was sitting in the main seat, analyzed the current military situation and said:
"At noon today, my commander received an urgent message from the King of Wei. At present, the Han army, with one hundred thousand troops, is under Xingzhou City and has been besieging Xingzhou City for eight days.

The city guard Liu Siyu was also a veteran general on the battlefield under the king of Wei. With sufficient equipment and equipment, he defended Xingzhou with 10,000 soldiers, killing more than 9,000 of the enemy and only losing more than 3,000 of his own.

The King of Wei personally led 20,000 Tianxiong troops from Daming Prefecture to aid Xingzhou and arrived in the south of Xingzhou City on February 3.

Wei Rong of the Han army divided 4 troops to resist the king of Wei. The two armies fought several battles in several days. The king of Wei was indeed a famous general in the Five Dynasties. He lost more than people in the battle and killed more than enemies.

Now, the battle situation both above and below Xingzhou City has become a stalemate.

According to the intelligence provided by the German commander Li, the Liao Kingdom has not yet sent troops to invade our borders with the Zhou Dynasty.

Before the Empress Dowager and Her Majesty set off for the expedition, they gave their ministers face-to-face instructions and ordered them to find an opportunity to defeat the Han army as soon as possible, so that the Liao Kingdom would not dare to invade.

How can our army defeat the enemy quickly? I hope all generals will give you your suggestions! "

The reason why Zhang Yongde is twelve miles away from Xingzhou
The reason for camping on the left and right is that the farthest reconnaissance range of the Han army's scouts does not exceed ten miles.

Zhang Yongde planned to attack quickly after confirming the battle plan, defeat the Han army in one fell swoop, and relieve the siege of Xingzhou.

Among the generals under the tent, Ma Renyu, Marquis of Duyu, was the first to leave his squad, saluting and saying:
"I reported to Commander Zhang that General Wei thought that the defender Liu Siyu at the head of Xingzhou City had been holding on for eight days and his soldiers were exhausted. The enemy attacking the city was Commander Lu Zan's 6 main force. He was afraid that Xingzhou City was in danger.

In the end, I will repay your majesty and Commander Zhang for the great kindness of exonerating He Yan and promoting him. I am willing to lead 10,000 cavalry as the vanguard to defeat the Luzan tribe, the main force of the Han army! "

Ma Renyu, a native of Xiajin. He has been naughty since he was a child and loves to practice martial arts.

When he was young, his father invited a doctor to come to his home to teach him to read the books of Confucius and Mencius, hoping that he would obtain fame when he grew up.

Unexpectedly, Ma Renyu either skipped classes or fell asleep. After half a month, he could not read a word.

When Ma Renyu grew up, he had a strong back and strong arms, and could draw a 200-jin bow.

In the first month of the first year of Qianyou (948), the three towns of Hezhong, Yongxing and Fengxiang jointly rebelled.

At that time, Guo Wei was ordered to recruit troops and horses in Yedu to put down the rebellion. Ma Renyu joined the army and joined Guo Wei's account. Because of his bravery, Guo Wei appointed him as a member of the army in front of the account.

After Sejong succeeded to the throne, Ma Renyu made military exploits in the "Battle of Gaoping" and was placed under the command of Zhang Yongde, the former commander of the Forbidden Army Palace, as the inner palace commander.

In June of the sixth year of Xiande, after Shizong died suddenly, Chai Zongxun succeeded to the throne.

In the same month, Zhang Yongde was removed from the imperial examination and demoted to Jizhou Jiedushi. Ma Renyu was assigned to Zhao Kuangyin's account as the new capital inspector.

Zhao Kuangyin saw that Ma Renyu was a fierce general in the world and tried his best to win over him. The relationship between the two became closer. By the time Chai Zongxun launched the "Bianjing Revolution", Ma Renyu had gradually become more likely to join Zhao Kuangyin.

When Chai Zongxun killed Zhao Kuangyin and Zhang Yongde led his troops to suppress the rebellion and entered the palace to purge Zhao's party, Ma Renyu saw that Zhao Kuangyin was dead. When the palace was in chaos, he chose to surrender to his old boss Zhang Yongde instead of following Zhao Kuangyin's best friends in rebellion.

Afterwards, Zhang Yongde took up the post of commander of the Imperial Guard and Military Division. When Han Tong took over as the commander of the Imperial Guard and thoroughly cleaned out the remaining forces of Zhao Kuangyin, Ma Renyu was reported to have a close relationship with Zhao Ni and should be executed for the crime.

Zhang Yongde was so brave that he personally went to Chai Zongxun to intercede for him.

Chai Zongxun also heard about Ma Renyu's bravery and that he was not a direct descendant of Zhao Kuangyin. He was just drifting with the crowd and was attracted by Zhao Kuangyin. He was exempted from the crime and ordered him to be assigned to the subordinate of Zhang Yongde, the bodyguard and military commander, to perform meritorious service.

Zhang Yongde pondered for a moment and did not comment.

Cao Bin, the commander of the army and horses, came out of class and saluted:
"Commander Zhang, our army is the most elite imperial army of the Zhou Dynasty, and the Han army is currently the weakest with Wei Rong. The enemy's main force, Lu Zan, still has 50,000 sergeants, and Lu Zan is a veteran general of the Han army who is good at fighting. , I'm afraid it won't be easy to destroy in one fell swoop.

From the perspective of the last general, our army's tactics should be to use our strongest strength to defeat the weakest enemy. We can quickly unite the Wei King's tribe and the Li Gu tribe of the German army to annihilate the enemy's Wei Rong tribe in one fell swoop with superior strength and powerful combat power.

Wei Rong's troops were about to collapse. When Lu Zan saw our Zhou army gathering, he would break up and flee. Then our army could cover up and kill them, and the victory would be easy. "

Cao Bin, born in 931, named Guohua, was a Zhending Lingshou man.

Cao Bin was born as a general, and he was famous for his ability to capture the Zhou Dynasty "Ti Ge to get the seal" at a young age. During the Five Dynasties and the Later Han Dynasty, he attacked and became a general of the German army (governing today's Zhengding County).

When Taizu founded the Zhou Dynasty, his aunt Zhang was granted the title of noble concubine and moved to the capital. She was granted the title of enshrinement officer. Later, she served successively as deputy envoy of Hakka Province, governor of Hezhong Prefecture, envoy of Xishang Pavilion, envoy of Sifang Legation, and Jinzhou soldiers and horses. Dujian.

In October of the sixth year of Xiande, Cao Bin served as an envoy to the Ministry of War.

After the "Bianjing Incident", Chai Zongxun found out that Cao Bin was serving in the Ministry of War and knew that he was a famous general in his previous life. After personally summoning him, he made him his confidant and promoted him to the position of Director of Military and Horse Guards.

Zhang Yongde patted the armrest of the chair and said with great joy:

"Captain Cao's plan is very good. It can defeat the Han army in one fell swoop! So we will act according to Governor Cao's advice.

Our army has been marching hastily for two days. It is already dark today, so we will have a good rest here.

At Mao o'clock tomorrow, the whole army will set out, with Ma Renyu's unified ten thousand cavalry army as the vanguard, to raid the Wei Rong Department of the Han army and annihilate them all! "

The generals agreed with a roar.

Several scouts galloped out of the camp on horseback and went to contact Wei Wang Fu Yanqing under Xingzhou City.

In a short while, the team leader had prepared dinner for the entire army, and the Forbidden Army sergeants each carried a large bowl and ate rice.

Due to decades of war, the world of the Great Zhou Dynasty was in a rough state, and the national economy was in sluggish condition. The soldiers of the Forbidden Army could only have enough to eat, and there was no food at all.

Since Emperor Chai Zongxun significantly increased the monthly salary of the Imperial Army and the Returned Army, the lives of the sergeants' families have been secure, and the morale of the entire army and their loyalty to Emperor Chai Zongxun have increased day by day.

The next day, February 9, the first year of Kaixi, Zhang Yongde commanded elite guards and pro-army divisions. He marched twelve miles in less than half an hour. At the foot of Xingzhou City, he met Wei Wang Fu Yanqing's Tianxiong Army, as well as Cong Mo, Yi, and The German troops led by Li Gu, who came from the Three Prefectures, completed the siege of the Wei Rong Department of the Han Army.

After several days of hard fighting and low morale, the Wei Rong Department of the Han army was shocked when they saw the Zhou imperial army appearing on the battlefield, and their morale was shaken.

As soon as Ma Renyu, the forward of the Zhou army, led 10,000 cavalry troops to attack, Wei Rong's troops were far less powerful and collapsed.

Generals Han Hui, Cao Bin and other generals led their troops to charge bravely, and the Han army was invincible to those who stood in its way.

Fu Yanqing had received the battle plan from the scouts sent by Zhang Yongde last night. When he saw the arrival of the imperial army led by Zhang Yongde, he also led the entire Tianxiong army under the city to attack the Han army.

This battle lasted only an hour. Si 3 soldiers from the imperial guards of the Great Zhou Dynasty, people from the Tianxiong army and Li Gu's German troops joined forces to annihilate nearly people from the surrounding Han army's Wei Rong tribe.

Wei Rong died in the rebellion.

Lu Zan, the Han army who was fighting fiercely with the defenders under the city wall of Xingzhou, heard the news and knew that he was no match for the Zhou Dynasty Forbidden Army and that the situation was over. If he did not withdraw his troops and escape, the Buwei would follow them, so he immediately began to lead his troops to retreat north.

After Zhang Yongde cleared the Wei Rong Department of the Han army, he informed Fu Yanqing to clean up the battlefield, and immediately ordered the guards and pro-army division to pursue Lu Zan for 200 miles, seizing countless grain, grass and baggage along the way.

Lu Zan, with only more than 5,000 horses, traveled thousands of miles to avoid the pursuit of the Zhou army on February 22, and finally escaped back to Taiyuan City.

Yelujing, the Lord of the Liao Dynasty, heard that the Han army was defeated and wrote to all ministers, fearing that the Northern Han Dynasty would be destroyed.

He then united 80,000 Khitan elite cavalry to go south and stationed troops fifty miles north of Taiyuan City.

(End of this chapter)