The first prince of Song Dynasty

Chapter 47 Retreat to Zhengyang Bridge
The first thing that the Great Zhou wants to capture this time is Shouzhou, an important town in the Southern Tang Dynasty.Shouzhou is a city located on the Huaihe River Basin, and its location is extremely important.

Shouzhou also has a great background in history.

During Kaihuang's reign, Yang Jian, Emperor Wen of the Sui Dynasty, set Huainan Xingtai Province in Shouchun in the eighth year of Kaihuang (588) in order to conquer Chen's military needs.

In the second year, Nanchen was pacified, so Yang Jian ordered the removal of Huainan Province, and the establishment of Shouzhou General Manager's Office to govern Shouchun.

In the third year of Tang Wude, it was changed to Shouzhou, and the state government was located in Shouchun. At the beginning, it had jurisdiction over two counties, Shouchun and Anfeng, and later added three counties, Huoqiu, Huoshan, and Shengtang (now Lu'an).It belongs to Huainan Road.

During the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period, the State of Wu used Shou County as the loyal army, and the Southern Tang Dynasty used Shouzhou as the Qinghuai Army. This time, the army of the Great Zhou directly surrounded Shouzhou.

At this time, Liu Renshan, a famous general of the Southern Tang Dynasty, was stationed in Shouzhou.
Liu Renshan, courtesy name Shouhui, was born in Pengcheng and was a famous general in the Southern Tang Dynasty during the Five Dynasties period.In the Southern Tang Dynasty, he was promoted to Wuchang Jiedushi many times.

Later, he was appointed as the Jiedu envoy of the Qinghuai Army, guarding Shouzhou.

Since Li Gu was appointed as the deployment of the Huainan Marching Battalion, he actively led the army and ordered people to build a pontoon bridge on the Huaihe River.

The army of Dazhou successfully crossed the Huaihe River from the Zhengyang River, and directly besieged Shouzhou City, which meant catching a turtle in an urn.

On that day, thousands of Tang troops from Shouzhou came out of the city to attack the Zhou army, but they were defeated by Wang Yanchao, the Jiedu envoy of the Zhongwu Army. At the same time, more than [-] soldiers from the Southern Tang Dynasty were beheaded and captured.

Within a few days, Bai Yanyu, the commander of the vanguard army, defeated Nantang's troops of thousands of people in Shankou Town.

I don't know whether it is Nan Tang's strength that is too weak, or Da Zhou's strength is too strong, Chai Rong received all the good news for a while.

Chai Rong can't sit still, the Southern Tang Dynasty is so vulnerable, it seems that I must go to the imperial conquest, so that I can get back all the fourteen Jiangbei prefectures in the Southern Tang Dynasty as soon as possible.

At this time, Zhao Xu, who was almost recovering from his injuries, proposed to Chai Rong that he wanted to train the navy, but Chai Rong did not agree.

Now that the army of the Great Zhou is in full swing, there is no need to use the navy. Let's see how the Great Zhou can defeat the Southern Tang.

Zhao Xu Chai Rong didn't have the heart to listen to him at all, so he asked to go with Chai Rong, and Chai Rong agreed.

On February [-]th, the third year after Zhou Xiande, Chai Rong issued an edict to personally conquer Huainan, intending to take over the fourteen prefectures of Jiangbei in the Tang Dynasty.

Self-conquest is not just to go, one's own base camp must be stable, otherwise Chai Rong must be stable in the future.

So Chai Rong appointed Xiang Xun, the envoy of Xuanhui South Academy and the envoy of Zhen'an Jiedu, as the left-behind in Tokyo, and asked Wang Pu, a scholar of Duanming Palace, to assist Xiang Xun in his work.

When Xiang Xun conquered the four prefectures of Qin and Feng, he made great contributions to the trust of Emperor Chai Rong. This time, he did not expect to be appointed as the left guard of Bianliang in Tokyo.

Now that political affairs have been arranged, military affairs should also be properly arranged. Han Tongquan, Chai Rong's confidant, is in charge of inspections and inspections inside and outside Daliang City.

At the same time, he also ordered Li Chongjin, the commander of the guards and the Jiedu envoy of Guide, to lead the army to Zhengyang.

Heyang Jiedu envoy Bai Chongzan led three thousand soldiers and horses to station in Yingshang.

Li Gu heard that Chai Rong was going to conquest himself, and was rushing to Shouzhou. He wanted to take Shouzhou when Chi Rong felt it, so that his son, the emperor, could also show his face.

He didn't think that no matter what he did, he didn't think that no matter how he called for a fight, Liu Renshan would just hang up his free card.

Li Gu was so angry that he could vomit three liters of blood. At this time, he was even more surprised by the news that reinforcements from Nantang had arrived.

The reinforcements from the Southern Tang came as soon as they came, and there would be no reinforcements in the war, but the reinforcements from the Southern Tang went straight to Zhengyang.

Now Li Gu is really panicking. There is a pontoon bridge built by Dazhou in Zhengyang. If it is demolished by Nantang, Chai Rong will not be able to make it through, and he and others will not be able to go back. This is really a lone army up.How to do it.

In fact, Liu Yanzhen, the general of the Southern Tang Dynasty and the commander of the Shenwu Army, immediately led the army to reinforce Shouzhou after he was appointed as the deployment of the northern camp.

When he arrived at a town called Laiyuan two hundred miles outside Shouzhou City, he did not order the soldiers to advance directly to Shouzhou again.

He asked his subordinates to exchange hundreds of large warships and head straight to Zhengyang. He wanted to encircle Wei and rescue Zhao.

Sure enough, his move was very effective. Li Gu was also very panicked when he heard that Liu Yanzhen led the troops to Zhengyang.

So he hurriedly discussed the countermeasures with the generals, that was his way out, once he was cut off, he and others would be really helpless in Shouzhou.

In fact, he can't be blamed for this, just look at the map. Shouzhou is located in the Huaihe River Basin, with Tushan in the northeast and Chuzhou in the southeast.

This city is all from the Southern Tang Dynasty, and there are still a lot of garrisons, and the reinforcements from the Southern Tang Dynasty are constantly pouring in.

That is to say, the current situation is that the army of Dazhou surrounded Shouzhou, and the reinforcements from the Southern Tang Dynasty gradually came up to encircle Dazhou.

In other words, Da Zhou's army is now in a state of attack from both sides, provided that if the defenders of Shouzhou leave the city.

Li Gu didn't dare to take this risk, so he paid special attention to his rear. If they were really surrounded, they could retreat and make another plan.

When he was discussing with the generals, he believed that the soldiers of the Great Zhou were not good at water warfare and could not withstand the hundreds of warships of the Southern Tang Dynasty.

If the pontoon bridge is really cut off, it is possible that he will be attacked by the enemy. It was he who decided to lead the army back and defend the pontoon bridge himself.

His proposal received a burst of approval from the generals, nonsense, everyone can see that if he stays here, he may be surrounded by Nantang, and he will die without knowing how.

Now that my own general said he wanted to return to Zhengyang and stick to the pontoon bridge, who else would not, whoever would be a fool.

Da Zhou's army is very brave, but there are also people who are greedy for life and afraid of death. Is this human nature? Who is not afraid of death?
So all passed the return to Zhengyang smoothly, everyone raised their hands in favor, and no one objected.

Li Gu ordered the army to return to Zhengyang. In fact, Li Gu had a good intention to defend the pontoon bridge in Zhengyang, but did Chai Rong allow him to do so?
Chai Rong wholeheartedly wants to win the land of Huainan and prepare for his unification of China. Now that you have retreated, he will definitely not agree.

At this time, Chai Rong led the brigade to Yu Town, and got information that Liu Yanzhen led the battleship to Zhengyang.

But Chai Rong is an emperor on horseback, will he be afraid of war?The answer was no, so he didn't take Liu Yanzhen seriously.

At this time, Zhao Xu who was with him reminded him:

"Your Majesty, what I'm worried about is that Master Li will retreat to defend Zhengyang's pontoon bridge because my navy in Great Zhou is not as good as Southern Tang. At that time, our early efforts will be in vain."

Chai Rong understood after such a reminder, and immediately sent a messenger to stop Li Gu.

It was not easy to besiege Shouzhou, how could they retreat so easily.

But the messenger was one step too late after all, Li Gu had already led his army back to Zhengyang, it seemed that Li Gu hadn't understood Chai Rong's intention yet.

Chai Rong was very angry, so he ordered a quick march again, and finally arrived in Chenzhou on February 26.

At the same time, he immediately sent Li Chongjin to lead the army to the edge of the Chenhuai River.Li Gu also knew that Chai Rong was dissatisfied with his withdrawal and defense, so he wrote a letter to defend.

The memorial was thrown far away by Chai Rong.But Chai Rong also saw the shortcomings of Zhou Jun's navy, so he ordered the navy to be trained.

It was Wang Huan, the surrendered general of Hou Shu, who was in charge of related matters. At the same time, he also wanted to replace Li Gu. Li Gu was fine politically, but he didn't have much foresight in military affairs.

This is detrimental to the great cause of reunification, so it is better to send some people with military acumen to replace him.

Chai Rong immediately sent people to Zhengyang Bridge, where there is no room for loss

(End of this chapter)