Warrior in Turbulent Han Dynasty

At the beginning of October, the Hantong navy arrived near Guazhoudu in the southeast of Yangzhou from Caoqu. (The location is in the east of Nanjing, near Zhenjiang City.)

At this time, the battle of Chizhou took place in the full moon, and Jinling had mobilized troops to strengthen the defense to the east. General Liu Cheng of the Southern Tang Dynasty was ordered to deploy to the east. He gathered the Southern Tang Army Navy in Jingkou (Zhenjiang). Hearing the news that Zhou's division was going south, he rushed into the Caoqu with reeds carried by a large ship.

At that time, the east sea wind was blowing fiercely, and the large ship of the Southern Tang Army rushed to the east side of the Zhou Army's warship and set fire to it. Suddenly the flames soared into the sky, and the oil (petroleum) burned black smoke, and watering was of no avail; the fire was even more shocking when the reeds full of the ship were ignited, like wildfires all over the mountain, and people were scorched a hundred steps away. The fire spread to the Zhou army's warship in the east wind, and after a while a large Zhou army's ship on the front side ignited a raging fire.

The burnt black ash rushed into the air in the scorching airflow, the entire sky was covered with black dust, and it fell in succession in the distance, like a black snowfall.

The soldiers on the Zhou army's warship could no longer care about fighting the fire. The flames raged in the wind, and they were burned to death when they approached. The soldiers on the deck were in a mess, and many jumped into the river and drowned. Soldiers are more or less wearing armor. In water battles, arrow attacks from the enemy are more likely to kill people than shipwrecks and falling into the water; people wearing iron armor will drown immediately if they fall into the water. It is also difficult for those with less armor to survive. In October, the river is cold, and those who can swim can't last long, not to mention that the thick clothes are very heavy when they get wet.

The people paddling water and treading waterwheels below the deck were not burned for the time being. Many people took off their clothes and jumped into the river with logs in their arms. There were shouts and shouts on the river, and it was a mess.

On the south bank of the Yangtze River, a military general was laughing "haha". He pointed to the distant flames soaring into the sky, laughing so hard that he held his stomach and almost rolled on the ground. This person is Liu Cheng, and all the soldiers of the Southern Tang Dynasty are also celebrating. Not far away, there was a burly man who looked at the group of people over there coldly. The burly man was Lin Renzhao.

Lin Renzhao had just been appointed as the left-behind of the Southern Capital (Nanchang), and he rushed to Jingkou to watch the battle before he left Beijing.

Liu Cheng smiled for a long time, and finally found Lin Renzhao who was on the sidelines, and came forward to say hello: "General Lin, how do you see my battle today? It can be called a great victory?" He didn't think much of Lin Renzhao after he said that.

Unexpectedly, Lin Renzhao said angrily: "Is burning a Zhou army warship called a great victory?"

Liu Cheng was immediately very upset... They are all colleagues, even if you don't want to congratulate, won't it be over if you don't say anything? Liu Cheng suppressed his smile, and said coldly: "General Lin may not understand that the valley of the Caoqu Canal is not as deep as the big river. Two large ships burned and sank in the river. The Zhou army's warships will not be able to enter the river for a while."

Lin Renzhao said: "What's the difficulty? It's enough to clear the river and pull out the larger wreckage. It can only hold back for a few days at most. Zhou Jun has suffered a loss. The next time he breaks through the river mouth, he must watch the wind direction. The method of attacking with fire can be used once."

Liu Cheng was stunned: "The mouth of the canal is narrow, and the river is wide. If the enemy ships want to leave the canal, they must line up in a long column. I patrol the river day and night with warships. If I want to come out, I will use the superior warships to attack and block the mouth of the river. The Zhou army can't go out of the canal."

Lin Renzhao said: "For the defense of the great river, quarrying is the most important thing. The Zhou army attacked Chizhou from the west, obviously aiming at quarrying. Otherwise, why would they bypass Hukou (Poyang Lake) and come here to face the enemy on both sides? Jingkou has a vast water surface, and our army only needs to conduct defense in Runzhou's water and land. It is difficult for the enemy to invade from here... General Liu spent all the water troops in the east here. How can the Caishi River fight against the Zhou army?"

Although the lower reaches of the Yangtze River are very long, there are not many places suitable for large troops to cross the river. For example, most of the river banks are shallow, and ships will run aground before they touch the shore. Ferries usually have sections that protrude toward the center of the river, which is convenient for ships to dock in deep water areas. After thousands of years of operation, most of these places have become familiar ferry crossings, such as Jingkou and Caishi.

Liu Cheng said angrily: "I was ordered to deploy defenses in the east, but you talk to me about quarrying. Why don't you go to Chaoli and talk to His Majesty, what do you mean by telling me?"

Liu Cheng's words hit the point, Lin Renzhao was stunned, unable to argue, and had no choice but to leave the river. Hearing Liu Cheng mumbling behind him, as if speaking ill of himself, Lin Renzhao knew that he had accidentally offended him, but Lin Renzhao didn't care about such things.

... Lin Renzhao rode back to Jiangning City on horseback, and the more he thought about it, the more he felt that something was wrong. Chizhou had been occupied for almost a month, and the imperial court had not made any useful deployments.

He thought about it, he had been ordered to go to Hongzhou to take up his post, and now he could not see the king, so he thought of a person: Chen Qiao (Liu Renzhan mentioned this person when Guo Shao asked Liu Renzhan for advice). This person is the assistant minister of the Guangzheng Yuan. When the Supreme Emperor passed the position to the lord Li Yu, the assistant minister handpicked by him was very talkative in the court.

The key is that Chen Qiao is not like those other people. Chen Qiao thinks highly of Lin Renzhao, and recommended in front of the king a long time ago: Let Lin Renzhao lead the troops outside, and Chen be in charge of the central government. Although our country is small, it is difficult for the Central Plains to plan. I don't hesitate to praise Lin Renzhao.

So Lin Renzhao rushed to the Chen Mansion, wanting to talk to Chen Qiao about his military views and discuss Jiang Fang.

Unexpectedly, Chen Qiao directly rejected Lin Renzhao's visit, and very rudely ordered someone to drive him away from the gate. Lin Renzhao was at a loss, and hurriedly left the Chen residence at a loss. Just as he reached a secluded side street, someone behind him said, "General Lin, please get in the carriage."

Lin Renzhao looked back, he was a strange scribe. But he was brave and brave, and he was not afraid at all on the streets of the capital city, so he respectfully obeyed and got into the carriage. The carriage immediately left its place.

The scribe frowned and said, "In broad daylight, you, a foreign general who is about to leave Beijing, ran to visit the gate of Mr. Chen. What is the relationship between Mr. Chen and you? Are you not afraid of people saying that there is collusion?"

Lin Renzhao wondered, "I am a minister of the same court as Chen Gong, so I can't even meet?"

The scribe sighed: "Chen Gong also said that your shortcoming is that you don't know the world. A while ago, someone impeached you for returning to Beijing without obeying restraint. Now you are going to Hongzhou, and someone said that you want to surrender Hongzhou to the Zhou court. How many people have you offended?"

Lin Renzhao scolded: "Damn it, you only hold grudges in your heart about trivial matters, how can such a villain be a Shangguan!"

The scribe said: "You are a general from Fujian, many people looked down on you, and you often speak rudely without any respect, no one will accept... Forget it, forget it. Before Chen Gong knew you came to the mansion, he guessed that you were going to talk about Jiang Fang. Chen Gong asked me to bring you a message. Take the time to write it down in detail. I will come to the alley where we met just now tomorrow morning, and I will pick it up."

Lin Renzhao said, "I don't have much literary talent..."

"It's enough to write clearly, and it's not for you to be the number one scholar." The scribe said angrily.

After the two had spoken a few words, the scribe rushed Lin Renzhao out of the carriage.

When Lin Renzhao returned to his residence, he scratched his head and bit the barrel of the pen when he picked up the pen, not knowing how to write. Immediately, he threw away the brush and strolled around the yard, thinking clearly in his mind.

He believes that in the current situation, the most important thing for defense is quarrying, and the most important thing for attack is to cut off the enemy's retreat in Chizhou by the navy... The navy of the Southern Tang Army is the least disadvantaged arm, but the land horse infantry is not as powerful as the Zhou army.

Part of the water army in the east restrained the Zhou army from Caoqu. The waterway of Caoqu was narrow and shallow, so it was not easy for Zhou army to deploy troops; Then strengthen the defenses of quarrying and other places, and let the enemy troops in Chizhou fall into the encirclement...

Lin Renzhao pondered for a long time, and summed up his own opinion: first defend against quarrying, then defend upstream, relying on the city walls of important towns and the superiority of the water to resist one by one.

...

Chen Qiao polished Lin Renzhao's strategy and presented it to Li Yu.

But this thing is just one of countless memorials, and Li Yu is full of copybooks in front of him. Not only that, but the Zhou Dynasty also sent envoys to intimidate him, claiming that the 800,000 troops from the three routes will be dispatched by land and water, and the destruction of the Southern Tang Kingdom will only happen overnight!

Among them, it is claimed that hundreds of thousands of the main army have passed through the Caoqu, and they will arrive at Jiangning City in a few days. The closest enemy force is indeed the Navy of the Han Tong Department in Yangzhou. Li Yu also got the information that the warships in the east of Yangzhou stretched for tens of miles, and the ships shaded the entire river; and a large number of land infantry soldiers entered Huainan.

The hoarding of heavy soldiers at the door of the house is obviously the place that scares Li Yu the most; and Chizhou and Wuchang have reported being attacked one after another, which is very important, but after all, it is a little farther away, and it is still thousands of miles away.

At this moment, Liu Cheng reported victory, claiming to have defeated the Zhou army in Jingkou. Liu Cheng wrote a letter, cleverly taking advantage of the east wind to attack the Zhou army, burning|burning the Zhou army's sailors to death, the sunken ship blocked the canal, and the Zhou army was defeated in embarrassment.

When Li Yu heard the officials shouting for success, he first read Liu Cheng's memorial. Having won a game under his nose, Li Yu suddenly felt a little relieved... He remembered that Liu Cheng had a respectful attitude when he was in court. The eunuch hurriedly sent an order to Runzhou with a lot of money and imperial decree to reward Liu Cheng and let him continue to focus on the defense deployment in the east.

Then Li Yu discovered Chen Qiao's memorial, which was an important minister, and when he picked it up, he saw it was Jiang Fang's strategy. Among them, Li Yu felt that it made sense after reading it. He found a time to call the ministers to observe and discuss.

At this moment, an official from the Imperial Academy asked for an interview, and quietly told Li Yu that Chen Qiao had sent someone to meet Lin Renzhao in private, and explained clearly how they met and how they discussed in private in the carriage.

After finishing speaking, the official reminded: "Your Majesty, Chen Qiao is a native of Hongzhou, the southern capital, and Lin Renzhao is going to Hongzhou to take a post this time... It's a bit of a coincidence, but it's a pity that I didn't hear exactly what they secretly discussed."

!!