As the saying goes, no filial piety has three, no queen is greater, in ancient society, passing on the generations is a man's major responsibility. From the emperor down to the people of Li, they all wanted to have their own children, especially sons.
However, things are unpredictable, and seemingly ordinary things will become what you can't imagine overnight. Just when the two armies of Luokou were fiercely engaged, Liu Cong's harem suddenly went out of water, and all twenty-one young princes were burned alive! Overnight, so many sons were lost, and for Liu Cong, the psychological blow was greater than the blow of Luokou's defeat.
Liu Cong,or Xuan Ming (Chinese: 劉 Cong), a Xiongnu, was the fourth son of Liu Yuan, the Guangwen Emperor during the Han Zhao dynasty, and the Emperor of Han Zhao during the Sixteen Kingdoms period. At that time, the Liu Han Empire mainly occupied today's Hebei, Shandong, Henan, Shanxi and Shaanxi. In the first year of Jianwu, Zhao Gu, a Jin general stationed near Luoyang, suddenly led an army to the outskirts of Pingyang, the capital of the Liu Han Empire.
Seeing such a situation, Liu Cong immediately reacted, and he immediately sent the crown prince and the general Liu Ya to lead 100,000 troops to the battle. Liu Cong wanted to give these incompetent armies a heavy retaliation and blow, and then, in one fell swoop, annihilate Zhao Gu and his army, and completely remove the threat from the south of the kingdom.
At the end of the same year, because the crown prince did not dare to cross the Yellow River, Liu Cong sent the general Liu Ya to lead an army across the Yellow River and go to battle. Zhao Gu could not resist the attack of this 100,000-strong army from Liu Ya, so he fled east to Yangcheng Mountain. After Zhao Gu fled to the mountains, he quickly sent his younger brother To Xinzheng City to ask Li Zhi to increase his troops to support.
In 318, Li Zhi ordered his nephew and the sheriff of Hanoi County to advance west with an army and garrison at Luoyang to support Zhao Gu. Li Zhi's nephew and Junshou selected more than a thousand daredevil soldiers on the way, and let them cross the Yellow River first as night fell.
The prince was stationed in the city at the time, and his reconnaissance team had already discovered the death squad and reported it to the prince. However, the prince was very proud and did not take this death squad in his eyes at all. He felt that after his army crossed the Yellow River, Zhao Gu led his army to escape, and now, how could he dare to come again?
Thus the night fell in the calm before the storm.
This death squad was divided into ten squads, attacking the prince's main force from ten directions. Because there was no preparation, the prince's main army was suddenly surrounded. Panic was in the army, and soldiers fled in all directions, killing more than half of the casualties. The crown prince fled in a panic and fled until Yangxiang stopped, and in the end, the battle ended with the prince's camp being occupied by the Jin army.
When Liu Ya, who had crossed the Yellow River, learned of this news, he immediately led his army to withdraw from Luoyang and quickly returned to the rescue. Liu Yaxian built fortifications outside the camp and Li Zhi's nephew went to war with the county guards. After dawn, the prince found that the troops attacking him were only more than a thousand, so he led his army to launch a strong and fierce attack on the camp.
At this time, after Liu Cong, who was in the palace, heard that the prince had been defeated, he immediately sent a lieutenant to lead the cavalry to support. In this way, a bitter battle of 1,000 people against 100,000 people officially began. Logically, Liu Han's 100,000 people could easily solve the jin army's thousand people. However, it was such a huge disparity in strength that the two sides actually stalemated for more than half a month.
So, what happened to make the two armies with such a huge disparity in strength stalemate for so long?
According to the book of Jin, liu cong was recorded, and the generals of the Jin state were very frightened when they learned of Liu Han's reinforcements, so they sent 5,000 troops to raid and besiege. Unexpectedly, this military situation was detected by Liu Han's army, and the Jin army was pursued all the way. When in Heyang, the Jin army was annihilated by Liu Hanjun more than 3,000 people, and more than 1,000 people committed suicide by throwing themselves into the river, which can be described as the total annihilation of the army.
However, the "Book of Jin" record of Li Zhi is as follows: the Jin army raided only a thousand troops, and after learning that Liu Han had increased his troops, Li Zhi chose three thousand people to go to the rescue.
Therefore, these three thousand people crossed the Yellow River by boat to meet Li Zhi's nephew and the county guard. However, when Liu Cong knew this, he ordered the troops near the Yellow River to arrange the troops, and to hook the ships with long hooks to prevent the Ships from approaching the riverbank. Therefore, the two sides fought continuously for several days, and the Jin army's troops were still unable to cross the river.
In desperation, Li Zhi had no choice but to select some more people to secretly cross the Yellow River from other places and enter the camp. After this team came to the camp, it and the original team once again formed an elite army of one thousand people, and burned the camp with a torch. Taking advantage of the darkness of the night, they rushed out of Liu Ya's siege and fled all the way to the Tiger Prison. Liu Han's army did not have time to pursue them, so they had to withdraw.
The Battle of Luokou was a famous battle in history in which fewer victories were more, and because of the lack of timely support, it failed to annihilate the Jin army in one fell swoop, which was a major blow to the Liu Han Empire, especially in the end, it actually made the Jin army's surprise attack successful, causing Liu Cong to be very angry. However, the next natural disaster made Liu Cong even more sad, and even his spirit had some problems.
That is Liu Cong's harem, walking in the water!
Overnight, all of Liu Cong's twenty-one princes were burned to death. After the palace people informed Liu Cong, Liu Cong immediately fainted in bed and was unconscious. After a long time of rescue, Liu Cong woke up. This blow was very heavy for Liu Cong. In order to get out of the grief as soon as possible and let himself have more heirs, Liu Cong began to marry his wife and concubines madly.
However, the world is unpredictable, and Liu Cong died soon after. Before his death, Liu Cong passed his throne to the crown prince. He also appointed two generals with heavy troops to assist him: Liu Yao as the chancellor and Shi Le as the general to ensure the stability of the Liu Han Empire.
The biggest sorrow in life is that the white-haired people send the black-haired people, and Liu Cong has lost so many sons, it can be said that his old age is a tragedy.
Resources:
[The Second Book of the 12nd Book of Jin, the 63rd Book of Jin, the 33rd Book of Liechuan, the Zizhi Tongjian, volume 87]