In November 950, Guo Wei, a Later Han attendant, was forced to launch a mutiny and capture the city of Kaifeng, forcing emperor Yin of later Han to die. At this time, although Guo Wei successfully settled in Kaifeng, he believed that the time to usurp power was not ripe, so he proposed to Empress Li that Liu Yun (Liu Zhiyuan's adopted son and Liu Chong's eldest son) be made emperor.
After Emperor Yin of Later Han was killed, Hedong Jiedu had wanted to lead an army south to conquer Guo Wei, but at this moment, when he learned that Guo Wei had made Liu Yun emperor, he did not move. However, Liu Chong's dream of being emperor taishang did not take long to be shattered. In December of that year, Guo Wei usurped Han Jianzhou in the middle of the first month after "adding his body to the yellow robe" in Liaozhou, and killed Liu Yun.
When Liu Chong learned of Guo Wei's usurpation of the throne and the murder of his son, he greatly regretted that he had not sent troops earlier. But at this point, Liu Chong, who had a vendetta against Guo Wei for killing his son, of course, would not submit to Later Zhou, so he established himself as emperor in Taiyuan and established the Northern Han dynasty. Liu Chong, knowing that the Northern Han Dynasty was weak, united with the Liao Dynasty to counter Later Zhou.
A brief map of the situation in the world from the end of 951 to the beginning of 955
After the founding of the state, Liu Chong immediately joined forces with Khitan soldiers and horses to attack Later Zhou, but was quickly defeated by the Later Zhou army, so within a few years he no longer went south in a large number of years, but was harassed by a small army. Of course, the ambitious Liu Chong did not give up the idea of entering the Central Plains, he was just waiting for an opportunity.
In the first month of 954, Zhou Taizu Guo Wei died of illness, and Zhou Shizong Chai ascended the throne. As soon as Zhou Shizong ascended to the throne, he faced a grim situation, and internally because of his youth and shallow qualifications, and his succession as the adopted son of the former emperor, it was really difficult to be tired of the people's hearts; externally, he was attacked on all sides, with the Northern Han and Liao Dynasties in the north looking at the tiger, the Southern Shu and Southern Tang in the south, and the Tubo, Dangxiang and other tribes harassing the border in the northwest.
Portrait of Zhou Shizong
Therefore, when Liu Chong learned the news of Zhou Taizu's illness and death, he was very happy. He thought that Zhou Shizong was no more than a dime boy and was certainly not his opponent, so he immediately asked the Liao Dynasty to join forces and move south, preparing to overthrow the Later Zhou regime in one fell swoop, in order to avenge the killing of his son, and by the way, to become the emperor of the Central Plains.
In February 954, Liu Chongqin led an army of 30,000 troops, with Bai Conghui as the marching capital and Zhang Yuanhui as the forward commander, leaving Taiyuan in the south and marching to Luzhou (known as Shangdang in ancient times) via Tuanbai. The Liao Dynasty sent Wuding Jiedu to make Yang Gong lead more than 10,000 cavalrymen to join Liu Chongnan.
After the Liao-Han coalition army moved south, Liang Houyi, who was stationed on the border of Zhou and Han, waited for an opportunity to move. In the face of the menacing enemy army, Later Zhou Zhaoyi made Li Yun decide to give Liu Chonglai a chance to dismount, so he sent his general Mu Lingjun to lead two thousand infantry to meet the battle, and he led the main force to garrison at Taipingyi to meet Mu Lingjun.
The forwards of the two armies met fiercely north of Taipingyi, Zhang Yuanhui pretended to be defeated and fled, Mu Lingjun carelessly thought that the Northern Han army was just like this, so he chased after it, and as a result, he was attacked by the Northern Han ambush troops, and his own life was lost, and he also pit the soldiers who followed him. When Li Yun learned of the defeat of the forwards, he hurriedly withdrew to Luzhou, holding on to the city on the one hand and asking for help from the imperial court on the other.
The combined forces of the Northern Han and Liao Dynasties attacked Luzhou from the south
When the war reports came from the front, Zhou Shizong was very worried, and he decided to personally lead the army and go north with Liu Chong. However, Taishi Feng Dao and other ministers believed that Zhou Shizong's new ascension to the throne and the unstable situation between the DPRK and China were inappropriate to leave the capital. However, Zhou Shizong thought that Liu Chong's bullying of his youth and ignorance must have been unexpected, and he must not have thought that he would personally march, so he could be surprised and unprepared.
"Zizhi Tongjian" - Emperor Yue: "I am blessed with great mourning, young and new, and have the heart to swallow the world. ”
Although Feng Dao and others strongly opposed Zhou Shizong's pro-conquest and had the intention of looking down on Zhou Shizong, Zhou Shizong insisted on pro-conquest and angrily denounced Feng Dao as an old stubborn. Although Feng Dao was an old fritter in the official field, he did not know why Zhou Shizong was like this.
Zhou Shizong succeeded to the throne as the adopted son of the former emperor and lacked the experience of leading troops independently, which was not very convincing, so it was urgent to establish a great cause to establish prestige, and this counterattack against the invasion of the Northern Han and Liao Dynasties was a great opportunity to prove himself.
On March 3, in order to cope with the situation of the Liao-Han coalition advancing on Luzhou, Zhou Shizong ordered Tianxiong Jiedu to make Fu Yanqing and Zhenning Jiedu to make Guo Chong's army detour from Guzhen back to the enemy's back to contain it, and also ordered Wang Yanchao and Baoyi Jiedu to lead Han Tong out of Jinzhou to contain the enemy army, and also ordered Ma Jundu to command Fan Aneng and others to lead troops to Zezhou to reinforce Luzhou.
Zhou Shizong dispatched troops to deploy a brief map
On March 11, Zhou Shizong left the capital with his main force, and then reached Zezhou on the eighteenth. At this time, Liu Chong, seeing that the city of Luzhou was strong and difficult to conquer for a while, and did not know that Zhou Shizong was personally marching, led the main force south and camped in the area south of Gaoping that night. The next day, Zhou Shizong sent a vanguard force to fight an encounter with the Northern Han army and defeated it.
A brief map of the route of Zhou Shizong's personal conquest
Zhou Shizong was worried that the enemy army would retreat, so he led his army in a rapid pursuit and met the main enemy force at Bagongyuan. Since the main forces of the two sides have met, there is no need to play the game of "hide-and-seek", so the two sides began to line up in Bagongyuan.
Liu Chongzong asked Zhang Yuanhui to lead the army to the east side, Yang Gong to lead his troops and horses to the west side, and himself to lead the Chinese army to the center. At this time, the rear army led by Liu Ci had not yet arrived, and many Later Zhou generals saw that the morale of the enemy army was strong, and they were timid, feeling that the victory rate of this battle was unstable.
Before this battle was fought, the soldiers on their own side instigated it, and this was still to be done. Therefore, Zhou Shizong boosted morale, and ordered Bai Chongzan and Li Chongjin to lead the army on the west side, Fan Aineng and He Hui to lead the army to the east side, Shi Yanchao and Xiang Xun to lead the main force to the center, and Zhang Yongde to lead the forbidden army to escort himself to supervise the battle.
When the great battle was imminent, Liu Chong, seeing that the Later Zhou soldiers and horses were much less than his own, could not help but regret recruiting Khitan soldiers and horses to help in the battle, so he declared to the generals in a spirited manner: "I can only use the Han army to break the enemy, even if I need Khitan soldiers and horses!" Today I not only want to defeat the Zhou army, but also make the Khitan convince me. ”
Liu Chong's ability to fight wars is there, and his ability to brag is not small. The Liao general Yang Gongzema went to the front to observe, and when he found that the Rear Zhou army lineup was reorganized, he reminded Liu Chong: "The opposite side is not vegetarian, we can't be careless." Liu Chong, however, said very bloatedly: "The victory has been decided, the time must not be lost, Yang Gongche is watching me break the enemy." Yang Gong was very unhappy with what Liu Chong said, so he silently returned to the army.
The two armies fought in BaGongyuan
At the beginning of the great battle, Liu Chong ordered Zhang Yuanhui to attack the eastern flank of the Later Zhou army first. The two armies soon engaged each other in a short time, but it did not take long for the Later Zhou generals Fan Aineng and He Hui to lead the cavalry to flee first, resulting in a complete rout of the Later Zhou army on the eastern side. The rapid rout of the eastern flank army caused the entire Army of Houzhou to shake its position.
Seeing that the situation was critical, Zhou Shizong hurriedly led the guards forward and braved the rain of arrows to oversee the counterattack. At this time, the Su Wei general Zhao Kuangyin also asked the general Zhang Yongde for battle.
"Zizhi Tongjian" - Emperor Taizu was a general of su wei when he was said to be the same as the column: "If the Lord is in such danger, why should my subordinate not die!" Zhang Yongde also said: "Thieves are arrogant, and they can be broken in battle!" Under the command of the multi-tasker, please lead the troops out of the left wing by high west, and I will lead the troops to the right wing to attack. National security, in one fell swoop! ”
After Zhang Yongde heard this, he immediately divided his soldiers and horses into two, and Zhao Kuangyin each led two thousand elite soldiers to go up against the wind. Because Zhao Kuangyin was a pioneer and was not afraid of life and death, his soldiers were also infected by his emotions and bravely killed the enemy one by one. This desperate courage gradually spread to the whole army, and the Later Zhou army began to counterattack.
Zhao Kuangyin stills
The Northern Han army, which originally wanted to take advantage of the victory to pursue, was also blinded, and it was unexpected that the Later Zhou army would even launch a counterattack, and as a result, it was caught by the Later Zhou army and was reversed in an instant. Zhang Yuanhui, known as a fierce general of the Northern Han Dynasty, accidentally died in the rebellion, causing the morale of the Northern Han army to plummet, and the Later Zhou army took advantage of the situation to launch a more fierce attack.
Liu Chong, who commanded in front of the battle, saw that his side had been defeated, and in shock, he quickly collected the troops. Yang Gong, who was eating melon and watching the drama next to him, was afraid of the Later Zhou Army and resented Liu Chong's arrogance, so he ignored Liu Chong, who was embarrassed, and led the Liao army to take a step forward.
Although the Later Zhou army turned defeat into victory, Liu Chong still had more than 10,000 troops after the collapse of the army, so the two armies remained in a state of confrontation. Soon after, Liu Ci led the Rear Army to arrive, and the morale of the Later Zhou army soared, so Zhou Shizong ordered the army to attack in an all-round way. The terrified Northern Han army was struck by this and suddenly collapsed, and Liu Chong, who led more than a hundred horsemen to flee northwest of Gaoping back to Taiyuan, led by the Later Zhou army won a complete victory.
In the Battle of Gaoping, although the Later Zhou army won a great victory, Zhou Shizong also realized the fatal weakness of the Later Zhou army. That is to say, since the end of the Tang Dynasty and the fifth dynasty, the arrogant generals have not obeyed their superiors enough, often coming nonsense, and doing whatever they want. Therefore, at the suggestion of Zhang Yongde, Zhou Shizong beheaded all more than 70 officers, including Fan Aineng, according to law.
From then on, the soldiers who did not think of fighting bravely to kill the enemy were all afraid and did not dare to fool around any longer, and the military discipline of the Later Zhou army was initially rectified. Of course, the most crucial thing is that after this battle, the strength of the Northern Han Army was greatly damaged, and it did not dare to go south in a short period of time, so that the northern border of the Later Zhou Was stabilized. As a result, Zhou Shizong established his authority in the military, effectively deterred the unscrupulous people in the center of the country, and greatly consolidated his throne.
If Zhou Shizong could not win this battle, then perhaps the newborn Later Zhou Dynasty would soon die, and Zhou Shizong might be pushed off the throne by his subordinates, and the consequences would be unimaginable. Therefore, the Battle of Gaoping was indeed a war for Zhou Shizong that was a matter of his destiny.
At the same time, the fate of the Battle of Gaoping was also changed by the Su wei general Zhao Kuangyin. When Zhou Shizong rewarded meritorious soldiers after the war, Zhang Yongde strongly praised Zhao Kuangyin's military achievements in front of Zhou Shizong as a "crown general school", so Zhou Shizong promoted Zhao Kuangyin to the position of Yu Yu in front of the palace and led the Yan Prefecture Assassination History. Zhao Kuangyin thus became a senior general in the Forbidden Army, establishing his position in the Later Zhou Army and laying the foundation for his later "yellow robe plus body".
A war that actually changed the fate of the two generations of male lords of Zhou Shizong and Song Taizu was really emotional.