# thin details restore the Song Dynasty #

Foreword:

"How can we allow others to sleep soundly on the side of the couch?" This was Song Taizu Zhao Kuangyin's declaration to destroy the Tang Dynasty, but Do you know how Zhao Kuangyin, who doesn't talk about martial arts, dealt with Li Yu?

1. Mount Tai is overwhelming.

In September of the seventh year of Kaibao (974), Song Taizu Zhao Kuangyin officially announced a crusade against the Southern Tang Dynasty on the pretext that Li Yu, the leader of the Southern Tang Dynasty, was "stubborn and unwilling to go to court".

Soon, Zhao Kuangyin moved forward by water and prepared a luxury package for Li Yu for the five-way army.

Cao Bin, the first general in the founding of the Northern Song Dynasty, was the commander-in-chief, and the evil villain Pan Renmei among the Yang family generals. History The prototype Pan Mei was the deputy commander, and led the five-pronged army to attack the Southern Tang Dynasty like Mount Tai.

In this battle, the Song Dynasty had an overwhelming advantage, and not many people in the Song Dynasty were worried about the outcome of this battle.

First of all, to defend the river, you must defend the Huaihe River. The Huaibei area fell into the hands of the Later Zhou Dynasty as early as Chai Rong's three personal expeditions, and then fell into the hands of the Northern Song Dynasty. The Southern Tang Dynasty lost the Huaihe River defense line and a Yangtze River. Can they still stop the wolf-like tiger-like army of the Northern Song Dynasty?

Secondly, Zhao Kuangyin was smart and martial, and had been prepared for a long time, while Li Yu wrote lyrics. In terms of governing the country and becoming emperor, none of the ten Zhao Kuangyin could match him. This would make Li Yu turn the tide and really embarrass him.

Finally, the strength of the Southern Tang Dynasty was far less than that of the Northern Song Dynasty during its heyday, and its national power was even worse than before. Li Yu and his father could only continue to pay tribute to Zhao Kuangyin and humiliate themselves to seek peace.

The Northern Song Dynasty was at its peak, and it successively pacified Jinghu, destroyed Hou Shu, and defeated the Southern Han Dynasty. It had rich experience in destroying countries and its strength increased sharply. There was a huge gap in strength between the two countries. Moreover, Zhao Kuangyin also roped in Wu Yue, the rival of the Southern Tang Dynasty. Go to war.

This is a war without much suspense. The Northern Song Dynasty will destroy the Tang Dynasty. This battle must be won. The only suspense is how much effort and time it will take.

In October of this year, Zhao Kuangyin saw off Cao Bin and the entire army.

Before leaving, Zhao Kuangyin told Cao Bin:

This battle to destroy the Tang Dynasty, Yi Yi Wei Qing, please remember not to kill innocent people. It is best to force Li Yu to surrender. You don't have to worry and fight slowly.

What kind of confidence does it take to say such confident words?

After saying that, Zhao Kuangyin returned Cao Bin Shangfang's sword - "Anyone below the deputy general who does not need his life will be beheaded."

In other words, the entire army started from the deputy general Pan Meili. Even if they surrender, Cao Bin can kill them first and then report them. He can kill them at any time.

Zhao Kuangyin needs Cao Bin to regain the Southern Tang Dynasty in the most complete way! This is a trust in Cao Bin, and it is also a warning to Pan Mei and others. If anyone wants to cause trouble, the military orders are as strong as the mountain and will not be merciful!

On October 18, Cao Bin led his army across the river from Qiyang and defeated Xiakou Village. The troops marched directly to Chizhou, the military fortress of the Southern Tang Dynasty, which kicked off the fall of the Southern Tang Dynasty.

What’s funny is that until now, the entire Southern Tang Dynasty didn’t know that the wave of destruction of the Tang Dynasty had been coming for nine days, and they didn’t know that the Song Dynasty army had already started the war to destroy the Tang Dynasty.

Isn’t it incredible? However, this is a fact. Li Yu only knew how to seek peace, and the entire Southern Tang Dynasty was completely unprepared for Wen Tian's martial arts.

Soon, the army of the Northern Song Dynasty was invincible, advancing thousands of miles and gathering in Shiji.

Caishiji is a cliff on the edge of Cuiluo Mountain in the Yangtze River. It is abrupt in the middle of the river and strangles the throat of the Yangtze River. It is a natural danger on the Yangtze River. It is also known as Yanziji in Nanjing and Chenglingji in Yueyang. There are three famous islands in the Yangtze River.

With the capture of Caishiji, Jinling (now Nanjing, Jiangsu), the capital of the Southern Tang Dynasty, will directly enter the attack range of the Northern Song Dynasty army.

In the first month of the eighth year of Kaibao (975), a series of attacks by the Song Dynasty army had swept away the outskirts of Jinling, and Jinling City had been nakedly exposed in front of Cao Bin and others.

On the seventeenth day of the first lunar month, the Song Dynasty army, which had been resting for a few days, began to attack Jinling City under Cao Bin's order.

However, Cao Bin did not desperately attack Jinling. Instead, he carried out the most classic siege and reinforcement tactics. On the one hand, he besieged Jinling and captured the outer city of Jinling. On the other hand, he continued to annihilate the Southern Tang reinforcements.

Jinling became a meat grinder, trying to wipe out all the viable forces in the Southern Tang Dynasty.

2. Ignorance.

The army of the Song Dynasty is approaching the city, and the danger of national subjugation is imminent. What should Li Yu do in Jinling City?

Is he thinking about how to meet the enemy in the city?

Or should I hide in the arms of the beauty Luo Qi deep in the harem, trembling and fearful all day long?

Sorry, neither!

He just hid in a small harem, creating his own world. He chanted scriptures and talked about Yi every day with some monks and Taoist priests. I was in the mood to hold an imperial examination in February of this year.

The entire Southern Tang Dynasty admitted ninety-three people, and Li Yu admitted thirty people this year.

He handed over the important military task of defending the Song army to Huangfu's successor.

Li Yu didn't trust the people he used, but he didn't trust the people he hired. He didn't care if the military power was given to Huangfu Jixun.

How could Li Yu have thought that Huangfu Jixun was a surrender faction? He had long wanted to persuade Li Yu to surrender, but he didn't dare to speak.

Every time he discussed military affairs with others, he would say: "The Northern Army is strong, who can defeat it!"

As soon as he heard that the Southern Tang army was defeated, Huangfu Jixun He beamed with joy and said with a smile, "I knew we couldn't win. Look, we lost as expected."

Someone wanted to organize a death squad to fight back, but he was the first to disagree. The only thing he did was to conceal military information.

With such a coach, what future does Nantang have?

So a sensational scene happened. Until May of this year, the Song army had been besieging Jinling for almost half a year. Li Yu didn't know what was going on, so he walked out of the harem and wanted to see the city wall.

As the saying goes, you won’t know until you see it, and you will be shocked at first sight. Li Yu looked around and saw that the Song Army camps were endless and the Song Army flags were all over the mountains and plains. He was suddenly shocked by the scene in front of him. Stayed.

Li Yu knew that the Song Army had launched a war, and he also knew that he had crossed the Yangtze River from Caishiji. He knew that the Southern Tang Dynasty was adopting the tactic of fortifying the wall and clearing the country to defend the Song Army. He thought that this tactic was effective and was delaying the attack. If so, the Northern Song army would retreat. He really didn’t know that Jinling City had been besieged by the Song Army, let alone that the outer city had been lost!

Until this moment, Li Yu woke up like a dream. The enemy had already reached the door of his house. If he didn't think of a way out, it would be over.

He quickly chopped Huangfu Jixun into meat paste, organized a defense, and ordered Zhu Lingyun, the navy general in Hukou, to lead an army of 100,000 to attack the king urgently.

But unfortunately, the last effective force of the Southern Tang Dynasty was completely wiped out in October of this year, and Jinling was completely without foreign aid.

3. Zhao Kuangyin does not follow martial ethics.

At the same time, in October and November of this year, Li Yu sent Xu Xuan, a famous minister of the Southern Tang Dynasty, to Kaifeng twice to seek peace again.

The first time Xu Xuan arrived in Kaifeng, the city of Kaifeng suddenly became tense. Xu Xuan was so erudite and argued so well that they were afraid that he would make a fool of himself in front of him.

Someone reminded Zhao Kuangyin not to be careless about this person and to be fully prepared.

Zhao Kuangyin laughed. He felt that the ideas of the Southern Tang Dynasty monarchs and ministers were very ridiculous. Would he withdraw his army because of the poor reasoning he was asked?

He felt that the minister was overly nervous, and his sharp tongue was not worth thousands of troops. At this time, even if Su Qin and Zhang Yi were resurrected, nothing would change.

But Zhao Kuangyin seemed to be interested and wanted to see Xu Xuan's power.

He laughed and said: Just call him up, you don’t understand the rest.

Xu Xuan walked into the Song Dynasty Palace, faced the Song Dynasty Emperor and the civil and military officials, raised his head, and loudly said the anger of all Jiangnan people: "Li Yu is not guilty, your Majesty has no name."

p>

Xu Xuan’s words hit Zhao Kuangyin’s mark! Ancient wars emphasized the importance of a division's reputation, and having a division's reputation was part of the military ethics of war.

In the previous unification wars launched by Zhao Kuangyin, he found enough excuses before sending out troops. He took Jinghu because the other party requested to send troops; he destroyed Hou Shu because he colluded with the Northern Han Dynasty; he swallowed the Southern Han Dynasty because he To save the people from the fire.

And what about Southern Tang? The most high-sounding reason is that Li Yu is "stubborn and disobedient."

Everyone was looking at the Emperor of the Song Dynasty. Zhao Kuangyin was not angry. He asked Xu Xuan to come closer and finish his words.

All the grievances of the Southern Tang Dynasty over the years came to mind, and Xu Xuan blurted out:

Xu Xuan then spoke impassionedly and spoke hundreds of words.

But unfortunately, no matter how much he said, he could not compare to Zhao Kuangyin's words.

Yes, didn’t you keep saying that Li Yu treats me like his biological father? But are there fathers and sons living in separate homes in the world? Is it wrong for me, a father, to ask his son to come to Kaifeng to reunite with his father?

What is this? This is actually a hooliganism.

Xu Xuan was speechless for a moment. Xu Xuan did not expect that he was so knowledgeable that he unexpectedly lost to the bandit emperor who was born in the army. Xu Xuan quickly took out Li Yu's autograph letter and presented it to Zhao Kuangyin.

After reading this, Zhao Kuangyin acted like a more powerful hooligan. He replied directly:

No matter how upright and eloquent Xu Xuan was, Zhao Kuangyin acted like a hooligan. I was not educated and couldn't understand, so I sent Xu Xuan away.

The second time, Xu Xuan made a last effort for Li Yu. This time he found the reason for the last failure. He believed that the reason why Zhao Kuangyin attacked the Southern Tang Dynasty was because Li Yu did not go to Kaifeng and refused to go to court despite repeated invitations?

So Xu Xuan explained to Zhao Kuangyin: Li Yu was unable to go to the Hajj because he was ill. It was not because he dared to resist your edict. He begged your Majesty to slow down the troops a little to protect the people in the south of the Yangtze River.

The sharp-tongued Xu Xuan was almost pleading at this time, but Zhao Kuangyin remained unmoved.

Xu Xuan was unwilling to give in and argued with Zhao Kuangyin four times. In the end, he could not restrain his anger. His anger allowed him to overcome his fear of Zhao Kuangyin and became "even louder".

Zhao Kuangyin's patience has finally come to an end. Things that cannot be explained clearly with words can always be explained clearly with a sword. "Stubbornness and disobedience" are all excuses. If you want to accuse him, there is no excuse; An ordinary man is not guilty, but he is guilty of carrying a jade. The words of our ancestors are the explanation.

Zhao Kuangyin, who had nothing to say, chose to tell the truth. He stood up with his sword and said angrily:

Zhao Kuangyin, who had nothing to say, finally admitted that Li Yu was not guilty. "Don't let others snore and sleep" is a famous saying passed down from generation to generation.

In fact, Zhao Kuangyin was acting like a blatant hooligan, and violated the military ethics of war stipulated in the pre-Qin period - teachers should be famous, this is the rule.

However, it is hard to say how useful Wude will be in the Song Dynasty. Whether it will be useful or not depends entirely on what Zhao Kuangyin thinks.

If he wants to talk about martial ethics, he can talk about it. If he doesn’t want to talk about it, who can do anything to him?

4. Hooligans bully children.

To be honest, the entire battle between the Song Dynasty and the Southern Tang Dynasty was not as exciting as the debate between Zhao Kuangyin and Xu Xuan.

To be honest, Xu Xuan did everything an envoy could do. He defeated Zhao Kuangyin in the debate.

But Zhao Kuangyin lost the debate, but won the world. When Zhao Kuangyin wanted to be reasonable, he would argue with Xu Xuan; but when he was unreasonable, what could Xu Xuan do?

There is a joke that says that a rabbit was slapped by a wolf.

The rabbit felt aggrieved and asked: Why did you hit me?

The wolf said: I don’t wear a hat when I call you a bastard.

The next day, the rabbit was wearing a hat and met the wolf again. As a result, the wolf slapped it again and said: I told you to wear a hat.

After repeating this for several days, the rabbit decided to complain to the tiger.

The tiger gave the wolf an idea and said to the wolf:

This is not the way to kill a rabbit. If he comes to sue you, I can’t protect you. Next time you meet him He, you ask him to buy things for washing clothes. If he buys washing powder, you beat him and tell him that you want soap; if he buys soap, you beat him and tell him that you want washing powder;

How about you let him buy meat, and if he buys fat meat, you beat him and tell him that you want lean meat;

If he buys lean meat, you beat him and tell him It you want fat.

But the rabbit heard this.

The next day, the rabbit met the wolf again on the road. The wolf did as the tiger said and asked the rabbit to buy laundry.

Rabbit asked: Do you want washing powder or soap?

The wolf thought, this is wrong, and asked the rabbit to buy meat for him.

The rabbit asked: "Do you want fat or lean meat?

The wolf was stunned for a moment, and suddenly slapped the rabbit. The rabbit asked: Why did you hit me again?

The wolf yelled: You are not wearing a hat!

This is a joke, but it is a real joke. Li Yu is the rabbit and Zhao Kuangyin is the wolf.

Zhao Kuangyin. He said that he beat Li Yu because Li Yu would not join the court; but when Li Yu explained the reason why he did not join the court, Zhao Kuangyin could ignore this excuse and beat Li Yu directly.

This is the reality, and the rhetoric is as good as the sword. The face is always pale and weak! The sword is always sharper than the tongue!

Li Yu and Xu Xuan never understood it before. When Zhao Kuangyin tore off the fig leaf, Xu Xuan Got it.

So Xu Xuan, a talented man from the south of the Yangtze River, "retired in fear"

The outcome was already doomed

Cao Bin immediately ordered. Li Yu was ready to surrender. After several wranglings, he gave Li Yu an ultimatum. November 27 was the last day. If he didn't surrender, the Song army would attack.

He would not give up until he reached the Yellow River. Li Yu was unwilling to shed tears without seeing the coffin. He made up his mind to delay it to the end. It seemed that as long as he delayed for one more day, the Song army might retreat.

On November 27th, the day agreed by Cao Bin to attack the city arrived. Cao Bin officially ordered the attack. Jinling City responded, and the Song army entered Jinling.

Next, Cao Bin went to Jinling. It's time to capture Li Yu alive.

In fact, if Li Yu had the guts, he could have burned himself or hanged himself before Cao Bin arrived, and died as a martyr to his country. < /p>

In fact, Li Yu really thought about it. He piled firewood in the palace and prepared to burn himself to death.

After all the hardships, Li Yu had all the firewood ready, but he died. He never had the courage to set himself on fire and eventually became Cao Bin's prisoner.

Next, it was time for Cao Bin to take over Jinling and the entire Southern Tang Dynasty. Cao Bin immediately asked Li Yu to write a letter to inform various places in the Southern Tang Dynasty. The officer accepted the surrender.

At that time, except for Hu Ze of Jiangzhou (now Jiujiang, Jiangxi) military academy and Song Deming of dental academy who killed the governor and defended the city, all other places surrendered.

On the first day of December, Cao Bin's victory document was sent to Kaifeng. All 19 states, 3 armies, 108 counties in the Southern Tang Dynasty, with a population of 655,065 households, all belonged to the Song Dynasty.

When the good news came, all the ministers congratulated Zhao Kuangyin for the Song Dynasty's contribution to the destruction of the country.

However, Zhao Kuangyin cried, and he cried to the people around him:

These are the tears of sympathy left by the victor, or it may be said that this is Zhao Kuangyin trying to win people's hearts, and he immediately issued an edict. One hundred thousand stones of grain were moved from the treasury to relieve the hungry people in the city.

From this moment on, the territory of the Southern Tang Dynasty will become the territory of the Song Dynasty, and the subjects of the Southern Tang Dynasty will become the subjects of Zhao Kuangyin!

This is the entire battle between the Song Dynasty and the Southern Tang Dynasty. There is nothing to say about the details that were not mentioned in the cafeteria. The whole process was about gangsters bullying children. Li Yu, who was sleeping soundly next to Zhao Kuangyin's bed, was knocked down like this. , unable to fight back.

5. It is difficult to distinguish between true and false.

After the fall of the Southern Tang Dynasty, the hometown of the Southern Tang Dynasty temporarily entered the Cao Bin era

According to the official history of the Song Dynasty, Cao Bin tried his best to preserve the officials of the Southern Tang Dynasty and enforce strict military discipline. The army was prohibited from looting Jinling, and basically no offense was committed in Qiu.

Of course, there are exceptions. For example, the Song Army general Cao Han, who was ordered to conquer Jiangzhou who refused to surrender, was not a good person. He also had the same surname as Cao, but this guy was much more vicious.

In April of the next year, Cao Han, who had besieged Jiangzhou for five months, finally broke through Jiangzhou City, and Jiangzhou defenders Hu Ze and Song Deming were killed. Immediately afterwards, Cao Han ordered people to rob the people of Jiangzhou.

The people of Jiangzhou immediately complained to Zhang Ji, the newly appointed magistrate of Jiangzhou by Zhao Kuangyin.

Cao Han suddenly became angry and ordered the massacre of the city on the grounds that the people of Jiangzhou were resisting the Song army.

All the tens of thousands of people in Jiangzhou were slaughtered by Cao Han, and then Cao Han ordered the corpses to be filled into the wells in Jiangzhou. The wells were filled, but there was not enough, and the remaining corpses were thrown into the river. .

All the property of the people in Jiangzhou fell into the hands of Cao Han. "History of the Song Dynasty" said that the property that Cao Han had robbed

In order to transport these "trophies", Cao Han used several He was very smart and put 500 iron Arhats from an ancient temple at the foot of Mount Lu on board the hundreds of official ships, saying that they were going to be given to the emperor and called them "Zhegang Arhats".

Ordinarily, considering the atrocities Cao Han committed, it would be easy to cut him into pieces.

But he was lucky and met Zhao Kuangyin. Of course he was fine. Zhao Kuangyin was interested in his military exploits. Instead of pursuing him for the crime of massacre, he promoted him to a higher rank.

The above are the records in the official history books of the Song Dynasty. Except for Jiangzhou, there was basically nothing going on in the Southern Tang Dynasty.

Note that this is only recorded in the official history books of the Song Dynasty.

What does it mean?

In various unofficial histories, the records are different.

Lu You, a famous poet of the Southern Song Dynasty, recorded in "Book of the Southern Tang Dynasty":

What Lu You said was very vague. The Song Dynasty army did not rob Li Yu's palace, but the word "wei" was enough. Just right.

The implication is that places outside the palace have become a paradise for the Song army to plunder at will.

"Chronicles of Buddhist Temples in the Southern Dynasties" and "Fenglu Xiaozhi" record:

This record says that Jinling City has a Shengyuan Pavilion built in the Eastern Jin Dynasty. When it was destroyed, thousands of people hid in the attic.

Cao Bin's order could not restrain the Wu and Yue troops who entered the city at the same time. Wu Yue and Southern Tang happened to be sworn enemies.

So, they did not take the Buddha seriously, robbed the property, set a fire, and thousands of people were burned to death in the attic.

Such examples abound in various unofficial historical records.

Therefore, Ouyang Xiu recorded in his "Youmeitang Ji":

According to Ouyang Xiu's records, Jinling City was almost completely destroyed by the Song army. In fact, Jinling City was indeed not as prosperous as it was during the Southern Tang Dynasty in the Northern Song Dynasty. The ancient capital of Jinling was not as prosperous in the Northern Song Dynasty.

Historical records are miscellaneous and it is difficult to tell the truth from the false. No one knows what the Song Dynasty army did after they captured Jinling City.

The world only knows that Zhao Kuangyin's famous sayings, how can he allow others to sleep soundly beside the couch;

The world only knows that Zhao Kuangyin destroyed the Southern Tang Dynasty this year.

One general's achievements are worth countless bones. Many times, a bold word from these emperors not only resulted in great achievements, but also countless bones.

As for whether we talk about martial ethics or not, it doesn’t matter. Who cares about Li Yu and Xu Xuan’s accusations?