Speaking of which, Gao Conghui from Jingnan heard that the Later Han general Du Chongwei rebelled and the Later Han was invading the north, so he took the opportunity to dispatch thousands of naval troops to attack Xiangzhou, but was repelled by An Shenqi, the governor of Shandong South Road. Gao Conghui was unwilling to accept it and invaded Yingzhou, but was defeated by the governor Yin Shi. Gao Conghui cut off his relationship with the Later Han and instead relied on the Southern Tang and Later Shu.

Jingnan was between Hunan and Lingnan, with a narrow area and weak military strength. Since Gao Jixing, those who passed by the tribute here were plundered by him many times. As a result, each of them issued a letter to condemn or sent troops to attack him, he had to return the property and never felt ashamed. When Gao Conghui became king, Later Tang, Later Jin, Khitan, Later Han, Later Han, Southern Han, Fujian, Wu, and Later Shu became emperors.

Gao Conghui was greedy for the rewards of various countries and surrendered everywhere. All countries despise him and called him "Gao Wusco". After Gao Conghui cut off contact with the Later Han Dynasty, merchants in the north stopped interacting, and Jingnan was poor and lacked supplies. So Gao Conghui sent envoys to submit a letter to the Later Han Dynasty, requesting permission to perform the duties of paying tributes; Emperor Yin of the Later Han Dynasty sent envoys to appease him.

Soon, the governor of Jingnan, Gao Conghui, was bedridden and was seriously ill, and ordered his son, Gao Baorong, the deputy governor of Jiedu, to take charge of internal and external military affairs. After Gao Conghui's death, Gao Baorong was in charge of the affairs of the post-rest. Later Han appointed Gao Baorong as the governor of Jingnan, and to work together with the matter of Pingzhang. Gao Baorong was slow in personality and had no talent. No matter how big or small the matter was, he was entrusted to his younger brother Gao Baorong to decide. In the first year of Jianlong, Zhao Kuangyin established the Song Dynasty, and Gao Baorong felt frightened, so he paid tribute three times a year. In the same year, he died of illness, and the Song Dynasty posthumously awarded him the title of Taiwei. His son Gao Jichong was still young, so he ordered Gao Baorong to succeed. Soon Gao Baorong also died of illness and Gao Jichong succeeded to the throne.

Previously, Zhao Kuangyin sent Lu Huaizhong to the envoy of Jingnan and said to him: "I want to know all the customs, people, and the direction of mountains and rivers." Lu Huaizhong returned to Beijing to report: "Although Gao Jichong's army was strict, there were only 30,000 soldiers. Although the year was full of grains, the people were struggling to impose levies. Jingzhou was close to Changsha in the south, and could resist Jiankang in the east, and forced Ba, Shu in the west, and served the court in the north. The situation there was a lot of affairs and insufficient time, which was easy to capture."

When the envoys who Zhou Baoquan asked for help came to the capital, Zhao Kuangyin was thinking about how to unify the world. At that time, Zhao Kuangyin had two plans, one was to first south and then north, and the other was to first north and then south.

First, south and then north, that is, first, we will march into the south with all our might and eliminate all the countries in the south. After unifying the south, we will send troops to the north to destroy the Northern Han Dynasty in the north and the Liao Kingdom in the north.

First north and then south, that is, to lead the army to fight north, first destroying the Northern Han and Liao Kingdoms, and then destroying the southern countries.

The two plans have their own advantages and disadvantages. It is easier to implement them first, south and then north. After all, the strength of the south is weak, and the Liao Kingdom in the north is very strong. Zhao Kuangyin was very troubled by this and hesitated. In the end, he chose to seek help from Zhao Pu. On a snowy winter night, Zhao Kuangyin and his younger brother Zhao Guangyi quietly came to Zhao Pu's home to drink. While drinking, the three of them discussed the plan to unify the world. Zhao Pu suggested adopting the strategy of first south and then north, first easy and then difficult, and the strategic policy of the Northern Song Dynasty unifying the world was concluded.

Since the strategy has been formulated, Zhao Kuangyin will start to implement this strategy. Looking at the entire south, there are seven separatist regimes of all sizes, occupying Wu Yue.

The Wuyue Kingdom, which was in the land, was the Qingyuan Army of Zhang and Quanzhou, the Southern Tang Kingdom, which dominated the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, the Gao family Jingnan Kingdom, which had been entrenched in Jiangling for many years, the Meng family Houshu Kingdom, which owned the two rivers, occupied the Southern Han Kingdom in Guangxi, Guangdong, and the Wuping Army in Hunan.

Among these seven separatist regimes, naturally none of them could confront the Northern Song Dynasty in terms of military strength, but Zhao Kuangyin was considering how to complete the cause of unification at the lowest cost and in the shortest time. If he could not seize the time, Zhao Kuangyin was worried that he would not be able to complete the cause of unification in his lifetime. Everything was difficult at the beginning, and how to choose the first goal was very critical, which would determine the ultimate success of the cause of unification.

Just when Zhao Kuangyin was taking the lead in choosing which goal, what happened in the south attracted his attention. In October of the third year of Jianlong, Zhou Xingfeng, the governor of the Wuping Army in Hunan, died of illness, and his successor was Zhou Baoquan, the eleven-year-old son of Zhou Xingfeng. In November of the same year, Gao Baoxu, the governor of Jingnan, died of illness, and the successor was his nephew, Gao Jichong, who was twenty years old. Both of them succeeded to the throne at a young age, which made Zhao Kuangyin unable to help but be moved. However, on the surface, Zhao Kuangyin still recognized the status of Zhou Baoquan and Gao Jichong very friendly and generously.

The first goal of attack seemed to gradually emerge. However, before Zhao Kuangyin started, he planned to find a high-sounding excuse for sending troops. With the strong strength of the Song Dynasty, he would hit anyone he wanted to fight. In fact, there was no excuse. Zhao Kuangyin just wanted to gain a foothold in the moral morality of sending troops and avoid being criticized by later generations. Soon, someone took the initiative to help Zhao Kuangyin solve this excuse problem.

In December of the third year of Jianlong, Zhao Kuangyin received two letters from Hunan at the same time. One was written by Zhang Wenbiao, the governor of Hengzhou. The main content was that he originally went to Langzhou to attend the funeral. When he passed by Changsha, he was treated unfairly by Liao Jian, the queen of Changsha. Therefore, he launched a mutiny, not a rebellion, and hoped to surrender to the Northern Song Dynasty. The other was a letter of help from Zhou Baoquan, the governor of Wuping Army, saying that Zhang Wenbiao, the governor of Hengzhou, rebelled and hoped that the Northern Song Dynasty could send troops to help the Wuping Army suppress Zhang Wenbiao's rebellion.

Of course, Zhao Kuangyin could distinguish right from wrong. Zhou Baoquan had just succeeded to the throne, so how could he betray the Northern Song Dynasty? Zhang Wende was dissatisfied with management and rebellion was very likely. After receiving these two letters, Zhao Kuangyin smiled and sent troops to his door automatically on the excuse of sending troops. The first goal had been determined. However, the first prey that Zhao Kuangyin considered was not the Wuping Army in Hunan.

If you want to attack Hunan, you must pass through Jingnan. With Jingnan's strength, it is impossible to fight against the Northern Song Dynasty. Zhao Kuangyin planned to play a good show of killing two birds with one stone and killing Guo. He wanted to destroy Jingnan first and then take Hunan.

In the first month of the first year of Qiande, Zhao Kuangyin carried out a series of dazzling dispatches. First, he arranged for the envoy Zhao Shu to Changsha to appease Zhang Wenbiao and prevent Zhang Wenbiao from making trouble. Zhao Kuangyin's military deployment was: Murong Yanzhao, the governor of Shandong Dongdao and the chief of the Secretariat, as the chief of Hunan Daoxing, Li Chuyun, the deputy envoy of the Privy Council, and led the governor of the Chizhou Prefecture Yin Chongke, the governor of Shenzhou Nie Zhang, and the governor of Yingzhou Zhao Chongjin, the governor of Sifangguan, the governor of Sifangguan, Zhang Jixun, the envoy of the Rain Yuan, Kang Yanze, the deputy envoy of Neijiufang, and Lu Huaizhong, and others to the southern expedition. At the same time, the troops from the ten prefectures gathered in Xiangyang and set off for the expedition together.

With such a super luxurious lineup to deal with Jingnan and Hunan, it is inevitable that people will make a big fuss and use a slaughter to kill chickens. However, Zhao Kuangyin was not at all easy. This was his first battle to unify the world, and he must show his momentum and majesty.

If a war is not good, the following war will be difficult to fight.

Zhao Kuangyin then said to Murong Yanzhao and other generals who went on the expedition: "Jingnan is a fragmented place. Now he sends troops to Hunan, uses Jingzhou, and pacify Jingzhou and take Changsha. This is a foolproof plan." Murong Yanzhao and others naturally took the order and left.

Soon Li Chuyun led his army to Xiangzhou, sent Ding Deyu to the envoy Gao Jichong and told Zhao Kuangyin's will, and said to him. Gao Jichong was sent 3,000 naval troops and ordered his personal school Li Jingwei to advance to Changsha. At this time, Ding Deyu arrived and explained the situation to him. Gao Jichong then summoned his subordinates to discuss, and the general Sun Guangxian said: "The Central Plains countries have already had the ambition to unify the world since the reign of Emperor Shizong of Zhou. Now the Song lord is ambitious. It is better to surrender with his territory as soon as possible, so that he can avoid disaster. The lord will not lose his wealth."

Gao Jichong was hesitant for a moment and went to discuss secretly with his uncle Gao Baoyin. Gao Baoyin said, "It's better to prepare cattle wine and go to see their strengths and weaknesses in the name of rewarding the master, and then make a decision." Gao Jichong said, "Then please ask your uncle to go there."

Gao Jichong then sent his uncle Gao Baoyin to give beef to the Song Dynasty army in Jingmen draft and reconnaissance of the strength of the Song army. Li Chuyun received Gao Baoyin with higher etiquette. Gao Jichong heard about this situation and thought nothing was wrong.

That night, Murong Yanzhao summoned Gao Baoyin to drink in the military tent. Li Chuyun secretly sent a light cavalry to advance. Gao Jichong was still waiting for Gao Baoyin to return. Suddenly, he heard that the king's army had arrived, and he was afraid that they would all come out to greet him. He met Li Chuyun fifteen miles north of Jiangling.

Li Chuyun met Gao Jichong and asked him to wait for Murong Yanzhao, and led his personal soldiers to enter Jiangling City first. By the time Gao Jichong returned to the city, the Song army had occupied various key junctions in the city respectively. Gao Jichong was very scared, so he sent a surviving guest to submit a surrender to Song Taizu. Zhao Kuangyin accepted the surrender and appointed Wang Renshan as the inspector of Jingnan Capital, and appointed Gao Jichong as the governor of Jingnan. Gao Jichong's relatives and ministers were appointed as officials at all levels, and Sun Guangxian was appointed as the governor of Huangzhou.

First, we will talk about the situation of the Song army, and then talk about the situation of the Wuping Army in Hunan at this time. Yang Shifu, with Zhou Baoquan's expectations, embarked on the journey to fight against Zhang Wenbiao. At the beginning of the war, Zhang Wenbiao's army showed strong combat power. The two sides fought many times near Yiyang. Yang Shifu was unfavorable in the initial battle and was at a disadvantage.

However, Zhou Baoquan's inspiring speech before the expedition played a role at a critical moment. Although the Langzhou Army suffered a slight defeat, it was still full of morale, stable morale, and fearless of the enemy. The two sides were in a stalemate at Pingjinting, northwest of Yiyang, and the situation began to become beneficial to the Langzhou Army. After all, Zhang Wenbiao's army was a rebel, and the people's hearts were floating and chaotic. If the battle could not be resolved quickly, the morale of the army would be disintegrated.

Yang Shifan was waiting for this opportunity. With less than half a month of stalemate, Yang Shifan encouraged the entire army and launched a full-scale counterattack against Zhang Wenbiao's rebels, defeating Zhang Wenbiao at Pingjinting. Zhang Wenbiao led the remnants to escape into Changsha City, but Yang Shifan took advantage of the victory to pursue him and once again broke through Changsha City and captured Zhang Wenbiao alive. A huge rebellion was easily suppressed and settled. Yang Shifan, who was usually unknown, became the number one hero of the Wuping Army at the critical moment. Zhou Xingfeng did not misjudgment.

If you want to know what happens next, please listen to the next breakdown!
Chapter completed!