The emperor would rather have a

Chapter 15 Is the Son of Heaven a descendant? The one with the strongest soldiers and horses will be the emperor!

In the Battle of Gaoping, the Later Zhou army turned defeat into victory.

The fighting between the two sides continued until the afternoon. The Northern Han army was defeated and their weapons and armor were abandoned. The infantry surrendered to the Later Zhou in an organized manner.

But Liu Chong, the ruler of Northern Han, was worthy of being a local hero. Even when his army suffered a large-scale defeat, he was still able to gather more than 10,000 remaining Northern Han soldiers.

They also used mountain streams as barriers to confront the Later Zhou army.

It seems that Liu Chong has not given up completely and wants to make one last attempt, perhaps there is still a glimmer of hope.

At this time, the Later Zhou army also suffered heavy casualties, and after a series of battles, everyone was exhausted and could not launch any more attacks on the Northern Han army for a while.

In this way, the armies of both sides got a temporary respite.

Taking advantage of this gap, Chai Rong sent military clerks and personal guards to chase Fan Ainen and He Hui, asking them to return quickly with the escaped troops.

Unexpectedly, after sending several waves of people, there was no reply.

Until finally one of the personal guards escaped back to report that Fan and He did not believe that the Zhou army had won a great victory, and they even killed the person who chased after him to deliver the message.

When Chai Rong learned about this, he was so angry that he lost his composure and shouted that he wanted to cut Fan Ainen and He Hui into pieces and chop up their entire family and throw them into the river.

When Li Yi heard about this, he was speechless. These two guys must be seriously ill.

One was the commander-in-chief of the cavalry of the Imperial Guard, and the other was the commander-in-chief of the infantry of the Imperial Guard. They were the most powerful figures in the Imperial Guard Department, second only to Li Chongjin, the commander-in-chief of the Imperial Guard.

It can be said that he is on par with the commander-in-chief of the palace, Zhang Yongde.

Who could have imagined that these two guys would be so capable of deserting the battlefield?

What's more, both Fan and He were promoted rapidly before Guo Wei, the founding emperor of the Later Zhou Dynasty, was critically ill. Not only were they promoted, but they were also given the honorary title of Jiedushi.

Guo Wei treated the two of them extremely well.

If Chai Rong had not transferred Li Chongjin to the Imperial Guard after he ascended the throne and promoted his brother-in-law Zhang Yongde to take charge of the Palace Army.

Then Fan Ainen and He Hui actually possessed the greatest military power in the Later Zhou imperial guards.

At this time, the strength of the Palace Army was no match for that of the Imperial Guard.

It’s a pity that Guo Wei never realized until his death that these two guys were useless.

Fortunately, Chai Rong had the foresight to bring up his cousin and brother-in-law. Otherwise, if the Zhou imperial army fell into the hands of Fan and He, it would really be the end of them.

It is said that if one soldier is cowardly, the whole general will be cowardly. Fan Ainen and He Hui proved this to everyone with their actions.

……

"Damn it! People like this can become generals, but we brothers have to fight to the death to climb up. What a shitty world..."

Ma Renyu sat next to Li Yi, chewing some dry food, and couldn't help complaining a few words.

This guy rushed too hard when chasing the Northern Han army in the afternoon and was stabbed in the left arm. He had to withdraw from the battlefield due to his injury.

So he is now staying in the rear camp with Li Yi.

Li Yi helplessly raised his hand to wipe his face. This guy just talked, but his mouth was like a machine gun, spraying food crumbs everywhere.

He quietly moved aside and said, "If it weren't for this coward, we wouldn't have a chance to climb up, right?"

"That's right." Ma Renyu nodded in agreement and finally calmed down.

Li Yi turned to look at the emperor's ceremonial procession in the distance, took a bite of dry food, and suddenly felt thoughtful.

Fan Ainen and He Hui's actions were indeed outrageous, but when viewed in the context of the times, they seemed very reasonable.

During the Five Dynasties period, arrogant and powerful generals were capable of doing anything, and the fact that Fan and He fled from the battlefield was the least serious crime they had committed.

Remember that Du Chongwei, the brother-in-law of Shi Jingtang, the founding emperor of the Later Jin Dynasty, surrendered to the Khitan with an army of 100,000 without even fighting on the battlefield.

Isn’t this even more outrageous than Fan and He?
What's more, even more outrageous things have happened... Huangfu Hui, a soldier in Weizhou during the Later Tang Dynasty, was even more of a ruthless person.

He lost a lot of money gambling at night and was unhappy. With the mentality of making others feel unhappy, he led his men to try to force the commander to rebel. When the commander refused, he beheaded him. Then he recommended a lieutenant to lead the rebellion. When the lieutenant refused to obey, he was also beheaded.

It was not until Huangfu Hui brought the two heads to see the deputy general Zhao Zaili that the other party was frightened and had to agree.

And the impact of the Weizhou mutiny goes beyond this.

After the mutiny broke out, Zhuangzong Li Cunxu sent Li Siyuan to suppress it. Unexpectedly, Li Siyuan was jointly supported by his generals and the rebels as the leader halfway.

He immediately turned his troops around and counterattacked Luoyang, resulting in Li Cunxu being killed by mutinous soldiers.

Even Ouyang Xiu said in his New History of the Five Dynasties: "Zhuangzong's disaster began with Hui."

It can be said that Huangfu Hui indirectly killed Li Cunxu, who made Zhu Wen sigh, "I wish I had a son like Li Yazi."

This shows how unruly the warriors of the Five Dynasties period were.

Perhaps it is just as An Zhongrong, the military governor of Chengde during the Later Jin Dynasty, famously said: "Does the Son of Heaven have any kind of blood? He is the one with the strongest soldiers and horses!"

The moral principles and ethics of this era are all in chaos, and rebellion against superiors in the army has become commonplace.

The fact that Fan Ainen and He Hui did not turn against each other at the critical moment was already enough to give face to Chai Rong.

"By the way, I saw our boss when I came back just now." At this time, Ma Renyu suddenly spoke again.

Li Yi subconsciously asked, "What happened to Zhang Duzhi?"

"No, it was the commander of the royal capital..." Ma Renyu shook his head. "I saw him being carried back. He seemed to be seriously injured."

"I was ordered to follow him when we were chasing the Han army, but we all got separated while we were chasing him. I don't know how he got injured."

Li Yi thought Ma Renyu was talking about Zhang Maochang, the chief of the flag and ceremonial guards, but he didn't expect that he was talking about Wang Kuangye, the commander-in-chief of the inner palace.

However, the Dianqi Ceremonial Guard is under the Inner Palace Guard, so there is nothing wrong with saying that he is the leader of his group.

Li Yi didn't take this too seriously and casually replied, "Swords and guns are ruthless on the battlefield, so it's not surprising to be injured."

……

As dusk approached, Heyang Jiedushi Liu Ci arrived in time with the rear army, bringing with him some ridiculous news.

It turned out that Fan Ainen and He Hui ran into Liu Ci's rear army when they were leading the cavalry to flee back.

I don’t know if they were hungry because they didn’t bring any food, but they actually looted the logistics food and supplies along the way.

They also scared away and killed many servants who were responsible for transporting military supplies.

Fortunately, Liu Ci stopped the deserters from looting in time.

Seeing that they could not gain any advantage, Fan and He advised Liu Ci to stop moving forward and not to die.

He even threatened: "The Khitan reinforcements have arrived, the government troops have been defeated, and many people have been taken prisoner."

Liu Ci naturally didn't listen and continued to lead his troops forward, and only then arrived in time.

After hearing the news, Chai Rong, contrary to his usual behavior, did not get angry anymore, but everyone understood that the emperor would not let these two guys off easily.

After a short rest, the Later Zhou army launched a fierce attack on the remnants of the Northern Han army lined up on the other side of the mountain stream.

With the addition of the rear army led by Liu Ci, the battle became almost one-sided and the Northern Han army quickly collapsed.

Liu Chong, the ruler of Northern Han, was immediately disheartened. He even abandoned his imperial guards and fled north in panic with more than a hundred cavalrymen.

The Later Zhou army chased the defeated Northern Han soldiers all the way to more than ten miles north of Gaoping City. The bodies of Northern Han soldiers lay all over the mountains and plains, and the blood dyed the entire stream red.

Not only that.

The Later Zhou also captured thousands of soldiers from the Northern Han army, and seized a large amount of food, supplies, war horses and livestock.

In the end, this all-in gambling on the fate of the nation ended with Chai Rong's resounding victory...

(End of this chapter)