In September of the seventh year of Kaibao, Emperor Taizu of Song, Zhao Kuangyin, issued an edict to suppress the Southern Tang Dynasty and sent generals Cao Bin and Pan Mei to lead 100000 troops down the river. The ruler of Southern Tang was none other than the late emperor Li Yu. Although he had a cowardly personality, Southern Tang’s military strength was not bad, with hundreds of thousands of troops. In addition, Li Yu also held a secret weapon in his hand, which could be regarded as the “black technology” of that time. But no one expected that this secret weapon not only failed to eliminate the Song army, but also destroyed the 150000 strong army of Southern Tang. What was going on? Interested readers and history encyclopedia editors, let’s take a look together!
On the seventh day of the first lunar month in the eighth year of Kaibao, Cao Bin’s army advanced straight to the outskirts of Jiangning, the capital city of Southern Tang. The two sides engaged in a major battle, and the Song army achieved a great victory with fire attacks, annihilating tens of thousands of Southern Tang soldiers. On the second day of June, Cao Bin defeated 20000 soldiers from the Southern Tang and seized thousands of warships. Li Yu, the later emperor, was very alarmed. On one hand, he sent people to Kaifeng to seek peace from Emperor Taizu of Song, Zhao Kuangyin. On the other hand, he sent people to recruit Zhu Lingyun, the military governor of the Zhennan Army in the Southern Tang Dynasty, to lead his army into aid.
In October of that year, under the urging of Li Yu, Zhu Lingyun finally mobilized and led the 150000 strong army of Southern Tang to set sail from Hukou and march towards Jiangning by boat. The navy of the Southern Tang Dynasty was very powerful, with large warships. They were tied to wooden rafts, over a hundred zhang long, and the largest warships could accommodate a thousand people. It can be said that this was the last hope of the Southern Tang Dynasty. After hearing the news, Song general Wang Ming reported to Zhao Kuangyin and requested the construction of three hundred warships to launch a surprise attack on Zhu Lingyun. But Zhao Kuangyin believed that “this was not an emergency measure, as Yun arrived day and night, and the siege of Jinling was lifted.
Zhao Kuangyin secretly ordered Wang Ming to erect many wooden stakes in the Yangtze River Zhoupu, resembling sails and masts, as a suspicious weapon. Zhu Lingyun was indeed tricked and dared not rashly advance again. At this time, the Yangtze River had entered a dry season, which was not conducive to the advance of large ships. However, under the urging of Li Yu, Zhu Lingyun continued to advance and arrived at Wankou, which is now near Anqing, Anhui. The commander of the Northern Song infantry army, Liu Yu, led his army to wait here and engaged in a major battle with the Southern Tang navy!
Although the warships of the Southern Tang Dynasty were larger and those of the Northern Song Dynasty were smaller, due to the large number of warships in the Northern Song Dynasty, they launched a siege on the Southern Tang navy, gathering arrows like hedgehogs. At this moment, in order to deal with the Northern Song navy, the Southern Tang navy used their secret weapon, which was the Fierce Fire Oil Machine! In fact, it is to use the characteristics of oil combustion, ignite it, and burn the enemy’s warships. “If you release too much oil, all the people will be corrupted, but water cannot extinguish them. In ancient China, fierce fire oil was considered the “strongest weapon of arson”.
At that time, only the Southern Tang and Wu Yue regimes had control over the Fierce Fire Oil, not even the Northern Song, so it was definitely considered Li Yu’s secret weapon. Zhu Lingyun ordered the soldiers to ‘prepare the actual tea, pour ointment and oil, intending to set fire to the ships of the Northern Song Dynasty with the wind’. If Zhu Lingyun can defeat Liu Yu’s navy, he can directly reach the city of Jiangning, cooperate internally and externally, defeat Cao Bin’s army, and rescue Southern Tang. Therefore, this battle can be said to have determined the fate of Southern Tang!
After the release of the fierce fire oil, it did indeed cause panic among the Song army, “Wang Shi cannot support”. But at this moment, the wind direction suddenly changed, ‘the north wind is raging, smoke and dust are rising high’, and the fierce fire oil actually ignited the warships of Southern Tang, triggering an unprecedented major defeat. The Song army took advantage of the situation and launched a fierce attack, capturing Ling Yun and the commander of the war, Yu Hou Wang Hui, with tens of thousands of soldiers, completely destroying the last military force of the Southern Tang.
The Battle of Wankou ended on October 19th, and a month later, the Song army captured Jiangning City without external assistance, declaring the downfall of the Southern Tang Dynasty. Fierce Fire Oil was unable to save Li Yu, but it destroyed his 150000 strong army due to a strong wind. However, the power demonstrated by the fierce fire oil was still recognized by the soldiers of the Song army. Afterwards, under the instruction of Emperor Taizu of Song, the “Fierce Fire Oil Production” was established, specifically responsible for the production of fierce fire oil machines.
