History of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms

Chapter 1042 The spring breeze blows again

The trauma of Shu was never thoroughly and effectively soothed from Taizu to Taizong. Soon after Zhenzong ascended the throne, the historical problems developed into real problems and continued to plague the new emperor.

Because of the "Wang Xiaobo and Li Shun Rebellion", the imperial court downgraded Chengdu Prefecture to Yizhou, and appointed Fu Zhaoshou as the governor of Yizhou. "Governor" means the local top leader, which can be simply understood as "Jiedushi".

When it comes to Fu Zhaoshou, perhaps no one knows him, but his family is very famous: his father is Fu Yanqing, and his grandfather is Fu Cunshen (Li Cunshen, adopted son of Li Keyong); he has three sisters, the eldest and the second married Chai Rong respectively, and the third married Zhao Guangyi.

Three generations of the family were famous generals, and all three daughters became queens. History books say that the Fu family was "unparalleled in the modern times".

However, this Fu Zhaoshou was a disgrace to the family. He was a complete playboy and a dissolute man. He was able to rule Sichuan and Shu entirely because of his family connections. After all, he was the uncle of Emperor Zhenzong Zhao Heng.

As the governor of Yizhou, Fu Zhaoshou was responsible for healing the wounds of war, easing conflicts between officials and the people, repairing the rift between the local government and the central government, and restoring order. However, Fu Zhaoshou completely let it go. What did he do? Answer: Promote Shu brocade. Let's take a look at his specific actions:
"Gathering many brocade workers, weaving fine and beautiful products", he became a manufacturer of Shu brocade, but - here comes the point - it was produced at zero cost. The raw materials needed were obtained by fraud through credit. At first, it was still "fraud", but later it was simply robbed. He didn't pretend anymore and showed his cards. These dirty jobs were assigned to his troops and let the soldiers do it. He just sat at home and waited to count the money. It didn't take long for his soldiers to complain. After all, they were soldiers, not bandits, and they were determined to defend their country, not rob houses.

Now let’s look at the second-in-command in Sichuan and Shu regions—Niu Mian, the governor of Yizhou. He can be described in five words as “lax and unconcerned with government affairs.” He doesn’t care about anything and is just another hands-off boss.

So who actually managed the affairs of Chengdu (at this time it should be called "Yizhou")? Wang Jun, the Du Yuhou, and Dong Fu were in charge of the army in Chengdu. Dong Fu was upright, strict in military discipline, and generous in treatment; Wang Jun was the opposite, with some of the temperament of Fu Zhaoshou and Niu Mian, lacking discipline over his subordinates. In order to win over his subordinates, Wang Jun indulged them in alcoholism and gambling, encouraged them to spend ahead of time, and squandered all the military pay.

In December of the second year of Xianping (999), Fu Zhaoshou and Niu Mian held a grand military parade in the eastern suburbs of Chengdu, and people from all over the country came to watch. As a result, they saw the fun. Although the military pay and rewards were the same, the two scenes of the troops were extremely contrasting:

Coming towards them were Dong Fu's troops. Their helmets and armors were shining, their military appearance was neat, and the soldiers were full of energy and high morale. Their steps were sonorous and powerful. The background music was the "March of the Iron Torrent", which could be called the imperial guard of honor.
The troops led by Wang Jun came next. They were pale and thin, with ragged clothes. The soldiers were listless and unmotivated, and they walked unsteadily. The background music was "Erquan Yingyue". They were like a delegation of beggars' sects...

The people pointed and whispered, which broke Wang Jun's defense. They turned their anger to Dong Fu's troops, and cursed them on the spot.

A few days later, it was the Spring Festival of the third year of Xianping (1000). On the first day of the first lunar month, officials of all ranks gathered at the Chengdu government office to congratulate Fu Zhaoshou and others on the New Year, but Fu Zhaoshou did not show up for a long time. After waiting for a long time, they were shocked: there was a mutiny!
A soldier named Zhao Yanshun (a garrison soldier) actually launched a mutiny, killed Fu Zhaoshou, and led his men to occupy the armory, distributing weapons and armor to everyone.

The officials were horrified and fled in all directions. The prefect Niu Mian and the transport commissioner Zhang Shi escaped from the city walls by rope, but only the inspector Liu Shaorong bravely resisted.

Zhao Yanshun was just an ordinary soldier, and he was very self-aware, so he led the people to elect Liu Shaorong as their leader.

Liu Shaorong put away his bow and angrily shouted, "I am originally a Huaqiao (a native of Youzhou in Liao), I have abandoned the dark and joined the light, and submitted to the imperial court. How can I be in league with you today? I will never submit to you even if I die!"

Zhao Yanshun did not have the courage to kill Liu Shaorong for the time being, so he could only detain him and wait for him to change his mind and join the dark side.

The news of the mutiny soon reached Wang Jun. Wang Ze, the chief eunuch, hurried to find Wang Jun and said, "Look at what your subordinates have done! Go and deal with it quickly."

Wang Jun rushed to the crime scene. Zhao Yanshun was overjoyed when he saw his boss coming to guide the work. He then led the crowd to escort Wang Jun into the city and elected him as the leader.

Maybe Wang Jun really just wanted to calm things down at first, but the atmosphere was so tense that it seemed inappropriate not to say a few words to suit the situation. Wang Jun asked his close subordinate, the commander Sun Jin, if he was willing to join the group.

Sun Jin refused to comply and was killed on the spot.

He also heard that Liu Shaorong was also a man of integrity, so he strangled Liu Shaorong to death.

Afterwards, Wang Jun, who was too immersed in the role, did something big - he founded a country and became emperor!
Wang Jun took control of Chengdu, changed the country's name to "Da Shu" and the era name to "Hua Shun". The first thing he did after the founding of the country was to lead his people to attack Hanzhou. Niu Mian and other high-ranking officials abandoned the city and fled. A massive separatist rebellion broke out in Sichuan and Shu. After winning the first victory of the "founding war" in Hanzhou, Wang Jun led his troops to attack Mianzhou, but it was unfavorable. He then turned around and attacked Jianmen Pass, but it was unfavorable again, so he fled back to Chengdu in shame by taking a shortcut.

This connects to the previous point. During the Spring Festival holiday in the third year of Xianping (1000), Zhenzong received a series of memorials stating that the Khitan had withdrawn their troops and that the Shu people had usurped the throne and proclaimed themselves emperor. This was one of the reasons why the Song army did not dare to pursue the retreating Liao army.

After Wang Jun launched a rebellion, Yang Huaizhong, the governor of Shuzhou, recruited soldiers to fight the rebellion without waiting for an imperial edict. He recruited local militia and joined forces with patrol teams from neighboring states to fight the rebellion. At that time, Wang Jun was leading the main force to attack Jianmen Pass. Yang Huaizhong took advantage of the opportunity to attack the north gate of Chengdu and burnt the inner city. However, he failed in the battle and had to retreat.

In fact, this small detail can explain a lot of problems. Yang Huaizhong was brave, knowledgeable and courageous, but he could only temporarily recruit militia (village soldiers) and borrow patrol teams (inspection soldiers) from neighboring states. At best, it was a team of police, urban management, and migrant workers. Of course, the combat effectiveness was far less than that of the bandits who were mainly regular troops.

This was one of the drawbacks of Taizu's reforms. It weakened the local army too much, leaving the elite troops in the imperial guards. Even if the imperial guards were stationed in the local area, local officials could not mobilize them. Therefore, once the local army (Wang Jun) rebelled, they could only hope that the imperial court would send heavenly soldiers and generals (imperial guards), and the local counties and prefectures were simply unable to suppress them. Therefore, later on, when suppressing the heroes of Liangshan, Gao Taiwei had to lead the imperial guards to come and die.

After the defeat, Yang Huaizhong was not discouraged. He regrouped and sent an edict to seven states including Jiazhou and Meizhou, and assembled a team mainly composed of militia. At that time, Wang Jun sent Zhao Yanshun to attack Qiongzhou and Shuzhou. Yang Huaizhong fought with him and slightly repelled the bandit army. Then he lined up his troops with his back to the water at a strategic location. After a fierce battle, the bandit army retreated. Yang Huaizhong took advantage of the victory to pursue them all the way to 7 miles south of Chengdu.

Yang Huaizhong learned from the last lesson and did not attack the city by force. Instead, he set up camp on the spot and waited for reinforcements from the royal army. Wang Jun also did not dare to go out to fight and stayed indoors.

"Come in if you can."

"Come out if you can."

With Yang Huaizhong's ability to judge the situation and his resolute struggle, the bandit forces were curbed to a certain extent.

At the same time, the imperial court's reinforcements were also deployed in time. The commander-in-chief of the anti-bandit movement, Lei Youzhong, stationed his troops outside Chengdu and blocked Wang Jun in the city. The inspector general Zhang Sijun recovered Hanzhou. The balance of the war began to shift to the imperial army.

Under tremendous military pressure, Wang Jun broke out of the city and fled.

Lei Youzhong was overjoyed and hurriedly led his army into the city with Shangguan Zheng, Shi Pu and others to seize the credit for suppressing the bandits. Only Li Jichang felt that something was fishy and advised Lei Youzhong to be cautious and not fall into the bandits' evil plan.

"The enemy troops are trapped in the city and have been defeated repeatedly. The city will fall soon. They can only run away. How can they come up with evil plans?" Lei Youzhong scoffed at Li Jichang's suggestion, thinking that he was too cautious and almost pedantic, so he ordered to enter the city and take over immediately.

Li Jichang did not follow the main force, but led his troops back to the camp to prepare for battle.

Lei Youzhong's government troops evoke our earliest memories. At this time, the government troops of the Song Dynasty were exactly the same as the government troops of the Tang Dynasty at the beginning of this book. They had no skills to resist the enemy and had ways to disturb the people. Their purpose of rushing into the city was not to drive out the bandits, but to take advantage of the chaos to plunder the people. Once the cannon sounded, there would be thousands of taels of gold. Since they had come, how could they not buy them for free?
As expected, this was Wang Jun's trick. When the government troops entered the city and robbed the people, the city gates were suddenly closed and the main roads were blocked by various roadblocks. When Lei Youzhong realized that the situation was not good, Wang Jun had already started his massacre. The government troops were killed and thrown to the ground. They were in chaos and could not organize an effective resistance.

Senior generals such as Lei Youzhong had to escape from the city walls by ropes and flee to Hanzhou in a hurry, while the soldiers who followed him into the city were almost wiped out.

Just like Huang Chao's surprise attack in Chang'an, Wang Jun, who regained control of Chengdu, also wielded a ruthless butcher knife against the people in the city. All those who were "pro-Song" or suspected of having "pro-Song" tendencies were dismembered in public to intimidate the people and force them to join his army. In addition, the frenzied Wang Jun also forced monks to join the rebel army. "The young and strong people of the people, monks and Taoists are all soldiers." Wang Jun tattooed their arms and faces, cut their hair, and distributed the rebel army uniforms to mix them into the old troops. In this way, "everyone is a soldier", and no one can tell whether they are rebels or civilians, cutting off their way to join the government army.

Lei Youzhong posted notices everywhere, announcing the court's consistent policy of "punishing only the main culprits and not asking about the rest", and hundreds of "bandit soldiers" came to surrender every day. At the same time, Lei Youzhong, Yang Huaizhong and others strengthened the defense construction of the Hanzhou base on the one hand, and set up strongholds and fortresses in various dangerous and key areas on the other hand, transforming the small encirclement of Chengdu City into a large regional encirclement.

Thanks to my old friend "Mr. Beiguan" for his monthly ticket support!



(End of this chapter)