History of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms

Chapter 114 Defeat Each One
This was the most serious crisis Li Keyong had faced since returning to the Central Plains. The central government and local vassal states joined hands to plot the division of Hedong. Around Taiyuan Prefecture in Hedong were four large army groups that were eyeing the area covetously:
To the west: the Central Imperial Army led by Prime Minister Zhang Jun and the Guanxi Army Group including Jingnan, Fengxiang, Baoda, Dingnan, etc.
South: Zhu Wen's allied forces from Xuanwu, Yicheng, Heyang and other vassal states;

To the east: the coalition forces of Chengde, Weizhou and Yichang led by Wang Rong and Luo Hongxin;
Northeast: Lulong Army led by Li Kuangwei;
To the north: the Datong Army led by Helian Duo and tens of thousands of allied forces including the Tibetan tribes and the Khitan Khanate.

Commander-in-chief Zhang Jun was full of vigor and vitality, wearing a feather fan and a long scarf. Li Keyong, don't you look down on me? Today I will show you what I can do. Look, I only used a few words to attract almost all the powerful vassals, including those in the Central Plains, Guanxi, and Heshuo... A single spit from each of them could turn Taiyuan Prefecture into a swamp. Are you afraid?
Li Keyong, you don't need to panic. All reactionaries are paper tigers. At first glance, the expeditionary coalition forces look like fierce tigers, but in fact they are a mob of sick cats. Each of them has his own trumpet, each plays his own tune, and has his own little calculations.

Therefore, Li Keyong's strategy to repel the enemy was to defeat them one by one.

For example, the Zhengdong Front Army raised its price before the war and blackmailed the court, demanding that the court recognize Lu Yanwei.

Five years ago, the Yichang army in Cangzhou mutinied, and the governor of Dezhou, Lu Yanwei, expelled the governor Yang Quanmei and claimed to be the governor of Yichang, but the court did not recognize him. Now, Wang Rong of Chengde and Luo Hongxin of Wei Bo took the opportunity of sending troops to bring up the old matter again, and the court had no choice but to agree for the sake of united front work.

Eliminating Li Keyong was not the real demand of Wang Rong and other Hebei towns. On the contrary, they needed to keep Li Keyong. They just wanted to maintain the status quo, achieve regional balance, let Helian Duo contain Li Keyong, build a buffer zone with Yunzhou and Datong, so that Li Keyong's sphere of influence would stop at Taihang Mountains, thus ensuring that the Hebei towns would not be invaded by him.

As for weakening Li Keyong, Zhu Wen and the Central Army were enough. So after the Eastern Front Army successfully blackmailed the court, it just made a lot of noise without taking any action and did not engage in battle at all.

The Eastern Front Army is a non-existent organization, with only professional actors.

Only Helian Duo of the Northern Front Army wanted to kill Li Keyong the most. Therefore, Helian Duo was the first to join the battle and fought very seriously. At the beginning of the war, he achieved impressive results and occupied some places in the northeast of the Yellow River such as Weizhou.

But these places were not Li Keyong's core interests. Although the Northern Front Army advanced rapidly, it only hurt Li Keyong's skin and fur without touching his muscles, bones and internal organs.

Helian Duo fired the first shot of the war.

Li Keyong sent his adopted son Li Cunxin to the north. Li Cunxin was one of Li Keyong's most proud adopted sons. He was brave and good at fighting, and his reputation was second only to Li Cunxiao. Li Cunxin and Li Cunxiao were quite similar to Zhu Zhen and Li Tangbin (please remember this metaphor).

Li Cunxin barely managed to hold on, and the results were not ideal, so Li Keyong sent another adopted son, Li Siyuan, to help out and serve as Li Cunxin's deputy.

With the help of Li Siyuan, Li Cunxin finally defeated the Northern Front Army and captured Li Kuangwei's son and Helian Duo's son-in-law alive.

Li Siyuan was cautious, honest, calm, honest and frugal. After defeating Helian Duo and Li Kuangwei, Li Cunxin and other generals boasted about their achievements and showed off their bravery and strategy at the celebration banquet, but Li Siyuan remained silent. When the generals were tired of boasting, Li Siyuan slowly said: "You like to kill the enemy with your mouth, but I like to use my hands." So the generals felt ashamed and stopped boasting.

Please remember this low-key and introverted comrade Li Siyuan, he will also ascend to the throne in the future.

After Li Keyong eliminated the threats from the east and north, the coalition forces from the west and south were able to barely form combat effectiveness.

For example, Zhu Wen of the Zhengnan Front Army.

Taking advantage of the mutiny in Luzhou, Zhu Wen sent General Ge Congzhou to lead a thousand elite troops to march overnight into the city to assist in defense; he ordered Zhang Quanyi, the governor of the Youguo Army, and his eldest son Zhu Youyu to lead follow-up troops to reinforce Ge Congzhou; he also sent Li Dan and other generals to attack Zezhou in order to contain Hedong and prevent it from reinforcing Luzhou.

In order to fully encircle and suppress Li Keyong, Zhu Wen made a pragmatic decision: temporarily abandon Huainan and recommend Sun Ru as the governor of Huainan. He instigated Sun Ru and Yang Xingmi to continue fighting for Huainan, so that they would consume their strength and have the opportunity to intervene in Huainan affairs in the future.

Zhu Wen's control over Huainan was in name only. Although he was the governor in name only, he never gained actual control.

In order to commend Zhu Wen for his noble character in voluntarily resigning from the post of Jiedushi of Huainan, the court appointed Zhu Wen as Jiedushi of Yicheng Army in Huazhou concurrently.

In fact, the Yicheng Army in Huazhou had long been Zhu Wen's sphere of influence. After Zhu Zhen left Huazhou on a snowy night, Zhu Wen recommended his confidant Hu Zhen as the governor of the Yicheng Army. Hu Zhen was Zhu Wen's direct subordinate and had been his subordinate when he was in the Cao Army. Zhu Wen's decision to rebel against Qi and surrender to Tang was inseparable from Hu Zhen's active operation. Zhu Wen was "upright and upright", and the court "borrowed flowers to offer to Buddha", disgusting each other.

In order to avoid his father's taboo, Zhu Wen requested the court to change the name of Yicheng Army to Xuanyi Army, and the court approved his request.

By abandoning Huainan, which was a useless thing, Zhu Wen could concentrate all his efforts on dealing with Li Keyong.

After Zhu Wen took control of Luzhou, he immediately reported the good news to the court and pretended to request the court to appoint senior officials to take over Luzhou.

This was just a superficial statement, to show that he was dispatching troops on the orders of the emperor, and that the attack on Li Keyong was not out of personal gain, so after taking Luzhou, he would naturally offer it to the court. The court would of course go along with it, "Well, why send someone else? I'll trouble you to take care of it for me."

This is a general procedure, just like Zhu Wen's resignation from Huainan and the court's gift to Yicheng. It is the tacit understanding that should exist between the central and local governments.

However, Zhang Jun, who was ambitious but incompetent, unceremoniously appointed Sun Kui, the deputy commander-in-chief, as the governor of Zhaoyi Army. Zhang Jun, regardless of his appearance, hastily allocated 3,000 soldiers and horses to escort Sun Kui to Luzhou to take over the fruits of Zhu Wen's victory.

The bookworm Sun Kui obviously did not understand the political intrigues and did not correctly comprehend Zhang Jun's painstaking efforts. Sun Kui, with his official authority and airs, went to Luzhou in a leisurely manner to show the majesty of the court.

Master Sun was wearing gorgeous and majestic official uniform, sitting in a luxurious carriage with a tall umbrella canopy, surrounded by people, looking majestic. He also ordered the guard of honor to hold high the banner of "Deputy Commander-in-Chief of the Expedition and Suppression" and the imperial seal bestowed on him by the emperor. As the leader of the team, he marched slowly towards Luzhou.

This is not a new official taking office in a peaceful period, this is a war period where people are fighting for territory and snatching meat from the wolf's mouth.

Sun Kui successfully attracted the enemy's attention. Li Cunxiao, the most powerful general in Hedong, ambushed him with 300 cavalrymen and successfully captured Sun Kui, the eunuch Han Guifan, and more than 500 guards alive. The rest of the officers and soldiers were slaughtered by Li Cunxiao.

Li Cunxiao handcuffed and shackled Sun Kui and others, tied them around their necks with plain ropes, and led them to the foot of Luzhou City like dogs, letting the defenders watch. He shouted to the top of the city wall: "The new governor Sun Kui has come to take over Luzhou. Here are the official seals and official documents. Tell Ge Congzhou that it's time for you to go home."

This put Zhu Wen in a very passive position.

Li Cunxiao presented Sun Kui to Li Keyong. Li Keyong used both kindness and force to lure Sun Kui to surrender and make him his deputy governor of Hedong, so that he could be a political vase.

Although Sun Kui was pedantic and bureaucratic, he was also a man of steel. Facing Li Keyong's soft and hard tactics, Sun Kui said righteously, "I am a high-ranking official appointed by the current emperor. It is natural for me to be killed after a military defeat. How can I condescend to serve a small local official?"

Li Keyong was furious, "Is it easy to die? Come, saw him off for me!"

The skin is elastic and the executioner cannot saw into it effectively.

Sun Kui cursed: "You uneducated dog slave! You should use a splint when sawing people."

Under Sun Kui's instruction, the executioner clamped him firmly with two wooden boards before sawing him in smoothly with the iron saw. Sun Kui was calm and composed, and he cursed till his death. What a real man.

Sun Kui created a trouble for Zhu Wen by being captured foolishly, and then solved it by sacrificing himself heroically.

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(End of this chapter)