History of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms

Chapter 135 Who rules Huainan?
On this day, the sky was covered with dark clouds, making it difficult to distinguish between day and night. It was raining heavily. This was destined to be an extraordinary day.

Yang Xingmi concentrated his elite forces and launched a devastating attack on Sun Ru's army.

General An Renyi took the lead and captured more than 50 camps of Sun Ru in one go.

An Renyi was a Shatuo man who was good at using cavalry. He was born in the "Cai bandit" family and served as a general under Qin Zongheng, the younger brother of Qin Zongquan. When Sun Ru launched a mutiny and killed Qin Zongheng, he defected to Yang Xingmi's camp. Yang Xingmi treated him very well, and his status was higher than Tian Yu, making him the leader of all the generals. He also let him play to his strengths and command all the cavalry.

In this battle, An Renyi bravely took the lead and repaid his lord's appreciation with practical actions.

After the surprise attack, the communication between Sun Ru's camps was cut off, and he was unable to take care of himself. In the absence of a unified command, he suffered a tragic defeat. Sun Ru was also betrayed by his subordinates and abducted the troops of Yang Xingmi's general Tian Yu.

Sun Ru looked up and saw Liu Wei, so he sighed and said to Liu Wei: "I heard that it was you who gave Yang Xingmi this idea and defeated me. If I could get your assistance, I would not have ended up like this!"

Tian Yu beheaded Sun Ru on the spot, and most of Sun Ru's remaining forces surrendered to Yang Xingmi.

With the help of Qian Liu in Hangzhou, Yang Xingmi finally won the battle for Huainan, returned to Yangzhou and fulfilled his promise.

Yang Xingmi sent Sun Ru's head to the capital and recommended Tian Yu to garrison Xuanzhou and An Renyi to garrison Runzhou.

The court appointed Yang Xingmi as the governor of Huainan and gave him the title of prime minister; appointed Tian Yu as the temporary governor of Ningguo Army in Xuanzhou (formerly Xuanshe Road); and appointed An Renyi as the governor of Runzhou.

At this point, Yang Xingmi controlled the two towns of Huainan and Xuanshe.

Yangzhou was originally prosperous and wealthy, and its economic level was ranked first in the country. At that time, there was a saying, "Yangzhou is first, Yizhou is second." Yizhou is today's Chengdu, which is far away from the harassment of war in the Central Plains and is stable and prosperous.

Since the end of Gao Pian's rule, Bi Shiduo, Qin Yan, Sun Ru, and Yang Xingmi had been engaged in a long tug-of-war over the ownership of Huainan. When Yang Xingmi finally took control of Yangzhou, the Huainan region had already become desolate. Within a radius of more than a thousand miles, farmland was abandoned, walls were in ruins, and no one was seen.

Although he was in charge of two towns, Yang Xingmi had to face a depressed scene with a lot of work to be done.

Yang Xingmi first reorganized the army because he absorbed many of Sun Ru's old soldiers during the Battle of Xuanzhou and needed to digest and reorganize them. Many of Sun Ru's surrendered soldiers were "Cai thieves" because Sun Ru himself was born out of "Cai thieves" and these Caizhou soldiers were Sun Ru's direct lineage.

Yang Xingmi selected 5,000 strong and brave soldiers and gave them the title of "Heiyundu". They were given black uniforms and armor and received better pay than other troops. "Heiyundu" became Yang Xingmi's trump card regiment. Whenever they went into battle, they would be the first to attack and severely damage the enemy's morale.

It is said (according to Yang Xingmi himself) that whenever Yang Xingmi was alone, there was always a man in black standing by his side, so there was the name "Black Cloud City". Based on the materialist view of history, I firmly believe that this was Yang Xingmi taking advantage of the feudal superstition of the people to enhance cohesion. He made everyone believe that he had the help of gods and people, and that it would be right to follow him.

The man in black when he is alone is the emperor's new clothes.

Secondly, there are economic and financial measures.

Financial difficulties have always been a big problem that troubled Yang Xingmi. At the beginning of the uprising, Yang Xingmi's group basically relied on "financial fraud" to maintain the operation of the team. Later, in the tug-of-war with Sun Ru, he was always at a disadvantage and his income was not enough to make ends meet. He relied on the aid from Qian Liu in Hangzhou to barely maintain his operation.

Although they had swallowed up Sun Ru and occupied a large area of ​​territory, they did not get much direct benefits, and they also absorbed a large number of Sun Ru's remnants. These people needed to eat and to be paid. This made the already stretched Yang Xingmi group even worse. So Yang Xingmi wanted to use the common means at that time to alleviate the urgent need: "robbing" the people.

This kind of "robbery" is a kind of plundering under the guise of law and with administrative orders. It is slightly milder than Sun Ru's violent robbery. Many warlords at that time used it, and in fact, many warlords still used it until modern times. That is, the government came forward and forcibly exchanged tea, salt and other commodities for the currency of the people, forcing them to buy and sell at extremely unfair prices.

Yang Xingmi wanted to force the people to buy their cloth and silk at a low price, because at that time, cloth and silk, like gold and silver, were circulating currencies, not just ordinary commodities.

Before the Kuomintang reactionaries were defeated, they used methods such as indiscriminate issuance of legal tender and forced issuance of "Gold Yuan Coupons" to plunder the people's real gold and silver.

The times are different, the objects are different, but the principles are the same.

Gao Xu, one of Yang Xingmi's advisers, hastened to dissuade them, saying that Huainan was now ravaged by war and nine out of ten houses were empty. If we continue to exploit the people, they will become even more miserable, and we will inevitably repeat the mistake of Sun Ru, who was deserted by his friends and relatives. We might as well use these things to exchange goods with neighboring provinces and vassal states, make profits through legal business, subsidize military expenses, select capable county magistrates, and encourage farming. The Huainan area already has fertile land, and after a few years, the granaries will naturally be full.

Competing with the people for profit may only bring temporary pleasure, but will lose the people's hearts and the world. Killing the goose that lays the golden eggs and draining the pond to catch fish is absolutely unacceptable.

When General Tian Yu heard this, he was also very pleased and liked it and commented: "The wise man has foresight!"

Yang Xingmi adopted Gao Xu's suggestion and gave up the narrow-minded idea of ​​drinking poison to quench thirst. Instead, he focused on managing the Huainan region and developing the economy. He sent people to trade with neighboring vassals with tea, salt and other commodities. One of the officials, Tang Linghui, was ordered to carry more than 10,000 kilograms of tea to trade in Bianzhou, Songzhou and other places.

Friendly reminder, this is a foreshadowing. Bianzhou, Zhu Wen's territory.

【Sun Ru's Butterfly Effect】

Sun Ru's two capable generals, Liu Jianfeng and Ma Yin, were looting military supplies outside. When they heard the news that their lord had been captured and killed, they gathered more than 7,000 remnant soldiers and fled to Jiangxi. On the way, the generals elected Liu Jianfeng as the commander-in-chief, Ma Yin as the vanguard officer, and Zhang Ji as the military advisor. They recruited soldiers along the way, and when they arrived in Jiangxi, their army had grown to more than 100,000 people.

This group of Sun Ru's remnants made great strides in Jiangxi and created a niche for themselves. This will be described in detail later.

After hearing the news that Sun Ru had been killed, Luzhou Governor Cai Chou also took a shocking action: he dug up Yang Xingmi's ancestral grave.

Cai Chou was originally a direct subordinate of Yang Xingmi. He followed Yang Xingmi to start an uprising in Luzhou, defeated Qin Yan and Bi Shiduo, and settled in Yangzhou. At that time, Sun Ru's army was at its peak, and he led his army south to compete with Yang Xingmi for Yangzhou. Yang Xingmi knew that he could not win, so he evacuated Yangzhou in an orderly manner under the advice of his strategist Yuan Xi, and transported the baggage to Luzhou in advance to preserve his strength. Cai Chou was ordered to return to Luzhou to garrison.

Luzhou is the birthplace and place where Yang Xingmi rose to power. Transporting thousands of carts of food and supplies back to Luzhou and letting Cai Chou stay in Luzhou was enough to show Yang Xingmi's trust and support for him. If Yang Xingmi could be promoted from Luzhou Governor to Huainan Jiedushi, then Cai Chou would most likely take his place as the new Luzhou Governor and follow his lord's footsteps.

It can be said that as a direct subordinate of Yang Xingmi, Cai Chou originally had a bright future. However, he played a good hand badly.

Thanks to my old friend "纯正lsp" for his 12 recommendation votes! Tycoon, let's be friends
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(End of this chapter)