History of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms

Chapter 171 Li Juchuan Must Die
[Conquer Tonghua]

Zhu Wen led his troops to Hezhong and greatly intimidated the Guanxi Group with his overwhelming force.

Tong and Hua states are located to the east of Chang'an, on the north and south banks of the Wei River, supporting each other. The two states form the first line of defense of Chang'an and are the eastern gate of Chang'an. They face Hezhong Prefecture across the Yellow River and have an extremely important geographical location.

When Huang Chao occupied Chang'an, Zhu Wen guarded Tongzhou for him. He was persuaded to surrender by Wang Chongrong, the then governor of Hezhong, thus opening the gates to Chang'an and laying the foundation for the recovery of Chang'an.

Things have changed. Now Zhu Wen set out from Hezhong and also began to persuade the defenders of Tongzhou to surrender.

Sima Ye, the commander of the Kuangguo army in Tongzhou, was very good at reading the wind vane. He opened the city and surrendered without any persuasion.

Zhu Wen sent Sima Ye to lobby Han Jian, the commander of the Zhenguo Army in Huazhou (which had been upgraded to Xingde Prefecture at that time, but is still called by its old name for the convenience of narration) on the other side of the river.

Sima Ye brought Zhu Wen a message: If you cannot repent in time and surrender voluntarily, I will have to trouble my army to stay for a while outside your city. This was a naked military threat.

Verbal threats were far from enough. On the day Sima Ye went to persuade them to surrender, Zhu Wen led his army to cross the Wei River to the south and approached Huazhou.

Han Jian was also very good at changing his stance according to the situation. He sent his deputy governor and chief strategist Li Juchuan to surrender to Zhu Wen and presented him with 30,000 taels of silver as a token of his gesture.

Zhu Wen was on a roll and, without much fighting, he conquered the Tongzhou Kuangguo Army and the Huazhou Zhenguo Army. His power increased greatly and he headed west to Chang'an, where no one could stop him.

Zhu Wen led his troops westward and reached the western suburbs of Lingkou (now Lintong District, Xi'an City, Shaanxi Province). He was very close to Chang'an. He heard the news that Han Quanhui had hijacked the emperor and headed west, so he led his troops back to Chishui (west of Huazhou) and summoned his staff to discuss the next course of action.

Former Prime Minister Zhang Jun advised Zhu Wen that Han Jian was Li Maozhen's loyal lackey, and if they could not seize his military power today, there would be endless troubles!
So Zhu Wen collected and sorted out Han Jian's crimes, confiscated many letters and official documents, and found a lot of evidence that Han Jian was involved in the hijacking.

The evidence was overwhelming, and Zhu Wen was furious. He led his troops to the city of Huazhou and then executed Li Juchuan.

【Li Juchuan must die】

Zhu Wen returned with his army to question Han Jian, who was panicked and hurriedly rode out of the city alone to meet him.

Zhu Wen presented evidence and accused Han Jian of being disobedient and unrighteous.

Han Jian hurriedly defended himself, saying that he was an illiterate and could not read. All the memorials and letters were written by Li Juchuan, and he had no idea what he wrote meant. It was really unfair.

According to historical records, Zhu Wen immediately let go of his grudge, reconciled with Han Jian, and killed Li Juchuan. It is also said that Zhu Wen appreciated Li Juchuan's literary talent and wisdom and wanted to keep him for his own use. The great strategist Jing Xiang was jealous of Li Juchuan's talent and was afraid that Li Juchuan would be valued and he would fall out of favor, so he made false suggestions to Zhu Wen and asked him to kill Li Juchuan.

Han Jian, who was born in one of the "Eight Commanderies of Zhongwu", had fought side by side with Zhu Wen under the command of Yang Fuguang. They were comrades-in-arms and brothers, and had a very close personal relationship. So Zhu Wen came with an angry army to call him to account, but his anger disappeared as soon as they met. They addressed each other as brothers and talked about the past (his anger subsided immediately as soon as he saw him).

Han Jian and Zhu Wen did have a comradeship, so how about Zhu Zhen? Han Jian and Zhu Wen became sworn brothers, so how about Zhu Youyu's father-son relationship?

As for Jing Xiang's slander, was Jing Xiang a jealous person? Why is there no record in history that he harmed other people, but only Li Juchuan in his life?
I have no intention of vindicating Jing Xiang. I will just believe that even if Jing Xiang said something unpleasant out of jealousy, it was not the reason for Li Juchuan's death. The so-called "friendship" between Han Jian and Zhu Wen was not the reason for Li Juchuan's death.

Zhu Wen was an outstanding politician, and we have experienced this countless times before. Politicians never consider issues from the perspective of personal emotions. Abandoning personal love and hatred is the basic quality of being a politician. Politicians are always guided by interests.

The reason why Li Juchuan must die is that Han Jian cannot die.

Han Jian was from Xuzhou, and his family had been soldiers for generations. When Qin Zongquan first occupied Caizhou, he recruited soldiers and Han Jian enlisted in the army. He was gradually promoted to a junior officer. Later, he and his fellow villager Wang Jian, known as "Thief Wangba", were selected by Yang Fuguang, who had a keen eye for talent, and were incorporated into the "Eight Loyal Military Commanders" to go to the capital. After Yang Fuguang's death, Han Jian had no one to rely on, so he went to the exiled government of Emperor Xizong in Shu, and then followed Emperor Xizong back to Chang'an, where he was appointed as the governor of Huazhou.

At that time, Huazhou had experienced wars, and the population was scattered and in need of reconstruction. Although Han Jian was an uneducated rough man from the military, he was able to persuade people to learn farming and sericulture with all his heart, personally cleared the way for wasteland, planted fruit trees and other economic crops according to local conditions, and often went deep into the masses to investigate the sufferings of the people. Within a few years, the refugees gradually returned, and Huazhou became rich in military and civilians and prosperous. At that time, people compared Han Jian with Cheng Li in Jingnan, and praised them as "South Guo and North Han" (Cheng Li used the pseudonym Guo Yu at that time).

Afterwards, he was promoted to Jiedushi.

Han Jian had governed Huazhou for nearly 20 years and was very popular among the people. He had a deep mass base, good soldiers and sufficient food, and a strong city. This time he surrendered without a fight and sincerely submitted. In this case, if Zhu Wen forcibly killed the "model cadre" Comrade Han Jian, it would inevitably cause a strong backlash from the Huazhou Zhenguo Army and the Tongzhou Kuangguo Army. The people would complain about Zhu Wen's cruelty, the officials would be disheartened, and the soldiers would be afraid and resentful. Zhu Wen's ruling foundation in this place would be gone, and it would also greatly increase Zhu Wen's political cost.

Therefore, in order to gain a firm foothold in Huazhou, Zhu Wen must not touch Han Jian. Since Han Jian cannot die, he can only find a scapegoat. Li Juchuan was pushed forward by Han Jian, so he is the scapegoat.

Han Jian said that he was illiterate, which was neither a lie nor the truth. He was illiterate before. During his stay in Huazhou, he worked hard to learn cultural knowledge, and asked people to stick notes on utensils, beds, furniture and other items, using the method we use to learn foreign languages ​​today to recognize words. "After seeing them carefully, he gradually understood the characters."

He not only taught himself characters, but also studied music and history. He was already a Confucian general who was both civil and military. So to say that he was illiterate was to force the blame.

As for Li Juchuan, his death was not unjustified, he deserved it. Historical records record that he "led Jian to be disloyal day and night", of course, this was also Han Jian's scapegoating, but the disgusting "Record of Serving the King" was written by Li Juchuan, and he can never be vindicated.

Han Jian's cleverness lies in his ability to do public relations. As mentioned above, he always presents to the people a glorious and positive image of one of the top ten outstanding youths, a March 8th Red Flag Bearer, a May 1st Labor Medal winner, a model worker, an outstanding cadre, etc., and his reputation is very good. As for participating in the various rebellious behaviors of the Guanxi Group, he basically hides behind the scenes and never shows up. He always draws a clear line with the Guanxi rebels in a timely manner, and can also pose as a victim to gain sympathy.

Even though he had detained Emperor Zhaozong in Huazhou and created the "Sixteen Houses Massacre", he was later conferred the title of Taifu, promoted to Duke of Xu (Zhaozong was conferred the title of Prince of Yingchuan, Han Jian refused the title, so he was conferred the title of Duke of the State instead), granted a red-lettered iron certificate of immunity from death, granted the imperial handwriting of the word "loyalty", and Emperor Zhaozong personally painted a portrait for him, and conferred the title of "loyal minister who stabilizes the country"...

Han Jian should be the ancestor of the public relations industry.

Zhu Wen was older than Han Jian, but he respected Han Jian as his elder brother and treated him with great courtesy. After managing and digesting Huazhou for a period of time, he gradually stabilized the situation in Huazhou. Then Zhu Wen opened his heart to Han Jian and said, "Brother, you are from Xuzhou. So, I will do you a favor and let you return home in glory and show off in your hometown."

Zhu Wen appointed Han Jian as the military governor of Xuzhou Zhongwu Army and sent troops to escort him to the post. He promoted the former governor of Shangzhou to act as the governor of Huazhou and transferred Zhao Wei (Zhao Dun's third brother), the military governor of Xuzhou Zhongwu Army, to be the military governor of Tongzhou Kuangguo Army.

The stability of Tongzhou and Huazhou was the basis for Zhu Wen to fight for Chang'an. Now, after a series of personnel appointments and dismissals, the Tongzhou Kuangguo Army and Huazhou Zhenguo Army were also completely controlled by Zhu Wen.

Zhu Wen was getting closer and closer to Chang'an.

Thanks to old friends "Pure lsp" and "Favorite Smile" for their recommendation votes and support!
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(End of this chapter)