History of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms

Chapter 179 The Emperor Arrives in Fengxiang

A few days later, at the morning court, all the civil and military officials lined up and stood in silence, waiting for the imperial edict, but surprisingly found that there was no imperial edict. All the officials looked at each other in bewilderment. Suddenly, the eunuchs collectively shouted, "Han Wei refuses to write an imperial edict!" All the officials trembled, thinking that something had changed in the court. They broke out in cold sweats and dared not say a word.

Li Maozhen said loudly: "Your Majesty appointed a prime minister, but Han Wei dared to disobey the order and refused to write the imperial edict. How is this different from treason and rebellion?"

Zhaozong was inclined to Han Yu, so he said: "I have no objection to your recommendation of Wei Yifan; I also have no objection to the Hanlin academician's refusal to draft the imperial edict. Besides, Han Yu has explained it clearly in his memorial, so what is wrong with that?"

Li Maozhen was speechless. After the court was dismissed, he went to the prime minister's office and said to Prime Minister Su Jian, "The treacherous villains are forming cliques for personal gain, just the same as before!" He cried thief and sighed for a long time.

Li Maozhen thought he had lost face, but Wei Yifan shamelessly continued to seek personal gain, hoping to make a comeback through Li Maozhen's connections. Li Maozhen was extremely annoyed and asked his attendants to tell him: "I don't understand the red tape of you scholars, which makes me lose face. I will find a chance to place Wei Yifan in Bingzhou!" Wei Yifan then turned to other ways and attacked the eunuchs.

That month, Wei Yifan had indeed smoothed over all the links and, with the strong support of the eunuchs, was reappointed as prime minister. This time, Yao Li wrote the imperial edict.

According to convention, when the emperor appointed a prime minister, the prime minister should humbly decline the appointment, saying that he was not talented enough, lacked moral integrity, and was not qualified for the position. Only after the insistence of the ministers and the emperor could he accept the appointment.

However, Wei Yifan bypassed all these hypocritical and polite formalisms. After receiving the imperial edict, he immediately wrote a letter of thanks and hurriedly took up his post the next day.

That day was August 8. Just over two months later, on November 27, Prime Minister Wei Yifan died of illness in Fengxiang, the temporary seat of the imperial court. He wrote a shameless elegy with his short career.

During the brief period of mourning for his mother, Wei Yifan recommended two candidates to the court to succeed the prime minister, Yao Li and Su Jian, both of whom were also eunuchs and supported Li Maozhen.

In the face of huge temptation, Yao Li still kept a clear mind and knew his own strengths and weaknesses. He also knew that the "prime minister" at that time was just like the helpless Emperor Zhaozong, a puppet controlled by others, and he had to be ready to take the blame at any time, and his end would usually be miserable. So Yao Li first sought Han Wei's opinion.

Han Wei told him bluntly that it would be better not to accept the appointment, and reminded him not to forget that his entire family was in Chang'an, under the control of Zhu Wen, and that Zhu Wen's army was about to encircle Fengxiang. The eunuchs and the Guanxi Group were in danger, and what if...right, you should think about it carefully.

Therefore, Yao Li claimed that he was ill and unable to serve as prime minister.

Subsequently, Su Jian became prime minister.

[Siege of Fengxiang]

After Zhu Wen was relieved from the siege of Taiyuan, he returned to Hezhong to rest. Prime Minister Cui Yin personally went to Hezhong to urge Zhu Wen to attack Fengxiang. He tearfully accused Zhu Wen of the various despicable and disloyal acts of the eunuchs, and said that Li Maozhen was plotting to kidnap the emperor to Shu, and earnestly advised Zhu Wen to besiege Fengxiang as soon as possible.

Shu, Wang Jian's territory, had never been Li Maozhen's sphere of influence. Not only that, Wang Jian had also completely eroded Li Maozhen's territory in Shannan. The claim that Li Maozhen had kidnapped Emperor Zhaozong and taken him to Shu was obviously a rumor made up by Cui Yin. Zhu Wen did not point it out because he also needed this rumor to provide a basis for public opinion for his march into Fengxiang.

Zhu Wen held a grand banquet to entertain Cui Yin and solemnly declared: I would rather let the world betray me than let me betray the world. For the safety of the empire, I, Zhu Wen, am willing to face the criticism of thousands of people and serve the people. Let's march to Fengxiang immediately!
Cui Yin was so excited that he personally went out of the city to meet Gao Ying at Weiqiao, and even personally toasted Zhu Wen to celebrate his birthday. He even sang for Zhu Wen while beating a board, praising his merits and virtues, and the lyrics were written by Cui Yin himself. He was servile, fawning, and licking the ass of Zhu Wen.

Bian general Kang Huaizheng led the vanguard army to Fengxiang and defeated Li Jizhao.

The military and civilians of Fengxiang were greatly terrified. Li Maozhen moved all the residents outside the city into the city and prepared for a long war of attrition.

In June, Zhu Wen led 6 elite troops to station in Guo County (now Baoji City, Shaanxi Province) south of Fengxiang Prefecture. Li Maozhen concentrated all his forces and launched a fierce attack on Zhu Wen, intending to strike first and wait for the enemy to catch his breath before striking him head-on, forcing Zhu Wen to retreat. Unexpectedly, he was defeated by Zhu Wen again, with more than of his men killed.

Afterwards, Zhu Wen sent Kong Xing to take advantage of the victory, detour south to Dasan Pass, capture Fengzhou, and then westward to capture Chengzhou and Longzhou, completing the "semi-encirclement" of Fengxiang Prefecture.

Fengzhou and Chengzhou, located in the southwest of Fengxiang Prefecture, are the strategic depth of Fengxiang's forces, while Longzhou is located in the northwest of Fengxiang Prefecture, strangling Guguan, a strategic location to the west of Fengxiang Prefecture.

It is clear on the map: the Wei River runs from west to east, forming a natural barrier; on the north bank of the Wei River, from west to east, there are Qinzhou, Longshan, Longzhou, and Fengxiang Prefecture. Longshan runs from north to south, with a gap in the middle and south, which is Guguan. Qinzhou's reinforcement to Fengxiang and Fengxiang's retreat to Qinzhou were both blocked by Guguan, and Guguan was under the close surveillance of Longzhou.

Now, Longzhou was controlled by Zhu Wen, which was equivalent to cutting off the lifeline of Fengxiang to the west, and Dasan Pass to the south was also controlled by Zhu Wen. Bingzhou to the northeast had already surrendered to Zhu Wen, and Fengxiang was already in danger.

Zhu Wen personally led the army to the city, changed into official uniform, and cried in front of the city wall, explaining the reason why he attacked the emperor with his troops, emphasizing that he was only welcoming the emperor back to the capital, not competing with Qi Wang Li Maozhen. At the same time, he built five camps around Fengxiang and began the siege.

Li Maozhen's cousin, Li Maoxun, the governor of Fuzhou, led his troops to reinforce Fengxiang and stationed in Sanyuan. Zhu Wen sent Kang Huaizhen and Kong Qing to fight and repel them.

Li Maozhen mobilized his troops to launch a night attack, but was defeated. After resting, he mobilized the entire army to launch a counterattack against Zhu Wen. After a day of fierce fighting, he was unable to win. In the evening, when Li Maozhen retreated, the Bian army followed closely behind and almost captured the west gate.

From then on, Li Maozhen dared not leave the city on his own initiative and stayed in the city obediently.

The continuous autumn rains, the shortage of food and fodder, and the prevalence of diseases once again troubled Zhu Wen, causing him to once again consider withdrawing his troops.

After witnessing countless sieges, we finally understand that the best reinforcements for the defenders are bad weather and plague.

At the military meeting to discuss the withdrawal, two generals, Gao Jichang and Liu Zhijun, strongly opposed it. They said that the battle of Fengxiang was of great importance and would affect the world's outlook! Now, the whole world was watching Fengxiang, and the outcome of the battle directly affected their political stance. The Bian army could only win and not lose.

Liu Zhijun was a surrendered general when Zhu Wen marched east to Xuzhou. He was both brave and resourceful. It was precisely because of his wisdom and bravery that he was suspected by Shi Pu and thus turned to the light.

Gao Jichang was even less of an outsider. He was Zhu Wen's adopted grandson. He was originally a servant of Li Rang, a wealthy businessman in Bianzhou. When Zhu Wen first settled in Bianzhou, he was short of soldiers, generals, food and wages. The "enlightened gentleman" Li Rang gave all his money to help Zhu Wen through the initial predicament, so he was adopted by Zhu Wen and named Zhu Yourang. Later, Zhu Wen found a man with extraordinary appearance among Zhu Yourang's servants. His speech and behavior were also different from those of ordinary people, so he ordered Zhu Yourang to adopt him as his adopted son. This person was Gao Jichang. So Gao Jichang was the adopted son of Zhu Wen's adopted son, a real adopted grandson. This grandson is not ordinary, and he will also be a king and landlord in the future.

Gao Jichang revealed Zhu Wen's concerns in one sentence. It was nothing more than that Li Maozhen was holding his ground and refused to come out, so all he needed to do was use a little trick to lure the snake out of its hole.

This is the truth, but how can we fool this old fox Li Maozhen?

Gao Jichang was recruiting brave men in the army. A big reward would surely attract brave men, and the cavalryman Ma Jing signed up to apply.

Before leaving, Ma Jing made arrangements for his last affairs, saying that he knew he was a "dead spy" and would not be able to come back alive. He only asked King Liang to fulfill his promise and treat his wife and children well.

Zhu Wen's eyes were moist. He held Ma Jing's hands, admired his loyalty, and tried to keep him, not wanting him to die.

Ma Jing was ready to face death and insisted on going.

At that time, Zhu Wen had ordered his nephew Zhu Youlun to come from Bianzhou for reinforcements, and according to his schedule, he should arrive the next day. So Ma Jing took this opportunity to "defect".

On that day, Zhu Wen gave orders to feed the war horses and reward the three armies with beef and fine wine. They ate and drank well and were ready to fight to the death.

In the early morning of the next day, the Bian army camp raised its flags and the entire army was secretly ambushed and not allowed to move around freely. The entire camp looked empty.

Ma Jing mixed in with the team that was going to support Zhu Youlun and advanced slowly. After leaving the camp, he suddenly turned his horse's head and galloped towards the gate of Fengxiang for his life, "surrendering" to Fengxiang.

After entering the city, Ma Jing said that he had important information to share with Li Maozhen in person. Li Maozhen met him, and Ma Jing reported that Zhu Wen's main force had withdrawn overnight due to lack of food and grass and rampant plague, leaving only less than 10,000 old, weak, sick and disabled soldiers guarding the barracks, and these 10,000 people would also quietly leave tonight. The opportunity should not be missed, so please pursue as soon as possible!
Li Maozhen then sent troops to look out and investigate, and indeed found that the Bian camp was empty. He also discovered that the main force of the Bian army was retreating (in fact, it was to welcome Zhu Youlun's reinforcements). He was overjoyed and thought it was a godsend opportunity, so he quickly dispatched all his troops to hunt down the Bian army.

As expected, Li Maozhen was ambushed and almost his entire army was wiped out.

(End of this chapter)