History of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms

Chapter 180: Siege of Fengxiang
Li Maozhen paid a heavy price for his recklessness.

His attack was a heavy gamble. If Ma Jing had not lied, Li Maozhen would have dealt a heavy blow to Zhu Wen, thus bringing long-term stability to the Guanxi region. If Li Maozhen had been more cautious, consolidating the strategic depth in the west and south first and allowing Zhu Wen to "withdraw", the Guanxi region would have faced the threat of Zhu Wen for a long time.

Li Maozhen was doomed and had no choice but to surrender. Since Zhu Wen claimed that he was coming to welcome Emperor Zhaozong, Li Maozhen agreed to send Emperor Zhaozong back to Chang'an to clear himself of the charge of "holding the emperor hostage".

Welcoming Emperor Zhaozong and not competing with Li Maozhen for territory was Zhu Wen's slogan, and this slogan was based on the premise that Li Maozhen held a large number of troops. Now, Li Maozhen was seriously injured and his troops were almost wiped out. What qualifications did he have to bargain with Zhu Wen?

Zhu Wen used the "Centipede Trench" to besiege Fengxiang, that is, digging a winding trench outside the city, setting up barbed wire, hanging copper bells on the wire, and deploying military dogs. This kind of fortification is very practical and has been used to this day.

Under this situation, Li Maozhen's power gradually collapsed, and his subordinates either surrendered to Xichuan Wang Jian or surrendered to Zhu Wen. Among them, Li Maozhen's adopted sons Li Yanxun and Li Yantao rebelled in front of the battlefield and surrendered to Zhu Wen.

Zhu Wen sent Sima Ye to bring the memorial into the city. Sima Ye was originally a deputy commander of the Tongzhou Kuangguo Army. When Zhu Wen was advancing westward, he surrendered on his own initiative and helped Zhu Wen persuade Han Jian, the governor of the Huazhou Zhenguo Army, to surrender. He had a high level of ideological and political awareness and eloquence.

Afterwards, Zhu Wen continued to offer food, silk and other supplies to the city as a token of his filial respect to Emperor Zhaozong.

Zhaozong would always send the package to Li Maozhen intact and ask him to check it. Zhaozong had extensive experience of being held hostage and under house arrest, and this was to prove his innocence to the guards to avoid suspicion.

However, Li Maozhen knew that his power was no longer what it used to be, so he no longer dared to be so arrogant and rebellious. He no longer dared to "inspect the goods" and released all of them without inspection to prove that he had not "put the emperor under house arrest."

A few days later, Zhu Wen sent envoys to formally discuss reconciliation, agreed to a temporary ceasefire, and allowed the people to go out of the city to chop firewood and pick vegetables, and the Bian army would no longer obstruct or plunder them.

Zhu Wen claimed that he had repaired the palace and was ready to welcome the emperor back. Zhaozong also sent senior officials to pay a return visit.

However, Li Maozhen was unwilling to accept defeat and tried to save the situation. During the ceasefire period, Li Maozhen suddenly attacked the Bian army in the west of the city and was defeated again.

Zhu Wen allowed the people in the city to go out to make a living. On the one hand, it was out of political perspective and he wanted to show that he was a gentleman who put humanitarianism first. On the other hand, it was also to set a trap for Li Maozhen. Zhu Wen ordered the surrendered officials to wear red official robes (fourth and fifth rank official uniforms) and return to the city, calling on the people in the city to surrender. The surrendered people walked out of the city gates openly under the pretext of going out to collect firewood, and threw themselves into the arms of the Bian army. Some people also escaped from the city at night.

Li Maozhen was so angry that he kept attacking the Bian army camp, but he was defeated again and again, and the morale of the army was on the verge of collapse. But he still had a glimmer of hope, that was his cousin, Li Maoxun.

On November 11, Li Maoxun, the governor of the Baoda Army of Fuzhou, once again led more than 1 troops to reinforce Fengxiang. They stationed on the hillside north of the city and lit beacons with the defenders in a distant response.

Zhu Wen surrounded the enemy and attacked the reinforcements. He defeated a large number of reinforcements and ignored the more than 10,000 people. He ordered Kong Qing to directly raid Li Maoxun's lair and attack Fuzhou and Fangzhou.

In just three days, the two states fell one after another. In this battle, Kong Qing left behind the famous story of "going down to Fuzhou on a snowy night".

After taking Fuzhou, Kong Qing ordered the protection of Li Maoxun and his generals' families. The social order in the city was in good order and the people's lives were not disturbed at all. Then Li Maoxun's family was moved to Hezhong.

After Li Maoxun learned the news, he led his troops to escape.

Without the last support, Li Maozhen was trapped in the isolated city. Every night, the Bian army beat drums and blew trumpets outside the city, the noise was deafening, and the defenders in the city had no rest and were very tired.

During the day, the soldiers of both sides engaged in monotonous and boring insults, using the same words: the Bian army called the Qi army "thieves who hijacked the emperor", and the Qi army called the Bian army "thieves who seized the emperor".

The Bian army cut all the weeds outside the city, leaving no food or vegetables, not even grass.

The city was extremely short of food and grass. It was the dead of winter, and the number of soldiers and civilians who died of starvation and cold in the city was incalculable. Some starving people lay on their beds, groaning weakly, and before they died, other starving people would cut their flesh off with knives and eat it. There were also vendors selling human flesh on the streets, selling it for 100 coins per catty, while dog meat was sold for 500 coins per catty. People were worth less than dogs.

Li Maozhen had to use dog meat to feed Zhaozong, because he couldn't let the emperor eat human flesh. The clothes of Zhaozong and the little prince were also sold in the market to buy food; pine cones or persimmon peels soaked in water were used as fodder to feed the emperor's horses.

Li Maozhen increased the number of troops guarding the palace, which was called guarding, but in fact it was to guard the eunuchs, because they were the final bargaining chips in the negotiation between Li Maozhen and Zhu Wen, and they were the pawns to be cut off at the right time.

Faced with the increasingly severe situation, serious divisions emerged among the eunuchs, and they began to resent Han Quanhui and others.

In order to protect themselves, the eunuchs began to recommend Han Yu as prime minister. Han Yu was upright and strong-willed. He neither obeyed the eunuchs nor was he willing to go along with the civil officials such as Cui Yin. The most important point was that Han Yu strongly opposed Cui Yin's proposal to "kill all eunuchs." So the eunuchs began to work together to make Han Yu the prime minister.

Prime Minister Su Jian sent his confidant to reveal this idea to Han Wei, testing his opinion. Han Wei was furious. He first criticized Su Jian and others for "not coming from a legitimate background", then accused them of being idle, and finally pointed out that "prime minister" is now a high-risk job, and it is very likely that you will be used as a sacrifice in the "Qi-Bian struggle for supremacy". Now that you are in danger of losing your position, you still want to drag me down with you? Damn it! Grandma! No way.

At this time, the desperate Li Maoxun sent envoys to surrender to Zhu Wen, and changed his name to Li Zhouyi. We will continue to use "Li Maoxun" in the following text.

At this point, all the prefectures and counties under Li Maozhen's control south of the Qinling Mountains surrendered to Wang Jian, and all the prefectures and counties under Guanzhong surrendered to Zhu Wen.

Li Maozhen was left alone in the isolated city of Fengxiang, helpless and had to once again ask Zhu Wen for peace. This time, he would use the eunuch party as a token of his allegiance.

In the letter to Zhu Wen, Li Maozhen emphasized that the disaster was caused by Han Quanhui and other eunuchs, and the reason for bringing the emperor to Fengxiang was entirely for the sake of protecting the emperor's safety, and it was definitely not to hold the emperor hostage. Since you want to support the country and welcome the emperor back, then you have come all the way here. I am willing to lead the few remaining soldiers and generals around me to serve you.

The words were very tactful and pleasant to the ear, and translated into one sentence: I surrender.

Zhu Wen's reply was also very straightforward. The gist of it was: I came here to welcome the emperor. It would be great if you could work together with me. We are all serving the people.

After obtaining Zhu Wen's promise of reconciliation, Emperor Zhaozong had dinner with major leaders such as Li Maozhen, Su Jian, Zhou Chenghui, and Dong Yanbi to discuss reconciliation.

At the banquet, Emperor Zhaozong brought the topic to the forefront, saying, "People below the rank of prince freeze to death or starve to death every day. Even the princes, princesses, and concubines in the imperial palace can only eat porridge to survive. Now even porridge is no longer available. My dear ministers, do you have any opinions?"

Everyone was speechless and remained silent.

Zhaozong nodded, "I think we should reconcile as soon as possible."

A dozen Fengxiang soldiers stopped the eunuch Han Quanhui outside the palace and scolded him, saying that the people of Fengxiang were suffering and the soldiers and civilians in the city were freezing and starving to death because of you eunuchs! Han Quanhui was so scared that he ran to Li Maozhen and cried.

Li Maozhen comforted Han Quanhui, "What do a few uneducated soldiers know?" He ordered someone to pour two glasses of wine to calm Han Quanhui.

Han Quanhui kowtowed and cried to Emperor Zhaozong again, who also comforted him with kind words.

After turning around and leaving, Li Maozhen's adopted son Li Jizhao stopped Han Quanhui and said to him, "In the past, Yang Fugong killed Yang Shouliang's family. Today, do you also want to kill my family, Li Jizhao?" Then he cursed Han Quanhui loudly, and when he felt satisfied, he went out of the city to surrender to Zhu Wen, took away the word "Ji", and restored his original name "Fu Daozhao".

During the "anti-Yang movement", Yang Fugong fled to Yang Shouliang's Xingyuan Mansion to seek asylum. In the end, both Yang Shouliang and Yang Fugong were eliminated. Li Jizhao used the story of Yang Fugong to express the true feelings of Li Maozhen's group.

Who is Li Maozhen? He will never be the second Yang Shouliang.

Thanks to my old friend “Bedroom King” for his recommendation and support!
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(End of this chapter)