History of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms

Chapter 185 Death of Zhang Jun
Humans are animals after all. They retain killing, selfishness and greed in the process of survival of the fittest. Humans are humans after all. They do not forget compassion, love and tolerance in the process of natural selection. Humans are neither great nor small. They are part of nature. To some extent, they are no different from insects, birds, grass, trees, and even a speck of dust. Our curiosity drives us to explore the laws of nature and the way of all things. Our goal will be to follow it, not to change it.

When Wang Maozhang retreated, he ordered the vanguard Li Qianyu to lead 500 cavalrymen to guard the rear. Li Qianyu and his 500 warriors fought with Zhu Wen's main force to the last man, vowing to never retreat or surrender, and eventually all died heroically.

Having lost the support of Huainan, Wang Shifan was trapped in Qingzhou and fought like a trapped beast.

Zhu Wen left Yang Shihou to continue besieging Qingzhou, while he himself returned to Bianzhou.

Yang Shihou devised a plan to lure out the enemy and set up an ambush in Linqu, claiming that he would leave the food and baggage in Linqu and lead the main force to Mizhou. Wang Shifan was fooled and launched a surprise attack on Linqu, but was ambushed and more than 10,000 people were killed. His brother Wang Shike was captured alive by Yang Shihou.

Later, Yang Shihou captured Wang Shifan's important adviser Shao Bo alive, and also seized a letter Shao Bo wrote to Wang Shifan, which was full of instructions on war and defense, and was as long as 800 pages! Zhu Wen was so afraid that he killed him.

The next day, the 5,000 Laizhou reinforcements from the peninsula were ambushed by Yang Shihou and annihilated. Yang Shihou then completely cleared the periphery of Qingzhou and set up his camp under the city.

His younger brother was captured, his great counselor was killed, the enemy was at the gates, and he lost the support of Huainan... Wang Shifan lost his will to fight and decided to surrender. He sent Li Siye, the deputy envoy of the Jiedushi, and his younger brother Wang Shiyue to Bianying to express his willingness to surrender to Yang Shihou, and explained that he never dared to forget the kindness of Marshal Zhu, but was bewitched by the traitors. The eunuchs Han Quanhui and Li Maozhen forged the emperor's "personal edict" to order him to send troops, so he had to send troops. It was a misunderstanding. At the same time, he left his younger brother Wang Shilu as a hostage.

Zhu Wen accepted Wang Shifan's request to surrender, sent his generals to take over the states under the jurisdiction of the Pinglu Army, and reappointed Wang Shifan as the commander of the Pinglu Army in Qingzhou.

Wang Shifan was still quite righteous. He reported to Zhu Wen that Liu Xun had led his troops to occupy Yanzhou under his instructions, and that it was not Liu Xun's personal act of rebellion, and asked Zhu Wen to pardon Liu Xun. At the same time, he also sent envoys to order Liu Xun to surrender.

When Wang Shifan surrendered in Qingzhou, Liu Xun was still holding on in Yanzhou, fighting fiercely with the attacker Ge Congzhou.

Ge Congzhou's mother took a sedan chair and climbed up to the city wall, shouting to Ge Congzhou, "My son, General Liu serves me more filially than you do! The other people in the family are also treated well. My son, there is no personal grudge between you two. You are just serving your own master. You must understand this truth!"

With tears in his eyes, Ge Congzhou bowed to the top of the city wall and then temporarily suspended the attack.

Taking advantage of this opportunity, Liu Xun drove out all the women, children, the elderly, and the sick in the city, leaving only the young and strong soldiers. Liu Xun ate and ate with the soldiers, defended the city together, and shared the joys and sorrows. Liu Xun's troops had strict military discipline and did not harm the people. Even when the battle was the most intense, the people in the city could still live and work in peace as usual.

As external aid was cut off, Liu Xun's subordinates inevitably became spineless. The deputy general Wang Yanwen climbed over the wall and surrendered, and many soldiers followed him, making it difficult to contain the situation for a while.

Liu Xun sent an envoy to calmly tell Wang Yanwen, "Don't bring any soldiers who are not arranged in advance." He also sent someone to the city wall to pass on the message: "If you go without orders to follow Deputy Commander Wang, your entire family will be killed!"

The soldiers looked at each other in bewilderment, thinking that this was a pre-arranged plan to feign surrender to the enemy camp. From then on, no one dared to escape again.

As expected, Ge Congzhou also suspected that Wang Yanwen was pretending to surrender, so he arrested him, took him to the city, and beheaded him in public.

Liu Xun only used two simple sentences to achieve the effect of "Jiang Gan stealing the book". He not only curbed the escape of his own soldiers, but also killed his own traitors with the help of the enemy.

As the Pinglu Army in Qingzhou lost its power, Ge Congzhou continued to analyze the pros and cons for Liu Xun and persuade him to surrender.

Liu Xun replied: "I am here to defend this city under the order of the great commander Wang. How can I surrender when my lord loses power? Since I am here to defend the city under the order of the great commander, I must have the order of the great commander before I dare to surrender."

Only after Wang Shifan's envoy arrived in Yanzhou did Liu Xun obey the order, give up resistance, open the city and surrender.

Ge Congzhou prepared carriage and luggage for Liu Xun and respectfully sent him to Bianzhou to report.

Liu Xun politely declined, saying that he was just a surrendered general. How could he dare to wear leather clothes and ride a tall horse before he received the order of forgiveness from King Liang? So Liu Xun changed into plain clothes, rode a small donkey, and went to Bianzhou to plead guilty. When he arrived in Bianzhou, Zhu Wen rewarded him with gorgeous clothes and hats, but Liu Xun still politely declined and insisted on wearing plain clothes to meet him. Only after Zhu Wen insisted again and again did Liu Xun obey the order and change his clothes.

Zhu Wen hosted a banquet for Liu Xun, expressing his admiration for his loyalty and courage, as well as his appreciation for his military and literary skills, and of course, he also urged him to drink.

Liu Xun declined politely, saying that he was narrow-minded.

Zhu Wen laughed and joked: "You ate my Yanzhou in one bite, what a huge amount!"

Afterwards, Zhu Wen granted Liu Xun a high position, ranking first among all the generals. Zhu Wen's veteran generals came to pay their respects to him. Liu Xun, a surrendered general, was neither humble nor arrogant, but sat in the main seat and accepted the position calmly, with a calm expression. This was the best performance of strong self-confidence, which won Zhu Wen's further favor. Not long after, Zhu Wen recommended Liu Xun as the commander of the Fuzhou Baoda Army.

After the battle of Yanzhou, Liu Xun officially debuted.

In fact, the earliest record of Liu Xun was as early as when Wang Shifan succeeded to the throne. However, according to historical records, Wang Shifan was the chief architect of the rebellion, while Liu Xun only showed his "brave" side and first appeared as an executioner and thug.

I personally think that perhaps Liu Xun's intellectual participation in the struggle to suppress the rebellion should be greater, and it can even be suspected that he was the mastermind behind the scenes, helping the 16-year-old young lord Wang Shifan to successfully ascend the throne. The history books should have beautified the records of Wang Shifan to a certain extent.

Putting aside Wang Shifan's succession to the throne, the Battle of Yanzhou should undoubtedly be regarded as Liu Xun's official debut. After surrendering to Zhu Wen, Liu Xun, who was both civil and military, was reused and made great contributions to Zhu Wen in the future.

Liu Xun was a brave and valiant man, as well as a wise and resourceful man. He was known for his ability to "take one step and make a hundred plans". He was able to go down in history because of his loyalty and courage. His loyalty and righteousness will be described in detail later.

With Wang Shifan's surrender, Zhu Wen learned that former Prime Minister Zhang Jun was also a participant in the Qingzhou rebellion and that it was he who instigated Wang Shifan to rebel. In order to show his obedience to Zhu Wen, Wang Shifan would naturally not shield Zhang Jun and would even blame him. Thus, Zhang Jun, who had been a fool all his life, finally met his end.

Zhu Wen ordered Zhang Quanyi to get rid of Zhang Jun. Zhang Quanyi sent his general Yang Lin to lead a disguised army to kill Zhang Jun and his entire family as "bandits".

A county government official named Ye Yan was highly regarded by Zhang Jun and the two had a close personal relationship. Ye Yan received news in advance that Yang Lin was about to arrive, so he secretly leaked the news to Zhang Jun's son Zhang Ge, asking him to escape quickly.

Zhang Ge was unwilling to abandon his family. His father Zhang Jun said to him: "If you stay, you will die with us. It is better for you to go far away and keep a bloodline for our Zhang family."

Zhang Ge wanted to persuade his father to flee with him, but Zhang Jun waved his hand, saying that this disaster could not be avoided, and if he also fled, it would be equivalent to betraying Ye Yan, and Zhu Wen would know that someone had leaked the secret, and doing so would be unfair to his friend.

Zhang Ge burst into tears and kowtowed to his father in farewell.

Ye Yan led thirty loyal men and escorted Zhang Ge across the Han River before returning. Zhang Ge crossed the Han River, passed through Jingnan, and finally successfully escaped to Xichuan.

Later, Xichuan Wang Jian established the Shu Kingdom, which was called "Former Shu" in history, and Zhang Ge was promoted to prime minister.

More than a hundred members of Zhang Jun's family were killed.

The historical evaluation of him was quite objective, saying that he "used chaos to stop chaos and had a perverse mind", which was anyway a derogatory statement about him. In my words, he was a joke all his life.

After recapturing the Qingzhou Pinglu Army, Zhu Wen's power was consolidated and strengthened. At this time, a bolt from the blue came from Chang'an - Zhu Youlun died.

(End of this chapter)