History of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms

Chapter 186: Doubts in Guanzhong
【Guanzhong Doubts】

Cui Yin and Zhu Wen were superficially close but actually at odds with each other, each with their own ulterior motives, and a split between them was inevitable.

Perhaps in Cui Yin's heart, he never looked down on Zhu Wen from the beginning to the end. Whether in terms of birth or academic qualifications, Cui Yin completely crushed Zhu Wen. It was only because Zhu Wen held strong enough military power that he had to serve him. A real man can bend and stretch.

From their performance during the breakup, we can see Cui Yin's underestimation of the enemy and his naivety, although this process was very short.

Zhu Wen was indeed a loser who made a comeback, but his strategy - or conspiracy and political tactics - were far ahead of Cui Yin.

When Emperor Zhaozong was detained in Fengxiang, Zhu Wen had already laid out a big chess game:
The ultimate goal of this game of chess is to usurp the Tang Dynasty and establish one's own dynasty;
In order to smoothly complete the transfer of power in the empire, the capital had to be moved first, and the capital had to be moved to its sphere of influence. After comprehensive consideration, the best choice was the eastern capital Luoyang. Zhu Wen had long ago instructed the "healing master" Zhang Quanyi to repair the palace in Luoyang, and now the hardware facilities are basically ready;
If the capital is to be moved, there must be sufficient and sufficient reasons to prove the necessity and urgency of the move.

This was Zhu Wen’s “three-step” plan to usurp the Tang Dynasty.

The first step was to prove the necessity of moving the capital, and the most important part of this was to demonstrate the threat of the Kansai Group.

In fact, the Guanxi group headed by Li Maozhen had become very docile and obedient after the "Siege of Fengxiang". They were submissive and submissive in every way. For example, Li Maozhen's official title in the central government was "Shangshu Ling", while Zhu Wen was "Shou Zhongshu Ling" ("Shou" means that the official rank is lower than the official position, "Jian" is used for the same level, and "Xing" is used for higher level). It can be seen that Li Maozhen's official position was higher than Zhu Wen, which frightened Li Maozhen and repeatedly submitted petitions to refuse the title of "Shangshu Ling".

The titles of "Shangshu Ling" and "Zhongshu Ling" were all empty titles, just honorary titles without real power. Even so, Li Maozhen did not dare to rank ahead of Zhu Wen, which shows Li Maozhen's fear and subservience to Zhu Wen.

Zhu Wen had done his homework on how to provoke the Guanxi Group. These were the two big mines that he had buried before.

The first is the leader of the Kansai Group - Fengxiang Li Maozhen.

When Zhu Wen's army was approaching and forced Li Maozhen to sign a humiliating treaty with an aggressive attitude, Li Maozhen only put forward two conditions in order to protect himself: reconcile with Cui Yin and ask him not to mess with him; and political marriage and let his son marry Zhaozong's daughter.

Zhu Wen and Zhaozong agreed to all of them, but when Zhaozong returned to Chang'an, he overturned them all.

At Zhu Wen's instigation, Cui Yin launched a political purge in the central government, with the "Fengxiang Gang" being the first to bear the brunt. In order to scare the enemy, the reconciliation between Li Maozhen and Cui Yin was declared invalid;
Zhu Wen took advantage of the critical moment of repaying Zhaozong's favor and sent a threatening letter to ask for Princess Pingyuan back, killing two birds with one stone. Li Maozhen's request for "political marriage" was thus invalidated.

At this point, the imperial court had essentially withdrawn all its sincerity and promises to Li Maozhen. From then on, Li Maozhen lived in constant fear and was filled with doubts.

The second is Li Jihui from Bingzhou.

When Zhu Wen was besieging Fengxiang, he used his spare time to easily conquer Bingzhou. The then governor Li Jihui surrendered and took his family as hostages.

According to the general routine, Zhu Wen should send his family to Bianzhou and then let Li Jihui move to another place. You can refer to the recent Huazhou Han Jian, who was transferred to Xuzhou to command the Zhongwu Army after surrendering. However, after Li Jihui surrendered, Zhu Wen still boldly let this adopted son of Li Maozhen continue to stay in Bingzhou Jingnan Army.

However, the next wave of operations made it difficult for many people to understand:
Li Jihui's wife was as beautiful as a fairy. When she was held hostage in Hezhong Prefecture, Zhu Wen raped her in an indescribable way. This beautiful woman had a strong personality and felt ashamed, so she sent someone to deliver the cuckold to Bingzhou all the way and told her husband Li Jihui. She did not cry and complain, but mocked him in a sarcastic way, saying, "You are a grown man with a large army, but you can't even protect your own wife. Now I am Zhu Wen's woman, I have no face to see you again in this life, I can only study ways to commit suicide (just with a knife or a rope).

She didn't cry, but Li Jihui cried (shedding tears with anger).

Zhu Wen’s next move was the most dramatic: he sent Li Jihui’s family back to Bingzhou.

The subsequent result, of course, was that Li Jihui surrendered and then rebelled again, and once again threw himself into the arms of his godfather Li Maozhen, changed his ways, and resolutely fought Zhu Wen to the end.

There is a small doubt here, that is, whether Li Jihui's wife was included in the family members who were released and returned to Bingzhou. We can make a bold guess: perhaps those words did not come from Li Jihui's wife at all, but Zhu Wen deliberately made someone do it. As for Li Jihui's wife, it is possible that she really committed suicide, or it is possible that she was "forced to commit suicide", so Zhu Wen said "expected to be killed" in her tone, and then expressed deep regret for her "death", and at the same time returned the other hostages to express his apology.

It is also possible that those words were spoken by Li Jihui’s wife, who did not commit suicide and returned to Bingzhou.

Regardless of the truth, Zhu Wen's treatment of Li Jihui's surrender is indeed puzzling if viewed in isolation. However, if one can see through Zhu Wen's "three-step" plan, one will understand that this was Zhu Wen's deliberate release of the tiger and deliberate laying of mines for the Guanxi Group. In addition to Li Jihui, Zhu Wen also intended to cause trouble for the Guanxi Group, such as recommending Li Jizhao as the governor of Qinzhou Tianxiong Army. Li Jizhao was Li Maozhen's adopted son and also surrendered to Zhu Wen during the "Siege of Fengxiang", and Qinzhou was located west of Fengxiang.

If Li Jizhao was placed in the west of Fengxiang, if he defected to Li Maozhen, he would play the same role as Li Jihui; if he was loyal to Zhu Wen, he would become the sharp knife behind Li Maozhen. No matter which result, it would be a victory for Zhu Wen.

Li Maozhen sent troops to obstruct the attack, and Li Jizhao was unable to go to the town, so the matter came to nothing.

This series of combined blows forced Li Maozhen and the Guanxi Group he controlled to sharpen their knives. In order to survive and maintain their dignity, they had to actively expand their military and prepare for war.

Cui Yin was also good at conspiracy, but his level was not comparable to Zhu Wen. He used the "Fengxiang Gang" as a sacrifice to gain power in Chang'an, and finally gained power and experienced the joy of turning the tide. He claimed to be a veteran in the political arena, but he had no idea that this was what Zhu Wen needed to provoke the Guanxi Group. It was also a combination of Zhu Wen's "three-step" plan.

Cui Yin's factionalism also greatly stimulated the Guanxi Group, which was exactly what Zhu Wen wanted.

The Guanxi Group was actively expanding its army and preparing for war, which naturally posed a threat to Chang'an, so Zhu Wen had a reason to move the capital to Luoyang. Zhu Wen's conspiracy was perfect!
Cui Yin understood that Zhu Wen would not share the fruits of victory with anyone. His breakup with Zhu Wen was inevitable sooner or later, and the process of this game would inevitably be bloody. The winner would get the world, and the loser would kill his entire family.

After the massacre of the eunuchs, Cui Yin took over the central imperial guards and had military power in his hands. However, this amount of troops was not enough to compete with Zhu Wen.

Therefore, facing the threat from the Guanxi Group, Cui Yin came up with a plan and reported to Zhu Wen that many of the imperial guards were only in name only, with no soldiers under them, and that they were in name only. Recently, the Guanxi Group had been making small moves again, and they had to be guarded against, so I asked you to allow me to recruit new soldiers in the capital to eliminate your concerns in the west.

Zhu Wen took advantage of the situation and agreed to Cui Yin's request to recruit soldiers. He then selected thousands of trustworthy comrades from his own troops, disguised himself, and rushed to Chang'an to enlist in the army.

According to Cui Yin's report, he planned to recruit four infantry battalions for each army of the imperial guards, with 4 people in each battalion and a cavalry company of 250 people. Each army had 100 people, for a total of people for the six armies.

In order to enable them to quickly obtain equipment and thus form combat effectiveness, Cui Yin did everything he could, including cutting down trees outside the city to obtain wood and destroying Buddha statues in temples to obtain copper and iron.

Cui Yin thought he could conceal his true intentions and quietly expand his military strength, but he didn't know that he had voluntarily fallen into another trap set by Zhu Wen. Among his more than 6,000 newly recruited "direct" troops, more than half were spies planted by Zhu Wen.

As the Guanxi Group was ready to make a move, all kinds of rumors filled the streets of Chang'an. Some said that Li Maozhen was going to invade the capital again and hijack the emperor to Qi, some said that Wang Jian of Xichuan was also going to "protect the emperor", and some said that Li Maozhen had joined forces with Wang Jian to hijack the emperor to Sichuan...

Cui Yin was the man behind these rumors, but Zhu Wen took advantage of his trick of "nurturing the enemy to protect himself" and proposed to move the capital to Luoyang. At this time, Cui Yin secretly thought that it was not good, and he was used by Zhu Wen again.

Only then did Cui Yin realize Zhu Wen's "three-step" plan: the first step was to provoke the Guanxi Group and create a threat; the second step was to use the threat to move the capital; the third step was to abandon the old dynasty and replace the old one.

As the plan was about to transition to the second step, Cui Yin sensed an unprecedented crisis. While stepping up military training, he secretly contacted Zhao Kuangning of Xiangzhou, planning to move the capital to Jing and Xiang to avoid Zhu Wen's edge. Regarding Zhao Kuangning of Xiangzhou, I will explain it in detail later.

At the critical moment of life and death, honor and disgrace, a godsend opportunity suddenly appeared!

This opportunity was the rebellion of Wang Shifan of the Pinglu Army in Qingzhou, as mentioned above; at the same time, Yang Xingmi of Huainan also launched an attack on Du Hong of the Wuchang Army in Ezhou, competing with Zhu Wen for control of the middle section of the Yangtze River, which will be described in detail later.

Strictly speaking, for Zhu Wen, these were not fatal threats, but just slightly more serious daily problems. But for Cui Yin, this was his only chance, and it was better to have something than nothing, so he had to try his luck.

So, Cui Yin took a gamble and took the initiative to launch a counterattack.

This is an eternal mystery in history. On that day, Zhu Youlun, the highest agent of the Bian army in Chang'an City and Zhu Wen's nephew, was playing polo with his colleagues in his spare time. Unfortunately, he had an accident and fell off his horse and died.

(End of this chapter)