History of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms

Chapter 193 Tanzhou Ma Yin
【Tanzhou Ma Yin】

Ma Yin, who has appeared in the previous article, came from the world-famous "Zhongwu Army", and the story between him and Yang Xingmi can be traced back to more than ten years ago.

At that time, Yang Xingmi was a rookie who rose to prominence in Luzhou. He took advantage of the civil unrest in Huainan (Bi Shiduo and Qin Yan's mutiny, imprisonment and killing of Gao Pian) to occupy Yangzhou. After Huang Chao's death, Qin Zongquan of Caizhou took over the "Huang Qi regime" and proclaimed himself the second emperor of the "Great Qi Kingdom". He wreaked havoc in the Central Plains. The troops sent to Huainan were led by his younger brother Qin Zongheng. Because he was repeatedly defeated by Zhu Wen, Qin Zongquan was furious and transferred Qin Zongheng's Huainan expeditionary army back to Caizhou to concentrate on dealing with Zhu Wen. Sun Ru, a general under Qin Zongheng, was unwilling to give up Huainan, so he launched a mutiny, beheaded Qin Zongheng, and led his troops to continue fighting with Yang Xingmi for Huainan.

Sun Ru crushed Yang Xingmi with his great advantage, but he was eventually defeated and killed by Yang Xingmi's "tiring the enemy strategy". When Sun Ru was killed, his generals Liu Jianfeng, Zhang Ji, Ma Yin and others were collecting military supplies in other places. After hearing the news of their master's defeat and death, they gathered the remaining soldiers and generals, a total of about 7,000 people, and fled south.

Everyone nominated Liu Jianfeng as the commander, Ma Yin as the vanguard, and Zhang Ji as the military advisor. They fled, robbed, recruited soldiers, and recruited bandits. When they fled to Jiangxi, they had already numbered 100,000.

They then moved from Jiangxi to Hunan and attacked Tanzhou (now Shashi, a high-ranking city in Hunan). During this process, Ma Yin showed outstanding wisdom and courage. He persuaded Jiang Xun, who was guarding Longhui Pass, to surrender, and disguised himself as Jiang Xun's garrison troops to trick the gate of Tanzhou open and launched a surprise attack on Tanzhou.

After taking Tanzhou, Liu Jianfeng proclaimed himself as the regent and presented a memorial to the court, which immediately appointed Liu Jianfeng as the governor of Tanzhou Wu'an Army.

The former Jiedushi who was killed was named Deng Chu'ne. In his early years, he followed Jiangxi general Min Xu to garrison Annan. During the "Huang Chao Rebellion", he returned to Jiangxi from Annan and then occupied Tanzhou Wu'an Army. He recommended Deng Chu'ne as the governor of Shaozhou. Four years later, Min Xu was betrayed by his teammates and was killed by a counterattack. Tanzhou was also occupied by his enemy Zhou Yue.

Upon hearing the news, Deng Chu'ne burst into tears and said to his subordinates, "Min Xu has been very kind to me. Now he has been killed by Zhou Yue. I will not be a human being if I don't avenge him!" After that, Deng Chu'ne endured humiliation, trained his troops, and honed his sword for eight years. Finally, with the strength of one state, he conquered the Wu'an Army of Tanzhou, killed Zhou Yue, and avenged his old master. He was then appointed as the new Jiedushi of Wu'an Army by the court.

Deng Chu'ne was in charge of Tanzhou for a year before he was killed by Liu Jianfeng, and the Wu'an Army of Tanzhou changed its name again.

Liu Jianfeng was a naive man who became a military governor and entered the circle of feudal states. He was complacent and did not want to make progress. He indulged in sensual pleasures, especially wine and sex. He found that the wife of his subordinate Chen Shan was beautiful, so he took her by force.

The hatred of having his wife stolen was irreconcilable. Chen Shan hid a hammer in his sleeve and shot Liu Jianfeng in the head when he was not prepared. Afterwards, the generals on both sides rose up to attack, arrested Chen Shan, and then publicly elected Zhang Ji as the new commander-in-chief.

Before this, the surrendered general Jiang Xun asked to be the governor of Shaozhou, but Liu Jianfeng refused, so Jiang Xun took over Shaozhou and rebelled. Liu Jianfeng sent Ma Yin to Shaozhou to quell the rebellion. When Liu Jianfeng was assassinated, Ma Yin was still on the front line in Shaozhou.

Zhang Ji knew that Ma Yin would not obey his orders. In terms of seniority, the two were equal; in terms of military achievements, Ma Yin was better than him; the key point was that Ma Yin was now fighting outside and had a large army under his command. If he didn't come back to kill him and seize power, he would be very lucky.

Zhang Ji refused the position of commander-in-chief and insisted on giving up the position to Ma Yin. When he was leaving, the horse was unexpectedly startled and bit Zhang Ji's left leg. So Zhang Ji took advantage of the situation and said, "Ma Gong is our lord." He then sent people to the front line in Shaozhou to let Ma Yin come back to "ascend the throne."

After Ma Yin returned from the battle, he and other generals first dragged the murderer of their lord, Chen Shan, to the downtown area and cut him into pieces to avenge their lord. Then they carried out the power transfer ceremony.

Zhang Ji sat in the hall and accepted Ma Yin's greeting first, then he was helped down the hall and welcomed Ma Yin to the hall. Zhang Ji then led all the generals to kneel before Ma Yin and swear allegiance. Ma Yin was thus elected as the successor, and was reported to the court, and was appointed as the governor of Wu'an Army in Tanzhou.

Ma Yin was not as dissolute and immoral as his old superior Liu Jianfeng. Instead, he was prepared for danger in times of peace. After taking office, he opened the channels for people to speak freely, accepted advice with an open mind, and looked for a way out. He asked his adviser Gao Yu, "I plan to spend money to avoid disaster and bribe the neighbors heavily in order to seek peace and stability. What do you think?"
Gao Yu shook his head repeatedly and said, "Jingnan Chengli is weak and incompetent, and he is not worth worrying about. Huainan Yang Xingmi is our sworn enemy (the remnants of Sun Ru), and no matter how much money you give him, you can't buy peace. It is better to respect the court, occupy the moral high ground, and punish the rebels in the four neighbors with the emperor's holy order. In this way, hegemony can be achieved."

Ma Yin suddenly realized the truth and immediately threw himself into Zhu Wen's arms, conveying his loyalty to the court through Zhu Wen. Although he nominally controlled the entire Tanzhou Wu'an Army, Ma Yin actually controlled only Tanzhou. After Zhang Ji succeeded him and conquered Shaozhou, there were still five states, Heng, Yong, Dao, Chen, and Lian, that did not obey his control. Therefore, Ma Yin's top priority was to achieve the substantive unification of the Tanzhou Wu'an Army.

In just less than a year, Ma Yin completed the unification of the Wu'an Army and took over the seven states.

As the great cause of unification was accomplished, Ma Yin's sphere of influence approached Jingjiang Army in Guizhou (now Guilin, Guangxi), and its governor Liu Shizheng sent troops to garrison Quanyi Ridge to prevent Ma Yin's Tanzhou forces from infiltrating Lingnan. Ma Yin sent an envoy to express his good wishes to Liu Shizheng for the establishment of a peaceful and stable bilateral relationship and good neighborliness.

Liu Shizheng: I don’t believe you!
Ma Yin was furious and sent his generals Qin Yanhui (Qin Zongquan's cousin) and Li Qiong to lead an army of 7,000 to attack Guizhou.

The Guizhou garrison forcibly conscripted cattle from the people to reward the army, which aroused the resentment of the people and made them compete to be the guides. Li Qiong only brought 300 infantrymen and 60 cavalrymen. Under the guidance of the guides, he took a shortcut and attacked the enemy army by surprise, eventually defeating the Guizhou army in one fell swoop. Liu Shizheng was forced to surrender, and the Guizhou Jingjiang Army was annexed by Ma Yin, creating the myth of " Hunan troops pacifying Guangxi". Subsequently, Ma Yin first appointed Li Qiong as the governor of Guizhou, and then recommended him as the governor of the Guizhou Jingjiang Army.

At this point, the remnants of Sun Ru, who had lost their homes in the past, fought in Jiangxi, Hunan and other places with only a few thousand defeated soldiers. In just eight years, they took over two towns and twelve states, becoming a military and political entity that could not be underestimated in the Hunan area. Under the planning of the adviser Gao Yu, Ma Yin respected the Tang court externally and relied on the powerful vassal Zhu Wen, while implementing a series of economic reforms internally to improve the quality of life of the people.

When describing Sun Ru in the previous article, one could almost describe him as cruel and brutal. He committed all kinds of evil wherever he went, including burning the eastern capital Luoyang and Yangzhou, which were recorded in history and will be infamous forever. At that time, I left a button, saying that even such a wicked person had a temple built for him. Now, the answer to the mystery can be revealed. This person is Ma Yin.

Because Ma Yin was an old subordinate of Sun Ru, and followed Sun Ru to break away from Qin Zongquan, attack Yangzhou and establish himself, so Sun Ru was the legal foundation of Ma Yin, the founder and entrepreneurial soul of the Ma Yin Group, and praising Sun Ru was the political correctness of the Ma Yin Group.

Sun Ru once said, "If I cannot be rich and noble when I am alive, how can I be blessed with food in the temple after I die?"

When the news of Sun Ru's defeat and death came, Ma Yin burst into tears and said, "Our boss's greatest dream is to build a temple after his death, be worshipped and enjoy sacrifices. If we have a place to live in the future, we must help him realize his last wish (You always have the ambition to build a temple, and we have land, so we will build a temple to repay his kindness)!"

After Ma Yin occupied Tanzhou, he presented Sun Ru with the titles of Si Tu and Prince of Anle, and built a temple to worship him.

In fact, Sun Ru also had a famous saying. He often posed in front of the mirror, caressing his head and muttering to himself, "This head will soon be in the capital." He probably meant that he would enter Chang'an, but unfortunately this sentence was ambiguous. Later, his words really came true, and the head really went to the capital, but the body did not go with it. The head was sent to the capital.

Tanzhou Ma Yin and Huainan Yang Xingmi were not adjacent to each other, but had a buffer zone between them. The northern part of this buffer zone was Ezhou Du Hong, and the southern part was Hongzhou Zhong Chuan. Since both Ezhou Du Hong and Hongzhou Zhong Chuan were enemies of Huainan Yang Xingmi, Yang Xingmi wanted to win over Ma Yin in order to contain Du Hong and Zhong Chuan, based on the basic principle of making friends with distant countries and attacking nearby ones.

Yang Xingmi's wishful thinking failed. Ma Yin also depended on Zhu Wen and stood in the same trench with Du Hong of Ezhou and Zhong Chuan of Hongzhou, making Yang Xingmi's plan of westward advancement more difficult.

Yang Xingmi, a man of great talent and strategy, continued to look westward. To the west of the Huainan forces, there were three more vassal towns, from north to south, namely Zhao Kuangning of Xiangzhou, Chengli of Jingnan, and Lei Yangong of Langzhou.

The breakthrough to the west depends on these people.

(End of this chapter)