History of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms

Chapter 197 The Traitor's Doom

【The Traitor's Doom】

With a fire in the backyard, Yang Xingmi urgently ordered Li Shenfu from the Ezhou front to return to quell the rebellion.

Li Shenfu was worried that he would be counterattacked by Du Hong after retreating, so he announced to the outside world that he would go west along the Yangtze River to counterattack Jingnan. He prepared ships on the Yangtze River, and when night fell, he led the troops eastward along the river. After they had traveled some distance, he assigned the real combat mission to the grassroots commanders and fighters.

Tian Yu captured Li Shenfu's wife and children in Shengzhou, and wanted to use them as a threat. He sent an envoy to tell Li Shenfu: "If you cooperate with me, we can divide Huainan equally; otherwise, I will kill your whole family!"

Li Shenfu said to his men: "When I was still an ordinary soldier, I followed the King of Wu (Yang Xingmi) and was promoted step by step to the position of general. I will never forget the King of Wu's kindness because of my own selfishness! Tian Yu, a young boy, has an elderly mother, but he did not care about her life and death and started a rebellion. He abandoned the Three Bonds and Five Constant Virtues and was unfaithful, unfilial, unkind and unjust!" Then he beheaded the envoy of Tian Yu and ordered them to continue to advance. The soldiers were very moved and their morale was boosted. Everyone rushed to be the first and fought bravely.

Tian Yu sent his general Wang Tan and others to fight against Li Shenfu.

Wang Tan brought Li Shenfu's son Li Chengding to the front of the battle, firstly to undermine Li Shenfu's morale, and secondly to make Li Shenfu afraid to act rashly.

But Li Shenfu immediately ordered the archers to shoot at his son.

Wang Tan's hostage card backfired. Li Shenfu's act of sacrificing his own relatives for the sake of justice united the entire army against the enemy and aroused unprecedented strong fighting spirit.

Li Shenfu told the generals that Wangtan had many people and we had few, so it was not suitable to attack by force and we could only take it by wits. So in the evening, Li Shenfu ordered to meet the enemy and fight, and pretended to be defeated, and retreated westward upstream.

Wang Tan fell into the trap and was chased all the way.

Li Shenfu suddenly turned the boat around and attacked downstream.

Wang Tan held up a torch on the ship to illuminate the way, and Li Shenfu ordered: "Shoot where the fire is!" After a long time, Wang Tan realized that he had been helping the enemy to draw the bull's eye, so he quickly ordered the torches to be extinguished.

In the darkness of the night, the ships of both sides fought in a chaotic battle, and it was difficult to distinguish between the enemy and our own. Li Shenfu used the wind direction to launch a fire attack, burning Wang Tan's ships. Wang Tan's army fell into chaos and collapsed in an instant.

At dawn the next day, Li Shenfu completely wiped out the remnants of Wang Tan's army, and Wang Tan escaped from the battlefield with his life. In this battle, Li Shenfu not only defeated the enemy with a small force, severely weakened the morale of the Tian Yu rebels, but also captured an important prisoner alive - Xu Wan.

Yang Xingmi put Xu Wan into a prison car and sent it to Qian Liu.

Qian Liu cut open Xu Wan's abdomen and dug out his heart to offer as a memorial to Gao Wei. Gao Wei was the son of Gao Yan, the governor of Huzhou. When Xu Wan and Xu Zaisi launched a rebellion last year, Gao Wei led his troops to help, but was ambushed by Xu Wan at Lingyin Mountain, defeated and killed.

During the "Xu-Xu Rebellion", Yang Xingmi firmly supported Qian Liu's legitimate rule and helped him to suppress the rebellion; now when there is civil strife in Huainan, he sends the culprit of the "Xu-Xu Rebellion" to Qian Liu, and the meaning is very clear: Brother, it's time to repay my favor.

Therefore, during the civil strife in Huainan, Qian Liu did not take advantage of the situation to rob, but was far-sighted and helped Yang Xingmi to put down the rebellion.

When Tian Yu heard the news that Wang Tan's army was wiped out, he was terrified. He immediately led the main force out in full force, upstream, to fight against Li Shenfu.

Li Shenfu was able to keep a clear mind even after the great victory. Not being arrogant after victory is the basic quality of an excellent general. Li Shenfu said to the generals: "The enemy abandoned the strong city and fought with us in the field, which is to destroy themselves." So he ordered the fleet to anchor by the river, build a water fort, and hold on. At the same time, he suggested that Yang Xingmi send another ground force to cut off Tian Yu's retreat.

Yang Xingmi then sent General Tai Meng to carry out this task.

Tian Yu made the same mistake as Sun Ru. "Perverse and without mechanism", brain is a good thing, but unfortunately he didn't have it.

Tai Meng ordered the entire army to maintain a state of combat readiness throughout the entire process, and to advance step by step and in rotation. The soldiers all laughed at him for being timid, but Tai Meng told them that Tian Yu had been on the battlefield for many years and was very shrewd, so we must be cautious and must not underestimate the enemy.

Tian Yu's intelligence showed that Tai Meng's army only had about 2,000 people, and they were afraid of the enemy and hesitated, so there was no need to worry. Therefore, Tian Yu stationed the main force in Wuhu to stop Li Shenfu, and he personally led a small army to fight Tai Meng. Tian Yu did not take Tai Meng seriously.

Tianyu and Taimeng encountered each other in Guangde, east of Xuanzhou.

Before the battle, Tai Meng showed Yang Xingmi's letter to Tian Yu's generals, who all dismounted to receive it, with shame on their faces. Taking advantage of the demoralized army, Tai Meng launched a fierce attack. What Tian Yu didn't know was that Tai Meng not only had 2,000 men at this time, but also had a reinforcement force, whose chief general was Wang Maozhang. After Wang Maozhang returned from Qingzhou, he was ordered to attack An Renyi in Runzhou, but the effect was not good, so he was transferred to the front line of Xuanzhou to join forces with Tai Meng.

Tian Yu suffered a setback in his first battle. Tai Meng took advantage of the victory and pursued and defeated Tian Yu again. Tian Yu had to retreat to Xuanzhou and urgently ordered the elite troops from Wuhu to return for assistance.

However, this elite force, led by generals such as Wang Tan, surrendered collectively.

As mentioned above, when Yang Xingmi's group encountered this internal turmoil, Qian Liu did not take advantage of the situation, but lent a helping hand to Yang Xingmi. Qian Liu ordered General Fang Yongzhen to go to Runzhou to help, ordered his cousin Qian Yi to go to Xuanzhou to help, and ordered General Yang Xi to attack Muzhou. The dispatch of troops to Muzhou will be described in detail later.

Tian Yu retreated to Xuanzhou, losing the elite troops from Wuhu and gaining more enemies from Hangzhou. The situation was not optimistic.

At the beginning of the rebellion, An Renyi of Runzhou attacked Changzhou. Li Yu, the governor of Changzhou, bravely fought against him and cursed An Renyi before the battle. An Renyi was suspicious by nature and said that Li Yu had always been no match for him, but he dared to insult him like this today, so there must be an ambush. So he led his army to withdraw.

As An Renyi expected, Li Yu had indeed laid an ambush, and when they saw An Renyi retreating, the ambushers quickly appeared and gave chase.

An Renyi raised his flag high, then took off his armor and ate. "Don't you want to chase me? Come, I'm here." An Renyi's confidence made Li Yu's pursuers even more afraid. They dared not move forward, and retreated after observing for a while. An Renyi was able to retreat to the Runzhou base camp with his entire army.

After that, Wang Maozhang, who had returned from the Qingzhou battlefield, was ordered to attack Runzhou, but failed to capture it. So Yang Xingmi sent Xu Wen to lead his troops to replace Wang Maozhang and transferred Wang Maozhang to the front line of Xuanzhou.

Xu Wen ordered his troops to change into the uniforms of Wang Maozhang's troops and to use their flags. The strategy worked, and An Renyi had no idea that the troops outside the city had been completely replaced, and thought they were still Wang Maozhang's troops. As a result, he underestimated the enemy and advanced rashly, and was severely defeated by Xu Wen.

In the Huainan Yang Xingmi group, An Renyi's archery skills were second to none. Zhu Jin's lance and Mi Zhicheng's crossbow were equally famous, and both were considered the best in the Huainan army. However, An Renyi often boasted: "The power of Mi Zhicheng's crossbow is ten times as powerful as Zhu Jin's lance; the power of Zhu Jin's lance is ten times as powerful as my bow and arrow. (Ten times the power of Zhicheng's crossbow is not as powerful as one of Jin's lance; ten times the power of Jin's lance is not as powerful as one of my bow and arrow)" He was so confident.

As a general, An Renyi was also good at commanding the army and won the hearts of the soldiers. His army had a strong fighting capacity, and even if there were only a few hundred people defending the city, the attackers could not get close. That was why Wang Maozhang could not achieve significant results.

Yang Xingmi wrote a letter to An Renyi to persuade him to surrender, saying that I will not forget your previous contributions. As long as you can turn back from your mistakes, I will still appoint you as deputy commander and enjoy the treatment of that level, but you will no longer lead troops.

An Renyi thought the argument made sense and wanted to surrender, but his son strongly opposed it, so he gave up.

Tian Yu, trapped in Xuanzhou, had only a few hundred loyal and devoted subordinates, who he reorganized into "Claws and Teeth". Tian Yu personally led the "Claws and Teeth" to break out of the city.

Taiwan and Meng showed weakness and retreated.

Tian Yu was fooled again and crossed the trench to pursue. Tai Meng immediately counterattacked. Tian Yu then found himself in a dilemma.

In the melee, Tian Ji lost his horse and fell to the ground, where his head was chopped off. The "minions" were still resisting desperately, so Tai Meng ordered his men to lift up Tian Ji's head and show it to them, and they fled.

Tai Meng sent a letter to announce the victory: "We have conquered Xuanzhou and beheaded Tian Yu." Along with the letter was Tian Yu's head.

In Yangzhou city, all the civil and military officials were celebrating, but Yang Xingmi's face was the only one that showed no joy of victory at all.

Yang Xingmi opened the wooden box containing Tian Yu's head and looked at his childhood friend, sworn brother, close comrade-in-arms, and veteran minister. He could not hide his grief, and his tears flowed uncontrollably as he burst into tears.

Yang Xingmi issued an order to pardon Tian Yu's mother, Yin. Not only that, Yang Xingmi also treated Aunt Yin well, serving her wholeheartedly as a junior, and taking care of her until her death.

Previously, during the "Xuzhou-Xuzhou Rebellion", when Tian Yu withdrew his troops from Hangzhou, he had demanded Qian Liu's son Qian Yuanguan as a hostage. Now that Qian Liu sent troops to help besiege Xuanzhou, Tian Yu was furious and wanted to kill Qian Yuanguan to vent his anger. However, his mother Yin and the head of the Xuanzhou military police (Du Yuhou) Guo Shicong had been secretly protecting Qian Yuanguan and saving his life.

When Tian Yu led the last of his "henchmen" to break out, he left a will: "If we fail today, Yuan Guan must be killed!" With Yin's strenuous protection, Qian Yuanguan was finally saved.

After pacifying Xuanzhou, Yang Xingmi sent Qian Yuanguan back to Hangzhou. After Qian Liu's death, it was this Qian Yuanguan who succeeded him, but this is a story for another time.

The fall of Tian Yu was a big blow to An Renyi of Runzhou. Wang Maozhang also returned to the front line of Runzhou from the battlefield of Xuanzhou and besieged Runzhou together with Xu Wen and others.

An Renyi's archery skills were well-deserved. He could shoot an arrow through the target from a hundred paces away. Whenever he went into battle, he would first snipe and kill the enemy's generals to undermine the enemy's morale.

Runzhou was under siege for more than a year, but still could not be conquered. Later, Wang Maozhang secretly dug a tunnel and successfully dug into Runzhou City, launching a surprise attack, which was a great success. An Renyi led his entire family to climb up the high building and resisted stubbornly. The other generals were afraid of An Renyi's invincible archery skills and dared not approach.

An Renyi knew that the situation was hopeless, so he looked far away from a high place, searching hard among the generals who had suppressed the rebellion, and finally locked his sights on Li Decheng.

In the previous battle, all the generals cursed An Renyi when they saw him, but Li Decheng did not curse him because of their old friendship. An Renyi waved to Li Decheng, calling him to come closer and talk, and then said to him: "You were polite to me, today I will return a favor to you, and this 'merit of defeating the bandits' is given to you." After that, he first gave his most beloved concubine to Li Decheng, entrusting his wife and son to him, and then threw his magic bow to the ground and surrendered to Li Decheng.

The loyal Li Decheng took An Renyi's arm and went downstairs to accept the surrender. Afterwards, An Renyi and his son were tied up and taken to Yangzhou, where they were beheaded in public.

The highlight of the "Three Rebellions in Huainan" is Zhu Yanshou, whom we will introduce separately at the end.

(End of this chapter)