History of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms

Chapter 204 Wei Bo Ya Army
Zhu Wen's eldest daughter, Princess Anyang (posthumously honored), married Luo Shaowei's eldest son Luo Tinggui. Unfortunately, she died of illness in the first month of the third year of Tianyou in the Tang Dynasty (906).

When the bad news reached Bianzhou, the pain of losing his daughter was inevitable, but as a politician, personal feelings always had to give way to political interests. As a father, Zhu Wen was extremely sad, but as a political leader, Zhu Wen was happy.

Soon, Zhu Wen and Luo Shaowei worked out a strategy to attack Wei Bo's army.

First, Zhu Wen mobilized a total of 100,000 troops from various towns south of the Yellow River, led by General Li Sian, and joined forces with troops from Weizhou and Chengde towns, and stationed in the Heshuo area. He announced to the outside world that he was attacking Liu Shouwen of Cangzhou because he had recruited rebels and taken in Li Gongquan, a rebel general from Weizhou.

Then, he sent General Ma Sixun to lead a 1,000-man mourning team to Weizhou to help with the funeral arrangements at her husband's home. These 1,000 men were carefully selected warriors. They took off their military uniforms, put on civilian clothes, and disguised themselves as porters and other servants, carrying funeral supplies on their shoulders or carts. These funeral supplies were also carefully disguised. On the surface, they looked like incense, candles, paper figures and horses, but inside they were weapons and armor.

Finally, Zhu Wen personally led the main army and followed closely behind, claiming to be the second echelon to attack Cangzhou.

It was logical and reasonable, and the Wei Bo army had no suspicion and did not take any precautions.

Just after the Lantern Festival, Luo Shaowei sent his confidants to sneak into the armory according to the previous secret agreement, cut the bowstrings and the buckles on the armor, making them unusable. That night, Luo Shaowei led his servants, courtyard workers, students and guests, hundreds of people, to secretly meet with Ma Sixun, and then launched a surprise attack on Yacheng under the cover of night.

Yacheng was the settlement of the Ya army. The military compound was full of soldiers. When they heard about the change, they immediately opened the armory and prepared for battle, but found that there was not a single usable bow or a piece of armor. So Luo Shaowei and Ma Sixun launched a bloody massacre in Yacheng, killing more than 8,000 families, even women and babies in their arms were not spared.

In this battle, Ma Sixun was unfortunately wounded and died of his injuries ten days later.

The next day, Zhu Wen led the main force into Weizhou City to appease the people.

After the Ya army of Weizhou was massacred, the Ya army scattered in other places in Weizhou were also terrified, fearing that they would be implicated. Luo Shaowei's kind words of persuasion not only failed to dispel their doubts, but made them more suspicious. Finally, Ya general Shi Renyu raised his arms and assembled tens of thousands of troops, using Gaotang (northeast of Weizhou, close to Yichang Army of Cangzhou) as a revolutionary base, claiming to be the regent, openly rebelling to seize power, and most of the prefectures and counties under Weizhou responded. Overnight, Weizhou was in danger of changing its name.

This was also within Zhu Wen's expectations. The local military governors' elimination of their own troops was like the central government's reduction of the local military governors' power, and he had to do it once and for all, so Zhu Wen dispatched a large army to provide support.

Zhu Wen mobilized troops to attack Gaotang. This army consisted of three parts, namely the Bian Army, Wei Bo Army, and Chengde Army. Under the guise of attacking Liu Shouwen of Cangzhou, they supported Luo Shaowei. On the way to Gaotang, the Wei Bo soldiers learned that the Yacheng of Weizhou had been massacred, so they immediately rebelled under the leadership of General Zuo Xingqian in response to Shi Renyu.

Fortunately, the commander of the army responded quickly, acted decisively, and suppressed the rebellion efficiently. More than half (more than 40,000 people) of the Wei Bo rebels were killed, and Zuo Xingqian was killed. After stabilizing the internal situation, he continued to attack Gaotang, conquered it in one fell swoop, and captured Shi Renyu alive.

Then, a bloody scene took place - the Gaotang Massacre. The anti-rebellion troops carried out an inhumane massacre in Gaotang, beheading all the soldiers and civilians in the city, regardless of gender, age or status. Shi Renyu was dismembered. Afterwards, they pacified Chanzhou and Bozhou, killing more than 10,000 people.

Zhu Wen's troops rarely massacred cities. They usually followed the principle of "punishing only the main culprits and not asking the rest" to show mercy and win the hearts of the people. But why did they massacre Gaotang this time? Because the commanders of this army were Li Maoxun and Li Jizhao.

Both of them were surrendered generals from Guanxi, one was Li Maozhen's cousin, and the other was Li Maozhen's adopted son. They abandoned Qi and returned to Bian during the "Siege of Fengxiang".

The second devils are always more hateful than the real devils. As surrendered generals, and the most junior surrendered generals in Guanxi, the two must show great hatred and cruelty to Zhu Wen's enemies in order to express their loyalty to Zhu Wen's group. Any mercy and kindness will arouse suspicion from the organization.

When Shi Renyu openly rebelled, Li Keyong of Hedong and Liu Shouwen of Cangzhou unsurprisingly lent a hand to him and interfered in the affairs of Hebei.

Li Keyong sent Li Sizhao to lead 3,000 cavalrymen to the east of Taihang Mountain to attack Xingzhou in Dongzhaoyi; Liu Shouwen sent 10,000 troops to attack the prefectures and counties in the north of Weizhou and the south of Chengde. Xingzhou had only 200 defenders, led by Bian general Niu Cunjie, and put up a tenacious resistance. Li Sizhao attacked for seven consecutive days but could not conquer it. Zhu Wen sent Zhang Yun to lead thousands of cavalrymen to rush to Xingzhou. Zhang Yun set an ambush, repelled Li Sizhao, and resolved the crisis in Dongzhaoyi.

Liu Shouwen's troops were also repelled by the Bian Army.

Afterwards, Zhu Wen personally led the main force to travel around the Heshuo area to provide support, inspect the border, and guide the work, and completely annihilated the Wei Bo rebels scattered across the area.

At this point, it took Zhu Wen half a year to completely quell the civil strife of the Wei Bo Army and consolidate Bianzhou's rights and interests in the Heshuo area.

During this half year, Luo Shaowei was responsible for the daily supply of tens of thousands of troops. According to historical records, Luo Shaowei slaughtered 700,000 cattle, sheep and pigs, and consumed an equal amount of food and fodder. As for the money and treasures needed for military rewards, gifts and bribes, they were countless. In half a year, Wei Bo's entire savings were almost exhausted.

Although Luo Shaowei eliminated the hidden danger of the Ya army, he also lost precious military strength. Without the army, money and food, the Wei Bo army was severely damaged and never recovered.

After 30 years of hard work, he returned to the pre-liberation era overnight. At this time, Luo Shaowei regretted it very much, calling himself the sinner of Wei Bo, and said to those around him: "Even if the iron of Wei Bo's six states and 43 counties were gathered together, it would not be possible to make such a big mistake!"

Although Weizhou had solved its internal problems, its external worries were not eliminated. Liu Rengong and his son in Youzhou echoed each other from afar, always threatening the stability of the Heshuo region. When helping Luo Shaowei to eliminate the Ya army, Zhu Wen had already decided on a strategy of killing two birds with one stone and catching rabbits by robbing straw, that is, first under the guise of attacking Liu Shouwen in Cangzhou, to eliminate Weizhou's Ya army, and then really attack Cangzhou.

When Shi Renyu rebelled in Gaotang, the Bian army had already reached the border between Weizhou and Cangzhou Yichang, and had to return to Gaotang to quell the rebellion. Then the scattered Ya army in Weizhou rebelled one after another, and the sparks spread like wildfire, which seriously delayed the pace of attacking Cangzhou and lost the opportunity to fight.

However, Zhu Wen could not forget the father and son of the Liu family. After returning to Bianzhou to rest for a month, Zhu Wen once again mobilized a large army and attacked Cangzhou through Weizhou again, in an attempt to stabilize the Heshuo area once and for all.

The Bian army camped outside the northwest of Cangzhou City. The defenders did not dare to fight and closed the city gates to wait for reinforcements. Liu Rengong of Youzhou went south to rescue, but was defeated repeatedly.

This was a catastrophe for Liu and his son, who were pushed to the brink of death. In order to replenish the army, Liu Rengong issued a conscription order that was unprecedented and unparalleled: all men aged 15 and above and under 70 were required to join the army and provide their own food and weapons.

During the most difficult period of the Great Patriotic War, the former Soviet Union issued a mobilization call of "Everyone is a soldier", and the conscription age was relaxed to men aged 17 and above and under 55.

At the end of the Tang Dynasty more than a thousand years ago, Liu Rengong's age range for conscription was outrageous. He also stipulated that once the army set out, any man aged 15 to 70 found in the territory would be immediately treated as a deserter and executed.

Some people dissuaded him, saying that if this were to happen, only women and children would be left in the country, and they would not be strong enough to undertake the responsibility of transporting food and fodder.

Liu Rengong then revised the conscription order: Anyone who could hold a weapon would be sent to the front. The meaning of this amendment was that sick men between the ages of 15 and 70 could stay at home to recuperate temporarily, and then go to the front after they recovered.

In order to prevent the soldiers from escaping, Liu Rengong tattooed three characters on their faces - "定霸都". The educated scholars were exempted from tattooing on their faces, but they had to tattoo four characters on their arms - "壹心服主". As a result, except for children, everyone in the Lulong Army of Youzhou had tattoos.

In this way, Liu Rengong plundered 100,000 soldiers in the territory and stationed in Waqiao.

(End of this chapter)