History of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms

Chapter 238: Qi and Shu split
[Qi Shu split]

Li Maozhen of Fengxiang and Wang Jian of Former Shu were entrenched in the western part of the Later Liang Empire. The two had long been united to resist the invasion of the powerful vassal states in Guandong and to control Guanxi and Sanchuan. This was inseparable from Wang Jian's political wisdom. He had publicly stated his "diplomatic" policy towards Fengxiang: "Enter as a shield, leave as a seat", meaning that Fengxiang should be used as a barrier for Shu and a buffer zone between Shu and the forces in Guandong.

When Li Maozhen's Guanxi Group was declining, although Wang Jian took the opportunity to reap a lot of benefits, he always provided Fengxiang with all necessary help to prevent it from being destroyed by the powerful vassal states in Guandong.

Especially after Zhu Wen established Later Liang, Wang Jian directly sent troops to attack the northwest of Later Liang together with Li Maozhen.

The relationship between Qi and Shu is very delicate, both strong and fragile. Its strength is inversely proportional to Li Maozhen's strength. If Li Maozhen is weak, then the relationship between Qi and Shu is strong. Once Li Maozhen becomes stronger, the relationship between Qi and Shu becomes fragile.

At the beginning of the establishment of the Later Liang Dynasty, the "Battle of Luzhou" and "Battle of Baixiang" broke out with the Hedong Group, both of which ended in the disastrous defeat of the Later Liang Dynasty. During this period, the Later Liang general Liu Zhijun surrendered to Fengxiang Li Maozhen, and with the support of Li Maozhen and Wang Jian, he seized the northwestern territory of the Later Liang Dynasty and sat in the Zhangyi Army in Jingzhou.

There is no doubt that at that moment, Fengxiang Li Maozhen was the biggest winner. He expanded territory, absorbed talents, and greatly increased his strength.

As a result, the foundation of the cooperation between Qi and Shu began to shake. Wang Jian no longer had the need to continue supporting Li Maozhen, so he had to adjust his foreign relations and change the relationship between Qi and Shu from strategic partners to main enemies.

Li Maozhen obviously did not have a thorough understanding of the relationship between Qi and Shu, and his political wisdom was far inferior to Wang Jian. In fact, Li Maozhen was just a guard dog of Wang Jian, and Wang Jian's long-term material assistance could be regarded as the owner feeding the guard dog to ensure that it would not starve to death and continue to guard the house for the owner. Li Maozhen believed that Wang Jian bribed and curried favor with him out of fear.

When Li Maozhen's power grew, he became more and more aggressive and made territorial demands to Wang Jian, asking Wang Jian to cede Bazhou and Jianzhou.

Wang Jian complained to those around him, "I have supported Li Maozhen with supplies and money, and I have done my best. But ceding land would mean abandoning my people. I would rather give him more gold, silver and treasures." He then gave him a lot of tea, raw silk, cotton cloth, satin and other supplies.

Wang Jian's initiative to show weakness won Former Shu the moral high ground and successfully stirred up hatred against Li Maozhen in the country. From officials to ordinary people, from the central government to local governments, everyone in Former Shu cursed Li Maozhen as an ungrateful person who could never be satisfied.

The breakdown of the relationship between Qi and Shu thus had a basis in public opinion. The fuse that led to the complete fallout between Qi and Shu turned out to be a family matter.

During the honeymoon period between Qi and Shu, Wang Jian's daughter Princess Puci married Li Maozhen's nephew Li Jicong, the governor of Qinzhou Tianxiong Army, using political marriage to consolidate the Qi-Shu alliance.

Now, Princess Puci sent someone to send back a handwritten letter to her parents' home, saying that Li Jicong was proud and arrogant, addicted to alcohol, and it was simply difficult to live with him.

The couple had a disagreement, and the daughter-in-law complained to her father-in-law.

Wang Jian, the father-in-law, falsely claimed that Princess Puci's mother had passed away and summoned her back to her parents' home to attend the funeral. After Princess Puci returned to Chengdu, Wang Jian detained her.

Li Maozhen was furious upon hearing the news, thinking that Wang Jian was going too far, so he announced a break with Wang Jian and assembled a large army in the eastern part of Former Shu, preparing for a large-scale invasion of Former Shu.

Qi and Shu went from being close allies to mortal enemies in an instant. Wang Jian summoned all the civil and military officials and said, "We have been helping Li Maozhen since he was besieged by Zhu Wen (the siege of Fengxiang). I didn't expect him to be so ungrateful and repay kindness with hatred! Who of you can teach him a lesson for me?"

His adopted son Wang Zongkan volunteered to take command of the Northern Front Army (Commander-in-Chief of the Northern Headquarters), and ordered Wang Zongyou, Wang Zonghe and Tang Daoxi to be column commanders and advance in three routes; Wang Zongshao was the deputy commander and led 120,000 people to launch an attack on Fengxiang.

Wang Zongkan and others set out from Chengdu, with flags flying, stretching for hundreds of miles.

Li Maozhen's incompetence was fully demonstrated at the beginning of the war. He first recruited Wen Tao, the leader of a famous tomb-robbing group in the Guanzhong area, and adopted him as his son. He upgraded Huayuan to Yaozhou and Meiyuan to Dingzhou, and named these two states as the Yisheng Army. He appointed Wen Tao as the Jiedushi of the Yisheng Army, and joined forces with Fengxiang and Jingnan to attack Chang'an and launch an attack on the Later Liang Dynasty.

A war had just broken out with Former Shu and the outcome was still undecided, but you sent troops to provoke Later Liang. Li Maozhen, was it Fish Leong who gave you the courage?
Compared with Li Maozhen's indecision, Wang Jian attached great importance to this battle. He ordered Crown Prince Wang Zongyi to supervise the country and act as regent, and he personally went to the front line to lead the army.

Inspired by Wang Jian's personal expedition, the Former Shu army was in high spirits and won battle after battle.

Wang Jian believed victory was in sight, so he returned to Chengdu.

The two sides then fought again at Qingni Ridge, and Fengxiang general Liu Zhijun turned the tables, defeated the Former Shu army, and took advantage of the victory to surround Xingyuan Prefecture. Tang Daoxi entered Xingyuan Prefecture and fought desperately, but Wang Jian sent reinforcements in time to repel the Fengxiang army.

Wang Jian once again appointed the crown prince Wang Zongyi as regent and led the army in person. Wang Zongbi defeated Liu Zhijun in Xiegu and then successively broke through 16 camps, captured and killed more than 6,000 people. Other routes also received frequent victories.

Wang Jian went to Xingyuan to support them. The morale of the defenders was greatly boosted, and they joined forces to conquer 21 camps in Fengxiang. The Fengxiang army lifted the siege and withdrew. Tang Daoxi set up an ambush in advance, causing heavy damage to the retreating Fengxiang army.

Liu Zhijun's talent was obvious to all, especially after he joined Li Maozhen, he was highly regarded, which aroused the envy and hatred of other generals in Fengxiang. Some people took advantage of this defeat to make slanderous accusations against Liu Zhijun. Li Maozhen believed the slander and took away Liu Zhijun's military power.

Li Jichong reminded Li Maozhen that Liu Zhijun had come to surrender with great difficulty, but was excluded just because of one or two slanderous words, which might chill the hearts of the soldiers. So Li Maozhen executed the slanderer to appease Liu Zhijun. Li Jichong invited Liu Zhijun and his family to move to Qinzhou.

Li Jicong, who tried his best to protect Liu Zhijun, was the bastard husband who was described by Princess Puci as "arrogant and fond of drinking, who made the virtuous and good people drunk" and "caused the people to be confused". What kind of person was Li Jicong? I personally think that Princess Puci was just a card played by Wang Jian, a political card to force Li Maozhen to turn against him.

The first phase of the Qi-Shu War ended with a great victory for Shu. Li Maozhen would not admit defeat, and Wang Jian would not be satisfied with this.

This was an opportunity God had given Wang Jian. The Later Liang Dynasty was caught up in internal and external troubles, and had no time to look west. In the struggle between Qi and Shu, it leaned towards the Former Shu to balance Li Maozhen. However, Wang Jian once again stopped moving forward because a major civil strife also broke out within the Former Shu.

(End of this chapter)