History of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms

Chapter 251: Hebei Falls
A few months later, Liu Xun finally came to the capital to report on his work. As expected, he was impeached and held accountable for the defeat in Guyuancheng. He was demoted, had his power stripped from him, and was exiled.

In order to fill the defense gap along the Yellow River, Zhu Youzhen ordered Li Ba, the commander of Zhuoshengdu, to lead a thousand men to station in Yangliu (now Dong'e County, Shandong Province, one of the ancient ferry crossings on the south bank of the Yellow River). On the day Li Ba set out, he launched a mutiny, set fire and looted the capital, and attacked the south gate of the imperial city.

Zhu Youzhen personally climbed up to the city wall to command the suppression of the rebellion. The rebels poured oil on cloth, wrapped the cloth on long bamboo poles, and then lifted it high, intending to burn the city wall. Wang Yanqiu, commander of the Longxiang Army, found that the rebels were not wearing armor, so he decisively sent out cavalry to attack. Zhu Youzhen suddenly saw the Longxiang Army cavalry on the top floor and exclaimed: "Why is it the Longxiang Army?" Wang Yanqiu hurriedly explained that the Longxiang Army was suppressing the rebellion, and the rebels were only a reinforced battalion of Li Ba. Not long after, Li Ba and his rebels were all massacred, and the rebellion was suppressed.

"Zizhi Tongjian" uses a lot of space to describe the details of the battle, but does not mention the most crucial question: Why did Li Ba rebel?

When we extract a few key words: rebellion, imperial city, Longxiong Army...it's really terrifying when you think about it!

The deeper the analysis, the more bizarre it becomes:
1. What was the purpose of the mutiny? If they wanted money, they could just rob the two cities. Why did they attack the palace? What good would it do to kill the emperor?
2. Li Ba had only men, and their equipment was not particularly sophisticated (the thieves had no armor), but he was able to stir up trouble in the capital, not only plundering but also threatening the imperial city, and almost cooked the emperor into a hanging oven roast duck. Where did the imperial guards go? Where did the garrison troops go?

3. Does the Longxiong Army really have nothing to do with it?

4. Why was Zhu Youzhen so surprised when he saw the Longxiang Army? How should we analyze the words that came out of his mouth when he was surprised?
According to historical records, Zhu Youzhen shouted, "If it is not me, a brave man, who would be the leader of the rebellion?" It is very interesting to think about how this sentence should be translated.

Zhu Youzhen's success in ascending to power was inseparable from the support of the Longxiang Army. In the process of the supreme power change in the Later Liang Dynasty, the Longxiang Army always loomed. The relationship between Zhu Youzhen and the Longxiang Army was quite delicate.

What on earth was Zhu Youzhen surprised about?
5. The rebels caused chaos in the capital, but when Zhu Youzhen recognized the Longxiang Army among the rebels, the rebellion was immediately suppressed and all the rebels, including the leader, were killed.

Why did the Longxiang Army, which was suppressing the rebellion, pretend to be pigs and eat the tiger? Was Li Ba murdered to silence him?
I personally believe that Li Ba’s mutiny was far from as simple as recorded in historical records. It was most likely a failed palace coup, with high-level figures probably involved behind the scenes.

This mutiny (coup) dealt a heavy blow to Zhu Youzhen mentally. From then on, Zhu Youzhen lost all trust in "outsiders". He only trusted Zhao Yan, the Zhang brothers and other close associates, and regarded the "foreign relatives gang" as his confidants. Local vassal states, veteran meritorious officials, and especially royal family members... were all potential enemies!
[Hebei falls]

After Liu Xun's surprise attack on Taiyuan failed, Wang Tan, who replaced Niu Cunjie and was stationed on the Yellow River front, secretly reported to Zhu Youzhen, requesting to open a second battlefield and mobilize the troops from Guanxi to attack Taiyuan from the Hezhong area. Zhu Youzhen immediately ordered the Hezhong Huguo Army, Shanzhou Zhenguo Army, Huazhou Ganhua Army, and Tongzhou Zhongwu Army to gather more than 30,000 elite troops, go out of Yindi Pass, and attack Taiyuan.

As analyzed in the previous article, Liang and Jin were confronting each other along the Yellow River, and the Taihang Mountains were completely within the sphere of influence of Hedong, which was not conducive to mobilizing support on the east and west fronts; and because the Hezhong area was under the control of Later Liang, the two sides did not actually rule by the river. In the middle section of the Yellow River, the sphere of influence of Later Liang extended to the north of the Yellow River, which formed a semi-encirclement of Hedong.

When the Heshuo area east of Taihang Mountain was in a stalemate, Houliang could launch a surprise attack on Taiyuan from the Hezhong area.

Wang Tan was as fast as lightning, suddenly appearing outside Taiyuan City, launching fierce attacks day and night. All the people in Taiyuan Prefecture were mobilized as soldiers, and all those who could hold weapons went up to the city to fight.

The city of Taiyuan is in danger.

The retired veteran An Jinquan (who served two generations of Li Guochang and Li Keyong) took the initiative to find Zhang Chengye and said that Taiyuan was the foundation of Hedong, and that his skills were still sharp and he was willing to go into battle and kill the enemy, and requested to be equipped with weapons and armor.

Zhang Chengye was deeply moved and immediately distributed sufficient weapons and armor to him. Veteran General An Jinquan, along with his children and grandchildren, as well as other retired veterans, a total of hundreds of people, went out of the city at night to attack the Later Liang army and successfully repelled it. Upon hearing the news, Li Sizhao, who was stationed in Luzhou, immediately sent Shi Junli 500 cavalry to help. The 500 cavalry set out in the morning and arrived in Taiyuan in the evening. The distance between the two places was about 500 miles, and the flexibility and mobility of the Shatuo cavalry came in handy.

Shi Junli led 500 cavalrymen to break through the obstruction of the Later Liang army, rushed to the foot of the city, and shouted to the defenders on the city wall: "The Zhaoyi reinforcements led by Li Sizhao will arrive soon!" The morale of the defenders in the city was greatly boosted.

Shi Junli had no time to rest, and that night he went out of the city with veteran general An Jinquan for a night battle, causing a casualty rate of up to 30% for the Later Liang army.

The next day, Wang Tan retreated and Taiyuan was relieved.

On the eastern front, Liu Xun suffered a crushing defeat; on the western front, Wang Tan failed.

Zhu Youzhen looked up to the sky and sighed, "The situation is over!"

Li Cunxu took advantage of the victory to expand the results and took the former Weizhou Army and Dongzhaoyi into his pocket. The governor of Weizhou surrendered, the governor of Xingzhou and Dongzhaoyi, Yan Bao, surrendered, the governor of Cizhou abandoned the city and fled, the governor of Xiangzhou abandoned the city and fled... In the entire area north of the Yellow River, there were only two nails left: Cangzhou and Beizhou. The Hedong Army increased its military investment to unify the north of the Yellow River.

Under increasing pressure, Dai Siyuan, the governor of Shunhua Army in Cangzhou, abandoned the city and fled. The defending general Mao Zhang surrendered the city to Hedong. Li Cunxu sent Li Siyuan into the city to take over and appease the people. He then ordered Li Cunshen to stay in Cangzhou and Li Siyuan to stay in Xingzhou.

After Hedong took control of Cangzhou, Beizhou in the north of Weizhou was completely included in Hedong's sphere of influence and became a veritable isolated city.

Beizhou had been under siege for more than a year. Now it was trapped in the enemy's hinterland, isolated and without help, and its food and grass had been cut off. A tragedy of cannibalism was about to unfold. The generals went to the governor Zhang Yuande to discuss surrender. Zhang Yuande firmly opposed it and vowed to live and die with Beizhou.

Therefore, the generals killed Zhang Yuande and then sent representatives to contact the Hedong Army and proposed a conditional surrender. The condition of surrender was not to surrender, because they were afraid of being massacred and retaliated, so they had to surrender wearing armor and holding weapons, and then disarm after the takeover was completed.

The Hedong army agreed immediately and said, "No problem, come out."

So, the 3,000 defenders left the city to surrender, and the Hedong Army entered the city to take over. After the 3,000 people took off their armor and surrendered their weapons, the Hedong Army suddenly surrounded them and massacred them all.

From then on, almost all the land north of the Yellow River was incorporated into the territory of Hedong.

After taking control of Hebei, Li Cunxu sent an envoy to Huainan to propose a joint attack on the Later Liang Dynasty from the north and south. Yang Wei of Huainan readily agreed, so he sent Zhu Jin, the "pig-killing vanguard", to lead Huainan's elite soldiers and brave generals to cross the Huai River to the north to respond to Li Cunxu's north-south attack.

(End of this chapter)