History of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms

Chapter 277: In-laws Destroy Liang 2 Duan Ning Takes Command
[Out-of-laws destroy Liang 2 Duan Ning takes charge]

Wang Yanzhang was the last backbone of the Later Liang Empire. When he first took command, he defeated the enemy in three days, captured Deshengdu and other ferry crossings on the south bank, and drove Li Cunxu back to the north of the Yellow River. How mighty! But why did he suffer a series of defeats and retreat step by step, and finally returned to the starting point?

Not afraid of god-like opponents, but afraid of pig-like teammates.

Don’t forget Wang Yanzhang’s deputy, Duan Ning, the deputy envoy of the Northern Recruiting Campaign, the “foreign relatives gang”.

Wang Yanzhang was a man of upright and loyal character. He hated the "foreign relatives gang" for controlling the government and bringing disaster to the country and the people. After taking command, he said to his close confidants, "When I return triumphantly, I will definitely eradicate the treacherous villains in the court and give an explanation to the people of the world." The treacherous villains he referred to were of course the "foreign relatives gang."

The "foreign relatives gang" had many informants, and this statement quickly reached their ears. Zhao Yan, the Zhang brothers and other core leaders of the "foreign relatives gang" gathered together, discussed with each other, and reached a high degree of consensus, saying, "We would rather die under the swords of the Shatuo people than fall into the hands of Wang Yanzhang!"

Therefore, Zhao Yan and the Zhang brothers in the court and Duan Ning who was close to Wang Yanzhang outside the court, the "foreign relatives gang" colluded and united both internally and externally, and deliberately put Wang Yanzhang to death. They would rather let the country lose the war than kill Wang Yanzhang.

As Wang Yanzhang's deputy, Duan Ning, deputy commander-in-chief of the army, obstructed Wang Yanzhang's actions at every turn and became Li Cunxu's non-staff senior spy, sparing no effort to act as an actor and striving to fail.

Therefore, Wang Yanzhang could only achieve impressive results in the initial blitzkrieg of "defeating the enemy in three days", because Duan Ning really had no time to do anything bad. When the battle entered a stalemate, such as the battles of Yangliu, Majiakou, and Zoujiakou, Duan Ning had enough time to sabotage and successfully reverse the situation.

Whenever there was good news, Zhao Yan and others would attribute all the credit to Duan Ning; whenever there was a failure, they would put all the blame on Wang Yanzhang.

When Wang Yanzhang lifted the siege of Yangliu and retreated to Yangcun, the "foreign relatives gang" instigated Zhu Youzhen to recall Wang Yanzhang to the court and hold him accountable for the defeat.

It was the same trick used to frame Liu Xun. When the army was defeated, they summoned you to the imperial court to report on your work. If you disobeyed the order and did not go to the capital, you would be considered treason. If you went to the capital, you would be like a sheep walking into a tiger's mouth.

Wang Yanzhang was summoned to Beijing to meet the emperor. Facing Zhu Youzhen's questioning, Wang Yanzhang tried his best to defend himself and gave Zhu Youzhen a detailed account of the battlefield situation. Wang Yanzhang had no time to make a PPT, so he suddenly had an idea and used the tablet in his hand to write and draw on the ground, pointing and explaining to Zhu Youzhen the way to victory and defeat from strategy to tactics, from the simple to the complex.

Zhu Youzhen was just blinded by the "foreign relatives gang". After all, he was the emperor of Daliang, and he did not want Daliang to perish. After listening carefully to Wang Yanzhang's explanation, he agreed with it and no longer pursued his responsibility for the defeat.

The "foreign relatives gang" was furious, and finally found a "crime" of Wang Yanzhang - impoliteness! He actually used the tablet to circle and point on the ground in front of the emperor. He was arrogant, rebellious, and disrespectful to the emperor. It was really unreasonable!
"He has moral problems."

If you cannot outperform your opponent in terms of professional skills and business accomplishment, then you should slander and accuse him of his morality. This has been proven time and again since ancient times.

As a result, Wang Yanzhang was stripped of his title of commander-in-chief and ordered to go home and reflect on his actions.

After all, Zhu Youzhen did not completely lose his mind. After careful consideration, he still allowed Wang Yanzhang to return to the army, but in a lower position. Moreover, he did not return to the front line of Desheng Jiacheng, but to assist Dong Zhang in the siege of Zezhou.

This intersects with the node in the previous article. Li Jitao surrendered Luzhou to Liang. Later Liang sent Dong Zhang to support Luzhou and besieged Zezhou south of Luzhou. Pei Yue, the defender of Zezhou, fought desperately.

Previously, Wang Yanzhang and Li Cunxu had been fighting fiercely in Desheng, Jiacheng, Yunzhou, Majiakou, and Zoujiakou, which made Li Cunxu unable to split his forces, so Pei Yue had not received any reinforcements, and Dong Zhang had not made any progress. Now, Wang Yanzhang rushed to the city of Zezhou, and within ten days, Zezhou fell and Pei Yue was killed. This shows that Wang Yanzhang's military talent is indeed unquestionable.

After the "foreign relatives gang" removed the commander-in-chief Wang Yanzhang, Deputy Commander Duan Ning was promoted to commander-in-chief without any suspense.

Duan Ning, a native of Bianzhou, was originally named Duan Mingyuan. He was the chief clerk of Mianchi County, an insignificant temporary worker in the county government. After Zhu Wen settled in Bianzhou, he took his sister as a concubine (later named a beauty), so Duan Ning was able to get close to Zhu Wen. Duan Ning had no other strengths, but he was best at observing people's expressions and trying to please them. Therefore, he gradually gained Zhu Wen's trust and was promoted repeatedly to the position of governor of Huaizhou.

When Zhu Wen was on the Northern Expedition, whenever he passed by Huaizhou, Duan Ning always made great contributions, which pleased Zhu Wen greatly. Zhu Wen thought that Duan Ning was loyal and commendable, and even ordered the death of General Li Si'an who had not treated him well. After that, he became more and more fond of Duan Ning.

After Zhu Youzhen came to power, Duan Ning actively approached the "foreign relatives gang" and bribed the leaders Zhao Yan and the Zhang brothers with large sums of money. As a result, he obtained better resources than during the Zhu Wen period, and enjoyed great glory and honor until he became the commander-in-chief of the Northern Expedition Army.

Duan Ning easily glimpsed into Zhu Youzhen’s inner world, which can be simply summarized as a “Hebei hero.”

Zhu Wen was born in a humble family, but he fought hard in actual battles. He was assisted by counselors such as Jing Xiang and Li Zhen. He could be called a wise and capable leader. His son Zhu Youzhen was a second-generation lamb who grew up in a honeypot. He lacked experience and knew neither military nor politics. Zhu Youzhen believed that anyone who could push the front line north of the Yellow River was a hero, and anyone who retreated to the south of the Yellow River was a waste.

So after Duan Ning took command, he immediately stationed his main force north of the Yellow River to prove his strength to Zhu Youzhen. Zhu Youzhen really praised him and believed that his uncle Duan Ning was the only one who could destroy the Shatuo people in Hedong.

In order to prevent the Later Tang army from advancing towards Bianzhou, Duan Ning ordered the Yellow River to be breached in Huazhou.

The raging flood spread mercilessly southward and eastward, affecting vast areas of land such as Huazhou, Caozhou, Puzhou, and Yunzhou. Countless civilians were swallowed up by the flood, and countless fertile fields were destroyed. It was the eighth month of the lunar calendar, and the crops that were about to mature took the farmers' year's harvest away.

The number of people who died directly from the flood and those who died of starvation due to the destruction of farmland was countless, far exceeding the losses caused by a fierce battle.

Duan Ning was extremely pleased to see the thousand-mile swamp, calling it "water that protects the emperor". The Later Liang court attempted to use the power of nature to prolong the regime, regardless of the lives of the people, thinking that they could rest assured and continue to abuse their power with the help of a flood. This was really wishful thinking.

In fact, in just over a month, they will collapse completely.

After blocking the advancing force of Later Tang, Duan Ning kept asking for reinforcements. Eventually, almost all of Later Liang's elite forces were concentrated in Duan Ning's hands. Zhu Youzhen placed his hopes of revitalizing Later Liang and unifying Hebei on Duan Ning.

Afterwards, Duan Ning formulated a four-pronged counterattack plan that was so powerful that it could overwhelm everyone.

Zhu Youzhen was delighted and said, "Great cause can be accomplished!"

(End of this chapter)