History of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms

Chapter 300 Escape from the tiger’s mouth
[Escape from the jaws of death]

In October of the first year of the Tongguang reign (923), Li Cunxu overthrew the Later Liang Dynasty and issued an edict to appease the emperor. Gao Jichang summoned his advisers to discuss whether to go to Beijing to meet the emperor.

The counsellor Sikong Xun and others all unanimously advised Gao Jichang to go to the capital. The reason was that Li Cunxu had just conquered the world and was eager to show his broad mind to the heroes of the world. The sooner you go, the less danger you will be in. My lord, it is better to go early rather than late. It would be best if you are the first to go to the court to win Li Cunxu's favor. Li Cunxu will definitely use you as a positive example. Not only will you be safe, but you will also gain a lot of benefits.

Among all the ministers, only Liang Zhen firmly opposed it. He said that Li Cunxu was ambitious and had long wanted to conquer the world. Even if we mobilized all the troops and guarded the strategic pass, we might still lose it, not to mention that you are riding alone thousands of miles away! Moreover, you are not only an old general of the Zhu family, but also the grandson of Zhu Wen, an enemy of Li Cunxu. You must not take the risk!
Finally, Liang Zhen even cited the story of King Huai of Chu, "I am afraid that King Huai's troubles will reappear today!"

King Huai of Chu met with King Zhaoxiang of Qin at Wuguan, but Qin detained him and forced him to cede territory. King Huai of Chu refused and eventually died in Qin.

After repeated consideration, Gao Jichang failed to follow Liang Zhen's advice. He left his two sons to take charge of military affairs temporarily and rushed to Luoyang to meet Li Cunxu with only 300 cavalry guards.

As expected, the civil and military officials of the Later Tang Dynasty unanimously asked Li Cunxu to take this opportunity to detain Gao Jichang.

The situation in Luoyang was tense, and the eunuchs and actors who were favored by Gao Jichang came to him one after another, demanding bribes. Gao Jichang vaguely sensed a terrible murderous aura. In order to escape from the tiger's mouth, he had to act like a grandson and act obedient, which was exactly Gao Laizi's specialty.

After arriving in Luoyang, Gao Jichang took the initiative to change his name to "Gao Jixing" because the character "Chang" violated the taboo of Xianzu (Li Guochang). Li Cunxu was very happy, as this grandson was very well-behaved.

In the next meeting, Gao Jichang behaved more obediently. At that time, Li Cunxu talked to him about current affairs, saying that I destroyed the Later Liang and revived the Tang Dynasty. Now, only Huainan and Former Shu refused to submit to me. I planned to destroy them and restore the former rule of the Tang Empire. However, the road to Shu was difficult, as difficult as climbing to the sky. It was only separated from Huainan by a river, and it seemed that Huainan was easier to capture. I planned to destroy Huainan first. What do you think?
Whether the Later Tang conquered Huai or Shu, it would be a mixed blessing for Gao Jichang of Jingnan. The advantage was that he could take advantage of the situation and divide the land of the two neighbors in the name of sending troops to help the Later Tang. The disadvantage was that Jingnan was closely related to Huai and Shu. Once Huai and Shu were conquered by the Later Tang, Jingnan would not be able to survive alone.

This is the subtlety of geopolitics. Whether it is conquering Huai or attacking Shu, the result of both sides losing is most beneficial to Gao Jichang. So when Li Cunxu raised this question, it was translated into "Which one is harder to attack, Huainan or Qianshu?"

So, Gao Jichang was sincere and serious, and put on an expression of "this is for your own good", sincerely leading him into the ditch, "Your Majesty, Shu is rich and has a lot of money, while Huainan is poor, with little land and poor people. I think we should attack Shu first, because it is profitable. Moreover, if we go downstream from Shu, Huainan will also lose the protection of the Huai River, making the war of conquering Huai River smoother. If Your Majesty attacks Shu, I am willing to lead the troops of this town as the vanguard of the attack!

The reason why Gao Jichang instigated Later Tang to attack Shu was that the road to Shu was difficult and Later Tang was likely to be bogged down in the quagmire of war and suffer mutual losses from Former Shu. As for acting as a vanguard for Later Tang, it was even more of a "private cargo" smuggled by Gao Jichang, because he had long coveted the lands controlled by Former Shu, such as Kui, Wan, Zhong, and Fu. Once Later Tang launched a large army into Shu, Gao Jichang could use the power of others to seize the lands of Former Shu in the name of helping Later Tang.

Li Cunxu said to Gao Jichang that he planned to conquer Huai first, but in fact, Li Cunxu's real idea was to conquer Shu first. He deliberately said the opposite to test Gao Jichang's character and see if he was a flatterer who only knew how to shout "Long live the leader" and whether he would follow his wishes and advocate the conquest of Huai. Gao Jichang's performance satisfied Li Cunxu, who did not see through Gao Jichang's scheming at all.

Gao Jichang not only refuted Li Cunxu's intention to conquer Huai first, but also took the initiative to propose to send troops as the vanguard, which made Li Cunxu very happy, and he raised his hand to caress Gao Jichang's back.

Gao Jichang immediately ordered the embroiderer to embroider Li Cunxu's handprint on the back of his clothes and told Li Cunxu that he would hang the clothes with the dragon claw print in the most conspicuous place in the house to bring honor to the family!

Li Cunxu was very happy. This grandson was really good at coaxing people. As for why Li Cunxu was inclined to attack Shu, we will expand on this later.

Under Gao Jichang's careful disguise, Li Cunxu gradually developed a liking for him. Although most of the civil and military officials suggested detaining Gao Jichang, the eunuchs and actors he trusted kept speaking well of him because they had received bribes from Gao Jichang. Li Cunxu was a little undecided, so he asked for advice from his chief strategist, Guo Chongtao.

Among all the civil and military officials in the court, almost all of them called for Gao Jichang to be detained, except Guo Chongtao who advocated his release.

Guo Chongtao said to Li Cunxu, "Your Majesty has just conquered the world and urgently needs to show your trust to the four seas. The princes who have come to pay tribute in succession have only sent their sons or their officers, but Gao Jichang has come to the capital in person to pay homage. We should comfort him and then send him back to his town with courtesy. We should use this as a typical example to serve as a role model for other princes and call on everyone to learn from Comrade Gao Jichang. If we kill him or detain him, who will dare to come to the court in the future?"

Li Cunxu thought what he said made sense, so he treated him with great courtesy and then sent Gao Jichang back to the town with courtesy.

Li Cunxu let Gao Jichang go, just like Cao Cao let Liu Bei go.

Gao Jichang doubled his speed and did not dare to stop for a moment, fleeing at high speed; Li Cunxu immediately regretted his decision and sent someone to deliver a secret decree to Liu Xun, the governor of Shannan East Road in Xiangzhou, asking him to intercept Gao Jichang and kill him if necessary. In short, Gao Jichang must not be allowed to leave alive.

When Gao Jichang rushed into Xuzhou, he said to his attendants, "There were two major mistakes in this audience. One mistake was that I came to the audience, and the second mistake was that he let me go." His pride was evident on his face.

After arriving in Xiangzhou, historical records say that Kong Xing hosted a banquet for Gao Jichang. The two had fought each other before, but this time they were able to forget their grudges with a smile. After the banquet, when Gao Jichang returned to the inn, he suddenly felt palpitations and became uneasy. So he abandoned all his baggage and fled with his personal cavalry overnight. He could not rest easy until he entered the land of Jingnan.

It was already late, and the city gates were closed. Gao Jichang led his men to force their way through the gates and escape (Fenglin Pass).

As soon as Gao Jichang left, Liu Xun received a secret decree. He hurriedly led his men to the inn, only to find that Gao Jichang had already passed through the gate and left. It was estimated that it was impossible to catch up with him, so he had to give up.

After returning to Jingnan, Gao Jichang grabbed Liang Zhen's hand and said, "I regret not listening to you. I almost got myself into trouble!"

Gao Jichang persuaded Li Cunxu to conquer Shu out of his own selfish motives, and conquering Shu was also Li Cunxu's original intention. Everyone knows that the road to Shu is difficult, as difficult as climbing to the sky, and one man guarding the pass cannot break through ten thousand men, it is easy to defend but difficult to attack, and Shu has been managed by Wang Jian for more than 30 years (Wang Jian entered Chengdu in 891, annexed Dongchuan in 897, and proclaimed himself emperor and founded the country in 907), why did Li Cunxu want to attack the former Shu?
Because Li Cunxu was not the only one who “continued to play music and dance”.

(End of this chapter)