History of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms

Chapter 314 Li Yan's Mission to Shu
【Li Yan's Mission to Shu】

In April of the second year of Tongguang (924), Li Cunxu of Later Tang sent Li Yan as an envoy to Former Shu.

Li Yan, formerly known as Liu Shouguang, was intelligent and multi-talented. He was well-versed in poetry and literature, eloquent, and skilled in riding and shooting. He was a rare all-rounder in both civil and military affairs. This time he was ordered to go to Shu with a rather special mission, because he was not here to seek friendship between the two countries, but to show off the power of the Later Tang Dynasty and threaten and intimidate the Former Shu.

According to Li Cunxu, the only two places in the world that have not yet been annexed by the Tang Dynasty are Shu and Huainan. If the Former Shu and Huainan can submit to the Later Tang Dynasty, the Later Tang Dynasty will restore the former territory of the Tang Dynasty and achieve superficial unification.

Li Yan did not fail in his mission and made severe criticisms of the Former Shu authorities in a veiled manner, accusing them of having been holding on to their own troops and watching the emperor being humiliated since Emperor Zhaozong moved to Luoyang, failing to behave like a subject, and allowing the traitor Zhu to issue orders without any action. Only our lord, Comrade Li Cunxu, was irreconcilable with the usurper and traitor, and led a brave army to fight against him for more than ten years.

After the criticism and accusations, there was a subtle military threat:

"Just after crossing the Fen River, Wang Yanzhang was tied up in front of the horse; he went to Yimen and beheaded Zhu Youzhen on the top of the building... Duan Ning led 80,000 brave troops, turned his back and died; Zhao Yan knew that one person would be the one to take over, so he waited for his death... He took over the world in just eight days... Now the Qin court presented a memorial, Liangzhe paid tribute, Huainan submitted to the emperor, and the Huihe prepared to pay homage to the emperor... Who would have thought that the emperor of the Great Shu would be soft-hearted and considerate of the distant and the near, and would be cautious in times of peace... He specially sent the men of Su and Zhang to pursue the happiness of Tang Shu..."

What followed was naked intimidation, saying that Li Cunxu had the ambition to unify the world.

I don't know whether Wang Zongyan was broad-minded or heartless, but he was not moved at all. General Wang Zongchou was furious and reported to Wang Zongyan, saying that Li Yan's remarks were insulting to the late emperor, His Majesty, and the state, and were too much, so please kill him! Wang Zongyan refused.

Wang Zongyan arranged for the eunuch Song Guangsi to entertain Li Yan with wine, and during the banquet, he used wine to ask questions and find out the truth about the Later Tang Dynasty.

As a result, a war of words broke out between Song Guangsi and Li Yan.

Song Guangsi first calmly asked him about the basic situation of the Later Tang Dynasty.

Li Yan answered truthfully and said that on a certain day of a certain month of a certain year, my lord Li Cunxu established his title and ascended the throne in Weizhou, and on another day of a certain month of a certain year, he raided Bianzhou from Yunzhou. It took him only eight days to take control of Bianzhou and accepted the surrender of 300,000 soldiers and generals of the Later Liang Dynasty. The territory of the Later Tang Dynasty stretched from the sea in the east to Ganzhou and Liangzhou in the west, from Youzhou in the north to Lingnan in the south. All the people in all directions were subject to it. The Huainan Yang family, who had inherited the throne from father to son for generations, and the Fengxiang Li family, who were old ministers of the Tang Dynasty, all sent their sons to the court to pay homage. As for Jingnan Gao Jichang, Tanzhou Ma Yin, Wuyue Qian Liu and others, needless to say, they paid tribute continuously... Therefore, my lord won them over with virtue and awe-inspiring power. The unification of the world was the general trend, and this important task must of course be accomplished by my lord.

Song Guangsi smiled coldly, "I don't know much about the situation in Jingnan, Tanzhou, and Wuyue. But Fengxiang is as close to our Shu as Qin and Jin, and we are in-laws. We know him too well. They are fickle and untrustworthy. How can we take their statements seriously? And I heard that the Khitan is becoming increasingly powerful. Doesn't the Later Tang feel worried?"

Tit for tat, don't act like a big shot, what do you mean by "the whole world submits"? Didn't Jingnan, Tanzhou, and Wuyue submit to the Later Liang not long ago? Their oaths were just temporary expedients, the dragons helped the dragons, the tigers helped the tigers, and you, the Later Tang, were just fantasizing about the vast territory on the map. Although the actual controlled area was larger than that of the Later Liang, you had one more powerful enemy than the Later Liang - the Khitan.

Facing the difficult problem posed by Song Guangsi, Li Yan chose to avoid the main issue and counterattack defensively:

"Compared with Khitan and Houliang, who is stronger and who is weaker?"

"Then... of course, Hou Liang is more powerful."

"Is this incredible? The Later Tang defeated the Later Liang with ease, let alone the Khitan, who were not as strong as the Later Liang. We, the Later Tang, do not even need to mobilize the entire country's troops. We only need to send a military governor to lead a town's troops to destroy them."

It seems fine, but... "Then why did you send troops to destroy the Khitan? Why have you been harassed by them for years?"

"God is merciful..." Li Yan said with his eloquent tongue, "The four barbarians are created by God, and are not within the Nine Provinces." The general idea is that existence is truth, and the existence of barbarians is also the will of God. We cannot kill these foreign nations just because we are strong, "because we don't want to engage in war."

Song Guangsi was defeated and marveled at Li Yan's eloquence.

Song Guangsi's cousin, the eunuch Song Guangbao, also had a verbal battle with Li Yan all day long. "They talked all day long and were impressed by his cunningness." Later, Song Guangbao submitted a memorial to Wang Zongyan, requesting that Li Yan must be executed. The memorial is included in the Complete Tang Poems. It begins by tearing off the political fig leaf of the Later Tang Dynasty, pointing out that they are "descendants of the Li family" and that the joy of destroying the Later Liang Dynasty made them arrogant. This time, they sent envoys to us, and their words did not conceal their contempt and hostility towards our Shu. I am afraid that the two countries will soon become enemies, and we'd better be prepared for a fight.

Next, Song Guangbao gave a detailed military deployment. According to this deployment, the Former Shu could advance and compete with the Later Tang for the Central Plains, or retreat and establish its own territory in Shu to form a tripartite alliance.

Therefore, Wang Zongyan appointed Song Guangbao as the governor of Zizhou and the commander of Wude Army.

There is also some controversy about the eunuch Song Guangbao. Some people believe that Song Guangbao is a bad eunuch who brought disaster to the country and the people because he is a eunuch and the cousin of Song Guangsi. Therefore, they infer that he submitted the petition to the emperor in order to gain military power for himself and succeeded.

Is Song Guangbao, the eunuch who advocates war, acting for his own selfish interests or for the people of Shu? It is too early to draw a conclusion, but only when the Later Tang army reaches the city will we know.

Li Yan stayed in Former Shu for about a month. During this period, Li Yan witnessed the corruption and debauchery of Wang Zongyan's court. Instead of restraining himself, Wang Zongyan took the initiative to show Li Yan the prosperity of Shu. Wang Zongyan enthusiastically invited Li Yan to visit Shangqing Palace. The people of Chengdu along the way were all wearing silk and satin, gold and silver, coming and going, bustling. Of course, this was probably a crowd actor deliberately arranged by Wang Zongyan to show off the wealth of Shu to Li Yan and fight back against the arrogance of Li Yan, the "Heavenly Emperor".

Li Yan also had a personal mission for Li Cunxu during this visit - to buy rare and precious things. This was because Shu was rich in Shu embroidery and was prosperous and rich with many jewels and precious things, which just happened to satisfy Li Cunxu's fantasy of extravagance and debauchery. However, unexpectedly, Li Yan returned empty-handed.

Facing Li Cunxu's questioning, Li Yan told him a reason that made Li Cunxu furious:

Former Shu implemented extremely strict control over goods. All kinds of precious goods were prohibited from leaving the country, and only coarse and low-quality goods were allowed to flow into the Central Plains. These low-end goods that were allowed to be exported to the Central Plains were also given a special term - "Rucaowu".

In ancient times, the word "grass" mainly meant mountains and fields, folks, etc., so there is a saying that "falling into the grass and becoming a bandit". Wang Zongyan called the goods flowing into the Central Plains "rucaowu", which was a response to the Central Plains people's discrimination against Shu, and was Ah Q's spiritual victory method.

After hearing this, Li Cunxu could not help but get furious and shouted on the spot: "How can Wang Zongyan avoid being a 'straw man'?"

Li Yan took the opportunity to report the true situation of Former Shu to Li Cunxu, saying that Wang Zongyan was actually a mentally retarded child (real child), playful and lustful, surrounded by treacherous villains, and the regents Wang Zongbi and Song Guangsi were all flatterers and corrupt... Former Shu was already a shabby house, and as long as the big country sent troops and kicked the door, it would immediately collapse. It was said that the people in Shu were rich and the monarch and ministers were arrogant.

Li Cunxu was very confident in his own virtue and did not think that Li Yan was really making indirect accusations.

The only states that had not yet submitted to the Later Tang were Huainan and Former Shu. Li Cunxu had the ambition of the King of Qin to conquer the world and to unify the country. He hesitated briefly on the question of whether to conquer Huainan or Shu first.

At that time, many people advocated conquering Huai first, because Shu was a place of high mountains and steep cliffs, and one man could block the passage of ten thousand, so it had always been the imperial refuge of the Tang Dynasty emperors. Moreover, Shu had been painstakingly managed by Wang Jian for nearly 30 years. He had many soldiers and generals, sufficient food and grass, and relied on natural dangers, so it was not advisable to attack it.

However, with the support of Li Yan's intelligence work, Li Cunxu finally made up his mind to make Former Shu his first target of conquest. When Gao Jichang came to the court, Li Cunxu deliberately said that he planned to attack Huainan first to test Gao Jichang. Gao Jichang advised Li Cunxu to attack Shu first, and listed the advantages of attacking Shu and the disadvantages of conquering Huai.

Every word Gao Jichang said touched Li Cunxu's heart, and Li Cunxu thought that Gao Jichang was loyal to him and was very pleased.

In fact, Gao Jichang later admitted to his confidants that the reason he advised Li Cunxu to attack Shu first was because attacking Shu was not beneficial to the Later Tang Dynasty. He sincerely led Li Cunxu into a ditch in order to consume his strength and thus preserve Jingnan.

This is interesting: Li Cunxu thought about conquering Shu, but he said he would conquer Huai; Gao Jichang thought about conquering Huai, but he said he would conquer Shu. The two of them talked happily and were all happy. This is the game of power and the fun of the unpredictable human heart.

This war of the Later Tang Dynasty against Shu can be called a miracle in the history of human warfare. Its process was incredible, and its result was even more intriguing.

(End of this chapter)