History of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms

Chapter 34 Song Wei Lets the Enemy Go
Seizing smuggled salt and arresting salt dealers, an aboveboard law enforcement action, pushed Wang Xianzhi into a dead end. With the support of Shang Junchang, Wang Xianzhi recruited his brothers and spread "hero posts", also known as "green forest posts" and "jianghu posts", which is equivalent to posting a message in the circle of friends today, announcing that he is going to do something.

As the leader and big brother of the Puzhou "Salt Gang", Wang Xianzhi also had his own private armed forces and a certain popularity on the street, and soon gathered three thousand desperate criminals.

Wang Xianzhi called himself "the great general who makes up for the equal distribution of land and the commander-in-chief of all the nobles in the country." The first half of the sentence has a strong rural flavor. Anyone who wants to whitewash the riots as peasant uprisings usually uses words like "equal distribution of land and exemption of grain." In a period when land annexation was serious, taxes were numerous, and class contradictions were fierce, shouting this slogan was like cutting off the source of the feudal dynasty. It was very lethal and cost nothing. Just shouting the slogan would do. The second half of the sentence is the fantasy of a jumping clown, which is almost equivalent to "the general marshal of the world's troops," "the supreme military commander of the universe," and "the general secretary of the Milky Way."

Wang Xianzhi first attacked Changyuan County, and then set his sights on his hometown, Puzhou.

Puzhou was under the jurisdiction of the Tianping Army at that time, and the Tianping Army Jiedushi sent troops to suppress the rebellion. However, the elite of the Tianping Army had already followed Gao Pian into Sichuan to fight, leaving behind a group of old, weak and sick people. They were no match for Wang Xianzhi's bandits and were defeated miserably by them.

In a short time, Wang Xianzhi became famous, and idle people and hooligans flocked to him, and the scene was comparable to that of their predecessor, Pang Xun.

Huang Chao, a native of Yuanju (now in Heze City, Shandong Province), was also a private salt dealer and the leader of a local salt gang. He and Wang Xianzhi were close friends.

Unlike other people in society, Huang Chao had read a few lines of calligraphy and participated in the imperial examinations, earning him the honorable comment of "failed in the examinations many times". Rogues are not to be feared, but hooligans with culture are to be feared. Huang Chao was a cultured rogue.

The government's anti-smuggling campaign also left Huang Chao with no way to survive. Wang Xianzhi's violent resistance to the law became a guiding light on Huang Chao's life, illuminating the way forward for this lost lamb.

Huang Chao was not in a hurry to join forces with Wang Xianzhi, but instead led his own troops to attack Caozhou, responding to Wang Xianzhi's call with practical actions.

This action of his also directly established his position as the second in command in the rebel army.

The rebel army quickly captured Puzhou, Caozhou and Yunzhou. At this point, all the territories under the jurisdiction of the Tianping Army fell into the hands of the rebels.

In the autumn, there was another locust plague. Locusts swarmed from east to west, covering the sky and blocking out the sun. Wherever they passed, the land was barren for thousands of miles.

Yang Zhizhi, mayor of the capital Chang'an, reported the locust plague to the court, saying that after the locusts flew to Chang'an, they did not eat the crops, but hugged thorns and died. So all the civil and military officials came to the court to congratulate, and the emperor was also very happy. The monarch and his ministers were happy together.

Yang Zhizhi was a victim in the "medical disturbance case". He was ostracized by the "Baoyan Party" because of his "friendship" with the upright Liu Zhan, was expelled from the court, and traveled to Lingnan at public expense. When the new lord ascended the throne, the "Baoyan Party" lost power, and the wronged people were re-employed, and Yang Zhizhi returned to Chang'an.

However, after experiencing the dark political struggles, he learned to flatter and curry favor with others. He became famous throughout the country for his flattery and was recorded in history for his courage to flatter.

To the east is the Shandong area, where Wang Xianzhi and Huang Chao are causing trouble. Now, the locusts coming from the east will be destroyed by themselves when they reach the emperor's feet. Isn't this a good sign? It means that Wang Xianzhi and Huang Chao will also be destroyed by themselves.

Yang Zhizhi, eating wire and making a sieve - he is really good at weaving!

One really dares to make it up, and the other really dares to believe it.

The rebel army swarmed like locusts, committing crimes in groups, with a few hundred to more than a thousand people. They harassed nearly twenty states and even spread to the Huainan region.

The imperial court issued an edict ordering the military governors and eunuch supervisors of the five armies of Huainan, Zhongwu, Xuanwu, Yicheng and Tianping to actively suppress the rebellion or to recruit and appease it.

Using a big stick in one hand and a sweet date in the other, this is the court's usual routine for dealing with civil unrest.

Song Wei, the governor of Pinglu Army in Qingzhou, submitted a memorial to the imperial court, suggesting that the government troops should not fight alone, but should appoint a specific person to be responsible, unify the deployment and action, concentrate their strength, annihilate the main force, capture the bandits and their leader, kill the leader of the trouble, and all problems would be solved.

Therefore, the imperial court ordered Song Wei to be the commander-in-chief of the bandit suppression in various war zones (the envoy in charge of recruiting and suppressing bandits in various military camps), and allocated another 3,000 imperial troops and 500 cavalry. All the war zones south of the Yellow River that were fighting against the rebels were under the command of Song Wei.

Song Wei is a tough guy. He rushed to Chengdu to help the war, defeated the enemy with a small force, and won battle after battle. His superiors were jealous of him, so they took away his military power and forced him to retreat to the second line and stand aside. Now, he is stationed in Shandong and took the initiative to take on the role of commander-in-chief of the anti-bandit movement.

Wang Xianzhi led his main force and was attacking Yizhou (now Linyi City, Shandong Province).

Song Wei was indeed an excellent general who was good at fighting. He went south from Qingzhou to rescue Yizhou and encountered Wang Xianzhi's army at the foot of Yizhou city.

Song Wei was able to defeat the larger army with a smaller one when fighting against Nanzhao's regular army, so defeating Wang Xianzhi's motley crowd would naturally be a piece of cake.

The rebels were defeated, suffered heavy casualties, and Wang Xianzhi fled in a panic.

Song Wei hurriedly reported to the court to claim credit: "Wang Xianzhi is dead, and the bandits have been pacified." At the same time, he ordered the task forces in each war zone to be disbanded on the spot, and everyone to return to their homes and mothers. He then led his troops back to the Qingzhou headquarters.

Song Wei mistakenly believed that Wang Xianzhi had died in the chaos, and was blindly optimistic. He disbanded the anti-bandit coalition and unilaterally declared the end of the war.

Just as the civil and military officials were coming to the court to celebrate, the prefectures and counties reported one after another that the bandit leader Wang Xianzhi was still alive, and the bandits were still looting the prefectures and counties as usual.

The auspicious omen that the locust would die by clinging to the thorn was ruthlessly slapped in the face.

Therefore, the troops that had just been repatriated were called up again. According to historical records, these repatriated and repatriated officers and soldiers were so angry that they wanted to start a mutiny. However, Song Wei pursued but did not attack, surrounded but did not suppress, and always kept a distance of 30 miles from Wang Xianzhi (the enemy stayed away from him, and the whole army looked back), intending to intimidate and expel him.

Wang Xianzhi was able to lead his remaining troops to escape for the second time.

Historical books call Song Wei an old bastard (Wei was old and dark at the time).

In fact, Song Wei is not senile, on the contrary, he is very smart.

[It is easy to invite gods but difficult to send them away]

Pang Xun's "unauthorized return" was the largest military rebellion in the late Tang Dynasty, but not the only one.

Just the year before last (874), the Ganhua Army Task Force went to the Shuofang War Zone (now Ningxia) as usual to participate in the autumn border defense. Halfway through the journey, they encountered the invasion of Xichuan by Nanzhao, so the court ordered them to change their plan and go south for reinforcement. Before they reached Chengdu, Nanzhao was repelled, so the court ordered them to carry out the original plan - to go to Shuofang.

However, these Xuzhou soldiers once again carried forward the glorious tradition of "returning without permission" and planned to disobey orders and return to their hometown in Xuzhou. This mutiny did not succeed and was stopped in time by the eunuchs and commanders who beheaded the eight leaders and stabilized the morale of the army.

Last year (875), Wang Ying, the garrison commander of the Zhenhai Army (Zhen'eshi), and 69 others mutinied due to unfair rewards and punishments. The mutiny quickly spread to Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Fujian, and was known in history as the "Wang Ying Mutiny," which caused a huge stir.

In the same year (876), the Tianping Army supporting Yizhou also launched a mutiny due to dissatisfaction with the court's transfer order, and "returned without permission" to the headquarters in Yunzhou.

Yizhou was right under Song Wei's nose. The Tianping Army returned to Yunzhou without permission, and the court ordered that no further action be taken.

The task forces in each theater are not easy to deal with. They can't be summoned or dismissed at will unless there is a reward that is attractive enough to make them excited. Even if they come, they may not really work hard. Instead of killing the enemy, they are more willing to disturb the people. In the name of suppressing bandits and pacifying bandits, they smash, loot and burn. "They have no skills to resist the enemy, but they have ways to disturb the people" is their true portrayal.

If the rewards are insufficient, or the rewards and punishments are not balanced, or if they are tired of being assigned tasks, they will rebel. In the mildest case, they will return home without permission, and in the worst case, they will expel or kill their superiors.

Arrogant soldiers are difficult to control.

This was the first problem Song Wei was worried about. Since his own troops were enough to suppress the bandits and eliminate the trouble, he would not bother them with coming.

The second concern was that the neighboring war zones would take advantage of the situation and, under the pretext of being ordered to provide reinforcements, would encroach on their territory.

At the end of the Tang Dynasty, such dirty and vile things were everywhere.

The above two points can be summarized as Song Wei's worry and distrust of his own people. Especially his experience in Chengdu, which made him more determined that "our own people are always more dangerous than the enemy."

The third consideration is to keep the enemy at bay.

When the birds are all gone, the bows are put away; when the rabbit dies, the running dog is cooked; when the enemy country is destroyed, the counselors die.

Twice, when they were about to catch all the bandits, Song Wei issued urgent orders: Stop the pursuit! Let Wang Huang, the bandit, escape. Openly let the enemy go.

The deputy general didn't understand why he did this. Song Wei spoke out the secret and used the recent "Pang Xun Rebellion" as a vivid example, saying that Kang Chengxun wiped out Pang Xun and was immediately demoted. How do you know that we won't become the second Kang Chengxun?

The "Pang Xun Rebellion" and the rescue of Chengdu left Song Wei with an indelible psychological shadow. The extent of the psychological shadow can only be determined by the person involved.

Furthermore, the banditry in Shandong, Henan, and Jiangsu has been going on for a long time. The prefectures and counties are powerless to suppress it, and the military governors are also helpless. How can you, Song Wei, completely eradicate it with just one move? What is your relationship with these bandits? Do you dare to say that you have no collusion with them?

Words are obstacles, and clothes are creepy hairs.

Years of experience in the officialdom have taught Song Wei that a tree that stands out in the forest will be destroyed by the wind. Maybe you are not really outstanding, but a foil to your peers, but your brilliance makes your peers feel embarrassed. They will willingly hide in your shadow and move their lips to spray you with feces.

The fourth concern is that it doesn’t matter whether Wang Xianzhi is really dead or not.

Before Wang Xianzhi started the rebellion, the bandits in Shandong and Henan had suffered a lot from Song Wei. After the official rebellion, they escaped death under the city of Yizhou, and were chased all the way. The word "Song Wei" can stop a child from crying, and it can scare Wang and Huang to death. They certainly dare not stay in this area.

As a governor, it is enough to suppress the situation and keep the area peaceful. Do you still want to create peace for the world by your own strength?
With these four concerns, Song Wei publicly indulged the enemy twice. However, seeking credit was not the main reason.

Just as Song Wei thought, his fame scared Wang Xianzhi away. Wang Xianzhi gathered his remaining troops, withdrew from Shandong, and turned to attack Henan.

(End of this chapter)