History of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms

Chapter 366: Worried 5
Li Siyuan sent General Fan Yanguang to communicate and explain, "Don't be so hostile, we just want to have a meal..."

Fan Yanguang told Li Siyuan that once a misunderstanding was started, it would be difficult to explain it with words. Now that things had come to this, we had to launch an attack decisively and swiftly and capture the city before they completed their mobilization. If we delay for a few days and Bianzhou completes its city defense deployment, it would be difficult to fight!

The butt determines the head. Li Siyuan has been a soldier all his life, and he has always been decisive and swift in his style of action. However, his current identity is an emperor rather than a general, so his first choice is peaceful negotiation.

Fan Yanguang's analysis hit the nail on the head: the initiative was now in Li Siyuan's hands, and in a few days it would be transferred to Zhu Shouyin's hands. No smart person should give up the initiative and leave his fate to the mercy of his opponent.

So Li Siyuan immediately realized that he must take advantage of the initiative to ensure the smooth resolution of the problem. The emperor only cares about the result and should not dwell on the process. Therefore, he immediately approved Fan Yanguang's request and asked Fan Yanguang to lead 500 cavalrymen to rush to Bianzhou and launch a blitzkrieg against Zhu Shouyin.

Fan Yanguang set out in the evening and traveled 200 miles overnight, arriving at the gates of Bianzhou before dawn. The defenders in the city rubbed their sleepy eyes and had not yet completed their battle preparations when they suddenly discovered that Wang's army was approaching the city, and they were so frightened that they didn't know what to do.

At the same time, Li Siyuan had dispatched a second echelon, led by Shi Jingtang, to support Fan Yanguang, and Li Siyuan had also personally led the main force to slowly advance towards Bianzhou, and arrived outside the city of Bianzhou the next day.

At this time, Zhu Shouyin's defense system was still incomplete, and he could not help but marvel at the decisiveness of the king's army. The soldiers, civilians, officials and servants in Bianzhou City all escaped from the city and surrendered to the king's army.

Seeing that Bianzhou was about to collapse without a fight, Zhu Shouyin knew that the situation was hopeless, so he gathered all the men, women and children in his family, wiped out his entire clan, and finally ordered his men to kill him.

After Zhu Shouyin's death, his followers rushed to open the city gates and surrender.

Li Siyuan issued an edict to whip Zhu Shouyin's corpse, then hang it in the downtown area for seven days for public display, and then transport it to Luoyang.

Sun Sheng, the aide who advised Zhu Shouyin to close the city and hold the city, took advantage of the chaos to flee to Huainan and took refuge under the command of Xu Zhigao (adopted son of the powerful minister Xu Wen and the founding monarch of the Southern Tang Dynasty), becoming Xu Zhigao's aide.

8. Dingzhou Yiwu Army
The current Jiedushi of Dingzhou Yiwu Army is Wang Chuzhi's adopted son Wang Du. Eight years ago, Wang Chuzhi instructed his own son Wang Yu to defect to Khitan, and conspired to collude with Khitan for aid and split Dingzhou. His adopted son Wang Du imprisoned Wang Chuzhi and surrendered to Li Cunxu. Since then, Wang Du has been in charge of Dingzhou.

During these eight years, the Dingzhou Yiwu Army enjoyed a high degree of autonomy, appointing its own officials and collecting taxes independently, just like an independent small kingdom.

Li Siyuan was disgusted with his act of killing his father and seizing power, and An Zhonghui also advocated the reduction of the power of the princes. Wang Du could clearly feel the unfriendly attitude from the core power circle of Li Siyuan's court, and he felt uneasy.

At that time, Khitan cavalry often harassed Youzhou, so the court constantly sent troops to station and rotate in Hebei. The frequent troop movements constantly irritated Wang Du's fragile nerves. He was deeply afraid that Li Siyuan would take the opportunity to attack Guo and take Dingzhou by the way. Therefore, whenever the court army passed by, Wang Du would secretly gather troops and be on high alert, which often caused friction and misunderstandings with the court army.

Wang Du's staff reminded Wang Du to be prepared to break with the court, so Wang Du proposed a marriage proposal to his neighbor, Zhao Dejun, the governor of Youzhou's Lulong Army, hoping to drag Zhao Dejun into the water through a political marriage; at the same time, he extended an olive branch to Wang Jianli, the governor of Zhenzhou's Chengde Army, and wanted to become sworn brothers with him, because Wang Jianli was also excluded by An Zhonghui. An Zhonghui's advocacy of reducing the power of the vassal states and his love-hate relationship with the vassal states (Wang Du of Dingzhou, Wang Jianli of Zhenzhou, Meng Zhixiang of Xichuan, Gao Jichang of Jingnan, etc.) will be introduced in detail later.

Wang Du conspired to create a "Greater Hebei Co-Prosperity Sphere" to restore the situation of separatist forces in Hebei at the end of the Tang Dynasty.

To this end, Wang Du not only wanted to drag Youzhou and Zhenzhou into the water, but also secretly colluded with the five major vassal states, including Huo Yanwei of Qingzhou Pinglu Army, Fang Zhiwen of Xuzhou Zhongwu Army, Mao Zhang of Luzhou Xizhaoyi Army, Meng Zhixiang of Xichuan, and Dong Zhang of Dongchuan; he also sent people to lobby Wang Yanqiu, deputy commander-in-chief of the Hebei Front Army.

If these people could be persuaded by Wang Du, then Li Siyuan would definitely be finished. But the problem was that they would never be persuaded by Wang Du.

These people vote with their feet and know how to choose.

Among them, Wang Jianli agreed to the "Greater Hebei Co-Prosperity Sphere" on the surface, but secretly reported to Li Siyuan and reported Wang Du's plan to the central government; Wang Yanqiu expressed his opposition to Wang Du on the spot. Wang Du was ashamed and angry, and bribed Wang Yanqiu's men with a large sum of money, intending to assassinate Wang Yanqiu, but failed. Wang Yanqiu also reported Wang Du's conspiracy to Li Siyuan.

Wang Du, the adopted son of Wang Chuzhi, seized power by killing his father through a mutiny, and took advantage of the appeasement policy of the Hedong Group to establish a separatist regime in Dingzhou. He was arrogant and domineering in Dingzhou... Who would bear the stigma of "traitor" for his own selfish interests and openly oppose the court? Wang Du's leading role in the "Greater Hebei Co-Prosperity Sphere" was simply a fantasy.

Li Siyuan issued an edict to deprive Wang Du of all his official titles and appointed Wang Yanqiu to lead the expedition, with An Shentong as deputy commander-in-chief and Zhang Qianzhao as chief political commissar. He assembled troops from all over Hebei and launched a massive attack on Wang Du of Dingzhou.

On that day, Wang Yanqiu captured the north gate of Dingzhou and broke through the first line of defense.

The history of the Central Plains people is rather vague about this period, only saying that Wang Du asked the Khitan for help, and then the Khitan helped him. In fact, the History of Liao clearly records Wang Du's criminal act of treason and surrendering to the enemy:
"Wang Du, the governor of the Yiwu Army of the Tang Dynasty, sent people to return Dingzhou. The Tang emperor sent troops to attack them, and sent people to ask for help. He ordered Xituli Tiela to rescue them..."

That is to say, Khitan records say that Wang Du surrendered Dingzhou to Khitan, and then Li Siyuan sent troops to recapture it. Khitan then sent the Xi tribal chief Tuli Tiela (also written as "Tonuo" and "Tunei", which are obviously transliterations. "Tuli Tiela" and "Tonuo" should be more neutral, while "Tunei" is obviously a transliteration with obvious emotional color, just like writing "Shilong" as "Chief Long") to provide support.

No matter what, Wang Du could not take off the label of "traitor" and "traitor to his country", so he lured the Khitan army to fight against the central court.

The Khitan reinforcements, led by Tuli Tiela, broke into Dingzhou to defend it. Wang Yanqiu broke the siege and retreated. Wang Du and Tuli Tiela pursued them, but they fell into Wang Yanqiu's trap of luring the enemy deep into their territory and were ambushed, suffering heavy losses.

So both sides called for reinforcements from the rear.

Thanks to my old friend "Xie Yusheng" for the support of 2 monthly tickets!
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(End of this chapter)