History of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms

Chapter 37 Dengzhou Surrender Case

[Dengzhou surrender case]

Peaceful recruitment was the established strategic policy of the central court, so Yang Fuguang could carry out the recruitment work openly and with great fanfare without any reservations. In other words, Yang Fuguang should have been happy to give Wang Xianzhi the "token".

The token of trust, like today's contracts and agreements, has no fixed form. Sometimes it is the commander's sword, sometimes it is a belt, or it may be a letter written in black and white. In short, no matter what the specific form is, it has recognized binding force and is a manifestation of sincerity.

Did Wang Xianzhi have the token of the imperial court's offer of amnesty and peace? If so, the truth would be clear and irrefutable. But history obviously did not work that way. The Central Special Investigation Team ultimately failed to find out the truth. It seems that they did not find the "token" as ironclad evidence.

If there is no token, there are two possible explanations:
1. Wang Xianzhi did not have it;

2. Wang Xianzhi had it, but it was hidden by Song Wei.

We continue to analyze. If Wang Xianzhi really did not have it, then there are two possibilities:
1-1, Yang Fuguang didn’t give it to him;
1-2, Wang Xianzhi was too excited to ask for it, and Yang Fuguang also forgot to give it.

All possible situations are listed here. Let us travel back to that time and act as a member of the special investigation team to unravel the truth of the matter:
First of all, the proposition that "Yang Fuguang forgot to give it, and Wang Xianzhi also forgot to ask for it" is difficult to implement in practice, and it is also illogical, because the letters exchanged between the two parties are natural tokens of trust, and the messengers are natural witnesses.

Then "cheated or taken away by Song Wei" seems to be the only logical explanation.

not that simple.

The most difficult part of a case is often not the case itself, but the tricks hidden behind it - the game of forces behind the scenes.

Okay, here are the selling points of this book. Now, let me tell you the story behind the story:
Song Wei was very powerful, had made many military achievements, commanded a large number of troops, and was backed by the prime ministers Wang Duo and Lu Xie.

Yang Fuguang, a great eunuch. His godfather was the great eunuch Yang Xuanjia.

Don't be in a hurry, the relationship between them is really not that simple. For example, Song Wei and Prime Minister Wang Duo.

In order to support Song Wei, Wang Duo did not hesitate to turn against his benefactor, Zheng Ting, who had been very kind to Wang Duo. However, in this case, Wang Duo's attitude towards Song Wei is very interesting.

In this case, Wang Duo sided with Yang Fuguang.

The reason is simple: I use you because you are useless.

The reason why Wang Duo supported Song Wei before was because of Song Wei's attitude towards the Cao army, which was negative, inactive, and deliberately letting the enemy go.

Wang Duo's brother Wang Liao was a hostage in the Cao army, so Wang Duo asked the court to recruit bandits peacefully instead of suppressing them by force. The "incompetence" of the bandit suppression commander-in-chief Song Wei and the continuous defeat of the government troops provided external support for the peaceful recruitment. You see, since we can't suppress them, we should recruit bandits.

The Zhongwu Army in Henan was well-trained and brave, and the governor Cui Anqian was powerful enough to intimidate the bandits. However, Wang Duo deliberately divided the army, assigned the Zhongwu Army task force to Song Wei, suppressed the brave general Zhang Zimian, and assigned the Zhongwu Army under Zhang Zimian to Song Wei for deployment.

Everything Wang Duo did pointed to the same strategic goal: to recruit amnesty!

Now, Song Wei has "captured" the Cao army veteran Shang Junchang alive, which proves that suppression by force is feasible? Then why not recruit them and let Song Wei make further efforts to capture Wang Xianzhi as well?
Of course, Wang Duo did not want to see such a "truth".

On the contrary, if Yang Fuguang won the lawsuit, it would prove that the Cao Army could be resolved through peaceful recruitment.

Therefore, on the surface, this case is a dispute between Song Wei and Yang Fuguang over merit, but the deeper logic is the competition and game between the "war faction" and the "peace faction".

Wang Duo was a "peace advocate" in the guise of a "war advocate", so he strongly supported Yang Fuguang and advocated peaceful recruitment.

We already know the powerful political energy embodied by Prime Minister Wang Duo, so... an even more terrifying speculation emerges before our eyes, which makes us shudder: Shang Junchang was indeed captured alive by Song Wei, and Wang Duo secretly instructed Yang Fuguang to submit a petition to grab the credit.

A passage in the Old Book of Tang, Chronicle of Emperor Xizong, also supports this speculation:
"In February (the fifth year of Qianfu), the remnants of Wang Xianzhi attacked Jiangxi. Song Wei, the commander of the army, repeatedly defeated them, but still announced the imperial edict to Xianzhi. Xianzhi wrote to Wei, asking for the imperial seal, and Wei pretended to agree. Xianzhi ordered his generals Shang Junchang and Cai Wenyu to present the memorial to the court, and Wei then executed Junchang and Wenyu as an example."

Song Wei first "defeated him repeatedly" and then "pretended to give his consent". It was written in black and white that Song Wei tricked Wang Xianzhi into surrendering, and then captured and executed Shang Junchang. However, the same book "Biography of Huang Chao" also recorded that "Fuguang sent the judge Wu Yanhong to tell the court to pardon the crime and give him a higher official title. Xianzhi then ordered Shang Junchang, Cai Wenqiu, and Chu Yanwei to come to the palace to plead guilty one after another... At that time, Song Wei harmed Fuguang's achievements and captured and sent him to the palace..."

The Biography of Yang Fuguang in the same book also records that "Judge Wu Yanhong was sent into the city to convey the imperial decree. Chao immediately ordered his general Shang Junchang to return home with a memorial. The envoy Song Wei wanted to destroy his merits and led troops to attack the bandits. Chao was angry and started plundering again..."

This is what is annoying about the Old Book of Tang, it is self-contradictory. Especially the record in the Biography of Yang Fuguang is full of loopholes.

No wonder Song Renzong commented on the Old Book of Tang as having "no order of chronology, inappropriate details, unclear literary style, and scattered facts", and therefore issued an edict to recompile it, and thus the New Book of Tang was published.

Then let's look at the relevant records in the New Book of Tang:
"The Chronicle of Emperor Xizong" records: "In December (the fourth year of Qianfu), Shang Junchang surrendered, and Song Wei killed him."

"Biography of Huang Chao": "Fuguang sent his subordinate Wu Yanhong to persuade the bandits, Xianzhi then sent Cai Wenqiu, Chu Yanwei, and Shang Junchang to surrender, intending to go to the palace to plead guilty, and also left a letter to Song Wei asking for military control. Weiyang agreed and said to the emperor, 'Fight with Junchang and capture him.' Fuguang insisted on surrendering."

"Biography of Yang Fuguang": "Song Wei, the Recruiting Envoy, attacked Xianzhi in Jiangxi. Fuguang was in the army and asked Judge Wu Yanhong to negotiate with the rebels to surrender. Xianzhi sent General Shang Junchang to tie himself up as agreed. Wei was envious of his achievements and secretly asked Emperor Xizong to execute him..."

Another authoritative historical book, "Zizhi Tongjian", also supports the statement that Yang Fuguang tried to surrender, but Song Wei intercepted him halfway.

If we follow the principle of minority obeys majority, Yang Fuguang and the "peace faction" behind him will naturally win.

The truth is the truth. It will not succumb to the majority nor favor the minority.

The authoritative historical materials about the "Dengzhou Surrender Case" have been listed above, but they are very brief and without any elaboration.

The shorter the content, the more information it contains.

Since the authoritative records are vague and contradictory, we might as well put them aside for the time being and reversely infer from subsequent results to come up with a reasonable logic.

After Shang Junchang and others were killed, Wang Xianzhi was furious and started to plunder. However, he was defeated by Song Wei in one fell swoop. Wang Xianzhi himself was shot dead and his head was sent to Chang'an...

stop!
This result also seemed to confirm that everything was under Song Wei's control. Song Wei set a trap, tricked Shang Junchang into death, and angered Wang Xianzhi, causing him to give up guerrilla warfare and instead fight against the government army, where he was subsequently wiped out.

The fact that Wang Xianzhi was shot dead became indirect evidence supporting Song Wei's deception and murder of Shang Junchang.

Looking back, when Huang Chao attacked Chang'an, Prime Minister Lu Xie was blamed and forced to commit suicide. Lu Xie was Song Wei's backer in the court.

Wang Duo and Yang Fuguang became the representatives of the civil servant group and the eunuch group. The two united and had great power. Lu Xie and Song Wei were naturally unable to resist.

Looking back at the "Dengzhou Surrender Case", I personally believe that Song Wei was telling the truth, and Yang Fuguang was most likely trying to steal the credit from Song Wei at the instigation of Wang Duo.

The "Dengzhou Surrender Case" was a smokescreen for political struggle.

There are no unsolvable cases in the world, only cases that we dare not solve.

Just one word "Jing" is enough to convey the meaning.

Despite insufficient evidence and unclear facts, they were eager to kill people and beheaded key witnesses such as Shang Junchang. This also indirectly confirmed the power of the black hand behind the case.

This case has since become a historical unsolved case.

Let us turn the timeline back to before Wang Xianzhi was shot and take a look at his last days.

(End of this chapter)