History of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms

Chapter 388 Xu's Special Wu 2
Li Yu hesitated again and again, but finally decided to believe in Xu Wen's sincerity. He ordered the city to be opened and surrendered, ready to meet Xu Wen and put aside their grudges.

He underestimated Xu Wen's ambition and the ruthlessness he had developed to achieve this ambition. Facing Li Yu who surrendered in Kaesong, Xu Wen ordered: Kill his entire family!
Li Yu of Xuanzhou was slaughtered along with his entire family. Only then did the generals in Huainan begin to look at Xu Wen with new eyes. This "honest man" who used to be timid and cowardly no longer pretended and he showed his cards.

In fact, Li Yu was just impulsive and blocked the bullet for Liu Wei. The "chicken" Xu Wen really wanted to kill was Liu Wei.

Liu Wei's reputation in the Huainan army was so high that there was a voice that Liu Wei should replace Yang Xingmi. A long time ago, Xu Wen's staff suggested to start with Liu Wei. Only by successfully killing Liu Wei could he secure his position in Huainan. And Xu Wen was indeed seriously planning a joint military and political action against Liu Wei.

All kinds of gossip and rumors were spreading throughout the city, saying that Xu Wen was going to take action against Liu Wei.

Liu Wei's staff also gave him advice. Some suggested that he take the initiative to "clear the emperor's entourage", "serve the king", and "remonstrate with the army". Others advised him to go to Yangzhou alone to meet Yang Wei in person and prove his innocence...

Li Yu's tragic experience made Liu Wei accept the last suggestion and decide to go to Yangzhou alone to express his true feelings.

Influenced by Li Yu, Tao Ya was also frightened, so she went to Yangzhou hand in hand with Liu Wei to show her loyalty to her lord.

Dark clouds gathered over Yangzhou City. This meeting would determine the rise and fall of the Huainan Group, and even influence the direction of Chinese history:
If Xu Wen accepted the two, then the Huainan Group would formally establish Comrade Xu Wen's ruling position, and from then on the Huainan forces would officially enter the Xu Wen period;
Once war breaks out, the Huainan Group will inevitably fall apart, and the former Huainan power will collapse, which will have a major impact on the entire Central Plains.

Xu Wen showed amazing sincerity and broad-mindedness to his two old colleagues and founders. According to records, Xu Wen treated the two men with great respect, humility and courtesy, just like he treated his former master Yang Xingmi, and promoted them to higher positions and gave them many rewards.

Liu Wei and Tao Ya were flattered and were respectful to Xu Wen. They accepted his leadership wholeheartedly and expressed their willingness to obey his command and dispatch, just as they were loyal to Yang Xingmi.

At Xu Wen's suggestion, the three of them led hundreds of civil and military officials to meet Li Yan (son of Tang Prime Minister Zhang Jun), the imperial envoy of the Tang Dynasty who represented the Tang Dynasty. Then Li Yan followed the will of heaven and the people and, on behalf of the Tang Dynasty, granted Yang Wei the title of Grand Tutor and the title of King of Wu.

In fact, Li Yan was just a mascot-like existence. At this time, the Tang Dynasty had been destroyed for several years.

Afterwards, Xu Wen released Liu Wei and Tao Yaguo back to their own territory, which won the unanimous favor of the generals.

During this period, although the Huainan power was nominally controlled by Yang Wei, the actual controller was Xu Wen. Under Xu Wen's management, a large-scale armed conflict broke out between Huainan and Qian Liu of Hangzhou, and its influence spread to today's Fujian, Jiangxi, and the two lakes. It can be regarded as a regional hegemony battle between the two heroes of Jianghuai, competing for the dominant position in the Jianghuai arena.

In the first year of Kaiping (907), Zhu Wen proclaimed himself emperor. Huainan refused to recognize the Later Liang, while Qian Liu of Hangzhou submitted to the Later Liang. Zhu Wen then conferred the title of King of Wuyue on Qian Liu and gave him a lot of rewards, including "Jiedushi of Huainan, Grand Commander of Yangzhou, and Commander of Huainan’s Four Directions". The meaning was obvious: Huainan was given to Qian Liu, but he was asked to "take it himself" in order to instigate a fight between the two Jianghuai heroes.

Qian Liu gladly accepted the appointment, but he delayed sending troops to attack Huainan. He was waiting for the right opportunity.

The time had come. Four months later, Huainan attacked the brothers Wei Quanfeng of Fuzhou and Wei Zichang of Xinzhou. Wei Zichang of Xinzhou asked Qian Liu of Hangzhou for help. So Qian Liu sent troops to attack Ganlu Town under the control of Huainan, besieging Wei to save Zhao and supporting Xinzhou.

Zhu Wen was very pleased to hear that the dogs were biting each other, so he changed Lin'an County in Hangzhou to Anguo County, Guangyi Township to Yijin Township, and appointed Qian Liu as the acting Taishi and the Minister of the Central Secretariat, and increased his fiefdom by 1,000 households and his actual fiefdom by 100 households. He also promoted Hangzhou and Yuezhou to the Grand Commandery, and because he heard that Qian Liu liked jade belts, he gave him a box of jade belts and ten horses for playing ball. "Let's play!" Zhu Wen's joy was beyond words.

Qian Liu also sent envoys to Bianzhou to agree with Zhu Wen to join forces to attack Huainan.

At that time, Huainan was fighting with Gao Jichang of Jingnan and Ma Yin of Tanzhou on the western front. It was facing the threat of Qian Liu in the east and had to guard against Zhu Wen's attack in the north. The situation was extremely critical.

However, Zhu Wen was caught up in the "Battle of Luzhou" at that time, and was in a stalemate with Li Cunxu of Hedong; Gao Jichang of Jingnan and Ma Yin of Tanzhou were defeated by Huainan one after another.

God bless Huainan. Huainan immediately transferred its main forces from the western front to the eastern front to deal with Qian Liu in Hangzhou with all its strength.

Isn't it just besieging Wei to save Zhao? Huainan set its attack target on Suzhou under Qian Liu's rule, and attacked the enemy's place and saved it. The "Battle of Suzhou" kicked off.

The Huainan troops arrived at the gates of Suzhou and used a "cave house" to attack the city. This is a siege device often seen in strategy games. Simply put, it is a small movable house that can withstand the arrows and stones of the defenders. The soldiers hide inside and push it forward to the city to destroy the city walls or gates.

The Suzhou defenders used long bamboo poles tied to large iron hooks to uncover the roof of the cave house.

The Huainan soldiers then used catapults to throw catapults from a long distance, while the Suzhou defenders spread out a huge net to contain them.

The siege was extremely fierce and the Huainan troops failed to make any progress.

Qian Liu sent his younger brother Qian Biao, general Du Jianhui and others to provide support; at the same time, he sent troops to attack Changzhou under the jurisdiction of Huainan.

In Suzhou, the defenders and the reinforcements attacked from both inside and outside, and defeated the Huainan troops. They captured more than 3,000 Huainan generals and 300,000 soldiers alive, and seized more than 200 warships. Huainan generals Zhou Ben and Lu Shizao escaped at night, but were caught up by Hangzhou's pursuers in Huangtian Dang, and suffered heavy losses.
In Changzhou, the Hangzhou troops won at first but then lost, and also failed to capture Changzhou.

Although the territories of both sides did not change, it was obvious that Huainan suffered greater losses.

At the same time, Wei Zichang of Fuzhou obtained the support of Ma Yin of Tanzhou and launched a large-scale counterattack against Huainan. He gathered heavy troops and claimed to have another 100,000 troops to attack Hongzhou, while the Huainan garrison in Hongzhou had only 1,000 men.

The military strength ratio was almost 100:1. The soldiers of Hongzhou were terrified, but the commander was calm and confident. Because the commander's name was Liu Wei.

Liu Wei secretly sent people to Yangzhou to ask for help. At the same time, he held banquets every day and drank with his staff. When he was drunk, he ran to the city gate tower to play a song to pay tribute to Zhuge Liang's empty city plan. He was calm and composed, as if no one was around.

(End of this chapter)