History of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms

Chapter 391 Huzhou Curse 2
Qian Liu warmly welcomed him and treated him very well, but he did not mention the matter of closing the city to protect Huzhou. Shen Xingsi did not dare to rush in, and was thinking about how to find a suitable opportunity to seek justice, when he suddenly heard that Chen Huan had sent all his family members in Huzhou to Hangzhou.

Shen Xingsi then realized that he had been betrayed by Chen Huan and became furious.

A few days later, Qian Liu returned from his inspection tour, and all the officials went out of the city to welcome him. Shen Xingsi took the opportunity to quietly approach Chen Huan, secretly took out the big hammer hidden in his sleeve, and hit Chen Huan in the head when he was not prepared, killing him on the spot. Then he forced his way to Qian Liu's boat and loudly told him about his merits in closing the city to protect Huzhou, and the crimes of his teacher and friend Sheng and Chen Huan who jointly framed and excluded him.

Shen Xingsi was so excited that spit flew everywhere.

Qian Liu listened silently, and suddenly said to the cabin: "Come out."

"As ordered!"

When everyone looked over, they saw that Teacher Sheng was also on the boat with Qian Liu.

"It just so happens that the parties involved are here, so let's talk it out face to face. Come, both of you, face to face."

When Sheng was about to point out the absurdity of what Shen Xingsi said, Shen Xingsi suddenly became angry and snatched the gun from the guard beside him and stabbed at Sheng. The guards on both sides hurried forward to stop him and held Shen Xingsi down.

Qian Liu shook his head, sighed, and said: "You were born a bandit, and you have a strong bandit nature and bad habits. I really don't want to entrust you with an important task. But you did have the great merit of closing the city and protecting Huzhou, so I wanted to transfer you to another place and give you a high position and generous salary. I didn't expect you to be so stubborn, how can I forgive you again?" Then he ordered Shen Xingsi to be beheaded at Longqiu Mountain.

Afterwards, he ordered Sheng Shiyou to act as the governor of Wuzhou.

Huzhou seemed to be cursed. After Qian Biao took office, he was willful and unjust. He relied on his status as a "royal relative" and the emperor's remoteness, and completely let himself go. He was lawless and even killed Pan Liang, the commander-in-chief of the defense, and Zhong Ande, the prosecutor, while drunk. After sobering up, he fled to Huainan for fear of punishment.

Dark clouds were gathering over the Jianghuai region, and Zhu Wen was overjoyed, so he issued an imperial decree, appointing Qian Liu as the Minister of the Chancellery, and concurrently the commander-in-chief of the four camps in Huainan, Xuanshe and other routes. He also increased his fief by 2,000 households and granted him a fief of 100 households. He also ordered the construction of a shrine for Qian Liu in his hometown, and asked Li Qi to write an inscription for him, praising Qian Liu's merits and virtues.

Fearing that Jianghuai would not be in chaos, "Qian Liu, attack Huainan!"

Huainan suffered a loss in the "Battle of Suzhou" and accepted two important political refugees in Huzhou - Gao Li and Qian Biao, especially Qian Biao, Qian Liu's younger brother. However, Huainan did not gain any substantial advantage in Huzhou, and lost money to gain publicity. In general, Huainan suffered a loss in this Jianghuai War.

At the same time, Huainan also suffered losses on the western front. On the western front, the Huainan army besieged Peng Yu (Peng Gan's younger brother) in Chishi, but the Chu army came to the rescue, defeated the Huainan army, and captured the Huainan commander-in-chief Ao Pian alive.

In Qianzhou in the south, Huainan also did not gain much advantage.

As mentioned above, Qianzhou Lu Guangchou played both sides and submitted to Huainan and Houliang at the same time. Although historical records say that Huainan "possessed all of Jiangxi", Qianzhou, Shaozhou and other places under Lu Guangchou's control were only occupied by Huainan on paper, and the actual control was not in Huainan. In the same year when Huzhou rebelled and Chishi failed, Qianzhou Governor Lu Guangchou was seriously ill and wanted to hand over the military and political power to military advisor Tan Quanbo. Tan Quanbo was wise and far-sighted, and was known as "Little Zhuge" by Lu Guangchou. He assisted Lu Guangchou in starting from scratch and building this foundation.

Lu Guangchou and Tan Quanbo are the low-profile versions of Liu Bei and Zhuge Liang. So when Lu Guangchou was seriously ill, he followed Liu Bei's example and wanted to hand over power to Tan Quanbo.

Tan Quanbo firmly declined the offer and expressed his willingness to continue assisting the young master Lu Yanchang.

Lu Guangchou died soon after, and Tan Quanbo led the generals to invite his eldest son, Lu Yanchang, the governor of Shaozhou. After Lu Yanchang succeeded to the throne, he continued his father's policy of playing both sides. Huainan appointed him as the governor of Qianzhou, and he gladly accepted it. At the same time, he secretly reported to the Later Liang through Ma Yin of Tanzhou, saying, "On the surface, I accepted the appointment from Huainan just to paralyze him and play a trick. In fact, I am loyal to the central court, and I will definitely manage Jiangxi well for Daliang."

Zhu Wen was the most proficient in the art of maneuvering and maneuvering, especially in driving tigers to drive away wolves. Could the Lu family father and son's tricks deceive Zhu Wen? You want to submit to Daliang, okay, let's go - Zhu Wen appointed Lu Yanchang as the governor of Hongzhou Zhennan Army with great fanfare.

The Hongzhou Zhennan Army governed several states, which roughly accounted for most of today's Jiangxi. Now, most of the states under the jurisdiction of the Zhennan Army are under the jurisdiction of Huainan, and only the father and son of the Lu family control Qianzhou and Shaozhou. Zhu Wen's appointment was obviously intended to stir up trouble, which was equivalent to making it public - especially telling Huainan: Lu Yanchang has surrendered to Daliang with the land of Jiangxi, just wait and see; at the same time, it was also telling Lu Yanchang: It's like snatching a bone from a dog's mouth, take back the Zhennan Army from Huainan, and what you take is yours.

Xu Wen asked his strategist Yan Keqiu for advice, and Yan Keqiu devised a plan to capture Qianzhou. Under Yan Keqiu's advice, Xu Wen set up a governor in Xingan County near Qianzhou and sent troops to station there. Qianzhou was very nervous at first, but Yan Keqiu did not gather a large army there, but instead rotated and changed positions regularly. Over time, the people of Qianzhou believed that this was just a routine deployment by Huainan, so they relaxed their vigilance.

However, what they didn't know was that the trick was hidden in the troops changing guards. The people of Qianzhou were not observant enough. If they had counted carefully, they would have found that there were more troops coming than leaving each time the guards were changed. During this frequent rotation of guards, Yan Keqiu had secretly stationed a large army here.

Not long after, Lu Yanchang was killed by his general Li Qiu, and he submitted a petition to the Later Liang, asking for surrender. The Later Liang then appointed Li Qiu as the defense envoy of Qianzhou. Before he could even get comfortable in his position, his general Li Yantu killed Li Qiu again. Tan Quanbo had been claiming illness and retired, so he was able to save his life.

The chaos in Qianzhou attracted Liu Yan of Guangzhou, who took advantage of the chaos to capture Shaozhou, and then Rongzhou and Gaozhou under the rule of Ma Yin of Tanzhou.

More than a year later, Li Yantu died of a sudden illness, so the soldiers and civilians of Qianzhou jointly elected Tan Quanbo as their leader, and Tan Quanbo went out to handle affairs. Tan Quanbo had a clear political inclination and plunged into the arms of Houliang without hesitation, only paying tribute to Houliang and no longer submitting to Huainan.

Another seven years passed, and the Huainan side took great pains to capture Qianzhou and capture Tan Quanbo alive. The Huainan people respected Tan Quanbo's loyalty very much and could not bear to harm him, so they released him. A few years later, Tan Quanbo died of illness in Fuzhou at the age of 85.

The battle of Huainan to recapture Qianzhou will be presented later.

By this time, Huainan had become enemies with all its neighbors, and had military conflicts of varying sizes, all of which ended with Huainan's defeat. This was a big blow to Xu Wen, who had just taken control of the Huainan regime. After some discussion, Xu Wen turned his attention to the west - the two lakes of Jingxiang.

Because the geopolitics here is the most complicated, we have already discussed it in detail when we talked about Gao Jichang of Jingnan and Ma Yin of Nanchu in the previous article, so I will not repeat it here. Therefore, here, a single move can affect the whole body, and it is most suitable for vertical and horizontal maneuvers. Military and politics overlap and influence each other. Big countries play games here, and small countries profit here.

(End of this chapter)