History of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms

Chapter 393 Xu Wen's Efforts 2
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In the second year of Qianhua (912), Xu Wen used both kindness and force to establish his actual control over Huainan by using his power to slaughter Li Yu and his kindness to subdue Liu Wei and Tao Ya. In the battle against Li Yu of Xuanzhou, Xu Wen's adopted son Xu Zhigao served as the deputy of the commander-in-chief Chai Zaiyong and made military achievements. He was awarded the title of governor of Shengzhou (now Nanjing, Jiangsu Province) for his meritorious service.

Xu Zhigao was well-known for his good governance during his tenure in Shengzhou. He was eager to recruit talented people and treated them with respect, and he gained a large number of outstanding people, including important counselors such as Song Qiuqiu and Wang Lingmou. With the assistance of Song Qiuqiu and others, Xu Zhigao became even more powerful and eventually made great achievements.

In the fifth year of Qianhua (915), after several years of fighting on all sides, Huainan gained a relatively stable external environment, so Xu Wen began to take some actions: he appointed his eldest son Xu Zhixun as the deputy envoy of Huainan's marching army and the deputy envoy of the internal and external cavalry and infantry. This was basically equivalent to establishing Xu Zhixun's position as successor.

Later, Yang Wei, the nominal supreme leader of Huainan, appointed Xu Wen as the supreme commander of the Huainan army (commander-in-chief of all the naval, land, cavalry and infantry troops within the jurisdiction), the commander-in-chief of the Liangzhe expedition, the minister of state, the Duke of Qi, the governor of Runzhou, the governor of Sheng, Run, Chang, Xuan, She and Chizhou, and retained his "work guidance" on central affairs. In short, in one sentence: Huainan's surname is Xu.

Xu Wen went to Runzhou himself and left his eldest son Xu Zhixun in Yangzhou so that he could control the "Central Government" on his behalf.

Runzhou is on the south bank of the Yangtze River, across the river from Yangzhou on the north bank. Xu Wen abandoned the Yangzhou headquarters and personally took charge of Runzhou, which should be understood as a shift of focus to the south to prepare for the attack on Qian Liu in Hangzhou.

In the third year of Zhenming (917), Xu Wen went to Shengzhou to inspect the work and praised the political achievements of his adopted son Xu Zhigao.

The beautiful land of Jiangnan, the imperial city of Jinling. Xu Wen was attracted by the prosperity and wealth of Shengzhou, and lingered there, with envy on his face. Chen Yanqian, the well-behaved and sensible secretary beside him, observed his words and said, "Why don't you move the headquarters to Shengzhou, lord?"

Therefore, Xu Wen made an important personnel adjustment: he promoted his adopted son Xu Zhigao from the governor of Shengzhou to the commander of the Runzhou militia (an official promotion), and then moved the headquarters of the Zhenhai Army from Runzhou to Shengzhou. In short, Xu Wen and his adopted son exchanged places.

Xu Zhigao was reluctant to go to Runzhou because it was too close to Yangzhou, separated by a river, and was always under close surveillance at the feet of the emperor, so he could not move freely. So he requested to be transferred to Xuanzhou, which was a little further away, but was rejected by Xu Wen.

Xu Zhigao was very upset that his godfather had taken away the revolutionary base he had worked so hard to build, but he dared not say it. He went home and sighed.

When the think tank Song Qiuqiu saw that he was depressed, he asked him the reason. After understanding the whole cause and effect, Song Qiuqiu couldn't help but congratulate Xu Zhigao repeatedly.

"Mr. Song, please don't joke around. What's there to be happy about?"

"My lord, do you remember the story of Xiang Yu and Liu Bang? Xiang Yu violated the agreement that 'the first one to enter Guanzhong will be the king' and placed Liu Bang, the Liu Bang, in the remote and barren Hanzhong. At that time, everyone thought that Xiang Yu deliberately excluded and suppressed Liu Bang, which was equivalent to being exiled and extremely frustrated. Only Xiao He thought that this was a godsend opportunity.

As for the situation today... Sanlang is young and arrogant, and has done many disloyal and unjust things. The meritorious old ministers cannot bear the humiliation, and civil strife is imminent. However, Runzhou is only separated from Yangzhou by a river, and as the saying goes, the one who is close to the water gets the moon first. My lord, do you want to spend the rest of your life in Xuanzhou? Letting you go to Runzhou is a great joy!"

The old dragon was sleeping on the beach, and his words awakened him. Xu Zhigao was overjoyed, and hurriedly packed up his things and rushed to Runzhou, fearing that his godfather would change his mind.

The "Sanlang" mentioned by the think tank Song Qiqiu refers to Xu Wen's biological son Xu Zhixun. Xu Zhixun is Xu Wen's eldest son, and should be called "Da Lang" by rights, but Song Qiqiu called him "Sanlang" for a simple reason. Xu Zhigao is older than Xu Zhixun, so Song Qiqiu deliberately erased the boundary between "biological" and "non-biological" and mixed up the adopted son and biological son. In this way, Xu Zhixun ranks third. Song Qiqiu only used a simple title - "Sanlang" to show Xu Zhigao his attitude: My lord, you are the successor of Xu Wen.

In October of this year (917), Liu Yan of Guangzhou sent an envoy to inform Liu Yan that he had ascended the throne in August of this year and proclaimed himself emperor, establishing the "Southern Han", and to persuade Yang Wei of Huainan to proclaim himself emperor as well.

Liu Yan proclaimed himself emperor in Guangdong and Guangxi and Lingnan, sharing a certain political cost for Huainan. Zhu Youzhen of the Later Liang ordered Qian Liu of Hangzhou to go to Lingnan to quell the rebellion, but Qian Liu said yes but was honest in his body and did not send a single soldier.

Facing the threat of their common enemy, the Later Liang, Huainan and the Southern Han Liu Yan formed a strategic alliance. On the surface, they flirted with each other, but in fact, both sides had greed in their eyes. The fat sheep that was targeted by the two hungry wolves in the north and south was Qianzhou Tan Quanbo.

Previously, the rulers of Qianzhou had been playing both sides, expressing their allegiance to both Huainan and Houliang at the same time; after Tan Quanbo took over Qianzhou, he wholeheartedly pledged his allegiance to Houliang.

Liu Yan wanted to annex Qianzhou, arguing that Qianzhou was the territory of the Later Liang Dynasty, and it was reasonable for the Southern Han to take it;

Huainan's reasons were even more sufficient: first, Qianzhou has been the territory of Huainan since ancient times (it once expressed its allegiance to me, and although it may be a spare tire, a spare tire is still a tire); second, we in Huainan have been enemies with Houliang for a long time, and it is only natural for us in Huainan to attack the territory of Houliang.

Xu Wen acted decisively and reached a consensus with Yan Keqiu: it was time to close the net in Qianzhou, otherwise others would get there first.

At the beginning of the following year (918), Huainan launched a blitzkrieg against Qianzhou. Prior to this, Yan Keqiu had secretly ambushed a large army near Qianzhou by manipulating the number of rotations. At this time, he recruited local people with a large sum of money to carry out secret earthworks and opened up a safe passage through the famous dangerous beach in the upper reaches of the Gan River - Ganshi Beach.

Just like that, the Huainan army suddenly appeared outside Qianzhou City like a divine force descending from the sky. When they were at the gates of the city, the Qianzhou defenders suddenly discovered them and hurriedly resisted in panic.

The "Battle of Qianzhou" began.

Xu Wen, the original planner of this war, suffered a series of setbacks. First, he did not expect the battle to last so long; second, he did not expect so many forces to be involved; third, he never expected that there would be a big mess within his own family.

In fact, this is the charm and horror of war. It will never develop according to the original designer's will. No matter how powerful this person is, any small accident will cause it to deviate from the planned track.

Xu Wen spent many years and careful planning to undermine the Huainan Yang family, but his foundation was taken away by someone of his surname in a very short time.

The world has its own cycle, and no one can escape from the fate. I wanted to pay tribute to Cao Cao, but before I knew it, I found that Emperor Xian of Han was actually myself.

(End of this chapter)