History of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms

Chapter 399 Liu Xin Conquers Qianzhou

Song Qiqiu's father, Song Hong, was originally a subordinate of Zhong Chuan, the governor of Hongzhou Zhennan Army. He worked hard and died in office, so Song Qiqiu also became a subordinate of Zhong Chuan. Hongzhou was later annexed by Huainan, Zhong Chuan was defeated, and Song Qiqiu lost his support and became poor. In desperation, he moved east with his family to Shengzhou, a city full of feasting and revelry. In order to make a living, he took refuge in the home of a special service worker, Miss Wei (who lived in a prostitute family, Wei).

When Xu Zhigao was the governor of Shengzhou, he recruited talents without any restrictions and offered a large sum of money. Song Qiqiu gladly went to apply for the position and wrote a poem to express his ambition. Xu Zhigao felt sorry for meeting him too late and immediately made him his trusted adviser.

Xu Zhigao specially built a small pavilion in the pond for Song Qiqiu, which was connected to the shore by a movable and detachable wooden bridge. After the two entered the pavilion, the wooden bridge was immediately removed, and the two whispered in the pavilion, and no one knew what they were talking about;
Sometimes, when the two of them were discussing matters in the hall, Xu Zhigao would remove all the screens and curtains to ensure that there were no ears on the walls, and then place a stove in the middle of the hall. Neither of them spoke, but instead wrote on the ground with charcoal, and then wiped it off immediately after writing. Again, no one knew what they were talking about.

"During the Zhu Jin Rebellion, he often participated in secret paintings." - "Ten Kingdoms Spring and Autumn Annals"

These eight short words are quite interesting. Instead of talking about Xu Zhixun's death, they talk about "Zhu Jin's Rebellion" and say that Song Qiqiu participated in the conspiracy. So the question is, if Zhu Jin killed Xu Zhixun, how could there be "secret paintings" of Xu Zhigao and Song Qiqiu? Didn't Zhu Jin do it alone?

Eight words betrayed the honest and loyal Xu Zhigao. What exactly the "secret painting" was, is no longer known. In short, like all the disputes over the succession, the adopted son overthrew the biological son, and history will always say that the biological son was vile and despicable, the adopted son was great, glorious and correct, and the biological son forced the adopted son to rebel...

Xu Zhigao intended to promote Song Qiqiu, but Xu Wen hated Song Qiqiu very much. Historical records say that Xu Wen hated him as a person, so he suppressed him and only gave him a very low official position. Was it Song Qiqiu's arrogance that Xu Wen hated, or "Zhu Jin's rebellion and his frequent participation in secret paintings"?
While the incident happened in Yangzhou, fierce fighting was still going on at the front line of Qianzhou. Although the Huainan army relied on Yan Keqiu's wisdom and divine troops to attack Qianzhou by surprise, and the army was at the gates of the city at the beginning of the war, causing Qianzhou to lose its strategic depth, the walls of Qianzhou were high and the city was closed and defended, so the siege battle in Huainan was extremely fierce.

At this time, plague broke out in the Huainan army, and even the supreme commander Wang Qi was seriously ill and unable to command the battle. Not long after, he died of illness. Therefore, Xu Wen replaced Wang Qi with Liu Xin, the governor of the Hongzhou Zhennan Army.

When the Huainan Army changed its commander, Tan Quanbo of Qianzhou urgently asked for help from his neighbors - Ma Yin of Tanzhou, Wang Shenzhi of Fuzhou, and Qian Liu of Hangzhou.

Ma Yin sent 10,000 men to station at Guting;

Wang Shenzhi sent troops to station in Yudu;
Qian Liu sent his son Qian Chuanchu with 20,000 troops to besiege Xinzhou;
Three reinforcements encircled Huainan and rescued Qianzhou.

The Huainan garrison in Xinzhou had only a few hundred men and was surrounded by the 20,000 Zhejiang troops. The garrison commander Zhou Ben urgently built many empty tents in the city, opened the city gates, and held a banquet on the city gate tower, drinking, singing and dancing with his staff.

The arrows of the Zhejiang army were like locusts and rainstorms, but Zhou Ben was chatting and laughing freely, and was not moved at all. Therefore, the Zhejiang army believed that Zhou Ben must have ambushed troops in the city, and they never dared to move forward, and evacuated at night.

Zhou Ben's poem "Empty City Scheme" scared away the troops from Liangzhe.

Huainan sent Chen Zhang to lead the counterattack against Suzhou and Huzhou, which belonged to Qian Liu.

At this time, Li Cunxu of Hedong was accumulating strength and preparing to launch a war to destroy the Later Liang Dynasty, so he sent people to contact Huainan through a small road and request a joint military action. As mentioned above, Huainan refused this joint military action on the grounds that the war in Qianzhou and Xinzhou was tight. Liu Xin, the commander-in-chief of the front line of Qianzhou, attacked the Chu army stationed in Guting at night and defeated it in one fell swoop; then he divided his troops to attack the reinforcements sent by Qian Liu and Wang Shenzhi. After hearing that the Chu army had collapsed, the two armies immediately withdrew to their homeland.

Qianzhou was isolated and helpless.

Afterwards, Liu Xin launched round after round of attacks on Qianzhou, launching a 24-hour non-stop siege, killing thousands of Qianzhou soldiers, but still unable to enter the city. So Liu Xin sent people to lobby Tan Quanbo to persuade him to surrender.

Tan Quanbo then offered a large sum of money to show his willingness to reconcile. Liu Xin accepted the compensation and then returned home.

When Xu Wen heard the news, he was furious and immediately whipped the envoy who delivered the letter. He said to the envoy: "Liu Xin occupies the advantageous terrain upstream, and his army is more than ten times that of the Qianzhou garrison. After more than a year of fighting, there is no progress, and he accepted the settlement without authorization. He is going to rebel! Go back and tell him that when I whip you, I am whipping him."

Then he called Liu Xin's son Liu Yanying, who was the general of the imperial army at that time. Xu Wen allocated 3,000 soldiers to him and said to him: "Your father has rebelled. Go and help your father rebel together."

Then, he ordered another general of his personal army, Zhu Jingyu, to accompany Liu Yanying and said to them, "Tan Quanbo's men are all farmers. They have been besieged for more than a year and are exhausted and on the verge of collapse. Their wives and children are all outside the city. After the siege is lifted, they will definitely celebrate with each other and go home to visit each other. If you fight back now, they will surely flee in all directions. Qianzhou will be an empty city. You must take it down for me!"

When Liu Xin heard that Xu Wen was furious, he was terrified and quickly turned his troops around to launch a surprise attack. As Xu Wen expected, as soon as the Huainan vanguard army arrived at the city, the Qianzhou defenders immediately collapsed. Tan Quanbo was unable to organize a resistance, so he abandoned the city and fled, but was caught up by the Huainan army and captured alive.

Tan Quanbo was already over 80 years old. He had a good reputation in Qianzhou, loved the people like his own children, and was loyal to his former master. Therefore, although they were enemies on the battlefield, the Huainan soldiers still respected Tan Quanbo very much. Liu Xin sent him to Yangzhou, and Xu Wen treated Tan Quanbo well, appointing him as a general of the imperial army and the governor of Qianzhou Baisheng Army, which was actually giving him a high position and generous salary, and providing him with a good old age and a long life.

At that time, someone falsely accused Liu Xin of playing with the enemy and not advancing, so after Liu Xin conquered Qianzhou, he immediately went to Shengzhou alone to meet Xu Wen, who comforted him with kind words.

Liu Xin was born a bandit, but later he joined Yang Xingmi and made several contributions in battles.

Once, Yang Xingmi summoned him to discuss military affairs. Unexpectedly, Liu Xin drank heavily during working hours and staggered from side to side. Yang Xingmi was furious and scolded him on the spot. Liu Xin got angry, picked up a sword, and fled on horseback. His subordinates asked him to chase and kill him, but Yang Xingmi waved his hands and said with a smile: "How can Liu Xin betray me? He is just drunk. When he sobers up, he will definitely come back."

Sure enough, the next day, Liu Xin came to ask for forgiveness. Yang Xingmi laughed and did not punish him. He still trusted and used him. Liu Xin was promoted to the governor of Hongzhou Zhennan Army based on his strength.

(End of this chapter)