History of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms

Chapter 404 Game of Thrones 3
Xu Wen had a difficult situation. He wanted Huainan to maintain its sovereignty and independence, while at the same time creating a relatively peaceful and stable external environment. This was a contradictory proposition.

Huainan’s “external environment” is mainly composed of two parts: Qian Liu and the Central Plains Dynasty. Among them, the relationship with the Central Plains Dynasty directly determines its sovereignty and independence.

Let's first talk about the relationship between Huainan Group and Qian Liu Group:

The love-hate relationship between the two Jianghuai heroes is also inseparable from the malicious instigation of the Central Plains Dynasty. The Central Plains Dynasty has laid mines and tied up the two Jianghuai heroes, allowing the two sides to continue fighting and consuming each other, laying a geopolitical foundation for the Central Plains Dynasty to get involved in the Jianghuai region:

When Zhu Wen first became emperor, he appointed Qian Liu as the King of Wuyue and the governor of Huainan. Later, Zhu Youzhen, Li Cunxu and Li Siyuan respectively appointed Qian Liu as the King of Wuyue.

In fact, the area controlled by Qian Liu was the ancient Yue Kingdom, which is today's Zhejiang Province, while the ancient Wu Kingdom was firmly controlled by the Huainan Group. So Zhu Wen deliberately named Qian Liu "King of Wuyue" instead of "King of Yue", and emphasized that he was the "Jiedushi of Huainan", which meant "let him take it himself", sincerely provoking the relationship between Qian Liu and the Huainan Yang family.

In the third year of Tongguang (925), before his defeat, Li Cunxu conferred the title of "King of Wuyue" on Qian Liu with unprecedented ceremony, including a gold seal, jade book, and red imperial robe. Qian Liu was so proud that he sent an envoy to Huainan to show off.

Qian Liu's "Versailles" led to a very serious consequence: the two countries broke off diplomatic relations.

Huainan refused to accept the letter on the grounds that Qian Liu's country name overlapped with its own (Wu Yue Kingdom, Wu Kingdom), which could easily cause misunderstanding among the people and thus lead to social unrest. It repatriated the envoy, announced the severance of diplomatic relations with the country, and ordered the border defense, customs and other departments to guard against the attack and no longer accept Qian Liu's letters, and prohibited commercial travel.

Four months later, Qian Liu suddenly fell seriously ill and was unable to handle daily work. He ordered his son Qian Yuanguan to act as regent. Xu Wen took the initiative to send an envoy to visit Qian Liu and express his deep concern and condolences to his family if anything happened.

The ministers believed that this was just Xu Wen's "bedside diplomacy", using the opportunity of visiting the patient's illness to break the deadlock between the two countries and restore the old relationship. So they advised Qian Liu to rest and recuperate, and let high-level officials be responsible for receiving the envoys from Southern Wu.

Qian Liu shook his head and smiled bitterly, saying that you don’t understand Xu Wen. He claims to care about us, but in fact he is testing our country’s strength and wants to send troops during the mourning period.

So Qian Liu forced himself to be strong and, at the age of 75, dragged his sick body to chat and laugh with the envoys from the State of Wu, not looking like a patient at all.

The Wu envoy reported to Xu Wen: Qian Liu is in good health, energetic, vigorous, healthy, and enjoys everything he eats...

Qian Liu's guess was correct. Xu Wen had secretly assembled a large army on the border between the two countries, intending to take advantage of Qian Liu's "death" to attack. After hearing the envoy's report, he immediately canceled the action. The relationship between the two countries gradually eased.

In short, the relationship between the Huainan Group and the Qian Liu Group remains the same, like a loving young couple, occasionally quarreling, occasionally being affectionate, and occasionally a mistress interfering.

The following is the political game between the Huainan Group and the Central Plains Dynasty:
The sovereignty and independence of Huainan meant that it would be irreconcilable with the orthodox dynasty of the Central Plains, bear the stigma of splitting China, and be hostile to all forces that paid tribute to the Central Plains dynasty. This also meant that Huainan would be attacked from all sides. If the orthodoxy and uniqueness of the Central Plains dynasty were recognized, then Huainan's political status would be downgraded to that of an ordinary vassal state, and in theory it would have to obey the orders of the Central Plains dynasty, thus losing its sovereignty.

Xu Wen crossed the river by feeling the stones, and finally found a road of independence with Huainan characteristics, that is, on the premise of adhering to the bottom line of independence, he flirted with the Central Plains dynasty without limit. It's like a cheating man who can be with you under the moonlight, can confide in you, can be with you... but will never register for a marriage certificate.

Therefore, in the early period of the Later Tang Dynasty, the Huainan regime walked a tightrope cautiously on major political issues of right and wrong.

When Li Cunxu first came to rule the Central Plains, Huainan argued with reason and stood up, forcing the Later Tang to recognize the political equality of the Huainan regime and treat it with "enemy courtesy." As mentioned earlier, the "enemy" here means "rival," not "enemy."

Afterwards, he paid tribute crazily to the Later Tang Dynasty, telling Li Cunxu what it meant to say no with your mouth but be honest with your body.

Li Cunxu, who was driven crazy by poverty, was also happy with it. As long as you gave him money obediently and were convinced, he could still let you take advantage of him with words.

This was Yan Keqiu's idea to Xu Wen, to bribe Li Cunxu's authorities with a large sum of money and use sugar-coated bullets to dissolve their impulse to conquer Huai. Soon, Li Cunxu encountered the "Xingjiao Gate Incident". Xu Wen looked at Yan Keqiu with new eyes and said excitedly: "You got it all right!" After Li Siyuan ascended the throne, the Huainan Group under Xu Wen's control did not change this diplomatic strategy and frequently paid tribute to the Central Plains. Although they were politically irreconcilable enemies, the frequency and amount of tribute paid by Huainan to the Central Plains far exceeded those of the local vassal states loyal to the Later Tang central government (such as Ma Yin of Tanzhou and Gao Jichang of Jingnan).

The most typical case was in March of the second year of Tiancheng (927), when Gao Jichang of Jingnan went too far, extorted land from five states of the Later Tang, expelled court officials by force, and hijacked the imperial power. Li Siyuan could no longer tolerate this and ordered Liu Xun and Xifang Ye to join forces with Ma Yin of Tanzhou to divide their troops into three groups to encircle and suppress Gao Jichang of Jingnan. Gao Jichang asked Huainan for help, and Huainan sent its navy to support him.

In other words, Huainan helped Gao Jichang fight against the central court of the Later Tang Dynasty, and the two major camps and four forces engaged in a fierce melee in the Jingnan area.

In April, the battle entered a fierce stage, with many casualties. However, Huainan sent envoys with valuable gifts (white gold silk) to the Later Tang Dynasty to present Dragon Boat Festival gifts.

In fact, this war can be seen as Huainan's blatant interference in other countries' internal affairs. Because Jingnan Gao Jichang and Tanzhou Ma Yin both paid tribute to the Later Tang Dynasty, the Later Tang central government and Tanzhou jointly attacked Jingnan, which was completely the internal affairs of the Later Tang Dynasty, belonging to the internal contradictions among the people and clearing up the house. Huainan, as a "foreign force", blatantly sent troops to interfere and helped a local vassal town to resist the central government by force.

The nature is extremely bad, the circumstances are particularly serious, and the impact is extremely bad!

"But this still does not affect our Huainan's tribute to the Later Tang Dynasty. I love you, muah." - Xu Wen

In May, Li Siyuan announced the withdrawal of his troops and the war ended. Gao Jichang sent envoys with gifts to visit Huainan, expressing his willingness to pay tribute to Huainan and break away from the Later Tang. Xu Wen refused.

Xu Wen's public reason was that Jingnan was very close to Luoyang but very far from Huainan, and that this "Gao Laizi" was a problem child who caused trouble everywhere, and Huainan did not want to be dragged into it by him.

In fact, the real logic is to maintain this delicate relationship with the Later Tang. Once the surrender of Jingnan is accepted, it is equivalent to breaking the bottom line of the Later Tang and forcing the Later Tang to use force against Huainan. Therefore, Xu Wen’s public statement on the Jingnan region can only be:

“Maintain the status quo, shelve disputes, and jointly develop.”

This was the tacit understanding between Huainan and the central government of the Later Tang Dynasty.

In September, Huainan sent Li Siyuan another generous birthday gift: one hundred taels of gold, one thousand taels of silver with gold flowers, and one thousand pieces of colorful silk and brocade.

Correcting a minor mistake on Baidu. The entry for "Li Siyuan" on Baidu says that Li Siyuan's birthday is October 10, but in fact he was born on September 10, the Double Ninth Festival.

The beginning of the "Old Five Dynasties History: Chronicle of Emperor Mingzong" clearly states: "On the ninth day of the ninth month of the Dinghai year of the Tang Xiantong period, Empress Yi gave birth to the emperor in Jincheng County, Yingzhou."

So Li Siyuan's birthday is the Double Ninth Festival in the eighth year of Xiantong (Dinghai, 867), and his zodiac sign is Pig.

Just after giving the birthday present, in October, Li Siyuan suddenly went from Luoyang to Bianzhou. The news that the Later Tang Dynasty would invade Huaihe was widely circulated among the people. The sky over Huainan was covered with dark clouds, and an emergency mobilization was carried out to prepare for the battle.

As a result, Zhu Shouyin of Bianzhou believed that Li Siyuan was coming for him, so he rose up in rebellion at the instigation of his aide Sun Sheng, but was promptly suppressed by the Later Tang army. Zhu Shouyin and his entire family were killed, and Sun Sheng fled to Huainan, where he was taken in by Xu Zhigao as his aide.

Sun Sheng fled to Huainan alone, and his wife, children and elders were all killed. Like Zhu Jin, he started his life's highlight moment after arriving in Huainan, which will be introduced later.

This "Huai Conquest" blunder dealt Xu Wen such a heavy blow that he was so frightened that he died of illness this month.

(End of this chapter)