History of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms

Chapter 41: Cui Anqian's Governance of Shu
【Cui Anqian governs Shu】

The Shu region has always faced two problems: banditry and cowardice.

Banditry is a byproduct of war. After 20 years of tug-of-war between the Xichuan war zone and Nanzhao, it is natural that some banditry will arise. In terms of severity, Chengdu may have to give up the C position to Xuzhou.
Cowardice is naked regional discrimination, a common map cannon. Looking through the historical books of that period, when mentioning the Shu soldiers, there are always words like "cowardice", just like when mentioning the Xuzhou soldiers, the words "arrogant and difficult to control" are often used.

Faced with the chaotic situation of rampant bandits, the newly appointed Jiedushi Cui Anqian turned a blind eye. The subordinate officials were puzzled and asked the reason. Cui Anqian's answer was sharp: "If there were no officials acting as umbrellas for them, how could these gangs be so rampant?"

When the old officials from Shu heard this, their faces changed color.

Cui Anqian immediately changed his tone and said earnestly: "If we investigate thoroughly, it is inevitable that we will find many officials, big and small, who will be dismissed because of this, and the Xichuan officialdom will experience a major earthquake; and if we do not thoroughly investigate the umbrellas behind them, but only hunt down puppets, it will not only treat the symptoms but also disturb the people."

The officials in Shu certainly understood Cui Anqian's implication: as long as you stop now, your previous acts of corruption and abuse of power will be written off, and we will let bygones be bygones, and look forward to the future.

The local officials were reassured and expressed their gratitude to Cui Anqian for leniency. At the same time, they also wisely pulled back and drew a clear line between themselves and the evil forces.

This was the first of the three things Cui Anqian did when he took office: to scare the tigers and make them fear the enemy.

Next comes the second one, “Moving wood to establish trust.”

A few days later, Comrade Cui Anqian, who seemed to be "doing nothing", suddenly made a big move: he allocated 1,500 strings of public funds and placed them in the three markets of Chengdu (the silkworm market, the medicine market, and the Qibao market). He also hung a reward notice on the pile of money: "Anyone who catches a bandit or provides valuable clues will be rewarded with 500 strings of money; if a bandit informs on his accomplices, his crime will be pardoned and he can receive the same reward as an innocent citizen."

A large reward is offered to encourage criminal suspects to act as witnesses and report on each other.

It has the same effect as "moving wood to establish trust".

Cui Anqian firmly believed that there would be brave men who would respond to a huge reward, and he proudly concluded that the first person to report the case must be the bandit who betrayed his accomplices.

The officials around him looked skeptical. Cui Anqian smiled and explained, "How can ordinary people who truly abide by the law know the inside story of bandits? Even if they know a thing or two, how can they easily capture bandits alive? Haha, the ones who know the inside story of the criminal group the most must be the criminal group itself. If you don't believe me, I can make a bet with you."

Sure enough, the soldier came to report that someone had captured a bandit alive and came to claim the reward.

"Come on, follow me to verify it."

In the busy city, the crowd of onlookers surrounded the scene. Next to the pile of money, the captured robber was indignant. Seeing the official coming, he roared: "He is in the same group with me! We have been robbers together for 17 years. We committed crimes together and shared the stolen goods equally. Now he has captured me... If we have to die, we should die together! He also deserves the death penalty!"

Cui Anqian asked with a smile: "Who told you to act so late? Look here -" pointing to the notice on the pile of money, "If you acted earlier, he would be the one to die, and you would be the one to receive the reward. What else do you have to complain about?"

Then, in front of the robber and all the onlookers, he gave the huge sum of 500 strings of cash as a reward to his accomplice who betrayed him, and announced that all his previous sins were pardoned.

Then, the unfortunate robber was taken to the street, cut into pieces and executed, and his entire family was killed.

The officials around him expressed their concerns, "If this continues, there will be a constant stream of people reporting the robbers, and how can there be so much money in the treasury to pay out the bounties?"

Cui Anqian laughed loudly, "I can make two more bets with you - first, there will be no more tainted witnesses to report us; second, the bandit problem in Chengdu will be eradicated."

The news that betraying teammates could get a free reward made all the bandits panic. A trust crisis arose within the criminal gang. Everyone looked like a traitor and they were suspicious of each other. That night, all the bandits fled at night.

Before the sun rose the next day, there were no more robbers in Chengdu.

The subordinates were full of admiration for the new leader. After suppressing the rebellion on the ground, Cui Anqian had to start solving the second thorny problem: saving the military spirit of the Shu soldiers, making them no longer cowardly, and turning them into an army that can fight big battles, fight tough battles, and win battles.

This was Cui Anqian’s third move: to reorganize the military system.

Cui Anqian submitted a petition to the imperial court and sent his generals to recruit soldiers from the Zhongwu Army, which was his own army that he had worked so hard to build.

Afterwards, Cui Anqian mixed the recruited Zhongwu soldiers with the Bashu soldiers and selected 3,000 of them, divided them into three armies, all wearing yellow hats, called the "Yellow Head Army". This is also a kind of sentiment, or a glorious tradition, because the elite troops of the Zhongwu Army are also called the "Yellow Head Army".

Use the glorious and loud unit numbers to boost morale. You are no longer the cowardly Shu soldiers who are timid and fearful. You are the elite among the elite, the special forces among the special forces, and you are the glorious and fearless Yellow Head Army!
Afterwards, the archery corps of Hongzhou (now Nanchang, Jiangxi Province) was hired to train the Shu soldiers, so that the Bashu archers could shoot the mud balls thrown into the air, and finally one thousand qualified archers were selected to form the "God Archer Camp". These one thousand people all met the Olympic competition standards.

After a period of devilish training, the Yellow Head Army and the Divine Bow Battalion were officially put into service. From then on, the soldiers of Bashu were no longer weaklings, and their combat effectiveness was unprecedented.

Thanks to the unremitting efforts of the two successive Jiedushi, Gao Pian and Cui Anqian, the Xichuan war zone gradually emerged from the shadow of war and became prosperous and stable again.

Gao Pian was transferred to the Jianghuai area and entrusted with the important task of suppressing bandits.

Huang Chao's army fled to Jiangxi and was surrounded by the imperial army on three sides. So after a short rest, Huang Chao's army created a miracle - they dug a mountain road for 700 miles and appeared in Fujian like a ghost. There was no road in the world, but when more people walked on it, it became a road.

Fujian was also a virgin land. The bandits, having escaped from their pursuit, plundered the various prefectures in Fujian. Their miraculous aura frightened the administrators away, who gave up resistance and handed over the entire Fujian province to the bandits, allowing them to wreak havoc and humiliate them.

Huang Chao did not have a very comfortable life in Fujian because he had his nemesis, Gao Pian, right overhead.

In order to curb the Cao army, the court specially transferred Gao Pian from Xichuan to Zhenhai, sitting in the area of ​​today's Zhejiang. Huang Chao entered Fujian from Jiangxi to the east, and fell into Gao Pian's feet.

Gao Pian didn't take this mob seriously at all. Not to mention a bunch of street scoundrels and gangsters, even the elite troops of Nanzhao would be beaten to a pulp by me. Why would we need three armies? I can just send one small army to wipe out the bandits!
Gao Pian had two capable generals under his command - Zhang Lin and Liang Zan. The two generals took orders and attacked separately, winning battles one after another. Dozens of important generals in Cao's army surrendered one after another, including Bi Shiduo, Zheng Hanzhang, Qin Yan and Li Hanzhi.

These surrendered generals of the Cao army will stir up trouble and do something in the future.

Bi Shiduo was Huang Chao's fellow countryman, both from Yuanju, and was a veteran of Huang Chao's Cao Army, and a 100% direct henchman. His betrayal was a heavy blow to the Cao Army and Huang Chao himself, and deeply hurt Huang Chao's feelings.

Feelings, yes.

Bi Shiduo knew Huang Chao very well, and therefore became an important staff member under Gao Pian's account and a senior consultant on the "Huang Chao issue". By betraying Huang Chao, Bi Shiduo ushered in a turning point in his fate. From then on, he rose rapidly and soon became an important figure in Gao Pian's group. His story will be unfolded later.

The Cao army, which suffered repeated setbacks, had to avoid the enemy's sharp edge and stay away from Gao Pian's threat. The Cao army's forces were compressed into the Lingnan area, and its main force was entrenched around Guangzhou.

Let's unfold the map and try to understand Huang Chao's inner monologue: Since he started the rebellion in Shandong, in the past four or five years, he was forced out of Shandong by the Song Dynasty, and was expelled from Henan and Anhui by Cui Anqian and Zeng Yuanyu. Recently, he was chased away by Gao Pian so hard that he couldn't lay eggs. He went all the way south and now he has reached Guangzhou. Going further south, there is just the fucking sea.

Gao Pian was not the only one who wanted to drive Huang Chao into the sea to make dumplings.

Another high-ranking official in the court volunteered to lead the army and vowed to cut Huang Chao into pieces. This high-ranking official was the prime minister of the time, Wang Duo.

Surprises are not surprises, surprises are not unexpected?
Prime Minister Wang Duo was once a staunch advocate of peace, and he used all his energy to promote the peaceful recruitment of the Cao army, even at the cost of breaking up with his former benefactors and the entire court. Now, his attitude has taken a 180-degree turn, and he personally led the army to fight to eliminate the thieves for the country.

The reason for this change was simple - his younger brother, Wang Liao, died.

(End of this chapter)