History of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms

Chapter 410 Liangzhe Qian Liu
5. Wuyue

The history of the Hangzhou Qian Liu Group's entrepreneurship and development is scattered in other story lines in the previous article. To avoid repetition, we will briefly sort out the story at this time when An Zhonghui is "cutting down the vassal states":
Founder of the group: Qian Liu. Born in the sixth year of Dazhong (852), the same age as Zhu Wen, Yang Xingmi, and Ma Yin.

It is said that his birth was accompanied by incredible supernatural phenomena: when he was born, there was a sound of thousands of troops and horses in the house, and the whole house was filled with red light. Qian Liu's father was so scared that he wanted to throw him into the well, but his mother strongly opposed it, so Qian Liu got a nickname, "Po Liu"; there was a severe drought in the county for two consecutive years, and the county magistrate asked a Taoist priest to perform a ritual to "raise the dragon and pray for rain." Halfway through the journey, the Taoist priest suddenly pointed at Qian Liu's house and said that a dragon had been born in this family.

Early days:

During the Wang Ying Rebellion in western Zhejiang, the prefectures and counties organized local militias, and the 24-year-old Qian Liu enlisted in the army and served under Dong Chang. After Wang Ying was pacified, Qian Liu was promoted to a lieutenant general by Dong Chang for his outstanding performance.
Official debut:

The "Huang Chao Rebellion" spread to the Jianghuai region. 20 Cao troops invaded Hangzhou Lin'an, while Dong Chang, who was guarding Shijing Town, had only 20 people. Qian Liu was not afraid of danger and personally led people to ambush the -man Cao army vanguard. To capture the leader first, Qian Liu personally used a crossbow to shoot the Cao army vanguard officer in the head, killing him. Then people rushed out and killed hundreds of Cao soldiers. The rest collapsed and fled.

Afterwards, Qian Liu led his men to retreat to Babaili (a place name), and told an old lady on the roadside that if anyone asked her where the Lin'an troops were, she should answer truthfully, "The Lin'an troops are stationed at Babaili." Then the main force of the Cao army came to take revenge. As they were unfamiliar with the place and did not know that Babaili was a place name, they were terrified and said that a dozen people had beaten them so badly just now, let alone the army that stretched for 800 miles! So the 200,000 Cao army bypassed Lin'an without harming anyone.

However, Qian Liu unexpectedly failed to capture the enemy's army, and took the opportunity to launch a surprise attack, and won countless victories.

Young general Qian Liu made his official debut as the center with "Soldiers stationed in 800 miles", and even Gao Pian, the commander-in-chief of the "anti-pornography and grass-cutting campaign" at the time, praised him.

Based in Hangzhou:

When Emperor Xizong entered Sichuan, he ordered all places to organize militias to serve the country. Thus, the "Eight Towns of Hangzhou" came into being. There has been a little controversy in history about the year of the establishment of the "Eight Towns of Hangzhou", the names of the eight regiments and their leaders. We focus on the big and let go of the small. The "Eight Towns of Hangzhou" is a resource integration of the militias in the Hangzhou area. Dong Chang of Shijing Town led one of the regiments. This regiment is the most controversial. Some say it is called "Shijing Town" and some say it is called "Lin'an Town". It doesn't matter. In short, Dong Chang is the head of the regiment and Qian Liu is his deputy.

Among the remaining seven regiments, there are two people who need to be emphasized: Chen Sheng and Du Ling. These two people each led a regiment, and were at the same level as Dong Chang, while Qian Liu was only Dong Chang's deputy general, one level lower than these two people. Later, both of them became Qian Liu's subordinates. Du Ling had no complaints, and the father and son (Du Jianhui) were loyal to Qian Liu; Chen Sheng's younger brother Chen Xun, however, had a lot of complaints about Qian Liu, so much so that he later rebelled in the city, causing a certain impact on Qian Liu's group.

The "Eight Commanders of Hangzhou" protected the territory and the people, eliminated all the bandits in the territory, and gradually increased their strength. Among them, Dong Chang's group made the most contributions and had the highest reputation. Dong Chang was awarded the title of Governor of Hangzhou for his merits.

The Dong Chang Group thus had western Zhejiang as its revolutionary base.

General Manager of Branch:
Liu Hanhong, the governor of eastern Zhejiang and a big bandit, was extremely ambitious and intended to annex western Zhejiang and unify the two Zhejiangs. As a result, a war for the unification of the two Zhejiangs broke out between him and the Dong Chang group.

After nearly five years of fierce fighting, Dong Chang's group finally won a great victory, captured and killed Liu Hanhong, and unified Liangzhe. Afterwards, Dong Chang moved the group's headquarters to Yuezhou (eastern Zhejiang), and placed his most capable deputy, Qian Liu, in Hangzhou (western Zhejiang).

As the general manager of the group, Dong Chang still possessed supreme authority in the Liangzhe region and vast social resources, while Qian Liu, the governor of Hangzhou, was merely the general manager of a small branch within the group.

Overtaking on a curve:

Dong Chang is a nouveau riche in the Jianghuai region. Although he occupies Liangzhe, his overall strength is far inferior to the old "Jianghuai Twin Heroes" - Zhou Bao, the governor of Zhenhai Army, and Gao Pian, the governor of Huainan. In name, the Dongchang Group is also under the control of Zhou Bao. Zhou Bao and Gao Pian are roughly equivalent to the presidents of the industry's business associations, while Dong Chang is a new private enterprise. However, Zhou Bao and Gao Pian both lost their integrity in their later years, advocated side doors and left doors, pursued immortality, indulged in extravagance, and ignored government affairs, so they encountered mutinies one after another. Zhou Bao was driven out by Liu Hao and Xue Lang; Gao Pian was imprisoned by Bi Shiduo and Qin Yan.

Qian Liu smelled an opportunity, and took advantage of the rebellion to complete the reorganization of the army, using the "Eight Capitals of Hangzhou" as the main force to build a force loyal to himself, and successively captured Changzhou and Runzhou, bringing Zhou Bao to Hangzhou, thus completing the legal inheritance of the Zhejiang West Road.

It is said that Zhou Bao was corrupt and took bribes frequently in his later years. Whenever someone asked him for something, he would openly demand a bribe by saying, "Wait for the money." After Qian Liu inherited Zhou Bao's business, people suddenly realized their mistake and said that Zhou Bao's words had come true.

Afterwards, Yang Xingmi also took the opportunity to occupy Yangzhou.

Qian Liu and Yang Xingmi were in very similar situations. They both took advantage of the mutiny at the headquarters to carry out a successful political speculation with the power of one state (Hangzhou and Luzhou), and inherited the foundation of their former master. However, they were unable to effectively control it due to their own weak power. You can't eat fat in one bite.

So, the great bandit Sun Ru led his troops south to fight for hegemony in Jianghuai.

Although Sun Ru had a strong army, he lacked strategy. He relied on his strong military force and looked down on the newcomers Qian Liu and Yang Xingmi in Jianghuai. He did not adopt the principle of divide and conquer and defeat them one by one, but adopted the attitude of "I am not targeting anyone, I am saying that everyone here is rubbish", and launched attacks on Qian Liu and Yang Xingmi at the same time, trying to control the Jianghuai region in one fell swoop.

As neighbors, Qian Liu and Yang Xingmi originally had deep contradictions, territorial disputes, and constant friction and conflict. However, with the strong intervention of Sun Ru, the two enemies had to join forces and unite against the outside world.

Finally, with the help of Qian Liu, Yang Xingmi captured and killed Sun Ru and occupied Huainan.

Yang Xingmi gained land, Qian Liu gained Yang Xingmi's friendship, and also absorbed many of Sun Ru's old subordinates. Qian Liu organized them into "Left and Right Wuyong Du".

Afterwards, the court formally appointed Qian Liu as the military governor of Zhenhai Army, recognizing his rule over western Zhejiang. Taking advantage of the mutiny of Zhenhai Army and the invasion of Sun Ru, Qian Liu overtook Dong Chang and his comprehensive strength was equal to that of his former master Dong Chang. The two divided the two Zhejiang provinces.

Fighting with Dong Chang:

After Qian Liu took charge of Hangzhou, he actively recruited talented people, trained soldiers and horses, expanded the outer city of Hangzhou, and expanded the original "Eight Cities of Hangzhou" to thirteen Cities, greatly enhancing its strength.

At the same time, Dong Chang of Yuezhou did something reckless - he usurped the throne and established the "Dai Yue Luoping Kingdom".

Dong Chang was like a frog in a well. He did not have a keen enough insight into the rapid rise of his subordinate Qian Liu. In his eyes, Qian Liu was still that loyal little follower. In his calculations, Qian Liu was his "Minister of Defense."

(End of this chapter)