History of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms

Chapter 428: Tigers Enter Sichuan 2
【Tigers Enter Sichuan 2】

Meng Zhixiang was shocked and quickly appealed for Guo Chongtao and proposed a compromise: I will go to Xichuan for an on-site investigation. If he is really plotting a rebellion, I will kill him; if it is a misunderstanding, I will capture him and send him to Luoyang for personal interrogation by Your Majesty.

Li Cunxu agreed.

Meng Zhixiang set out, but not long after he left, he was caught up by another group of imperial envoys from the imperial court, led by the eunuch Ma Yangui. Their mission was to go to Xichuan to kill Guo Chongtao.

Meng Zhixiang cried out that something was wrong and hurriedly gave orders to double the speed and rush to Xichuan before Ma Yangui.

He was still a step too slow. When he arrived in Chengdu, Guo Chongtao had already been killed.

That day, Meng Zhixiang came to the Chengdu government office. He did not show the joy of a new official. On the contrary, he had a gloomy face, said nothing, and his eyes could not hide his sadness and hesitation.

He was sad and worried. Not only for his old friend Guo Chongtao, he was confused and worried about his own future. He didn't want to be another Guo Chongtao.

The current situation in Xichuan did not allow him to be sad, let alone hesitate. After Meng Zhixiang took office, he immediately threw himself into the intense work, appeased the people, and quickly restored the post-war order.

What followed was Kang Yanxiao's rebellion. Meng Zhixiang sent General Li Renhan to work with Ren Yuan and Dong Zhang to suppress the rebellion and capture Kang Yanxiao alive.

The biggest beneficiary of the suppression of Kang Yanxiao's rebellion was Meng Zhixiang. For example, he incorporated thousands of Kang Yanxiao's followers, including generals Li Zhao and Hou Hongshi, who made great contributions to his later founding of the country.

In addition to directly accepting Kang Yanxiao's troops, Kang Yanxiao's rebellion also ignited the fire of the two Sichuan regions. In this epic war of annihilation, the "semi-non-resistance policy" of the Grand Marshal Wang Zongbi and the lightning-fast surrender of the Shu Lord Wang Zongyan made the two Sichuan regions hostile and the mass base of the Later Tang Dynasty quite weak.

Even if the Later Tang expeditionary army stayed in Shu, it would take a lot of time and energy to gradually stabilize the local order. Usually, it is more difficult to digest a region than to capture it, such as Afghanistan today. However, under the pressure of the domestic situation (Li Siyuan's Weizhou mutiny), the garrison, which was already unable to cope with the situation, had to return in a hurry, which provided an opportunity for the local "anti-Tang" armed forces to take advantage of.

Crown Prince Li Jiji was in a dilemma. If he returned to the capital upon the order, the victory over Shu would be lost, and without the military deterrence of the royal army, Shu would have the possibility of restoration. If he refused the order, it would be evidence of his crime of separatist regime in Shu and rebellion. So he repeatedly submitted memorials to his father Li Cunxu, explaining the current situation in Shu and requesting that the date of the return be extended, preferably until Shu was completely absorbed before returning to the capital.

Li Cunxu has already become an ant on the hot pot. Li Siyuan's Weizhou mutiny is in full swing, and Luoyang is in danger. How can he care about Shu? Come back to me quickly!

Under Li Cunxu's extremely urgent urging, Li Jiji had to obey the order and return to the capital.

In order to stabilize the situation in the two Sichuan provinces, Li Cunxu acquiesced to Meng Zhixiang's expansion of the army, and at the same time exterminated the Shu ruler Wang Zongyan's clan to end the hope of the Shu people.

Soon, Li Cunxu encountered the "Xingjiaomen Rebellion", his country was destroyed and he died, and Li Jiji was forced to commit suicide by the Wei River.

This is great news for Meng Zhixiang! There is no need to hide the expansion of the army. The interval between the new and old emperors is the best time to expand the power. Moreover, he has a legitimate reason: to suppress bandits and maintain order in Xichuan.

When the Former Shu surrendered, Guo Chongtao received nearly 30,000 Shu soldiers in Chengdu, and organized 3,000 cavalry into six cavalry battalions such as the "Left and Right Xiaowei"; 24,000 infantry into 20 infantry battalions such as the "Left and Right Ningyuan". These reorganized Shu surrendered troops were fully accepted by Meng Zhixiang. These 30,000 troops were the tacit approval of Meng Zhixiang by the Li Cunxu government and were used to maintain order. However, the following series of operations were Meng Zhixiang's personal ambitions.

Li Jiji came and went in a hurry, and he did not have time to carefully count the spoils of war before returning to the capital in a hurry. He did not even have time to check the armory in Chengdu.

When Meng Zhixiang opened the armory, he was pleasantly surprised to find that there were 200,000 pieces of armor stored inside! He was very smart and did not choose to report it. Instead, he immediately privately recruited soldiers and horses, expanded the army by 16,000 people, and organized 16 special battalions such as the Yisheng Army and Dingyuan Army as his own guard force, stationed in the inner city.

In August of the first year of Tiancheng (926), six more camps were added, including the Left and Right Chongshan camps, with a total of 8 people, stationed in the outer city; twenty more camps were added, including the Yining Army, with a total of people, stationed in prefectures and counties within the territory, and logistical supplies were provided nearby; four more camps were added, including the Left and Right Laocheng Army, with a total of people, stationed within the jurisdiction of Chengdu Prefecture.

In September, Meng Zhixiang added six naval battalions, including the Left and Right Fei Zhao, with a total of 9 people, on the pretext of guarding against the threat from Gao Jichang in southern Jing. They were stationed at important ferry crossings on both sides of the Yangtze River and practiced naval battles day and night.

In fact, the easternmost border of Xichuan and the westernmost border of Gao Jichang's territory in Jingnan were more than a thousand miles apart. If Jingnan went upstream to attack Xichuan, it would have to cross the two vassal towns of Wuxinjun in Suizhou and Wutaijun in Qianzhou. In other words, Meng Zhixiang's reason was completely untenable. Obviously, this was Meng Zhixiang's excuse for armed separatism.

When Li Jiji left, he left about 7 surrendered Shu soldiers to Meng Zhixiang. After Li Siyuan proclaimed himself emperor, Meng Zhixiang secretly expanded the force by more than double, reaching more than .

Private military expansion, especially by local governors, is the biggest taboo. Meng Zhixiang, who has always been cautious, suddenly made such a move. It was definitely not a momentary impulse, but rather the political wisdom he gained from years of cold-eyed observation.

Your loyalty or treachery is not important. If the emperor thinks you are loyal, then you are loyal. If the emperor suspects you are treacherous, then you will surely die. Therefore, the purpose of being a minister is not to be a loyal minister, but to make the emperor think you are a loyal minister.

The death of his old friend Guo Chongtao made Meng Zhixiang more convinced that the emperor might consider him a traitor at any time. How could he avoid this? He only had the land under his feet and the army in his hands.

According to historical records, when Meng Zhixiang arrived in Chengdu, he had already developed the ambition to establish his own regime. Li Cunxu's death gave him the opportunity.

In fact, the difficulty in expanding the army is not the source of soldiers. As the saying goes, "raise the flag to recruit soldiers, and there will be people to eat." The biggest constraint on expanding the army is money and food. It is easy to find tens of thousands of soldiers, but how to feed tens of thousands of mouths to eat? How to satisfy tens of thousands of hands asking for military pay and salary?

If you have money and food, they will serve as your soldiers; otherwise, they will take your life.

Fortunately, Shu was rich, and Meng Zhixiang could feed tens of thousands of troops relatively easily.

However, Li Cunxu's main purpose in conquering Shu was to plunder the wealth of Shu. After Li Siyuan came to power, he was also in urgent need of using the spoils of war in Shu to fill the deficit of the old government and support the operation of the new government.

The change of core power in the central government of the Later Tang Dynasty made Luoyang's demand a bottomless pit, and Shu became the ATM of the central government of the Later Tang Dynasty, and the wealth of Shu was continuously transported to Luoyang.

What was flowing out of Xichuan was not money and grain, but Meng Zhixiang's life! Meng Zhixiang was anxious and repeatedly submitted memorials to the court, claiming that Shu was short of financial resources and requesting a reduction or slowdown in the delivery of money and grain.

The landlord’s family has no surplus food!
(End of this chapter)