History of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms

Chapter 430: Layout of Liangchuan
【Layout of the two rivers】

Sichuan is a strategically located land, and has been a hotbed for separatist forces since ancient times. Generals who entered Sichuan to fight either stayed there to establish their own regimes, or died tragically due to suspicion. This is the "Sichuan Curse". Guo Chongtao, who just fell from grace, is a living example.

But now that Meng Zhixiang of Xichuan was gaining strength, it was impossible for Li Siyuan's court to eliminate him by force. Just as An Zhonghui was thinking hard about how to pacify Shu, a man came to An Zhonghui with a plan in mind and volunteered to share his worries.

This person is Li Yan, an old friend of the people of Shu.

Li Yan was very smart. He saw through An Zhonghui's thoughts and the court's thoughts. The court did not trust Meng Zhixiang of Xichuan, but could not attack him by force. It could only use wits to win. This was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for promotion! Li Yan took the initiative to find An Zhonghui and asked to serve as the military supervisor of Xichuan to monitor and check Meng Zhixiang for the court.

Li Yan's current title is Guest Envoy and Sizhou Defense Envoy. Guest Envoy is responsible for receiving foreign envoys and representing the central government to visit local areas. It can be roughly understood as a "protocol officer". Li Yan previously visited Former Shu as a guest envoy. After returning home, he urged the conquest of Shu. After Shu was pacified, he was awarded the Sizhou Defense Envoy for his merits.

Sizhou was under the control of the Huainan forces at that time. Li Yan's title of defense envoy was an honorary title. He only enjoyed relevant administrative treatment but had no real power.

From "honorary" defense envoy to military supervisor, it is a "three-level promotion in a row", and when the leadership is most short of manpower, he took the initiative to volunteer to take on this arduous task, which will surely win the gratitude of those in power, and subsequent promotion will be a rocket.

Li Yan had visited Shu before, had relevant work experience, and understood the local customs and practices, which was an advantage that could not be replaced by others. When Li Yan took the initiative to step forward and bravely shouldered the heavy responsibility, An Zhonghui and Li Siyuan were indeed delighted.

"Xichuan needs talents like you."

Li Siyuan ordered the appointment of Li Yan as the military supervisor of Xichuan and Zhu Hongzhao as the deputy governor of Dongchuan, so as to insert spies of the imperial court into the two Sichuan regions.

After the appointment letter was issued, Li Yan went home humming a little tune and packed his bags, ready to embark on the road to promotion and wealth. However, his mother poured cold water on him, "Son, it was you who strongly instigated the court to send troops to Bashu, bringing war to Shu, making the Shu people slaves of a conquered country, and killing so many people! The Shu people hated you so much, and you actually took the initiative to go there, are you looking for death?"

Li Yan did not stop the work in his hands, and casually responded with a few words. Of course, he was filial and respectful to his mother, but his mother was an old lady with no education and no knowledge after all. What did she know about military and national affairs?
"Don't worry, mother. It's all right. Just wait for your son to be promoted to a higher position."

Li's mother knew that her son was bewitched and blinded by fame and fortune. She was helpless and burst into tears. "Alas, mother is afraid that I will never see my son again!" After saying this, she covered her face and cried, bidding farewell to her son.

Li Yan thought that when he returned home in glory, he would prove himself to his mother with practical actions. After kneeling before his mother, he resolutely set foot in Shu.

When the news of Li Yan's appointment as the military supervisor of Xichuan spread to Shu, officials and civilians in Shu were all gnashing their teeth, wishing to eat him alive. Jiedushi Meng Zhixiang was also quite disgusted. Li Yan was not only a spy for the court, but also would greatly increase his management costs. It was difficult to appease the public's emotions!

The staff of Xichuan also believed that Li Yan came with ill intentions and "wanted to make achievements again in Shu", so they asked Meng Zhixiang to submit a petition to reject Li Yan's appointment, so as to avoid him becoming the second Wang Zongyan.

Meng Zhixiang's eyes rolled and a plan came to his mind. "No need to go to great lengths. I have already thought of a plan that kills two birds with one stone."

Meng Zhixiang warmly welcomed the leader to come and guide the work, and sent people to meet Gao Ying and go deep into Dongchuan to meet Li Yan. He prepared two ways for Li Yan, soft and hard.

The soft approach is to show gratitude to Li Yan for saving his life in the past.

That happened more than a decade ago. In March 912 AD, Li Cunxu attacked Liu Shouguang of Youzhou. Li Yan, then governor of Mozhou, was captured by Zhou Dewei. Li Cunxu heard that Li Yan had a wide range of knowledge and was very talented, so he wanted Li Yan to be a tutor for his son Li Jiji. However, Li Yan refused. Li Cunxu was furious. What an ungrateful surrendered general. I gave you face, didn't I? He immediately ordered Li Yan to be beheaded in public.

When Meng Zhixiang heard this, he ran barefoot to the central army tent without even having time to put on his shoes and begged for mercy, saying that it would be a breach of trust with the world to kill a righteous man before the enemy was destroyed!
Li Cunxu therefore changed the immediate execution to twenty lashes.

Meng Zhixiang regarded himself as Li Yan's savior, and thought that Li Yan should remember the grace of saving his life, give up his desire for Shu, return to the central government on his own initiative, and say a few good words for him to repay his kindness.

Unfortunately, Li Yan was blinded by greed and had no intention of leaving. Xichuan was his to take.

Meng Zhixiang had no choice but to use force on him.

At the welcoming banquet in Chengdu, Meng Zhixiang assembled a large army and invited Li Yan to watch the military parade in Xichuan, using the parade to strongly hint to Li Yan the danger of Xichuan.

Since ancient times, military parades have been a way of showing off one's strength to the outside world. This was Meng Zhixiang's last chance for Li Yan, hoping that Li Yan could sense Xichuan's murderous intent through the military parade and thus retreat.

Meng Zhixiang was disappointed again. Li Yan watched the military review with great interest and praised Meng Zhixiang for his good command of the troops, but did not mention his resignation and return to the court.

In order to scare away the prime minister Wei Zhaodu, Wang Jian even performed a live cannibalism, which frightened Wei Zhaodu so much that he "jumped" over Jianmen Pass and left Xichuan to Wang Jian. It seems that the sensory stimulation brought by the military parade is far less than that of cannibalism. Li Yan was not frightened.

Meng Zhixiang sighed, "My old friend, I gave you a chance but you didn't use it! Since this one is from me, I will take it back today."

On this day, Li Yan went to the government office to discuss an important task with Meng Zhixiang as part of his routine business: killing Jiao Yanbin.

Jiao Yanbin was originally a military supervisor eunuch in Xichuan. After Li Siyuan came to power, in order to eliminate the eunuch power during Li Cunxu's time and to completely eliminate the remnants of Li Cunxu's party, he issued an edict to abolish the military supervisors in various places and to arrest and kill the eunuchs in the same month of his enthronement. Meng Zhixiang was ordered to dismiss Jiao Yanbin's military supervisor, but did not kill him. Instead, he treated him as a distinguished guest of Xichuan.

After Li Yan arrived in Xichuan, he did not care about Meng Zhixiang's kindness in saving his life. Instead, he acted like an imperial envoy and ordered people around. In his opinion, he was ordered by the court to monitor Meng Zhixiang, so Meng Zhixiang should be very respectful to him in the hope that he could say a few good words for him in the court.

This is Li Yan's ignorance. If Meng Zhixiang wanted to be a loyal dog of the court, he would naturally wag his tail and beg for mercy. But now Meng Zhixiang wants to be a jungle wolf.

Meng Zhixiang refused to kill Jiao Yanbin, saying that he was just a poor eunuch who had no power now, so why should he be killed? Killing eunuchs was just a necessity of political struggle, and the name was more important than the reality.

Li Yan smiled coldly and took out a royal edict from his bosom. "Jiao Yanbin and I have no grudges against each other. It's not me who wants to kill him, it's the emperor who wants to kill him. It's hard to disobey the imperial edict!"

This was a Hongmen Banquet, but Li Yan didn't realize until the end that the clown was actually himself.

(End of this chapter)