History of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms

Chapter 433: Dongchuan Haze
【Dongchuan Haze】

The face is supported by the substance. Meng Zhixiang's substance is Xichuan's unique and dangerous terrain, strong money and grain reserves and continuous taxes, a huge army, and tall city walls.

Since the end of the Tang Dynasty, Chengdu City had been at war with Nanzhao, which had led to two large-scale wars. Since then, all the governors of Xichuan attached great importance to the improvement of Chengdu City’s defenses, especially Gao Pian.

Gao Pian not only made conventional treatments such as raising and thickening the original city walls, but also built an outer city, which made Chengdu's defensive fortifications qualitatively improved. Ironically, it was precisely because Gao Pian built an impregnable city defense system for Chengdu that he was slandered and falsely accused of intending to split off from Xichuan, and was thus transferred from Chengdu to Jingnan and Huainan to deal with Huang Chao.

Based on Gao Pian's work, Meng Zhixiang carried out further expansion and renovation work, mobilizing a total of 200,000 laborers.

Civil and military officials in the court all pointed out that Meng Zhixiang of Xichuan would definitely rebel and that they should take action against him as soon as possible.

In May of the fourth year of Tiancheng (929), Li Siyuan used the excuse that he would "have something to do in the southern suburbs" and sent his confidant Li Renju to the two Sichuan provinces with an imperial edict, requesting the two Sichuan provinces to "voluntarily" donate "suburban gift money" according to the rules. Among them, the target for West Sichuan was 5 million strings of cash, and the target for East Sichuan was strings of cash.

At that time, the harvest in the two Sichuan provinces was poor due to natural disasters, and there was famine in Shu. The price of rice soared to 400 coins per bushel, which was about 100 times the normal price. So the two Sichuan provinces used this as an excuse to cry poor to the court.

Meng Zhixiang initially did not want to pay a penny, and later asked for a 50% discount, agreeing to pay only 500,000 strings of cash; while Dong Zhang of Dongchuan only agreed to pay 100,000 strings of cash, a direct 20% discount.

Li Renju was in a bad mood. The government gave him a target of 150 million, but he only completed 60. He didn't know how to explain to his boss. When he came to Dongchuan Zizhou full of resentment, trouble really happened.

Li Renju was a close confidant of Li Siyuan. He had served as Li Siyuan's guest general (diplomat) a long time ago, and was now promoted to guest envoy, taking over Li Yan's position. He also had a close relationship with An Zhonghui and was regarded as a confidant by An Zhonghui. This time, as an imperial envoy to collect "suburban gift money", he was also secretly tasked with spying on the dynamics of the two Sichuans. The intelligence he provided would directly affect the court's attitude towards the two Sichuans.

Generally speaking, local officials were in awe of the imperial envoys, and they welcomed them from afar, treated them to good health, and gave them dinner and gifts. They did not dare to ask for a few good words, but only hoped that they would not tell tales on others or make trouble for them.

Li Yan came to Xichuan with this in mind, and so did Li Renju. Relying on his strong backing, Li Renju was very arrogant.

Dong Zhang prepared a sumptuous banquet in Zizhou, waiting for Comrade Li Renju to come and give instructions. But until noon, there was still no sign of Li Renju.

Dong Zhang sent someone to the hotel where Li Renju was staying to check on the situation. Soon, his men reported: "Li Renju is getting a good treatment at the hotel where he is staying!"

"what?"

Dong Zhang had thought of thousands of reasons, such as oversleeping, diarrhea, getting lost, torn pants, sudden illness...but he never expected this answer, so he led his entourage and rushed to the post station angrily.

In the Tang Dynasty, post stations were roughly equivalent to today's urban complexes. In addition to being equipped with sufficient carriages and horses, they also had supporting guesthouses and other facilities, integrating catering, accommodation, entertainment, communications and other functions, and were also equipped with exclusive police staff. Among the "entertainment" items, there were "official prostitutes."

All the ancillary facilities of the post station are open to the public, which is equivalent to a government-run comprehensive hotel and entertainment venue, and the operating income is used to subsidize government funds.

When Dongchuan Bing kicked open the door of the luxurious single room, Li Renju was guarding a table full of delicious food and wine, with women on both sides. The scene was disgusting and indescribable.

Li Renju was startled. He saw that it was Dong Zhang who was personally leading the inspection. The officers and soldiers who followed him all had their weapons drawn. He sobered up immediately and hurriedly pulled on his clothes and pants. He didn't even have time to put on socks. He stepped into his boots barefoot and was dragged into the courtyard by the soldiers. (Walking in the courtyard without socks but with boots on)
Dong Zhang pointed at the tip of his nose and cursed loudly, "Xichuan can kill Li Yan, and Dongchuan can also kill Li Renju! Left and right - behead them!" Li Renju fell to his knees with a plop, crying and begging for mercy.

Dong Zhang was different from Meng Zhixiang. He did not really want to rebel, nor did he have any plans for rebellion. His words of killing Li Renju were just impulse and words spoken in anger, so he backed down and spared Li Renju.

The next day, Dong Zhang prepared a banquet to calm Li Renju down, and invited his wife to come out to apologize to Li Renju. Before leaving, he gave Li Renju a generous bribe in the hope of clearing up the misunderstanding.

Li Renju agreed on the surface, saying that they would let bygones be bygones, not hold grudges, and would help each other in the future. But in his heart, he hated Dong Zhang with all his might.

After returning to the court, Li Renju exaggerated the story of Dong Zhang's rebellion and illegality in Dongchuan, and vowed that Dongchuan would definitely rebel.

An Zhonghui agreed with this, so he and Li Renju met with Li Siyuan, and they sang the same tune and directed their criticism at Dong Zhang of Dongchuan.

Later, Li Siyuan sent Li Yanxun to Dongchuan to probe Dong Zhang's attitude. As soon as Li Yanxun entered Dongchuan, he angered Dong Zhang over a trivial matter, and Dong Zhang immediately arrested Li Yanxun's followers. Li Yanxun saw that the situation was not good, so he ran away and ran back to the court, "Dong Zhang is really going to rebel!"

At this time, a special task force of the Fuzhou Baoda Army stationed in Dongchuan had completed its garrison period and was ordered to return to Fuzhou. Dong Zhang intercepted all their weapons and baggage, and selected young and strong well-equipped soldiers to forcibly detain them, allowing only the old, weak, sick and disabled to return to the town empty-handed.

An Zhonghui, a senior official of the "hawkish" faction, bravely took on the important task and started the 2.0 version of the layout of the two Sichuan provinces:

Langzhou and Guozhou were separated, and Baoning Army was set up, with Li Renju as the governor.

Today's Dongchuan is no longer the Dongchuan of the past. Dongchuan has long governed 12 states, including Zizhou and Suizhou, with a vast territory. But now, Dongchuan guarded by Dong Zhang only has 5 states.

In order to prevent the emergence of a dominant force in the Bashu region and to avoid the breeding of separatist forces, the imperial court divided the vassal states in the Bashu region into infinite pieces, basically making a military town every 2 or 3 states and sending Jiedushi to garrison them, making their forces weak and intertwined with each other.

The newly established Baoning Army was located east of Dongchuan, next to Dong Zhang's bed.

An Zhonghui also sent Wu Qianyu to serve as the governor of Mianzhou.

Wu Qianyu is a former subordinate of Li Siyuan and also the elder brother-in-law of An Zhonghui. Mianzhou belongs to Dongchuan Prefecture and is the closest prefecture to Zizhou, at eleven o'clock in Zizhou.

He also appointed General Xia Luqi as the Jiedushi of Wuxin Army in Suizhou.

In this way, Wu Qianyu of Mianzhou was like a sharp blade hanging over Dong Zhang's head; Li Renju of Langzhou was a tiger sleeping beside Dong Zhang's bed; and Xia Luqi of Suizhou was the wind-fire wheel under Dong Zhang's feet.

Dong Zhang was strategically surrounded by An Zhonghui.

(End of this chapter)