History of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms

Chapter 437 The first stage
Phase 1

Dong Zhang took over Langzhou as a conqueror, holding the power of life and death over the soldiers and civilians of the city. After executing the entire family of his enemy Li Renju, another person was escorted to Dong Zhang.

This man was named Yao Hong. He was a young general of the Later Liang Dynasty and served under Dong Zhang. He was Dong Zhang's old subordinate. Now he led a thousand men to garrison Langzhou.

Before the formal attack, Dong Zhang sent a spy with a letter to instigate a rebellion, hoping that Yao Hong would become his own traitor. However, Yao Hong did not buy into his old commander's plan and threw the secret letter directly into the toilet.

After Langzhou was captured, Yao Hong was captured alive and brought before Dong Zhang.

Dong Zhang shouted, "I promoted you from a lowly soldier to an officer. I treated you very well. Why did you betray me?"

Yao Hong stared and cursed: "Old thief! In the past, when you were a slave in Li Rang's house in Bianzhou, you cleaned up the horse manure every day, and the master rewarded you with a piece of leftover barbecue, and you were very grateful. Now, the emperor promoted you to be a vassal lord, isn't that considered 'treating you very well'? You can betray the emperor, but I can't betray you? I would rather die standing for the emperor than live on my knees for a thief slave!"

Yao Hong was ready to die. He called people a "thief and slave" when he opened his mouth and a "traitor" when he closed his mouth. Every word he said was heart-wrenching and exposed people's shortcomings.

Dong Zhang was furious and ordered people to set up a big pot in the court and boil a large pot of water. Ten strong men cut Yao Hong's flesh and ate the human flesh hot pot on the spot.

Yao Hong kept cursing until his death.

When the news of Yao Hong's heroic deeds spread back to Luoyang, Li Siyuan was so moved that he burst into tears. He promoted Yao Hong's two sons to generals of the imperial guards, gave their family extremely generous rewards, and called on soldiers across the country to learn from Comrade Yao Hong.

When Ouyang Xiu compiled the New History of the Five Dynasties, he included Yao Hong in the Biography of Death. His loyalty will shine forever in the annals of history.

Li Siyuan was very humorous, or he still had a last glimmer of fantasy about Meng Zhixiang. After issuing an edict to deprive Dong Zhang of all his official positions and titles, he issued another edict to appoint Meng Zhixiang as the "Southwest Supply Envoy" to assist the royal army in conquering Dong Zhang.

What Li Siyuan didn't know was that Meng Zhixiang had just written another article entitled "Recovering Langzhou and Showing Xichuan a List". In that era when information dissemination was not well developed, this was equivalent to the front page headline of a newspaper and the number one on the hot search list. This article is also quite good, and we will still excerpt and appreciate it:
"Yesterday, the two rivers were suspicious of the imperial court, did not respect the loyal and good, believed the slanderous words, and caused the princes to lose their loyalty."

——The first sentence of the opening paragraph is also a scapegoating, placing all the responsibility for the war on the imperial court. Groundless suspicion and officials forcing the people to rebel, this is the political tone and the standard sentence pattern for all "reporter Q&A" in formal occasions.

"At first, Li Renju, the governor of Langzhou, came twice as an envoy and repeatedly spied on the enemy. He said that the area between Guo and Lang was the place to control the enemy, so he made plans and set up military flags at random. When his evil plan came true, he was still sinister and did not stop... He made himself the leader of the enemy."

——Li Renju is the main culprit of the war. He is extremely evil, greedy and insatiable. His scheme of building a new military town and eyeing Dongchuan has already succeeded, but it still cannot satisfy his sinister heart.

"So the Prime Minister of Dongchuan... Lianxing led the army of the tigers and wolves to break the den of jackals... and personally led the army of the two rivers..."

——Even a rabbit bites when it is cornered. Faced with Li Renju's relentless pressure and the court's indulgence, Dong Zhang finally launched an attack on Langzhou.

"…With God's help, the army was mighty and the people were brave and strong, the ringleader was beheaded and his accomplices were captured. Our army surrounded the enemy from all sides and the enemy's fortifications collapsed with one attack…" - Look at the fighting power of our two Sichuans, how awesome.

"…we will take advantage of the victory to advance and capture Lizhou. We will be able to defeat the enemy in the blink of an eye."

——Brother Dongchuan is so awesome, and got off to a good start. We in Xichuan should not fall behind. Lizhou, let’s go!
This is why I like to read declarations of war, manifestos, proclamations, etc.:

The article is not long, but concise, with clear ideas and rigorous logic, and it is not dragging. In just a few lines, it shifts the blame, accuses opponents, makes excuses, satirizes, and boosts the morale of our army... It is done in one go, and quotes from classics, all in parallel four-six, four-six-eight sentences, intertextuality, antithesis, parallelism... Various rhetorical techniques are dazzling. At the most exaggerated time, the ten words in the upper and lower sentences can hide four allusions...

This is how cultured people curse, without using any dirty words, but they can still make people speechless, or even die of anger on the spot. Zhuge Liang cursed Wang Lang to death, and it is still used as an emoticon package today.

Li Siyuan deployed his troops and appointed his son-in-law, the great general Shi Jingtang, as commander (commander-in-chief of the Dongchuan camp), Xia Luqi as his deputy, and Wang Sitong as the vanguard officer.

Dong Zhang really didn't want to rebel, or he really had some concerns, because of his son Dong Guangye, who was left as a hostage in the court. This was also an important reason why An Zhonghui was aggressive and refused to compromise with the appeasement of Dongchuan, and was tolerant and tolerant. It was also one of the reasons why Li Siyuan trusted An Zhonghui too much and made a serious strategic misjudgment.

An Zhonghui and Li Siyuan believed that as long as Dong Guangye was in their hands, Dong Zhang would not be able to rebel. Therefore, the court did not need to be too polite to Dong Zhang, nor did it need to accommodate or condone him. I just bullied you, do you have the temper? If you have the guts, you can rebel - Damn, are you really going to rebel?
The imperial court beheaded Dong Guangye’s wife, children and all others.

After the victory in the first battle, the soldiers from Liangchuan who captured Langzhou became a little inflated.

Dong Zhang sent Xichuan General Meng Sigong to attack Jizhou. Meng Sigong underestimated the enemy and rushed forward rashly, and was defeated. Dong Zhang was furious, "You have destroyed our morale and our military prestige. If it weren't for the sake of our friendly forces, I would have executed you by military law. Get out!" Dong Zhang did not want to destroy the friendship of the allied forces, so he sent the defeated General Meng Sigong back to Chengdu.

Meng Zhixiang dismissed Meng Sigong from all his official positions and returned home to reflect on his mistakes.

The cooperation between the two Sichuan provinces was very tacit, that is, the troops were divided into two groups, each fighting on its own, without a unified general commander. There was only one clear and vague guiding principle, which was proposed by Zhao Jiliang, to first capture Lang and Sui, and then control Jianmen Pass.

Therefore, Dong Zhang of Dongchuan was responsible for the northern half, taking Langzhou and controlling Jianmen Pass to prevent the central army from entering Sichuan by land; Meng Zhixiang of Xichuan was responsible for the southern half, taking Suizhou and controlling the Yangtze River to prevent the central army from entering Sichuan by water.

Meng Zhixiang of Xichuan sent Li Renhan to attack Suizhou, forming a diversionary force that prevented Suizhou reinforcements from moving north.

Xia Luqi, the governor of Suizhou, closed the city and held out. Meng Zhixiang mobilized 20,000 Zizhou militiamen, transformed them into engineers, and built a wall outside Suizhou City to physically isolate it.

Xia Luqi ordered the cavalry commander Kang Wentong to lead the cavalry out of the city to meet the enemy and hinder the progress of the siege. However, the news of the fall of Langzhou came at this time. After Kang Wentong led the cavalry out of the city, he surrendered directly to Li Renhan.

Xia Luqi could only sit and watch being surrounded, but he still resisted stubbornly and waited for the arrival of reinforcements.

(End of this chapter)