History of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms

Chapter 485 Internal Troubles Liu Yanlang

[Internal Troubles Liu Yanlang]

After Meng Chang ascended the throne, people everywhere were restless. The newly surrendered Wuding Army in Yangzhou began to riot. The general Wen Jingchen launched a mutiny and occupied Yangzhou.

Meng Chang sent Li Yanhou, the governor of Guozhou, to suppress the rebellion. From the text, there is nothing wrong with it. Someone rebelled and sent troops to suppress it. However, when you take a look at the map, you can see the clue: Yangzhou is today's Yang County, Shaanxi Province, northeast of Xingyuan Prefecture, and Guozhou is today's Nanchong City, Sichuan Province, located in the south of Dongchuan, the hinterland of the two Sichuans.

Why did Meng Chang choose the long way instead of the near one and let Li Yanhou travel across most of Shu Kingdom and expedition to Yangzhou?

This is the problem just mentioned above: the old generals are dissatisfied and the Later Shu regime is unstable.

Sun Hanshao, the commander of the Wuding Army of Yangzhou, was defeated on the front line of Fengxiang, and then surrendered to the Later Shu together with Zhang Qianzhao of Shannan West Road. The rebellion was initiated by Sun Hanshao's former troops. Shannan West Road was adjacent to Yangzhou, and most of the soldiers here were surrendered soldiers and generals of the Later Tang Dynasty. Meng Chang did not dare to use them.

Further south, the neighboring Lizhou Zhaowu Army was led by Li Zhao, and Meng Chang dared not use him.

Further south is Langzhou Baoning Army, whose governor is Zhao Tingyin. Zhao Tingyin is not a pushover either, and he is planning to kill Li Renhan with Zhao Jiliang and others, so he cannot be used.

Further south is Dongchuan, whose governor is Meng Chang himself.

Therefore, Meng Chang's decision to seek the far away instead of the near was really a helpless move.

Li Yanhou of Guozhou did not disappoint Meng Chang's efforts. He won a great victory at the first battle and achieved immediate success, easily putting down the Yangzhou rebellion.

At the same time, Zhang Yanlang, the governor of Qinzhou Xiongwu Army of Later Tang, led his troops south and surrounded Wenzhou, aiming to recapture the city that had previously surrendered to Later Shu.

Arriving at the right time is worse than arriving early. Li Yanhou had just put down the rebellion in Yangzhou, so he led his victorious army to the west for support. Li Yanhou led the main force to station in Xingzhou, and sent the vanguard officer Fan Yanhui to lead the vanguard to reinforce Wenzhou.

Xingzhou is located to the west of Xingyuan Prefecture, to the east of Wenzhou, to the south of Fengzhou, and to the north of Fengzhou is Dasan Pass. Li Yanhou stationed his main force here to cut off the Later Tang reinforcements coming from Fengxiang-Dasan Pass-Fengzhou. If the main force of the Later Tang came from this direction, then Wenzhou could be reinforced to the west, and the land south of the Qinling Mountains, such as Shannanxi Road in Xingyuan Prefecture and Wudingjun in Yangzhou, could be recovered to the east.

Li Yanhou controlled Xingzhou and seized the initiative on the battlefield. He was very wise and a ruthless character who was well versed in the art of war.

Zhang Yanlang knew that he had encountered a master, so he took the initiative to lift the siege of Wenzhou and withdraw his troops back to Qinzhou; the troops stationed near Xingzhou by the Later Tang Dynasty also withdrew to Fengxiang.

This exploratory attack by the Later Tang Dynasty to recover lost territory ended in failure.

Later Shu appointed General Quan Shiyu as the "Defense Envoy of Jinzhou". Jinzhou was located east of Wudingjun in Yangzhou and was still under the control of Later Tang. This was a very traditional "let the general take it himself". Quan Shiyu led his troops to attack and conquered the outer defense circle of Jinzhou, and his troops were at the gates of the city.

At this time, there were only one thousand defenders in Jinzhou, and the situation was critical.

Chen Zhiyin, the military supervisor of Jinzhou, led 300 soldiers to escape along the Han River; Ma Quanjie, the defense envoy, sold his family property to help the people, gave all his property to reward the troops, fought desperately, and finally defeated Quan Shiyu and saved Jinzhou. Li Congke issued an edict to execute Chen Zhiyin, the military supervisor; Ma Quanjie went to Beijing to accept the reward.

After Ma Quanjie came to Beijing, the Deputy Privy Councilor Liu Yanlang blatantly demanded a bribe from him.

At that time, Li Congke had basically completed the redistribution of central power, and the core power was in the hands of his direct confidants. In name, Fang Hao and Zhao Yanshou were privy envoys, but they did not please Li Congke, especially Zhao Yanshou, who was just a pawn to win over Zhao Dejun and balance Shi Jingtang. The ones who really won Li Congke's respect were the deputy privy envoy Liu Yanlang and the privy scholar Xue Wenyu.

Fang Hao was good at the ways of the world, he was very good at observing people's words and expressions, and he knew how to deal with people. Although he was the Privy Councilor and nominally the superior of Liu Yanlang (the Deputy Privy Councilor), he always followed Liu Yanlang's lead and consulted Liu Yanlang on everything, and his final decision was based on Liu Yanlang's instructions.

Especially when the envoys from Youzhou (Zhao Dejun) and Taiyuan (Shi Jingtang) came to Beijing, Fang Hong did not say a word. According to work requirements, the main person in charge of the Privy Council had to hold a work meeting with the envoys, and everyone sat together to discuss work. Whenever this happened, Fang Hong simply pretended to be asleep, not listening, not discussing, and not expressing his opinion. After the envoys left, he yawned, stretched, smacked his lips, and said, "Huh? Where are they?"

In this way, no matter whether it was personnel appointments and dismissals, official reports, etc., all matters big and small were decided by Deputy Envoy Liu Yanlang alone, and Fang Hao only had to sign.

When officials from various places came to Beijing to pay homage to the emperor, they would first bribe Liu Yanlang. Especially when it came to personnel transfers, the final result depended entirely on what they said to Liu Yanlang. The more bribes they gave, the better the job; otherwise, they would have nothing to lose. This was already an open secret in the Later Tang Dynasty.

After Ma Quanjie came to Beijing, Liu Yanlang was afraid that this country bumpkin who had lived in the frontier for a long time did not know the rules and would openly demand bribes.

In order to save Jinzhou, Ma Quanjie has spent all his family wealth. Now he is penniless and does not have enough money to honor Liu Yanlang.

So Liu Yanlang became furious and wanted to let this unruly person know the consequences of breaking the rules.

Liu Yanlang made a personnel appointment: appointing Ma Quanjie as the governor of Jiangzhou.

The news shocked the court and the public. Ma Quanjie was already a defense envoy, equivalent to a deputy provincial-level cadre, and he had made great contributions. In theory, he should be promoted to Jiedushi. However, Liu Yanlang not only did not promote him, but demoted him to a governor (a municipal-level cadre).

Is there still a law? Is there still law? It's just nonsense!

Prince Li Chongmei was also indignant about this and went straight to Li Congke to complain. Li Congke was shocked and personally intervened, and only then was Ma Quanjie transferred to the post of acting commander of the Henghai Army in Cangzhou.

This incident was enough to show how powerful Liu Yanlang was. If it were not for the prince Li Chongmei's personal complaint, Li Congke would have been kept in the dark and had no idea about Ma Quanjie's appointment.

The power of personnel appointment and removal is the most fundamental power of a group. Selling official positions and titles is the biggest corruption and the root of all evil. The direct consequence of selling official positions and titles is that corrupt officials are everywhere. The big officials are corrupt, the small officials are corrupt, and all officials are corrupt. All the pressure will eventually be transferred to the people. The sheep will pay for the wool.

Officials who were honest, upright and loyal were excluded and could not enter the core of power. Their correct proposals for the benefit of the country and the people could not be implemented. The social elites were gradually marginalized, and treacherous villains filled the court.

The power to appoint and dismiss personnel is the root of the great tree of the empire, and other things such as embezzlement of public funds and excessive taxes are just details. Once the roots are rotten, unhealthy tendencies will naturally emerge in an endless stream and will not stop despite repeated prohibitions.

(End of this chapter)