History of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms

Chapter 499 When a Politician Meets a Traitor 4
The next day, Shi Jingtang joined forces with the Khitan and together they surrounded Jin'an Village. They set up a security zone to the south of Jin'an Village, which was more than 100 miles long from east to west and more than 50 miles deep from north to south. They set up layers of roadblocks and barbed wire with bells hanging on the barbed wire, and patrol soldiers patrolled with military dogs... Jin'an Village was surrounded tightly.

At this time in Jin'an Village, Zhang Jingda and others' troops still had more than 50,000 people and more than 10,000 war horses.

At the last moment of the siege, Zhang Jingda sent someone to sneak out secretly and reported to the central government the defeat of Taiyuan City and the urgent military situation of being surrounded in Jin'an Village, and requested the central government to send troops for support as soon as possible. This was the last contact between Zhang Jingda and the central government. After that, Jin'an Village lost all contact with the outside world until Zhang Jingda died heroically.

After receiving this important intelligence, Li Congke dispatched multiple reinforcements, including Fan Yanguang and Zhao Dejun. As mentioned above, Li Congke's tactical thinking was very clear in terms of military affairs. He supported Jin'an Village while blocking the Khitan's retreat.

After seeing Li Congke's move, Yelu Deguang also made corresponding adjustments, moving his headquarters southward and preparing for the battle. However, when the Khitan army passed through Shihui Pass (an important pass south of Taiyuan), they still could not see any soldiers from the Later Tang.

Because according to Li Congke's dispatch, the reinforcements of the Later Tang Dynasty were mainly divided into three routes:
Pan Huan, the defense commander of Yaozhou, was responsible for gathering the various armies in the west, from the west to the east in today's northern Shaanxi, to support Jin'an Village from the west;
Fan Yanguang, the governor of Weizhou, set out from Weizhou and crossed the Taihang Mountains from east to west to support Jin'an Village from the east;

Zhao Dejun, the governor of Youzhou, was responsible for cutting off the Khitan army's retreat route from Youzhou to the west.

Fu Yanrao was also sent to lead the imperial guards to garrison in Heyang to build the first line of defense for Luoyang on the banks of the Yellow River. He was then sent to Luzhou as a mobile force to support Jin'an Village, with his confidant Liu Yanlang as the military supervisor.

However, this imperial army relied on Fengxiang's support for the throne and was arrogant and difficult to control. They did not listen to Fu Yanrao's orders at all. Fu Yanrao was afraid of provoking a mutiny and did not dare to act according to military law. He always compromised. It is conceivable that this army had a strong fighting spirit and combat effectiveness.

Not only did Zhao Dejun not cut off the Khitan's retreat, but he went south to annex friendly forces, making Fan Yanguang dare not leave his base without permission. It can be said that Zhao Dejun single-handedly helped the Khitan to hold back two-thirds of the Later Tang reinforcements.

What about the remaining one third?
Liu Jingyan, a native of Yanzhou (now Yan'an City, Shaanxi Province), once served as the governor of Fangzhou (now Huangling County, Shaanxi Province). He had certain social connections and wealth, a generous personality, and liked to make friends with heroes from all walks of life. In short, he was a leader who was involved in both the black and white worlds, and was known as Brother Yan in society.

At that time, Yang Hanzhang, the governor of Zhangwu Army in Yanzhou, was ordered to collect horses and "righteous troops" to support the war in Hedong. Liu Jingyan took the opportunity to incite the people's dissatisfaction. When Yang Hanzhang was reviewing the troops, he launched a mutiny and killed him. Then he supported Liu Jingyan as the governor of Zhangwu Army and submitted a petition to the court. Li Congke had no choice but to agree.

Liu Jingyan's Yanzhou mutiny was very representative, so Pan Huan, who was responsible for the reinforcements from the west, did not send them to the battlefield on time and in sufficient numbers.

This is why the Khitans could not see any reinforcements from the Later Tang outside Shihui Pass.

In fact, the Hedong War had only truly entered the stalemate stage at this point. This stalemate was reflected in the "big circle within the small circle":
The small circle is Jin'an Village, where Zhang Jingda and Yang Guangyuan were surrounded. They were not good at attacking but good at defending. With 50,000 men and 10,000 horses, their fighting power should not be underestimated.
The big circle is the entire Hedong area. The Khitan and Shi Jingtang coalition forces were deployed on the Hedong battlefield with Taiyuan as the center. Zhao Dejun and Fan Yanguang led the army to watch from the periphery.

In fact, while Zhao Dejun was watching, the Khitans were also watching. Even though they had given Shi Jingtang great military assistance, the Khitans were still prepared for the "Saigon Iron Fist". Although Yelu Deguang pushed the frontier positions to the south of Taiyuan, his baggage and the elderly and weak were all left at Hubeikou, north of Taiyuan, and they repeated one thing every day: every time the sun set, the entire army would urgently pack up their bags and packages. Once the Later Tang reinforcements attacked, they would immediately break camp and retreat without hesitation.

It was more than just "preparation." When Pan Huan appeared in Xizhou in the west with reinforcements from the west, the Khitan army there immediately chose to retreat; and after seeing Zhao Dejun's army passing through the Taihang Mountains, the Khitan army's defense line also retreated.

Even Shi Jingtang himself admitted that he and the Khitan had "no friendship" and their relationship had always been cold. Why would the Khitans work for Shi Jingtang?

Interestingly, the one who really maintained a long-term friendly relationship with the Khitans was Zhao Dejun of Youzhou. According to the records in the History of Liao, Zhao Dejun paid tribute to the Khitans with seasonal fruits many times, and Yelu Deguang also recorded that "the emperor bestowed Zhao Dejun with the gift".

This echoes the previous point. The envoys of Shi Jingtang and Zhao Dejun both arrived in Khitan and requested assistance from Khitan.

Based on the analysis of various historical materials and logical reasoning, Shi Jingtang finally proposed the "Three Articles of Selling the Country" to make the Khitan enthrone him as the ruler of the Central Plains. This was not done at the beginning by Zhao Ying and Sang Weihan at once, but was finally finalized after a relatively long diplomatic negotiation and a round of mutual probing (even three-way probing). And during this negotiation period, there was this strange stalemate.

The Khitans did not completely reject Zhao Dejun, nor did they treat Shi Jingtang sincerely. The Khitans were still wavering between the Hedong project and the Youzhou project.

Zhao Dejun led the main force and stationed only a hundred miles away from Jin'an Village. The Khitans were also prepared to abandon Shi Jingtang and withdraw to the north at any time, but Zhao Dejun refused to launch an attack.

This is Li Congke’s chance on the Hedong battlefield, but the initiative is in Zhao Dejun’s hands.

We can make a bold assumption: Zhao Dejun advances northward, the Khitans return northward, Zhang Jingda of Jin'an Village and Zhao Dejun cooperate internally and externally, Shi Jingtang is alone and powerless... Shi Jingtang is defeated and killed, Zhao Dejun annexes Hedong, and so on, all the land north of the Yellow River is controlled by Zhao Dejun. The next step is that Zhao Dejun either negotiates with Li Congke and divides the Yellow River to govern, or negotiates with the Khitans, and with the support of the Khitans, crosses the Yellow River, unifies the two sides of the Yellow River in one fell swoop, destroys Li Congke, overthrows the Later Tang, and Zhao Dejun ascends the throne and proclaims himself emperor, changing the country's name to "Zhao" or "Yan"...

This is why Zhao Dejun took a wait-and-see attitude. It's just that he was more conservative and more prudent than the above plan. His idea was not to fight with Shi Jingtang, but to preserve his strength and keep Shi Jingtang, so that Shi Jingtang would continue to be the governor of Hedong. The two of us would not interfere with each other. In this way, we could preserve the strength of Youzhou and gain Shi Jingtang's support. Then we could cross the river to the south, kill Li Congke, and then ascend the throne to become emperor. And before killing Li Congke, we had to try every possible way to blackmail and squeeze out the last drop of oil from Li Congke.

It must be said that Zhao Dejun was too gentle and conservative towards Shi Jingtang and Khitan, and too rude and radical towards Li Congke. He was really too clever, and in the end he died because of his "cleverness".

(End of this chapter)