History of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms

Chapter 529: Three Towns Rebellion 3
After Li Congke proclaimed himself emperor, Hou Yi was reinstated.

After Shi Jingtang proclaimed himself emperor, he promoted Hou Yi's rank in the imperial guards and appointed him as a local defense envoy. When news of Zhang Congbin's rebellion came, Shi Jingtang planned to send the 62-year-old veteran Hou Yi to quell the rebellion and asked him if he was confident enough to quell the rebellion.

Hou Yi made a promise on the spot: "As long as you give me 5,000 elite soldiers, I will be able to defeat the enemy." Shi Jingtang was overjoyed. He immediately allocated 5,000 imperial troops, let Hou Yi lead the expedition, and sent his brother-in-law, Du Chongwei, to accompany him.

On the one hand, Shi Jingtang asked Du Chongwei to be the "military supervisor", and on the other hand, he also wanted him to gain experience and improve his qualifications.

In addition to the 5,000 troops of Hou Yi and Du Chongwei, Shi Jingtang also sent Liu Churang to allocate a certain number of troops from the front line of Huazhou to support the battle of Sishui Pass.

For a time, military orders to mobilize troops and intelligence reports were coming and going like a loom. Bianzhou was extremely busy and the atmosphere was very tense. From civil and military officials to the people of Bianzhou, everyone was panicked and terrified. People were talking about it and all kinds of rumors were flying around.

At this time, only Sang Weihan remained calm, as if nothing had happened. Whether he was handling official business or receiving guests, he always looked calm and confident. Gradually, people's hearts finally settled down.

However, when the news of the capture of Sishui Pass and the killing of Song Yanhao came, even Shi Jingtang was not calm. Shi Jingtang took off his dragon robe, put on his armor, prepared his horse that could travel a hundred miles a day, and fled to Taiyuan Prefecture in Hedong to avoid the danger of being attacked from both sides by Fan Yanguang and Zhang Congbin.

Sang Weihan knelt in front of the horse and tried to persuade them, saying that although the enemy was fierce, they would not last long. If they abandoned the capital and fled back to Taiyuan, the morale of our army would inevitably collapse. As the saying goes, a defeat is like a landslide. So, please make sure to stay in Bianzhou for a few more days and observe for a few days. It would not be too late to run away later.

After all, Shi Jingtang had spent his entire life in military service, and after Sang Weihan's earnest persuasion, he calmed down a little and finally gave up the idea of ​​running away. He stayed in the imperial capital and listened to the battle situation on the front line.

Then, urgent news came from the front line of Huazhou: Fu Yanrao, the governor of Huazhou Yicheng Army, rebelled!
The story goes like this. Before this, Shi Jingtang sent Bai Fengjin to lead his troops to Huazhou to assist in defense. One night, some soldiers harassed the people of Huazhou, broke into people's houses, smashed, looted and burned. Bai Fengjin led his troops to hunt them down and captured a total of five soldiers who participated in the riot. Among them, three were Bai Fengjin's soldiers, and two were local soldiers in Huazhou, that is, Fu Yanrao's subordinates.

Bai Fengjin was impartial and just, and ordered all five men to be punished according to military law, beheaded in public, and enforce military discipline. Afterwards, Bai Fengjin personally visited Fu Yanrao to apologize and clear up the misunderstanding.

However, misunderstandings still occurred.

Facing Bai Fengjin's explanation and apology, Fu Yanrao was not grateful at all and angrily accused Bai Fengjin of not knowing the rules, "Do you have the right to kill my people? You killed your soldiers, I have nothing to say, but why did you kill my people? Don't forget, this is Huazhou, my territory!"

Bai Fengjin argued, "If the officers and soldiers break the law, what does it mean to you and me? Besides, this is Huazhou, but Huazhou is the emperor's Huazhou, not yours, Fu Yanrao's Huazhou? Are you also following Fan Yanguang's example and want to rebel?" After saying that, he flicked his sleeves and left.

Fu Yanrao's face was filled with anger, "I'm sorry I can't see you off!"

However, the soldiers around Fu Yanrao rushed forward and surrounded Bai Fengjin, "Will I let you leave Huazhou alive?" and then killed Bai Fengjin on the spot.

Seeing this, Bai Fengjin's personal cavalry immediately fled in all directions and brought back the news of the general's death to the barracks. Bai Fengjin's troops immediately put on armor and took up weapons, shouting and shouting, but they were leaderless and didn't know what to do next. At this time, Ma Wan, the commander-in-chief of the left army (the commander-in-chief of the left wing of Fengguo), planned to let his troops plunder, but met Lu Shunmi, the commander-in-chief of the right army (the commander-in-chief of the right wing of Fengguo) on the way.

Lu Shunmi loudly rebuked Ma Wan and his soldiers, "Marshal Fu killed Marshal Bai without authorization. He must have colluded with the Weizhou traitor Fan Yanguang. This place is only 200 miles away from Bianzhou. All my soldiers' wives, children and elders are in Bianzhou. Why are you still thinking of joining the rebellion at this time? Aren't you afraid of being exterminated?"

Everyone immediately stopped talking and stared at Lu Shunmi, "Please show us a way!"

"Right now we only have one choice: capture Fu Yanrao alive and present him to the emperor. This will create great merit and help us draw a clear line between ourselves and the rebels and prove our innocence!"

When some of Ma Wan's subordinates expressed their opposition, Lu Shunmi immediately ordered them to be beheaded. Then Ma Wan also expressed his willingness to accept Lu Shunmi's leadership.

In this way, everyone worked together to capture the inner city, captured Fu Yanrao alive, and sent him to Bianzhou.

This is really a misunderstanding. Fan Yanguang did contact many people at that time, such as Zhang Congbin. It will be mentioned later that Fan Yanguang even instigated some people in Bianzhou and Xuzhou. He must have contacted Fu Yanrao because Huazhou was an important link for him to march into Bianzhou.

Fu Yanrao should not be moved. He killed Bai Fengjin not to cooperate with Fan Yanguang, otherwise he would not be captured alive by Bai Fengjin's subordinates. Some historical records say that Bai Fengjin brought 1,500 people, while others say 3,000 people. In short, the number was not large. If Fu Yanrao came prepared, why did he only kill Bai Fengjin and not take action against these people, but was killed by them?

Regardless of whether Fu Yanrao accepted Fan Yanguang's instigation or not, he could not be cleared of the crime of killing Bai Fengjin without authorization. In the face of a powerful enemy, killing a general without authorization caused the army to lose morale and the front line of defense was in danger of collapsing without a fight. For this reason alone, Fu Yanrao was unforgivable.

Shi Jingtang ordered that he should be executed on the spot instead of being sent to Bianzhou. At the same time, he ordered that Ma Wan be promoted to the governor of Yicheng Army in Huazhou.

Because in the document reported, Ma Wan's name was listed first, and Lu Shunmi and others were listed later. Generally speaking, the order of names is very particular, not by the number of strokes of the surname, nor by the first letter, but by official position or merit, especially when reporting merit.

As the incident happened suddenly, the person writing the memorial was not clear about the details. He only knew that Ma Wan was the first to cause trouble (looting, smashing, and burning), so he wrote Ma Wan's name first, which led Shi Jingtang to misunderstand and take it for granted that Ma Wan's contribution was the first. A few days later, the truth came out, and Shi Jingtang awarded Lu Shunmi the title of the governor of Zhaoyi Army in Luzhou.

However, Lu Shunmi was unlucky and died of illness not long after he arrived at the town. Shi Jingtang was very sad and posthumously awarded him the title of General of the Guards.

At that time, Fan Yanguang sent a large number of spies, carrying wax balls with secret messages, to lure heroes from all walks of life. Although Huazhou was quickly stabilized, at the same time, changes occurred in Bianzhou and Xuzhou, the heartland of the empire.

Thank you very much for the 20201029151004258 monthly tickets given out by "book friend 20"! I will add another chapter tomorrow and another chapter the day after tomorrow on National Day to show my gratitude!
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(End of this chapter)