History of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms

Chapter 538: Divide Wei Bo Again 2
In November of the third year of Tianfu (938), Shi Jingtang appointed Yang Guangyuan as the Grand Marshal, the Governor of Luoyang, the Jiedushi of Heyang, and the Commander of the Six Armies, and transferred him from Weizhou to Luoyang.

At the same time, Weizhou was promoted to Yedu, and a garrison official was appointed (for the sake of narrative coherence, the name "Weizhou" was always maintained); the three states of Xiang, Wei and Chan, which originally belonged to Wei Bo Army, were separated, and Zhangde Army was set up with Xiangzhou as its seat of government; Beizhou, Bozhou, which originally belonged to Wei Bo Army, and Jizhou, which originally belonged to Chengde Army, were separated, and Yongqing Army was set up with Beizhou as its seat of government.

In fact, the original Wei Bo army was dismembered into three relatively independent military towns, and its power was greatly weakened. Shi Jingtang also promoted Chanzhou to a defensive state and moved the state government south to Deshengdu, moving the entire state southward to avoid potential threats from the Khitan in the north and strengthen strategic depth.

It can be seen that the "divide Wei Bo" plan proposed by Sang Weihan is no longer just aimed at a small Yang Guangyuan, but is looking at the long-term and preparing for the possible "War between Jin and Liao" in the future.

Therefore, we need to emphasize again that Sang Weihan and other "pro-Liao" officials cannot be completely equated with "traitors". Their political proposition is "pro-Liao", which is a dovish diplomacy based entirely on the interests of the Later Jin Dynasty. Their purpose is to bide their time and eventually defeat the Khitan so that Shi Jingtang and his Later Jin regime can make money without any hesitation. Sang Weihan is pro-Liao, but he is by no means pro-Liao.

Yang Guangyuan hated Sang Weihan even more, and things that made him hate him even more happened one after another:

Yang Guangyuan's younger brother Liu Churang was promoted to Privy Councilor. Just half a year later, Liu Churang's mother passed away. As usual, Liu Churang had to resign and go home to mourn his mother.

Liu Churang, the "ear-cutting hero", was a member of the "Yang faction" and Yang Guangyuan's younger brother in the central government. So Shi Jingtang used Liu Churang as a warning to others and cut off Yang Guangyuan's wings.

Shi Jingtang ordered the abolition of the Privy Council and the transfer of the seal to the Secretariat for safekeeping. The work of the Privy Council was taken over by the prime ministers. The establishment of the "Privy Envoy" was abolished, and the power was taken over by the prime ministers... Isn't it still the core of the prime minister and Privy Envoy, the only change is that Liu Churang, who returned from mourning, suddenly found himself laid off.

Yang Guangyuan could no longer sit still, so he met with Shi Jingtang and accused Sang Weihan of abusing his power, alienating the emperor and his ministers, using public power for personal gain, and competing with the people for profit...

It is said that Sang Weihan's family opened hotels and other commercial places in Luoyang and other places. In the feudal period, officials going into business were a dimensionality reduction attack on private industry and commerce, that is, "competing with the people for profits", and were despised and scorned by scholars.

Under tremendous pressure from Yang Guangyuan, Shi Jingtang finally sent Sang Weihan away and appointed him as the governor of Zhangde Army in Xiangzhou.

After Sang Weihan arrived in Xiangzhou, he abolished a bad custom, which was to confiscate the property of criminals. As mentioned above, all criminals had their property confiscated. It was said that this was an old custom in the Heshuo area. Sang Weihan thought it was inappropriate, and there was no law in the country to support such barbaric and brutal behavior, so he petitioned to abolish it.

Shi Jingtang was very happy, so he approved the request and issued an imperial edict to praise him:

"Sang Weihan has made great contributions to the country and has been entrusted with important tasks in the military. He has brought up the past of one region and combined it with the common rules of the world... Hearing the good words of the generals and ministers, he has achieved good things for the country. He has benefited from the kingly way and won the hearts of the people... All states in the world follow this rule."

You did a very ordinary little thing, but the leader held a general meeting, praised you with many flattering words, and called on all employees of the group to learn from you. What does this mean? Yang Guangyuan, please translate this for me. What does this mean? Please translate this for me. What the hell does this mean?
Shi Jingtang made drastic reshuffles in the Heshuo region. His target was not just Yang Guangyuan. An Zhongrong, the governor of Chengde Army in Zhenzhou, also showed signs of rebellion. Shi Jingtang's dismemberment of Wei Bo was a two-birds-with-one-stone move.

The rectification of the Heshuo region was not limited to administrative divisions. Along with the administrative division reform, there was a series of dazzling town relocation orders:
Wang Jianli, the governor of Qingzhou, was transferred to be the governor of Luzhou;
Huangfu Yu, the governor of Luzhou, was transferred to be the governor of Jinzhou;
Li Dezhen, the governor of Jinzhou, was transferred to be the governor of Taiyuan;

Transferred An Yanwei, the governor of Taiyuan, to be the governor of Songzhou;

Liu Zhiyuan, the governor of Songzhou, was transferred to Weizhou as the governor. Qingzhou, Luzhou, Jinzhou, Taiyuan, Songzhou, and Weizhou turned left and marched in unison, with the six towns shifting to each other.

Among them, Liu Zhiyuan was stationed in Weizhou, replacing Yang Guangyuan; Huangfu Yu's transfer was aimed at An Zhongrong.

Huangfu Yu was originally stationed in Dingzhou Yiwu Army, and his son and daughter were married to An Zhongrong of Zhenzhou Chengde Army. Zhenzhou and Dingzhou have been interdependent for more than a hundred years. The marriage between the two towns formed a pincer attack, which Shi Jingtang was deeply worried about. So he first moved Huangfu Yu to Luzhou, which was separated from Zhenzhou by the Taihang Mountains, and the natural barrier of the Taihang Mountains blocked the contact between the two. Then he was quickly transferred to Jinzhou, which was further west, making it almost impossible for the two to communicate.

While dividing Weizhou, Shi Jingtang also separated Jizhou from the Chengde Army in Zhenzhou, reducing the jurisdiction of Chengde Army from four states to three states.

In addition, Shi Jingtang's hometown was Liaozhou, and in order to show his favor to him, he specially allocated Liaozhou and Qinzhou to Luzhou Zhaoyi Army. Among them, Qinzhou was a subordinate state of Jinzhou Jianxiong Army, which was to grab a piece of meat from Huangfu Yu's mouth, and further weakened Huangfu Yu's power.

This was not the end. Shi Jingtang continued to escalate this major personnel change, applying the successful experience in Hebei to the south of the Yellow River and setting his sights on Xiangzhou and Anzhou.

An Congjin, the governor of Shannan East Road in Xiangzhou, and Li Jinquan, the governor of Anyuan Army in Anzhou, were also destabilizing factors for the empire and were eliminated early.

In the above personnel transfer, the closed loop was not completed. The Six Towns went around a circle with a gap. Yang Guangyuan, the last Weizhou, went to Luoyang, but no one filled the first Qingzhou. Now, Shi Jingtang had to fill the gap.

In order to avoid embarrassment, Shi Jingtang first sent someone to Xiangzhou to test An Congjin's attitude, telling him that there was a vacancy in the post of Qingzhou Jiedushi and asking him if he was willing to move to Qingzhou.

An Congjin's answer was ridiculous: "Don't move the town, let's play 'town migration'."

The messenger was confused. How could he "suppress and move" the enemy?

"If the emperor moves Qingzhou to Hannan, I will go there."

An Congjin made even the Great Shift of the Universe ashamed, and in this way he expressed his attitude to Shi Jingtang.

In order to avoid forcing him to rebel, Shi Jingtang did not dare to issue an order to move the town. Then, he set his sights on Anzhou. Anzhou Li Jinquan was just a small imperial army general with few soldiers and generals. He took advantage of suppressing Wang Hui's rebellion to take charge of Anzhou, and his foothold was not stable. There was no need to be polite to him.

Shi Jingtang issued an edict: Ma Quanjie, the governor of Henghai Army in Cangzhou, was appointed as the governor of Anyuan Army in Anzhou.

What he didn't expect was that while the powerful rebel players Yang Guangyuan, An Zhongrong and An Congjin were still gearing up, it was the weak Li Jinquan who took the lead and became a rising star in the rebellion.

(End of this chapter)