History of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms

Chapter 54 Empty City Strategy

【Empty City Strategy】

Among the various armies that surrounded Chang'an, the Western Route Army was the strongest, the so-called "Guanxi Army." Because the Cao army had been wreaking havoc east of Tongguan and south of the Yellow River, the Guanxi area was not affected, its strength was intact, and it had just won a great victory at Longweipo, so its morale was high.

Faced with this wave of counterattack from the Tang Dynasty, Huang Chao was one step ahead and chose to avoid the enemy's attack.

To everyone's surprise, Huang Chao actually took the initiative to withdraw from Chang'an and easily gave up the imperial capital.

Cheng Zongchu of Jingyuan entered the city first, followed by Tang Hongfu of Shuofang, and Chucun, the Prince of Yiwu, entered the city at night. Without a single bloodshed, without losing a single soldier, Chang'an was recovered!
How could such a great achievement be allowed to be taken away by others? Cheng Zongchu and others knew this tacitly, and did not inform the Fengxiang, Xiasui, Fuyan and other corps, and they blocked the news of Chang'an's recovery at the same time.

The people of Chang'an lined the streets to welcome the Tang army into the city, offering food and drink to welcome the royal army. Some people picked up bricks and tiles on the ground and threw them at Huang Chao's army; others picked up arrows on the ground and gave them to the Tang army.

What they never expected was that the Guanxi Army led by Cheng Zongchu and others had poor military discipline, no way to resist the enemy, and good ways to disturb the people. Instead of pursuing the fleeing Huang Chao's army, they broke into the homes of the people, robbed money, food, and women... The Japanese invaders entered the village.

They blocked the news because they were afraid that their allies would take the credit and they were also afraid that their allies would take the spoils.

Only King Yiwu Chucun ordered his soldiers to wrap their heads with white cloth to distinguish them.

Wang Chucun's "white-headed soldiers" had strict military discipline and would not take anything from the masses. However, the hooligans on Chang'an Street also wrapped their heads with white cloth, pretending to be "white-headed soldiers" and looting everywhere.

Under the rule of the Huang Qi regime, the people of Chang'an first suffered from the "Great Purge", "Purging of Goods", and literary inquisition. After finally waiting for the arrival of the Tang army, they were robbed by the Tang army themselves. They were abused by their stepmothers and tortured by their biological mothers. The people of Chang'an tasted the taste of being slaves of a conquered country.

The Tang army, who were doing whatever they wanted in Chang'an City and enjoying the fruits of victory, did not notice that a pair of vicious eyes were staring at them not far away.

Chang'an was Huang Chao's trap.

Huang Qi's main force retreated to Bashang, where they prepared their troops and waited for the right opportunity. Huang Chao sent intelligence personnel to gather information inside and outside Chang'an.

Huang Chao saw everything the government troops did in Chang'an City.

Huang Chao's trusted general Meng Kai led a special forces force of several hundred people, disguised as soldiers from Bin and Jing, and infiltrated the city to act as an internal support.

At Huang Chao's command, the Bashang Cao army rushed towards Chang'an City like a broken dam, roaring and launching a surprise attack.

The Tang army in Chang'an had long lost its organization because it was busy raping and looting. The soldiers could not find their generals, and the generals could not find their soldiers, and the city fell into chaos.

Meng Kai responded from inside the city, and the forces cooperated both inside and outside.

In the melee, the deputy commander-in-chief of the coalition forces, Cheng Zongchu, the governor of Jingyuan, was killed, and the chief of staff of the coalition forces, Tang Hongfu, the governor of Shuofang, was killed... The Guanxi Corps under his command was almost annihilated. Only the Yiwu Army, which had strict military discipline, under the command of the governor Wang Chucun, fought and retreated and fled the battlefield.

At this point, the Western Army that Zheng Ting had just built up disappeared.

It was not until the defeated army fled back to the camp in a panic that Zheng Ting, the commander-in-chief, learned the news that Chang'an City had been recaptured and then fell.

Cheng Zongchu and Tang Hongfu sacrificed public interest for personal gain, led the army and the country astray, and their deaths were discredited, which is not a pity!
After returning to Chang'an City, the Huang Chao group once again showed their terrifying fangs.

Tolerance is a manifestation of self-confidence. Some people say that winners are all tolerant. Looking back at history, this is not accurate. To be more precise, it should be said that confident people are all tolerant.

The Huang Chao group obviously lacked self-confidence and had a very low self-esteem.

Inferiority complex leads to many personality defects, such as narrow-mindedness and bigotry, which is why people are vindictive; excessive superstition of violence, obsession with killing, and solving all troubles or trouble makers through physical destruction; lack of compassion, on the contrary, they get great satisfaction by abusing the weak. If a person's inferiority complex exceeds a certain limit and is not corrected, it can ruin his life. If a team also suffers from this disease, they will collectively fall into the abyss.

In order to retaliate against the people of Chang'an who welcomed the royal army, the Huang Chao bandit gang formulated a military operation code-named "Cleansing the City", slaughtering more than 80,000 people in Chang'an, and the city of Chang'an became a river of blood.

The reason why the people of Chang'an "betrayed" the Huang Qi regime was largely due to the huge gap between the buyer's show and the seller's show. The "Taobao" action made people see the brutal nature of the Cao army, and their lies of benevolence and love were self-defeating.

However, compared with the actions of these bandits in Guandong, the actions of the Guanxi government troops were even worse. The two sides in the tug of war were indeed birds of a feather.

If Huang Chao could take advantage of the Guanxi Corps' disturbance of the people, reform himself in time, treat the people of Chang'an well, and do a good job of crisis public relations, he might be able to put on the mask of hypocrisy again.

But the Huang Chao group had no lofty ambitions, and even less generosity and kindness.

The "cleansing the city" operation washed away people's last bit of fantasy about the "rebels".

Huang Chao seized the opportunity of the Western Route Army's defeat and marched north to attack the Xia Sui and Fu Yan Northern Route Army stationed in Tuqiao, winning again. Tuoba Sigong and Li Xiaochang were forced to retreat.

Zhu Mei, the deputy envoy of Bining Jiedushi stationed in Xingping, was also defeated and forced to retreat to Longweipo.

At this point, the threat to Chang'an in the west was temporarily alleviated.

At the same time, an extremely familiar scene began to play out again:
Gao Pian, the governor of Huainan, plotted to kill Zhou Bao, the governor of Zhenhai, in the name of going north to defend the emperor, and then annex the Zhenhai war zone and establish a separatist regime in Jiangdong. However, his plot was discovered by Zhou Bao and failed. As a result, the Huainan and Zhenhai corps did not reinforce the capital.

Zhi Xian, the governor of Ganhua Army (Xuzhou), sent General Shi Pu and his entourage to lead an army of 5,000 to reinforce the capital. When the troops were halfway there, Shi Pu launched a mutiny, plundered Zhengzhou, and massacred people in Heyin County. He then returned to Xuzhou, killed Zhi Xian, and proclaimed himself the governor of Ganhua Army. He then became the new governor of Ganhua Army.
When the Shatuo leader Li Keyong led his troops to reinforce the capital, he passed through the Hedong war zone, where he had a conflict with the Hedong Jiedushi Zheng Congdang. After plundering the Hedong war zone, Li Keyong returned home and no longer fulfilled his duty to serve the king.

Internal strife in Huainan, mutiny in Xuzhou, internal strife in Hedong...

The "Anti-Pornography Alliance" was large in scale but loosely organized, and was in danger of being defeated piece by piece by the Huang Qi regime.

The Huang Qi regime seemed to have a chance to turn things around.

However, while clearing the obstacles in the west, Huang Chao also received bad news from the east: Huazhou was conquered by Hezhong Wang Chongrong and Zhaoyi Gao Xun; Dengzhou was conquered by Yang Fuguang.

The strategy of "waiting for the opportunity and defeating them one by one" can only be put aside for the time being.

Huazhou is located west of Tongguan and east of Chang'an. The loss of Huazhou means that the east gate of Chang'an has been opened;

Dengzhou, defended by Zhu Wen, was the key point of Jingxiang. If Dengzhou fell, Chang'an would lose its southeastern barrier.

The Xichuan Expeditionary Force also won many battles and approached Xingping, filling the gap in the defense line of the Western Route Army. The main force of the Xichuan Expeditionary Force was the "Yellow Head Army" and "Shenshe Battalion" founded by Cui Anqian.

Coincidentally, the main force to recapture Dengzhou was also Cui Anqian's old subordinates, former soldiers of the Zhongwu Army.

Since the beginning of the uprising, the Cao army has been circumventing Cui Anqian and his Zhongwu Army, but unexpectedly, they will eventually fall into his hands.

Gao Pian is just a paper tiger, and Cui Anqian is the real nemesis of Cao’s army.

(End of this chapter)