History of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms

Chapter 548: Er An's Rebellion 8
An Zhongrong closed the city gates and drove all the male residents in the city to the city walls to guard. Without enough uniforms and armor, they used cowhide and horsehide as armor. Such defenders had basically no combat effectiveness and would only die in vain. Even so, An Zhongrong did not hesitate. As long as he could save his own life, what would it matter if all the people in Zhenzhou died?
Since Zhaozhou had been recovered, Du Chongwei's central main force marched straight in without encountering any resistance and arrived directly at the city of Zhenzhou.

The arrogant, insidious and cunning An Zhongrong finally met his end, and Du Chongwei also fully exposed his greedy and brutal nature in this battle, paving the way for his future "great cause".

When the victory document was sent, all officials came to the court to congratulate him. Shi Jingtang issued an edict to strip An Congjin and An Zhongrong of their official titles. The situation of suppressing the rebellion was very good, and Shi Jingtang was relieved, "This is the feeling, it's so cool!"

Historical records state, "On that day, the emperor practiced archery in the rear garden, and all military commanders and above participated, and were given different gifts." This means that the emperor and his ministers had a team-building activity in the royal garden, and every participant received a reward.

It can be seen that Shi Jingtang was very happy, even though Comrade Chang Congjian passed away two days ago and on the day of the archery practice, King Qian Yuanguan of Wuyue died.

Chang Congjian, who "chisled bones to retrieve arrows", deployed defenses in Heyang during the Hedong War. He was responsible for blocking Shi Jingtang north of the Yellow River and building Luoyang's outer defense line. When Shi Jingtang went south, Chang Congjian surrendered on his own initiative and had already prepared boats for Shi Jingtang to cross the river. He was awarded the honorary title of "Loyal and Assisting the Country" and was appointed as the Jiedushi of Xuzhou Zhongwu Army, with the additional titles of Kaifu Yitong Sansi, Jianxu Taiwei, and the title of founding duke, with a fief of 1,500 households.

This time he accompanied the emperor to Weizhou, where he fell ill and died at the age of 65. He was posthumously awarded the title of Grand Tutor, and the court was suspended for one day to show his mourning.

Qian Yuanguan, King of Wuyue, was the son of Qian Liu and the second-generation leader of the Hangzhou Qian Clan. The Later Jin Dynasty bestowed upon him the posthumous title of "Wenmu" and suspended court for three days as a sign of mourning.

The way to "mourne" is to "practice archery in the back garden."

In a few days, it will be the Spring Festival.

On the first day of the first lunar month in the seventh year of Tianfu (942), Shi Jingtang ordered the cancellation of the New Year's greeting ceremony for all officials "because of the need to use military force."

On the second day of the first lunar month, a junior officer in Zhenzhou led the central army through the water mill gate on the west side (a water hole used by water mills) and entered Zhenzhou to launch a surprise attack. The defenders collapsed instantly, and An Zhongrong led hundreds of Tuyuhun cavalry to retreat into the inner city and continue to resist stubbornly.

Du Chongwei sent people to explain the pros and cons to the Tuyuhun soldiers, using political inducement as the main approach and military attack as the auxiliary approach. Soon, the Tuyuhun mercenaries captured An Zhongrong alive and presented him to Du Chongwei.

In the Battle of Zhenzhou, Du Chongwei first killed the garrison commander who led the Central Army to attack Zhenzhou, took the credit for the recovery of Zhenzhou, and then commanded the army to massacre more than 20,000 civilians who were forced by An Zhongrong to serve as garrison troops on the city wall. Killing innocent people and claiming credit is outrageous!

After entering the city, Du Chongwei not only seized all of An Zhongrong's property, but also took all the grain, treasury, etc. of the Zhenzhou government for himself.

Du Chongwei beheaded An Zhongrong and sent his head to Weizhou to report his achievement. At the same time, he recommended one of his confidants, Wang Yu, as the deputy governor of Zhenzhou. Under Du Chongwei's instruction, Wang Yu levied heavy taxes on the people of Zhenzhou, and the people of Zhenzhou suffered terribly.

On the fifth day of the first lunar month, Shi Jingtang received the express delivery of the head, then went up to the Qianming Tower and read the "Lu Bu". The Dali Qing was responsible for carrying An Zhongrong's head through the streets for public display, and all officials came to the court to congratulate. Then An Zhongrong's head was painted to keep it fresh, put into a wooden box, and sent to Khitan to report to his father. Shi Jingtang posthumously conferred titles and honors on the five princes who unfortunately died in the rebellions to express his grief, and also conferred titles and honors on the ministers who had made contributions in the wars to suppress the rebellion. Among them, Du Chongwei was appointed as the governor of Chengde Army in Zhenzhou, Yang Guangyuan was concurrently appointed as the minister of state, the prince Shi Chonggui was concurrently appointed as the minister of state, Hou Yi was given a special promotion and a gift of food, and Sang Weihan, Zhao Ying and others were also awarded titles and rewards.

Among a series of awards and personnel changes, there is a small wave of town relocations that deserves attention:

An Shuqian, the governor of Cangzhou, was appointed as the governor of Xingzhou;
Ma Quanjie, the governor of Xingzhou, was appointed as the governor of Dingzhou;
Wang Tingyin, the governor of Dingzhou, was appointed as the governor of Cangzhou.

An Shuqian, Ma Quanjie, and Wang Tingyin turned right and marched in unison, with the three towns moving to each other.

An Shuqian, in history books, is only said to be from the "Three Shatuo Tribes", without specifying whether he was from Shatuo, Anqing or Suoge. His story mainly takes place later in this article, so let's first give a brief introduction:
His father worked for Li Keyong, while he himself followed Li Cunxu and made some small contributions in the war to overthrow the Later Liang Dynasty. During the reign of Emperor Mingzong, he participated in quelling the rebellion in Wangdu of Dingzhou and was awarded the title of Governor for his merits. During the reign of Li Congke, he followed Shi Jingtang to sit in Hedong and repelled the guerrilla harassment of the Khitan people. He was recommended by Shi Jingtang and appointed as the Jiedushi of Zhenwu. After Shi Jingtang became emperor, he was given the title of Prime Minister.

Simply put, although An Shuqian was not Shi Jingtang's direct descendant, he was regarded as "one of his own" by Shi Jingtang.

Shi Jingtang transferred An Shuqian from Cangzhou to Dongzhaoyi, which guarded the main road in and out of Taihang Mountain and connected to Xizhaoyi in Luzhou. It can be regarded as the east gate of Taiyuan Prefecture in Hedong, and the east is close to the famous Weizhou Wei Bo Army. Placing him here shows that Shi Jingtang trusted him.

So what about Ma Quanjie from Dong Zhaoyi?

Shi Jingtang had a good impression of Ma Quanjie. During the reign of Emperor Mingzong, Shi Jingtang was in charge of the expedition to Liangchuan. He was extremely struggling and painful in his heart, because he himself was not optimistic about this war and had always been opposed to sending troops, but Li Siyuan let him lead the expedition.

At that time, Ma Quanjie was appointed as the governor of Hexi in Liangzhou. On his way to take up the post, he met Shi Jingtang who was about to enter Sichuan in Fengxiang. Ma Quanjie visited Shi Jingtang respectfully because Shi Jingtang's official position and title were higher than Ma Quanjie's, and he was also the emperor's son-in-law, so Ma Quanjie respected him very much.

Shi Jingtang was moved by Ma Quanjie's visit and immediately reported to the court, saying that Ma Quanjie was a good comrade, so why throw him away to a barren land thousands of miles away where no one lives? As a result, Ma Quanjie was changed to the governor of Yizhou.

When the Hexi Jiedushi was first established, it was the leader of the "Ten Jiedushi" and the most powerful vassal in the Tang Dynasty. However, by the end of the Tang Dynasty, during the Five Dynasties, it had become useless. The central government's control over the area was almost in name only and was actually controlled by the surrounding nomadic peoples. Therefore, the actual political status of the Hexi Jiedushi was equal to that of the Yizhou Governor.

Later, Ma Quanjie was promoted from governor to defense envoy, stationed in Jinzhou, when Li Congke started his rebellion in Fengxiang. Later Shu took advantage of the chaos to invade the Central Plains. Ma Quanjie sacrificed his family property to help the people, defended Jinzhou, defeated the enemy with a small force, and stopped the Later Shu's eastward invasion in Jinzhou. Afterwards, when he was summoned to Beijing to discuss rewards, he was demoted to governor of Jiangzhou because he had no money to bribe the powerful official Liu Yanlang. The court and the public were in an uproar. The prince Li Chongmei personally stood up for him and filed a complaint with the emperor, and then he was appointed as the governor of Cangzhou.

(End of this chapter)