History of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms

Chapter 549: Er An's Rebellion 9
Not long ago, Li Jinquan of Anzhou rebelled, and Ma Quanjie led the army to fight against him. After success, he returned and moved his headquarters to Dongzhaoyi. Now he is following the army to fight against An Zhongrong, and has also made great achievements.

Both in public and in private, Shi Jingtang admired and trusted him very much. Like An Shuqian, although he did not belong to Shi Jingtang's direct lineage in Hedong, he was also highly valued.

Obviously, Shi Jingtang's real intention was not to replace Ma Quanjie with An Shuqian. So in this wave of operations, Shi Jingtang's real intention was to replace Wang Tingyin of Dingzhou with Ma Quanjie.

Wang Tingyin, grandson of Wang Chucun, was previously lacking a military governor in Dingzhou. Yelu Deguang wanted Wang Wei (youngest son of Wang Chuzhi), who grew up in Khitan, to be the military governor of Dingzhou, so as to control the Yiwu Army in Dingzhou, extend the tentacles of Khitan to the south of the Sixteen Prefectures of Youyun, and gradually erode the entire Hebei region. Shi Jingtang found Wang Tingyin, a living treasure, and appointed him as the military governor of Dingzhou, thus cutting off the Khitan's conspiracy.

In addition to being the grandson of Wang Chucun, Wang Tingyin was also the nephew of Li Keyong. His father Wang Ye married Li Keyong's sister, so he was one generation older than Shi Jingtang.

The ethical title is not the point. The point is whether Comrade Wang Tingyin is capable of sitting in Dingzhou.

Dingzhou has extremely important strategic significance, especially after the "Sixteen Prefectures of Youyun" were ceded to the Khitan, Dingzhou's importance in geopolitics increased sharply, and the task of resisting the northern barbarians shifted from Youzhou to Dingzhou.

Youzhou is surrounded by mountains in the north and has strategic locations for defense. Even so, the people in charge of Youzhou are no ordinary generals who can stand on their own, such as Zhou Dewei and Zhao Dejun.

However, Dingzhou is located in the North China Plain south of Youzhou, with almost no strategic location to defend. The burden of defending against the Khitan in Dingzhou is much heavier than in Youzhou.

In comparison, Comrade Ma Quanjie, who has rich combat experience, is obviously more suitable for this role than Wang Tingyin, who is a "royal relative".

From this point of view, Shi Jingtang's intention of moving the town was very clear - to guard against the Khitan.

We have repeatedly stressed that both Shi Jingtang and his trusted "pro-Liao" ministers such as Sang Weihan regarded pro-Liao as a means of dealing with the Liao, and were pro-Liao but not proficient in Liao. They were always preparing for a fallout with the Khitan, and the "Jin-Liao War" was bound to happen sooner or later.

For example, after suppressing the rebellion of Fan Yanguang in Weizhou, in order to weaken Yang Guangyuan's power, Shi Jingtang divided Wei Bo and carried out drastic operations in the Heshuo area, which implied concerns about the Khitan invasion to the south, such as moving the government agencies in Chanzhou southward to Deshengdu.

Now that An Zhongrong of Zhenzhou had been pacified, Shi Jingtang transferred his brave and capable generals to strategic locations such as Dingzhou and Xingzhou, pushing the military iron fist northward, strengthening the outer defense line and consolidating the strategic depth.

All these actions of Shi Jingtang were in preparation for the "Jin-Liao War".

Shi Jingtang's approach was not to worry about the future, but to prepare for the rainy day. Imperialism was determined to destroy us, and the Khitan never gave up the fantasy of the Central Plains. As mentioned earlier, while An Zhongrong was shouting slogans against Liao and overthrowing the traitorous pseudo-emperor Shi Jingtang, he was also secretly contacting the Khitan, preparing to follow Shi Jingtang's old path, relying on the help of the Khitans to go south to seize power, change the dynasty, and live out his emperor's addiction.

Therefore, the Khitans were not completely unaware of the rebellion. They collected intelligence about the Central Plains through various channels and built an all-pervasive spy intelligence network in the Central Plains. It can be said that they knew the situation in the Central Plains very well.

When it was learned that An Zhongrong was going to launch a rebellion, there was also a fierce and secret discussion within the Khitan. The options discussed were summarized into three major factions: left, center, and right.

Conservatives believed that the Khitan's main task at present was to digest the vested interests and maintain the new order after the Hedong War, that is, to ensure Shi Jingtang's rule over the Central Plains, thereby ensuring the legitimacy and effectiveness of the cession of the "Sixteen Prefectures of Youyun";
The radicals believed that An Zhongrong was the second Shi Jingtang, and that the Khitan could completely copy the "Hedong model" to gain greater benefits, such as asking An Zhongrong to cede the entire land north of the Yellow River.
The centrists believed that a compromise should be reached, that is, to still protect Shi Jingtang's Later Jin regime, but to blackmail An Zhongrong so that Shi Jingtang would make greater concessions and give greater benefits.

Regardless of their specific statements and actions, the Khitans were "taking advantage of China's turmoil" and their ultimate goal was to take advantage of the chaos to gain benefits.

Due to the internal problems of Khitan itself, namely the power struggle between Yelu Deguang's "Emperor Party" and Empress Dowager Shulü's "Empress Party", Yelu Deguang's proposition was more radical. He advocated completing the resource reorganization of the Central Plains through large-scale military operations and building a new order in the Central Plains; while Empress Dowager Shulü's proposition was relatively conservative. She advocated managing the Sixteen Prefectures of Youyun first, and interference in the Central Plains should be mainly based on diplomacy.

Unexpectedly, An Zhongrong was defeated so quickly. He officially rebelled in December, and his head was sent to Khitan in January of the following year. It only lasted for a month. Khitan had no time to react, or Yelu Deguang had no time to settle internal affairs.

Yelu Deguang really wanted to reap the benefits and get rid of his mother's control, but the resistance he faced was also quite huge. Because half a year ago, a rebellion broke out in Shuozhou, and the deputy governor Zhao Chong expelled the Khitan governor and announced his return to the Central Plains.

Although the "Sixteen Prefectures of Youyun" had been transferred to the Khitan at the legal level, the vast majority of the soldiers and civilians here were in Cao's camp but their hearts were with the Han people. They never forgot that they were Han people from the Central Plains and were ashamed to change their nationality to Khitan. When the takeover was just started, Wu Luan of Yunzhou led his troops to hold the city and refused to execute the transfer order; Lu Qi led the soldiers and civilians of Xinzhou to flee to Zhenzhou... Now, Shuozhou has expelled the Jiedushi and rebelled back to the Central Plains.

A series of events indicate one thing, that is, the Khitan has not yet completely digested and absorbed the "Sixteen Prefectures of Youyun". This is also the main basis for the conservatives headed by Empress Dowager Shulü. The Khitan does need a certain amount of time and energy to consolidate its vested interests and should not expand blindly.

Yelu Deguang sent Xuanhui Envoy Niu Guzhi to lead troops to quell the rebellion. The siege of Shuozhou lasted for half a year, from June to December.

When the Later Jin Dynasty successively announced that An Congjin and An Zhongrong were plotting rebellion, Yelu Deguang's main focus was still on Shuozhou. In order to occupy a dominant position in the "two An rebellions" - especially the rebellion of An Zhongrong in Zhenzhou in the north, in order to maximize political benefits, Yelu Deguang increased the pressure on Shuozhou, striving to devote all his energy to the Zhenzhou war after resolving the Shuozhou issue.

At the end of the year, the Khitan finally conquered Shuozhou, but the commander-in-chief Niu Guzhi unfortunately died in the battle. Yelu Deguang was furious and immediately ordered to kill all the adult men in Shuozhou (ordered to kill all the men in the city)! He also punished some of the registered citizens as slaves and made them the private property of the martyr Niu Guzhi.

(End of this chapter)