History of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms

Chapter 62: Mowing Team
76 years ago (806), Liu Pi, the deputy envoy of Xichuan, seized control of Xishu and attacked and captured Li Kang, the governor of Dongchuan. Gao Chongwen, the grandfather of Gao Pian, was ordered to suppress the rebellion. Liu Pi was defeated and sent Li Kang to Gao Chongwen as a sign of surrender and peace. Gao Chongwen actually beheaded Li Kang on the grounds of "lost army and lost the defense". After Liu Pi was pacified, Gao Chongwen was promoted to a higher position and was named the Prince of Nanping. Emperor Xianzong of Tang carved a stone at the foot of Lutou Mountain to commemorate Gao Chongwen's achievements.

So Zhou Bao brought up the story of Gao Chongwen beheading Li Kang, saying that this was a glorious tradition of your Gao family. He tricked me into coming over, and then killed me with a "click" at the Hongmen Banquet, and sent my head to the court, slandering me for treason, and then annexing my army and territory?

Don't use the dog paddle in front of the water thieves. We are all old Chinese doctors, please don't prescribe me a folk remedy.

Gao Pian was furious when he received the letter, and sent another messenger to scold him, "How dare you slander me and insult the ministers of the court!"

Zhou Bao replied, "You and I are separated by a river, and we are both military governors. You are a minister, and I am just a small soldier. Why are you pretending to be so high and mighty?"

After several rounds of verbal battles, the two officially fell out.

Zhou Bao actively deployed troops on the border, strictly guarded the border, and prepared to meet Gao Pian's attack.

Gao Pian really wanted to annex the Zhenhai Army, and the method was just as Zhou Bao said, a "click" of the knife at the Hongmen Banquet, clean and neat, instead of mobilizing a large army and annexing it by force.

The real purpose of the Huainan Army's full-scale mobilization was just to resolve the ominous sign of "the military headquarters being empty".

This transformation lasted for more than three months. During this period, Xizong's imperial edicts urging Gao Pian to send troops continued to arrive.

Gao Pian then submitted a memorial to the emperor, saying that the Zhenhai Jiedushi Zhou Bao and the Zhejiang East Surveillance Envoy Liu Hanhong were plotting evil, and that the Huainan army did not dare to leave the town easily, fearing that these two guys might be detrimental to the court.

Liu Hanhong was the one who personally looted Jiangling in order to prevent it from being looted by bandits. After looting Jiangling, he became addicted to it and led his troops to plunder Songzhou, Yanzhou, Shenzhou, Guangzhou and other places.

The imperial court issued an edict to send troops to suppress the rebellion. At that time, Huang Chao, a bandit, was about to cross the river to the north, Li Keyong, a Shatuo, was wreaking havoc in the north, and Nanzhao was still struggling over the issue of marriage... Liu Hanhong's bandit gang was a retired regular army. Although their scale was not as large as Huang Chao's bandit gang, their combat effectiveness was off the charts, so the various roads could not suppress them.

So Liu Hanhong was very tactful and stopped in time, asking for amnesty. The court appointed Liu Hanhong as the governor of Suzhou.

Of course, being the mayor of a small prefecture-level city could not satisfy Liu Hanhong's appetite, so he threatened the imperial court and demanded a promotion.

The court had no choice but to continue appeasement and compromise, appointing him as the Inspector of East Zhejiang.

Gao Pian's statement that he left a large number of troops behind to prevent Liu Hanhong from causing chaos was somewhat plausible, but his slander against Zhou Bao was far-fetched.

It was precisely because Gao Pian's greed was so ugly that he implicated Zhou Bao. The court realized that Gao Pian had no intention of dying, and his ambition to split Huainan was confirmed.

As a result, the imperial court issued an imperial decree, which promoted Gao Pian in name only and demoted him in reality. It deprived Gao Pian of his military power and his post as the Salt and Iron Transport Commissioner.

Having lost his military power and financial resources, Gao Pian was furious and wrote a memorial to the court, cursing the government, the officials, the emperor, and his ancestors in a rather rude manner.

It has been rare since ancient times that a minister would dare to submit a memorial to insult the emperor. Moreover, it was not just one memorial, but several memorials in a row, which filled the screen with insults to insult the emperor.

What is even more shocking is that the emperor actually took the trouble to reply to each of them one by one, refuting their disrespectful words word by word.

We are all civilized people, so why am I not allowed to talk back?

The king and his minister, you have words to say and I have words to say, they are at loggerheads with each other, neither of them giving in, creating an unprecedented move.

The Old Book of Tang Dynasty has patiently and extensively collected the wonderful contents, which amount to several thousand words. If it is printed on A4 paper, it will take up two and a half pages.

This is just an abridged version, which only contains some chat records. It is estimated that the length of the full text should be close to that of a novella.

Based on the abridged version of "Old Book of Tang", "Zizhi Tongjian" made further deletions, retaining only Gao Pian's rebellious words and the emperor's argument.

In the New Book of Tang, however, it was completely deleted. It only said that Gao Pian was angry and humiliated, and spoke rudely, and the emperor was also angry, so he issued an edict to reprimand him. This was to save some face for both the emperor and his minister.

After the war of words, Gao Pian completely abandoned his hypocritical veil, openly declared his own independence, no longer paid a penny of tribute to the court, and refused to obey the court's orders.

Emperor Xizong of Tang also completely gave up on Gao Pian, knowing that Chang'an would never receive reinforcements from Huainan again.

The Fengxiang Rebellion relieved the threat to Chang'an from the west.
The Zhaoyi Rebellion relieved the threat to Chang'an from the east.
The Wuning (Xuzhou) army mutinied, the Pinglu (Qingzhou) army mutinied, and the reinforcements to the east of Chang'an were withdrawn;

Huainan (Gao Pian) was in separatist rule, and the reinforcements from the south of Chang'an were removed... Huang Chao in Chang'an City could finally breathe a sigh of relief.

In Huang Chao's eyes, an extremely familiar scene seemed to be happening again: the enemy did not finish off him when he was low on health, leaving him ample time to recover health and replenish buffs, and then turn the tables in one fell swoop.

Unfortunately, the script was not written that way this time.

【Wang Duo Returns】

After Gao Pian openly fell out with the court, he was stripped of his title of commander-in-chief (dutong). In fact, this commander-in-chief had been standing aside and watching the war since Huang Chao crossed the Huai River, with no real power. Someone in the court took over this position, and that person was the prime minister Wang Duo.

Wang Duo and the bandits had a hatred for each other. Since entering Shu, he often cried bitterly and made impassioned speeches in front of Emperor Xizong of Tang, vowing that he would never coexist with the bandits and was willing to personally lead the army to suppress them.

Especially after the verbal battle between Gao Pian and Emperor Xizong of Tang, Wang Duo felt even more heartbroken and regretful, and repeatedly pleaded with the emperor to grant his request.

At that time, Prime Minister Lu Xie had died (he was a nuisance even when alive), Prime Minister Zheng Ting was expelled due to a mutiny and was in poor health, and Gao Pian also explicitly refused to send troops. Although there were many vassal states loyal to the Tang Dynasty scattered around Chang'an, they all fought on their own and lacked a unified commander-in-chief.

The commander-in-chief does not necessarily need to have outstanding military talents. He can just be a spiritual leader and play a coordinating and supervisory role. Therefore, the first necessary factor for a "commander-in-chief" is to be highly respected.

Generally speaking, this character needs to come from a prominent family, "My father is so-and-so, my grandfather is so-and-so, my great-grandfather is so-and-so..." And he himself must also have a brilliant resume, "I ate bran in the old society, carried a gun during the Anti-Japanese War, was injured during the Liberation War, and crossed the river during the War to Resist U.S. Aggression and Aid Korea..."

Only in this way can we shock these warlords and make them accept our leadership calmly.

Wang Duo is naturally the best choice.

Therefore, Emperor Xizong of the Tang Dynasty issued an edict, appointing Prime Minister Wang Duo as the commander-in-chief of the bandit suppression (commander-in-chief of the military camps in all directions around the capital).

Comrade Wang Duo took command for the second time and vowed to wipe out the bandits!
Comrade Wang Duo was dedicated to fighting national hatred, family feuds, and striking down bandits.

Having learned from the previous lesson, Wang Duo made a serious assessment of the candidates for suppressing the bandits and no longer appointed people who were only in name only, such as Ma Su. In line with a pragmatic attitude of seeking truth from facts, Wang Duo made bold personnel appointments and formed his own "mowing team":
Deputy Commander-in-Chief: Cui Anqian.

This personnel transfer alone shows how bold Wang Duo was. Cui Anqian was suppressed because he offended Tian Lingzi. Wang Duo not only re-employed him, but also promoted him rapidly to become the deputy commander-in-chief.

Looking at the think tank, they could be called the idol boy band of the time: Zheng Changtu, Zheng Jun, Wang Tuan, and Pei Zhi.

Zheng Changtu was the cousin of Zheng Congdang; Zheng Jun was the younger brother of Zheng Ting; Wang Tuan was the great-grandson of Wang Yu, the prime minister during the reign of Emperor Suzong; and Pei Zhi was the nephew of Pei Tan, the prime minister during the reign of Emperor Yizong.

If we analyze it again, it is not difficult to see the boldness of Comrade Wang Duo. Zheng Congdang was being attacked politically and had not yet emerged from the shadow of the "Hedong Suspicion"; Zheng Ting was also the target of Tian Lingzi's attack; Pei Tan, a remnant of the "Niu Party" (promoted by Linghu Tao), was the father-in-law of the former guilty prime minister Yang Shou.

In short, most members of think tanks are more or less losers in various political struggles and are excluded from the core power circle.

In terms of the appointment of eunuchs to supervise the military, Wang Duo appointed Yang Fuguang as the chief eunuch in charge of the military.

At that time, the eunuch group within the court was divided into two major factions, one was the "Tian faction" headed by Tian Lingzi, and the other was the "Yang faction" headed by the brothers Yang Fuguang and Yang Fugong. Wang Duo offended Tian Lingzi by favoring Yang Fuguang.

In addition, Wang Duo also used Zhou Ji, Wang Chongrong, Shi Pu, Zhuge Shuang, Wang Chucun, Li Xiaochang, Ximen Sigong, Tuoba Sigong...

It was also very bold, because Zhou Ji and Shi Pu killed the former Jiedushi and replaced him through the "Xuzhou Mutiny" and "Xuzhou Mutiny" respectively; Wang Chongrong first rebelled and then surrendered, expelling the former Jiedushi and replacing him, which was considered half a mutiny; Zhuge Shuang was a "Xu thief" and had a history of surrendering to Huang Chao...

In order to defeat the bandits, Comrade Wang Duo, based on the principle of uniting all forces that can be united, said, "As long as you can point your guns at Huang Chao now, we will let bygones be bygones."

Wang Duo took charge for the second time. From the list of members of his newly formed "Grass-Cutting Group", we can see his determination to eliminate the grass bandits and his pragmatic attitude. To this end, he did not hesitate to deeply offend the popular eunuch Tian Lingzi.

His firm and pragmatic attitude determined that the war would end with the victory of the royal army; and his behavior of offending Tian Lingzi also laid the groundwork for his tragic end.

Thanks to the book friend "驰风程雨游无限兮" for his generous 4 recommendation votes! Come and play often~~~~~~
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(End of this chapter)