History of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms

Chapter 639: Three Towns Rebellion 2
Faced with the bad habits of his new master, Han Baozhen "earnestly advised" him, and Meng Chang came to his senses. He released the girls and sent them home that day, and then rewarded Han Baozhen with several kilograms of gold as a reward.

Although Han Baozhen stood on Meng Chang's side, he was by no means a villain who fawned on the powerful. He was a true warrior who dared to advise the emperor on the word "lust".

Pang Fucheng is also a direct descendant of Meng Zhixiang in Hedong. During the war between the two Sichuan provinces, Pang Fucheng was ordered to garrison Langzhou. Due to Dong Zhang, a bad teammate from Dongchuan, the most important pass in Shu, Jianmen Pass, was occupied by the Later Tang army at the beginning of the game.

At the critical moment, Pang Fucheng decisively advanced, took a shortcut to rush to Jiange, rushed to build a blockhouse, and engaged in a fierce battle with the vanguard of the Later Tang Dynasty. Afterwards, he personally led the death squad to climb the top of Beishan Mountain, and went around behind the Later Tang army like a ghost. Then he attacked with drums and drums, making the Later Tang army mistakenly believe that they had fallen into the trap of the Shu soldiers to lure the enemy deep into their territory. So they retreated in a hurry and did not dare to advance deep into their territory, losing the precious opportunity to fight. The two Sichuan provinces also got a chance to catch their breath, and reversed the decline of Jianmen Pass, which ultimately led to Shi Jingtang's expedition to Shu returning empty-handed.

Pang Fucheng was both brave and resourceful. Even when Jianmen Pass was lost, he still blocked the famous general Shi Jingtang at Jianmen Pass, preventing him from entering Shu and eventually returning empty-handed. This laid the foundation for Meng Zhixiang to dominate the two Sichuan provinces and he became a founding hero of the Later Shu.

At this point, it can be clearly seen that Han Baozhen and Pang Fucheng were both founding heroes of the Later Shu and Meng Chang's direct confidants. The two of them were traveling with the surrendered general Zhang Qianzhao. The meaning of this... everything is self-evident.

Chang'an Zhao Kuangzan suddenly returned to the Central Plains, and the three Shu armies had different opinions. Among them, only Zhang Qianzhao in the middle route firmly advocated advancing, fighting with the Later Han Dynasty to complete the actual control of the Guanxi area before the Later Han central army arrived; while the other two routes were more conservative and prudent, advocating an immediate retreat to preserve the strength of the Later Shu.

2. The butt determines the head

Accomplishing extraordinary feats and expanding the territory for the Later Shu was Zhang Qianzhao's only chance to turn things around, so he was willing to take relatively large risks.

Li Yangui, who was in charge of the eastern route, was also a founding hero of the Later Shu and a direct descendant of Meng Zhixiang in Hedong. He shared the same views as Han Baozhen, Pang Fucheng and others. He did not seek merit but only to avoid mistakes, so he resolutely demanded a retreat.

Amid the quarrel, Zhang Qianzhao's army was forced to stay where they were and wait and see how things would develop. As a result, they saw Li Yangui's 20,000-man army being beaten to a pulp by Wang Jingchong's thousands of soldiers.

Of course Li Yangui could no longer hold on and had to retreat into the Qinling Mountains and back to Shu.

After Li Yangui retreated, Wang Jingchong immediately took advantage of the victory and marched westward to attack Zhang Qianzhao in the middle. At the same time, Fengxiang Hou Yi also announced his return to the Later Han Dynasty, closed the city gates, and refused to allow the Later Shu army to enter. Zhang Qianzhao's central army was about to fall into a dilemma.

Zhang Qianzhao wanted to take another gamble. After all, Wang Jingchong only had a few thousand people, and Hou Shu had an absolute advantage in military strength.

"You can leave or not." Han Baozhen and Pang Fucheng led their troops to retreat westward immediately, joined forces with He Chongjian from the west, and retreated into Shu together, leaving Zhang Qianzhao in Baoji.

3. Crisis of trust

Pay attention to the details of this retreat: He Jiancheng of the West Route was also a surrendered general from the Central Plains, and when Han Baozhen and Pang Fucheng retreated, they did not follow the original route to retreat south from Dasan Pass, but went to the West Route to "join forces" with He Jiancheng first. In fact, the successive regrets of Zhao Kuangzan and Hou Yi set off a crisis of trust within the Hou Shu, and caused doubts and vigilance against the revolutionary beliefs of Zhang Qianzhao and He Jiancheng. Han Baozhen and Pang Fucheng called it "joining forces", but in fact they were coercing and "escorting" He Jiancheng back to Chengdu. The East Route was defeated, the Central Route collapsed, and the West Route could not have any more trouble. Han Baozhen and Pang Fucheng's adaptability and acting according to circumstances were also highly praised by Meng Chang. Although they returned without success, the two veterans had a global and overall view, which deserves praise.

Zhang Qianzhao in Baoji was alone and weak, and he had the will but not the strength, so he retreated south with hatred.

Wang Jingchong commanded the local troops of Fengxiang, Longzhou, Bingzhou, Jingzhou, Fuzhou, Fangzhou and other places to intercept and block the retreating troops of Zhang Qianzhao at Dasan Pass, captured 400 officers and soldiers alive, and returned with a great victory.

Due to the temporary regret of Zhao Kuangzan and Hou Yi, the Northern Expedition of Hou Shu failed to gain any benefits and instead lost a lot of soldiers and supplies.

What Zhang Qianzhao lost was not only an opportunity to turn things around, but also Meng Chang's trust in him. It can be said that he will never have another chance to prove himself.

Zhang Qianzhao was disheartened and hated even more the exclusion and oppression of the "surrendered generals gang" by Han Baozhen, Pang Fucheng, Li Yangui and other direct generals of the Later Shu. He was filled with despair, resentment and unwillingness, and died of grief on the way to withdraw.

Meng Chang was very sad about Zhang Qianzhao's death. He not only gave him posthumous titles, honors and posthumous titles, but also built a luxurious tomb with a unique shape for him outside Chengdu. This place is located in Tian'e Baodan, Chengdu today, and the place name is called "Tian'e Baodan".

Many years ago, locals did not understand why such a strange place name was passed down. Everyone believed that the oval loess pile with a radius of one mile was shaped like a swan egg, hence the name. It was not until 1977 that an accidental event led people to discover the secret of this loess pile: it turned out to be an ancient tomb!
Through the study of the epitaph, archaeologists quickly determined that the owner of the ancient tomb was Comrade Zhang Qianzhao.

When Wang Jingchong defeated Li Yangui in Ziwu Valley, the seriously ill Liu Zhiyuan promoted Wang Jingchong to the position of Fengxiang Inspector, which gave him the authority to handle Guanxi affairs. In this way, Wang Jingchong could deal with the issue of Fengxiang Hou Yi with justification.

But when Wang Jingchong repelled the invading army of Hou Shu and led his troops to Fengxiang, Liu Zhiyuan had passed away and the new emperor Liu Chengyou ascended the throne.

As Liu Zhiyuan had judged, Hou Yi was indecisive and surrendered to the Later Shu when he saw the decline of the Central Plains. When the Later Han gained the upper hand over the Later Shu on the battlefield, he returned to the Later Han. But when Wang Jingchong arrived with his troops, he procrastinated and delayed his trip to Bian to meet the emperor.

According to Liu Zhiyuan's secret order, Wang Jingchong should have decisively killed Hou Yi. In fact, after entering the city, the first thing Wang Jingchong did was to send his subordinates to control each city gate so that they could kill Hou Yi at any time.

Hou Yi certainly knew his situation. After urgently discussing countermeasures with his staff, he believed that a wise man would not suffer a loss in front of him. He should learn from Zhao Kuangzan and quickly go to Bianzhou to apologize, admit his mistakes, and surrender, and still maintain his wealth and glory.

So Hou Yi sent his aide Cheng Wo to lobby Wang Jingchong.

(End of this chapter)