History of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms

Chapter 641: Guo Wei's Expedition to the West
Ever since Du Chongwei was killed, Li Shouzhen has become a frightened bird, fearful and uneasy, and has stepped up efforts to gather grass and store grain and recruit soldiers.

With Fan Yanguang in front and Yang Guangyuan behind, and Du Chongwei in the near future, Li Shouzhen is faced with a bloody reality: traitors will not have a good end.

However, in Li Shouzhen's view, he was a military leader in the Later Jin Dynasty, had made great contributions (pacifying Yang Guangyuan), and had always been generous and righteous. He was quite popular in the army and was deeply loved by officers and soldiers at all levels. He thought he was full of strength and did not take the young and ignorant Liu Chengyou seriously at all.

If he broke with the central government, he might be able to take this opportunity to conquer the Central Plains. After a brief moment of worry, Li Shouzhen began to daydream wildly.

While Li Shouzhen was expanding his military forces, he sent people to contact the Khitan to pay tribute to Shi Jingtang. In his view, the Liu family of the Later Han Dynasty and the Khitan were mortal enemies, and he and the Khitan would definitely hit it off. However, his jurisdiction was the Hezhong National Defense Army, which did not border the Khitan, and almost all the envoys who sent letters were captured by patrol soldiers.

Li Shouzhen had a close confidant named Zhao Xiuji, who clearly opposed Li Shouzhen's actions and tried to dissuade him patiently and earnestly, but Li Shouzhen insisted on his own way and turned a deaf ear to him.

Zhao Xiuji tried to persuade him in vain, so he resigned on the grounds of illness and returned home.

Li Shouzhen was superstitious about Buddhism and got along very well with a monk named Zonglun. This evil monk often performed close-up magic for Li Shouzhen, and was worshipped by Li Shouzhen as a living god. Generally speaking, anyone who engages in feudal superstition and favors evil monks and evil Taoists and other "experts" and "masters" will not have a good end, and Li Shouzhen is no exception.

In order to guess Li Shouzhen's inner thoughts, the evil monk Zonglun said that he could become the emperor in the future according to his calculations. Li Shouzhen was very happy and believed it without a doubt.

At a banquet, Li Shouzhen drew his bowstring to its full length, aimed at the picture of a tiger licking its paw hanging on the wall, and said, "If I am destined to be extremely wealthy, let me shoot the tiger's tongue." As a result, the arrow shot out and hit the tiger's tongue steadily. The guests applauded and congratulated him. From then on, Li Shouzhen became even more arrogant.

After Zhao Siwan occupied Chang'an, in order to win over the rebel forces, he sent someone to present a set of the emperor's dragon robe to Li Shouzhen, and pledged his allegiance to him and persuaded him to ascend the throne.

This really hit Li Shouzhen's heart, "This is God's will!" Li Shouzhen immediately proclaimed himself "King of Qin" and sent troops to Tongguan to support his younger brothers in the Guanxi area. At the same time, he "appointed" Zhao Siwan as the Jiedushi of Chang'an.

Tongzhou was also in Guanxi, west of Hezhong and east of Chang'an. Its governor was veteran general Zhang Yanwei. Zhang Yanwei had long seen that Li Shouzhen had ill intentions and had never let down his guard. When Li Shouzhen suddenly rebelled, Tongzhou was not annexed by him, becoming a wedge for the central court in Guanxi, laying the foundation for the "center blossoming" strategy.

The imperial court was informed of the rebellion in Chang'an and Hezhong, and the court dispatched troops to suppress it. Guo Congyi was sent to lead the central imperial army to Chang'an to attack Zhao Siwan, and Bai Wenke, the governor of Shanzhou, was sent to attack Li Shouzhen in Hezhong.

At this time, the mastermind behind the plot, Wang Jingchong, had not yet torn off his disguise. The court moved him to Bingzhou and appointed him as the governor of Bingzhou; Wang Shouen, the former governor of Bingzhou, was appointed as the governor of Chang'an; and Zhao Hui, the governor of Shanzhou, was appointed as the governor of Fengxiang.

Wang Jingchong was a shrewd man. He first used various excuses to refuse to leave Chang'an and go to Bingzhou to take up his post. He privately expanded his military forces frantically and announced to the outside world that he was going to attack Zhao Siwan in Chang'an.

Secondly, although he refused to take up his post in Bingzhou, he summoned the troops of Bingzhou to join forces in Fengxiang in the name of Bingzhou Jiedushi, thus taking control of the military forces of the two towns of Fengxiang and Bingzhou.

Finally, Wang Jingchong paid tribute to "Gao Laizi" and pledged allegiance to Hou Shu and Li Shouzhen of Hezhong. He trusted Zhao Hui, the governor of Fengxiang, to submit a memorial to the court, exposing Wang Jingchong's treasonous acts and requesting the court to send troops to suppress him.

At the same time, Xiazhou Li Yiyin saw the Later Han Dynasty in a state of panic, so he assembled his army, using the excuse that the Qiang tribe had killed the governor of Suizhou three years ago, and now he wanted to use force to seek justice. In reality, he was expanding the power of the Dangxiang in Xiazhou outward.

The imperial court urgently called a halt to the war, and the reason for the mediation was even more far-fetched than the "three-year rights protection" campaign: according to experts from the observatory who observed the stars at night and calculated with their fingers, it was not appropriate to send troops this year, and whoever took action first would be in trouble!

In August of the first year of Qianyou (948), less than half a year after Liu Chengyou ascended the throne, the three western towns had already rebelled. The court sent many troops to encircle and suppress them, but with little success.

The reason was that the main forces of the imperial court were basically stationed in the Hezhong area. Only the troops of Guo Congyi and Wang Jun were close to Chang'an, and there was no soldier from the imperial court near Fengxiang.

The generals were suspicious of each other, and were more wary of their teammates than their enemies, fearing that they would be swallowed up by friendly forces. For example, Guo Congyi and Wang Jun had a very bad personal relationship, almost to the point of being incompatible with each other. In short, the army to suppress the rebellion lacked unified and powerful leadership, and was like a group of unorganized and undisciplined rabble.

This was of course because Liu Chengyou himself lacked prestige, and the generals were unwilling to work for him, and all took a wait-and-see attitude. What if another Li Congke appeared in Fengxiang? What if the Khitans helped another Shi Jingtang? What if the emperor's uncles and brothers launched a coup? What if the Later Shu invaded in large numbers and played the role of the Khitans?
The worries of the generals were unfounded. At that time, an "Uncle Liu" - Liu Chong, the younger brother of Liu Zhiyuan, was recruiting soldiers and horses, accepting surrenders and rebellions, repairing city defenses, and making armor and weapons in Taiyuan, Hedong, claiming to the outside world that he was guarding against the invasion of the Khitans.

For several months, there was no progress in suppressing the rebellion. Liu Chengyou was very worried about this, as he could not afford to waste time.

The solution to the problem was, of course, to send a highly respected military leader to the front line to supervise the battle. After some discussion, Liu Chengyou finally appointed Guo Wei, a veteran who had served as a general and a prime minister.

Guo Wei's official positions at that time were Privy Councilor and Co-Prime Minister. Liu Chengyou appointed him as the "Western Army Comforting and Pacifying Envoy" and ordered the front-line troops in Hezhong, Chang'an, Fengxiang and other places to obey Guo Wei's unified deployment and dispatch.

Before Guo Wei went to war, he specially visited Feng Dao to ask him for advice on how to defeat the enemy.

Feng Dao hit the nail on the head, saying that Li Shouzhen was an old general from the previous dynasty who had been giving away money lavishly and buying the hearts of the army for a long time, and was deeply supported by the officers and soldiers. This was his only advantage; you must not be stingy with money, and give generous rewards to the soldiers on the front line, so that you can cut off the source of the problem.

Guo Wei thought that since the money was public money, why not use it to help others? So after leaving the capital, he gave generous rewards to the soldiers.

In addition to being a money-giving boy, Guo Wei also played the role of a "confidant elder sister". No matter how big or small the matter was, Guo Wei would listen attentively to any complaints and accusations with a pleasant face, without putting on airs or engaging in bureaucracy. The officers and soldiers were delighted and expressed their willingness to die for Marshal Guo.

(End of this chapter)