History of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms

Chapter 649: Pacification of Three Towns 2
After regaining Chang'an, Guo Congyi requested the execution of former Chang'an Inspector Qiao Shouwen, attendant officials Wang Yi, Shi Zhihua, Ren Jixun and others.

Wang Yi was an imperial envoy who was ordered to transfer Zhao Siwan and his troops to Bianzhou. When Wang Yi passed through Chang'an, Qiao Shouwen went out of the city to welcome him. However, due to their serious dereliction of duty and violation of regulations (letting the field army into the city), Zhao Siwan took over the city and rebelled. When Guo Congyi came to fight against the enemy, he arranged for Qiao Shouwen to organize the civilians and make meritorious contributions.

When Zhao Siwan rebelled, Qiao Shouwen left a concubine in the city and Zhao Siwan took her as her own. When Guo Congyi recovered Chang'an, he got all of Zhao Siwan's concubines, including this concubine. Guo Congyi was also amazed by this beauty, but Qiao Shouwen stood up and asked Guo Congyi to return the property to its original owner.

Guo Congyi had no choice but to return his concubine, but he was very upset, so he reported to Guo Wei and asked him to be held accountable for the "Chang'an Mutiny". As a result, several people were sentenced to death.

With the successive end of the battles in Chang'an and Hezhong, Fengxiang Wang Jingchong will also usher in the end of his life.

His staff Zhou Can advised him: "The reason why we were able to hold on to Fengxiang is because we were in close contact with Chang'an and Hezhong, and they helped you attract the firepower of the main force of the court. Now, the two are dead, and the Shu people are unreliable. Do you still hope for a miracle? It is better to surrender and strive for leniency from the organization."

Wang Jingchong, with a guilty look on his face, apologized to Zhou Can first, saying that it was all his fault and that he had caused everyone to suffer with him. However, Wang Jingchong then changed the subject and said that he thought we could still save the situation.

He called two of his trusted generals, Gongsun Nian and Zhang Silian, and said to them, "Zhao Hui has deployed all his elite troops in the north of the city. Tomorrow morning, you two will set fire to the east gate and pretend to surrender the city, but don't let Zhao Hui enter the city. Zhou Can and I will lead the main force to rush out from the north gate and attack Zhao Hui's main force. Even if the plan fails, it is better for a real man to die in battle than to die behind the battle. It is better than surrendering without a fight."

Everyone took the order and went back to make preparations.

The next morning (December 12), before daybreak, Gongsun Nian and Zhang Silian set fire to the east gate as agreed in advance, signaling to the siege troops that they would surrender the city. But at this moment, thick smoke billowed from the headquarters building in the city, and flames shot up into the sky in an instant.

The two looked at each other in bewilderment, "The plan has changed? Why didn't you inform us?" They immediately sent someone to check. It turned out that Wang Jingchong and his entire family had committed suicide by burning themselves, and Zhou Can had also surrendered to Zhao Hui.

The two men shook their heads and had to make the fake surrender real.

Wang Jingchong's death has become a historical mystery. It is possible that, as recorded in history books, he followed the ancients and burned himself to death with his entire family; it is also possible that he encountered a mutiny, or Zhou Can or someone else killed Wang Jingchong, faked the scene of self-immolation, and then surrendered to Zhao Hui.

Wang Jingchong's suicide is in the common interests of all parties. In this case, he will definitely die, and the truth will never be revealed. For example, Kennidi, the former president of the Lighthouse Country (transliteration, meaning Anbajian and Abaoji).

With Wang Jingchong's death in the fire, by the end of the second year of Qianyou (949), the "Three Towns Rebellion" of the Later Han Dynasty finally came to a perfect end with the victory of the central government of the Later Han Dynasty.

On the first day of the Lunar New Year in the third year of Qianyou (950), Liu Chengyou refused to receive congratulations because he was engaged in military operations in the three towns. However, he soon received news of victory in the Fengxiang battlefield: the traitor Wang Jingchong and his entire family had burned themselves to death and Fengxiang had been recaptured.

Liu Chengyou was very pleased and immediately appointed Zhao Hui, the commander-in-chief of Fengxiang, as the minister of state. Afterwards, he sent envoys to Chang'an, Fengxiang, and Hezhong to clean up the battlefield and bury the remains of the dead soldiers and civilians on both sides. It is unknown how much damage was caused by the "Three Towns Rebellion". Only one small detail that is extremely scary is left in the history books: before the court buried the remains, the local monks had spontaneously buried about 200,000 bodies.

Now that the three towns have been pacified, the meritorious officials will naturally be promoted. For example, Zhao Hui, who recovered Fengxiang, was promoted to Shizhong, and Guo Congyi, who recovered Chang'an, was promoted to Tongpingzhangshi. As for Comrade Guo Wei, the commander-in-chief of the rebellion, the situation became a little tricky because Guo Wei, who held military power and had made great achievements, had already shown signs of being restless.

It is said that according to Guo Wei's "Chronicle of Zhou Taizu", before Guo Wei launched the general attack, the river god appeared in his dream and told him that God would destroy Li Shouzhen's entire family in late July. On July 7, Li Shouzhen and his entire family burned themselves to death, and the river god's words came true. According to eyewitnesses, when Hezhong City was captured, purple air suddenly gathered above Guo Wei's tent, "like a canopy of a pavilion."

Purple air, red light, etc., are all expressions with specific directions, and the "Huagai" is the standard for the emperor. The appearance of such records or expressions at this moment has a very obvious political signal. Of course, this passage was compiled by later generations (Song Dynasty) and may not be a real event at that time. So the question is, since it did not happen at that time, why should it be used as a node to show that Guo Wei posed a threat to Liu Chengyou?

The reason is that even if the people of the Song Dynasty fabricated it, why would they write it at this point? In fact, Guo Wei was recorded in history books a long time ago. As early as when Li Jitao (son of Li Sizhao) was in charge of Luzhou, Guo Wei already had the legendary deeds of "Lu Zhishen + Yang Zhi". Simply put, there was a scoundrel in Luzhou who was rampant and tyrannical. Guo Wei asked him if the melons were ripe, and then he got rid of the harm for the people. That year, Guo Wei was only 18 years old;
Li Cunxu overthrew the Later Liang Dynasty and incorporated Guo Wei into his own army. That year, Guo Wei was 21 years old.
Later, Guo Wei became Liu Zhiyuan's younger brother, Liu Zhiyuan was Shi Jingtang's younger brother, and Shi Jingtang was Li Siyuan's younger brother.

In the subsequent series of battles, Guo Wei occasionally made cameo appearances, but there were no records of purple air and canopy. Now, the previous leaders successively ascended the throne of emperor. After Liu Zhiyuan's death and the "Three Towns Rebellion" was suppressed, Guo Wei's appearance had the emperor's exclusive BGM. Therefore, the Battle of Hezhong was an important milestone in Guo Wei's life and a very important time node.

On August 8, Guo Wei returned to the capital from Hezhong, and on August 5, he arrived in Luoyang.

Wang Shouen, the governor of Luoyang, was greedy and mean, and was bent on plundering the people. His means of collecting money were no less than the "nail-pulling tax" and "beard-stroking tax".

Wang Shouen stipulated that taxes must be paid for all weddings and funerals, and that if the common people held a funeral, the coffin would not be allowed to leave the city if they did not pay the "funeral tax". There was even a "shit tax", and one had to pay a tax for going to the toilet... The most outrageous thing was that taxes were levied on beggars, and even beggars were not spared.

He also often ordered his men to steal...

What's even more interesting is that whenever a rich family got married, Wang Shouen and his actors would change into common people's clothes, sneak into the wedding scene, pretend to be relatives and friends who came to congratulate, and ask for "wedding money", and they could cheat a few ingots of silver every time. He didn't care about his noble status as "Xijing Resident and Tongpingzhangshi" at all, and turned into a rogue old man who stopped the wedding car.

It is estimated that the host of the wedding should know him, otherwise he would not take out such a huge sum of money as "wedding money". He can only spend money to avoid disaster and take a few ingots to buy peace. It is always more gentle to go incognito than to do it openly.

Wang Shouen must have some kind of mental illness or personality defect. Some people are cruel and bloodthirsty, while others are crazy about money. Wang Shouen is obsessed with the means of making money and can't stop. In short, it is a kind of pathology.

(End of this chapter)