History of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms

Chapter 66: Liangtianpi Battle

The job of a mercenary is to serve as cannon fodder and perform the most dangerous tasks.

The various vassal states gathered in the Hezhong area, fearing the enemy's sharp edge, and hesitated to move forward. No one dared to act rashly, and they all wanted to preserve their strength and compete for the fruits of victory. In short, they only wanted to finish off the enemy and pick up the heads, and did not want the front line to suffer damage.

Li Keyong's arrival boosted the morale of the Hezhong army.

"Go up and start a group!"

Li Keyong lived up to everyone's expectations and bravely took the lead, sending his younger brother Li Kexiu with 500 people to cross the river for a tentative attack.

More than 100,000 Tang troops did not dare to attack, but only 500 Shatuo people dared to cross the river to attack. This is the temperament of swallowing mountains and rivers, this is the courage of a skilled person, and this is a huge psychological deterrent to the bandits.

"My master is here. My master is Li Keyong."

As early as the "Pang Xun Rebellion", the reputation of the Shatuo cavalry had already spread throughout Shandong, Jiangsu, and Anhui. The main force of the Cao Army was the thugs in southwestern Shandong and northeastern Henan, who had long heard of the Shatuo name.

Because the Shatuo cavalry led by Li Keyong liked to wear black clothes, they were privately called the "Crow Army" by the Cao Army. Within the Cao Army, the "Crow Army" was so well-known that a military rule was circulated in the army: Never fight against the Crow Army (When the Crow Army comes, you should avoid it).

Li Kexiu led 500 Shatuo cavalrymen to cross the river and attack, defeating the Cao army, which was several times larger than them. The Cao army was terrified, and panic spread quickly, "The Crow Army is coming!"

When the news reached Chang'an, the top leaders of the Cao army also fell into panic, as if they had seen the end of the world.

While the bandit leaders were at a loss, the bandit chief Huang Chao was calm and confident.

"Your Majesty, do you have a plan to repel the enemy?" Shang Rang asked.

Huang Chao smiled and nodded, "When the enemy comes, we will fight them; when the water comes, we will block it with earth. Shatuo Crow, I have my own way."

The leader of the thieves couldn't help but give him a thumbs up, "Brother Chao is indeed the hope of the whole village."

Facing the unstoppable Shatuo cavalry, what tricks did Huang Chao have to repel the enemy?

Answer: Send a team of monks.

Huang Chao's clever plan to bring peace to the world was to send monks to drive away the crows.

Taking a monk as a gift, what kind of a trick is this? This certainly contains Huang Chao's superb wisdom.

This group of monks were from Nanshan Buddhist Temple (south of Chang'an, at the foot of the Qinling Mountains).

At the beginning, Li Guochang and Li Keyong openly betrayed the court and established their own states in Datong and Zhenwu. The court ordered the execution of Li Guochang's clansmen who remained in Chang'an. Li Keyong's younger brother Li Keyang led his troops to break through the siege and escaped to Nanshan. When he stayed in a temple, he was ambushed by the monks in the temple. The monks killed him and took his head to the court to ask for reward.

Of course, there is a serious lack of historical data on the early Shatuo people, and this record is very vague. The Zizhi Tongjian says that the monk killed Li Kerang, but other historical books say that it was another brother of Li Keyong who died. In fact, it doesn't matter which brother died. In short, the monks of Nanshan Temple did assassinate one of Li Keyong's brothers.

During the massacre, a servant named Hun Jintong of Li Guochang's family escaped and joined Huang Chao's army. Huang Chao asked Hun Jintong to escort the monks to Li Keyong's army as a peace envoy.

This is Huang Chao's political wisdom. His action of letting Hun Jintong send the monk was not only to help Li Keyong avenge his brother's death, but also to reveal a message to Li Keyong: We are birds of a feather, born from the same roots, so why are we so eager to fight each other?
How did your brother die? It was your father and son who betrayed the court that brought about his death. Hun Jintong and these monks are the best evidence.

Very tactful, very subtle, very clever.

Li Keyong was reminded of the past by the sight of the monks, so he immediately killed all the monks, set up an altar, and used the dozens of naked heads to commemorate his fellow countrymen. Afterwards, he accepted all the gold and silver gifts sent by Huang Chao and distributed them to the generals. Then, he burned Huang Chao's "edict" in public and sent the envoy of Huang Qi back to tell Huang Chao, "This general and the bandits cannot coexist!"

Huang Chao's wishful thinking failed.

[Battle of Liangtianpi]

Li Keyong personally led the army across the Yellow River, marking the beginning of the decisive battle.

On the first day of the first lunar month in the third year of Zhonghe (883), Li Keyong defeated Huang Chao's brother Huang Kui, opened up the road to Chang'an, and assembled with the main corps of Hezhong, Yiwu, Zhongwu, etc., stationed in Qiankeng. The center of gravity of the Hezhong Army Group moved forward.

On the Huang Qi side, the second-in-command Shang Rang personally led an army of 150,000 and stationed at Liangtianbi.

Qiankeng is located west of Tongzhou, and Liangtianbi is located west of Huazhou. The two garrisons are also across the river from each other.

The "Battle of Liangtianbi" was of great significance. Like the previous "Battle of Longweipo", it was a battle to open the gate of Chang'an. The success or failure of the battle directly determined the safety of Chang'an City, which would have a significant impact on the morale of the two armies. It was also a battle of spectacles that influenced the political forces to choose sides. With the blessing of Li Keyong, the Tang army won the battle again.

Shang Rang was badly defeated, and the corpses of the enemy soldiers stretched out along the street for more than thirty miles. Wang Chongrong built a memorial for the corpses.

Shang Rang led the remaining troops to flee to Huazhou, where he closed the gates and defended the city with Huang Chao's brothers Huang Ye and Huang Kui.

Wang Chongrong led the main force to the city and surrounded Huazhou, while Li Keyong and Zhu Wen served as the vanguard and took turns attacking the gate of Huazhou.

When the two armies were in a stalemate outside the city, a bandit leader climbed up to the top of the city wall and started cursing.

"Wang Zhongrong, you are not a good person either! You first plundered Hedong, then started a mutiny, claimed to be the regent, and later surrendered to my Great Qi. However, you surrendered first and then betrayed me. You are not a good person from head to toe, inside and out!
Zhu Wen, you have the lowest origin! Your father died early, your mother was shameless and shameless, and took you to live under someone else's roof, and remarried someone else. It's indescribable, and let your dead father be a cuckold, you are a real little bastard. The Cao army treated you well and promoted you repeatedly, but you betrayed and surrendered to the enemy, sold out your master for fame, turned against your former comrades, and became an accomplice to the tiger. You are willing to be the vanguard and front-line soldier of the Tang army. You are a shameless bastard and a dead traitor. You will not die well!

Li Keyong, you bastard, do you know what your last name is? Zhuye bastard, you still dare to call us thieves? You are the thief crying "Catch the thief!" Look at the good things you have done, how much better than us? Look at your wicked appearance, one eye is big and the other is small. There is a proverb in my hometown, 'A person with stupid eyes has no good heart'!"

Li Keyong had a congenital physical defect, one eye was larger than the other, and he was nicknamed "One-eyed Dragon". He was so angry that he was insulted and abused by the bandits. From childhood to adulthood, no one dared to talk to Li Keyong like this.

Don't hit someone in the face, don't expose someone's weaknesses when you scold them. This is just a daily joke. If it really happened between two armies, it would be true that there is no good hand to hit someone, and no good mouth to scold someone. You can scold them as harshly as you can, and only pick on their weaknesses to make a fuss.

The insults are so harsh and the words are so disgusting that I can’t write them down here. You all understand.

Li Keyong ordered the Shatuo archer to get rid of that guy.

The Shatuo archer drew his bow and shot several arrows at once.

The bandit leader was hiding behind the parapet, looking down from above. Ballistics tells us that the effective range of archers on the city wall is greater than that of archers below the city wall. This is basic physical knowledge. So since Li Keyong and Zhu Wen were hiding outside the range of the bandit army, the bandit army on the city wall was even more outside the range of the Tang army.

Seeing this, the bandit leader on the city wall became even more presumptuous and fearless, and doubled his insults.

Li Keyong was so angry that he gritted his teeth and raised his hand to take the precious carved bow.

"General, please don't be so angry. Don't move your body slowly. Don't get your hands dirty."

Following the voice, I saw that the person speaking was Zhu Wen.

Zhu Wen called a young general and pointed to the city wall, "Think of a way to kill him with a cannon."

The young man gladly accepted the order, adjusted the strings carefully, and played a full circle.

Everyone held their breath, not daring to make a sound, staring at him intently. The surroundings were extremely quiet, and the only sound they could hear was the "creaky-bang-bang" sound of the taut bowstring, a sound that was full of power.

"Swoosh—" The arrow drew an incredible arc in the air with anger, and the guy on the top of the city fell dead. Super-range sniper kill.

There was immediate cheering outside the city, which shook the valley and greatly boosted morale.

Even Li Keyong was stunned, and almost opened his eyes in surprise, "This young general is..."

"Inuko, Youyu."

Li Keyong praised him repeatedly, "A good father will have a good son! When I was thirteen, I was able to kill two birds with one stone. My dear brother, you are young and promising. I am ashamed of myself for not being as good as you with the arrow just now!"

After that, Li Keyong gave Zhu Youyu his precious carved bow and 100 arrows. Giving weapons, armor, famous horses and other items as gifts is a courtesy between soldiers to show respect and appreciation for each other. Especially giving arrows as gifts is a way for the elders of ethnic minorities to show their care for the younger generation.

It is important to note here that according to feudal etiquette, only superiors can give arrows to subordinates or elders can give arrows to juniors. To do the opposite is disrespectful. For example, in Han etiquette, elders can caress the heads of juniors, but juniors cannot caress the heads of elders.

Li Keyong and Zhu Wen were brothers, so he gave arrows to Zhu Youyu, who was his nephew. Later, someone gave arrows to Li Keyong to show his favor, but the arrows hit the horse's hoof, which directly angered Li Keyong and led to tragic consequences, which will be mentioned later.

Li Keyong and Zhu Wen thus became close comrades-in-arms. In the following wars against bandits, the two formed a deep fighting friendship, which laid the foundation for their future separation.

The Hezhong Army Group won the "Liangtianpi Battle", stationed in Weiqiao, and laid siege to the city.

(End of this chapter)