History of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms

Chapter 667 Two-Day War 2
Seeing that the escort was very strong, Liu Chengyou was more determined to lead the expedition himself. "A few days ago, the arrow was on the string and had to be shot. Now, the arrow has already left the string, so why should I stop?"

Empress Dowager Li tried to persuade Nie Wenjin to no avail, so she sent an envoy to warn him, "You must be careful!"

Nie Wenjin made a bold statement, "As long as I, Nie Wenjin, am here, even if there are a hundred Guo Weis, I can still capture them alive!" Then he had a banquet with his soldiers, drinking and chatting calmly, looking confident.

The two armies confronted each other for a whole day on the 20th, but no conflict broke out.

That night, Murong Yanchao patted his chest and made a promise to Liu Chengyou, "If there is nothing important in the court tomorrow, Your Majesty, please come and watch me defeat the bandits with your own eyes! In fact, there is no need to fight. I just need to shout in front of the battle line, and the bandits will definitely turn against us and capture Guo Wei and bring him to us!"

Early in the morning of the 21st, Liu Chengyou couldn't wait to go to the front to watch the performance of "Uncle Liu" Murong Yanchao. Empress Dowager Li tried to dissuade him again, but to no avail.

The two sides lined up and continued to confront each other.

Guo Wei announced to his followers that they came here only to help the emperor eliminate a small group of treacherous ministers around him, not to assassinate the emperor or usurp the throne. Without my order, you must not act rashly!
Pay attention, and make the following points clear: we are not rebelling. So when someone accuses us of "treason and rebellion" later, don't accept it. Don't believe their instigation and sell out me. I said that I will not go against the emperor, but I did not say that you cannot harm the emperor. I did not say things like "I want Zhao Yun to live, not Zilong to die" or "Don't hurt my uncle". If we really start fighting, you know what will happen.

Guo Wei has been on the battlefield for a long time and has rich experience. When two armies are facing each other, the most important thing to avoid is impatience.

Murong Yanchao was impatient and couldn't hold back. The emperor was still waiting to see the show, so it was my turn to perform. Murong Yanchao personally led the light cavalry out of the formation.

As soon as the two armies came into contact, Murong Yanchao's horse suddenly stumbled and fell to the ground, and he was almost captured alive. Murong Yanchao was terrified and fled back in embarrassment, and the more than 100 cavalrymen who followed him to fight were all killed in order to cover his evacuation.

The morale of Guo Wei's army was high, while the morale of the imperial army was low. People from various parts of the imperial court kept surrendering to Guo Wei's army. The defeat was overwhelming.

Murong Yanchao was so frightened that he fled back to the Yanzhou base with dozens of his personal cavalry. The main generals of the imperial army, Wu Qianyu and Zhang Yanchao, successively defected to Guo Wei's camp and surrendered.

That night, major generals including Hou Yi, Liu Chongjin, Yuan Wei, and Jiao Jixun also secretly ran to Guo Wei's camp under the cover of darkness to express their allegiance.

Guo Wei comforted them with kind words and asked them to return to Liu Chengyou. He said, "I am not here to kill the emperor or to rebel. I am here to defend my rights. You have misunderstood me."

Guo Wei found Song Yanwo again and told him that the emperor was his brother-in-law and that the emperor was in great danger. He should use his troops to protect him and also give the emperor a message, asking him to quickly take shelter in his camp to avoid any unexpected events.

Guo Wei is very thoughtful and this approach achieves multiple goals at once:
First, if Hou Yi, Wu Qianyu and others were pretending to surrender, then these time bombs could be eliminated;
Secondly, if they really surrendered, they would definitely find ways to protect the families of the Weizhou soldiers in Bianzhou City after returning, to prevent Liu Chengyou and his "uncle clan" from being desperate and killing the hostages, so as to stabilize the morale of the Weizhou soldiers;
Third, please carefully listen to Guo Wei's instructions to Song Yanwo, "Your Majesty, please rush to my army as soon as possible to avoid being plotted by the left and right." Song Yanwo, you bring the troops to protect the emperor, and do not let the emperor die at the hands of the disorderly soldiers, don't let anything unexpected happen... Listen carefully, don't let anything unexpected happen, what I mean, do you understand?

Finally, this was a successful image public relations, showing Guo Wei's generous and kind side.

It is more useful to place "one's own people" as undercover agents around the enemy than to surround them with oneself. Song Yanwo understood that if he did so, he would be guilty and would most likely be abandoned; if he did not obey Guo Wei's orders, his life would not be easy. Therefore, Song Yanwo had an idea and wanted to "go", but he did not "go". He came back halfway and replied that the court army was in chaos and could not approach the imperial tent.

That night, Liu Chengyou, three prime ministers (Dou Zhengu, Su Fengji, Su Yugui) and dozens of accompanying officials did not return to the palace, but stayed at the front line of Qilidian, hoping to stabilize the situation. They were naive, and the defeat was so severe that even the emperor himself could not resist the decline.

Early the next morning (22nd), Guo Wei saw from afar Liu Chengyou's imperial procession on a high slope, fluttering in the wind, so he said to his attendants, "The emperor is there, I will go over to communicate and explain." Then he took off his armor, threw away his weapons, dismounted, and went on foot.

The people around him tried to dissuade them, saying it was too dangerous.

Guo Wei was in tears, and said frankly, "My lord is here, so why should I worry?"

But when Guo Wei got closer, he found that the place was already empty. He couldn't help but sigh for a long time, "We are late!"

Where did Liu Chengyou go?
Before daybreak, Liu Chengyou was almost left alone, so he had to return to Bianzhou with a few followers. When they reached the northeast gate, Liu Zhu, who was guarding the gate tower, shouted at his followers, "Where are the troops?"

The attendants on both sides were hesitant to answer, so Liu Zhu ordered his men to shoot arrows and drive them away.

Liu Chengyou was horrified and hurriedly rode his horse with Su Fengji, Guo Yunming and others, turning northwest. When they reached Zhaocun (southwest of Bianzhou), Guo Wei's vanguard troops caught up with them. Liu Chengyou hurriedly hid in a civilian house.

Seeing that the situation was hopeless, Guo Yunming murdered Liu Chengyou and then committed suicide. Su Fengji, Yan Jinqing, Nie Wenjin and others also committed suicide.

There are different records about the death of Liu Chengyou and his close associates. It is generally recognized that it was suicide, especially Guo Yunming, who first killed Liu Chengyou and then committed suicide.

But is this really the case?

The "Zizhi Tongjian" records that "the emperor dismounted and entered a civilian's house, where he was killed by the rebel army." This sentence is very vague. Whose rebel army was it? Was it Liu Chengyou's guards or Guo Wei's troops?
The "Old History of the Five Dynasties" and the "New History of the Five Dynasties" state with certainty that Guo Yunming killed the emperor with his own hands and then committed suicide.

The three authoritative history books were all written in the Northern Song Dynasty. As mentioned before, due to historical and political reasons, the Song Dynasty beautified and packaged the Later Zhou regime established by Guo Wei to a certain extent.

From another perspective, who would benefit the most from Liu Chengyou's "death in the chaos of the army"? Obviously Guo Wei. Guo Wei had previously sent Song Yanwo to lead troops to "protect" Liu Chengyou, and specifically emphasized that Liu Chengyou's situation was very dangerous and that he must not be killed by the people around him. In the end, he was indeed killed by the people around him.

(End of this chapter)