History of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms

Chapter 688: Yanzhou "Uncle Liu" 2
Because of the Khitan threat, Liu Chengyou appointed Guo Wei as the Jiedushi of Weizhou to replace Gao Xingzhou, and appointed Gao Xingzhou as the Jiedushi of Yunzhou.

Liu Chengyou moved Gao Xingzhou to Yunzhou not only to make room for Guo Wei, but also to deliberately let Gao Xingzhou get close to Murong Yanchao. The reason was simple, just to keep an eye on "Uncle Liu". During Liu Chengyou's time, the threat to the imperial power came not only from the group of military commanders who were highly meritorious, but also from the Liu clan such as Liu Chong and Murong Yanchao.

It was precisely because of the open and intense conflict between the two that Liu Chengyou boldly and deliberately made Gao Xingzhou Murong Yanchao's neighbor.

So Murong Yanchao took the initiative to act as a "tainted witness" and reported to the court that Gao Xingzhou intended to collude with him to rebel... This was the second time he framed Gao Xingzhou.

In fact, Guo Wei was not that confident. He carefully checked the authenticity of the letter in secret and found that the seal was forged. He then concluded that Murong Yanchao was slandering him.

Guo Wei took advantage of the situation and sent someone to appoint Zhang Ning as the inspector of Yunzhou and lead troops to inspect the area around Yunzhou. In fact, this army was veiled as Gao Xingzhou of Yunzhou, and its real target was Murong Yanchao of Yanzhou.

Murong Yanchao made a final struggle. He wrote a petition to test Guo Wei and requested to go to the capital to pay homage.

Guo Wei accepted the challenge and immediately agreed to his request to come to the court. As expected, Murong Yanchao submitted another memorial, saying that bandits were rampant in the country and he dared not leave easily. He slapped himself in the face.

In a few days it will be the Spring Festival (952), and everyone is very busy:
Wang Jun won the second battle of Jinzhou, drove away the coalition forces of Hedong and Khitan, and recruited 20,000 civilians to build the city of Jinzhou; Guo Wei recruited 55,000 civilian workers in Bianzhou to expand the outer city of Bianzhou; Murong Yanchao also summoned nearby villagers into the city, opened the Si River, and used it as a moat.

Murong Yanchao sent his trusted subordinates to recruit bandits and roving bandits, and then went to nearby places to plunder. All the places around Yanzhou reported Murong Yanchao's rebellion.

Murong Yanchao of Yanzhou rebelled, and Guo Wei was prepared for this.

On the seventh day of the first lunar month, Guo Wei issued an edict that Yizhou and Mizhou would no longer be under the jurisdiction of Yanzhou Taining Army.

Taining Army originally governed four states: Yanzhou, Haizhou, Yizhou, and Mizhou. Haizhou had been occupied by Huainan before, and now Yizhou and Mizhou had been stripped away. Murong Yanchao only controlled Yanzhou, and his power was greatly reduced.

Subsequently, Guo Wei appointed Cao Wei (changed his name to Cao Ying to avoid the emperor's taboo), commander-in-chief of the imperial guards' infantry, to lead the expedition against Yanzhou; Shi Yanchao, the defense envoy of Qizhou, as deputy commander-in-chief; Xiang Xun, the imperial city envoy, as chief political commissar (dujian); and Yao Yuanfu, the defense envoy of Chenzhou, as the cavalry and infantry commander.

Among them, Yao Yuanfu was the general who had just repelled Liu Chong of Hedong on the battlefield of Jinzhou. He was a veteran of four dynasties and was originally a subordinate of Wang Tan, a general of the Later Liang Dynasty. What made him step into the center of the historical stage was the period of Shi Chonggui of the Later Jin Dynasty. When fighting against the Khitans, Yao Yuanfu played the role of a lone hero and led his 200 cavalrymen to charge left and right in the Khitan army as if he was in an empty space. He even disrupted the formation of the main force of the Khitan and was able to escape unscathed.

Shi Chonggui, who was watching the battle from behind, was very excited. He called him to his side and praised him in person, saying that your performance today is in no way inferior to those loyal and brave generals in ancient times!

Later, in the second battle, the "Battle of Yangcheng", Yao Yuanfu was possessed by the god of war again and defeated the Khitan. Under his leadership, the Later Jin soldiers chased them for 20 miles and returned with a great victory.

Afterwards, Yao Yuanfu was ordered to escort Feng Hui to Zhenshuofang, where they defeated the minority rebel leader Tuoba Yanchao and successfully took control of Lingzhou.

After the fall of the Later Jin Dynasty, Yao Yuanfu surrendered to Liu Zhiyuan. In the early stage of the "Three Towns Rebellion", Yao Yuanfu led hundreds of cavalry to reinforce and issued a military order of "whoever dares to look back will be killed", defeating the Later Shu army that was several times larger than his own in one fell swoop, annihilating more than 3,000 enemies and driving the Later Shu army back to the south of Dasan Pass. After the establishment of the Later Zhou Dynasty, Yao Yuanfu participated in the pacification of the "Liu Yun remnants" of Gong Tingmei and Yang Wen in Xuzhou, and was then transferred to the Jinzhou front to repel the Hedong and Khitan coalition forces. Before he could catch his breath, he was transferred to the Yanzhou front.

Comrade Yao Yuanfu is truly a fire-fighting captain.

Guo Wei respected him very much and seriously warned Commander-in-Chief Cao Wei and others, saying, "Don't think that you can look down on Yao Yuanfu just because your official positions are higher than his. He is a meritorious official of four dynasties. You cannot use military salute (between superiors and subordinates) but use uncle salute and treat him like your own father!"

After Yao Yuanfu arrived at his post, Cao Wei and others indeed "all served him like a father."

In sharp contrast to Murong Yanchao's looting, after the royal army entered Yanzhou, it enforced strict military discipline, strictly prohibited harassment of the people, and did not take even a single needle or thread from the masses.

Li Jing of Huainan sent 5,000 reinforcements to Xia Pi in the territory of Later Zhou. Upon hearing the news that Cao Wei and others were leading their troops, the Huainan army immediately retreated to Shuyang in Huainan.

Zhang Lingbin, the inspector of Xuzhou of the Later Zhou Dynasty, pursued the rebels, captured and killed more than a thousand people, and captured Huainan's main general Yan Jingquan alive.

Guo Wei personally met Yan Jingquan, gave him clothes and money, comforted him with kind words, and asked him to take a message to Comrade Li Jing, saying that there was no grudge between the two of us in the past and in the present, and I really want to have a good relationship with you, eliminate opposition, and cooperate for mutual benefit; punishing rebellion and rewarding loyalty is an eternal truth. There is a rebellion here, how can you help the rebellion? I hope you will reform yourself, we will not hold the past against you, and look forward to everything.

Yan Jingquan returned to Huainan and conveyed Guo Wei's words truthfully. Li Jing felt very guilty. Before that, the Later Han Dynasty sent Lu Changzuo to the territory of Southern Chu to buy tea. It happened that Southern Chu was in civil strife, and Huainan intervened armedly. Lu Changzuo was captured and detained by Huainan.

Li Jing summoned Lu Changzuo and treated him with the same high standard of courtesy. He also asked him to convey his respect to Comrade Guo Wei and expressed his willingness to coexist peacefully and restore the old friendship. Then he compensated Lu Changzuo for the loss of tea and gave him an additional 18,000 kilograms of Huainan tea as compensation. He also gave Lu Changzuo himself generous gifts and sent him back home.

Huainan made it clear that it would no longer interfere in the civil unrest in Yanzhou.

At this point, Murong Yanchao lost all external support (Khitan, Hedong, and Huainan) and was completely isolated.

Cao Wei built a high wall outside Yanzhou and besieged it. Murong Yanchao repeatedly went out of the city to obstruct the attack, but was repelled by Yao Yuanfu and others. Ten days later, the high wall surrounded Yanzhou, and it was like a turtle in a jar.

Murong Yanchao ordered a massive plunder of the people of Yanzhou, and anyone who dared to hide property would be sentenced to death!
Murong Yanchao used to be Yan Bao's adopted son, so he was nicknamed "Yan Kunlun". Now, Yan Bao's biological son Yan Honglu lives in Yanzhou. He knows the brutal character of his sworn brother very well, so he took the initiative to donate all his property just to save his life.

However, Murong Yanchao not only did not give up, but instead arrested Yan Honglu in a frenzy, insisting that Yan Honglu must be hiding something, and ordered his number one strategist Cui Zhoudu to raid Yan Honglu's house and force him to tell the whereabouts of his property.

Thanks to my old friend "Xie Yusheng" for his generous reward and monthly tickets. I will add 2 chapters today to show my gratitude!

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(End of this chapter)