History of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms

Chapter 712: Internal strife 3
External forces never help when things are tough, they usually take advantage of the situation to rob, and those who can add icing on the cake are just troublemakers. Therefore, in ancient and modern times, at home and abroad, anyone who relies on foreign powers to bully others will basically not have a good end.

Wang Yanzheng was unable to dissuade the Wuyue reinforcements, so he contacted Wang Yanxi of Fuzhou. The two brothers hit it off immediately, Min was the Min country of the Min people, and it was not the turn of outsiders to interfere!

A miracle of war happened, and the enemy and friend were exchanged in an instant. Wang Yanxi and Wang Yanzheng shook hands and made peace, forming a united front and attacking the Wuyue reinforcements.

Wang Yanxi sent his nephew Wang Jiye to lead an army of 20,000 to reinforce Jianzhou, and wrote a letter to the Wuyue Kingdom, strongly condemning their gross interference in the internal affairs of other countries. At the same time, he sent light cavalry troops to cut off the logistical supply lines of the Wuyue reinforcements.

At that time, it happened to be raining heavily, and the logistics of the Wuyue reinforcements were already a problem. After losing the supply from Wang Yanzheng of Jianzhou, Wang Yanxi of Fuzhou cut off their logistics supply. The 4-man army soon ran out of ammunition and food. Wang Yanzheng suddenly launched an attack, and the Wuyue reinforcements were defeated, with countless prisoners and executions. The commander-in-chief Yang Renquan fled in disgrace.

Huainan, which received help from Wang Yanxi of Fuzhou, was in a difficult situation because they had just received a request for help from Li Jinquan, a rebel general of Anzhou in the Later Jin Dynasty.

As mentioned in the previous article, Li Jinquan, the governor of Anyuan Army in Anzhou, had evil intentions. Shi Jingtang appointed Ma Quanjie as the governor of Anzhou and transferred Li Jinquan to the court. Li Jinquan refused to accept the appointment, colluded with Huainan, and rebelled against the court.

At that time, An Congjin, the governor of Shannan East Road, which surrounded Anzhou, was secretly communicating with Huainan and harboring rebellious intentions. He had also openly exposed his cards to Shi Jingtang. If Huainan could take advantage of this opportunity to annex Anzhou, then it would not be far away to go north to conquer the Central Plains in the future.

It was for this reason that Shi Jingtang adopted the strategy of using a sledgehammer to kill a chicken and a huge stone to knock down the eggs. He dispatched elite soldiers and generals, mobilized the troops from twelve states, and marched south with great momentum.

In the end, Huainan and the Later Jin reached a tacit agreement that Huainan would only accommodate Li Jinquan and his troops and would not seek to occupy Anzhou and other Later Jin territories; the Later Jin would only recover Anzhou and tacitly allow Li Jinquan to defect to Huainan. The two sides did not end up in a large-scale conflict, which was in the common interests of both sides.

Therefore, when Huainan received Wang Yanxi's request for help, the situation in Anzhou was still unclear. Huainan did not want to fall into the passive situation of fighting on two fronts and being unable to split its forces.

So, Huainan thought of a compromise and wrote two letters to mediate the conflict between the two brothers.

Don't take on a job without the right tools. Persuasion without the threat of force is hollow and powerless. It's like a pig in Huainan sticking a green onion in its nose - pretending to be an elephant. The brothers mercilessly mocked it and it was very embarrassing.

First of all, there was Wang Yanxi. Facing Huainan's accusation that they were brothers fighting each other, Wang Yanxi used history to satirize the present, saying that this was like Duke Zhou's execution of Guan Shu and exile of Cai Shu, and Emperor Taizong of Tang, Li Shimin, killing Li Jiancheng and Li Yuanji in the "Xuanwu Gate Incident".

After King Wu of Zhou died, Duke Zhou became regent. King Wu's brothers Guan Shu, Cai Shu and Huo Shu plotted evil deeds that were detrimental to the country. Duke Zhou led an expedition to the east, killed Guan Shu, exiled Cai Shu and demoted Huo Shu to a commoner. This is known in history as the "Rebellion of the Three Supervisors" or the "Rebellion of Guan and Cai" or the "Rebellion of Wu Geng".

Emperor Taizong of Tang, Li Shimin, even ordered historians to use the "Guan Cai Rebellion" as a template to revise the historical facts about the "Xuanwu Gate Incident".

As the legitimate ruler of Min, Wang Yanxi compared himself to Duke Zhou and Emperor Taizong of Tang, and answered with these two allusions. This still gave Huainan a little face.

The "rebel leader" Wang Yanzheng was not so polite. When facing the accusation from Huainan that he was disloyal, he directly retorted domineeringly: "How dare you talk about me? What kind of person is this? Don't you take a piss and look at yourself? Didn't you seize the kingdom from the Yang family?" This made Xu Zhigao very angry, and he immediately "broke off diplomatic relations" with Wang Yanzheng and became their enemy.

Although Wang Yanxi and Wang Yanzheng made peace, their suspicion of each other only increased. After jointly repelling the Wuyue reinforcements, Wang Yanxi repaired the city wall on the west side of Fuzhou and strengthened the city defense system to prevent Wang Yanzheng's sudden attack; Wang Yanzheng also built the outer city of Jianzhou with a circumference of 20 li, and asked Wang Yanxi to set up the Weiwu Army in Jianzhou, with himself as the governor.

The Mighty Army is the military horn of Fuzhou, how can it be allowed to build a stronghold in Jianzhou? This is Wang Yanzheng's naked test of Wang Yanxi.

Wang Yanxi ordered the establishment of the "Zhen'an Army" in Jianzhou, appointed Wang Yanzheng as the governor, and conferred the title of "King of Fusha" on Wang Yanzheng.

Wang Yanzheng said that he did not like the name "Zhen'an" and changed it to "Zhenwu Army". His political ambitions were obvious. Zhenwu means the mighty army.

Since the civil war, Wang Yanxi has become more suspicious of his clan and launched a major purge.

Wang Yanxi appointed his son Wang Yacheng as the judge of the six armies and guards. Only his biological son was trustworthy, while his younger brothers and nephews were not.

Afterwards, he sent 3,000 soldiers to Tingzhou to capture his younger brother, Wang Yanxi, the governor of Tingzhou, because he heard that Wang Yanxi had correspondence with Wang Yanzheng.

Wang Jiye, the governor of Quanzhou, was summoned back to Fuzhou. When Wang Jiye reached the outskirts of Fuzhou, he was sentenced to death. The next day, his entire family was killed. At the same time, his staff and guests such as Yang Yi were also killed. The reason was that Wang Jiye was suspected of having correspondence with Wang Yanzheng.

Yang Yi, his cousin was Yang She, the prime minister during the reign of Emperor Ai of the Tang Dynasty, and one of the "Six Ministers Carrying the Coffin"; his uncle was Yang Shou, the prime minister during the reign of Emperor Yizong of the Tang Dynasty, and a stepping stone for Wei Baoheng.

Yang Yi and Wang Dan were originally the staff of Wang Shenzhi. Wang Dan was the son of Wang Pu, the prime minister of the Tang Dynasty. Therefore, the two had a lot in common and were known for their elegance in Fujian and praised by the world. Later, when Wang Jiye was the governor of Tingzhou, he admired Yang Yi very much. The two became good friends regardless of age. When Wang Jiye was sentenced to death, Yang Yi was regarded as Wang Jiye's accomplice and his entire family was executed.

When Yang Yi was killed, he was already over 80 years old.

After killing Wang Jiye, Wang Yanxi appointed his son Wang Jiyan as the governor of Quanzhou. Wang Jiyan once led the imperial guards (in charge of the six armies and guards), but because he was popular among the people, he was suspected by Wang Jipeng and was dismissed from his military power. Now after Wang Yanxi sent him to Quanzhou, Wang Jiyan also implemented benevolent policies and was supported by the people of Quanzhou. Therefore, Wang Yanxi recalled him to Fuzhou and poisoned him to death.

Wang Yanxi still surpassed Wang Jipeng in terms of suspicion and slaughter of the old and noble clans. Since then, the old and noble clans have been in danger, and they may be labeled as "Yan Zheng faction" at any time and be directly exterminated without trial or evidence.

All the civil and military officials were silent, only Huang Jun, the counselor, was brave enough to speak out. On this day, Huang Jun was ready to die, and he took a memorial and a coffin to the palace to make a final appeal, "If you continue to commit adultery, you will be doomed!" If you continue like this, your country will be destroyed!

(End of this chapter)