History of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms

Chapter 719: Huainan's Battle to Conquer Fujian 3
After hearing the news that his entire family had been killed, Huang Renfeng turned his sadness and anger into fighting power, opened the city gates, took the initiative to attack, defeated Zhang Hanzhen's troops in one fell swoop, and captured the main general Zhang Hanzhen alive. He took him into Fuzhou City and beheaded him in public.

The monk Zhuo Yanming never dreamed that he would become an emperor after shaving his head and practicing diligently, listening to morning bells and evening drums, and worshipping ancient Buddhas. Zhuo Yanming quickly adapted to his new identity and did two things during his reign:

One is to send people to his hometown Putian to welcome his father to Fuzhou to become the emperor. "You may not believe it, but it was the dragon throne that made the first move."

The second is to burn incense and perform rituals in the Jinluan Palace. According to him, he has the ability to turn beans into soldiers, command ghosts and drive away gods, and call the wind and rain. Isn't this a Taoist professional skill?

After Li Renda supported Zhuo Yanming, he took charge of the military power (judged the six armies and various guards), and then ordered Huang Renfeng to garrison the west gate and Chen Jixun to garrison the north gate. These two were Li Renda's most trusted comrades-in-arms, because they had betrayed Wang Yanzheng, especially Huang Renfeng, who had just been executed by Wang Yanzheng.

However, he miscalculated.

There are only two reasons why a traitor betrays his former master: either to seek greater benefits or to avoid greater disasters. The benefits and disasters depend on the strength comparison of the two camps and people's expectations.

Although Huang Renfeng's entire family was killed, after he calmed down, he no longer resented Wang Yanzheng. Instead, he was full of shame and self-blame, thinking that all this was due to his momentary confusion and that he had brought it upon himself.

One day, Huang Renfeng was chatting with Chen Jixun. Huang Renfeng said, "The reason why people are called people is nothing more than loyalty, trust, benevolence, and righteousness. I had made meritorious contributions under Wang Yanzheng before, and I was trusted by him, so he appointed me as the garrison commander of Fuzhou. But what about me? I betrayed him, which is disloyalty; people entrusted their nephew to me, but I killed him, which is untrustworthiness; the internal strife between Fuzhou and Jian led to the people of Min killing each other, which is unkindness; I ignored my wife and children and let my family be slaughtered because of my momentary confusion, which is unrighteousness!"

Huang Renfeng became more and more upset as he spoke, and finally he beat his chest and stamped his feet, crying bitterly, "Am I still a human being? I am just a big bastard who deserves to die!"

Chen Jixun covered his mouth gratefully and consoled him: "If a man does not work for himself, he will be punished by heaven and earth. A man who pursues fame and fortune, why would he care about his wife and children? Now that things have come to this, stop thinking about it and stop talking nonsense!"

There is no wall that is impenetrable. The guilty Li Renda had spies all over Fuzhou City. Huang Renfeng, who was out of control, stamped his feet, beat his chest and cried loudly, so Li Renda soon knew these words.

Li Renda then falsely accused Huang Renfeng and Chen Jixun of treason, beheaded them, and took back their military power. From then on, Li Renda controlled all the armed forces in Fuzhou.

The following month, Li Renda held a grand military parade in Fuzhou on the pretext of boosting morale, and invited the "Emperor" Zhuo Yanming to personally inspect the troops.

Zhuo Yanming was in high spirits and extended his highest greetings to the troops participating in the review, "Hello, comrades, thank you for your hard work!"

Suddenly, several warriors who were being tested rushed out and stabbed Zhuo Yanming to death on the spot with lightning speed.

Li Renda, who was standing by, was so frightened that he turned and ran away, but was stopped by the soldiers. The soldiers were so angry that they dragged and forced Li Renda to sit on Zhuo Yanming's throne, intending to make him the emperor.

Li Renda struggled "desperately", "No, no..."

Everyone knows about the "Chanzhou Mutiny". After killing Zhuo Yanming, they sent people to kill the "Emperor Retired".

Li Renda said that he was not virtuous and did not have enough prestige to claim to be the emperor, so he sent envoys to Huainan to submit a memorial and pay tribute to Huainan. In the memorial, Li Renda called himself the governor of Fuzhou Weiwu Army and used Huainan's reign title - "Bao Da Three Years"; but at the same time he also paid tribute to the Later Jin Dynasty.

Li Jing of Huainan readily accepted Li Renda's surrender and immediately appointed him as the governor of Fuzhou Weiwu Army and co-prime minister, and gave him the name Li Hongyi and included him in the royal family. Li Jing's son was given the character "Hong" and later changed to "Cong" to avoid the taboo of the Song Dynasty, and was given the name Li Hongyi, indicating that Li Jing recognized him as his son or nephew.

The reason why Huainan accepted Li Renda was, of course, to form a north-south attack on Jianzhou Wang Yanzheng with him. After being accepted by Huainan, Li Renda sent people to visit Wuyue State to seek to establish friendly relations.

In terms of diplomacy, Li Renda completely defeated Wang Yanzheng. Wang Yanzheng offended all his neighbors, while Li Renda established friendly and cooperative relations with all of them.

Wang Yanzheng's life was not easy.

After the victory in the first battle, Huainan took advantage of the victory to besiege Jianzhou and defeated the reinforcements from Quanzhou (Wang Zhongshun, Dong Sian, etc.) several times. In order to further reduce Wang Yanzheng's resistance, Huainan cut off the firewood from under the cauldron, divided its troops and attacked Tingzhou, Fanzhou and other Jianzhou's back gardens, disintegrating Wang Yanzheng's power in Jianzhou.

In Tingzhou, Huainan suffered a defeat and was defeated by Tingzhou governor Xu Wenzhen; but Huainan general Bian Hao captured Fanzhou and broke Jianzhou's pincer position.

Jianzhou was besieged, Fuzhou rebelled… Wang Yanzheng had just “unified” the whole of Fujian for a few days, but he didn’t expect that after thirty years of hard work, he was back to the situation before liberation overnight. He was hit back to his original state by a heavy blow from Huainan and was only able to control the isolated city of Jianzhou.

Wang Yanzheng was on the verge of a mental breakdown. He did two things:
Military Purge:
When Fuzhou surrendered, Wang Yanzheng dispatched 15,000 soldiers from Gongchen and Konghe, the imperial guards, to reinforce Jianzhou. Now, Li Renda of Fuzhou rebelled, and Wang Yanzheng began to be suspicious of these reinforcements from Fuzhou. So, Wang Yanzheng ordered them to hand over their weapons and armor, and lied to them that they were allowed to return to Fuzhou. Then he set up an ambush on the way, slaughtered them all, cut off their meat, pickled it into jerky, and brought it back to Jianzhou as military rations.

Improve the suffocating diplomatic environment:
Wang Yanzheng sent an envoy to the Kingdom of Wuyue to pay tribute to the Kingdom of Wuyue and request military assistance. Thirty years ago (916), Wang Shenzhi and Qian Liu intermarried, and Wang Shenzhi's second daughter married Qian Liu's son Qian Yuanyi. In terms of seniority, Wang Yanzheng is the uncle of Qian Hongzuo, the current king of Wuyue.

How would Wu Yueguo’s nephew react to his uncle’s call for help?
There was no time to react, because within a month, Jianzhou fell.

Under the siege of the Huainan army, the Jianzhou defenders were demoralized and their morale collapsed.

People kept reminding Quanzhou reinforcement general Dong Sian that things had come to this point, Jianzhou was doomed and would fall at any moment, so he'd better make plans for himself.

Dong Si'an answered with a resounding voice, "I have received great favors from the Wang family and served several generations of kings. If I betray the Wang family at its most critical moment, who in the world would tolerate me?"

Dong Si'an vowed not to betray Wang, and his subordinates were deeply moved. Many soldiers from all the armies in Jianzhou deserted, but not a single soldier from Dong Si'an's army escaped.

(End of this chapter)