History of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms

Chapter 721 Riding a Tiger and Being Difficult to Dismount
When Huainan conquered Jianzhou, they planned to go downstream and take Fuzhou in one fell swoop. But Li Jing of Huainan called for an emergency halt.

Because the "Jin-Liao War" had reached a white-hot stage at that time and the second battle had just ended. Although the Later Jin won both battles, the long-term internal rebellion wars and the war against Liao also hollowed out the Later Jin. Li Jing believed that this was a good opportunity to get involved in the Central Plains, so he frequently contacted the Khitan and agreed to attack the Central Plains from the north and the south.

Therefore, after conquering Jianzhou and capturing Wang Yanzheng, Li Jing ordered the frontline troops to return to the capital. After resting, they would be sent to the northern battlefield to cooperate with the Khitan in attacking the Later Jin Dynasty. As for Fuzhou and other places, they would leave it to time to digest them slowly.

Privy Councilor Chen Jue also advocated stopping while the going was good, because the person who promoted the Jianzhou War was his deputy, Deputy Privy Councilor Cha Wenhui.

As for the internal political struggles in Huainan, such as Chen Jue, we will expand on this topic later, so we will just briefly mention it here:
Chen Jue's subordinate Zha Wenhui proposed to attack Jianzhou Wang Yanzheng, but all civil and military officials, including Chen Jue, opposed it. However, Li Jing supported Zha Wenhui's proposal and launched the Jianzhou War, which really destroyed the Min Kingdom. Zha Wenhui was highly valued and promoted by Li Jing, while Chen Jue's career was bleak.

If Zha Wenhui and other "war factions" continued to march south to Fuzhou and conquered Fuzhou, that would be terrible. So Chen Jue did not want the "war faction" to continue to make meritorious deeds.

The problem was that although Li Jing did not support continuing the war southward, the pressure from the court was too great, and the entire court changed from being a "peace faction" to a "war faction."

The clever Chen Jue quickly found a balance point that could be perfectly compatible, which was to use political inducement instead of military action to persuade Fuzhou to surrender.

So Chen Jue volunteered himself, saying that he was willing to use his eloquence to persuade Li Renda to give up his separatist regime and go to Beijing to pay homage to the emperor.

Song Qiqiu, a veteran strategist of the Huainan Group, also experienced ups and downs in the changes and turmoil of the highest power in Huainan. At this time, he was basically "standing aside", very respected, but had no say. However, he had a very close personal relationship with Chen Jue, so the two political orphans huddled together for warmth. Song Qiqiu endorsed Chen Jue and praised Comrade Chen Jue for his quick thinking and outstanding eloquence, saying that he would definitely live up to his mission and defeat the enemy without fighting!
It would be great if Fuzhou could be pacified without fighting, so Li Jing prepared extremely generous rewards for Li Renda, and made his mother and wife state-level ladies, and promoted his four younger brothers to higher positions, hoping to show his sincerity and facilitate the peaceful liberation of Fuzhou.

Chen Jue's going to Fuzhou was like Jiang Gan's going to Dongwu, asking for trouble. How could Li Renda be deceived by the sugar-coated bullet? When receiving Chen Jue, Li Renda was arrogant and cold, and his trusted henchmen around him were even more fierce, as if just a glance from Li Renda would make Chen Jue bleed to death on the spot.

Chen Jue was so frightened that he dared not say a word about asking him to come to the court for an audience. After being humiliated, he left Fuzhou in disgrace and returned empty-handed.

When Chen Jue arrived at Fanzhou, he was too ashamed to go north again. He had originally hoped to win back the game through this lobbying, but he didn't expect to lose both his wife and his army. How could he face Li Jing again?
Chen Jue finally became angry and decided to take another risk. He forged an imperial edict and falsely passed on the imperial decree, ordering Li Renda to come to Beijing immediately in the name of Li Jing, and "appointed" himself as the highest administrative chief of Fuzhou to replace Li Renda. Then he mobilized the local armed forces and central garrisons in Tingzhou, Jianzhou, Fuzhou, and Xinzhou, and ordered his confidant Feng Yanlu to be the commander-in-chief. He rushed to Fuzhou with great momentum and forced Li Renda to go north to Beijing.

When Feng Yanlu's troops were at the gates of the city, he first wrote a letter to Li Renda to persuade him to surrender, analyzing the pros and cons for him, hoping to turn hostility into friendship.

Li Renda was unmoved by soft or hard tactics. He would fight back if the enemy came and block the water with earth. No nonsense, just fight if you want to. Li Renda sent the naval commander Yang Chongbao to take the initiative to attack.

The news that Chen Jue forged the imperial edict, falsely conveyed the imperial decree, and dispatched troops without authorization was reported back to the central government, shocking the government and the public. Legally speaking, the starting price for Chen Jue was to execute his entire family. However, Chen Jue's followers (such as Song Qiuqiu) tried to save the country in a roundabout way, not mentioning the crime of forging the imperial edict, but focusing on the current situation, saying that no matter what the cause was, the front line had already started fighting, and reinforcements were needed at this time, and they had to win the battle first. After the battle broke out, both sides won and lost. Feng Yanlu defeated Yang Chongbao first; Li Renda personally fought in the battle, turned the game around, and captured Yang Kuangye, the commander of the Huainan Imperial Army, alive.

The war was at a stalemate.

Li Jing was in a dilemma and was forced to continue to increase reinforcements. He sent Wang Chongwen, the governor of Jianzhou, to lead the army and ordered Wei Cen to be the military supervisor. They joined forces with Feng Yanlu to attack Fuzhou together.

Wei Cen and Feng Yanlu were all Chen Jue's accomplices, birds of a feather. When Chen Jue forged the imperial edict to send troops, Wei Cen was ordered to be the governor of Zhangzhou and Quanzhou. When he heard that Chen Jue had raised an army, he was worried that Chen Jue would take the credit for liberating Fuzhou alone, so he also mobilized the troops of Zhangzhou and Quanzhou without authorization and joined Chen Jue to attack Fuzhou.

Chen Jue, Wei Cen, Feng Yanlu, and Feng Yansi were collectively known as the "Four Evils" in Huainan, and together with Zha Wenhui, they were collectively known as the "Five Evils". These people were not easy to deal with, and each of them had their own little calculations. Sometimes they were in collusion and treachery, and sometimes they were deceitful and calculated against each other. For example, in the battle of Fuzhou, the appearance of harmony among these people was fully demonstrated.

The Huainan army, numbering hundreds of thousands, gathered outside the city of Fuzhou. The "Four Evils" were both comrades fighting side by side and competitors. They were all afraid that the credit would be snatched away by others, so without unified command or deployment, they fought on their own, vying for the credit of being the first to enter.

According to historical records, "Yan Lu, Wei Cen, Wang Chongwen and others led tens of thousands of troops each, and came from all sides, besieging the city several times. The noise shook heaven and earth. Since the founding of the country, there has never been such a large-scale military expedition."

The group fight among the "Four Evils" was the largest battle in Huainan's history. For Li Jing, it was an extremely bitter irony.

The Huainan Army did not follow the routine, but took advantage of the numbers to gain an advantage in the opening battle and conquered the outer city of Fuzhou. Li Renda was forced to retreat to the inner city.

Li Renda once again took advantage of his diplomacy, pledged his loyalty to the Later Jin Dynasty, and proclaimed himself the Jiedushi of the Weiwu Army of Fuzhou, temporarily managing the affairs of the Min Kingdom. He also cleverly changed his name from "Li Hongyi" to "Li Hongda" to show his break with Huainan.

The Later Jin Dynasty immediately recognized it and officially appointed Li Renda as the Jiedushi of the Weiwu Army of Fuzhou, in charge of the affairs of the Min Kingdom, and added the title of Tongpingzhangshi, allowing Li Renda of Fuzhou to firmly hold Huainan from behind.

Under the heavy bombardment of the Huainan army, a traitor appeared in the Fuzhou defenders. The general Ma Jie turned against the Huainan troops and led them into the west gate (Shanhua Gate) from the northwest corner. The commander-in-chief Ding Yanzhen led a hundred people to fight to the death. Li Renda fought and retreated, and retreated into the Shanhua Gate. At this point, the outer city and the second city of Fuzhou were conquered by Huainan. Li Renda almost lost all his outer defense lines and had nowhere to retreat. His demise was imminent.

(End of this chapter)