History of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms

Chapter 729 A Pool and a Brightness 2
After the meeting, Zhang Shaodi sighed with great sorrow: "A big mistake was made today, and a big disaster has come today." Tuoba Heng also claimed to be ill and never left the house again.

Ma Xiguang waited for Liu Zhiyuan's consolation edict on behalf of his brother. On July 7, Liu Zhiyuan of the Later Han Dynasty appointed Ma Xiguang as the General of Tiance, the Jiedushi of Wu'an Army of Tanzhou, the Commander-in-Chief of Jiangnan Province, and the Minister of the Central Secretariat, and conferred him the title of King of Chu.

As expected, the rewards became more and more grand.

At the same time, Ma Xiguang also welcomed an unexpected guest - Ma Xi'e.

Ma Xi'e's half-brother, Ma Xichong, who was then the Zuo Sima of Tiance Mansion, was a treacherous and cunning man. He wrote a letter to Ma Xi'e, falsely claiming that Ma Xifan's will originally meant that you, my brother, would succeed to the throne, but Liu Yantang and others had tampered with the will, deposing the eldest son and enthroning the youngest son. He actively encouraged Ma Xi'e to seize power.

Ma Xi'e and Ma Xichong are like typical villains in cartoons. Ma Xi'e is fiery but simple-minded, while Ma Xichong is treacherous and cunning, with a lot of bad intentions. Ma Xi'e is like a powder keg, which will explode at the touch of a button.

Ma Xi'e led his troops from Langzhou to Tanzhou, with a high-sounding reason - to attend a funeral.

Ma Xiguang, who was cowardly by nature, panicked and asked Liu Yantang for advice.

Liu Yantang said that this was easy to do, just like when Cao Cao died, Cao Zhang came to mourn, so we should learn from Cao Pi. So he sent the commander-in-chief of the imperial guards (the commander-in-chief of the imperial guards) Zhou Tinghui to lead the surface troops to go upstream and intercept Ma Xi'e.

Zhou Tinghui got straight to the point and asked a sharp question, "Are you here to attend the funeral or to seize power?"

Of course Ma Xi'e said he was here to attend a funeral.

If you are going to attend a funeral, that's good. Then please leave the troops outside the city, and the accompanying soldiers must take off their armor and surrender their weapons before entering the city.

Ma Xi'e had no choice but to disarm and enter Tanzhou City accompanied by several unarmed personal guards. However, even so, he could not enter Tiance Mansion immediately, but had to stay at Bixiang Lake first, change into mourning clothes, and then line up with his brothers in order of seniority to join the vigil, which meant that even the unarmed guards could no longer accompany him.

After Ma Xifan was buried, Ma Xi'e asked Ma Xiguang for permission to return to Langzhou.

At this time, Zhou Tinghui and Zhang Shaodi advised Ma Xiguang: "Your Majesty, you should either give up your position to Ma Xi'e, or take this opportunity to kill him. Otherwise, there will be endless troubles!"

Ma Xiguang cried and said, "He is my brother, how can I bear to kill my brother? I would rather divide Southern Chu into two, I rule Tanzhou and he rules Langzhou." At the same time, he sent very generous rewards to Ma Xi'e, comforting him and asking him not to have any unrealistic thoughts. We are brothers and I will not harm you.

Ma Xichong acted as an insider and secretly reported all of Ma Xiguang's actions to Ma Xi'e.

Even so, Ma Xi'e still "left in anger".

Ma Xiguang was cowardly, incompetent, indecisive, and sought fame and reputation. He was too soft-hearted, which planted a time bomb for his fate and that of Southern Chu. "Don't hurt my brother" also became a classic quote during the Southern Chu civil war.

After Ma Xi'e returned, he began to plan to seize power by force.

In August 948, Liu Hongxi of Southern Han sent someone to Southern Chu to propose marriage in order to improve relations between the two countries. The two countries already had a tradition of intermarriage. That was 8 years ago, in 30, when Ma Yin's daughter married Liu Yan. In terms of seniority, Ma Xiguang was Liu Hongxi's uncle. Faced with Liu Hongxi's request for closer kinship, Ma Xiguang refused.

Liu Hongxi was very angry and immediately asked the envoy who was proposing marriage: "Can the Ma family still invade the land in the south?"

The answer was: "The Ma brothers are fighting among themselves and are too busy to take care of themselves. How can they have the energy to invade us?"

Liu Hongxi nodded with satisfaction and said, "That's exactly what I mean. Ma Xiguang is cowardly, incompetent, stingy, and his troops have long forgotten what war is. This is our chance! Just wait and see, little Ma!"

Ma Xiguang offended his neighbor in the south, and his own neighbor Ma Xi'e started to make small moves in the north.

Ma Xi'e made a request to the Later Han Dynasty, saying that he was willing to pay tribute to the Later Han Dynasty like Ma Xiguang did (each paying tribute on his own duty), and at the same time asked the Celestial Empire to appoint him an official title (grant him a title, a residence, and the title of vassal).

In other words, Ma Xi'e wanted to be on an equal footing with Ma Xiguang on the international political stage, have the same political status, and make the division of Southern Chu into two and separate states a fait accompli. In other words, to create "two Chu states, one Chu and one Lang", the work of ethnic separatists and Lang independence.

In response to Ma Xi'e's separatist activities, Ma Xiguang adopted the advice of his advisers Ou Honglian and Zhang Zhongxun, which was not a brilliant idea, but a word: bribery. He bribed high-ranking officials of the Later Han Dynasty, such as Su Fengji, with a large sum of money, asking them to support the principle of "one Chu".

At this time, the emperor of the Later Han Dynasty was Liu Chengyou. As mentioned above, under the manipulation of powerful officials such as Su Fengji, the politics of the Later Han Dynasty was dark. After receiving a large bribe from Ma Xiguang, Su Fengji and others actively promoted the international consensus of "One Chu State" and rejected Ma Xi'e's request.

In September, Liu Chengyou issued a reconciliation edict to Ma Xiguang and Ma Xi'e, educating them that brothers should live in harmony, not quarrel or be suspicious, and even less should they create divisions. In the future, if Comrade Ma Xi'e wanted to pay tribute to the Central Plains to show his loyalty, his name should be attached after Comrade Ma Xiguang's.

Comrade Ma Xiguang expressed that he was enlightened and learned a lot from the advice of the Celestial Empire, while Ma Xi'e angrily refused.

Although Ma Xi'e's plot to split the Chu Kingdom did not succeed, the conflict between Tan and Lang had become quite acute, and they were just short of an open rebellion. Liu Hongxi of the Southern Han Dynasty could not wait for the outbreak of the Southern Chu civil war, so he could not wait to send out a large army to avenge his rejection of his marriage proposal.

In December, Liu Hongxi of the Southern Han Dynasty appointed Wu Huai'en, the eunuch chief (internal attendant), to lead the army. It was not uncommon for eunuchs to lead the army in the Southern Han Dynasty. When I open a special topic for the Southern Han Dynasty later, I will talk about this interesting "eunuch state".

The Southern Han army attacked Hezhou (now Hezhou City, Guangxi).

Ma Xiguang sent generals Xu Zhixin and Ren Tinghui to lead 5,000 troops to provide assistance, but before they arrived, Hezhou had already been captured.

The eunuch Wu Huai'en may not have known military strategies, but he was very good at plotting and scheming. His expedition left a miracle in Chinese military history:
Wu Huai'en dug many large pits outside Hezhou City, camouflaged them with lids made of bamboo leaves, covered them with a thin layer of soil, and dug holes underneath. All the large pits were connected with machine shafts, and the main shaft was directly connected to the city through the holes.

When the reinforcements of Xu Zhixin and Ren Tinghui arrived, they could not wait to launch a siege. The Southern Han army adhered to the principle of "no enemy, no action", and after the Southern Chu army entered the ambush circle, they activated the mechanism, and an incredible scene happened, "crash--" 5,000 people fell into the trap one after another. The Southern Han army then went out of the city to counterattack, and the Southern Chu army was almost annihilated.

(End of this chapter)