History of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms

Chapter 739: The Fall of Southern Chu 3
Now, "Fengjie Capital" followed Bian Hao into Tanzhou. When Bian Hao first entered Tanzhou, in order to stabilize the people's hearts, he opened the granaries to release grain and provide relief to the people, which won him countless fans. However, he soon revealed his true colors as a conqueror, transporting all the gold, silver, treasures, grain supplies, and even ships, flowers, fruits, etc. in the territory of Southern Chu to Huainan, and looted Southern Chu.

Afterwards, Yang Jixun and others were sent to extort the money from the people of Southern Chu and collect heavy taxes to pay for the military expenses of the Huainan occupation army. The people of Southern Chu complained bitterly and experienced what it meant to be slaves of a conquered country.

If the money was actually distributed to the soldiers, then at least the morale of the army could be maintained. However, "subsidizing military expenses" was just a cover for corrupt officials, who squeezed the people of Southern Chu while deducting military pay and rations to enrich themselves.

As a result, the occupying forces in Huainan also complained.

At this time, the commanders of "Fengjiedu", Sun Lang and Cao Jin, had a secret conversation, saying, "What did we do when we followed Xian Shilang to Huainan? Now that we have made military achievements, not only are we not rewarded, but we are being deducted and exploited. Why not... kill Bian Hao and others, establish a separate regime in Hunan, and then return to the Central Plains (Later Zhou), where wealth and glory will be at our fingertips!"

The two hit it off immediately and decided that they should act quickly. Since ancient times, wealth and honor have been sought through risk, so let's fuck him!

On the third day of the first lunar month in 952 AD, at night, Sun Lang and Cao Jin led the "Fengjiedu" to launch a mutiny in Tanzhou. They piled a large amount of firewood in front of the headquarters gate, preparing to set it on fire and kill Bian Hao.

However, the Hunan region is relatively humid, and the firewood was damp, so it did not catch fire for a while. The rebels lost their advantage of surprise attack and were discovered by Bian Hao, who immediately beat drums and blew trumpets, mobilized the army, and organized resistance.

Sun Lang and Cao Jin led their troops to flee to Langzhou and took refuge with Liu Yan.

Wang Kui, the commander of the Langzhou troops, asked Sun Lang: "I used to follow the previous king (Ma Yin) and fought against Huainan many times. We won every battle. In my eyes, Huainan is simply vulnerable. I plan to use the troops of Langzhou to drive Huainan away and recover Southern Chu. What do you think?"

Sun Lang replied, "I have lived in Huainan for several years and have carefully analyzed the Huainan authorities. I have found that there are no virtuous people in their court, no outstanding generals in the army, and the king cannot distinguish between loyalty and treachery. Rewards and punishments are unfair. In my opinion, it is difficult for Huainan to survive! Since you have such a grand ambition, I am willing to be your pioneer. Restoring Southern Chu will be easy!"

The two big liars were as happy as children.

Compared with Wang Kui and Sun Lang's wild ideas, Huainan Li Jing was just wishful thinking. In fact, Sun Lang's evaluation of Huainan was quite fair. The internal affairs of Huainan will be presented later.

Li Jing of Huainan first destroyed the Kingdom of Min, then destroyed Southern Chu, and became extremely arrogant. After taking over Tanzhou, he sent Li Jianqi to Yiyang to prepare to retake Langzhou. He also ordered the governor of Quanzhou, Zhang Luan, to lead the Guizhou Recruiting Envoy to prepare to go south to retake Guizhou. He intended to annex the entire territory of Southern Chu in one go.

However, the two armies failed to make effective progress, wasting a lot of manpower and financial resources. Li Jing discussed with his ministers, saying that the people of Southern Chu were originally in dire straits and were looking forward to our liberation. However, I not only did not comfort their pain, but abused force and continued the war, which violated the original intention of our world police. Now, I plan to withdraw the troops and recognize the rule of Liu Yan of Langzhou. What do you think?

Feng Yansi, one of the "Four Evils and Five Demons" who advocated war, firmly opposed it, saying that a little-known junior general (Bian Hao) from Huainan easily destroyed the powerful Southern Chu, which shocked the world. However, in an instant, Southern Chu was divided into three parts, while we lost two parts. If we give up, wouldn't we become a laughing stock in the world? It is better to give power to the front-line generals and let them act according to circumstances.

Li Jing wanted to stop the war mainly because of financial difficulties, but he also had to consider international reputation, because Huainan was a superpower at that time, in its heyday, a country that could talk and laugh with the Khitan and be on an equal footing with the Central Plains (at least Comrade Li Jing thought so). Deep in Li Jing's heart, he also tended to align with the pro-war faction, hoping that the front would bring good news.

Therefore, Li Jing sent the imperial guard general Hou Xun to lead 5,000 people to Quanzhou in the south to join forces with Zhang Luan, attack Guizhou, and have a head-on conflict with Southern Han.

The Southern Han army took advantage of their rest and set up ambushes in strategic locations, defeating the Huainan army. Hou Xun was killed in the battle, and Zhang Luan escaped back to Quanzhou with only a few hundred defeated soldiers.

Let’s look at Langzhou.

Although Bian Hao had the merit of "destroying a country", his process of destroying the country was too smooth, without firing a single shot or a single soldier. Ma surrendered the city and Nanchu surrendered without a fight. Bian Hao was inevitably a little arrogant. After entering Tanzhou, he became the "Emperor of Nanchu", forming cliques and factions, developing his own strength, and not striving for progress.

A man named Ouyang Guang secretly submitted a petition to Li Jing, asking him to remove Bian Hao and warning him that Bian Hao would be defeated. However, this petition fell on deaf ears.

Li Jing ordered Bian Hao to go north to recapture Langzhou. During this period, a large number of merchants came to Tanzhou from Langzhou. They all said that Liu Yan was very afraid of the Huainan army and only wanted to surrender. Bian Hao believed it and did not take precautions.

Li Jing also heard these rumors, so he summoned Liu Yan to the capital and promised him a high position and generous salary.

Liu Yan ignored this and went to discuss with Wang Kui.

Wang Kui said that Langzhou was the former Wuling County, which was protected by natural barriers such as the Yuan River and Dongting Lake. It now had an army of tens of thousands and countless food and grass. How could it possibly surrender? The villain over there was in power and had no way of controlling his subordinates. The people were dissatisfied and the army was demoralized. They could be captured in one battle!
Zhou Xingfeng also advised: "The longer the night, the more dreams you may have. We should act quickly rather than late. We must attack them by surprise when they are unprepared." So Liu Yan finally made up his mind and took the initiative to attack!
He ordered Wang Kui, Zhou Xingfeng, He Jingzhen and ten others to serve as column commanders respectively. He also wanted to ask for support from the barbarian tribes, but was stopped by Zhou Xingfeng.

Zhou Xingfeng said that the barbarian tribes were greedy but their generals were loyal. Before, they followed Ma Xi'e into Tanzhou, but they set fire and looted in Tanzhou City, almost razing it to the ground. We are the Xingyi Army this time, to recover our motherland, how can we rely on those animals?
While deciding not to provoke the Barbarian Tribe, Liu Yan and others were also afraid that the Barbarian Tribe would be used by the enemy, so they tried to win over another highly respected chief in the Barbarian Tribe and asked him to help look after the situation.

Afterwards, the troops of Langzhou were divided into several groups and attacked Tanzhou together, with Sun Lang and Cao Jin serving as the vanguard.

Wang Kui won the first battle, defeated the troops sent by Huainan to block the attack, captured countless people, and captured the military supervisor alive. Then he pursued the victory, conquered the Yiyang defense line, and killed more than 2,000 enemies.

Bian Hao was horrified and hurriedly asked for help from the rear.

Wang Kui won victory after victory and reached the city of Tanzhou with an unstoppable force. At this time, the reinforcements from Huainan had not arrived yet, and the soldiers in the city were few in number and the morale of the army was in a panic.

The next night, Bian Hao fled at night and abandoned Tanzhou. When the soldiers and civilians of Tanzhou heard that their commander had escaped, they also fled. Because there were so many people, the bridge over the moat collapsed. As many as 10,000 people fell into the water and drowned or trampled to death!

Afterwards, Wang Kui entered Tanzhou, claiming to be the governor of Langzhou and the temporary governor of Tanzhou. He ordered He Jingzhen to hunt down Bian Hao, but Bian Hao ran too fast. After killing a total of 500 defeated soldiers, he withdrew his troops back to the city.

Wang Kui sent people to attack Yuezhou again, and the governor of Yuezhou abandoned the city and fled; the other governors of various states appointed by Huainan, after hearing that Tanzhou had fallen, also abandoned the city and fled.

At this point, Liu Yan of Langzhou quickly recovered half of the territory of Southern Chu (Chenzhou and Lianzhou in the north of the Ling Mountains and the entire territory of Lingnan were occupied by Southern Han). The Huainan forces completely withdrew from Southern Chu.

Huainan destroyed Min, and destroyed Loneliness; it destroyed Southern Chu, and destroyed Loneliness's father - old Loneliness.

After Bian Hao escaped back, he was stripped of his official title and exiled to Raozhou for the crimes of losing cities and territories and losing soldiers and generals.

Bian Hao had many nicknames. He had followed Cha Wenhui to conquer Jianzhou. He never killed prisoners, and all the Jianzhou soldiers captured by him were pardoned. Therefore, he was honored as "Lord Bian" by the people of Jianzhou. When he first entered Tanzhou, there was no conflict and no looting, so the lives of the people of Tanzhou were not affected and the market was open as usual. The people of Tanzhou honored him as "Bian Bodhisattva". However, he soon revealed his real name, neglected state affairs, and only knew how to pray to gods, eat vegetarian food and recite scriptures every day. So the people of Tanzhou jokingly called him "Bian Monk".

At first, there was a nursery rhyme circulating in the southern Chu area: "Whip the horse and it will run faster." Later, when Bian Hao entered Tanzhou and the Ma clan moved collectively to Huainan, people suddenly realized that "whip" referred to "Bian" and "horse" referred to Ma Yin's foals.

Only then did Li Jing remember Ouyang Guang's memorial predicting the defeat of Bian Hao, so he promoted him to the position of county magistrate of Jishui County.

The "pro-war" faction Feng Yansi and others submitted a petition requesting punishment, and Li Jing announced that they would all be pardoned. However, the "pro-war" faction stated that they must accept punishment, so Li Jing symbolically dismissed Feng Yansi and Sun Sheng from their positions as prime ministers, while allowing them to retain their original posts.

This battle dealt a huge blow to Huainan. It was not just a simple loss of money, food, and troops. This battle completely crushed Li Jing's spirit and brought him back to reality from his dream of the "Heavenly Kingdom". After 30 years of hard work, he returned to the pre-liberation era overnight.

Some people advised Li Jing that they hoped His Majesty would not use military force for a few decades to restore the country's strength.

Li Jing smiled bitterly and said, "It's more than just a few decades. I will never use military force again!"

This battle was a turning point in Huainan's national destiny. From then on, Huainan's power plummeted. Just over 20 years later, it was unified by the Central Plains Dynasty. The last ruler, Li Yu, the last emperor of Southern Tang, also became a prisoner of the Central Plains Dynasty and was eventually poisoned to death.

Liu Yan, Wang Kui and Zhou Xingfeng from Langzhou will be active on this stage for a while, so we will not mention them for now. Next, we will take a look at the style of Huainan and appreciate the past and present of this "heavenly kingdom" that destroyed Fujian and Chu.

Thanks to "Book Friend 160219031748846" for the monthly ticket support!

I had a high fever before the New Year and felt unwell, so I stopped updating for a long time. I had intended to resume after the New Year when things had settled down. Thank you all for your recent recommendations and monthly votes. It makes my conscience condemned o(*￣︶￣*)o I really couldn't bear it, so I just finished telling the story of the fall of Southern Chu, and then I can tell the stories of Huainan (Southern Wu, Southern Tang) and Khitan in turn, and then I can get back on track and tell the story of the wisest ruler of the Five Dynasties - Emperor Shizong Chai Rong, followed by the Chenqiao Rebellion and the unification of the Song Dynasty. Our book is also coming to an end.

Finally, I wish all book lovers good luck in the Year of the Tiger!
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(End of this chapter)