History of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms

Chapter 760 "Affair"

[Infidelity]

At the beginning of Li Jing's reign, the "Four Evils and Five Demons" had already begun to show their signs, and we can foresee the chaotic domestic situation, and the detailed party struggles will be described in detail later. The international situation during Li Jing's reign provided the Southern Tang with external opportunities, which were referred to as "affairs".

However, Li Jing, who had great ambitions but little talent, successfully turned the opportunity into a crisis with the assistance of the "Five Ghosts and Four Evils".

1. Novice tasks

As soon as Li Jing came to power, he faced his first external challenge. History is fair, and under this fair and friendly matching mechanism, Li Jing was given a novice village mission - the thief leader Zhang Yuxian.

In July 942 AD, a strange thing happened in Boluo County, Xunzhou, Southern Han (now Boluo County, Guangdong Province). It was said that a god had descended to the earth, and people could only hear his voice but not see his body, so local people went to ask him to predict good or bad luck. Obviously, this was someone pretending to be a god to defraud money.

Zhang Yuxian, a temporary worker in the county government, believed it firmly and became one of the devout believers.

At that time, there were civil uprisings in various parts of Xunzhou, but there was a lack of unified leadership and the people were in disarray. So the leaders of various tribes came to ask the gods for divination, fortune-telling, and predictions of the future. At this time, the gods told them that this Zhang Yuxian was their king!

As a result, everyone unanimously supported Zhang Yuxian to become emperor, calling him "the King of the Eight Kingdoms of Zhongtian", and changed the reign title to "Yongle", setting up civil and military officials. Zhang Yuxian, a temporary worker in the county government, suddenly became "Emperor Yongle".

The originally loosely organized bandits from all over the country immediately united closely around the insurgent army with Comrade Zhang Yuxian as the core, and carried out large-scale looting in the coastal areas of Guangdong. Soon, the size of the group grew to tens of thousands of people. All of them wore red clothes and were called "Red Army Sons."

However, Zhang Yuxian had no great talent or strategy. He understood neither military affairs nor politics. Although his troops were large in number, they were still only engaged in robbery and were just a group of seemingly organized loose sand.

Soon, the rebel group in Boluo County shook the government and the country. The Southern Han Emperor Liu Hongdu (son of Liu Yan) immediately dispatched troops and sent his younger brothers Liu Hongchang and Liu Honggao to lead a group to suppress the rebellion.

Unexpectedly, the two princes were not strong enough and lost the first battle. They were besieged by the mob of rebels and were almost captured alive. As a result, the rebels gained momentum and occupied most of the territory in the eastern part of Southern Han.

After returning from the defeated army, Liu Hongchang did a big thing: he killed the king.

In March 943, Liu Hongchang launched a palace coup, murdered Liu Hongdu, and then supported Liu Hongxi to succeed him. The story of the Southern Han will also be opened in a special topic later, so I will just briefly mention it here.

After the palace coup, the Southern Han court faced a political purge and everyone was in danger. This was a great opportunity for the rebels such as Zhang Yuxian to seize power.

However, Zhang Yuxian's victory in the first battle was purely a fluke. He did not have enough ambition and strength. Soon, Zhang Yuxian's troops were defeated in Xunzhou. Afterwards, Zhang Yuxian prayed to the gods and asked for guidance.

The gods told him: If he could capture Qianzhou, his great cause would be accomplished.

Qianzhou was the territory of Southern Tang at that time. Under the guidance of the gods, Zhang Yuxian led his more than 100,000 troops northward and crossed the border into the territory of Southern Tang.

Jia Kuanghao, the governor of the Baisheng Army of Qianzhou, was caught off guard, lost cities and territory, and was defeated. Qianzhou City was forced to enter a state of emergency, with the city gates closed 24 hours a day, and at the same time sent a letter to the central government for help.

Zhang Yuxian praised the immortal's miraculous strategy, so he built a palace in Baiyun Cave, established the Baiyun Cave Revolutionary Base, and then sent his men to plunder everywhere.

In October 943, after receiving emergency news from the border, Li Jing sent Hongzhou general Yan En (also known as "Yan Si") to rescue Qianzhou, and appointed Tongshi Sheren Bian Hao as military supervisor.

Bian Hao used Bai Changyu, a native of Qianzhou, as his think tank and achieved victory repeatedly.

Zhang Yuxian used his best skill - asking the gods. Perhaps the gods were out of service area, or the cross-border signal was not good. In short, the gods did not give Zhang Yuxian any more instructions. Zhang Yuxian and his men were terrified, their morale was unstable, and they were on the verge of collapse.

At this time, under the guidance of Bai Changyu, Bian Hao crossed mountains and rivers, appeared behind Zhang Yuxian's defense line like a ghost, and launched an unexpected attack.

Zhang Yuxian then abandoned his people and fled for his life like a headless fly. He was captured alive by his subordinates and then surrendered to the Southern Tang army. Zhang Yuxian and his key members Huang Boxiong, Cao Jingquan and others were taken to Shengzhou and beheaded in public.

"Zhang Yuxian's Rebellion" was a gift package for Li Jing, and he easily scored full marks. After the rebellion was quelled, the commander-in-chief Yan En was promoted to governor of Haizhou, the military supervisor Bian Hao was promoted to the commander of all the troops in the Hongzhou garrison, and the governor of Qianzhou, Jia Kuanghao, was demoted to Chizhou, a gathering place for internet celebrities.

From then on, Bian Hao stepped onto the historical stage and entered the public eye. A few years later, it was this man who annexed Southern Chu.

The "Zhang Yuxian Rebellion" fueled Li Jing's confidence and ambition, and laid the groundwork for his painful lessons in the future.

2. Transition animation

After Li Jing ascended the throne, he sent Gongcheng Rong across the sea to visit Khitan.

Gongcheng Rong, whose ancestral home is Xiangzhou, Hebei Province, "Gongcheng" was originally an ancient title of nobility, the eighth level of the twenty levels of nobility. One of his ancestors was granted the title of "Gongcheng", and later generations took this as their surname.

Huainan and Khitan were not adjacent to each other. If they went by land, they had to cross the Central Plains (Later Jin). As early as the time of Xu Zhigao, they had asked the Later Jin to allow them to pass through the Huainan area, but the Later Jin flatly refused. The Later Jin did not dare to offend the Khitan, so the Khitan envoys could swagger through the border to Huainan, such as the Gao Ba envoys mentioned above.

If the Huainan envoys wanted to visit Khitan, they had to sail from today's Jiangsu, bypass the Shandong Peninsula, and land in Liaoning. This route was extremely dangerous, with strong winds and high waves, and shipwrecks often occurred. Historical records show that the mortality rate from Zhejiang to Shandong was 50%, not to mention bypassing Shandong and going to the farther Liaoning.

Therefore, after Gongcheng Rong successfully sailed across the sea and arrived in Khitan, he was warmly welcomed and treated with great hospitality by the Khitan people.

The next year, Gong Chengrong sent someone to deliver a secret letter engraved on a wax ball to report on this diplomatic work.

When we carefully look at this work report and compare it with the events mentioned in it, we can come to a reasonable inference that Gong Chengrong not only sent this work report, but also sent many copies in the future, because the time span of the events mentioned in the letter is quite large, and even mentions the Khitan's "Huoshendian Incident" (the incident occurred in September 951 AD).

Therefore, according to Lu You's "History of the Southern Tang Dynasty", Gongcheng Rong visited Khitan in 951 AD.

However, according to the records of "Spring and Autumn Annals of the Ten Kingdoms", Li Jing ordered Gong Chengrong to visit at the beginning of his reign (943).

Maybe he visited once in 943 and once in 951. It doesn’t matter. There is no need to go into details about the specific time and number of visits. Their impact on the historical process is the same.

According to Gong Chengrong's report, they set out in June and it took more than half a year to reach their destination. The Khitan people welcomed them warmly and welcomed them from afar. "More than a hundred ox carts and saddled horses were stationed along the way." They were received with extremely high courtesies. Although they only represented a small local separatist regime (Southern Tang), the Khitan emperor entertained them with the same standards as he had used to welcome the suzerain state (Tang Dynasty) in the past (such as the old ritual), and the Khitan emperor even toasted him personally.

Among them, the detail of the Khitan emperor toasting him was recorded in detail: "He poured a jade cup of wine, sipped it himself first, and then persuaded his ministers to drink, from dawn to dinner." He drank all day long. After that, the Khitan emperor sent his confidants to comfort him every day and gave him a banquet every three days. His favor was extraordinary.

As mentioned above, the specific time and frequency do not need to be studied in detail. Because between 943 and 944 AD, the "Jin-Liao War" had just begun; and between 951 and 952 AD, it was the time when the conflict between Khitan and the Later Zhou broke out. In other words, no matter when Gongcheng Rong visited, it was the time when Khitan urgently needed to form an alliance with the Southern Tang.

Attacking the Central Plains from both the north and the south was a common need for both the Khitan and the Southern Tang. In the south, the only force that was willing and capable of being an enemy of the Central Plains was the Huainan force (Southern Tang), while other forces, such as the Southern Chu and Wuyue, had always been vassals of the Central Plains. Therefore, the Southern Tang was the only force that the Khitan could rely on in the south to contain the Central Plains.

However, the "Huai-Liao Alliance" was loose and had different goals. The Southern Tang Dynasty and the Khitan Dynasty were not in harmony in attacking the Central Plains. It was in the best interests of the Southern Tang Dynasty to contain the Central Plains through the Khitan so that the Southern Tang Dynasty could have the energy to unify southern China. Therefore, the most desirable scenario for the Southern Tang Dynasty was that the Khitan and the Central Plains remained in a state of hostility and static. If a war broke out, it would be best if both sides were to suffer. After the Southern Tang Dynasty unified southern China, it would come back to take advantage of the conflict between the snipe and the clam and kill them all.

In general, for a long time, Khitan and Southern Tang maintained a certain tacit understanding, that is, they solemnly declared that the two sides were in a long-term strategic partnership and an unbreakable alliance. If one side needed help, the other side would always provide all support except help.

This kind of relationship requires almost no effort to manage, and does not require the ruler to have any superb tactics. In other words, this is a beginner's gift package that is easier than "Zhang Yuxian's Rebellion", a free point question, just like the transition animation.

However, Li Jing also regarded it as his own great achievement, a huge diplomatic achievement, and felt that he was a powerful veteran in the political arena.

(End of this chapter)