History of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms

Chapter 767 Peak Moment (Part )

Chen Jue and Feng Yanlu approached the city of Fuzhou, and both sides won and lost alternately. After the reinforcements of Wang Chongwen and Wei Cen arrived, the Southern Tang army worked together to capture the outer city of Fuzhou and temporarily gained the upper hand.

Li Renda was forced to retreat to the inner city, and then sent envoys to the Central Plains to pay tribute to the Central Plains Dynasty (Later Jin) in the hope that the Central Plains could contain the Southern Tang in the north.

At that time (September 946), the Later Jin had won two consecutive victories against the Liao. Shi Chonggui of the Later Jin was also immersed in the dream of becoming a great power. It was obviously not in the interests of the Later Jin to allow the Southern Tang, which had been against him for a long time, to easily annex the Min Kingdom. Since Fuzhou was loyal and unyielding and had its heart towards the Central Plains, the Later Jin was happy to let him become a regional wedge. Even if Fuzhou could not contain the Southern Tang, it could at least disgust the Southern Tang. Therefore, the Later Jin readily accepted Li Renda's request to become a vassal and appointed him as the governor of the Fuzhou Weiwu Army, with the title of prime minister (Tongpingzhangshi), and in charge of the affairs of the Min Kingdom.

Far water cannot quench near thirst. There were thousands of mountains and rivers between the Later Jin Dynasty and Fuzhou, so it was impossible to send troops directly to the battlefield in Fuzhou. Moreover, the Later Jin Dynasty was on the eve of the third "Jin-Liao War" at that time, and it was impossible to "encircle Wei to save Zhao" and attack the Southern Tang in Huaibei. Li Renda was like a drowning man, not letting go of any life-saving straw, but he finally found the right way out - Wuyue Kingdom.

Some of the defenders of Fuzhou defected and led the Southern Tang army into the city. Li Renda's confidants led only a hundred people to fight desperately, but they were outnumbered. After the outer city fell, they also lost the second city, leaving only the last line of defense - the inner city. Li Renda then urgently submitted to the Wuyue Kingdom and requested for reinforcements.

Fuzhou was already in danger. At this time, a mutiny broke out in Zhangzhou. Liu Congxiao, the governor of Quanzhou, sent troops to suppress the mutiny and expelled the mutinous army. He then recommended Dong Sian as the governor of Zhangzhou, and Li Jing approved it. Dong Sian's father was named Dong Zhang, and "Zhang" and "Zhang" are homophones. Dong Sian therefore resolutely declined. Li Jing then changed the name of Zhangzhou to "Nanzhou". Dong Sian then accepted the appointment as the governor of Nanzhou. For the convenience of narration, this book will always refer to it as "Zhangzhou".

Li Jing ordered Dong Sian and Liu Cong's Efficiency Department to reinforce Fuzhou.

In October 946 AD, troops from all over the Southern Tang gathered in Fuzhou with great momentum.

At the same time, Wuyue State, which received Li Renda's urgent call for help, fell into a heated discussion. The civil and military officials unanimously opposed sending troops to rescue. There were two main reasons: First, the mountains were high and the roads were long and the pits were deep. Who would dare to draw his sword and mount his horse? We don't have General Peng; second, the Southern Tang army was approaching the city, and Li Renda only had the inner city to resist stubbornly. Maybe it would fall before our reinforcements arrived, and it would be too late.

Only Comrade Shuiqiu Zhaoquan, the Chief Supervisor of the Internal Affairs Bureau, firmly advocated sending troops to rescue.

Finally, the highest leader of Wuyue State, Comrade Qian Hongzuo, had a far-sighted vision and told the ministers not to limit themselves to the present, as we still have poetry and distant places. We should take a long-term view, as Wuyue State and Fuzhou are closely related, and saving Fuzhou is saving ourselves. The discussion at this meeting was very similar to the great decision of New China to "resist the US and aid Korea".

With Qian Hongzuo's strong promotion, the "Anti-Huai and Aid to Fujian" operation demonstrated amazing execution. Two days after Li Renda's envoy arrived in Hangzhou, the 30,000-strong Wu Yue army had divided into two routes, by land and sea, to rush to Fuzhou, racing against time.

In late November, reinforcements from the Wuyue Kingdom arrived in Fuzhou and joined forces with Li Renda, but Fuzhou was still surrounded and the situation was not optimistic.

However, it has been a full month since the Southern Tang conquered the outer city and the second city in succession and squeezed Li Renda into the small inner city. If we refer to the comparison of troop strength and the combat effectiveness in the early stage, then the lack of progress in this month seems quite strange. It is obvious that the friendly forces were letting Li Renda go.

I am not afraid of god-like opponents, but I am afraid of teammates who are like pigs. Li Renda may not be a real god, but the friendly forces of Nan Tang are real pigs.

On the Fuzhou front, the nominal commander-in-chief of the Southern Tang army was Wang Chongwen, the governor of Jianzhou Yong'an Army, but the friendly troops did not listen to his orders at all:

Chen Jue, Wei Cen, and Feng Yanlu, with the halo of "Five Demons and Four Evils", did not obey Wang Chongwen's command at all;

Liu Congxiao, a former surrendered general of the Min Kingdom, was appointed the new governor of Quanzhou and secretly controlled Zhangzhou. At this time, he wanted to use the chaos in Fuzhou to attract the attention of the central government of Southern Tang, so as to split Quanzhou and Zhangzhou. Therefore, he deliberately let the enemy go and nurtured the enemy for his own benefit. Later, the development was just as he expected.
Wang Jianfeng, a rising star in the military arena, conquered Jianzhou and captured Wang Yanzheng. Wang Jianfeng was the first to climb the wall of Jianzhou. At this time, he was arrogant and unruly, and refused to obey discipline...

Wang Chongwen was unable to control the troops. Although the Southern Tang army was large, they were like a pile of loose sand, fighting on their own, each with his own trumpet, playing his own tune, and fighting was even worse than a wolf or a dog. What's more, there were people like Liu Congxiao who were malicious and deliberately gave away their heads, trying to make the friendly army lose.

So after a month of siege by the Southern Tang army, there was no progress. Li Renda lived in the inner city, waiting for reinforcements from the Wuyue Kingdom and hope.

The Southern Tang army spent a month, another month, and another month under the city of Fuzhou...all the way until February of the following year (947).

During these months, a major event occurred in the Central Plains: the Khitans won the third "Jin-Liao War" and invaded Bianzhou in one fell swoop. Shi Chonggui was captured and taken north, and the Later Jin Dynasty was destroyed. This event had a huge impact on Huainan.

First, the Southern Tang Dynasty was in a very passive position in its foreign policy towards the Khitan. The two countries had maintained close and friendly diplomatic relations for a long time, and had always cooperated on the basis of attacking the Central Plains from the north and south and dividing the Central Plains. When the Khitan went south to destroy the Jin Dynasty, they had sent a sincere invitation to the Southern Tang Dynasty, asking Li Jing to fulfill their previous oath of loyalty and to meet in Bianzhou.

However, Nan Tang was like every other scumbag, "I will definitely do it next time."

To be honest, it was not that Li Jing did not want to fulfill his promise, but the battle in Fuzhou took up most of the Southern Tang's energy, and it was really too busy to do anything else. But in any case, the Southern Tang played a spectator in the process of the Khitan destroying the Jin Dynasty.

Now that the Khitan had succeeded, the Southern Tang had lost morally and was at a disadvantage in future diplomacy.

Secondly, the friendly relationship between the Southern Tang and the Khitan was based on a common enemy. The Central Plains Dynasty was both a strategic buffer and a bond of friendship and intimacy between the two sides. Now, the two countries have lost the basis for friendly cooperation, but the risks of conflict of interests, military friction, and political confrontation have increased. The transformation from friend to enemy is quietly happening.

The Khitan sent envoys to visit the Southern Tang to announce the destruction of the Jin Dynasty. This diplomatic visit has many different records in the historical records, all of which are very interesting:
"Ten Kingdoms Spring and Autumn Annals": "In this month (February 947), the Khitan came to announce their victory in destroying the Jin Dynasty and asked for a meeting on the border, but I declined."

"会联盟于境上", translate, translate, what does "会联盟于境上" mean? Give me a fucking translation, what the fucking ...
The ancients were very reserved. Whether they were threatening, intimidating, slandering or insulting, they were always elegant. Even when declaring war, they would not use foul language. For example, after Cao Cao annexed Jingzhou, he wrote to Sun Quan, "I have 800,000 naval forces and will hunt with you in Wu."

After we have sorted out the Southern Tang’s passivity in diplomacy and its military and political crises, let’s look at this sentence “meeting at the border” and think about it carefully.

Of course, Jiangnan Wild History and Ma Ling's edition of Southern Tang History have unique records of this "alliance":
"The Khitan sent two envoys to report that the young ruler of Jin had disobeyed the order and broken the agreement... and was about to enthrone you as the ruler of the Central Plains. The successor ruler said: 'I have defended the Yangtze and Huai Rivers, and the country is secure...' Then he sighed and said: 'The Min people are exhausted from the war, can they compete with China?'"

The general idea is that Liao Taizong Yelu Deguang sent two envoys to explain to Li Jing that the reason why Jin was destroyed was because Shi Chonggui was a scumbag, and that he actually hoped to restore the relationship between the Tang Dynasty and Khitan. Since Comrade Li Jing was a member of the Tang Dynasty royal family, he asked Li Jing to be the ruler of the Central Plains and restore the territory of the prosperous Tang Dynasty... Then Li Jing humbly said that he would be satisfied if he could govern Huainan well. If Yelu Deguang really did not forget the good and cherished the memory of the Tang Dynasty, he asked him to treat the people of the Central Plains well. As for the rest, he did not dare to hope for anything else. Then he lamented that he was actually trapped in the war in Fuzhou, so he was unable to compete for the Central Plains.

Undoubtedly, this is a forced flattery of Li Jing. Without further explanation, a glance at authoritative historical books such as "History of Liao" and "Zizhi Tongjian" will show you how absurd and narcissistic this record is! It is simply stinky, not just stinky, it is simply stinky.

Li Jing politely declined the Khitan's invitation to "meet in the border" and sent Zhang Yi, a doctor of the Ministry of Works (recorded in "Jiangnan Wild History" as Jia Tan, the Minister of War, and recorded in Ma Ling's version of "History of the Southern Tang" as Jia Tan, the Vice Minister of War) to pay a return visit. He first congratulated the Khitan on conquering the Jin Dynasty and then made a small request: As a member of the Li Tang royal family, please allow me to send people to Chang'an to repair the imperial tombs.

As Li Jing lamented, he was trapped in the war in Fuzhou and unable to conquer the Central Plains, but he could use this method to make his presence felt in the Central Plains and tell the old and young in Chang'an and even the entire Central Plains: The Tang Dynasty is not dead! The Li Tang clan has established a firm foothold in Huainan. They come back to repair the tomb today and come back to sit in the palace tomorrow!

The Khitans flatly rejected this request.

The Khitan's conquest of the Jin Dynasty left those who had once offended the Khitan with lingering fears, and they chose to flee to avoid disaster. For example, Huangfu Hui, the governor of Mizhou, and Wang Jian, the governor of Dizhou, fled across the Huai River and defected to the Southern Tang. Many militias and guerrillas on the north bank of the Huai River who were unwilling to submit to the Khitan also expressed their willingness to accept the Southern Tang's amnesty.

As a result, a large number of "war factions" emerged within the Southern Tang court, represented by Han Xizai. Han Xizai wrote in a memorial that now was the best time to revive the Tang Dynasty, because although the Khitan had destroyed the Later Jin Dynasty, it lacked a mass base in the Central Plains. The resistance sentiment among civil and military generals and ordinary people was high, and the Khitan was bound to not last long. At this time, the Northern Expedition was in line with the will of heaven and the people, and the great cause could be accomplished. If the opportunity was missed, an anti-Liao leader would surely emerge in the Central Plains, who would integrate the anti-Liao forces and eventually unify the Central Plains. By then, the Southern Tang would face a powerful enemy in the north.

Han Xizai's prediction was very accurate. In that month (February), Hedong Jiedushi Liu Zhiyuan raised the banner of anti-Liao rebellion and four months later, he took control of Bianzhou.

Li Jing and his ministers agreed with Han Xizai's opinion very much, but the war in Fuzhou made them powerless and they missed the opportunity.

When it came to March, the Wu Yue Kingdom sent reinforcements to Baixiapu, south of Fuzhou.

(End of this chapter)