History of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms

Chapter 77 The Court is Weak
[Don't look at me as just a sheep]

Wang Rong's Chengde army encountered the reinforcements led by Li Keyong himself. The result is self-evident: the Chengde army was defeated by Li Keyong. There is no need to elaborate.

Li Keju sent General Li Quanzhong to lead 60,000 Lulong troops to attack Yizhou. Yizhou closed the city and held out to wait for reinforcements. No matter how Li Quanzhong provoked the enemy, the defenders of Yizhou refused to leave.

At this time, a junior officer volunteered to say that he had a plan to break into the city. His name was Liu Rengong, and his plan was to dig a tunnel and enter the city.

Under the command of Liu Rengong, the Youzhou soldiers successfully captured Yizhou City by digging tunnels under the cover of night. Liu Rengong was therefore given a resounding nickname - "Liu Kutou".

Li Quanzhong was very proud and enjoyed the joy after the victory.

He underestimated the enemy.

He was fighting against Wang Chucun, who was by no means an ordinary man. After Huang Chao invaded Chang'an, Wang Chucun judged the situation and acted flexibly. He sent troops to Chang'an without waiting for the imperial edict to be issued. Later, the elite force "White Head Army" led by him was not only one of the first troops to invade Chang'an, but also the only one to escape unscathed after a counterattack.

Wang Chucun was loyal and righteous, brave and resourceful. Li Quanzhong was able to capture Yizhou mostly because they had more people and launched a surprise attack, which gave them a head start.

A rookie is a rookie after all, and soon, Wang Chucun will teach him a lesson on how to behave himself.

Wang Chucun sent out three thousand elite soldiers, all covered with sheepskin, and took advantage of the cover of night to rush towards Yizhou City in groups.

The background music at this time is very cheerful, "Pleasant Goat, Beautiful Goat... Don't look at me as just a sheep..."

The soldiers guarding the city saw it from afar and, without knowing whether it was real or not, naively thought they had picked up a lost sheep. They were overjoyed, opened the city gates, and rushed out of the city to grab the fat sheep.

When I got closer, I was surprised to find that the sheep had become spirits and they stood up!

In this way, Wang Chucun recaptured Yizhou and drove away the Lulong Corps led by Li Quanzhong.

You can dig tunnels, and I can COS sheep. The short battle for Yizhou left a wonderful page in my country's military history.

Li Quanzhong gathered the remaining troops and returned to Youzhou in a depressed mood. In order to avoid the serious crime of defeat, Li Quanzhong decided to go all out and directly launched the "Youzhou Mutiny" to attack Li Keju who had defected to Youzhou City.

Li Keju, the governor of Lulong Army, never expected this result. In desperation, he and his entire family burned themselves to death.

So Li Quanzhong took over Youzhou and called himself the regent.
[The weak Wei Bo army of the imperial court]

Han Jian, another vassal of Hebei, had previously launched a war of annexation against the Tianping Army of Yunzhou. Cao Quanzheng, the governor of the Tianping Army, was killed in the battle, and his general Zhu Xuan led his army to resist tenaciously for half a year.

Zhuge Shuang of Heyang, who had been driven out by the Wei Bo army, took the opportunity to attack the Wei Bo army from behind. Han Jian was forced to make peace with Zhu Xuan and returned to fight Zhuge Shuang, but was defeated by him.

Later, the general of Weizhou Army, Le Xingda, launched a mutiny and killed Han Jian. The court then appointed Le Xingda as the governor of Weizhou Army, and later promoted him to the governor of Weizhou Army, and changed his name to Le Yanzhen.

Le Yanzhen and his son Le Congxun were brutal and cruel. Not long after arriving in the town, they handled a shocking case.

At first, Wang Duo was slandered by Tian Lingzi, and after being stripped of his position as commander, he was sent out as the governor of Yicheng Army in Huazhou, and became a neighbor of Zhu Wen, the governor of Xuanwu Army in Bianzhou. When Zhu Wen surrendered to the Tang Dynasty, it was Yang Fuguang and Wang Chongrong who submitted the petition, and Wang Duo finally approved it, so Wang Duo regarded himself as Zhu Wen's benefactor.

Zhu Wen was very respectful to Wang Duo, but over time, he found that Wang Duo was no longer of any use to him, so his attitude gradually became cold, and he began to covet Wang Duo's Huazhou.

Wang Duo was very tactful, so he submitted a petition to the court, requesting that he be transferred to another place to avoid becoming a victim of the mutiny.

The court appointed Wang Duo as the governor of Yichang, Cangzhou.

To get from Huazhou to Cangzhou, one has to pass through the Wei Bo Army.

Wang Duo came from a prime minister's family. He knew how to enjoy life, was extremely extravagant, and particular about ostentation. He also had many concubines. His high-profile display of wealth brought him fatal disaster.

When Wang Duo passed by Weizhou, Le Yanzhen's son Le Congxun laid an ambush and killed Wang Duo and his guests, followers and more than 300 people, and took away all of Wang Duo's mountains of gold, silver and treasures and rows of wives and concubines.

Afterwards, Le Yanzhen reported to the court that Comrade Wang Duo was ambushed by a group of unidentified robbers on his way to take up his post, and his entire family was killed.

As for this political heavyweight who had suffered such a sudden misfortune, the imperial court was unable to seek justice for him and used Le Yanzhen's memorial as the official notification.

"The imperial court was weak and could not redress the injustice, and the whole nation was distressed." - New Book of Tang

Historically, Wang Duo has been evaluated positively, and his performance in the "Huang Chao Rebellion" has been affirmed. Overall, his merits outweigh his faults. The New Book of Tang praised both Wang Duo and Zheng Ting as "talents for the country", and bluntly stated that without Zheng Ting and Wang Duo, the Tang Dynasty might have accelerated its decline.

The Complete Tang Poems includes three poems by Wang Duo. One of them was written after he recovered Chang'an, when he was squeezed out by Tian Lingzi, stripped of his title of commander-in-chief (dutong), and sent to the Yicheng Army in Huazhou. The title of the poem is "Written after the dismissal of the dutong to guard Huazhou":
Why dare I delay in employing troops? It is because of the difference in talent and favor.

The imperial edict of dethronement had been heard arriving at the palace, but the proclamation had not yet reached the entire army.

The Su Qin seal was taken off from his waist, and Fan Li's boat was waiting on the waves.

The stars are supporting the North Pole, while the weapons and armor are used to suppress Southern Yan.

The three realms of dust have met a wise leader, and the nine states of lords are ashamed of the ancient sages.

Look at the revival of the country and the great cause, if you have no way to die, you'd better return to the countryside.

In the poem, Wang Duo expressed his grievances, saying that as the commander-in-chief, he had always fulfilled his duties and never dared to fail the emperor's grace. Perhaps it was because of his lack of talent and ability that he could not repay the emperor's great grace. He then used the allusions of "Su Qin's Six Seals" and "Fan Li's Boat" to express that he had seen through the world and was willing to retire from officialdom and enjoy his old age.

I never expected that the last sentence would come true.

[The weak Zhongwu Army of the imperial court]

After Yang Fuguang's death, the "Yang faction" was purged by the "Tian faction", Yang Fugong was expelled from the court, and the "Eight Loyal and Martial Commanders" also went their separate ways. Among them, Lu Yanhong led his troops south, killing, burning, raping and looting along the way, claiming that he was going to Chengdu to meet the emperor.

When they arrived at Xingyuan Prefecture, they expelled Niu Xi, the governor of Shannan West Road, who was also one of the participants in the "Beat the Ball in Sanchuan" and a minion of the "Tian faction".

Lu Yanhong occupied Xingyuan and proclaimed himself the governor of Shannan West Road.

Wang Jian, Han Jian, Zhang Zao, Jin Hui, and Li Shitai from the "Eight Zhongwu Commanders" came to join the group, and the "Eight Zhongwu Commanders" found the organization and reunited to keep warm. Because Lu Yanhong was their leader before the "Eight Zhongwu Commanders" were formed, after losing Yang Fuguang's control, the other seven cities all gathered under the wings of their old leader Lu Yanhong.

However, Lu Yanhong was very suspicious of the seven brothers, always worried that they would launch a mutiny to seize power one day. So he appointed Wang Jian and others as governors of the states in his jurisdiction, but actually detained them by his side and did not allow them to take up their posts.

Among them, Wang Jian and Han Jian have the closest personal relationship and interact most frequently in private.

Therefore, Lu Yanhong treated Erjian especially well, and often summoned them to his bedroom to talk heart to heart and chat about the past.

But the more preferential treatment Lu Yanhong showed, the more uneasy Erjian became. They discussed privately: "The more the Marshal tries to win us over with sweet words, the more it shows that he is suspicious of us. This is a case of trying to cover up something, but it only makes it more obvious. We must be alert!"

It happened that Tian Lingzi, the leader of the "Tian Faction", secretly sent people to lure Erjian and others, using high positions and generous salaries as bait to persuade them to enter the court and work for him.

Therefore, Erjian, Zhang Zao, Jin Hui, Li Shitai and five others led thousands of troops, broke away from Lu Yanhong, fled to Chengdu, and accepted reorganization.

Tian Lingzi adopted them as his sons, first gave them rewards of tens of thousands of money, and then arranged positions for them in the central imperial guards. He allowed them to continue to lead their own troops, and the unit number was changed to "Suijia Wudu".

From then on, the "Eight Zhongwu Commanderies" of the "Yang Faction" completely collapsed, and its main force was reorganized by the "Tian Faction" into the "Five Suijia Commanderies".

Tian Lingzi was well aware of the importance of military power. He recruited 54 new regiments in Chengdu, each with 1,000 men, for a total of 54,000 men. He then reorganized them into ten armies, respectively affiliated with the Left and Right Shence Army, thus strengthening the power of the central imperial guards.

However, Tian Lingzi did not completely trust the central imperial guards, so the "Five Chiefs Accompanying the Emperor" were not included in the imperial guards, but were directly led by Tian Lingzi. The five commanders were only responsible to Tian Lingzi himself, and the "Five Chiefs Accompanying the Emperor" actually became Tian Lingzi's private armed forces.

Next, Tian Lingzi sent out the imperial army to attack Xingyuan Lu Yanhong. Lu Yanhong abandoned the city and fled, and after several twists and turns, he decided to return to Xuzhou and return to the arms of the mother of the Zhongwu Army.

Zhou Ji, the governor of Zhongwu Army, was no match for Lu Yanhong, so Lu Yanhong killed Zhou Ji, occupied Xuzhou, and proclaimed himself the regent.

"The imperial court was weak," so Lu Yanhong was appointed as the governor of Zhongwu Army.

At this time, Lu Yanhong could no longer be considered a "Yang School" figure.

First, he was no longer loyal to Yang Fuguang's group, and second, he was no longer loyal to the Tang Dynasty.

Lu Yanhong became a free adventurer, determined to conquer the Central Plains.

Thanks to old friends "feitian" and "Feitian Shenlongzhan" for their recommendation votes and support!
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(End of this chapter)