History of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms

Chapter 777 Whip the Horse, and the Horse Hursts
[Whip the horse and it will hurry]

Bian Hao's birth is accompanied by a legendary story. It is said that before he was born, his father had a strange dream in which Xie Lingyun, a famous poet and Buddhist scholar during the Northern and Southern Dynasties, came to visit him and said that he wanted to be his son. Then Bian Hao was born.

Xie Lingyun is the founder of the landscape poetry school. His mother was the granddaughter of Wang Xizhi. He inherited the title of Duke Kangle and was later demoted to Marquis Kangle. He was ordered to write the "Book of Jin" and wrote the "Xie Kangle Collection".

After Bian Hao was born, he looked somewhat similar to the man who claimed to be Xie Lingyun that his father had seen in his dream, so he was nicknamed Kangle, and regarded as the reincarnation of Xie Lingyun.

Bian Hao was born and raised in Shengzhou. When he grew up, he naturally joined Xu Zhigao's camp. Because he was smart and well-behaved, he was trusted by Xu Zhigao and was appointed as a messenger. He was Xu Zhigao's direct descendant from Shengzhou.

At the beginning of Li Jing's reign, Zhang Yuxian, the leader of the Xunzhou rebels, fled from Southern Han to Southern Tang, attacking cities and territories, with more than 100,000 rebels. Li Jing appointed Bian Hao as the military supervisor to go and fight against them.

Bian Hao cut down trees and opened up the mountains, launched a surprise attack on the bandit army from behind, captured the core leader of the bandit army alive, and defeated Zhang Yuxian's bandit army in one fell swoop. He was promoted to the Du Yuhou of all the troops stationed in Hongzhou for his merits.

In the battle of Jianzhou, Bian Hao was the general commander of the reinforcements, and he led the reinforcements from Hongzhou, Fuzhou, Xinzhou, Shezhou and other states to follow Cha Wenhui to attack Jianzhou. Cha Wenhui lost the first battle, and Li Jing sent He Jingzhu and other brave generals to support him. He Jingzhu and Bian Hao cooperated well, and finally captured Jianzhou, captured Wang Yanzheng, and then took advantage of the victory to capture Fanzhou.

After taking Jianzhou, all the generals vied for credit, but Bian Hao remained silent and said nothing.

Now, Li Jing intended to annex Southern Chu, so he placed Bian Hao in the border area, and secretly granted him the privilege of "acting at his own discretion" in the name of "Hunan Pacifier", letting him think of a way to defeat him.

Guo Wei of Later Zhou was also well aware of his difficult situation, so he frequently showed goodwill to Southern Tang. First, he publicly declared that there was no historical grudge between Later Zhou and Southern Tang, and that there was no grudge in the past or hatred in the present. He also strictly ordered the troops along the Huai River not to cross the Huai River to fight without authorization.

Why did the troops stationed along the Huai River cross the Huai River to fight? There is a story behind this. As mentioned above, Li Jing of the Southern Tang Dynasty always wanted to take advantage of the situation, showing off his power and making provocative moves by the Huai River. He also often sneaked across the Huai River to the Huaibei area to do some dirty things.

The troops stationed along the Huai River of the Later Zhou Dynasty did not cross the Huai River without authorization to invade, but were forced to fight back in self-defense.

Guo Wei did not accuse Li Jing of stealing, but instead warned his troops not to cross the border and not to intensify conflicts.

When Huainan suffered a severe famine, Guo Wei issued another decree, saying that although the two countries had not yet established diplomatic relations, people from Huainan and the Central Plains were all Chinese. In the spirit of humanitarianism, counties, docks, checkpoints along the Huai River should not prevent the hungry people from Huainan from crossing the border to buy food.

Then, Li Jing was not kind enough and actually sent people to the border to purchase a large amount of low-priced grain used by the Later Zhou for humanitarian relief and to use as strategic reserves. This forced Guo Wei to issue another decree, saying that if the hungry people in Huainan came to buy, they could continue to sell it in retail, but if large carts and large ships came to wholesale, they were not allowed to sell it!
As Liu Guangfu, the "traitor of Chu", said, Ma Xi'e's group was very fragile and extremely unstable. Just half a year after Ma Xi'e took control of Tanzhou, civil strife broke out again in Southern Chu: Wang Kui, the commander-in-chief of the Jingjiang Army, and Zhou Xingfeng, the deputy commander, launched a mutiny and took control of Langzhou. They first supported Ma Guanghui (the eldest grandson of Ma Yin, whose father was Ma Xizhen, the eldest son of Ma Yin) as the governor of Langzhou Wuping Army, but later deposed him and supported the general Liu Yan instead.

Wang Kui and Zhou Xingfeng escorted Ma Guanghui to Southern Tang, and pledged their allegiance to the Southern Tang by claiming that they were the eldest grandson of Ma Yin. They paid tribute to Ma Xi'e and created "two Chu states, one Lang and one Tan"; at the same time, they also pledged their allegiance to the Later Zhou, serving two masters, the Central Plains father and the Huainan father, and they never stopped being fathers.

As the party behind the Chu State, "two Chu States" were obviously not in the interests of Southern Tang, and Southern Tang was looking forward to more and more chaos in Southern Chu. Therefore, it flatly rejected the request of "Lang Du Second Generation" elements Wang Kui, Zhou Xingfeng, and Liu Yan, and reiterated that "one Chu State" was a broad consensus of the international community, and Southern Tang's position of recognizing "one Chu State" would not change.

Sure enough, three months later, Southern Chu was in even greater chaos: a coup d'état took place in Tanzhou, Ma Xichong seized power, and Ma Xi'e was placed under house arrest in Hengshan County.

When Liu Yan of Langzhou heard about the coup in Tanzhou, he immediately led his troops south, crying "Catch the thief!" and marched into Tanzhou in the name of suppressing rebellion; some officers loyal to Ma Xi'e launched an uprising and supported Ma Xi'e's restoration.

Now things are getting lively. Southern Chu is currently divided into three major forces: Ma Xichong of Tanzhou, Liu Yan of Langzhou, and Ma Xi'e of Hengshan.

What is very interesting is that these three forces all wanted to cling to Li Jing of the Southern Tang Dynasty and sent envoys to the Southern Tang Dynasty to request the Southern Tang Dynasty to send troops to help.

The Chu people handed the land to Li Jing, who had no choice but to take it. Li Jing gave Bian Hao an instruction: Go and take over Tanzhou!

The annexation of Southern Chu by Southern Tang was surprisingly smooth, without firing a single shot or losing a single soldier. Bian Hao led his army and marched forward as if they were in an empty land. This was not the destruction of a country, but rather the taking of office.

As soon as Bian Hao arrived in Tanzhou, a welcoming team sent by Ma Xichong came to meet him with food and drink. Ma Xichong led his family to line up outside the city to wait respectfully for Bian Hao's army. He knelt down to wait respectfully even before he saw Bian Hao's shadow, just seeing the dust in the distance, trying his best to express his obedience.

Bian Hao rode a tall horse to Ma Xichong, dismounted, helped him up, and conveyed to him Comrade Li Jing's sincere greetings and deep concern.

Later, accompanied by Ma Xichong, Bian Hao entered Tanzhou with a high and mighty air. All the officials of Hunan, from Ma Xichong on down, lined up in order, bowed to Bian Hao, and waited for his decision. Bian Hao rewarded and appeased them one by one.

At that time, Southern Chu also suffered from a severe famine. Bian Hao ordered the granaries to be opened to release grain to provide relief to the victims, so the people of Chu danced with joy and celebrated the fall of their country.

When Li Jing heard the news, he was delighted and immediately issued an edict to appoint Bian Hao as the governor of Wu'an Army in Tanzhou. Bian Hao declined the appointment, but was rejected by Li Jing.

At the same time that Bian Hao took over Tanzhou, Liu Renzhan (Liu Jin's fourth son), the governor of Wuchang Army in Ezhou, Southern Tang, led the navy to take over the strategic location of Yuezhou. Yuezhou was the junction of the Central Plains Dynasty, Huainan, and the two lakes. Controlling Yuezhou would allow them to have free rein in regional affairs.

After easily annexing Southern Chu, Southern Tang gained great momentum, and Li Jing also reached the peak of his life, never to wake up from his dream of becoming a great power.

In November 951, Ma Xi'e and Ma Xichong were taken to Southern Tang. Li Jing also showed humanitarian care to the two fallen monarchs, appointing Ma Xi'e as the governor of Jiangnan West Road and granting him the title of King of Chu; and appointing Ma Xichong as the governor of Yongtai Army in Shuzhou.

Civil and military officials came to the court to congratulate, and the flatterers all showed off their best skills.

The eunuch said that since Your Majesty ascended the throne, there has been no "event in the southern suburbs". Why not take this opportunity to hold a grand ceremony in the southern suburbs in the first month of next year?
Li Jing laughed loudly and raised his hand to gesture to the north. "Wait a little longer. After two days, I will recover my homeland and unify the world, and then I will seriously build Jiaotian."

Wei Cen, one of the "Five Demons and Four Evils", was the most proficient in flattery. He said, "When I was young, I traveled to Hebei and really liked the local customs and people there. After your majesty has pacified the Central Plains in a few days, can you reward me with the title of Jiedushi of Weizhou?"

Li Jing was overjoyed and immediately made the decision, "No problem, Jiedushi of Wei Bo, it's yours!"

Wei Cen immediately knelt on the ground and shouted "Long live the emperor", which made Li Jing grin from ear to ear.

According to historical records, since he pacified Southern Chu, Li Jing became extremely arrogant. "After conquering Chu in one fell swoop, he thought that all other countries could be conquered by his command." He believed that he could change the country and unify the world by issuing an imperial edict or posting a letter of proclamation. Wei Cen and other treacherous officials also found a shortcut to please Li Jing, which was to beg for an official position in the north, such as the governor of Weizhou. From then on, "the lord is arrogant and the ministers are flattering", and there was no stopping them.

The fortunes of the Southern Tang Dynasty were flourishing and peaceful, but in Li Jing's dream, they went from prosperity to decline, falling from a towering building into an abyss.

Facing the situation of arrogant rulers and treacherous ministers, the attendant Gao Yuan was one of the few people who kept a cool head. He said with great concern: "We took advantage of the civil unrest in Chu, which made it very easy to seize. But looking at the talents of the generals, I'm afraid it will be difficult to defend it!"

The retired veteran Li Jianxun also expressed his concerns, "The annexation of Chu is the seed of disaster for Huainan!"

(End of this chapter)