History of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms

Chapter 800: Clean the House and Treat Guests (Part )
3. Western Expedition to Shu
Since the "Jin-Liao War", the main enemy of the Central Plains was the Khitan, and the main focus was on the Hebei region, while the western territories were out of reach. Therefore, the Later Shu took advantage of the situation and successively seized the states of Ji, Cheng, Qin, and Feng. It not only pushed the border northward to Dasan Pass, but also tried to go out of the pass many times to try to annex Fengxiang, Chang'an and other places.

In the first month of the second year of Xian De (955), Hou Shu set up the Weiwu Army in Fengzhou. This move greatly stimulated Chai Rong. Coincidentally, enthusiastic citizens of Qinzhou made a special trip to Bianzhou to request the royal army to recover their homeland and presented a plan to attack Shu. As a result, Chai Rong began to take action.

When the news came, Meng Chang of the Later Shu sent his confidant Zhao Jizha to inspect the border. After a field investigation, Zhao Jizha reported to Meng Chang that Han Jixun, the military governor of Qinzhou Xiongwu Army, and Wang Wandi, the governor of Fengzhou, were not talented generals and were not suitable.

Meng Chang also believed that Han Jixun could not resist the powerful Zhou army, so he asked Zhao Jizha: "Then in your opinion, who can resist the Zhou army?"

Zhao Jizha patted his chest and said, "Of course it's me!"

Therefore, Meng Chang appointed Zhao Jizha as the military supervisor of the Qinzhou Xiongwu Army, and sent a thousand elite Central Imperial Guards as his own troops to the Qin and Feng battlefields. He also ordered the Privy Councilor Wang Zhaoyuan to inspect the strategic reserves of border city defenses and weapons and supplies to prepare for a major war.

In April, on the recommendation of Prime Minister Wang Pu, Chai Rong sent Chenzhou Zhen'an Army Jiedushi Xiang Xun and Fengxiang Jiedushi Wang Jing to lead troops to attack Qin and Feng.

On May 5, Wang Jing left Dasan Pass and headed straight for Qinzhou. He captured eight strongholds in one go, and marched straight to the city of Qinzhou as if he were in an empty land.

Didn’t Comrade Zhao Jizha vow to resist the Zhou army? Where is he?
This man boasted in front of Meng Chang, the ruler of Shu, and then led his troops northward, but when he heard that the Zhou army had entered the country, he actually abandoned his troops and turned around and ran to Chengdu. The only order he issued was to send someone to escort his concubines and gold and silver treasures back to Chengdu. Apart from that, only Zhao Jizha rode away.

Zhao Jizha's hasty return soon caused great panic in Chengdu City. People thought they had suffered a great defeat, just like when the Later Tang Dynasty conquered the Former Shu Dynasty. The military and civilians were terrified.

Meng Chang hurriedly summoned Zhao Jizha and asked him about the war on the front line.

Zhao Jizha had never been to the front line, so he knew nothing about anything. This made Meng Chang furious, and he immediately ordered him to be thrown into prison and executed soon after.

The ones who actually arrived at the front line and engaged in a firefight with the Zhou army were the second echelon of Hou Shu, including Li Yangui, Gao Yanchou and others.

Li Yangui and others defeated the Zhou army outside Fengzhou City and captured Puzhou Governor Hu Li.

What’s interesting is that the uniforms of the Later Shu army were all embroidered with axe patterns. The meaning was certainly not the Axe Gang, but “breaking firewood”. Because the Zhou lord’s surname was Chai, the Later Shu had to use axes to chop firewood.

The Later Zhou Dynasty was in a state of great power due to the Battle of Gaoping. Meng Chang did not dare to neglect it and sent envoys to contact the Southern Tang and Northern Han, two mortal enemies of the Later Zhou Dynasty, to agree to jointly send troops to attack the Later Zhou Dynasty. The Southern Tang and Northern Han agreed.

The war between Qin and Feng dragged on until July.

The officials of the Later Zhou believed that Wang Jing and his men had been unsuccessful for a long time and that the supply was insufficient. Once the war turned into a protracted war of attrition, it would only drag down the Later Zhou. They firmly demanded that the losses be stopped in time and the troops be withdrawn.

These officials were short-sighted, which disappointed Chai Rong. Therefore, Chai Rong sent a trusted general to inspect the front line. This general was Zhao Kuangyin.

Zhao Kuangyin certainly understood what Chai Rong meant, so he quickly submitted a research report: I think it’s okay!
Chai Rong nodded with relief, and the war continued.

Since the "Battle of Gaoping", Chai Rong has seriously reorganized the army, and his personal experience on the battlefield has made him firmly believe that there are no battles that cannot be fought, only generals who dare not fight.

Zhao Kuangyin's visit to the front line also implied his intention to supervise the battle. Wang Jing, Xiang Xun and others felt unprecedented pressure, so they moved forward vigorously, their fighting potential was fully stimulated, and they defeated the Hou Shu army in August, capturing 8 soldiers alive.

Meng Chang of Later Shu continued to increase his troops in an attempt to turn the tables.

In September, Li Yangui, a general of the Later Shu Dynasty, divided his troops into three groups. He used the main force of the central army to guard Malingzhai to contain Zhou's army, and sent special forces out of Xiegu for a surprise attack. He then divided his troops to bypass Tangcang Town and Huanghua Valley in the north of Fengzhou to cut off Zhou's army's food supply.

Wang Jing, a general of the Later Zhou Dynasty, countered the enemy's tactics and used his own tactics to defeat the enemy. He did not rush to seize control of the grain route north of Fengzhou, but instead sent troops to cut off the retreat of the Shu army.

Trying to fish, but being caught by the fish instead. Hou Shu hurriedly sent troops to rescue, while Hou Zhou took advantage of its rest to surround the enemy and attack the reinforcements, defeating the Shu troops in Huanghua Valley. The Shu troops were panicked and fled to Tangcang Town, where they were caught and beaten by Hou Zhou again, with more than 3,000 captured. After hearing the news of the defeat on the front line, the Shu troops in Xiegu and Malingzhai also fled.

Li Yangui, Gao Yanchou and others retreated to Qingniling; while Han Jixun, the governor of Qinzhou Xiongwu Army, took the initiative to abandon the city and fled back to Chengdu in one breath.

Zhao Xun, the Observation Judge of Qinzhou, summoned the officers and staff who stayed behind and said that the Zhou army was invincible, and today, the court (Hou Shu) sent the most elite soldiers and brave generals in the country. What will be the result? We will be defeated in one battle, either die or flee. If we can't make the right choice in time, our lives will be in danger.

So, under the leadership of Zhao Yan, Qinzhou opened its gates and surrendered. Later, Jiezhou and Chengzhou also surrendered voluntarily.

The whole country of Hou Shu was shocked.

Li Yangui and others submitted a petition to plead guilty, and Meng Chang comforted them with kind words and pardoned them all.

Meng Chang showed his tough side. He requisitioned food and supplies from all over the country and transported them to Jianmen Pass and Baidi City. He also recruited soldiers and built a second line of defense against the Zhou army.

In addition to gathering grass and storing grain, recruiting soldiers and buying horses, Meng Chang also formulated wartime financial reform policies, which will be discussed in the special topic of Hou Shu later. At this point, it is only necessary to know that the "Qin-Feng War" brought great shock to Hou Shu.

In fact, Meng Chang's operation was somewhat redundant, because Chai Rong's strategic goal was different from that of Li Cunxu. Chai Rong did not intend to swallow up the Later Shu, and now was not the right time. The strategic intention of this war was to recover Jie, Cheng, Qin, and Feng, and restore the old territory. The "old" here only refers to the territory of the Central Plains Dynasty during the Later Tang Dynasty, that is, to take back the territory that was stolen by the Later Shu after the "Mingzong Prosperous Era".

Meng Chang wrote a letter to Chai Rong, asking for reconciliation. In the letter, Meng Chang called himself "Emperor of Great Shu". Chai Rong took advantage of the situation and refused to reply. As a result, "the Lord of Shu became more frightened".

In fact, the reason for refusing to seek peace was certainly not the "Great Emperor of Shu", but because Fengzhou was still resisting stubbornly. The Later Zhou Dynasty had not yet achieved its strategic task, so of course it could not cease fire.

When it came to November, Wang Jing and his men finally captured Fengzhou and captured alive 11 soldiers including Wang Huan (who surrendered after being forced) and Zhao Chongpu, the governor of Fengzhou Weiwu Army of Hou Shu.

Chai Rong treated the captives well, saying that those who were willing to go home would be provided with travel expenses and resettlement expenses by the Later Zhou, and those who were willing to stay would be incorporated into the Later Zhou army. Among them, the chief eunuch Zhao Chongpu died of hunger strike.

At this point, Chai Rong achieved his strategic goal and easily and happily recovered the four states of Jie, Cheng, Qin and Feng, which greatly shocked the counter-revolutionary group of Hou Shu and made the military and civilians of Hou Shu terrified of Later Zhou from then on.

4. Strengthen the Central Plains
In April of the second year of Xian De (955), Chai Rong issued an edict to build the outer city on all four sides of Bianzhou.

In order not to affect the farming season, Chai Rong issued an edict saying that construction should not begin until the winter when farming was slack. If the project could not be completed before winter plowing, then winter plowing would be the priority and the city building work could be postponed to the next year.

Since the construction was not started until winter, why did the order come out in spring? Because Chai Rong had to do the demolition work and protect the interests of the people as much as possible during the demolition work.

The construction team first erected eye-catching markers at the red line outside the city based on the drawings. The planned streets, government warehouses and other important locations were also marked within the markers, which is equivalent to today's engineering planning map.

Then he told the people that from today on, new graves must be buried seven miles outside the red line; within the red line, houses can be built at will, avoiding established government agencies and military strongholds.

The surveying and mapping work was immediately carried out and everything went smoothly.

In the first month of the third year of Xian De (956), an imperial decree was issued to mobilize men from neighboring counties and prefectures such as Bianzhou, Caozhou, Huazhou, and Zhengzhou to build the city of Bianzhou.

Note that the conscription was for the prefectures and counties adjacent to Kaifeng Prefecture. According to the Jiuyu Zhi, "Kaifeng Prefecture is 115 li west of Zhengzhou, 100 li north of Huazhou, and 145 li northeast of Caozhou." Based on this demarcation, Chenzhou and Xuzhou were also within the conscription range. So why were the men from Chenzhou and Xuzhou not conscripted? I'll keep you in suspense here for now, and the answer will be revealed later.

One hundred thousand men worked hard to build the city, and soon completed the expansion work, making Bianzhou four times its original size! This greatly improved Bianzhou's military defense capabilities.

In addition to expanding the city, Chai Rong also launched water conservancy projects across the country, such as dredging the Bian River.

Since the collapse of the Bian River in the late Tang Dynasty, the southeast of Yongqiao has become a swamp. Chai Rong issued an edict to mobilize civilians to rebuild the dam and dredge the river all the way to Sishui.

At that time, all the ministers were opposed to it. The reason was simple: this project was huge, costly and labor-intensive, and it was not necessary and a thankless task.

Chai Rong smiled slightly and said, "In a few years, we will definitely reap the benefits."

After these measures, the overall strength of the Later Zhou Dynasty was unprecedentedly improved, enough to support a large-scale war. As a result, Emperor Shizong of the Later Zhou Dynasty, Chai Rong, started his highlight moment - Emperor Shizong's expedition to Huai River.

(End of this chapter)