History of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms

Chapter 85 Siege of Chengdu
Chengdu was an important city in the southwest of the empire, the heart of the Xichuan war zone, and an important fortress for the Tang Empire to resist the invasion of Nanzhao and other barbarians. In the decades before this, it was surrounded by the aggressive Nanzhao invaders twice. Nanzhao claimed to have an army of 200,000, and its emperor personally led the army, but still failed to conquer it, which shows how strong Chengdu was.

Later, under the governance of Cui Anqian and Gao Pian, Chengdu City repaired its fortifications and became more powerful than when it resisted Nanzhao. Gao Pian, in particular, built a new outer city of dozens of miles, which aroused the suspicion of the court, who thought that Gao Pian wanted to establish a separatist regime in Xichuan.

Although Gao Pian's construction of the outer city of Chengdu brought him a political crisis, it is undeniable that it was under Gao Pian's leadership that Chengdu's defense capabilities were unprecedentedly improved.

Wang Jian believed that it would be difficult to capture Chengdu in a short period of time with the limited troops he had, so he planned to stop fighting and enter a stage of rest and recuperation.

Zhou Xiang and others unanimously opposed it and suggested that he turn to attack Qiongzhou, because Qiongzhou had complete fortifications and sufficient food and grass, but the garrison was sparse and easy to capture, and then develop slowly.

Wang Jian's outstanding feature is that he always maintained a clear mind with independent thinking and insights. Many warlords who came from the military often went to two extremes, either being stubborn or indecisive.

Wang Jian attached great importance to the opinions of Zhou Xiang and other advisers, but attaching importance does not mean accepting them mindlessly. He said: "I have been in the army for a long time and found a rule, that is, if the commander does not rely on the prestige of the emperor, the morale of the army will easily be weakened."

Having witnessed too many military mutinies, Wang Jian finally summed up this truth, that is, "legitimate reasons". Everything must be based on legal principles, and mobilizing troops must have a legitimate reason.

So, Wang Jian asked Zhou Xuang to draft a memorial to expose Chen Jingxuan's crimes, requesting the court to send a respected senior official to replace Chen Jingxuan, and expressed his willingness to serve as the vanguard in the campaign against Chen Jingxuan.

Subsequently, Dongchuan Gu Yanlang also cooperated in submitting a petition to support Wang Jian and demanded the removal of Chen Jingxuan in order to stabilize the two Sichuans.

The two memorials were successively delivered to the new emperor Tang Zhaozong. This was the breakthrough mentioned in the previous article for Tang Zhaozong to eliminate Tian Yan's party.

Therefore, Emperor Zhaozong of Tang took advantage of the situation and appointed Prime Minister Wei Zhaodu as the governor of Xichuan, and transferred Chen Jingxuan back to the central government.

When the news came, Chen Jingxuan and Tian Lingzi of course refused to obey the imperial edict. Obeying the imperial edict would mean death, but disobeying the imperial edict would give them a glimmer of hope. So the two brothers actively prepared for war and were ready to fight.

Tian Yan disobeyed the order and openly rebelled against the court, so Emperor Zhaozong ordered Wei Zhaodu to be the commander-in-chief of the bandit suppression (field camp recruiting envoy), Yang Shouliang, the governor of Shannan West Road, as the deputy commander-in-chief of the bandit suppression, and Gu Yanlang, the governor of Dongchuan, as the combat chief of staff (marching military Sima). He also designated Qiong, Shu, Li, and Ya as the Yongping Army, and Wang Jian as the governor of Yongping Army and the commander-in-chief of the bandit suppression (the commander-in-chief of all the troops in the field camp).

This is a brilliant move by Wang Jian!
Zhou Xiang and other counselors only focused on military affairs, but ignored politics. Before, the soldiers fought for Wang Jian, but now they fought for the emperor. To obey Wang Jian was to obey the emperor, and any violation of Wang Jian's orders was treason. Any looting and burning in Xichuan was a just military action, and it was all justice for heaven. Everyone could go to Xichuan to rob money, food, and women with a clear conscience.

At the same time, Zhaozong issued an edict to remove Chen Jingxuan from all official positions and titles.

With the backing of the central court and the military support of Yang Shouliang and others, Wang Jian's military operations in Xichuan progressed smoothly and he won battle after battle.

Chen Jingxuan sent General Yang Ru to reinforce Qiongzhou. Yang Ru climbed up the city wall to watch the battle and was shocked by the appearance and morale of Wang Jian's troops. He shook his head and sighed, "The Tang Dynasty is doomed. Look at the way Wang Jian leads his troops. He is strict but not cruel. He seems like a hero who can protect the people of the world!" Then he led his troops to surrender to Wang Jian collectively.

Wang Jian adopted Yang Ru as his adopted son and gave him the "Zong" generation name. From then on, Yang Ru had a new name, Wang Zongru.

After taking Qiongzhou, Wang Jian led his troops back to the Chengdu front and joined forces with Commander-in-Chief Wei Zhaodu to continue the siege. Wang Jian treated Wei Zhaodu with great caution and respect, and was particularly good at pretending to be a grandson.

Chen Jingxuan, who was at the end of his rope, recruited a large number of people, forced soldiers and laborers, and required that every family must provide one man to dig trenches, cut bamboo and trees, and carry stones during the day. At night, they climbed the city walls and patrolled with clappers, without a moment's rest.

In addition to forced labor, Chen Jingxuan also extorted money from the people and set up a "Talent Supervision Office" whose main job was to arrest the rich, torture them, interrogate them about their property, and then force them to pay military pay. If they concealed or hid anything, they would be severely punished.

The poor contributed their labor, the rich contributed their money. The people of Xichuan were living in poverty, and they hated the brothers Chen Jingxuan and Tian Lingzi more and more.

Mutinies broke out one after another in the prefectures and counties under the jurisdiction of Xichuan, such as Jianzhou, Zizhou, Shuzhou, Jiazhou, Rongzhou, Yazhou, etc. Most of the time, generals held officials hostage, and there were also heroes from the community who held officials hostage, and then surrendered to Wang Jian.

Under Wang Jian's strategy of "having a legitimate reason to do so", mutiny was no longer shameful, but glorious. In fact, if we were to be more hypocritical, mutiny could not be called mutiny, but uprising or surrender. Mao Xiang, the governor of Qiongzhou, was a close confidant of Tian Lingzi and was deeply favored by Tian Yan. In the predicament of no reinforcements outside and no food inside, Mao Xiang knew that the fall of the city was inevitable, so he said to his men: "I have been cultivated and loved by Tian Lingzi, so I am willing to defend the city to the death for him. But why should others suffer the pain of the siege with me? Hey... take my head and surrender to Wang Jian."

After telling his last wishes, Mao Xiang bathed, changed his clothes, and went to die bravely. His men took his and his two sons' heads and surrendered the city to Wang Jian.

At the surrender ceremony, the people of Qiongzhou, officials, and disarmed soldiers were all grateful to Mao Xiang and burst into tears.

The city defense of Chengdu was impregnable. Wei Zhaodu, Wang Jian and others led more than 100,000 people and spent three years but still failed to conquer it.

Three years of siege had resulted in food shortages in Chengdu, and the streets were filled with abandoned children and babies.

So some people started smuggling grain. They sneaked into the camp of the imperial army and smuggled grain into the city. These grain smugglers were basically civilians in Chengdu, not professionally trained agents, so they were easily caught by the imperial army patrols.

The patrol reported the situation to Commander-in-Chief Wei Zhaodu and asked for instructions on how to deal with the situation.

Wei Zhaodu was kind-hearted and said, "There are so many starving people in the city, how can we just watch them die without helping them?" He ordered that all the grain smugglers be released and not to be prosecuted for the crime of "aiding the enemy."

Some were also caught by patrol soldiers in the city and reported to the commander-in-chief Chen Jingxuan. Chen Jingxuan also chose to be tolerant and merciful. Faced with the grain smuggling, Chen Jingxuan was ashamed and said, "It's my fault that the people suffered so much. I hate that I can't save their lives. Since they can save themselves, it's great. Don't make things difficult for them in the future."

The top leaders of both the enemy and us stated that grain smuggling is legal, so more and more people are joining this business.

Even so, only a few buckets of grain could be transported to the city every day. The vendors used small bamboo tubes as containers for packaging grain. The length of the small bamboo tubes was about five centimeters and the diameter was one and a half centimeters. Such a small tube of rice cost more than one hundred coins.

I made a rough calculation and found that a barrel of rice weighs about 26.168 grams, and 26 grams costs more than one hundred coins, which is comparable to the sky-high price Huang Chao paid when he evacuated Chang'an.

Chengdu was full of starving people and corpses piled up like mountains. As a result, the tragedy of cannibalism was inevitable. Officials used a high-handed attitude to strictly prohibit killing and cannibalism, and killed the murderers without mercy, but they still could not prevent the tragedy of cannibalism from happening.

Officials then replaced beheading with more inhumane tortures, such as beheading and chopping diagonally (from the left shoulder to the right hip). People died from these tortures every day, but it still couldn't stop people from cannibalism.

In the end, the officials were in despair. Seeing that the city of Chengdu had become a living hell, the only way to save it seemed to be surrender.

Chen Jingxuan also had zero tolerance for officials with wavering wills. He arrested their entire families and tortured and killed them using all kinds of torture.

Xu Geng, the governor of Meizhou, was kind and generous, and could not bear to kill the civilians. Tian Lingzi threatened him in a sarcastic tone, "You are unwilling to kill even one person, do you have second thoughts?" Xu Geng had no choice but to bite the bullet and tie up the imperial army prisoners and behead them in the street.

The three-year siege and the huge war costs were also something the Tang court could not afford, so the civil and military officials in the court unanimously proposed to end the "Liangchuan War."

Emperor Zhaozong issued a ceasefire edict very reluctantly, ordering the restoration of all official positions and titles of Chen Jingxuan, and ordering Dongchuan Gu Yanlang and Yongping Wang Jian to lead their troops back to their respective towns.

After receiving the imperial edict, Wang Jian was heartbroken and wanted to tear it into pieces. "I have put my head on the belt and endured hunger, thirst, hardship, scorching heat and severe cold for three years. Now I am about to accomplish my goal, but it is going to fail at the last moment? I am fighting on the front line, and this corrupt scholar is stabbing me in the back!" He pointed to the sky and the earth, and cursed.

The counselor Zhou Xuang was overjoyed, "My lord, this is a godsend! It's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for you to carve up a kingdom and become a king!"

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