History of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms

Chapter 884: Conquering Huxiang

【Collection of Hunan】

The day after the recovery of southern Jing, Li Chuyun led a large army to the south without stopping, aiming for Langzhou. Now it was Zhou Baoquan's turn to tremble in fear, exclaiming that the Song Dynasty was coming to take him back.

Why did he say that? Since he had invited the Song army, why was he so afraid?
The Song army's military action was under the banner of helping Zhou Baoquan to quell Zhang Wenbiao's rebellion. However, Zhang Wenbiao had already been killed at this time, which means that the "Zhang Wenbiao Rebellion" had been quelled.

One cannot help but admire Zhou Xingfeng's extraordinary qualities. Before his death, he secretly instructed his son that if Zhang Wenbiao rebelled, Yang Shifan should be put in charge. Zhou Baoquan also followed his father's will. Yang Shifan lived up to everyone's expectations and succeeded immediately. He conquered Tanzhou in one fell swoop and captured Zhang Wenbiao alive.

In fact, after receiving the news that the Song army was heading south to attack, Zhang Wenbiao regretted that he had made a big deal, so he secretly contacted the imperial commissioner Zhao Yan and said that everything was a misunderstanding. He really just wanted to go to Langzhou to attend the funeral, but when passing by Tanzhou, Liao Jian spoke rudely, so he killed him in a fit of impulse. It was just a private fight, not a rebellion.

Zhao Yan was very happy when he received Zhang Wenbiao's letter, so he wrote a letter to comfort him, saying that it was a great thing for someone to turn back to the right path after losing his way, and that the court would forgive him for his past mistakes.

The Song Dynasty, as the decision-maker, actually didn't care about the truth of the rebellion. Zhang Wenbiao's "rebellion" gave the Song Dynasty an excuse to send troops to intervene, and Zhang Wenbiao already controlled Tanzhou. If he could voluntarily surrender, then the Song Dynasty would have picked up Tanzhou for free, so why not?

Zhao Yan first sent someone to comfort Zhang Wenbiao, and then in order to show the court's sincerity, Zhao Yan rushed to Tanzhou to have a dialogue with him in person.

However, the day before Zhao Yan arrived in Tanzhou, Yang Shifan conquered Tanzhou and immediately let his troops plunder, turning Tanzhou upside down. After Zhao Yan arrived, he hurriedly maintained order, and then hosted a banquet for Yang Shifan and other generals, urging them to treat the soldiers and civilians of Tanzhou well.

Just as Yang Shifan and Zhao Yan were drinking and chatting, Yang Shifan's subordinates secretly discussed and said that Zhao Yan's intention seemed to be to leave Zhang Wenbiao a way out. The intention of the Song Dynasty was obvious. It was obvious that they wanted to use the old routine of "using Chu to control Chu" and support Zhang Wenbiao of Tanzhou to balance Zhou Baoquan of Langzhou.

The two Chu states, one is calm and the other is bright, split the southern Chu, encouraged internal strife, and consumed the strength of the southern Chu, while the big country behind them benefited and reaped the benefits. The generals of the southern Chu state also became doctors after a long illness.

Yang Shifan's subordinates were filled with righteous indignation, so they beheaded Zhang Wenbiao and cut his body into pieces. Then they walked straight into the banquet hall and reported that Zhang Wenbiao had conspired to cause rebellion and had been executed by us according to law.

Zhao Yan sighed for a long time.

This happened at the end of January, and Li Chuyun took over Jingnan in February. So when Li Chuyun continued to lead his troops south to Langzhou, his intention was obvious. That's why Zhou Baoquan trembled and the scene at the beginning of this article appeared.

Little boy Zhou Baoquan asked for advice from his chief aide Li Guanxiang.

Li Guanxiang presented facts and reasoned, saying that the Song Dynasty had launched an expedition in the name of conquering Zhang Wenbiao. Now that Wenbiao had been killed and the Song army refused to retreat, they would certainly take over the areas of Hubei and Xiang. The Gao family in southern Jing had already surrendered, and Langzhou would not be able to stand alone. The best solution at the moment was of course to return to the court and be a good boy in maintaining unity.

Zhou Baoquan thought it made sense, but the commander Zhang Chongfu strongly opposed it. So Zhou Baoquan thought he could still save the situation, so he agreed with the pro-war faction Zhang Chongfu's proposal and began to make military deployments.

Murong Yanzhao and Li Chuyun deployed their troops on the border, showing off their might, and forwarded Zhao Kuangyin's question: "The royal army is here to save you from danger. Why do you refuse the royal army's entry? Are you courting death?" (The army has saved you from danger, why do you refuse the royal army and bring disaster upon yourself?)

Zhou Baoquan read it but did not reply.

Murong Yanzhao ordered an advance, defeated the Chu army at Sanjiangkou, and took advantage of the situation to capture the strategic town of Yuezhou.

Li Chuyun held an open audition of the Chu soldiers captured in the Battle of Sanjiangkou, and selected dozens of those who were relatively fat. He then ordered the Song soldiers to dismember and eat them raw. He then selected a few who were not frightened to death, tattooed words on their faces as a souvenir, and then released them back to Langzhou to tell their comrades about what they had seen and heard.

As a result, the Chu army was frightened out of their wits, and people passed on stories about the Song army killing and eating prisoners alive. Zhou Baoquan drew troops to fill the gaps on the front line. This support army went out to the south of Lizhou, but before the troops could fight the Song army, they turned around and ran back to Langzhou. Although they were extremely weak to the enemy, they were extremely brave to their own people. This defeated army killed, burned, looted, and plundered in Langzhou. The residents of the city fled to the wilderness for refuge, and Langzhou became an empty city (the city walls were empty).

In this way, the Song army, which had won the first battle, entered the outskirts of Langzhou like a piece of cake, eating hot pot and singing songs, and did not encounter any resistance along the way.

The only troops defending the city were so frightened that they fled in panic. The Song army easily captured Zhang Chongfu, a key member of the "pro-war faction", alive.

Murong Yanzhao entered Langzhou and beheaded the stubborn Zhang Chongfu as a public display.

Zhou Baoquan was kidnapped by Wang Duan, a general of Langzhou, and hid in a temple on the south bank of the Yangtze River. Li Chuyun sent his general Tian Shouqi to search for him, but Wang Duan eventually abandoned Zhou Baoquan and fled on his own, and Zhou Baoquan was successfully captured by Tian Shouqi.

At this point, the former Southern Chu separatist regime was completely destroyed, and the 15 states, 66 counties, and 97,388 households under its jurisdiction were incorporated into the Song Dynasty. The number of states and households varies slightly in different historical records, but generally speaking, it is about the same.

It is worth saying a few more words about Wang Duan.

Wang Duan abandoned Zhou Baoquan and fled. After escaping, he did not hide his identity, but gathered the remnants of the defeated army and the stragglers, and gathered a "Southern Chu Resistance Organization" of thousands of people, persisted in guerrilla warfare, and even launched a counterattack against Langzhou. However, Wang Duan was soon defeated and captured, and was tortured to death in the downtown area.

By the way, the person who was in charge of compiling the "Old History of the Five Dynasties" was Comrade Xue Juzheng, who was in charge of compiling the "Old History of the Five Dynasties".

Looking back at the time when the Song army just broke through the Langzhou defense line, historical books all recorded that Wang Duan "kidnapped" Zhou Baoquan. We can try to change the word, such as "protect", which will be closer to the truth.

The defending army collapsed outside the city. The commander Zhang Chongfu was defeated and captured. The city was about to fall. General Wang Duan protected the young lord and fled. The enemy was chasing him very urgently. In a hurry, they had to make a strategic shift to preserve the revolutionary spark, and then regroup and restore the old mountains and rivers...

Why do historical books all agree that it was a "hijack"?

Of course, this is out of considerations of political correctness.

Because "kidnapping" means going against the will of the victim, Wang Duan's kidnapping of Zhou Baoquan means that escape was not Zhou Baoquan's original intention, which also proves the legitimacy of the Song Dynasty's exercise of sovereignty over Hunan. It can be simply understood as Zhou Baoquan "abdicating" to the Song Dynasty.

However, if we admit that Wang Duan "protected" Zhou Baoquan's escape, it would be tantamount to admitting that the Song Dynasty's armed invasion and illegal plunder of the Hunan region was neither justified nor reasonable.

Zhou Baoquan was sent to Bianzhou and submitted a petition to await punishment.

Zhao Kuangyin pardoned his crime, rewarded him generously, appointed him as the General of the Thousand Oxen Guards, and allowed him to stay in the capital. He also built the "Tomb of Runan King Xingfeng" in Langzhou. This move was both an appeasement to Zhou Baoquan and a declaration of "legitimate succession" to sovereignty.

In the second year of Yongxi (985), Zhou Baoquan died of illness at the age of 34, leaving us prematurely.

The Song Dynasty took over the two lakes region at a very small cost, causing the southern vassal states to lose their strategic buffer and be directly exposed to the guns of the Song army, creating extremely favorable conditions for the subsequent unification of the Song Dynasty.

However, the heroes and generals who recovered Jingxiang did not necessarily have a good end.

(End of this chapter)