History of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms

Chapter 887: Don’t waste time on the insignificant development

【Grow slowly, don’t waste time】

After Shi Jingtang proclaimed himself emperor, he sent envoys to Sichuan to establish a relationship with Meng Chang. Meng Zhixiang had a very close relationship with the Later Tang royal family. Meng Zhixiang's queen, Li, was said to be the daughter of Li Keyong, and another said to be Li Keyong's niece (daughter of Li Kerang). Meng Zhixiang's imperial concubine, Li, was a concubine of Li Cunxu, who gave her to Meng Zhixiang. This imperial concubine, Li, was also Meng Chang's biological mother. Meng Zhixiang's sister married Li Kening, Li Keyong's younger brother.

As we all know, Shi Jingtang was Li Siyuan's son-in-law.

So, strictly speaking, Shi Jingtang and Meng Chang are cousins ​​with no blood relationship.

In the letter, Shi Jingtang addressed himself as "The Emperor of the Great Jin Dynasty, writing to the Emperor of the Great Shu Dynasty", which first acknowledged the legitimacy of the Later Shu regime, then called on the two countries to be friendly neighbors and help each other. Because the "child emperor" Shi Jingtang was in the midst of internal and external troubles at the time, he urgently needed to be widely recognized and supported by the international community.

Meng Chang also responded with equal diplomatic language.

In 941 AD, An Congjin of Xiangzhou in the Later Jin Dynasty rebelled and sent people to collude with the Later Shu Dynasty, requesting the Later Shu Dynasty to send troops to Jinzhou and Shangzhou to support his rebellion.

Meng Chang discussed with his ministers and reached a consensus that this was a thankless and foolish thing to do, so Hou Shu announced that it would not interfere in the internal affairs of other countries and called on both sides to calm down and restrain themselves and resolve the dispute through dialogue. Soon, An Congjin was resolved by Hou Jin, and Hou Shu also gained a wave of goodwill from Hou Jin.

The following year (942), Southern Chu sent an envoy to visit and conducted peaceful and friendly exchanges.

In 944, the Southern Tang sent envoys for friendly exchanges.

Hou Shu generally maintained a relatively peaceful, stable, mutually beneficial and win-win diplomatic environment with its neighboring countries, which provided excellent external conditions for the rapid development of Hou Shu.

When the Khitan conquered the Jin Dynasty, He Jiancheng, the governor of the Xiongwu Army of Qinzhou, was unwilling to submit to the Khitan, so he killed the military supervisor sent by the Khitan and offered the three states of Qin, Jie and Cheng under his jurisdiction to Hou Shu. Meng Chang sent his general Li Jixun and others to meet him.

He Jiancheng suggested to hold Dasan Pass and then attack Fengzhou. In the same month, Liu Zhiyuan proclaimed himself emperor in Hedong. Later Shu finally captured Fengzhou under the strategy of Li Hao, a Hanlin scholar.

At this point, Meng Chang recovered all the territories of the Former Shu Dynasty.

In the same year, Zhao Kuangzan of Chang'an also expressed his intention to surrender. Meng Chang sensed the scent of the Central Plains, so he asked the Privy Councilor Wang Chuhui to find a way to recruit Fengxiang Hou Yi to surrender, so as to take the Guanxi area into his pocket and lay the foundation for going east through Tongguan and fighting for Guandong.

Hou Yi had long harbored rebellious intentions, but he was unable to resist Hou Shu's sugar-coated bullets and readily agreed to surrender.

With Fengxiang and Chang'an in hand, the troops marched out of Tongguan, passed Luoyang, and took back Bianzhou!

Meng Chang deployed his troops and sent out the strongest lineup of Hou Shu:
Commander-in-chief Zhang Qianzhao, deputy commander-in-chief He Chongjian, and chief military commander Han Baozhen led an army of 50,000. Among them, Zhang Qianzhao led his troops out of Dasan Pass, He Chongjian led his troops out of Longzhou and took over Fengxiang; Li Tinggui led 20,000 troops out of Ziwu Valley and took over Chang'an.

The army set out from Chengdu, with flags covering the sky and stretching for dozens of miles.

Fengxiang Hou Yi originally wanted to wait and see, but was forced by the situation to formally surrender to Hou Shu. This is why Hou Shu sent 5 troops to Chang'an and troops to Fengxiang in two routes. Hou Yi and Zhao Kuangzan took the initiative to ask for troops to serve as the vanguard for Da Shu, marching out of Guandong and submitting a letter of surrender.

Meng Chang stroked the Fengxiang and Chang'an on the map, which were more glorious than those of the former Shu Dynasty. Meng Chang was full of passion and could not hold back his excitement, so he announced that he would "attend an event in the southern suburbs". This was the first time Meng Chang had performed a suburban sacrifice since he ascended the throne 13 years ago.

However, Zhao Kuangzan and Hou Yi soon re-submitted themselves to Liu Zhiyuan of the Later Han Dynasty. The reinforcements sent by the Later Han Dynasty defeated Zhang Qianzhao with a smaller force in Ziwu Valley, and then pursued him to Dasan Pass, where Zhang Qianzhao's main force was defeated. Another force led by Han Baozhen and Pang Wanfu retreated to Qinzhou upon hearing the news.

In this battle, Hou Shu lost many soldiers and generals, and its dream of conquering the Central Plains was shattered. Commander-in-chief Zhang Qianzhao could not face the humiliation of defeat and died in anger on his way back.

Soon, the Later Han Dynasty was faced with the "Three Towns Rebellion". Fengxiang Wang Jingchong, Chang'an Zhao Siwan, and Hezhong Li Shouzhen jointly rebelled. Among them, Fengxiang Wang Jingchong and Chang'an Zhao Siwan surrendered to the Later Shu and asked for help.

Ironically, it was Wang Jingchong who had previously repelled Hou Shu and forced Zhao Kuangzan and Hou Yi to return to Hou Han. In just a few months, the enemy and us were reversed. In order to show sincerity to Hou Shu, Wang Jingchong sent his son Wang Derang and Zhao Siwan sent his son Zhao Huaiyi to Chengdu as hostages to ask for assistance.

The flame of passion that had just been extinguished in Meng Chang was immediately rekindled, and a feeling of "I can do it again" arose spontaneously, so he sent Han Baozhen, An Siqian and others to provide troops for support.

The Shu and Han armies fought back and forth in Baoji. Judging from the results, the Later Shu had the upper hand. However, An Siqian, who was good at falsely accusing heroes, was afraid and withdrew his troops on the grounds of insufficient food and grass. After hearing that An Siqian had withdrawn, Han Baozhen, who was in a stalemate with the Han army in Longzhou, also withdrew his troops to protect himself.

Not long after, Guo Wei successfully suppressed the rebellion of three towns led by Li Shouzhen in Hezhong, and the dream of Hou Shu to conquer the Central Plains was shattered again.

In September 952, the Later Zhou army assembled in Guanzhong. Meng Chang hurriedly dispatched reinforcements to Lizhou. Later, he learned that the Later Zhou was guarding against the Northern Han, so he withdrew his troops, resulting in a false alarm.

After Chai Rong ascended the throne, his attitude towards Hou Shu was to shelve disputes and jointly develop the country. He tacitly allowed the border to open up for trade, exchange what he had, and achieve mutual benefit and win-win results.

But let’s talk about An Siqian who returned empty-handed.

An Siqian helped Meng Chang to clear his name by false accusations, and successively plotted to murder Li Renhan, Zhang Ye, and Zhao Tingyin (unsuccessfully), and gradually gained Meng Chang's favor. In the military operation to assist Fengxiang Wang Jingchong, he was afraid of the enemy and retreated on the pretext of insufficient military rations, which aroused Meng Chang's suspicion. An Siqian retreated to Fengzhou and submitted a petition to plead guilty. Meng Chang pardoned him and did not pursue his responsibility for the defeat. After returning to Chengdu, he appointed him as the commander of Zuo Kuangsheng Mabu Du and the governor of Baoning Army to comfort him. However, the more Meng Chang treated him, the more uneasy An Siqian became and the more fearful he became.

Afterwards, the palace strengthened its security. An Siqian thought that Meng Chang was going to attack him, so he spoke rudely and resentfully, and often found reasons to kill his subordinates in order to establish his authority among the imperial guards. When Meng Chang was reviewing the imperial guards, he found a young and strong man who had been dismissed by An Siqian, so he re-enlisted him in the imperial guards. Unexpectedly, An Siqian turned around and killed that man.

An Siqian's sons also took advantage of their power to bully others, and the people of Shu were full of resentment.

An Siqian's wealth and glory were gained by guessing the emperor's intentions and falsely accusing heroes. He never thought that he would end up in the same way. Wang Zao, the Imperial Academy envoy, secretly reported An Siqian's rebellion, so when An Siqian entered the court, he was suddenly pinned down by ambushed warriors and then executed along with his three sons.

The retribution for the false accuser Wang Zao came even faster. He was executed a few days later for privately opening the imperial letter (making a petition to the border without authorization).

In 955, Meng Chang set up the Weiwu Army in Fengzhou, which soon attracted the attention of Chai Rong. At this time, Chai Rong had just won the "Battle of Gaoping". He was full of vigor and vitality and set his sights on Qin, Feng and other states, in order to recover the territories stolen by Hou Shu during the Jin and Han dynasties.

(End of this chapter)