History of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms

Chapter 908 One fish and three meals

【One fish, three ways to eat it】

This is a rather strange record. The strange thing about this incident is that almost everyone has overturned our previous cognition. It is not strange if one person behaves strangely, but it is really strange if everyone behaves strangely.

Guo Wuwei, a "capitulationist" of the Northern Han Dynasty, had been urging Liu Jiyuan to surrender, but Liu Jiyuan had always refused. Guo Wuwei suddenly changed his attitude and volunteered to lead his troops out of the city to fight a decisive battle with the Song army.

Liu Jiyuan actually "believed" Guo Wuwei's sudden change, and really allocated troops to him, and let the generals Liu Jiye and Guo Shoubin be his deputies. He also personally sent you to the outside of the village (he went up the Yanxia Gate to send you off and wait for him to return).

The most bizarre thing is the sentence "wait for his return". "Fan" is usually a homophone of "fan", which means Liu Jiyuan is giving Guo Wuwei a farewell party and waiting for his triumphant return. But...what if it is not a homophone? Let's continue reading.

Guo Wuwei was very excited and thought that his plan of escaping was about to succeed. Just as he reached the city gate and stationed his horse on the North Bridge to summon troops, he found that something was wrong. The two deputy generals - Liu Jiye, was said to have accidentally fallen off his horse and injured his foot, so he took his troops back to the city first; Guo Shoubin, was said to have lost his way... Brother, you got lost just after getting out of the second ring road?

The more Guo Wuwei thought about it, the more he felt something was wrong, so he hurried back to the city, saying that his deputy general was not there and the staff was not complete. Another record said that it was because of heavy rain that Guo Wuwei failed to show up.

After returning, Guo Wuwei once again urged Liu Jiyuan to surrender. Then the most bizarre scene in the whole incident appeared - "The eunuch Wei Degui said that Wuwei's rebellion was clear and could not be pardoned, so the Northern Han lord killed him as a warning, and the city was slightly stabilized."

Some people believe that Guo Wuwei wanted to raise his selling price and give the last assets of the Northern Han Dynasty - Liu Jiye, Guo Shoubin and thousands of elite soldiers - to the Song Dynasty as a token of surrender in exchange for wealth and honor, because up to now, Guo Wuwei had no achievements to be worthy of the title of "An Guo Army Jiedushi". So when Liu Jiye and others did not come to join the army, he gave up the surrender plan.

And his death was caused by a eunuch who exposed his treasonous conspiracy.

According to records, the resistance of Taiyuan City at that time was very tenacious, and all the ministers unanimously advocated resolute resistance. Only Guo Wuwei was always trying to boost others' morale and destroy his own prestige, and he even threatened to commit suicide. However, under his instigation, "the people of Jin defended more firmly." Although they were defeated repeatedly and there was no hope, Liu Jiyuan and his ministers were of one mind and shared the same hatred of the enemy, and they were determined to hold on.

In this atmosphere, there would definitely be people who accused Guo Wuwei of selling out his country. However, it was a eunuch who eventually criticized him to death, which was really weird.

Perhaps Liu Jiyuan had already determined that Guo Wuwei was a traitor, and the reason why he had not gotten rid of him was due to the following two considerations:

1. Borrowing chickens to lay eggs
The only lifeline for the Northern Han was the Liao Kingdom, and the Liao Kingdom also understood this truth. However, the Northern Han had previously tried hard to get rid of the Liao Kingdom. Now, the Liao Kingdom's ineffective rescue was subjective, deliberately holding up and deliberately putting the Northern Han in a greater predicament. The more critical and difficult the Northern Han was, the more it needed the help of the Liao Kingdom, and it had to make greater concessions to the Liao Kingdom in terms of sovereignty and other aspects. Liu Jiyuan could just use Guo Wuwei as a chess piece to balance, especially Guo Wuwei's "threatening to die" drama at the banquet to receive the Liao Kingdom envoy Han Zhifan. On the surface, Guo Wuwei performed it for the Northern Han monarch and ministers, but in fact, Liu Jiyuan performed it for the Liao Kingdom envoys, sending the signal to the Liao Kingdom that "if you don't take action again, you don't have to take action, I will surrender directly to the Song Dynasty", so as to force the Liao Kingdom to leave in time, reduce the Liao Kingdom's asking price, and strive for diplomatic initiative.

2. Counter-espionage
Guo Wuwei wanted to surrender in the name of a sneak attack at night, and Liu Jiyuan happily "took the bait" and not only dispatched thousands of elite troops, but also assigned two generals as deputies. According to the above point of view, it is also very likely that Liu Jiyuan pretended to be ignorant and played along with the enemy. Since Guo Wuwei was a spy, Liu Jiyuan might as well counter his moves and use a counter-espionage strategy.

If everything goes according to plan, then this scene is likely to happen: Guo Wuwei leads his army to the front of the Song army, and after receiving the secret signal, Liu Jiye, Guo Shoubin or other generals suddenly chop off Guo Wuwei's head with their swords, and then with an order, thousands of elite soldiers of the Northern Han break through the Song army's barrier...

In fact, after killing Guo Wuwei, the Northern Han Dynasty really pretended to surrender at night.

Historical records say that Liu Jiye and Guo Shoubin were fighting with the Song army, so they failed to arrive in time.

Guo Wuwei sobered up a lot in the rain, and suddenly realized that something was wrong. Why did Liu Jiyuan readily agree to let me, the leader of the "surrender faction", attack the enemy camp at night? Was he really stupid or was he just pretending to be stupid? The more Guo Wuwei thought about it, the more scared he became. He didn't know whether it was because of the cold rain or fear, but he trembled all over, so he immediately returned to the city.

If you are a spy, I am in danger; if I know you are a spy, you are in danger; if you know that I know you are a spy, you are dead.

They are all smart people. Guo Wuwei canceled the action and returned to the city, which means that he already knew that his identity was exposed. Guo Wuwei's return to the city marked the official showdown between the king and his minister. It was either "Hou Barong killed the king" 2.0, or Liu Jiyuan took the initiative.

Who would light this fuse? Whether it was a civil official or a military general, if they exposed Guo Wuwei, it would be like offending the Song Dynasty and serving the Liao Dynasty. Offending the Song Dynasty would be detrimental to participating in possible peace talks in the future; serving the Liao Dynasty would make them chess pieces for the Liao Dynasty to control the Northern Han Dynasty in the future.

After weighing the pros and cons, Liu Jiyuan could only introduce an insignificant outsider, such as a eunuch who had no real power.

It can be said that Liu Jiyuan killed three birds with one stone by taking advantage of Guo Wuwei. With Guo Wuwei being strangled to death, this seemingly peaceful "Infernal Affairs" finally came to an end with Liu Jiyuan's complete victory.

(End of this chapter)