History of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms

Chapter 919: Expanding Territory (Part )
[Expanding Territory]

Liu Hongxi surpassed Liu Yan in many aspects, such as extravagance, debauchery, favoring flatterers and alienating virtuous people. It can even be said that he removed the essence of Liu Yan and took the dregs. However, it is somewhat ironic that the Southern Han Dynasty reached its peak during Liu Hongxi's period.

It sounds incredible at first, but this is the objective fact, because at this time, Southern Chu is more chaotic than Southern Han. This is not a bronze encounter with an idle dog, but an idle encounter with a six-point shot.

In August 948, Liu Hongxi sent Zhong Yunzhang, the Langzhong of the Ministry of Works and the Editor of Imperial Edicts, to Southern Chu to propose marriage to the country, in order to inherit the glorious tradition of the older generation and continue the close relationship between the nephew and uncle. Unexpectedly, he was flatly rejected by Ma Xiguang of Southern Chu.

The history books do not give a positive answer as to why Ma Xiguang rejected the marriage proposal from Southern Han. We can fill in the blanks on our own:

Nan Chu has long coveted Lingnan. As mentioned in the previous article, Nan Chu has three major cities - Tanzhou, Langzhou, and Guizhou. Among them, Guizhou is the hope port of Nan Chu's starry sea. In the plan of the ambitious Ma Yin, Nan Han is a "receivable" and is just a deposit in Lingnan. Sooner or later, it will be taken. Although the two countries are married, border conflicts often break out, such as the attack on Nan Han's Fengzhou by Nan Chu in 928 mentioned above.

That year, Nanchu Ma Yin first clashed with Jingnan and almost annexed Jingnan. At the critical moment, General Wang Huan took the initiative to make peace with Jingnan Gao Jichang and persuaded Ma Yin to keep Jingnan as a strategic buffer with the Central Plains. Afterwards, Ma Yin turned his guns and attacked Fengzhou. This was just a tentative attack. After being defeated by the Southern Han Navy, Ma Yin immediately withdrew his troops and immediately had a new conflict with his neighbor to the east, Southern Tang. After a great victory over Southern Tang, he received an imperial edict from the central court (Later Tang) to attack Jingnan.

Except for this battle of Fengzhou, in the previous Chu-Han contention, the performance of Southern Han was like that of the Chinese national football team. It was always very stable and maintained an undefeated glorious record.

At that time, Nanchu's main energy was tied to the north and east, so it could only temporarily treat Nanhan as a pig to be slaughtered and fattened up before eating. Nanhan was eager to form a political marriage to restrain Nanchu's development to the south, which was obviously not in the interests of Nanchu.

In short, no matter what the considerations were, Ma Xiguang ultimately rejected Liu Hongxi's request.

In terms of seniority, Ma Xiguang is Liu Hongxi's uncle. Liu Hongxi angrily scolded his uncle for not knowing how to respect him, and then asked Zhong Yunzhang very seriously, "Can the current Nanchu still pose a threat to our Han Dynasty?"

Zhong Yunzhang reported the true situation of Nanchu, "The Ma brothers are busy fighting among themselves, how can they have the leisure to covet Lingnan?"

Liu Hongxi nodded approvingly, saying that Ma Xiguang was cowardly and stingy, and that the military of Southern Chu was in disrepair... As he spoke, Liu Hongxi suddenly became excited, "Sooner or later, you will have to pay for what you have done. I am taking this opportunity to settle all the old and new accounts at once!"

In December, Liu Hongxi really sent troops to attack Hezhou under the rule of Southern Chu on the pretext of refusing the marriage proposal. This was the Battle of Hezhou between Chu and Han in late 12.

The Southern Han successfully captured Hezhou, and then created a military miracle in the cold weapon era: Han soldiers dug a deep pit trap outside the city, and then connected it with a tunnel, in which cables and machine shafts were laid, "no strings pulled until the enemy is seen", and when the reinforcements from the Southern Chu gathered outside the city, the Han soldiers pressed the switch, triggering the mechanism, and the Chu soldiers fell into the deep pit one after another. In this battle, the Southern Chu was killed and defeated by thousands of people.

The historical records are rather vague. Some people believe that only a large pit was dug, and they questioned that a large pit that could accommodate 5,000 people seemed unlikely. There are many people who hold this view, including some famous historians and humanities masters.

In fact, this is a misunderstanding. Let's look at the original records of the warring parties:

Southern Han: "... led 5,000 soldiers to rescue... Xun (Wu Xun, a general of Southern Han) dug a large pit under the city, covered it with bamboo foil and soil, and the Chu soldiers pressed on the city and fell into the trap, killing countless people."

Southern Chu: "We dug a big well outside the city, covered it with bamboo foil, and then bored a hole in the trench to reach the well to serve as the axis of the machine... The Southern Han soldiers activated the machine from the hole, and all our soldiers were trapped, with thousands of casualties." The famous Battle of Hezhou was just about these two sentences.

The misunderstanding arises from this sentence. When some scholars saw "five thousand soldiers came to rescue...all fell into the trap", they arbitrarily believed that it was a big pit that could accommodate five thousand people. To put it nicely, it is quibbling over words, to put it bluntly, it is a lack of basic classical Chinese literacy.

After careful tasting and repeated comparisons and speculations, we will discover many details: the total number of Nanchu reinforcements was 5,000, but only more than 1,000 people died under the city of Hezhou, so this big pit did not eat up all 5,000 people, and more than 1,000 people died directly in the pit.

When the Chu army attacked the city, a large pit suddenly appeared (probably more than one) and disrupted the Chu army's formation. The Chu army fell into panic and was immediately defeated by the counterattack of the Han army. The commander Xu Zhixin and others gathered the remaining soldiers and fled back to Tanzhou. "Thousands of people died", more than a thousand people were the total loss of the entire battle, not the number of enemies killed in a large pit.

Ma Xiguang was very angry and beheaded the defeated general Xu Zhixin.

The Southern Han army took advantage of the victory to expand the victory. Wu Xun took advantage of the victory to capture Guizhou, while the commander Wu Huai'en (eunuch) captured Shaozhou. The Han army plundered the three states of Southern Chu. This was the most proud moment for the Southern Han since its founding, sweeping away the myth of being invincible.

Liu Hongxi was still not satisfied, so he launched another northern expedition in November 951, with the eunuch Wu Huai'en in command and stationed troops in Guizhou. Why did he choose this time point? Because the Southern Chu Kingdom was destroyed, it would be too late if he didn't go to rob it.

After the Battle of Hezhou, Ma Xi'e of Langzhou raised an army to overthrow Ma Xiguang. In 951, Ma Xichong imprisoned Ma Xi'e; Wang Kui, Zhou Xingfeng and others established their own regime in Langzhou; Peng Shihao, Liao Yan and others supported Ma Xi'e's restoration; Ma Xichong had no choice but to invite the wolf into the house and seek help from the Southern Tang...

In October 951, Southern Tang officially intervened in the civil strife in Southern Chu and occupied Tanzhou, which led to the demise of Southern Chu. That is why Liu Hongxi urgently sent troops to the north in November to divide up the territory of Southern Chu.

Ma Xiyin was in charge of Guizhou at that time. Previously, in order to deal with the threat from Southern Han, Ma Xiguang sent General Peng Yanhui to Guizhou to assist in defense. Now, "King of Hengshan" Ma Xi'e issued an order from Hengshan to promote Peng Yanhui to be the military supervisor of Guizhou, the inspector of the city and the judge of the military affairs. In a word, Comrade Peng Yanhui was asked to take over Guizhou.

Ma Xiyin was worried about this. Compared with the invading army of the Southern Han Dynasty outside the city, Ma Xiyin was more afraid of the ambitious Peng Yanhui. Because the legitimacy of the "King of Hengshan" itself was questioned, and the Southern Chu had surrendered to the Southern Tang Dynasty. From a legal point of view, the military and civilians of the Southern Chu should accept the management of the Southern Tang Dynasty, and even before the surrender, they should accept the leadership of Ma Xichong of Tanzhou... But Ma Xi'e sent an order from Hengshan to promote Peng Yanhui, let him control Guizhou, and hinted to him that after the restoration of the country in the future, he would be a hero of the restoration... Peng Yanhui gladly accepted Ma Xi'e's leadership and sharpened his knife against Ma Xiyin of Guizhou.

In desperation, Ma Xiyin sent a letter for help to Xu Keqiong, the governor of Mengzhou, asking him to assist him in fighting against Southern Han.

Xu Keqiong was the son of Xu Dexun, a founding general of Southern Chu. During the civil war when Ma Xi'e started an army to overthrow Ma Xiguang, Ma Xi'e bribed Xu Keqiong with a large sum of money and agreed with him to "divide Hunan". Xu Keqiong could not resist the erosion of the sugar-coated bullet, and readily defected, betrayed Ma Xiguang, acted as Ma Xi'e's internal response, and finally helped Ma Xi'e capture and kill Ma Xiguang, as described in detail above. Obviously, Ma Xi'e would not cash the check of "dividing Hunan". In order to prevent Xu Keqiong from causing chaos, Ma Xi'e sent Xu Keqiong to Mengzhou.

Therefore, Xu Keqiong was full of hatred towards Ma Xi'e. More importantly, he would never listen to Ma Xi'e's sweet words again. He believed his brother's ghost, this old man was very bad! Therefore, Ma Xiyin thought of summoning Xu Keqiong to Guizhou to deal with Ma Xi'e's lackey, Peng Yanhui.

Thanks to my old friend “书友20221125115536456” for his reward and support!

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(End of this chapter)