History of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms

Chapter 936 A lot of pressure
【The Tao can be told, but there is no Infernal Affairs】

The three-dimensional war launched by the Song Dynasty against the Southern Tang was not limited to propaganda wars and financial and trade wars. Among the endless strategies of exhausting the enemy, the Song Dynasty also achieved precision guidance, which can be regarded as a "strategic decapitation" of Li Yu.

The literary youth Li Yu was fascinated by Buddhism. He built a temple on Zhongshan Mountain and inscribed "Bao Ci Dao Chang" with his own handwriting. He provided food for nearly a thousand monks every day, and all the expenses were reimbursed by the Southern Tang court.

One day, Li Yu was resting when he heard the sound of a bell ringing in the palace. The sound was rigorous and meticulous, so he was overjoyed and sent someone to summon the bell ringer. The bell ringer was a smart little boy, and Li Yu was even happier, so he wanted to ordain him personally. The boy was very clever and said on the spot that he did not want to be the only one to receive the emperor's grace, but hoped that Your Majesty would show grace to all monks in the world. Li Yu then issued an edict to ordain all monks, which was another huge financial expense.

Li Yu converted Baogongyuan into the "Kaishan Taoist Temple" and changed into monk's robes with the Queen Mother (because she had abandoned her imperial title, she could not be called the Queen, so she was called the Queen Mother) Zhou. They knelt on the ground to recite scriptures and worshiped with such piety that they got calluses on their foreheads.

Under Li Yu's advocacy, there were thousands of monks in Shengzhou City alone, and all their expenses were paid by the Southern Tang court.

Think about Chai Rong's economic reforms, one of which was to restrict Buddhism, but Li Yu did the opposite and vigorously promoted Buddhism, which made the Southern Tang even more short of labor and increased the economic burden on the court.

It is important to emphasize that, at almost the same time, Zhao Kuangyin issued an order prohibiting the use of copper and iron to cast Buddha statues, which basically continued Chai Rong's reform ideas. However, the Southern Tang used copper, which was already in short supply, to cast Buddha statues, exacerbating the "money shortage" of the Southern Tang.

After learning that Li Yu was obsessed with Buddhism, the Song Dynasty naturally wanted to lend him a helping hand. According to the "Jiangnan Wild History", Zhao Kuangyin carefully selected a man who was eloquent, disguised as a monk, and lurked in the territory of Southern Tang, waiting for an opportunity to get close to Li Yu, infiltrate the enemy, and help Li Yu go all the way.

This man was quick-witted, eloquent, and had a high level of attainment in Buddhism. He immediately won Li Yu's respect and favor, who believed that this man was the reincarnation of the Buddha. He affectionately called him "Little Elder" and often had long conversations with him all night long. The topics of their discussions were mostly the Six Senses, the Four Noble Truths, cause and effect, reincarnation, and the like.

The "little elder" constantly instilled in Li Yu the idea of ​​worshipping Buddha devoutly, and advised him to build more temples, cast Buddha statues, give alms to monks, and hold Dharma assemblies attended by thousands of monks with extremely extravagant ceremonies... In short, he helped Li Yu spend money lavishly in the name of worshiping Buddha and neglected state affairs.

Later, when the Song army attacked Southern Tang, the "little elder" even deceived Li Yu, which will be described in detail later.

The Song Dynasty used a high-level spy named "Little Elder" to exploit the weaknesses of enemy leaders, curry their favor, accelerate their corruption and degeneration, and weaken the enemy's national strength. Is this the so-called three-dimensional warfare?

[High pressure]

The Southern Tang reached its peak during the reign of Li Jing, but then took a sharp turn for the worse and fell from grace. During this accelerated decline, Li Yu ascended to the throne. Meanwhile, the Song Dynasty was in the ascendant. Since taking office, Li Yu had felt unprecedented pressure from the Central Plains.

In March 963, the Song Dynasty recovered the two lakes. Li Yu hurriedly sent envoys to pay tribute and congratulate the great country.

Later, the Song Dynasty pacified Sichuan and Shu. Li Yu was not only saddened by the death of the rabbit, but also terrified. The Sichuan and Huainan forces had always been incompatible with the Central Plains. In the early Five Dynasties, the three forces were in a tripartite situation. Compared with the two lakes, the Song Dynasty's move to recover Sichuan and Shu caused a great shock to the Southern Tang.

Li Yu could only continue to pay tribute and wag his tail to show his obedience to the Central Plains dynasty.

In 970, Zhao Kuangyin gave Li Yu a task, asking him to write a letter to persuade Liu Yan of Southern Han to surrender.

Li Yu held a meeting to discuss the issue. Everyone actively discussed the issue and believed that if the boss asked him to write a letter, Southern Tang must do so. Otherwise, it would be disobeying the order. Who knows whether the boss's real intention is Southern Han or Southern Tang? Writing a sincere letter is not a difficult task. Besides, as long as the letter is delivered to Southern Han, whether Liu Yan refuses or accepts it, it will benefit Southern Tang.

If Liu Yan accepted and became a vassal of the Song Dynasty, then the Song Dynasty would have no legitimate reason to attack, and Southern Han, Southern Tang, and Wuyue would avoid the fate of national destruction. As for the future, it would depend on the performance of Northern Han and Khitan. If Liu Yan refused to submit and thus induced a war, then the variables would be even greater. If it became a protracted war, the national strength of the Song Dynasty would suffer a severe blow, and Southern Tang would reap the benefits.

Li Yu thought it made sense, so he asked Pan You to draft it, and then entrusted Gong Shenyi, the Imperial Secretary, to take the letter to Guangzhou to persuade Liu Cong to change his ways. For details of the letter, see the previous special topic on Southern Han.

In the end, Liu Yan chose the latter and refused to surrender. He was indifferent to life and death and would fight against it if he didn't obey. In the same year, Pan Mei took command and the Song Dynasty launched a war to eliminate the Southern Han.

After the war broke out, Lin Renzhao, a meritorious veteran general of the Southern Tang Dynasty and one of the "Four Generals Who Aid Shou", was the garrison commander of the Southern Capital (Hongzhou) at the time. He submitted a secret memorial to Li Yu, which made Li Yu break out in a cold sweat.

Lin Renzhao pointed out that the Song Dynasty’s military strength in the states in the north of the Yangtze River is very weak, with only a few hundred soldiers stationed in each state. The Song Dynasty destroyed Shu the year before last, and now it is invading Lingnan. The battle line is too long, with thousands of miles to and fro. The army is old and the soldiers are tired. My plan is this: Give me tens of thousands of elite soldiers, I will first capture Shouzhou, strangle the Zhengyang floating bridge, and then raise my arms and unite the old and young in the north of the Yangtze River, so that I can recover the land in the north of the Yangtze River and restore the territory of my homeland! If the Song army comes, I will resist it with the danger of the Huai River. In this way, the Song army’s battle line will extend from the Huai River to Lingnan and directly to Sichuan and Shu. They are tired of dealing with it, and we are done!

At the end of the memorial, Lin Renzhao also emphasized: In order to relieve your majesty's worries, I declared rebellion on the day I started the army, and you also declared me a rebel. In this way, if I succeed, then the Southern Tang will enjoy the benefits. If I fail, please kill my entire family to prove that this is my personal behavior and has nothing to do with your majesty or the Southern Tang. I will never implicate your majesty!

Lin Renzhao was a former general of the Min Kingdom. After the Southern Tang conquered Min, he surrendered to the Southern Tang. He performed outstandingly in the "Three Expeditions to Huainan" and was highly valued. He was a famous hawkish figure in the Southern Tang. He had momentum, courage, and determination...but he had no political acumen.

The history books say that Li Yu was "afraid and did not dare to follow." Li Yu was afraid in two main aspects.

First, from a military perspective, this is the most intuitive. Taking Shouzhou and Zhengyang directly may be achieved through a surprise attack, but raising one's arm and having the whole world respond, and then instantly controlling the entire Jiangbei area and regaining control of the Huaihe River, this is a fantasy. If the Southern Tang soldiers really had this strength, how could they have fallen to this point today?
Secondly, it was political. Lin Renzhao had already made it clear that in order not to implicate Li Yu, he would "fake a rebellion" and promote this military action in the name of the rebels. In addition, there was another prerequisite for this action, which was that Li Yu would allocate tens of thousands of elite troops to Lin Renzhao, which was almost all the assets of the Southern Tang.

So the question is...are you "fake treason" or "fake fake treason"?
Although Lin Renzhao was a meritorious veteran general during Li Jing's period, he was a surrendered general after all. Not to mention his status as a surrendered general, even if he was a genuine old revolutionary comrade, would his master agree if he wanted to draw away the best troops from across the country and then "rebel" openly?

Many people mistakenly believe that Li Yu's "fear" was fear of the Song Dynasty and worry that he could not defeat the Song Dynasty. In fact, what Li Yu was really afraid of was Lin Renzhao.

Lin Renzhao was not alone, there was another person who wanted to "fake a rebellion".

This person is called Lu Jiang. He had previously submitted his articles to the Privy Councilor Chen Qiao, and was appreciated by Chen Qiao, who promoted him to be the Yangtze River Patrol Captain, responsible for the Yangtze River border patrol and other tasks. Lu Jiang was a hard-core ruthless person. After taking office, he recruited desperate criminals and formed an independent naval regiment. He then ambushed the Wuyue navy many times, captured hundreds of Wuyue warships, improved the equipment level of the Southern Tang navy, and trained a surface armed force with rich combat experience.

Before, Lu Jiang had repeatedly submitted memorials to Li Yu, saying that Wuyue and we have been enemies for decades. If the Central Plains invades the south in the future, Wuyue will surely act as a guide, forming a pincer attack with the Central Plains, so... I used to say that the first thing the Southern Tang would do after becoming rich and powerful is to destroy Wuyue. Now I want to correct it: if the Southern Tang wants to become rich and powerful, it must first destroy Wuyue. Now, Lu Jiang has submitted a memorial again, requesting that while the Song Dynasty has no time to look east, Wuyue should be destroyed as soon as possible to avoid being attacked in the future. Facts have proved that Lu Jiang's prediction was very accurate. Later, when the Song Dynasty destroyed the Southern Tang, Wuyue did send troops to attack.

Li Yu objected, saying that Wu Yue Kingdom had always been a lackey of the Central Plains and we could not afford to offend them (We are a vassal of the great dynasty, how dare we send troops to them).

"It's not that difficult actually." Lu Jiang immediately offered a plan, which was similar to Lin Renzhao's "fake rebellion":

I first "rebelled" by occupying Xuanzhou and Shezhou, and Your Majesty raised troops with great fanfare to suppress the rebellion and asked for troops from Wuyue. When the reinforcements from Wuyue arrived, Your Majesty gave them a "Hongmen Banquet" and killed them when they were rejected. I led the troops to attack the border of Wuyue. With this double act between the king and the minister, Wuyue was doomed.

Similarly, it would be difficult to achieve on a military level. What if Wu Yue refused to support us? Or just paid lip service to our support? Or sent only a few thousand men?
Secondly, do you want a “fake rebellion” or a “fake fake rebellion”?
Finally, whether it was Lin Renzhao or Lu Jiang, even if it was a "fake rebellion", it would easily backfire, because the Southern Tang was now a vassal of the Song Dynasty. If a rebellion occurred within the territory, the Song Dynasty would have the obligation to send troops to quell the rebellion. Isn't this inviting a wolf into the house? Think about how Zhou Baoquan from Hunan immigrated to Bianzhou... It is easier to invite a god than to send him away. Even if there was a rebellion, they would have to find ways to hide it and conceal it from the Song Dynasty. You still took the initiative to organize a rebellion, because you thought the Song Dynasty had no reason to send troops?

Li Yu decisively rejected Lin Renzhao and Lu Jiang's proposal.

Soon, the Southern Han was destroyed. Li Yu quickly sent his brother Li Congshan to the Song Dynasty to pay tribute and congratulate the Song Dynasty on its recovery of Lingnan. This tribute was quite interesting because in addition to the original tribute, the Southern Tang also attached tributes from Champa (now the southern Vietnamese regime), Japo (now Java and Sumatra in Indonesia), and the Arab Empire to the Southern Tang, indicating that they were only vassals of the Celestial Empire and did not dare to take charge of diplomacy. These were all tributes from foreign countries to "China", and I was just collecting them on behalf of them...

After destroying the Southern Han, the Song Dynasty stationed heavy troops in Hanyang, which frightened Li Yu. Hanyang, now Hanyang District, Wuhan City, Hubei Province, is an important town in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River. It has a well-developed water system and convenient transportation, which is particularly suitable for strategic deployment. Stationing heavy troops here is like hanging a sword over the head of the Southern Tang.

A merchant reported to Li Yu that the Song Dynasty had built thousands of warships of various types in Jingnan, and its intention to annex Southern Tang was obvious. He asked Li Yu to quickly send a special force to Jingnan to burn them.

As expected, this proposal was again rejected by Li Yu.

The history books only say that he was a "merchant", not to mention whether he was a merchant from the Song Dynasty or a patriotic merchant from the Southern Tang Dynasty. Is this person's information accurate? What if the Song Dynasty deliberately set up a trap? Even if it is true, can a military stronghold with thousands of warships be stolen so easily? Even if Li Yu sneaked in and wiped out the "Pearl Harbor" of the Song Dynasty, wouldn't he still lose the entire Pacific Ocean and the entire war?

When recording Li Yu's rejection of the "fake rebellion" and the surprise attack on the Jingnan navy, historical books used the same word - "fearful and dared not follow". People who read history should fully understand the meaning of this "fear". Unfortunately, many so-called experts and scholars took the word literally and only interpreted it as Li Yu's cowardice, while ignoring Li Yu's real concerns.

Li Yu sent his brother Li Congshan to pay tribute to the Song Dynasty and beg for the removal of the country's name. Later, Li Jing removed the title of emperor, but retained the country's name - Tang, calling himself the Lord of Tang, and the inscription on the coins he minted was also "Tangguo Tongbao". Now Li Yu removed the country's name again, and from then on he only called himself "Lord of the State". The Song Dynasty was very satisfied and happily changed it to "Jiangnan Lord Seal" and gave it to him.

Li Yu also asked Zhao Kuangyin to call him by his name, and did not dare to retain the privilege of "not being called by his name during the imperial edict."

Li Yu had requested many times before to take back the privilege of "not being named during imperial edicts", and this time, Zhao Kuangyin finally agreed.

Li Congshan's delegation secretly sent 50,000 taels of silver to Prime Minister Zhao Pu. Giving gifts to prime ministers and other important officials is an unspoken diplomatic rule, but the amount given by the Southern Tang this time was too much, which was beyond the normal human relations. Zhao Pu did not dare to hide it and reported it to Zhao Kuangyin truthfully.

After hearing this, Zhao Kuangyin said, "You can't refuse it. Just write them a letter, say a few polite words, and give them some return gifts."

Zhao Pu kowtowed and declined, indicating that he still did not dare to accept it.

Zhao Kuangyin laughed and said, "This is actually quite simple. As a big country, we cannot lose our dignity, and we cannot be controlled by small countries. We must make them see us in a fog and in the water. In this way, you accept everything, and I have my own way."

The next day, Li Congshan and others were summoned to the court, and Prime Minister Zhao Pu was the host. Both sides followed the procedure, exchanging pleasantries, paying tribute, returning gifts, etc. When returning gifts, in addition to the regular rewards, the Song Dynasty returned an additional 50,000 taels of platinum. Li Congshan and others were petrified on the spot, and when the news was passed back to Southern Tang, the ruler and ministers of Southern Tang were also terrified.

Li Yu exclaimed that the water in the Song Dynasty was too deep and he could not control it, so he dared not act rashly from then on.

This tribute was different from the previous ones in that Zhao Kuangyin detained Li Congshan because he really wanted to recover Jiangnan.

I no longer want the privilege of being worshipped without a name, and I have given up the name of my country. What else do you want me to do?
Li Yu issued an order to "degrade rituals and systems". From now on, Li Yu's orders could not be called "orders" but "instructions". He renamed the Zhongshu Province and Menxia Province of Southern Tang as the Zuo and You Neishifu, the Shangshu Province as the Sihuifu, the Yushitai as the Simafu, the Hanlin Academy as the Wenguan, the Privy Council as the Guangzhengyuan, the Dali Temple as the Xianxingyuan, and the Kesheng as the Yanbinyuan... to avoid taboos;
Completely remove the Chiwen, the symbol of imperial power, from the palace;

All brothers and sons were stripped of their titles and demoted to dukes.

Taking the opportunity to congratulate Zhao Kuangyin on his birthday, he offered another 300,000 strings of money as tribute...

It is really servile. Dignity comes from strength, and those who kneel are only worthy of admiration. Li Yu asked the Song Dynasty to let his brother Li Congshan return home, "Do you know how much I miss him!"

Zhao Kuangyin replied: "Then come to Bianzhou. Do you know how much he misses you?"

Zhao Kuangyin would not let Li Congshan go, because his value was too great. First of all, he would use the old political tactics that we are most familiar with, using his identity as the "emperor's younger brother" to undermine Li Yu's rule and become the new agent of the Song Dynasty in the Jiangnan region; secondly, he would use him to sow discord.

In Zhao Kuangyin's view, the generals and soldiers of the Southern Tang Dynasty were all like chickens and dogs, but there was one person who could be called a brave general and was worthy of vigilance, and that person was Lin Renzhao. Just like Zhou Yu was afraid of Cai Mao and Zhang Yun, the only people in Cao's army who knew how to fight on water, how could he be eliminated?

Answer: A strategy of sowing discord!
Thanks to my old friend "江刘白" for the monthly ticket support!



(End of this chapter)