History of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms

Chapter 972: Starting a business is difficult and full of challenges (Part )
6. Resist Huai and Aid Qian

In 918, Huainan attacked Qianzhou, and Qianzhou Defense Envoy Tan Quanbo urgently sought help from its neighbors - Wuyue, Southern Chu, and Fujian.

The surrounding areas did not want to see Huainan become stronger. The Min Kingdom in Fujian and Qianzhou were closely related, and Huainan later annexed the Min Kingdom by using Qianzhou as a springboard. After Huainan annexed Qianzhou, it would also threaten the southern Chu with a semi-encirclement. Qianzhou was even more important to the Wuyue Kingdom because it was the only land transportation line between the Wuyue Kingdom and the central court.

One stone caused a thousand ripples, and the three families all actively sent troops to support and resist Huai and aid Qian.

The Southern Chu State sent General Zhang Keqiu to lead 10,000 people to garrison in Guting (now Gan County, Ganzhou City, Jiangxi Province); the Min State sent troops to garrison in Edu (south of Qianzhou); Qian Liu sent his son Qian Yuanqiu to lead the troops, together with General Bao Junfu and others, to attack Xinzhou under the jurisdiction of Huainan in order to divide the military strength of Qianzhou.

The battle in Huainan was particularly difficult. First, with the interference of three parties, Qianzhou could not be captured for a long time; second, a plague broke out on the front line of Qianzhou, and even the commander-in-chief Wang Qi was seriously ill; finally, Huainan encountered a major political change - Xu Wen's eldest son Xu Zhixun was killed, followed by a bloody purge, in which Huainan's veteran general Mi Zhicheng was also involved and killed by Xu Wen.

Subsequently, Huainan was forced to change its general on the battlefield, replacing Wang Qi with Liu Xin. Wang Qi died of illness shortly afterwards.

Qian Yuanqiu made his first victory in Xinzhou, killing a general of Huai and capturing more than a thousand soldiers. However, some historical records say that the Huainan defenders only had a few hundred people. Obviously, this is an old routine of the warring parties, exaggerating the number of enemy troops on the one hand and reducing their own losses on the other. In addition, it is not ruled out that Qian Yuanqiu's side killed innocent people to take credit for the victory. After all, it was a routine operation to fight in enemy territory and capture a few enemy civilians to pretend to be enemy soldiers.

The garrison commander of Xinzhou was Zhou Ben, a veteran general from Huainan. Zhou Ben played the "empty city plan" for Qian Yuanqiu.

According to historical records, Qian Yuanqiu led an army of 20,000 to the city gates, while Xinzhou Zhou Ben had only a few hundred defenders, and had suffered a defeat on the periphery. The situation was precarious. However, Zhou Ben ordered the city gates to be opened and set up a banquet on the top of the city. Zhou Ben and his staff and generals calmly drank and talked on the top of the city. Even when arrows rained down, they sat still, played music and danced.

Qian Yuanqiu believed that there must be an ambush in the city, so he withdrew his troops. The siege of Xinzhou was thus lifted.

Xu Wen also used his own tactics to retaliate against the enemy, sending Wuyue surrendered general Chen Zhang to lead his troops to attack Huzhou to contain the Wuyue troops. The cautious Qian Yuanqiu moved his troops from Xinzhou to Tingzhou to wait and see.

At the same time, Xu Wen sent troops to attack the Chu troops in Guting at night and defeated them. He then concentrated his forces to attack the Wuyue and Fujian troops.

The three parties' support for Qianzhou was in itself a superficial unity, a bit like the eighteen princes fighting against Dong Zhuo at the end of the Han Dynasty. They did not want Qianzhou to be annexed by Huainan, nor did they want to be annexed by the other two. At the same time, they also wanted to preserve their own strength. In short, they all hoped that the other two would go first, and it would be best if they fought with Huainan to the death, with both sides suffering losses, and then they would go out to clean up the mess and take the fruits of victory alone.

After learning the news of the defeat of the Chu army, the Wuyue and Min kingdoms urgently withdrew their troops to preserve their strength.

Qianzhou was still resisting stubbornly, and Liu Xin, the general of Huai, could not conquer it after a long siege, so he secretly made peace with Qianzhou and withdrew after demanding a large sum of war reparations. Xu Wen was very angry at Liu Xin's arbitrary behavior and immediately sent a large number of elite forces to Liu Xin, saying that he could either use these soldiers to conquer Qianzhou or be killed by these soldiers.

So Liu Xin was forced to break his promise and launch a surprise attack, capturing the defenseless Qianzhou.

In the "Wuyue Beishi", the battle of Qianzhou is described as "Huai people surrounded Qianzhou... The king ordered the conscription of troops to help them, but before they reached the border, Qianzhou was captured." It deliberately misleads people, as if Qianzhou was captured before the reinforcements of Wuyue arrived at the battlefield, as if Wuyue did not lose the battle. There is nothing wrong with saying this, because they did not go to Qianzhou, but to Xinzhou. This is the charm of history books, it tells all the truth, but it does not tell all the truth.

Key person: Qian Yuanqiu.

7. Battle of Wolf Mountain

Huainan annexed Qianzhou, cutting off the connection between Wuyue and the central court. Huainan's sphere of influence extended into the hinterland of Jiangxi, threatening Wuyue, Min, Southern Chu, and Southern Han, becoming the regional hegemon in southern China. As Huainan's power grew, Xu Wen continued to force his puppet Yang Wei to become emperor.

Yang Wei strongly opposed being crowned emperor or Son of Heaven, but he had long been a puppet of Xu Wen's group. He had no choice but to make the next best choice. On April 919, 4, he announced his accession to the throne of Wu and changed the era name to Wuyi, thus formally establishing the "Southern Wu" regime.

Proclaiming the emperor, establishing a country, and changing the era name were the political red lines of the Central Plains court, and there was zero tolerance. In the battle of Qianzhou last year, Hedong Li Cunxu had colluded with Huainan forces and demanded that the north and south attack the Later Liang Dynasty, but Huainan did not agree because it was caught up in the battle of Qianzhou.

Therefore, the central court (Later Liang) urgently needed someone to teach Huainan a lesson and contain it. In March 919, the Later Liang issued an edict to Qian Liu of Wuyue, ordering him to launch a large-scale military operation against Huainan.

Qian Yuanguan was ordered to lead the expedition and set out from Dongzhou with 4 warships. These warships were majestic and "all carved with dragon shapes". In April, the two sides met in the Langshan River, and the famous "Langshan Battle" in history broke out.

This was the first battle of the Southern Wu regime. Xu Wen's group attached great importance to it and assembled a large number of ships to shock the neighbors and establish the international status of Southern Wu through the glorious record of annihilating the Wuyue navy. According to historical records, the Southern Wu navy was well-equipped and in high spirits, "with huge ships and strong masts, and their momentum was like clouds merging together."

Before the war, Qian Yuanguan made careful deployment, and the strategic policy was "I'm hiding from the elite", and the specific tactical idea was to avoid the enemy's edge, first use weak soldiers to feign defeat to lure the enemy into our ambush, and then annihilate them in one fell swoop. In addition, Qian Yuanguan also took great pains in weapons and equipment, ordering all ships to be fully stocked with lime, black beans, river sand, and equipped with a secret weapon - kerosene machine.

When the battle started, the huge navy of Southern Wu came charging fiercely. The navy of Wuyue was ordered to "get out of the way". The navy of Southern Wu fell into the trap and thought that Wuyue was timid and cowardly, so they charged at full speed and rushed from upstream to downstream like a broken bamboo.

Qian Yuanguan saw that the time had come and ordered a counterattack. A magical scene appeared. The Wuyue army, which was originally located downstream, became upstream, and the Southern Wu navy, which was downstream, became downstream. The two sides exchanged positions. The Southern Wu navy was "high and huge, and could not go up again." The Wuyue army's ships were small and easy to turn around, making full use of their mobility advantage to divide and surround the Southern Wu ships.

Then, an even more magical scene appeared. The Wuyue navy threw lime at the upwind side, blinding the Southern Wu sailors. When the ships approached, the Wuyue navy threw handfuls of black beans on the Southern Wu ships, and threw sand on their own ships. The Southern Wu navy was confused, but soon understood the secret. "After the blood of the battle, those who stepped on the beans would fall down." The ground was full of beans, and they could not stand steadily at all. However, the sand on the Wuyue army's ships played a role in preventing slipping after being stained with blood.

By the time the Southern Wu navy realized what was happening, it was too late, because the Wuyue navy had revealed a powerful weapon - a kerosene machine, an ancient version of a flamethrower.

The Wu Yue navy won a great victory at Langshan, beheaded their chief commander Peng Yanzhang, captured more than 7,000 soldiers and officers, captured more than 400 enemy ships, and killed countless enemies. According to records, the river water in the combat area and the areas dozens of miles deep on both sides of the river were all dyed red with blood.

Historical records say that "kerosene" is a flammable liquid that becomes more flammable the more water is poured on it after it is ignited. This thing came from the Arab Empire... It's scary to think about it, could it be oil from the Middle East? Very funny but serious.

"The kerosene was obtained from the Kingdom of Daqin in Hainan... the flames became stronger with the addition of water." - "Wu Yue Bei Shi"

As early as the Han Dynasty, there were records of this magical kerosene, which is presumably today's oil. In fact, the Huainan Group also had this thing. Before the "Battle of Wolf Mountain", Huainan also presented a batch of fierce kerosene to the Khitan and taught how to use it so that the Khitan could contain the Later Liang. So why didn't the Huainan Navy equip this black technology weapon, but was beaten up by the Wuyue Navy?
The reason was that although Huainan had kerosene, it had not invented the kerosene machine. Huainan only knew how to pour kerosene on the enemy's walls or equipment, and then set it on fire, mostly for the purpose of attacking or defending the city.

The question arises again. The manufacturing process of kerosene machines is not complicated. Once captured by the enemy, it can be easily copied. So why has the Huainan Group not copied it yet?

The Wuyue History gives the answer, because Qian Liu fully exploited the weaknesses of human nature and used them. "The mouth of the barrel was decorated with silver", and when it was captured by the enemy, "the silver must be stripped and the barrel discarded", so the secret of the kerosene machine manufacturing process was monopolized by the Wuyue Kingdom for a long time. It has been imitated but never surpassed.

In June, the Huainan Army defeated the Wuyue Army at Shashan and turned the tables; in July, Qian Liu sent Qian Yuanguan to attack Wuxi County, Changzhou.

Xu Wen personally led his generals to fight, and sent Chen Zhang to lead the navy to go around the back of the Wuyue army and then launch a pincer attack. At that time, the grass had dried up due to drought, and Xu Wen was in the upper wind, so he ordered to set fire. The Wuyue army was defeated, and the generals He Feng and Wu Jian were killed, and Qian Yuanguan escaped. Xu Wen ordered a pursuit, and chased to Shannan, and ruthlessly harvested the remaining blood of the Wuyue army. At the same time, Chen Zhang also won a victory behind enemy lines, capturing and killing countless people.

The Wu Yue army was defeated and returned.

According to records, Qian Yuanguan fled alone on a high bank, with the turbulent river in front and the aggressive pursuers behind. In a state of desperation, Qian Yuanguan sighed to the sky, then raised his whip and swore to the sky: "Oh, God, if you help me, let me jump to the other side; otherwise, let me die here!" Then he made a desperate move and whipped his mount hard. Just like Liu Bei's horse leaping over the Tan River, Qian Yuanguan's mount miraculously flew to the other side. This also belongs to the later "Approaching Science" issue.

As expected, the subsequent records were also biased. According to the "Wu Yue Bei Shi", after Qian Yuanguan escaped, "he reorganized his troops, defeated the bandits and returned."

According to the "Ten Kingdoms Spring and Autumn Annals", when the Wuyue army was in disarray, Xu Zhigao volunteered to lead 2,000 elite infantrymen, put on Wuyue military uniforms, raise Wuyue military flags, sneak behind Wuyue army, sneak into Suzhou, and then take Suzhou in one fell swoop. This strategy was eventually rejected by Xu Wen because Xu Wen wanted to make peace with Wuyue next.

Was it "defeating the bandits and returning", or was it Xu Wen showing mercy? If we must investigate it in detail, it is actually justifiable and not contradictory.

First of all, Qian Yuanguan was best at avoiding the enemy's main force and the enemy's sharp edge, and then showing weakness to lure the enemy and destroy the enemy by surprise, such as the battle of Langshan that he had just won. So Xu Wen was not sure whether the Wuyue army's apparent panic and retreat was actually a false defeat to lure the enemy.

Secondly, the Battle of Langshan dealt a heavy blow to the surface forces of Southern Wu, weakening its overall national strength and failing to recover. The newly born Southern Wu regime needed international recognition the most, and it needed to make as many friends as possible instead of making enemies. Even if it could take Suzhou, it would not be possible to swallow up the Liangzhe region in one go. If it followed Xu Zhigao's advice, Southern Wu would only fall into a long-term tug-of-war with Wuyue. Xu Wen would know the truth of the snipe and the clam fighting each other. So even if Qian Yuanguan's army was really defeated, Xu Wen would most likely show mercy to pave the way for the upcoming peace talks.

Furthermore, Xu Zhigao was originally the biggest suspect in the "death of Xu Zhixun". Xu Wen's confidants had been earnestly persuading him to get rid of his adopted son Xu Zhigao as soon as possible and pass on his kingdom to his biological son. If Xu Zhigao made too many contributions, it would inevitably shock the master. As detailed in the previous article, Xu Wen had always been vigilant and consciously suppressed Xu Zhigao, and even made up his mind to get rid of Xu Zhigao, but he suddenly died of a sudden illness on the way to get rid of him, which made Xu Zhigao finally usurp Xu Wen's foundation. So even if Xu Wen wanted to beat the dog when it was down, he would not allow Xu Zhigao to establish too high prestige in the army and strengthen his own power.

Finally, Xu Wen was not only a military strategist, but also a politician. Since the grand strategy of making peace with Wuyue has been set, there needs to be a suitable node to extend the olive branch. This node is the Battle of Wuxi. He should ask for negotiations as a victor, and must not beg for mercy as a weakling after the "Battle of Langshan". In short, he needs to stop while he is ahead, and negotiate while he is doing so, so that he can fully grasp the initiative and maximize his interests.

In August, Xu Wen took the initiative to return the Wu Yue prisoners of war and sent the Minister of Foreign Affairs (Ke Shengshi) to visit Hangzhou to express his willingness to negotiate peace.

Qian Liu readily agreed and sent officials to pay a return visit. From then on, peace between the Huainan Group and the Wuyue Qian Group lasted for more than 20 years. The people of Jianghuai lived and worked in peace for a whole generation.

Regarding this important reconciliation, "Wu Yue Bei Shi" still tried to flatter Qian Yuanguan, saying that Huainan asked for peace with us because of the "Battle of Langshan" in April, but tactically forgot the battles of Shashan in June and Wuxi in July.

"On the yi si day of the fourth month of summer, a great battle was fought between the Huai people at Langshan River... The Huai people then asked for marriage."

It can be said that he had ulterior motives, because the historian put "The people of Huai therefore sought to be married" after the "Battle of Langshan" in April, and only recorded the Battle of Wuxi in July after that, briefly mentioning it in one or two sentences, and the last sentence was "Then he reorganized the troops, defeated the bandits and returned."

This small adjustment in time can easily mislead readers into thinking that Huainan was indeed conquered by the "Battle of Wolf Mountain" and quickly begged for peace from the Wuyue Kingdom.

Strictly speaking, the "Wuyue Beishi" is not a complete lie. Because the "Battle of Langshan" did make Huainan decide to make peace with Wuyue, but there is an essential difference between "thinking" and "doing". It was precisely because the politician Xu Wen wanted to make peace that he "forced peace with war". After winning enough bargaining chips through the great victories in June and July, he officially made a series of friendly gestures in August, such as returning prisoners and visiting senior officials.

History is the politics of the past, and politics is the history in progress. Politicians never lie to people, they are just good at guiding people to read history.

Key figure: Qian Yuanguan
The above are several candidates who have made outstanding contributions to the development of the Liangzhe Qian Group. There are many people who have made contributions, but there can only be one heir. Who will be the heir?
(End of this chapter)