History of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms

Chapter 98 Yangzhou changes its owner
After the defeat in the first battle, Bi Shiduo regretted it deeply. He thought that with only a thousand men, it was impossible for him to capture the strong city of Yangzhou with many soldiers and generals. This trip was tantamount to suicide.

Bi Shiduo wrote a letter to his old comrade Qin Yan, dragging him into the water and promising that if he captured Yangzhou City, he would give the title of "Huainan Jiedushi" to Qin Yan.

Qin Yan, Bi Shiduo and Zheng Hanzhang are all surrendered generals of the Cao army. Qin Yan currently serves as the Surveillance Commissioner of Xuanshe Road and is the strongest among the surrendered generals.

At this time, one of Bi Shiduo's followers risked his life to escape from the city and reported the situation in the city to Bi Shiduo, saying that the people in the city were demoralized and no one was willing to work for Lu Yongzhi. It would not be long before the city would collapse on its own.

Only then did Bi Shiduo regain his confidence in the struggle.

Gao Pian summoned Lu Yongzhi and expressed his desire to resolve the dispute peacefully. He asked Lu Yongzhi to select a reputable person to communicate with Bi Shiduo and eliminate the misunderstanding between the generals.

Gao Pian probably did not have a full grasp of the facts. He knew that it was Bi Shiduo who led the rebellion, and as for the reason, he naturally assumed that it was a request for reward or something like that.

Lu Yongzhi sent one of his confidants, bringing Gao Pian's handwritten letter and Lu Yongzhi's letter of commitment, as well as good wine and food, to Bi Shiduo's camp to reward and comfort him and negotiate a ceasefire.

Bi Shiduo hoped to let Gao Pian's old subordinates act as the middleman, so that he could expose and accuse Lü Yongzhi of evil, vent his long-suppressed resentment, and reiterate that he was not a rebel and was not against Gao Pian, but only against Lü Yongzhi. Unexpectedly, the person who came turned out to be Lü Yongzhi's trusted henchman, and he could not help but get angry.

"Where is Liang Zun? Why did they send someone like you here?"

Liang Zun was one of the "Five Tigers" and was the general who accepted the surrender of Bi Shiduo and others. Just like the successful candidates and the chief examiner, there was also a close relationship between the surrendered general and the surrendered general. So Bi Shiduo hoped to meet Liang Zun the most.

Before the guy could even open his mouth, his head was chopped off.

The next day, Bi Shiduo wrote a letter, tied it to an arrow, and shot it into the city.

Lu Yongzhi collected the arrows and burned them directly without unpacking them.

The news was blocked and the right to speak was controlled by Lu Yongzhi. The people and the military did not know Bi Shiduo's true intentions, and all kinds of speculations and discussions were rampant.

Lü Yongzhi was worried that the night might be too long and he took more than a hundred guards to break into Gao Pian's residence.

Gao Pian was so frightened that he hid here and there and fled to his bedroom. He asked, "You are disobeying orders and bringing troops to invade without permission. Are you going to rebel?" He ordered his attendants to expel Lü Yongzhi and others. Lü Yongzhi's attempt to hold them hostage failed.

Gao Pian finally understood Lü Yongzhi's sinister intentions and summoned his nephew Gao Jie to come.

Gao Pian appointed Gao Jie as the chief warden of the prison and handed over his 500 personal guards to him. This was Gao Pian's last fortune.

Lü Yongzhi kidnapped all the young and middle-aged men in the city, whether they were ordinary people, officials, or intellectuals, tied their hands, and drove them to the city walls to prevent them from "rebellion." At the same time, he was also worried that they would collude with the rebels outside the city, so he randomly moved them around at irregular times and in irregular numbers, so that their families could not find them when they came to deliver food.

Everyone hoped that Bi Shiduo would rush into the city and get rid of the bad guy Lu Yongzhi.

Gao Pian wrote another handwritten letter and sent his subordinates to Bi Shiduo's military camp with the letter, along with a letter from Bi Shiduo's mother and Bi Shiduo's youngest son, to explain, clear up misunderstandings and resolve conflicts.

Bi Shiduo immediately sent his youngest son back to the city and once again stated that he had no intention of rebelling. He only asked Marshal Gao to kill Lu Yongzhi, Zhang Shouyi and Zhuge Yin. He, Bi Shiduo, was willing to take his entire family as hostages to show his sincerity.

Gao Pian knew everything by now. Worried that Lü Yongzhi would murder Bi Shiduo's family, he sent someone to bring Bi Shiduo's family to his side and assigned soldiers to guard them 24 hours a day.

Qin Yan's 3,000 reinforcements, led by General Qin Chou, came to reinforce Bi Shiduo. The reinforced rebels launched an attack on Yangzhou City.

The defenders in the southwest corner of the outer city turned against their own side, burned their defensive equipment, and joined forces with Bi Shiduo, who cooperated with them from inside and outside, and dug a large hole in the city wall, allowing the rebels to rush in.

Lu Yongzhi led his trusted troops to try their best to block the enemy, gradually gaining the upper hand in the street fighting, and the resistance army gradually lost its strength.

At the critical moment, Gao Jie led the jailers (prison soldiers) to attack from the inner city, joined forces with the rebels, and attacked Lu Yongzhi from both sides.

Lu Yongzhi was attacked from all sides and his morale collapsed. Seeing that the situation was hopeless, he hurriedly fled out of the city.

Gao Pian summoned Liang Zun, the only surviving member of the "Five Tigers", to lead more than 100 people to protect the inner city. Liang Zun had been stripped of his military power before, but fortunately he survived.
Gao Pian met Bi Shiduo in Yanhe Pavilion, and they saluted each other. Then he appointed Bi Shiduo as the deputy envoy of Huainan Jiedushi, and generals such as Zheng Hanzhang were also rewarded. At the beginning of Bi Shiduo's uprising, in order to gain the support of the troops, he promised to rob money, food, and women after entering the city, and even to divide Huainan with Qin Yan. Therefore, after the rebels entered the city, they looted wantonly, and turned from liberators into invaders.

The campaign to eliminate traitors came to a temporary end here, and Bi Shiduo, who was trying to "clear the court of corrupt officials," achieved a phased victory.

History is fair, giving Gao Pian and Bi Shiduo a chance to get back on track. History is also humorous, because the two of them avoided all the correct options, fell into an abyss of no return, and were nailed to the pillar of shame in history.

Let’s first look at Bi Shiduo, who occupies a dominant position and has more initiative and flexibility.

The reason why Bi Shiduo started his rebellion was very simple. He was plotted against by a treacherous villain and forced to take up arms to fight against the tyranny. Throughout history, generals have repeatedly fallen into the same situation and faced the same choice. It happened that this treacherous villain had a very bad reputation and was hated by both humans and gods. Therefore, under the instigation of people around him, Bi Shiduo took the risk.

Therefore, Bi Shiduo's slogan for starting the rebellion was "clear the court of emperors", and he also repeatedly stated that he was not against Gao Pian, but only against Lu Yongzhi. Therefore, he won the enthusiastic support of the army and the people.

Now that Lü Yongzhi's power has collapsed and Gao Pian has returned to power, Bi Shiduo should behave like a loyal minister, such as handing over his military power, kneeling before Gao Pian and asking for forgiveness for his crimes of mutiny and disturbing the emperor, and then assisting Gao Pian in returning to power.

Or he could learn from Cao Cao, who could gain a reputation for supporting old officials and respecting the virtuous, and benefit from using the emperor to control the other lords. The people of Huainan would also be grateful for his righteous act of eliminating harm for the people.

But Bi Shiduo played a good hand of cards badly.

Not only did he go against his original intention and force Gao Pian to "abdicate and let the wise take over", and act as the governor of Huainan himself, he also invited a wolf into the house and welcomed Qin Yan to Yangzhou.

From the moment Gao Pian handed over power, the nature of the mutiny changed from "eradicating evil and eliminating traitors" to treason. Bi Shiduo was overturned and slapped in the face, falling from the moral high ground to the bottom, losing legitimacy, from a hero praised by the whole nation to a traitor condemned by all, from raising his arms and gathering responses to being abandoned by his friends and family and being isolated.

Bi Shiduo invited Qin Yan mainly out of his lack of confidence. Bi Shiduo's own army had only 100 soldiers, and Zheng Hanzhang had only 1,000 men. If they wanted to control Huainan, these 1,000 men were far from enough. So Bi Shiduo actively tried to win over the powerful Qin Yan and agreed to divide Huainan together.

Negotiations involve exchanging bargaining chips. Bi Shiduo's bargaining chip was "Lü Yongzhi".

It’s still the old story of the cat and the mouse. Without the mouse, the cat loses the qualification to negotiate.

Qin Yan was not confused, he rushed to Yangzhou without stopping, he did not come to share Yangzhou, but to take over Yangzhou. Bi Shiduo was completely taking advantage of the situation and making wedding clothes for others.

During the occupation of Yangzhou, we can get a glimpse of the situation between Bi Shiduo and Qin Yan. After the city was captured, Bi Shiduo was busy controlling Gao Pian, smashing, looting, and looting; Qin Yan's general Qin Chou immediately took control of various warehouses, archives and other important places.

Bi Shiduo's taking over Huainan was not justified and did not make sense, and people were dissatisfied. What about Qin Yan's taking over? That was even more unjustified and did not make sense, because Qin Yan's "Huainan Jiedushi" was conferred by Bi Shiduo.

Moreover, Bi Shiduo's attempt to win over Qin Yan did not win the approval of another major shareholder, Zhang Shenjian. Among the three major rebels, Bi Shiduo, Zheng Hanzhang, and Zhang Shenjian, Zhang Shenjian was the most powerful. However, Bi Shiduo promised to give the title of "Huainan Jiedushi" to Qin Yan without Zhang Shenjian's knowledge, thus betraying the interests of the major shareholder. This was a time bomb planted within the group, which would explode sooner or later.

The Huainan generals who were loyal to Gao Pian would not recognize the legitimacy of Bi Shiduo, let alone Qin Yan. Huainan was inevitably plunged into a long-term melee, with countless lives lost.

Bi Shiduo should bear the main responsibility for this.

Let’s look at Gao Pian again.

When Bi Shiduo first entered the city, the rebels were so overstretched that they could not even send troops to garrison the city gates, and were unable to gain substantial control over Yangzhou City.

Someone suggested to Gao Pian that he should lead his trusted followers to break out, and then summon garrison troops from various places to regain control of Yangzhou.

Gao Pian, who had spent his whole life in the military, was old and his passion and courage had been dulled by his long-term indulgence in sensual pleasures. He did not accept this suggestion, but chose to obey orders and handed his life and property to the rebels for them to deal with.

In this way, he was forced to hand over all his power and became a fish on the chopping board, at the mercy of others.

Thanks to my old friend “驰风程雨游无限兮” for his recommendation and support!
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(End of this chapter)