History of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms

Chapter 983 Red Top Merchant
This year, the Min Kingdom was in chaos. Wang Yanzheng proclaimed himself emperor in Jianzhou and established the Great Yin regime. The Min Kingdom was divided into two, and the civil war entered its most intense stage. Not long after, the Fuzhou imperial army generals Zhu Wenjin and Lian Chongyu murdered Wang Yanxi and established themselves as emperors. Wang Yanzheng sent troops to attack Fuzhou, but his general Li Renda defected to Zhu Wenjin in the battle.

After all, Min was the foundation of several generations of the Wang family. Generals and officials from all over Min responded to Wang Yanzheng, killed the traitors Zhu Wenjin and Lian Chongyu, and welcomed Wang Yanzheng into Fuzhou, which marked the brief unification of Min. Later, the Southern Tang took advantage of the situation and stabbed Jianzhou in the back. Wang Yanzheng was in a hurry to rescue his old nest and had no time to cultivate Fuzhou.

Li Renda had previously betrayed Wang Yanzheng, so he was worried that Wang Yanzheng would counterattack after handling the affairs of Jianzhou. So he took advantage of Wang Yanzheng's return to rescue Jianzhou to launch the "Fuzhou Mutiny" and control Fuzhou. Li Renda knew that he was not strong enough to compete with Wang Yanzheng, so he supported a monk, Zhuo Yanming, as a puppet emperor and submitted to the central court, the Later Jin Dynasty.

Soon, Li Renda killed his weak-willed general Hezhuo Yanming, took charge of the affairs of Fuzhou, and at the same time pledged loyalty to the Southern Tang and the Later Jin to guard against a counterattack by Wang Yanzheng.

At that time, the Later Jin Dynasty was caught up in the "Jin-Liao War" and was declared extinct in the second year, so it had no time to look south. Although it expressed its recognition of Li Renda, it was unable to provide any valuable help to Fuzhou; Li Jing of the Southern Tang was fighting fiercely with Wang Yanzheng in Jianzhou, and the enemy of my enemy is my friend, so he gladly accepted Li Renda's allegiance and recognized his separatist rule over Fuzhou.

Soon, Jianzhou was conquered by the Southern Tang, Wang Yanzheng was captured, and the Southern Tang annexed three-fifths of Min, leaving only Fuzhou and Quanzhou. In order to expand his power, Li Renda of Fuzhou found a reason to attack Quanzhou, but unexpectedly, the Quanzhou general Liu Congxiao took advantage of the situation, split off Quanzhou, and became a vassal of the Southern Tang.

At this point, Southern Tang had annexed all of Min’s territory except Fuzhou. So, Li Jing said to Li Renda of Fuzhou with affection, “Come, let’s have tea in the court.” In order to seize the credit for Fuzhou, Chen Jue, the leader of the “Four Evils and Five Ghosts” group, forged an imperial edict to mobilize troops and attacked Fuzhou without authorization, advancing all the way to the city of Fuzhou and conquering the outer city of Fuzhou.

Li Renda was left with nowhere to go, so he changed his name to Li Da in October 946 (previously he was given the name Li Hongda by Li Jing), took the initiative to avoid Qian Hongzuo's taboo, and sent his confidants Xu Renyan, Li Ting'e and others to Hangzhou to pay tribute to the Wuyue Kingdom and request military assistance.

Qian Hongzuo summoned all the civil and military officials to discuss countermeasures. As a result, almost everyone opposed sending troops. Just like the last time they opposed sending troops to Jianzhou, everyone opposed sending troops to Fuzhou. With the painful lesson of Jianzhou last time, the voices of the opposition were louder this time. They presented facts and reasoned that they would never do such a losing business again.

Only the Internal Affairs Supervisor Shuiqiu Zhaoquan insisted on sending troops. Shuiqiu is a double surname. Comrade Shuiqiu Zhaoquan is also a "royal relative". Qian Liu's mother is Shuiqiu, which means that Qian Liu has a grandfather with the surname Shuiqiu. It is said that when Qian Liu was born, the whole room was full of red light. Qian Liu's father Qian Kuan was shocked and thought that he had given birth to a monster, so he wanted to abandon little Qian Liu next to a big well. When Shuiqiu learned about it, he tried his best to dissuade him, which saved Qian Liu's life. Therefore, Qian Liu's childhood name was called "Po Liu", and the well was named "Po Liu Well" by later generations. Shuiqiu had the grace of rebirth for Qian Liu.

However, it is difficult to verify the generation relationship between Shuiqiu Zhaoquan and Qian Liu. It is not known whether they are uncle and nephew or cousins. In short, he entered the core power circle as a "royal relative" and became the chief supervisor of the inner court.

Comrade Shuiqiu Zhaoquan had a far-sighted vision and said that Wuyue and Min were closely related, and that helping neighbors in times of disaster was a common practice in ancient times, so there was no reason not to send troops. The Southern Tang annexed Jianzhou yesterday, and if it annexed Fuzhou today, then it would come to Hangzhou tomorrow.

Qian Hongzuo agreed with this and said, "If the lips and teeth are separated, they will be cold. This is a clear principle in the Spring and Autumn Annals. I am the commander-in-chief of the country, but I cannot help my neighbors in need. What use is there for me? The generals are riding horses and eating meat, but you are the only one who is unwilling to lead me? Anyone who disagrees will be executed!"

Just half a year ago, the Later Jin court had just awarded Comrade Qian Hongzuo the honorary title of "Marshal of the Army of the World", which Qian Hongzuo used to make a fuss.

Just because he is the "Marshal of the Army of the World", he has to act on behalf of heaven? Obviously, this is just a slogan. Then is the reason why Qian Hongzuo decided to send troops because of the loss of lips and teeth? This is just Qian Hongzuo's excuse.

War is the continuation of politics. Qian Hongzuo was young and isolated, and many civil and military officers were dissatisfied. Therefore, he urgently needed a foreign war to integrate political resources, establish prestige, train troops, and quickly establish a power system with Qian Hongzuo as the core. This was the key factor in Qian Hongzuo's decision to send troops to Fuzhou.

Qian Hongzuo ordered Shuiqiu Zhaoquan to take command, the red-top businessman Cheng Zhaoyue to be in charge of logistics, Prime Minister Yuan Dezhao as military advisor, and generals Zhang Yun and Zhao Chengtai as military commanders, leading an army of 30,000 to advance both by land and sea to provide support to Fuzhou.

So the "Battle of Baixiapu" mentioned in the previous article on the Min Kingdom took place.

Southern Tang had long been prepared to resist the armed intervention of Wuyue. They built strong fortifications and deployed heavy troops at various landing sites along the coast of Fuzhou. Only Baixiapu, south of Fuzhou, was relatively lax in defense. This was not negligence on the part of Southern Tang, because the natural conditions of Baixiapu were not conducive to landing operations. The beach was a large muddy swamp. If the enemy chose to land there, it would be tantamount to seeking death and becoming a living target for the defending shooters.

The Wuyue army finally chose to try its luck at Baixiapu, because the Wuyue ground forces had entered Fuzhou City to assist in the defense, but the counterattack failed and they were squeezed into the inner city by the Southern Tang army, and the connection between the inside and the outside was cut off; if the Wuyue surface forces could not open the gap in time, then the Southern Tang would most likely trap the Wuyue ground forces and Li Renda together.

For this landing, the Wuyue Kingdom made certain preparations, using bamboo rafts as landing craft to deal with mudflats and swamps. However, the effect was not ideal, and they were forced back by the super-saturated firepower coverage of the Southern Tang defenders.

At this time, the navy of the Wuyue Kingdom was anxiously wandering near the coast, in a dilemma, and seemed to be repeating the Battle of Jianzhou a few years ago, to comfort Comrade Yang Renquan who died of depression.

In the Southern Tang army there was a surrendered general from the Kingdom of Min named Meng Jian. He saw through the situation of the reinforcements from the Kingdom of Wuyue and revealed the secret in one sentence: Fuzhou was an isolated city, out of ammunition and food, and the reinforcements from the Kingdom of Wuyue at sea were powerless and caught in a dilemma. All they needed to do was to use strong bows and crossbows to defend Baixiapu and contain the sea, and Fuzhou City would be captured at any time.

However, the commander-in-chief of the Southern Tang, Feng Yanlu, issued an incredible order: the defenders withdrew from Baixiapu and allowed the Wuyue navy to land.

It was this order that allowed the reinforcements of Wuyue to stage a desperate counterattack and achieve a comeback, while the army of Southern Tang, which had been sure to win, was defeated and the national strength was severely damaged. From then on, it was unable to recover until it was annexed by the Song Dynasty. The mainstream historical view unanimously believes that this battle was the "war of annihilation" of Southern Tang. Southern Tang was destroyed by Li Yu, and the fault was Feng Yanlu's Baixiapu.

Why did Feng Yanlu seek to benefit others without any self-interest?

Some people said that it was because Meng Jian was too talkative, and the leader Feng Yanlu didn't want to be overshadowed by a surrendered general. Since he had already won, Feng Yanlu naturally wanted to do whatever he wanted. Some people thought that Feng Yanlu didn't know how to fight, and didn't even know how to "strike the enemy halfway across the river". He was simply a military idiot...

In the special topic of Southern Tang, we have already learned about Feng Yanlu, one of the "Four Evils and Five Demons", and the political environment of Southern Tang at that time. Although Feng Yanlu's approach led to a very painful defeat, without exaggeration or slander, a little analysis will show why Feng Yanlu gave this order. It can even be said that Feng Yanlu had a chance of a great victory:
Meng Jian's proposal is a very traditional old routine, in one word - delay. Surround the city, isolate the inside and outside, attack the reinforcements, and wait until the food and grass in the city are cut off, then declare victory. The advantage of doing this is low casualties and high success rate. The biggest cost is time cost, which can easily take three to five months. Behind the time cost is huge material cost. Hundreds of thousands of troops, several months of food and horse fodder, money is like diapers.

To sum up, the advantages of this method are: safety; the disadvantages are: burning money and wasting time. In contrast, another method of siege is a more bloody battle, with caves, ladders, tunnels... the so-called hundred-way siege. There are many casualties, but it saves time.

Your life is your own, and your money belongs to the country.

Most soldiers like to use the old routine of traditional war of attrition. They gather in a circle, throw handkerchiefs, wait for half a year or two, and then collect rewards, money, and money. What, a strong attack? The casualty rate is 90%+. Do you think you will be in the 10%? Once, twice, can you guarantee that it will be the same every time?
The butt determines the head. As the commander of an army, Feng Yanlu has deeper considerations. If you laugh at him for not understanding military affairs, he will laugh at you for not understanding politics; if you laugh at him for not understanding politics, he will laugh at you for not understanding Southern Tang.

Feng Yanlu advocated a quick victory and a quick victory. He said that the reason why Fuzhou City was still resisting was because of the support troops on the sea, which was their spiritual support. As long as we could defeat the support troops, Fuzhou would naturally surrender in despair. How could we defeat them? We could only let them land and then encircle and annihilate them in one fell swoop.

Strictly speaking, Feng Yanlu's fighting style was the original and authentic ancient method of besieging a point and attacking reinforcements. From a military perspective, it cannot be said that Feng Yanlu did anything wrong. But why did he lose?

Feng Yanlu won in military affairs but lost in politics.

First of all, the Southern Tang was forced into this war because Chen Jue, greedy for merit, forged an imperial edict to send troops, and falsely conveyed the imperial decree, which led to a wrong war at the wrong time, in the wrong place, and against the wrong enemy. The Southern Tang's logistical preparations were quite inadequate, and the food, fodder, and reserve troops were all stretched to the limit, and it could not support a huge war of attrition at all.

This was one of the main reasons why Feng Yanlu gave up the long-term siege and attrition campaign. It was not that he did not want to attrition, but that the Southern Tang could not afford it.

Because Chen Jue had arbitrarily deployed troops to push Southern Tang into a bottomless pit of war, the "Qingliu Party" launched a frantic impeachment against the "Four Evils and Five Demons" group, demanding that Li Jing stop the war and severely punish war criminals; there were also conflicts of interest within the "Four Evils and Five Demons", and the pressure was also exerted on the front line. Feng Yanlu was under tremendous political pressure. Even if he had sufficient food and supplies, he had to adopt a quick and decisive approach and could not fight a protracted war or a war of attrition, so as to avoid more trouble and a fire in the backyard.

This was the second main reason why Feng Yanlu gave up the war of attrition.

The above is the reason why Feng Yanlu made the battle plan of luring the enemy deep into the territory and besieging the enemy's reinforcements, but it is not the reason for the failure of the battle. So what was the reason for the failure?

It's still about politics.

Although the Southern Tang nominally annexed all of Min's territory except Fuzhou, it actually controlled only Jianzhou, and the rest, such as Quanzhou, were controlled by the warlords of the former Min. Most of the surrendered Min generals surrendered under pressure, waiting and watching, and were at odds with the Southern Tang. For example, Liu Congxiao tried every means to make the Southern Tang lose the war.

Among the local soldiers of Southern Tang, some were jealous of Feng Yanlu's military achievements, while others preferred a conservative war of attrition and opposed the more radical tactic of besieging a point and attacking its reinforcements... These people were also unwilling to use their own interests to pay for Feng Yanlu's decision.

The Fujianese were lax, while their own people were slacking off. Everyone inside and outside the country was watching Feng Yanlu's joke. When the reinforcements from Wuyue State landed, the Southern Tang army was half-hearted. As soon as the Wuyue State army launched a charge, the Southern Tang army fled in all directions, collapsing thousands of miles.

Li Renda of Fuzhou was rescued, so he expressed his submission to the Wuyue Kingdom.

The young and heroic ruler Qian Hongzuo finally avenged his previous humiliation, which greatly boosted domestic morale, won enough prestige for himself, and consolidated his political position.

Just one month before Li Renda surrendered, in February 947, Qian Hongzuo finally eliminated Cheng Zhaoyue.

Cheng Zhaoyue relied on his money to get the Wuyue dignitaries Du Zhaoda and Kan Fan, quickly entered the core power circle, and then sent lunch boxes to the two of them. Political upstarts without foundations are most afraid of this kind of magical operation.

It is hard to say what role Cheng Zhaoyue played in bringing down Du Zhaoda and Kan Fan. Cheng Zhaoyue wanted them dead, and some "big shots" also wanted them dead, so the big shots pushed the boat along behind the scenes, and Cheng Zhaoyue performed in the front. He was just a pawn in the political struggle of Wuyue State. The big shots only needed to change the script to make this little actor disappear completely.

So, someone secretly reported that Cheng Zhaoyue had committed three serious crimes: gathering many guests, storing weapons, and associating with sorcerers.

Qian Hongzuo entrusted the important task of eliminating Cheng Zhaoyue to Shuiqiu Zhaoquan. How many steps are there to eliminate Cheng Zhaoyue? Answer: Three steps. The first step is to lead more than a thousand soldiers to surround Cheng Zhaoyue's house; the second step is to rush in; the third step is to kill him.

Mizukiya Sho-sensei rejected the appointment, saying, "If he is guilty, he should be brought to justice in an open manner, tried and executed in accordance with the law, not assassinated."

In fact, this reflects that Qian Hongzuo does not have enough confidence in his own ability. He is afraid that Cheng Zhaoyue will become desperate, so he wants to break the moral code of martial arts. Young people, after all, have no moral code of martial arts.

In the end, Qian Hongzuo handed this important task to his confidant, Zhu Wen, the commander of the inner guards, and asked him to seize the opportunity to arrest Cheng Zhaoyue. Zhu Wen lived up to his domineering name and successfully arrested the defenseless Cheng Zhaoyue, then sentenced him to death and executed him immediately. Later, he rehabilitated Comrade Qian Renjun who was under house arrest and restored his freedom.

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