【Huainan civil strife】
People's hearts are broken and it's hard to lead the team.
Yang Xingmi was born as a bandit, and took advantage of the troubled times to occupy Luzhou. He first expelled Qin Yan and Bi Shiduo, and then killed Sun Ru. He gradually conquered Huainan and became the overlord of the Yangtze and Huaihe Rivers. As the cause became more and more prominent, some veterans gradually lost their will to fight, lost their revolutionary faith, began to pursue pleasure, and even had evil intentions, such as the three direct lineage warriors of the veteran-Tian Kai, An Renyi, and Zhu Extend life.
Tian Kai and Yang Xingmi were from the same neighborhood. In the Tang Dynasty, there were four households as neighbors, five neighbors as protection, five protections as li, and five li as township. The relationship between "tongli" was very strong, within a hundred households. The two grew up in the same neighborhood and became sworn brothers with different surnames in their early years. Later, Yang Xingmi took the lead and Tian Baoan served him wholeheartedly, assisting Yang Xingmi with all his strength. When Yang Xingmi occupied Luzhou, Tian Kai contributed the most.
Perhaps in our preconceived notions, Tian Kai should be counted as Yang Xingmi's subordinate. However, from Tian Kai's perspective, he should be regarded as Yang Xingmi's partner, company founder, and major shareholder. I dare not say that he shares equal rights and interests with Yang Xingmi. He is at least the second-in-command in Yang Xingmi's group.
In fact, Yang Xingmi also took great care of him. Now Yang Xingmi Group controls two towns in total - Huainan and Xuanzhou Ningguojun. Among them, the boss of the Xuanzhou subsidiary is Tian Kai. However, this could not satisfy Tian Kai's inner desire. He was unwilling to be stepped on by Yang Xingmi forever. Tian Kai repeatedly tried to challenge Yang Xingmi's authority, frantically testing on the verge of committing suicide.
Yang Xingmi had also been aware of this for a long time, so he suppressed him everywhere, and the conflict between the two intensified.
In the second year of Tianfu (902), Tian Kai raided Feng Hongduo, the governor of Shengzhou, with the intention of expanding his sphere of influence. When Feng Hongduo was desperate, Yang Xingmi took the initiative to take him in and appointed Li Shenfu as the governor of Shengzhou.
Tian Wei originally wanted to "take on private work" and expand his strength by annexing Feng Hongduo of Shengzhou and gain more say in Yang Xingmi Group. Yang Xingmi brazenly took away Tian Kai's victory.
This was the first public contest between Tian Kai and Yang Xingmi, and it ended with Tian Kai's defeat.
In the same year, Qian Liu's generals Xu Wan and Xu Zaisi launched a rebellion. Tian Kai led his army to assist Xu Wan and Xu Zaisi's rebels and surrounded Hangzhou. Tian Li also wanted to strengthen his own strength by annexing Hangzhou Qian Li.
However, Yang Xingmi ordered Tian Kai to withdraw his troops and secretly told the ordering soldiers that if Tian Kai did not obey the order, he would be killed on the spot. Tian Kai returned bitterly. This was another public contest between the two men, which ended in Tian Kai's defeat.
Later, Tian Wei went to Yangzhou in person and made a request to Yang Xingmi to cede land, requesting that Chizhou and Shezhou, which originally belonged to the Ningguo Army in Xuanzhou, be ceded back to the jurisdiction of Xuanzhou, but Yang Xingmi flatly refused. This is the third public contest between the two, and Tian Kai is still the loser.
Tian Kai was very angry and believed that he had suffered a serious injustice. At the same time, Yang Xingmi's close ministers came to Tian Kai to ask for bribes and blackmail, and did not take this "founding father" seriously. This reflected the extent of Yang Xingmi's group's suppression of Tian Kai from the side, and it was even more incredible. The strange thing is that there is actually a small jailer among these extortionists.
Tian Kai was furious and shouted angrily: "The jailer dares to ask me for a bribe. Why, does he know that I am going to Yangzhou Prison?"
When Tian Kai walked out of Yangzhou City, he couldn't help but raise his finger and point at the Yangzhou City Gate, and swore viciously through his teeth, "I will never come here again!"
Even Li Shenfu saw the signs of Tian Kai's rebellion and persuaded Yang Xingmi to strike first.
Yang Xingmi waved his hand and said that Tian Bo had made great achievements, but there was no direct evidence of rebellion. If he was killed just because of suspicion, everyone under his command would be in danger, and the gain would not be worth the loss.
In order to minimize the losses of the rebellion that is very likely to occur in the future, Yang Xingmi is not indifferent. For example, in the repressive measures mentioned before, although Tian Kai was appointed as the governor of the Ningguo Army in Xuanzhou, Chizhou, Shezhou was never returned to Tian Bo; Tian Bo captured Shengzhou, and Yang Xingmi changed hands and sent Li Shenfu to guard it; Tian Bo wanted to annex Hangzhou Qianliu, but when Hangzhou was about to fall (Cui Ke), Yang Xingmi urgently called a halt.
In addition, Yang Xingmi also actively undermined Tian Kai's mountain top. For example, Tian Wei had an outstanding general named Kang Ru, whose opinions often conflicted with Tian Wei. After Yang Xingmi learned of this situation, he immediately promoted Kang Ru to be the governor of Luzhou. Promoting the subordinates of political opponents is a routine method to divide and dismantle political opponents. When Zhaozong eradicated Yang Fugong, he first promoted and won over Yang Fugong's adopted son Yang Shouli. Later, Yang Shouli really shined in the "Anti-Yang Movement".
Tian Kai fell into the trap and decided that Kang Ru had betrayed him, so he killed Kang Ru's entire clan. When Kang Ru was about to die, he calmly said: "After I die, Tian Wei will only have a few days left." Kang Ru understood that he was Yang Xingmi's deliberate bait for Tian Wei. Tian Wei was commendable for his bravery and pathetic power.
Yang Xingmi succeeded in fishing, but lost his timing.
At this time, in the third year of Tianfu (903), King Shifan of Qingzhou in Shandong Peninsula rebelled. Yang Xingmi sent Wang Maozhang to aid Qingzhou to contain Zhu Wen; on the Ezhou front, Yang Xingmi sent Li Shenfu to attack Ezhou.
In the Shandong Peninsula, Zhu Wen's nephew Zhu Youning was shot dead and his head was sent to Huainan; in the Ezhou battlefield, Jingnan Chengru was betrayed by his teammates and the country was destroyed and died. On both battlefields, Yang Xingmi successfully attracted Zhu Wen's wrath.
And Tian Kai seized this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and posted on Weibo to announce that he was leaving Huainan Society and establishing another company. Tian Kai also did some homework in breaking away from the Yang Xingmi Group.
First, it is to create public opinion.
The villain Tian Kai complained first and gave Yang Xingmi a "disobedient" shit basin. Tian Kai wrote a letter to Yang Xingmi, to the effect that it was the duty of the feudal princes to pay tribute to the imperial court. As the governor of Huainan, you should pay tribute on time and in full. Only in this way will I be willing to serve you.
Yang Xingmi smiled coldly and replied to the main message: What kind of grandson are you pretending to be? All tributes from the southeast were transferred to the imperial court through the hands of Zhu Wen of Bianzhou. They were called tribute, but in fact they were used to support the enemy.
To this day, there is still a lot of information citing this, saying that the reason why Tian Kai broke with Yang Xingmi was because Tian Kai was loyal to the Tang Dynasty, while Yang Xingmi had the intention of separatism. This is an extremely irresponsible, inaccurate and perfunctory fallacy! The person who said this not only knows nothing about political power, but also has an insufficient grasp of historical data.
"New Book of Tang" has already made a final conclusion on Tian Kai's behavior: He used the tribute tax as an excuse to break away from Yang Xingmi, rather than being sincerely loyal to the Tang Dynasty (Tian Kai envoys sent military taxes to help him, this His plan was criticized and rejected, which was not loyal to the Tang Dynasty).
Secondly, it is to find "like-minded" revolutionary comrades. The best candidates are An Renyi and Zhu Yanshou.
An Renyi has had two ambitions for a long time. Qian Liu encountered the "Xu Xu Rebellion" and sent Gu Quanwu to escort Qian Yuanhuang to Yangzhou as a hostage to ask for help. On the way, he had to pass through Runzhou where An Renyi was stationed. At that time, the Qian Liu Group realized that An Renyi had evil intentions, so they asked Qian Yuanhuang to disguise himself as a servant. After being spotted by An Renyi, Gu Quanwu bribed the city gate officials with a large sum of money and escaped overnight.
Now, after receiving Tian Kai's secret message, the two hit it off and agreed to start a rebellion together.
Li Shenfu, the governor of Shengzhou, was on the front line of Ezhou. Tian Bo took advantage of the opportunity to attack Shengzhou and captured Li Shenfu's family. An Renyi raided the Dongtang Naval Base east of Yangzhou and burned all the Huainan warships.
Tian Wei sent two envoys, disguised as businessmen, to Shouzhou to contact Zhu Yanshou, but Shang Gongnai discovered this. At first, the two refused to admit it, but Shang Gong beheaded one of them without saying a word. The other immediately confessed and showed leniency, handing over the secret letter Tian Kai wrote to Zhu Yanshou. Shang Gong then reported the secret letter to Yang Xingmi.
Finally, it is to seek support from external forces and "rely on foreigners to rely on self-respect."
The best candidate is of course Zhu Wen.
Of course Zhu Wen knew the significance of Tian Kai, An Renyi, and Zhu Yanshou in the Huainan forces. These three people were to Yang Xingmi just like Guan Yu, Zhang Fei, and Zhao Yun were to Liu Bei. Now that these three people have joined forces to rebel and actively invite Bianzhou forces to intervene, it is really a God-given opportunity to eliminate Huainan!
Zhu Wen immediately led his army to Suzhou and watched the fire from across the bank. Because Zhu Wen wanted to see if this was Yang Xingmi's plan to lure the enemy, and also to see how much trouble these three people could stir up, so as to find the right opportunity to enter the field and harvest.
