【A prophecy】
The generals who returned from the defeat in Luzhou collectively shouldered the thorns and came to the palace gate to ask for punishment. Zhu Wen issued an edict: All pardoned! In addition, a heavy reward was given to preserve Zezhou's Niu Cun Festival.
A few days later, Zhu Wen held a family dinner and drank with his family to relieve his depression.
After three rounds of wine, five flavors of food. Zhu Youning's wife suddenly burst into tears and cried out to Zhu Wen: "Your Majesty is sitting on the throne of the Nine-Fifth Emperor, and the whole family has been blessed. It's a pity that my husband was so unlucky that he died on the battlefield. And the enemy who killed him was actually bathed in it." With your grace, I enjoy the glory and wealth. Every time I think about it, my heart aches!"
Everyone at the table stopped eating and looking at Zhu Wen. It was quiet, and only the sound of You Ning's wife crying could be heard.
Zhu Wen was like a statue, staring straight at the wine glass in front of him, "You Ning..." Zhu Wen's lips pursed, with a sad expression on his face.
From sadness to guilt and self-blame, "Second brother..." Zhu Wen's eyes filled with tears, twinkling and refusing to fall.
Suddenly, sadness and guilt turned into anger in an instant. With a "pop", Zhu Wen threw the wine glass on the table angrily. With an angry look on his face, he squeezed out a sentence through his teeth, "I almost forgot about this thief!"
Later, Zhu Wen ordered that Wang Shifan's entire family be executed!
The envoy was ordered to rush to Luoyang, dig a deep pit next to Wang Shifan's house, and then read Zhu Wen's edict to Wang Shifan:
"By God's blessing, the emperor issued an edict: I will kill your whole family. Please accept this."
After receiving the edict, Wang Shifan made a request to have the last supper with his family. The messenger agreed.
So Wang Shifan organized a banquet to eat the decapitation meal with his family. The executioner stood waiting with a ghost-headed sword in his arms. Who can still eat it? The whole family sat around the dining table, crying endlessly. Only Wang Shifan was talking and laughing freely, taking a sip of wine and a sip of food.
After that, Wang Shifan made one last request, saying that everyone is destined to die, not to mention that I am a guilty person, but I don’t want to break the etiquette and let the corpses pile up in disorder. I request that I be punished in order of eldest and youngest, which is also troublesome. Please help arrange our remains. The family must be neat and tidy.
The messenger and the executioner agreed with tears.
The next scene is extremely sadistic. According to the order of seniority and inferiority, starting from the children, they walked to the edge of the pit one by one. The executioner beheaded them while crying... On that day, more than 200 members of Wang Shifan's family were killed. Wang Shifan was only 35 years old at the time. .
When Huang Chao invaded Chang'an, Wang Jingwu, the general of Pinglu Army in Qingzhou, launched a mutiny and ordered An Shiru to be envoyed one by one. He claimed to stay in the army, but Wang Duo, the commander-in-chief of the "mowing the grass and cracking down on pornography" and the prime minister at the time, tolerated it in order to unite all the forces that could be united. Wang Jingwu was formally appointed as the military envoy of Pinglu Army in Qingzhou, and he was asked to raise troops to serve the king.
After Wang Jingwu's death, his son Wang Shifan succeeded to the throne. After Zhu Wen defeated the two emperors of Yan and Yun, Wang Shifan chose to submit to the Bianzhou forces under the military threat of the Bian army. Later, he secretly collaborated with Yang Xingmi of Huainan and launched a rebellion. Zhu Youning died in that war. Later, Wang Shifan Under military pressure, Shifan once again surrendered to Zhu Wen.
When Zhu Wen's great adviser Li Zhen persuaded Wang Shifan to return to the court, Wang Shifan did not dare to come because of Zhu Youning's death. Li Zhen successfully persuaded him with the allusion of Zhang Xiu's surrender to Cao Cao in the late Han Dynasty. Little did Wang Shifan know that his fate would also be a perfect tribute to Zhang Xiu.
When Wang Shifan was in Qingzhou, his uncle killed someone while drunk. The victim's family filed a complaint and reported his uncle to him. Wang Shifan paid a large amount of money to compensate the victim's family, but the victim's family said they refused civil compensation and wanted nothing, as long as the murderer paid for his life. Wang Shifan said to the people around him: "I can't abolish public service for personal reasons, and I can't take the lead in breaking the law." So his uncle was executed.
His mother was so angry that she almost severed the relationship with him and never saw Wang Shifan again. Wang Shifan went to his mother's bedroom door to kowtow in greeting every day. He came three or four times a day and was "not allowed to see her for three years."
His father's rebellion to seize power and his surrender and rebellion are all political games, and Wang Shifan's character cannot be rejected because of this. And his righteous approach of killing relatives and executing his uncle according to law won the hearts of the people. When he was executed by Zhu Wen, the people all lamented him.
【Post-Luzhou Era】
The Battle of Luzhou had a very bad impact on the Later Liang Dynasty. It broke the myth of Zhu Wen's invincibility, seriously damaged the majesty of the early establishment of the Later Liang Dynasty, and shook the foundation of the Later Liang Dynasty.
Li Maozhen, Wang Jian and others jointly invaded the western territory of Houliang; Ma Yin of Tanzhou, which was subordinate to Houliang, also openly launched an attack on the Qinghai Navy of Guangzhou, which was also subordinate to Houliang, and occupied the six states under its rule, greatly expanding its power and setting the stage for the future. The "Southern Chu Kingdom" (one of the Ten Kingdoms) laid the foundation; the Heshuo region also began to have a half-hearted attitude towards Houliang, reconsidering whether to join the Hedong forces...
After thirty years of hard work, we returned to before liberation overnight. Zhu Wen's more than ten years of hard work was about to be wiped out. He won't give in.
We can regard this brief period as the "Post-Luzhou Era", with the Battle of Chengjiazhai at the top and the Battle of Qibai Township at the bottom.
Knock on the blackboard and highlight the key points: The main content of this period is Zhu Wen's efforts to maintain the early fruits of victory of the Later Liang Empire, and the period of rapid development of the Hedong Group led by Li Cunxu. This is also a golden key that unlocks a small piece of history that is confusing on the surface but actually logically clear.
Li Maozhen and Wang Jian responded to Li Cunxu's call and sent troops to attack Houliang Da'an Prefecture (i.e. Chang'an, renamed after the establishment of Houliang). Zhu Wen transferred Liu Zhijun to resist.
Liu Zhijun won the victory and defeated the Hedong, Fengxiang, and Qianshu coalition forces.
Subsequently, Zhu Wen mobilized troops within the territory and planned to attack Luzhou twice. Unexpectedly, the Hedong Army launched an attack first and attacked Jinzhou, which belonged to Houliang. At the same time, Li Maozhen sent troops to respond and attack Shangpingguan (northwest of Jinzhou).
Zhu Wen had to change his plan and led his troops to reinforce. Although the Hedong and Fengxiang coalition forces were repelled again, Zhu Wen's plan to attack Luzhou was shelved.
After some weighing, Zhu Wen made a major decision: moving the capital. Moved from Bianzhou to Luoyang. The emperor guarded the country, and the capital was closer to the Hedong battlefield and the Guanxi battlefield to facilitate the issuance of military orders. This marked the shift of the strategic focus of Houliang to the west.
Qian Liu from Hangzhou sent an envoy to present Zhu Wen a plan to jointly encircle and suppress Yang Wei in Huainan.
Zhu Wen was overjoyed. Firstly, he saw the opportunity to eliminate "Huaiyi", and secondly, he saw a talent he had longed for. It turned out that the envoy sent by Qian Liu was Wang Maozhang, the former Huainan general who had just defected to Qian Liu.
When he conquered Qingzhou King Normal School, Wang Maozhang defeated Zhu Wen with less and repeatedly defeated Zhu Wen. The tactics he used were exactly the same as Zhu Wen's early fight against Qin Zongquan. Although Zhu Wen suffered consecutive defeats, he expressed his respect and admiration for the enemy general Wang Maozhang, and said that if I could win this man, there would be no need to worry about losing the world.
Now, Wang Maozhang was standing in front of him.
In fact, Wang Maozhang was able to make this trip because Zhu Wen named him. When Houliang was established, Zhu Wen conferred Qian Liu as the King of Wuyue and asked Wang Maozhang to come to Beijing to take office. I just didn't expect that Qian Liu could really endure the pain and give up his love.
Corporal Zhu Wenlixian treated him with super high standards and promised him: "When I wipe out the northern rebels, I will let you command the army going south and wipe out the Jianghuai River!"
From then on, Wang Maozhang became a general of Houliang, and eventually died on the land of Houliang.
Zhu Wen accepted Qian Liu's plan and sent his confidant Kou Yanqing to take command to fight across the Huaihe River.
Ironically, in the face of the north-south attack by Qian Liu and Zhu Wen, Huainan not only did not collapse, but became more and more courageous as he fought. In the north, he defeated Hou Liang Kou Yanqing, causing the Hou Liang army to return without success; in the south, although it was defeated by Qian Liu , but there was no substantial loss, and they even surrounded Suzhou under the control of Qian Liu for a time, and the overall offensive was on the offensive; more importantly, Huainan was still free to kill the brothers Wei Quanxi and Wei Zichang, and annexed the five Jiangxi provinces. state……
This is not very harmful to Zhu Wen and Qian Liu, but it is extremely insulting.
Zhu Wen suffered from Hedong's anger in the north and Huainan's depression in the south. Fortunately, he was comforted in the west, but this comfort later turned into something even more disgusting:
Hu Jingzhang, the Baosai Jiedu envoy of Yanzhou (now Yan'an City, Shaanxi Province), the pioneer of the Guanxi Group, died suddenly. Li Jihui, the Jingnan Jiedu envoy of Pizhou, sent Liu Wanzi to take charge of Yanzhou.
Liu Wanzi, a villain who had his ambitions, became violent and cruel when he went to the town, and the army and the people were alienated. Liu Wanzi secretly contacted Houliang, planning to surrender the city in exchange for glory and wealth. When the matter was revealed, Li Jihui ordered general Li Yanshi to launch a mutiny and killed Liu Wanzi. Yanzhou was in chaos. The cavalry generals Gao Wanxing and Gao Wanjin brothers led thousands of people to flee and surrendered to Houliang general Liu Zhijun.
Zhaizhou and Danzhou under Li Maozhen also took the initiative to surrender to Houliang Xiancheng.
Zhu Wen finally found comfort in the west and ordered Liu Zhijun to attack Yanzhou. Li Yanshi of Yanzhou only resisted for less than five days before Kaicheng surrendered.
While Liu Zhijun was attacking Yanzhou, he divided his troops to attack Fangzhou. Li Yanyu, the governor of Fangzhou, and Li Yanbo, the governor of Yanzhou Baodajun, abandoned the city and fled; the defender of Yanzhou presented the city and surrendered.
On the battlefield in Kansai, the Houliang Army fought easily and happily. The Houliang army did not fight, but marched armedly. Wherever the army went, the enemy was invincible.
Zhu Wen swept away the depression of the "Battle of Luzhou" and immediately issued another order: He ordered Liu Zhijun to continue advancing westward and take advantage of the victory to seize Pizhou.
Pizhou is the headquarters of the Jinnan Army and one of the "Three Giants of Kansai". Capturing Pizhou has extremely far-reaching political significance.
And at this critical moment, a shocking change occurred inside Houliang, and then a bolt from the blue reached Zhu Wen’s ears——
Liu Zhijun, rebelled.
