【Kang Yanxiao Rebellion 2】
Kang Yanxiao's rebellion determined its inevitable failure from the beginning.
First of all, the location where Kang Yanxiao launched the mutiny was in Jianzhou. Jianzhou was adjacent to Jianmen Pass to the north. A little further north from Jianmen Pass was Lizhou where Li Jiji's main force was located. From the map, the distance from Lizhou and Jianzhou to Jianmenguan is basically the same, while the two states are very far from Chengdu.
Of course, Kang Yanxiao did not have the ability to eat Li Jiji's main force in one go, even if he launched a surprise attack. Then he could choose to occupy Jianmen Pass to prevent Li Jiji from entering Shu, and then go to Chengdu himself. Kang Yanxiao, on the other hand, just wanted to destroy the Jibaijin Floating Bridge between Lizhou and Jianmenguan.
Whether it is controlling Jianmen Pass or destroying the plank road and pontoon bridge, it is a key step to effectively block enemy reinforcements and an important part of "closing the door to beat the dog". Kang Yanxiao obviously didn't pay enough attention to this, or was too hasty. He actually just gave an order to the officials guarding Jibaijin, asking them to destroy the pontoon on their own.
How could the officials guarding Jibajin carry out the orders of the rebel leader Kang Yeon-hyo? So he immediately reported the situation to Li Jiqi.
Li Jiji was greatly shocked and immediately sent his confidant Liang Hanyong to lead troops to Jibaijin to protect the Jibaijin Floating Bridge. He also wrote to Kang Yanxiao to comfort him and persuade him to rein in his horse. That night, he ordered Ren Wan to take command, Liang Hanyong as deputy, and Li Yanan as supervising eunuch. He led 7,000 cavalry to chase south and easily controlled Jianmen Pass.
At this time, Kang Yanxiao had actually led his troops to rebel and attack Chengdu. Kang Yanxiao's operation is really puzzling. As a general who has been on the battlefield for most of his life, he would actually make such a low-level military mistake!
As soon as the rebellion began, Kang Yanxiao fell completely passive.
Politically, there is a dilemma.
Kang Yanxiao immediately claimed to be the envoy of Xichuan Jiedu and Sanchuan Zhizhi, and issued an edict to replace Meng Zhixiang, publicly admitting that he was an illegal rebellion and illegal; and he pushed the Hezhong soldiers to the forefront, intending to take advantage of "Zhu Youqian" "Death" was used to gain sympathy, but this was tantamount to putting the label of rebellion on the soldiers in the river.
At the beginning of the rebellion, they monopolized the dividends of the rebellion and passed the blame on their own supporters.
Militarily, there is a dilemma.
To advance, it is far away from Chengdu, and Chengdu also has defenders and garrison troops. The city is tall and easy to defend but difficult to attack; to retreat, the retreat is already in the hands of the enemy. Unable to advance or retreat, Kang Yanxiao is the turtle in the urn and the dog behind the closed door.
A strategic mistake and a tactical mistake. If Kang Yanxiao decisively concentrated his elite forces to attack Chengdu and gave it a try, there might be a glimmer of hope, but he was stupid and naive and lost his last chance to struggle.
Li Cunxu sent the eunuch Cui Yanchen to Chengdu, but unexpectedly met Kang Yanxiao on the way. Cui Yanchen then deceived Kang Yanxiao and falsely claimed that he was recruiting Meng Zhixiang back to Beijing according to the imperial edict. He only needed to wait quietly for a few days before Kang Yanxiao could peacefully take over Xichuan. However, if he launched an attack at this time, it would be counterproductive.
Cui Yanchen's lie was full of loopholes and could not withstand any scrutiny, but Kang Yanxiao was so obsessed that he believed it to be true. He really stood still and waited honestly for Meng Zhixiang to get out of the house and hand over Xichuan.
After Cui Yanchen arrived in Chengdu, he immediately helped Meng Zhixiang strengthen security, widen trenches, reinforce city walls, and build fortifications such as Luzhai. He also sent general Li Yanhou to lead 2,000 people to attack Kang Yanxiao, and attacked Ren Wan and Dong Zhang's troops from the north and south.
Li Yanhou gathered two thousand people together and announced: "Those who are determined to make achievements, gain fame, and pursue glory and wealth should stand on the east side; those who are old and weak and afraid of sacrifice should stand on the west side." In the end, 700 people stood on the east side. , so Li Yanhou attacked with only these 700 people.
Soldiers are not expensive in large numbers, but finesse is valuable. No matter how many sheep there are, they are still sheep; no matter how few lions are, they are still lions.
The counter-rebellion troops, led by Ren Wan, pursued from north to south, while the Chengdu defenders counterattacked from south to north, blocking Kang Yanxiao's rebels from both ends. The two sides finally met in Hanzhou.
Zhang Li, the former secretary of Guo Chongtao and the only staff member who dared to pay homage to Guo Chongtao after his murder, suggested that Ren Wan adopt a strategy of setting up an ambush and luring the enemy in depth. Therefore, Ren Yuan ordered Dong Zhang to lead Dongchuan's cowardly soldiers (formerly soldiers surrendered to Shu) as the vanguard and use them as bait, while he personally led the main elite to ambush in the rear.
Kang Yanxiao originally didn't take Ren Wan seriously, thinking that he was just a pedantic scholar who knew nothing about military affairs. He also saw that his so-called "counter-rebellion troops" were all old, weak, sick and disabled, so he readily took the bait and ordered everyone to The army pursued and plunged into the ambush circle set by Ren Wan.
With an order, ambush arose everywhere. Kang Yanxiao was defeated, thousands of people were killed, and the main force was almost exhausted. He fled back to Hanzhou City in embarrassment, closed the city and stood firm, never daring to fight again.
The so-called "Hanzhou City" is just a wooden fence surrounded by branches, with no city walls or trenches at all. Ren Wan did not give Kang Yanxiao any chance. He ordered the wooden fence to be burned and besieged Kang Yanxiao's rebels.
The trapped beasts continued to fight. Kang Yanxiao led the remaining troops to attack and were defeated. He only escaped from the battlefield with a dozen cavalrymen and ran towards Mianzhu. He was overtaken halfway and captured alive.
Xichuan Jiedushi Meng Zhixiang personally went to Hanzhou to reward the three armies, held a grand celebration banquet with Ren Wan and Dong Zhang, and ordered the prison car carrying Kang Yanxiao to be pulled to the banquet. After all, we are old comrades and old friends, and it is the emperor's responsibility to decide what to do. Well, there is still some friendship between buddies chatting and drinking.
Meng Zhixiang personally poured a large glass of wine for Kang Yanxiao and brought it to Kang Yanxiao respectfully. He said with great regret: "You are already in a high position. You have contributed to the destruction of Liang in the past and the achievements of pacifying Shu recently. Why worry about not having glory and wealth?" ?Why bother getting into this prison car?"
Kang Yanxiao told the truth and said: "Guo Chongtao ranks first among all the founding heroes who assisted the emperor. He pacified Bashu without even shedding a drop of blood, which can be called an eternal feat! However, he was innocent and was exterminated. Like me How can I rest assured? I didn’t want to rebel, I just didn’t dare to go back to the Central Committee.”
Everyone understands the truth and can only sigh.
Ren Wan escorted Kang Yanxiao to join forces with Li Jizhen, and then Li Jizhen accelerated his return north. When they arrived at Fengxiang, the imperial court sent an eunuch to Xiang Yansi and ordered Kang Yanxiao to be executed on the spot.
Kang Yanxiao's capable men Li Zhao and Hou Hongshi were captured alive by Meng Zhixiang. Meng Zhixiang pardoned them all and promoted them to his generals.
At that time, riots in various places in Shu were still continuing. Meng Zhixiang selected honest and capable officials to govern the prefectures and counties, abolished exorbitant taxes, recruited exiles, implemented very lenient government orders, and worked hard to restore the local economy.
Please remember this Meng Zhixiang, he will soon re-separate the Shu land and proclaim himself an emperor and establish a country.
Kang Yanxiao's rebellion in Shu was quickly put down, but another rebellion that occurred almost at the same time became a prairie fire.
