【Dongchuan Haze】
Face is all supported by the inside. Meng Zhixiang's territory is Xichuan's unique and dangerous terrain, abundant money and grain reserves, a steady stream of taxes, a huge army, and tall city walls.
Since the end of the Tang Dynasty, two large-scale wars broke out in Chengdu City due to hostilities with Nanzhao. Since then, successive Xichuan Jiedu envoys have attached great importance to the city defense repair work of Chengdu City, especially Gao Pian.
Gao Pian not only carried out the conventional treatment of heightening and thickening the original city wall, but also built the outer city, which qualitatively improved Chengdu's defenses. Ironically, it was precisely because Gao Pian built an impregnable city defense system for Chengdu that he was slandered and falsely accused of intending to separate Xichuan. Therefore, he was transferred out of Chengdu and moved to Jingnan and Huainan to deal with Huang Chao.
Meng Zhixiang carried out further expansion and expansion work on the basis of Gao Pian, and mobilized a total of 200,000 civilians.
All the civil and military officials in the DPRK and China pointed out that Meng Zhixiang of Xichuan would rebel, and it was better to take action as soon as possible.
In May of the fourth year of Tiancheng (929), Li Siyuan used the reasonable excuse that he was going to have "something to do in the southern suburbs" to send his confidant Li Renju with an imperial edict to the two Sichuan provinces, asking the two Sichuan provinces to "voluntarily" donate "gift money to assist the suburbs" as usual. Xichuan's target is one million guan, and Dongchuan's target is 500,000 guan.
At that time, the harvests in both Sichuan and Sichuan were poor due to natural disasters, and there was a famine in Shu. The price of rice soared to 400 cents per dou, which was about a hundred times the normal price. So both Sichuan and Sichuan took this as an excuse to complain to the court about their poverty.
Meng Zhixiang didn't want to pay a penny at first, but later asked for a 50% discount and only agreed to give him 500,000 guan; while Dongchuan Dong Zhang only promised to give 100,000 guan and directly gave him a 20% discount.
Li Renju felt very unhappy. The court gave him a target of 1.5 million, but he only completed 600,000. He didn't know how to explain it to his boss. When he came to Dongchuan Zizhou full of resentment, something went wrong.
Li Renju is Li Siyuan's direct confidant. He has served as Li Siyuan's guest general (diplomat) for a long time. Now he has been promoted to guest envoy, taking over Li Yan's team. And his relationship with An Zhongjie is also very close, and he is regarded as a confidant by An Zhongjie. This time, as an imperial envoy to collect "gift money to assist the suburbs", he was also secretly tasked with spying on the dynamics of the two Sichuan provinces. The information he provided would directly affect the court's attitude towards the two Sichuan provinces.
Generally speaking, local officials are in awe of imperial envoys. They receive high welcomes from far away, provide health care, treat guests and give gifts. They do not dare to ask for a few kind words, but only ask not to make small reports or wear small shoes.
Li Yan came to Xichuan with this thought, and so did Li Renju. Relying on his tough background, Li Renju's attitude is very arrogant.
Dong Zhang held a sumptuous banquet in Zizhou and waited for Comrade Li Renju to come and guide the work. But until noon, there was still no sign of Li Renju.
Dong Zhang sent someone to the hotel where Li Renju was staying to check the situation. Soon, his subordinate came to report: "Li Renju is taking a health care treatment at the hotel where he is staying!"
"ah?"
Dong Zhang thought of thousands of reasons, including oversleeping, running and having diarrhea, getting lost, torn pants, suddenly falling ill...but he never expected this answer, so he led his entourage and rushed to the inn angrily.
Made in the Tang Dynasty, the post station is roughly equivalent to today's urban complex. In addition to being equipped with sufficient carriages and horses, it also has supporting hotels, hotels and other facilities, integrating catering, accommodation, entertainment, communication and other functions. It is also equipped with Exclusive police force. In the "entertainment" project, there are "official prostitutes".
All ancillary facilities of the station are open to the public, which is equivalent to a government-run comprehensive hotel and comprehensive entertainment venue. The operating income is used to supplement government funds.
When Dongchuan Bing kicked open the door of the luxurious single room, Li Renju was guarding a table of fine wine and food, hugging him from left to right. The scene was unsightly and indescribable.
Li Renju was startled when he saw that it was Dong Zhang who was personally leading the inspection. All the officers and soldiers in his entourage were showing their swords. He suddenly woke up and half-drunk. He hurriedly pulled off his clothes and pants and put them on. He didn't even have time to put on his socks and stepped into his boots with his bare feet. , was pulled by the soldiers and dragged into the courtyard. (Walking in the court without socks but in boots)
Dong Zhang pointed at the tip of his nose and cursed loudly, "Xichuan can kill Li Yan, Dongchuan can also kill Li Renju! Behead them with me, right and left!"
Li Renju fell to his knees with a plop, crying and begging for mercy.
Dong Zhang was different from Meng Zhixiang. He didn't really want to rebel, nor did he have any plans to rebel. His talk of killing Li Renju was just impulsive and angry, so he stepped down and spared Li Renju.
The next day, Dong Zhang organized a new banquet to calm Li Renju, and invited his wife to apologize to Li Renju. Before leaving, he gave Li Renju a generous bribe in the hope of clearing up the misunderstanding.
Li Renju agreed on the surface, saying that he would settle the old grudges, not care about each other, and would help each other in the future. But in his heart, he hated Dong Zhang and gritted his teeth.
After returning to the court, Li Renju complained more and more about Dong Zhang's rebellious and illegal behavior in Dongchuan, and vowed that Dongchuan would rebel.
An Zhongjiao was convinced, so he and Li Renju met Li Siyuan, sang in harmony, and pointed the finger at Dong Zhang of Dongchuan.
Later, Li Siyuan sent Li Yanxun as envoy to Dongchuan to spy on Dong Zhang's attitude. As a result, as soon as Li Yanxun entered Dongchuan, he angered Dong Zhang over a trivial matter, and Dong Zhang immediately arrested Li Yanxun's followers. Li Yanxun saw that the situation was not good, so he ran away and ran back to the court in a hurry, "Dong Zhang is really going to rebel!"
At this time, a Yanzhou Baoda Army task force stationed in Dongchuan was ordered to return to Yanzhou after its garrison period expired. Dong Zhang intercepted all his weapons and baggage, selected young and strong well-dressed soldiers, and forcibly detained them, only allowing the old, weak, sick and disabled to return to town empty-handed.
An important minister of the "Hawk faction" An Zhonghui bravely shouldered important responsibilities and launched the 2.0 version of the layout of the two rivers:
Langzhou and Guozhou were set aside, and the Baoning Army was set up, with Li Renju as the governor.
Dongchuan today is no longer the Dongchuan it once was. Dongchuan has long governed 12 states including Zizhou and Suizhou, and has a vast territory. Now, there are only 5 states left in Dongchuan guarded by Dong Zhang.
In order to prevent the emergence of a dominant family in the Bashu region and avoid the breeding of separatist forces, the imperial court divided the vassal towns in the Bashu region into pieces and divided them into pieces. Basically, a military town was divided into 2 or 3 states, and Jiedu envoys were sent to guard it. The forces are weak and intertwined.
The newly established Baoning Army was located east of Dongchuan and slept next to Dong Zhang's couch.
An Chongjie also appointed Wu Qianyu as the governor of Mianzhou.
Wu Qianyu was an old member of Li Siyuan's direct lineage, and he was also An Zhonghui's elder brother-in-law. Mianzhou belongs to the jurisdiction of Dongchuan and is the closest jurisdiction to Zizhou, located at the eleventh o'clock position of Zizhou.
General Xia Luqi was also appointed as the military governor of Suizhou Wuxin Army.
In this way, Wu Qianyu of Mianzhou is like a sharp blade hanging on Dong Zhang's head; Li Renju of Langzhou is the tiger sleeping beside Dong Zhang's bed; Xia Luqi of Suizhou is the hot wheel under Dong Zhang's feet.
Dong Zhang was strategically surrounded by An Chongjiao.
