【The first stage】
Dong Zhang took over Langzhou as a conqueror and held the power of life and death for the soldiers and civilians of the city. After the entire family of his enemy Li Renju was executed, another person was escorted to Dong Zhang.
This person's name is Yao Hong, who was originally a young general in the Houliang Dynasty. He was under Dong Zhang's account and was Dong Zhang's old subordinate. Now he leads a thousand men to garrison Langzhou.
Before Dong Zhang officially attacked, he sent spies with letters to instigate rebellion, hoping that he would act as his mole. Unexpectedly, Yao Hong didn't buy the old officer's blame at all and threw the secret letter directly into the toilet.
After Langzhou was captured, Yao Hong was captured alive and brought before Dong Zhang.
Dong Zhang scolded him sternly, "I promoted you from a humble soldier to an officer. I treated you very well. Why did you betray me?"
Yao Hong glared and cursed: "Old thief! In the past, when you were a slave in Li Rang's house in Bianzhou, you cleaned the horse manure every day, and the master rewarded you with a piece of leftover barbecue. You were so grateful. Now, the emperor has promoted you When you are a vassal and a prince, doesn't it count as 'treating you very kindly'? You can betray the emperor, but I can't betray you? I would rather stand and die for the emperor than kneel and live as a slave of thieves!"
Yao Hong regarded death as if he were home. He opened his mouth to say "thief slave" and closed his mouth to say "traitor". Every sentence was heartbreaking and every word was short.
Dong Zhang was furious and ordered people to set up a large pot in the hall and boil a large pot of boiling water. Ten strong men cut Yao Hong's flesh and ate human flesh hot pot on the spot.
Yao Hong continued to curse him until his death.
When news of Yao Hong's heroic deeds returned to Luoyang, Li Siyuan was moved to tears and promoted Yao Hong's two sons to generals of the Forbidden Army. He also gave their families extremely generous rewards and called on soldiers across the country to learn from Comrade Yao Hong.
When Ouyang Xiu compiled "New History of the Five Dynasties", he included Yao Hong in "Biography of Death". Loyalty will shine brightly in the annals of history.
Li Siyuan was very humorous, or he still had the last illusion about Meng Zhixiang. After issuing an edict to deprive Dong Zhang of all his official positions and titles, he also issued an edict to appoint Meng Zhixiang as the "Southwestern Feed Envoy" to assist Wang Shi in conquering Dong Zhang. .
What Li Siyuan didn't know was that Meng Zhixiang had just written another admonishment article titled "Collecting Langzhou to Show Xichuan List". In that era when information dissemination was underdeveloped, this was equivalent to the headline on the front page of a newspaper and ranked first on the hot search list. . This statement is also quite high-level, so let’s excerpt it for appreciation:
"Yesterday, the two rivers created doubts about the imperial court. They did not respect loyalty and believed in the words of slander and thieves, which caused the princes to lose their moral integrity."
——The first sentence of the opening chapter is also a scapegoat, placing the responsibility for the war entirely on the imperial court. Unfounded suspicion and officials forcing the people to rebel are the political tone and the standard sentence for "answering reporters' questions" in formal occasions.
"At the beginning, Li Renju, the envoy of Langzhou Jiedu, came to serve as an envoy, and he frequently took a look at it. It is said that between Guo and Lang, it is the place where control comes, where he plans reckless plans, abuses the rules, and implements treacherous schemes. The evil is still there...He is the leader of the army."
——Li Renju was the main culprit of the war. He was extremely evil. He was greedy and greedy. His plan to build a military town and spy on Dongchuan had succeeded, but it still could not satisfy his evil heart.
"So the Prime Minister of Dongchuan... raised up the Pihu Army together to break the Jackal's Den... personally led the armies of the two Sichuan..."
——The rabbit bites people when it is anxious. Faced with Li Renju’s pressing steps and the court’s appeasement and connivance, Dong Zhang finally launched an attack on Langzhou.
"...God praises the power of the army and the bravery of the people, so the culprit was beheaded and the same evil was captured. Our division was surrounded by four units, and the enemy attacked with one attack and disintegrated..."
——Look at the fighting power of our two rivers, how awesome it is.
"... then we will take advantage of the victory and advance to attack Lizhou, hoping to defeat the enemy in a matter of seconds."
——Brother Dongchuan has made such a great start and we, Xichuan, don’t hold us back. Lizhou, let’s go!
This is why I like to read edicts of war, proclamations, public notices, etc.:
The article is not long, short and concise, the ideas are clear, the logic is rigorous, and it is never sloppy. In just a few lines, it is about shirking the blame, shifting blame, accusing the opponent, making excuses, sarcasm, and boosting the morale of our army... It is all done in one go, and it quotes from scriptures. It is all four or six or four or sixty-eight sentences, intertextual, thimble, and confrontation. ...a variety of rhetorical devices are dizzying. At its most exaggerated, the ten words in the upper and lower sentences can hide four allusions...
This is how a cultured person curses people, without using any curse words, but he can curse them to such an extent that they can become speechless, or even become angry to death on the spot. Zhuge Liang scolded Wang Lang to death, which is still an emoticon to this day.
Li Siyuan dispatched troops and generals, and put his son-in-law and general Shi Jingtang in command (all the Dongchuan camps recruited envoys), Xia Luqi was his deputy; Wang Sitong was the vanguard officer.
Dong Zhang really didn't want to rebel, or he really had concerns. This was his son who stayed in the court as a hostage-Dong Guangye. This was also an important reason why An Zhongjiao pushed further and refused to compromise on Dongchuan's appeasement, and it was also one of the reasons why Li Siyuan easily trusted An Zhongjiao and caused serious strategic misjudgments.
An Chongjie and Li Siyuan believed that as long as Dong Guangye was in their hands, Dong Zhang would be unable to rebel. Therefore, the court did not need to be too polite to Dong Zhang, and did not need to accommodate or appease him. I bullied you, do you have a temper? You can rebel if you can - holy shit, are you really rebelling?
The imperial court beheaded Dong Guangye's wife and children.
After winning the first battle, the soldiers from Liangchuan and Sichuan who captured Langzhou were somewhat inflated.
Dong Zhang sent Xichuan general Meng Sigong to attack Jizhou. Meng Sigong underestimated the enemy and advanced rashly, but returned defeated. Dong Zhang was furious, "Destroy my morale and destroy our military prestige. If it weren't for the sake of the friendly forces, I would have executed you under military law. Get out!" Dong Zhang did not want to destroy the friendship between the allies, so he sent the defeated general Meng Sigong back to Chengdu. .
Meng Zhixiang dismissed Meng Sigong from all official positions and went home to think about his mistakes and do deep introspection.
This cooperation between the two Sichuan provinces is very tacit, that is, the troops are divided into two groups, fighting independently, without a unified overall command. There is only one guiding principle that is both clear and vague, and that is what Zhao Jiliang proposed: capture Lang and Sui first, and then control Jianmen Pass.
Therefore, Dong Zhang of Dongchuan was in charge of the northern half, taking Langzhou and controlling Jianmen Pass to prevent the Central Army from entering Sichuan via land; Meng Zhixiang of Xichuan was in charge of the southern half, taking Suizhou and controlling the Yangtze River to prevent the Central Army from entering Sichuan via waterways.
Meng Zhixiang of Xichuan sent Li Renhan to attack Suizhou, forming a diversionary force that prevented Suizhou reinforcements from going north for reinforcements.
Suizhou Jiedushi Xia Luqi closed the city and stood firm. Meng Zhixiang mobilized 20,000 Zizhou militiamen and turned them into engineers to build a wall outside Suizhou City to physically isolate Suizhou City.
Xia Luqi ordered the cavalry commander Kang Wentong to lead the cavalry out of the city to attack and hinder the progress of the siege project. News of the fall of Langzhou came at this time. After Kang Wentong led the cavalry troops out of the city, they surrendered directly to Li Renhan.
Sharuch could only sit back and watch being surrounded, but he still resisted tenaciously and waited until reinforcements arrived.
