[Internal worries Liu Yanlang]
After Meng Chang came to the throne, people everywhere were restless. The newly surrendered Wuding Army in Yangzhou was in turmoil. General Wen Jingchen launched a mutiny and occupied Yangzhou.
Meng Chang sent Li Yanhou, the governor of Guozhou, to seek peace. Judging from the text, there is nothing wrong. Someone rebelled, and troops were sent to suppress it. However, after taking a look at the map, we can see the clues: Yangzhou is today's Yang County of Shaanxi Province, northeast of Xingyuan Prefecture, and Guozhou is today's Nanchong City of Sichuan Province, located in the south of Dongchuan and the hinterland of the two Sichuan provinces. .
Why did Meng Chang sacrifice the near for the distant and let Li Yanhou travel most of Shu to expedition to Yangzhou?
This is the problem just described above: the veteran generals are dissatisfied, and the regime of Later Shu is unstable.
Sun Hanshao of the Yangzhou Wuding Army was defeated at the Fengxiang front line, and then surrendered to Hou Shu together with Zhang Qianzhao of Shannan West Road. It was Sun Hanshao's old tribe who launched the rebellion this time. Close to Yangzhou is the Shannan West Road. Most of the soldiers here were soldiers and generals who surrendered from the Later Tang Dynasty, and Meng Chang did not dare to use them.
Further south, adjacent to it is Lizhou Zhaowu's army, and the military governor is Li Zhao. Meng Chang didn't even dare to use it.
Further south is the Langzhou Baoning Army, and the military governor is Zhao Tingyin. Zhao Tingyin is not a fuel-efficient lamp, and he is planning to kill Li Renhan with Zhao Jiliang and others, so he cannot be used.
Further south is Dongchuan, and the governor of Dongchuan is Meng Chang himself.
Therefore, Meng Chang's act of abandoning the near and seeking the distant is really a helpless move.
Li Yanhou of Guozhou did not disappoint Meng Chang's painstaking efforts. He was victorious and succeeded immediately, and easily put down the Yangzhou rebellion.
At the same time, Zhang Yanlang, the military commander of the Qinzhou Xiongwu Army in the Later Tang Dynasty, led his army south to surround Wenzhou, hoping to regain the city that had surrendered to Hou Shu.
It's better to come early than to come late. Li Yanhou had just put down the rebellion in Yangzhou, so he led his victorious division to the west to support him. Li Yanhou led the main force to Xingzhou and sent vanguard officer Fan Yanhui to lead the leading force to reinforce Wenzhou.
Xingzhou is located to the west of Xingyuan Mansion, to the east of Wenzhou, to the south of Fengzhou, and to the north of Fengzhou is Dashanguan Pass. Li Yanhou stationed the main force here, mainly to cut off the reinforcements from the Later Tang Dynasty coming from the direction of Fengxiang-Dasanguan-Fengzhou. If the main force of the Later Tang Dynasty comes to aid from this direction, then it can go to the west to reinforce Wenzhou, and to the east it can recover the land south of the Qinling Mountains such as Yuanfu Shannan West Road and Yangzhou Wuding Army.
Li Yanhou guarded Xingzhou and took the initiative on the battlefield. He was very wise and a ruthless character who knew how to use troops.
Zhang Yanlang knew that he had met a master, so he took the initiative to lift the siege of Wenzhou and withdrew his troops back to Qinzhou; the troops stationed near Xingzhou in the Later Tang Dynasty also withdrew to Fengxiang.
This tentative attack by Later Tang to regain lost territory ended in failure.
Later Shu appointed General Quan Shiyu as the "Defense Envoy of Jinzhou". Jinzhou was located to the east of Wuding Army in Yangzhou and was still under the control of the Later Tang Dynasty. This is a very traditional "order yourself to get it". Yu led the entire division to attack, conquered the outer defense circle of Jinzhou, and reached the city gates.
At this time, there were only a thousand defenders in Jinzhou, and the situation was critical.
Chen Zhiyin, the supervisor of Jinzhou, led 300 soldiers and escaped along the Han River. The defensive commander Ma Quanjie destroyed his family to relieve the difficulties, used all his property to reward the troops, resisted desperately, and finally defeated the entire army and saved Jinzhou.
Li Congke issued an edict to kill the supervisor Chen Zhiyin; Ma Quanjie went to Beijing to accept the reward.
After Ma Quanjie came to Beijing, Deputy Privy Councilor Liu Yanlang blatantly asked for bribes from him.
At that time, Li Congke basically completed the redistribution of central power, and the core power was in the hands of his immediate relatives. In name, Fang Hao and Zhao Yanshou were Privy Council envoys. However, they did not please Li Congke, especially Zhao Yanshou. They only wanted to win over Zhao Dejun and balance Shi Jingtang's chess pieces. The ones who really gained the respect of Li Congke were Liu Yanlang, deputy envoy to the privy council, and Xue Wenyu, direct academician of the privy council.
Fang Hao is good at people and the world. He is very observant and understands how to behave in the world. Although he is the privy envoy and is nominally the superior of Liu Yanlang (deputy privy envoy), he has always been the one who takes the lead. He must ask Liu Yanlang for instructions on everything, and take Comrade Liu Yanlang's instructions as the final decision.
Especially when envoys from Youzhou (Zhao Dejun) and Taiyuan (Shi Jingtang) came to Beijing, Fang Hao said nothing. According to work requirements, the main person in charge of the Privy Council will hold a work docking meeting with the envoys, and everyone will sit together to discuss the work. At this time, Fang Hao simply pretended to be asleep, refusing to listen, discuss, or express his position. After the envoys had left, he yawned, stretched, and smacked his mouth, "Huh? Where are the people?" ?”
In this way, whether it was personnel appointments and removals, official reports, etc., all matters large and small were decided by Deputy Envoy Liu Yanlang alone, and Fang Hao only signed.
When officials from various places came to Beijing to meet with him, they always bribed Liu Yanlang first. Especially when it comes to personnel transfers, the final result all depends on their intentions for Liu Yanlang. If they bribe more, they will get a good job; This is already an open secret in Later Tang Dynasty.
After Ma Quanjie came to Beijing, Liu Yanlang was afraid that this country bumpkin who had been on the border for a long time did not understand the rules and openly asked for bribes.
Ma Quanjie had spent all his wealth in order to keep Jinzhou. Now he was penniless and did not have enough money to honor Liu Yanlang.
So Liu Yanlang was furious and wanted to let this unruly person know the consequences of breaking the rules.
Liu Yanlang made a personnel appointment: Ma Quanjie was appointed governor of Jiangzhou.
When the news came out, the government and the public were shocked, and the whole country was in an uproar. Because Ma Quanjie was already a defense envoy, equivalent to a deputy provincial cadre, and had made great contributions, theoretically he should have been promoted to Jiedushi, but instead of being promoted, Liu Yanlang demoted him to the rank of governor. (Municipal cadres).
Is there any royal law? Are there any laws? What nonsense!
The prince Li Chongmei was also aggrieved by this and went directly to Li Congke to complain. Li Congke was shocked, so he personally intervened, and then changed Ma Quanjie to Cangzhou Henghai navy to stay behind.
This incident is enough to show how powerful Liu Yanlang was. If the prince Li Chongmei hadn't complained personally, Li Congke would have been kept in the dark and had no idea about Ma Quanjie's appointment.
The power of personnel appointment and dismissal is the most fundamental power of a group. Selling one's official position is the greatest form of corruption and the source of all evil. The direct consequence of selling off one's official position is bound to be corrupt officials everywhere. Big officials are corrupt, minor officials are corrupt, and all officials are corrupt. All the pressure will eventually be passed on to the common people, and the wool comes from the sheep.
Officials who are honest, honest and upright are excluded and unable to enter the core of power, and their correct ideas of benefiting the country and the people cannot be implemented. The social elite is gradually marginalized, while treacherous villains fill the court.
The power of personnel appointment and dismissal is the root of the empire. Others, such as embezzlement of public funds and exorbitant taxes, are all details. Once the roots rot, unhealthy tendencies will naturally emerge in endlessly and repeatedly.
