【The End of the Last Emperor】
The Later Tang army in Jin'an Village had been besieged for more than 80 days. Although Gao Xingzhou and Fu Yanqing led their troops to break out many times, they could not succeed.
Now Jin'an Village is cut off from food and grass. Due to the lack of fodder, the soldiers had no choice but to demolish thatched huts, wash out the horse manure, wash out the undigested grass stalk fibers, and recycle them. They also added wood chips to make up the amount, "cut wood and sieve the manure to feed their horses." . People eat dirt and horses eat dung.
Even so, the war horses were still hungry and gnawing at each other's hair. Almost all of the horse's tail and mane were gnawed away, and each of them looked like Ge You.
The horses that starved to death became food for the soldiers.
In this way, under Zhang Jingda's extremely firm will to fight, 50,000 people still persisted in resisting and waited for reinforcements from the court.
Gradually, deputy generals Yang Guangyuan, An Shenqi and others were shaken and persuaded Zhang Jingda to surrender.
Zhang Jingda flatly refused, saying that he was deeply favored by the emperor, and that he was defeated when he led the expedition. This was already an unforgivable crime. How could he surrender to the enemy? I believe that reinforcements will definitely arrive. If we are really at the end of our rope, you can chop off my head, take me out to surrender to the Khitans, and go your separate ways.
Zhang Jingda regarded death as if he were home, and made a loud statement.
An Shenqi was ashamed; but Yang Guangyuan kept giving An Shenqi winks, meaning that they should join hands and kill Zhang Jingda now. An Shenqi had mixed feelings and lowered his head, not responding to Yang Guangyuan's eyes.
Gao Xingzhou saw Yang Guangyuan's thoughts, so he led his trusted subordinates to follow Zhang Jingda closely and became his personal bodyguards.
Because Yang Guangyuan is Gao Xingzhou's superior, it is not convenient for Gao Xingzhou to expose and tell the truth in person. After all, "eyes" cannot be used as evidence. Therefore, Gao Xingzhou's actions caused Zhang Jingda's misunderstanding.
Zhang Jingda said to the people around him: "Why is Gao Xingzhou always following me? What does he want to do?"
After Gao Xingzhou heard this, he didn't dare to act as a bodyguard again. As a result, Yang Guangyuan finally seized the opportunity to take action.
Zhang Jingda holds regular military meetings every day, and all generals must attend. On this day, Yang Guangyuan was very active and was the first to arrive at the scene. Zhang Jingda was very pleased and was about to greet him politely. Yang Guangyuan took advantage of him and chopped Zhang Jingda to death with a knife. He then cut off his head and gave it to the Khitan as a certificate of surrender. surrender.
There are also records that Yang Guangyuan once proposed to break out of the encirclement with all his strength, saying that instead of continuing to waste the troops like this and the men and horses would starve to death, it was better to fight with the Khitans and still have a 30% survival rate. Zhang Jingda refused and insisted on waiting for the arrival of reinforcements. That's why Yang Guangyuan killed him.
But no matter what you say, it can't change the fact that "Yang Guangyuan and An Shenqi killed Zhang Jingda and surrendered to Khitan with troops."
Zhang Jingda was born in Daizhou, and his father Zhang Shen served Li Keyong and later died in the army. Zhang Jingda was good at riding and shooting since he was a child. Li Cunxu admired his name for a long time, so he asked him to succeed his father and continue to serve in the army. In Li Cunxu's overthrow of the Later Liang Dynasty, Zhang Jingda made great contributions and was promoted to the Minister of the Ministry of Industry and Commerce. Since the Ming Dynasty, Zhang Jingda's activities have basically been in the Daibei area, dealing with the Khitan people. At that time, the Khitan people repeatedly invaded the south, and Zhang Jingda, with his tough attitude and decisive methods of killing, made the Khitan people quite afraid. Historical records record that "the Khitan people did not dare to herd south, and the people on the outside relied on him."
Therefore, Zhang Jingda is a martyr son of Hong Miaozheng, a meritorious veteran of four dynasties (Zhuang Zong, Ming Zong, Min Emperor, and the Last Emperor), and an old enemy of the Khitan people... He has a strong personality and is nicknamed "Zhang Shengtie". The anti-Liao hero fought to the death and refused to surrender to the Liao.
After learning the news of Zhang Jingda's death, Li Congke was extremely sad, because once Zhang Jingda died, he lost the most important weight - Jin'an Village. Shi Jingtang and the Khitan coalition could move south in a large scale without any worries.
Don't judge heroes by success or failure. Although Zhang Jingda did not win the Hedong War, later generations still gave him high praise, even from the hostile camp.
"History of the Old Five Dynasties" commented that he was "a loyal minister in modern times". The meaning of "modern times" here is different from what we call "modern times" today, because it was said by people in the Song Dynasty, and generally refers to the history of the late Tang and early Song Dynasties.
Ouyang Xiu's "New History of the Five Dynasties" directly included him in "The Biography of Death" and praised him.
Yelu Deguang also mourned for this former great enemy for a long time. He ordered his body to be buried, and he personally burned incense to pay tribute to him. He also said to the Khitan generals and the surrendered generals of Jin'anzhai (especially Yang Guangyuan and others): "Learn from Comrade Zhang Jingda." !”
The most interesting thing is Shi Jingtang's attitude. He supported Zhang Jingda's family members and gave them care and preferential treatment, but he did not posthumously grant or posthumously grant them. Because there is a political issue involved here: your behavior can be affirmed, but your political stance must be denied.
Yelu Deguang despised Yang Guangyuan and other weaklings very much. During the surrender ceremony, he said to them with ridicule: "You are really super hard-working people! You can eat 10,000 war horses without salt and cheese as condiments!" Yang Guangyuan and other countless people True to his words, his face flushed with shame.
In fact, as of the time of surrender, there were still more than 5,000 war horses alive. Yelu Deguang transported the war horses and all 50,000 sets of weapons and armor back to Khitan, handed over the surrendered troops and generals to Shi Jingtang, and encouraged them: "Serve your master well!"
When news of the surrender of Jin'an Village came, the cavalry commander Kang Sili died in anger.
Kang Sili can be called the "living fossil of the Later Tang Dynasty". He has experienced the five masters of the Later Tang Dynasty. He first served Li Keyong as a junior cavalry general; He and Zhang Jingda have many similarities. For example, although they are both military commanders, they have never had "tyranny" in the local area. Instead, they are considerate of the people and have a good reputation.
After Li Siyuan proclaimed himself emperor, he promoted him to be the governor of Shaanzhou Baoyi Army.
When Li Congke rebelled, Kang Sili had only 500 soldiers under his command, but he still wanted to hold on to the city. Unfortunately, the soldiers left the city and surrendered one after another. Kang Sili was unable to stop him, so he had to open the city and surrender. It was precisely because he "had no intention of surrendering at first" that he was ignored by Li Congke, who demoted him and dismissed him. He was eventually thrown into the ranks of the Forbidden Army and "retired" honorably.
It wasn't until Zhang Jingda failed and was surrounded by rebels in Jin'an Village that Li Congke had no generals to send, so he had to use a group of veterans like Kang Sili.
Although Kang Sili was jealous and oppressed by Li Congke, he still had a heart to be loyal to the emperor and serve the country. At the age of 63, he led the cavalry troops to the north for support. After hearing the news that Yang Guangyuan had killed Zhang Jingda and surrendered to Khitan, he became ill with sorrow and anger, relapsed and died of illness in In the army.
After the fall of Jin'an Village, Li Congke lost the power to resist and the bargaining chip, and what awaited him would be ruthless whipping.
