After Li Congke became emperor, Hou Yiguan resumed his post.
After Shi Jingtang became emperor, he promoted Hou Yi's rank in the Forbidden Army and appointed him as local defense envoy. When news of Zhang Congbin's rebellion came, Shi Jingtang planned to ask Hou Yi, a 62-year-old veteran, to go and quell the rebellion, and asked him if he was confident enough to quell the rebels.
Hou Yi made a flag on the spot: "As long as you give me five thousand elites, I will definitely be able to defeat the enemy army." Shi Jingtang was overjoyed and immediately allocated five thousand forbidden troops to Hou Yi to lead the expedition, and sent his brother-in-law, Du Chongwei, to accompany him.
On the one hand, Shi Jingtang asked Du Chongwei to be the "supervisor", on the other hand, he also asked him to gain experience and improve his qualifications.
In addition to Hou Yi and Du Chongwei's five thousand troops, Shi Jingtang also sent Liu Churang to allocate a certain amount of troops from the Huazhou front line to support the battle at Sishui Pass.
For a time, military orders to mobilize troops and information reporting on the situation were coming and going like a loom. Bianzhou was very busy and the atmosphere was very tense. From civil and military officials to the people of Bianzhou, everyone was panicked and fearful. People were talking a lot and all kinds of rumors were flying all over the place.
At this time, only Sang Weihan remained calm and composed, as if nothing had happened. Whether he was handling official duties or receiving guests, he always looked as if nothing had happened and he was confident. Gradually, people's hearts finally settled down.
However, the news that Sishui Pass was captured and Song Yanhao was killed came, and even Shi Jingtang was not calm anymore. Shi Jingtang took off his dragon robe, put on his armor, prepared a BMW horse that could travel hundreds of miles a day, and prepared to flee to Taiyuan Prefecture in Hedong to avoid the danger of being attacked from both sides by Fan Yanguang and Zhang Congbin.
Sang Weihan knelt in front of the horse and warned hard, saying that although the bandits were fierce, they would not last long, and if they abandoned the capital and fled back to Taiyuan at this time, our army's morale would definitely collapse. The so-called defeat is like a mountain falling. Please be sure to stay in Bianzhou for a while and observe for a few days before running away.
After all, Shi Jingtang had been a soldier all his life. After Sang Weihan's persuasion, he calmed down a little and finally gave up the idea of running away. He sat in the capital of the empire and listened to the battle situation on the front line.
As a result, urgent news came from the front line of Huazhou: Fu Yanrao, the governor of Huazhou Yicheng Army, rebelled!
What happened is this. Previously, Shi Jingtang sent Bai Fengjin to lead his troops to Huazhou to assist in the defense. One night, soldiers harassed the people of Huazhou, broke into houses, smashed, looted and burned them. Bai Fengjin led the troops to hunt down and arrested all those who participated in the rebellion. five soldiers. Among them, three were Bai Fengjin's soldiers, and two were local soldiers from Huazhou, that is, Fu Yanrao's subordinates.
Bai Fengjin acted impartially and enforced the law impartially. He ordered all five people to be dealt with according to military law and beheaded in public to enforce strict military discipline. Later, Bai Fengjin personally visited Fu Yanrao, apologized and cleared up the misunderstanding.
However, misunderstandings still occurred.
Facing Bai Fengjin's explanation and apology, Fu Yanrao didn't appreciate it and angrily accused Bai Fengjin of not understanding the rules, "It's your turn to kill my people? You kill your soldiers, I have nothing to say, but Why do you kill my people? Don’t forget, this is Huazhou, this is my territory!”
Bai Fengjin argued, "If officers and soldiers break the law, what's the difference between you and me? Besides, it's true that this is Huazhou, but Huazhou is the emperor's Huazhou. How can it be your Fu Yanrao's Huazhou? Could it be that you also imitate Fan Yanguang? Do you want to rebel?" After saying that, he threw up his sleeves and left.
Fu Yanrao's face was full of anger, "I'm sorry that I won't send you far away!"
However, the soldiers around Fu Yanrao rushed forward and surrounded Bai Fengjin. "Will I let you leave Huazhou alive?" They then killed Bai Fengjin on the spot.
Upon seeing this, Bai Fengjin's personal cavalry immediately fled and brought the news that the general had been killed back to the military camp. Bai Fengjin's troops immediately put on their armor, picked up their weapons, and shouted, but they were leaderless and didn't know what to do next.
At this time, Ma Wan, the commander-in-chief of the left army (commander of the left wing of Fengguo), planned to plunder, but met Lu Shunmi, the commander-in-chief of the right army (commander of the right wing of Fengguo) on the way.
Lu Shunmi loudly rebuked Ma Wan and his soldiers, "Commander Fu is good at killing Marshal Bai. He must be secretly colluding with Weizhou traitor Fan Yanguang. This place is only two hundred miles away from Bianzhou, and all the wives, children, and children of our army are in Bianzhou. You Why are you still thinking about participating in the rebellion at this time? Aren't you afraid of being wiped out by the nine tribes? "
Everyone immediately stopped making noise and stared at Lu Shunmi, "Please show me a clear path!"
"Right now we have only one choice: capture Fu Yanrao alive and present it to the emperor to achieve great success, so as to draw a clear line between us and the rebels and prove our innocence!"
Some of Ma Wan's men objected, and Lu Shunmi immediately ordered them to be beheaded. Therefore, Ma Wan also expressed his willingness to accept Lu Shunmi's leadership.
In this way, everyone worked together to conquer the inner city, capture Fu Yanrao alive, and send him to Bianzhou.
This is really a misunderstanding. Fan Yanguang did contact many people at that time, such as Zhang Congbin. It will be mentioned later that Fan Yanguang even incited some people in Bianzhou and Xuzhou. Presumably he also contacted Fu Yanrao, because he was the one who entered Huazhou and Bianzhou. An important joint in the state.
Fu Yanrao should be unmoved. He did not kill Bai Fengjin to cooperate with Fan Yanguang, otherwise he would not have been captured alive by Bai Fengjin's men. Some historical data say that Bai Fengjin brought 1,500 people, while others said it was 3,000. In short, the number was not large. If Fu Yanrao came prepared, why did he only kill Bai Fengjin and not take any action against these people, but they still took the blame?
Regardless of whether Fu Yanrao accepted Fan Yanguang's instigation or not, he could not be freed of the crime of killing Bai Fengjin without permission. At present, the enemy is killing generals without permission, which has destabilized the morale of the army. The front line defenses are in danger of collapsing without attacking. Based on this alone, Fu Yan cannot be forgiven.
Shi Jingtang ordered: There is no need to send him to Bianzhou, he will be killed on the spot. At the same time, he ordered Ma Wan to be promoted to the military envoy of Huazhou Yicheng Army.
Because in the documents reported, Ma Wan's name was first, followed by Lu Shunmi and others. Generally speaking, the ordering of names is very particular, not by strokes of the surname, nor by initials, but by official position or merit, especially when reporting merit.
Because the incident happened suddenly, the person who wrote the memorial was not clear about the specific situation. He only knew that Ma Wan was the first to cause trouble (smashing, looting, burning), so he wrote Ma Wan's name at the front, which caused Shi Jingtang to misunderstand. It is taken for granted that Ma Wan deserves the most credit. A few days later, the truth came out, and Shi Jingtang granted Lu Shunmi the post of Zhaoyi Army in Luzhou.
However, Lu Shunmi was unlucky and died of illness not long after arriving in town. Shi Jingtang mourned deeply and gave him a posthumous gift to General Xiaowei.
At that time, Fan Yanguang sent a large number of spies, carrying wax pills with secret messages, to lure heroes from all walks of life. Although Huazhou quickly gained stability, at the same time, changes occurred in Bianzhou and Xuzhou in the heart of the empire.
