Chapter 230 Chapter 229 Emperor Wu Yang Xingmi

Yang Xingmi, formerly known as Xingmin, with the word Huayuan, was born in an ordinary peasant family.He is lenient, benevolent and trustworthy, good at winning people's hearts, wise and courageous, and capable of lifting 300 catties. In the third year of Zhonghe (883 A.D.), during the turbulent end of the Tang Dynasty, Yang Xingmin, a native of Hefei, Luzhou, was conscripted and sent to Shuofang (now Qingtongxia, Ningxia) to guard the border.After returning after the expiration of the term, he was sent out again because he offended the military officials in charge of dispatching.Before leaving, the military officer pretended to be a good person and asked Xingmin what he needed. Xingmin yelled: "I need your head!"After raising troops, he claimed that all the Eighth Battalion knew the soldiers and horse envoys, and Huainan Jiedu envoy Gao Pian regarded him as the Huainan Yaya.Soon, Xingmin led his troops to attack Luzhou, and the governor, who was young, abandoned the city and fled, so Xingmin occupied Luzhou.Gao Pian immediately named him the governor of Luzhou and changed his name to Xingmi.

In the third year of Guangqi (887 A.D.), Gao Pian's general left the left side and knew that Bi Shiduo, the soldier and horse envoy, claimed to be the battalion envoy. His confidant Lu Yongzhi fled Yangzhou with some soldiers and horses, and under the guise of Gao Pian, he named Xingmi as the marching commander, and ordered him to speed up his troops to crusade against the rebel generals in Yangzhou. Xingmi also realized that this was a golden opportunity that could not be missed, so he immediately mobilized all his troops, and borrowed thousands of soldiers from Sun Duan, the governor of Hezhou (Zhihe Prefecture, today's Hexian County, Anhui), and quickly went to Yangzhou.In May, travel to Tianchang, Yangzhou, and join Lu Yongzhi.Gao Ba, Liu Jin of Quxi, Jia Lingwei of Xuyi, etc. also led their troops to Hailing (now Taizhou, Jiangsu) after hearing the news.At this time, the rebel general Zhang Shenjian had a conflict with Bi Shiduo, and angrily left Yangzhou to go to Xingmi.The secret team quickly expanded to more than 17,000 people, and they rushed to Yangzhou.

Shi Duo, the rebel commander in Yangzhou, also felt that his strength was too weak to compete with Xingmi, so he hurriedly asked for help from Qin Yan, the observation envoy of Xuanshe (ruling Xuanzhou, now Anwei Xuancheng). The day after Qin Yan arrived in Yangzhou, Xingmi also led his troops there and stationed troops outside the city.At first, seeing that the number of secret troops was much smaller than that of Yangzhou, Qin Yan was arrogant and ordered the tooth general Qin Chou to lead his troops into battle. As a result, Chou died in battle and the soldiers were mostly injured.After that, the two armies held each other for half a year.Yangzhou has become an isolated island, besieged internally and externally.There was a severe famine in the city. A bucket of rice was worth 50 min, and all the bark and vegetation were eaten up. The residents had to eat Guanyin soil to satisfy their hunger.Later, the phenomenon of cannibalism appeared.

In October, the Secret Army captured the west gate of Yangzhou.Qin Yan and Shi Duo fled with the remnant soldiers abandoning the city.Xingmi led his troops to Yangzhou, claiming to be the queen of Huainan. After half a year of war, Yangzhou City was devastated and hungry. Seeing this situation, Xingmi thought that this place was not conducive to attack and defense. Deputy General Sun Ru led his troops to compete with Xingmi for Yangzhou. Xingmi left Yangzhou with his troops and returned to Luzhou, his base.After Sun Ru occupied Yangzhou, he claimed to stay in Huainan, killed Qin Yan and Bi Shiduo who defected to him, and merged his troops, greatly increasing his power.

In August of the first year of Wende (888 A.D.), Cai Yu, a general of the secret mission, guarded Luzhou and led his troops to attack Xuanzhou.Several months after the siege, Xuanzhou ran out of food and was unable to resist. The observation made Zhao Kai escape.Soon, Tang Feng Xingmi was appointed as the observation envoy of Xuanshe. In the first year of Qianning (894 A.D.), Zhang Jian, the governor of Sizhou (now north of Xuyi, Jiangsu Province) under Zhu Quanzhong, defected to Yang Xingmi, and the conflict between Quanzhong and Xingmi began to surface.In the winter of this year, Yang Xingmi sent Yaya Tang Linghui to bring more than ten thousand catties of tea to the Bianzhou area for trading. Quanzhong grabbed Linghui and took all the tea.In a fit of rage, Yang Xingmi appealed to Tang Zhaozong to denounce Zhu Quanzhong, and asked Zhaozong to send soldiers from Hedong, Yanyun, Yi, and Ding to fight against Quanzhong together with Huainan soldiers.

In March of the following year, Xingmi personally led the army to go out, captured Haozhou (Zhihaozhou, now East of Fengyang, Anhui), Shouzhou (Zhishouchun, now Shouchun, Anhui) and repelled Quanzhong's reinforcements.Emperor Zhaozong named Xingmi the king of Hongnong County.In the fourth year of Qianning (897 A.D.), Zhu Jin who ruled Yanzhou was defeated by Zhu Quanzhong and fled to Huainan. Therefore, the investment of Yanzhou soldiers greatly strengthened Huainan's military strength. Faced with the continuous expansion of Yang Xingmi's power, the various separatist forces around Huainan were very disturbed. Qian Liu from Liangzhe, Zhongchuan from Jiangxi, and Du Hong from Wuchang sent envoys to Chang'an one after another, asking Emperor Zhaozong to take Zhu Quanzhong as the capital and jointly launch an army to crusade against Huainan.In September of this year, Zhu Quanzhong's army divided into three groups and aggressively attacked Huainan. For a while, the territory of Huainan was overcast, and the soldiers and people were terrified.Yang Xingmi only had more than 30,000 soldiers at his disposal. He adopted a strategy of defeating each of them. First, he and Zhu Jin led these 30,000 soldiers to Chuzhou, and joined Zhu Quanzhong's beloved general Pang Shigu in camp.

In November, Zhu Jin personally led 5,000 cavalry to cross the Huai River quietly, put on the Bian army flag and clothing of Pang Shigu's army, went around to the rear of Pang Shigu's army, falsely claimed that they were reinforcements sent by Quanzhong, and approached the enemy. When Fang camp was in the camp, he suddenly launched an attack. Pang Shigu led his soldiers to fight in a hurry. Yang Xingmi swung his army across the Huai River, flanked the Bian army with Zhu Jin, and killed more than 10,000 Pang Shigu and his generals and soldiers. Flee, defeated. In the following years, Zhu Quanzhong never had a major war with Huainan because of the lessons learned from this defeat, and because he was busy pacifying Ziqing and Hedong for supremacy.Yang Xingmi also concentrated on rectifying the internal affairs, persuading Nongsang, and trying to avoid direct confrontation with Zhu Quanzhong.

Yang Xingmi adopted different strategies for the surrounding separatist forces. Zhu Quanzhong was powerful, so he did not rush to fight with him. Married his daughter to Qian Liu's son, seeking temporary stability in the east.Duhong in Wuchang was relatively small, and Wuchang was based on the upper reaches of Huainan, and it was a territory of Huainan Road in the past. Yang Xingmi began to take large-scale military operations against Wuchang after he stabilized a little inside. In the first month of the third year of Tianfu (903 A.D.), Yang Xingmi defeated Du Hong due to civil strife.

At the beginning of the fourth year of Tianfu, Yang Xingmi regrouped his army and attacked Du Hong again.In February of the second year of Tianyou (AD 905), Liu Cun captured Ezhou, and Du Hong was captured and beheaded in Guangling. Occupying Ezhou, Yang Xingmi set his sights on Liangzhe again.Since the late Tang Dynasty, the two Zhejiang provinces have always been an important source of income for the Tang Dynasty, rich in the benefits of mountains, seas, fish and salt, and Yang Xingmi has always coveted it.Before Ezhou was captured, Chen Xun, the governor of Muzhou in Liangzhe, and Chen Zhang, the governor of Quzhou, went to Huainan. Yang Xingmi sent general Tao Ya to lead the army into Liangzhe to rescue Chen Zhang and Chen Xun.After the capture of Ezhou, Tao Ya gathered troops from Muzhou and Quzhou to take the initiative to attack Wuzhou (now Jinhua, Zhejiang Province), which belonged to the two Zhejiang provinces. The Qu and Mu observation envoys are preparing to fight against the two Zhejiang provinces.However, in October of this year, Yang Xingmi was seriously ill, so he appointed his son Yang Wo as the queen of Huainan. In November, Yang Xingmi died of illness at the age of 54.In the first year of Qianzhen (927 A.D.), he was honored as "Emperor Wu" and buried in Xingling.