Chapter 12 Jianghuai Rebellion: No longer a peaceful backyard

Since the outbreak of the Anshi Rebellion, large areas of the empire's mountains and rivers have been ravaged by the rebels' iron hooves. The flames of war raged all over the river, and the smoke enveloped the eastern and western capitals. Only the richest cities of the empire - the Jiang and Huai areas, luckily escaped the disaster of war. The torment of the torment, has always maintained relative tranquility.Whether it was the brief rebellion of Yongwang Li Lin at the beginning, or the Yan army's repeated marches to Jianghuai, they failed to break the tranquility of this "backyard of the empire" in the end.

However, in the first year of Shangyuan (760 AD), the tranquility of the Jianghuai area was broken by a sudden rebellion. The name of the rebel was Liu Zhan, who was the deputy envoy of Huaixi Jiedu and the governor of Songzhou (now Shangqiu City, Henan Province).Strictly speaking, Liu Zhan was forced to rebel. Because he has no motive for rebellion, and no signs of rebellion, the reason why he embarked on this road of no return is actually due to the ubiquitous officialdom struggles. Liu Zhan had a colleague and friend named Li Mian, who was then the Yushi Zhongcheng and the deputy envoy of Huaixi Jiedu. Both of them were the deputy of Huaixi Jiedu envoy.According to the rules of the game in the officialdom, Liu Zhan and Li Mian cannot get too close, otherwise it will definitely arouse the suspicion of the immediate superior.But the problem is that both Liu and Li are not cautious, gentle and introverted, but sharp-edged and go their own way, so they don't care about it at all.The two not only became close personal friends, but also political partners with tacit cooperation.They never put their immediate superiors in their eyes, and often even join forces to empty their superiors.All the previous Huaixi military governors hated these two rebellious, arrogant and arrogant guys, but there was nothing they could do about them.Later, a ruthless character came to the post of Huaixi Jiedushi, so the good show began.

This ruthless character is called Wang Zhongsheng.He is not a fuel-efficient lamp, and he will not be as soft-hearted as the previous Jiedu envoys.Not long after taking office, Wang Zhongsheng arrested Li Mian on the charge of "corruption, violence and lawlessness", and immediately asked the court to cut off Li Mian's head without mercy. After getting rid of Li Mian, Wang Zhongsheng quickly turned his finger on Liu Zhan. At that time, there was a popular rumor and prophecy among the people, one of which was "Rise to the East with a golden sword in hand".Wang Zhongsheng attached the rumors to Liu Zhan, and then instructed Xing Yanen, the eunuch of the military supervisor, to report to the court, saying that Liu Zhan had always committed disobedience, and the "Liu" surname fulfilled the rumors, and he should be eradicated as soon as possible to avoid future troubles.

After Xing Yanen returned to Beijing, he tried his best to speak to Suzong, saying: "Liu Zhan and Li Mian are in the same group. Now that Li Mian has been eliminated, Liu Zhan is afraid of being at ease. If he does not take advantage of the situation to get rid of it, there may be troubles. But Liu Zhan Zhan holds a heavy army, and must be eliminated by calculation. The slaves have the courage to suggest that Liu Zhan might as well be promoted to the capital of the Jianghuai River and let him succeed the former capital commander Li Yao. When he surrenders his military power and goes to Guangling to take up his post, he will be arrested on the way .”

According to the plan, Emperor Suzong issued an imperial edict to appoint Liu Zhan as the governor of Jianghuai (that is, one person concurrently serves as the governor of Huainan East, Jiangxi West, and Zhejiang West). Envoy Li Yao and Deng Jingshan, the former envoy of Huainan Dongdao Jiedu, joined forces to get rid of Liu Zhan. Xing Yanen thought that this plan to divert the tiger away from the mountain was foolproof, but he never expected——his cleverness led to a rebellion that swept across Jianghuai in the end! When Xing Yanen came to Songzhou with the emperor's edict, Liu Zhan immediately smelled the danger.He said to Xing Yanen: "Since I joined the army, I have been promoted to governor in just a few years. It can be said that I have suddenly become rich. Jianghuai is the wealth center of the empire, and the position of governor is even more important. I have no merits. He is not a member of the royal family, so he was really flattered to receive such a great favor from the emperor suddenly, and it was even more unbelievable. Could it be..." Liu Zhan paused, then looked directly into Xing Yanen's eyes, and said, "Could it be that there is a treacherous villain from this?" Sow dissension and set a trap for Liu?"

After saying these words, Liu Zhan suddenly made a look of grievance, followed by tears falling down. It seems that this kid has become suspicious.A moment of apprehension flashed through Xing Yanen's heart, but he still forced himself to be calm and said, "Mr. Liu has always been talented, and the emperor highly valued it. It was precisely because of the importance of Jianghuai that he made an exception to promote you. But you have become suspicious instead. This is Why?" Liu Zhan put away his tears, stared straight at Xing Yanen for a moment, and said, "If this is not a scam, can I get the seal first?"

Xing Yanen did not expect Liu Zhan to do such a trick, but his reaction was also very fast, and he immediately said: "Of course." In order to dispel Liu Zhan's suspicion, Xing Yanen had no choice but to rush to Guangling (now Yangzhou City, Jiangsu Province), told Li Yao about the situation, and then handed over the seal and talisman festival to Liu Zhan. Xing Yanen thought that doing so would definitely stabilize Liu Zhan, but he was wrong. Liu Zhan is not an idiot.In fact, from the moment Xing Yanen read the edict of appointment to Liu Zhan, Liu Zhan had already seen through his strategy; He was wounded on the neck, why would Liu Zhan fight to the death with the court?

The reason why Liu Zhan didn't break face with Xing Yanen on the spot was because he wanted to use his tricks to get the seal and talisman of the Jianghuai capital, so as to mobilize troops, order states and counties, and increase his rebellion chips. To put it bluntly, Xing Yanen, who thinks he is smart, was put in by the other party before he had time to put Liu Zhan in the suit. After Liu Zhan got what he wanted, he pretended to give Suzong a thank you form, and then immediately, as the Jianghuai three Jiedu envoys, issued appointment letters to his cronies and old friends all over Jianghuai, entrusting them with important positions. Rely on your confidant.At the same time, the officials of Jianghuai Three Roads also sent envoys to Songzhou with books and books of the county to congratulate the new boss and welcome him to take office.

Liu Zhan smiled. At the beginning of November of the first year of Shangyuan, Liu Zhan pulled up seven thousand troops under his command, surrounded by envoys from those prefectures and counties, and marched towards Guangling in a mighty and magnificent manner. The "Jianghuai Rebellion" kicked off. It wasn't until this moment that Xing Yanen realized what a stupid mistake he had made. He hurriedly rushed to Guangling before Liu Zhan, and together with Li Yao and Deng Jingshan dispatched troops to prepare to defend against the enemy, and at the same time moved to Xizhou and counties, announcing the news of Liu Zhan's rebellion.What is ironic is that at the same moment, Liu Zhan also issued almost identical proclamations to the states and counties, the only difference being that the rebel became Li Yao.

The governors of all states and counties were suddenly dumbfounded. The old boss and the new boss each claimed that the other was rebellious. Who should listen to it? Afterwards, Li Yao and Deng Jingshan hurriedly gathered troops and stationed in Runzhou (now Zhenjiang City, Jiangsu Province) and Xucheng (now Northwest Xuyi County, Jiangsu Province) respectively, posing as if they were ready for battle.However, for Liu Zhan, these two people are nothing to worry about.Because Liu Zhan's army is strict and well-organized, he is well-known in the Jianghuai area, otherwise he would not have been able to become a governor from a small soldier in just a few years, so before his army arrived, the entire Jianghuai area had already fallen into panic.

After Liu Zhanjin arrived in Xucheng, he immediately sent people to question Deng Jingshan: "I was ordered to take up the post, what are you soldiers doing?" At the same time, he sent people to the city to shout: "You are all people of my land, don't stop me army!" At this moment, Xing Yanen is also in Deng Jingshan's barracks.He could fully imagine the sneering and complacent expression on Liu Zhan's face when he ordered people to pass on these words. Yes, Liu Zhan was just playing with them.In fact, it was as easy as pie for him to defeat Li Yao and Deng Jingshan, but the reason why he wanted to "be polite first and then fight later" was nothing more than to play a game of cat and mouse with them. Subsequently, Liu Zhan ordered Sun Daifeng and Zhang Falei to attack the city. As expected, Deng Jingshan was not Liu Zhan's opponent at all.As soon as the two armies fought, the official army collapsed on its own. Deng Jingshan and Xing Yanen abandoned the city in a hurry and fled to Shouzhou (now Shouxian County, Anhui).Liu Zhan occupied Guangling without any effort, and then sent his general Wang Wei and others to divide his troops to capture Haozhou (now northeast of Fengyang County, Anhui), Chuzhou (now Huai'an City, Jiangsu), Huaixi (upstream Huaihe River) and other places. Li Yao was alarmed when he heard that Guangling had fallen, so he hurriedly moved his troops to Beigu Mountain in the north of Runzhou, and approached Guangling.Liu Zhan immediately dispatched troops to Baisha, and deployed suspicious soldiers around Guazhou (a small island in the Yangtze River in the south of Yangzhou City), beating war drums during the day and lighting torches at night, for several days in a row, pretending to attack Beigu Mountain.Li Yao hurriedly assembled all the elites and prepared to meet the enemy.But at this time, Liu Zhan had personally led the main force to go around to the upper reaches, and suddenly crossed the river to attack Xiashu (now north of Jurong City, Jiangsu Province), cutting off Li Yao's retreat at once.The officers and soldiers were immediately frightened, and before Liu Zhan came to attack, they scattered in an uproar.Panicked, Li Yao fled to Xuancheng (now Xuanzhou City, Anhui Province) with hundreds of soldiers. On November 8, Liu Zhan took advantage of the momentum and entered Runzhou. On the same day, 15,000 officers and soldiers in Shengzhou (now Nanjing City, Jiangsu Province) suddenly mutinied and raised troops to respond to Liu Zhan.But as soon as he left the city on his front foot, the envoy surrendered to Liu Zhan on his back foot. In December, Liu Zhan sent general Fu Ziang to attack Xuanzhou, where Li Yao lived. The local Jiedu envoy still fled without a fight. Li Yao fled to Hongzhou (now Nanchang City, Jiangxi Province) in a hurry like a bereaved dog. In the days that followed, the originally peaceful and prosperous Jianghuai area encountered an unprecedented catastrophe.Where the rebel soldiers were heading, the officers and soldiers fled. Suzhou, Huzhou, Changzhou and other places fell one after another.Immediately afterwards, the rebels advanced steadily in two directions: on the South Road, Fu Ziang entered Nanling (now Nanling County, Anhui), preparing to go south to attack Jiangzhou (now Jiujiang City, Jiangxi), and then seize Jiangnan West Road (now Jiangxi Province); North Road, Wang Wei and others successively captured Haozhou, Chuzhou, Shuzhou (now Qianshan County, Anhui), Hezhou (now Hexian County, Anhui), Chuzhou (now Chuzhou City, Anhui), Luzhou (now Hefei City, Anhui) and so on. In just two months, the rebel army swept across the Yangtze River and Huaihe River, as if entering no one's land... During the rampage of Liu Zhan's rebel army on the Yangtze and Huaihe Rivers, the officers and soldiers of the Tang army seemed to be frightened up and down, and hardly made any strong resistance.Especially those high-ranking officials who were pampered and respected on weekdays, as soon as they heard that the rebels arrived, they would run away as soon as possible, which made the already low morale even more sluggish, and at the same time greatly contributed to the arrogance of the rebels. It is enough to see that although the flames of the Anshi Rebellion have been burning on the land of the Tang Dynasty for five years, the Jianghuai region, which was not affected by luck, is still immersed in the fragile and illusory prosperity of the prosperous age, so these frontiers with heavy troops The big officials are so greedy for life and afraid of death, and the officers and soldiers under their command are so vulnerable. In this sense, the most terrifying enemy of the empire is not actually An Lushan, Shi Siming, and even this little Liu Zhan, but the vanity, laziness, pleasure-seeking, and forgetting of danger that prevail from top to bottom. atmosphere and mentality. When senior officials in the entire Jianghuai region abandoned their duties and ran for their lives, the only person who did not abandon or give up was probably Li Zangyong, Li Yao's deputy. As early as when Li Yao was about to escape from Runzhou, Li Zangyong said to him: "My lord is in a high position, and he pays a lot of money to the court. It is unfaithful to flee in the face of disaster; he is in charge of the soldiers, horses, money and food of dozens of states. , The natural fortress of the Five Lakes is so dangerous that it is not brave to give up without a shot. How can a disloyal and courageous person do his duty for the country? Although Li is not talented, he is willing to gather remnants to stand here and resist the rebels. " Undoubtedly, Li Yao was not moved by Li Zangyong's heartfelt words. He was even glad that someone stayed to wipe his ass, so he quickly left all the aftermath matters to Li Zangyong, and couldn't wait to report to Li Zangyong. Nan ran away. Li Zang used the remnant soldiers who had retreated from the front line, and there were only more than 700 soldiers at full strength.Later, Li Zangyong went to Suzhou to recruit more than 2,000 people, and then fought against the rebel Zhang Jingchao in Yushu (northwest of Suzhou today), but was defeated and had to retreat to Hangzhou. After Deng Jingshan and Xing Yanen were defeated and fled to Shouzhou, they sent envoys to report to the imperial court to ask for reinforcements, and at the same time sent people to Rencheng (now Jining City, Shandong Province) to ask for help from Tian Shengong, the envoy of Pinglu soldiers and horses stationed here, and solemnly promised: On the day when Huainan was conquered, the golden silk and beautiful women were at the disposal of Tian Shengong. As soon as Tian Shengong and his followers heard that there were Jinbo and beautiful women, their eyes lit up.A few days later, Emperor Suzong's edict also arrived in Rencheng, ordering Tian Shengong to send troops to Jianghuai to attack Liu Zhan.Immediately Tian Shengong went south and stationed in Pengcheng (now Xuzhou City, Jiangsu Province) at the end of December. Liu Zhan couldn't help but feel a little fear when he heard the news that Tian Shengong was going south. Because Tian Shengong is completely different from Li Yao and Deng Jingshan.This man was originally under the command of An Lushan, and he was known as a brave man. When An Lushan raised troops, he was unwilling to rebel, so he led the people back to the court. He has been resisting the rebels in Hebei for several years.Later, Tian Shengong was ordered to garrison Chenliu, but was forced to surrender because he was outnumbered and defeated by Shi Siming.Shi Siming immediately ordered him, Nan Dexin and others to attack the Jianghuai River, Tian Shengong took the opportunity to attack and kill Nan Dexin, and led his troops to fight back again. In short, this person has galloped on the battlefield for many years, has a treacherous and changeable temperament, has extremely rich military experience, and his subordinates are also soldiers who have fought hundreds of battles, so he is definitely a troublesome opponent. Liu Zhan didn't dare to be careless, and immediately led 8,000 troops to the north, and selected 2,000 elites as forwards, crossed the Huai River, and met Tian Shengong at Duliang Mountain (south of Xuyi County, Jiangsu Province today).However, just as Liu Zhan himself expected, the fighting power of Pinglu soldiers was indeed far higher than that of his Songzhou soldiers.After the two armies fought, Liu Zhanfeng was quickly defeated.In order to preserve his strength, Liu Zhan quickly led the crowd to retreat to Tianchang (now Tianchang City, Anhui Province), and ordered 500 elites to ride on a bridge in the rear.Tian Shengong followed closely and wiped out Liu Zhan's rear troops, and then defeated Liu Zhan's main force.Liu Zhan's entire army was wiped out. He crossed the Yangtze River with only one rider, and fled south in a hurry. Tian Shengong then conquered Guangling and Chuzhou. However, what the Jianghuai scholars and people never dreamed of was that when Liu Zhan's rebel army entered the city, only a big king's flag was changed on the top of the city, and the lives of the people were not greatly affected; Afterwards, the merchants and common people in the city suffered a catastrophe. "Shengong entered Guangling and Chuzhou, plundered thousands of merchants and Hu, and dug through the city." (Volume 221) The so-called "Shanghu" refers to Hu merchants, that is, Hu people who do business here .No one knows why Tian Shengong killed thousands of Hu merchants.The only reasonable explanation is that An Lushan and Shi Siming are both Hu people, and Tian Shengong hated them, so he massacred the Hu people to vent his anger.As for why the land in the city was "excavated and covered", it may be because Tian Shengong and his people were not satisfied after looting the visible wealth, and suspected that the merchants and the people hid more wealth underground. , That's why they dug the ground three feet and turned Guangling and Chuzhou upside down. In the first month of the second year of Shangyuan (AD 761), Liu Zhanbu pushed Zhang Jingchao and Sun Daifeng to Hangzhou several times, but failed because of Li Zangyong's stubborn resistance. In the last ten days of the first month, Tian Shengong's army divided into four groups to counterattack Liu Zhan: Yang Huiyuan was ordered to attack Wang Wei in Huainan; Fan Zhixin was ordered to attack Xiashu from Baisha; Deng Jingshan led his troops from Hailing (now Taizhou City, Jiangsu Province) Cross the river and attack Changzhou; Tian Shengong and Xing Yanen stationed in Guazhou, ready to cross the south and go down to attack Liu Zhan. Liu Zhan assembled more than 10,000 cavalrymen and lined up at Suanshan (west of Zhenjiang City).On the twenty-sixth day, Tian Shen and others began to cross the river. Unexpectedly, there was a strong wind on the river that day, and the five troop carriers were blown to Jinshan (a small island in the north of the Yangtze River in Zhenjiang City), which happened to be exposed under Liu Zhan's nose.Liu Zhan immediately launched an attack, killing all the soldiers on two of the ships and scuttling the other three.Tian Shengong was unable to cross the river, so he had to withdraw to Guazhou. Just when Liu Zhan was secretly rejoicing that "God helped me too", Fan Zhixin had already crossed the river from Baisha to Xiashu, and suddenly cut off Liu Zhan's retreat, and his tactics were exactly the same as when Liu Zhan dealt with Li Yao. Liu Zhan hurriedly returned to his division to meet Fan Zhixin, but after a fierce battle, he was still unable to win.His younger brother Liu Yin persuaded him to flee to the sea, saying that if the green hills were left, he would not worry about having no firewood.But at the last moment, Liu Zhan showed the courage to face death as home.He said: "If you know that the big thing is not going to happen, why kill the father and son? It's nothing more than a death, and it's the same sooner or later." Afterwards, Liu Zhan continued to lead the crowd to fight.During the melee, Liu Zhan was shot in the eye by Tang general Jia Yinlin, and immediately fell off his horse.Jia Yinlin rushed up and chopped off his head.The rebel army had no leader and broke up immediately. Liu Yin and others were all killed in battle. Later, Yang Huiyuan of the Tang Army defeated the rebel general Wang Min in Huainan. Wang Min fled to Changshu with the remnant of his troops. Feeling hopeless, he surrendered to the Tang Army. Zhan was dead, so he handed over his troops to his general Zhang Falei, and then fled to the sea alone, where he has since disappeared. Zhang Falei then led his troops to attack Hangzhou, but was defeated by Li Zangyong and had to surrender. At the same time, the rebel general Sun Daifeng also surrendered. Li Zang used it. So far, Liu Zhan's chaos has been declared settled. However, the turmoil in Jianghuai is far from over. It is said that after the pacification of Liu Zhan, Tian Shengong's Pinglu army "plundered for more than ten days" in the Jianghuai River and made a lot of money.It is said in history that "the rebellion of An and Shi, the rebellious soldiers were not as good as those of Jiang and Huai, and as a result, the people began to be poisoned!" (Volume 222) In fact, such "poisoning" is only just beginning. Since the Liu Zhan Rebellion, the Jianghuai region is no longer the peaceful and prosperous imperial backyard.In the next hundred years, although it has always been the wealth center of the empire, the ruthless flames of war will burn on this land "without discrimination".In other words, when the entire history of the middle and late Tang Dynasty was full of bloodshed, killing and death, there was absolutely no place that could become a "lucky exception".