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卷七十四 唐書50: 列傳26 康延孝 朱守殷 楊立 竇廷琬 張虔釗 楊彥溫

Volume 74 Book of Later Tang 50: Biographies 126 - Kang Yanxiao, Zhu Shouyin, Yang Li, Dou Tingwan, Zhang Qianzhao, Yang Yanwen

Chapter 74 of 舊五代史 · Old History of the Five Dynasties
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Chapter 74
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1
西使 綿綿 使 鹿 便 鹿 使
In the third year of the campaign against Shu, Yanxiao was appointed vanguard of the Southwest Campaign Army's horse and foot forces and commissioner for battle formation and close combat. Yanxiao was fierce and hardy by nature, and greedy for profit; in battle he threw himself forward without thought for his own life. Leading the vanguard, he took Feng Prefecture, seized Gu Town, accepted the surrender of Xing Prefecture, and routed Wang Yan's army at Sanquan. Every Shu soldier taken captive was reasoned with and then set free. From that point he pressed on day and night without pause. Wang Yan fled from Lizhou to Chengdu, destroyed the pontoon bridge at Jibai Ford, and thereby severed the route of the invading armies. Yanxiao built another pontoon bridge and crossed, then advanced to take Mian Prefecture. Wang Yan once more destroyed the pontoon bridge on the Mian River and withdrew. The river was too deep and there were no boats to ferry them across. Yanxiao said to the pacification commissioner Li Yan, "We have driven a detached force deep into enemy country. Our advantage lies in striking fast. While Wang Yan is still shaken and his men are losing heart, even a hundred horsemen who get through Deer Head Pass will find the enemy too busy surrendering to resist us. If we wait to repair the bridge and lose several days, and Wang Yan seals the passes nearby and blunts our momentum, then in ten days' time no one can say who will win. We must get the cavalry across the river immediately." He and Li Yan then rode their horses across the swollen river. Only about a thousand men made it over; more than a thousand foot soldiers drowned. Once across, Yanxiao drove hard through Deer Head Pass and seized Han Prefecture. Three days passed before the rest of his army caught up. Wang Zongbi, commander of the Six Armies of the Shu regime, sent envoys with cattle, wine, silks, and horses to offer surrender. Within ten days both the eastern and western circuits of Shu were pacified. Yanxiao held Han Prefecture to await Prince Siji. Of all who had helped conquer Shu, Yanxiao's achievement stood foremost.
2
使使使使 西 西 退 使 退
At the time Dong Zhang, military governor of Bin, served as right-wing horse-and-foot commander of the campaign army, and Mao Zhang, military governor of Hua, as left-wing commander. By military protocol both should have deferred to Yanxiao. Guo Chongtao favored Dong Zhang personally. After western Sichuan was pacified, Chongtao consulted Zhang on every military matter, which rankled Yanxiao. Yanxiao's troops camped west of the city, Mao Zhang's east of it, and Dong Zhang's inside the walls. In the intercalary twelfth month, Yanxiao, deep in his cups, said to Dong Zhang, "I won Shu. You tagged along behind me like lackeys, yet you play both sides at the Chief Councilor's door and plot my ruin. I am the chief commander and you a mere subordinate — I could take your head whenever I chose." Zhang was terrified, apologized, and withdrew. After the banquet Zhang complained to Guo Chongtao. Chongtao already bore a private grudge against Yanxiao and now appointed Dong Zhang military governor of Dongchuan, stripping him of his field command. Yanxiao flew into a rage and told Mao Zhang, "I faced naked steel and treacherous passes to conquer both circuits of Shu. What has Dong Zhang done to deserve that territory!" The two went to Chongtao and said, "Dongchuan is too important to leave in the wrong hands. Minister of Works Ren has civil and military ability and the full trust of the men. We ask that you recommend him as governor of Dongchuan." Chongtao snapped, "Has Shaochen turned rebel? How dare he defy my orders!" Yanxiao and his companions withdrew in alarm. Before long Chongtao was killed on Siji's orders. The two men then turned on Dong Zhang. "Which door will you straddle now?" they demanded." Zhang could only bow his head and plead for his life.
3
使西使 西 西 西 西西 西使 使 西 使使 使 退 西 · 西 西
On the jiashen day of the first month of the fourth year, the main army marched out of Chengdu. Siji assigned Yanxiao twelve thousand men as the rear guard. On the guisi day of the second month the main force reached Wulian. An imperial messenger arrived with an edict: Zhu Youqian, Prince of Western Pacification, had been executed for treason, and Siji was ordered to kill his son Lingde, military governor of Suizhou. Yanxiao was stunned. Soon afterward Dong Zhang marched to Suizhou and, meeting Yanxiao on the road, failed to pay his respects. Yanxiao raged at his officers. "We pacified Liang and Bian in the south and secured Ba and Qiong in the west. Lord Guo drew up the plans, but the hard fighting and the breaking of strong enemies — that was my work. If merit lay in abandoning a false master for the true dynasty and helping from two sides to build the empire, then the Prince of Western Pacification deserved first place. The Prince of Western Pacification and Lord Guo were both wiped out though guilty of nothing. Once we are back at court, my turn will come next!" On the bingshen day Yanxiao reached Jian Prefecture. Yanxiao's officers were mostly veterans from Fu, Yan, and Hezhong. When Jiao Wu and the others learned of the Prince of Western Pacification's fate and Lingde's impending execution, they wept at the camp gate and pleaded with Yanxiao, "The Prince was innocent, yet two hundred of his kin were slaughtered. Every old officer from Hezhong will be implicated. We are as good as dead!" Prince Siji had by then reached Nixi. Yanxiao sent word to him, "The Hezhong troops are wailing in the camp and are on the verge of mutiny." On the dingyou day Yanxiao reached Jian Prefecture, then turned his army around. He declared himself military governor of Xichuan and commissioner for the Three Rivers region, issued proclamations to rally the people of Shu, and within three days had gathered fifty thousand men. On the jihai day Siji reached Lizhou. That night the officer guarding Jibai Ford secretly warned the prince, "I have a written order from Shaochen to destroy the pontoon bridge at Jibai." Alarmed, Siji sent Liang Hanyong with troops to seize control of the ford. Yanxiao was already driving west with his rebel host. Siji sent a fast courier with a letter urging him to submit. At midnight he had the army supervisor Li Ting'an summon Ren Yuan and appointed him deputy pacification commissioner. Yuan was to lead seven thousand cavalry, together with the chief commander Liang Hanyong and the supervisor Li Ting'an, against the rebel. On the xinchou day he first sent the chief commander He Jianchong against Sword Gate, which fell. On the jiayin day Yuan reached Han Prefecture with the main army. Yanxiao met him in battle. Yuan put Dong Zhang's weaker eastern-Sichuan troops in the path of the charge and hid elite forces behind them. Yanxiao broke the eastern-Sichuan line and pursued recklessly until the ambush sprang up. Defeated, he galloped into Han Prefecture and shut himself behind the walls. Meng Zhixiang of western Sichuan brought twenty thousand men and joined Yuan in a combined assault. (According to the Annals of the Nine States, biography of Li Yanhou: When Kang Yanxiao seized Han Prefecture, Zhixiang sent Yanhou with two thousand men to join Li Renhan against him. Before marching, Yanhou swore to his troops, "We will break the rebels within thirty days. This is the day to win glory and rewards. Let the loyal and eager stand on the east side, and the weak and sick on the west — spare yourselves needless hardship." Seven hundred men stepped forward. They stormed Yanxiao's western camp, took more than a hundred heads, and at last captured the city.)〉 Han Prefecture was ringed with palisades of bamboo and timber on every side.
4
綿 使
On the yichou day of the third month Yuan drew up his lines at Golden Goose Bridge, then led the army forward with drums and war cries. Fire was set on every side until flames and smoke blotted out the sky. Yanxiao, now desperate, led his cavalry out to fight, met the enemy again at Golden Goose Bridge, was beaten once more, and fled toward Mian Prefecture with only a dozen horsemen. He Jianchong overtook and captured him. Ren Yuan had him loaded into a barred cart. Meng Zhixiang, Ren Yuan, and Dong Zhang were holding a victory banquet and had Yanxiao brought to the feast in his cage. Zhixiang asked him, "You left the Liang, came over to us, helped pacify Bian, governed Shaan, led the vanguard and conquered the lands beyond the passes. Back at court you were ennobled and richly rewarded with the highest posts. Who could have rivaled you? Why then let rash anger destroy everything you had won, and end in this cage like Deng Ai of old? It is a bitter waste. Who could pity you now?" Zhixiang filled a cup with his own hand and offered it to him. Yanxiao said, "I knew that fortune is hard to survive and that my rank was already enough. Yet Guo Chongtao was a founding minister who helped build the empire and took both circuits of Shu without a battle — a feat unmatched since antiquity. In a single day, for what crime, was his whole household slaughtered? How could men like me hope to keep our heads? That is why I dared not return to court. Heaven turned against me, and in a day I came to this. It was my fate. What more can I say?" When Yuan marched home and reached Fengxiang, the imperial envoy Xiang Yansi arrived with an edict, and Yanxiao was executed. His men kept his head and buried it on land belonging to a commoner named Chen Hui in Zhaoying County. Early in the Tiancheng era his son Fa disinterred it and took it away.
5
使 使 宿 使退 使 使 使 滿
Zhu Shouyin, whose childhood name was Huier. While Zhuangzong was still a student, Shouyin served him as a groom in his household. When Zhuangzong became emperor, Shouyin was made commander of the Long-Direct Guard. He held military rank but was never known for seeing combat. He constantly played on people's faults and virtues until he had Zhuangzong's ear, and gradually became one of his most trusted intimates. During the standoff on the Yellow River he was promoted to chief adjutant of the combined barbarian and Han cavalry and infantry. Shouyin held Desheng Stockade when the Liang general Wang Yanzhang attacked. Caught unprepared, he lost the southern stockade. Zhuangzong said when he heard the news, "That worthless fool has ruined my campaign!" He pulled back from the northern stockade and went to reinforce Yangliu. Mingzong, then at Yan Prefecture, privately urged that Shouyin be punished for losing the army. Zhuangzong, speaking only with his closest confidants, let the matter pass. In the second year of Tongguang he was appointed military governor of Zhenwu but never took up the post, continuing to command the combined barbarian and Han forces. After the capital was secured he took charge of internal and external patrols. Secure in the emperor's favor, he scorned the old meritocrats, worked hand in glove with Jing Jin, and affected the air of a seasoned elder — speaking slowly and calling himself grave and steady. When Guo Congqian stormed Xingjiao Gate the infantry broke first. Palace envoys urgently summoned the cavalry, but Shouyin held his men back. Zhuangzong fought on alone with his eunuchs, was driven back again and again, and the horsemen never came. When Zhuangzong died, Shouyin was camped with his troops on North Mang, resting in a wooded grove. Only when word of the death reached him did he enter the palace, seize concubines and treasures, and let his soldiers loot the capital at will. Order was restored only the next day, when he led his officers to welcome Mingzong at the eastern suburb. Early in the Tiancheng era he was made metropolitan governor of Henan with authority over the Six Armies and palace guards, promoted to Palace Attendant, and transferred to military governor of Bian. When the emperor prepared to go on tour, rumor ran wild outside the city — first that he meant to pacify Wu, then that he meant to reorganize the eastern lords. Shouyin grew suspicious — like the king of Chu who dreamed of Yunmeng — and killed the chief commander Ma Yanchao and the deputy Song Jing. (According to Ouyang Xiu's New History of the Five Dynasties: When Shouyin was plotting rebellion, he summoned the chief commander Ma Yanchao to consult him. Yanchao refused, and Shouyin killed him. Mingzong pitied Yanchao and appointed his son Chengzuo long secretary of Luo Prefecture.)〉 Shouyin forced the townspeople to shut the gates and rebel. Mingzong was at Jingshui on the road; hearing the news, he led the palace guard himself, marched at double speed to the rebel stronghold, invested it on all sides, and many defenders fled down ropes from the walls. When his strength gave out, Shouyin killed every member of his clan, bared his neck, and told his attendants to finish him. The imperial army entered the city, hunted down his followers, and executed them all. An edict ordered Shouyin's corpse flogged and his head displayed in the marketplace. After seven days the head was sent on to Luoyang.
6
涿使 使
Yang Li was a junior officer in Luzhou. He had first served Li Sizhao and then Li Jiyao, both of whom treated him with exceptional generosity. When Jiyao was executed, Yang Li was bitter and lost heart. In the fourth month of the second year of Tongguang an edict ordered thirty thousand Luzhou troops to garrison Zhuo Prefecture. As they prepared to march, the men plotted among themselves. "We have served our old commissioner for twenty years in comfort and have never fought on the frontier. If we fail out there, where will our bones lie? Better to hold the city. If we succeed, wealth and rank will follow." They gathered more than a hundred men, stormed the east gate of the inner city, and threw the town into chaos. The deputy Li Jike and the army supervisor Zhang Jizuo fled the city. Li declared himself acting commissioner and led soldiers and civilians in a memorial requesting formal appointment. Zhuangzong was furious and ordered Mingzong and Li Shaozhen to attack. Within a month the city fell. Li and more than ten of his accomplices were taken alive, sent to the capital, and dismembered in the marketplace. Luzhou's walls were high and its moat deep, yet Li had dared to hold it. Zhuangzong therefore ordered every circuit to dismantle its outer defensive works.
7
使 使 使
Dou Tingwan came from a family of military aides in Qing Prefecture. Emperor Taizu of Liang brought him into his personal service. Early in Tongguang he served as patrol commissioner of Fu Prefecture, where bandits and thieves disappeared from his district. He later became prefect of Bei. Before long he petitioned to take charge of the salt ponds of Qing Prefecture, pledging an annual yield of one hundred thousand bolts of silk and one hundred thousand hu of grain. Tingwan was then appointed defender of Qing. Once put in charge, he ruled with harsh punishments and severe laws and repeatedly oppressed the frontier population. When the expected revenues failed to materialize, an edict transferred him to Jin Prefecture. Tingwan rebelled and held Qing Prefecture. An edict sent Li Jingzhou, military governor of Bin, to suppress him. When the revolt was crushed, his entire clan was wiped out.
8
使 使 使 西使西 西退使 使 退 使使 使使使 使 退
Zhang Qianzhao was a native of Liao Prefecture. (According to the Annals of the Nine States: Qianzhao was from Yushe in Liao Prefecture. His father Jian had served as Honorary Left Vice Director of the Imperial Secretariat under Tang.)〉 He began as a military aide at Taiyuan and won a reputation for courage among his peers. Under Emperor Wuzong and Zhuangzong he rose repeatedly to command the Left and Right Flying Cavalry. (According to the Annals of the Nine States: Zhuangzong once took Zhenyang with a detached column and made Qianzhao lead the cavalry vanguard. Qianzhao repeatedly broke the enemy's best troops and finally captured the city.)〉 Mingzong had long heard of Qianzhao's gifts as a commander. When he took the throne he made Qianzhao chief commander of the imperial guard and prefect of Chun. During Tiancheng he joined other generals in besieging Wang Du at Zhongshan and routed the Khitan below Mount Jia. When Ding Prefecture fell, he was rewarded with the military governorship of Cang. (According to Miscellaneous Tales from Northern Dreams: While Qianzhao governed Cang, a severe drought brought famine. He opened the granaries to feed the people. When the report reached court, the emperor praised him warmly. Later, after the autumn harvest, he doubled the tax levies, and court opinion turned against him.)〉 He was transferred to Xuzhou. During Changxing he served as military governor of Shannan West Circuit and chief deployer of the western horse and foot armies. When the Last Emperor rose at Fengxiang, Emperor Min ordered Qianzhao to lead his troops and join the imperial army at Qi. When the western armies all turned, Qianzhao withdrew to Xingyuan in anger and grief. He and Sun Hanzhao, military governor of Yang, then both submitted to Shu. Meng Zhixiang treated him with exceptional generosity and invested him as military governor of his former circuit. It was largely through Qianzhao that Zhixiang gained the lands of Shannan without a fight. (According to Miscellaneous Tales from Northern Dreams: Once in Shu he seized people's property, took bribes without limit, and earned the hatred of the Shu populace.)〉 When Meng Chang succeeded to the Shu throne, Qianzhao was made Honorary Grand Preceptor and Concurrent Director of the Secretariat. Late in the Kaiyun era of Jin, when Shu heard that the Khitan had entered Luoyang, Chang ordered Qianzhao to lead tens of thousands against Qin and Yong. Soon word came that Emperor Gaozu of Han had secured the Central Plains, and Qianzhao withdrew without accomplishing anything. (According to the Annals of the Nine States: He had served in turn as chief commander of the Left and Right Kuangsheng armies and then as military governor of Zhaowu. When the Han founder took the throne, he was moved to Liang Prefecture to watch how events at court would unfold. When Zhao Kuangzan of Jinchang and Hou Yi of Fengxiang both plotted to defect to Shu, Qianzhao was made northern-campaign pacification commissioner to coordinate the effort. Soon Zhao and Hou urged Chang to march and seize the Three Qin. Chang ordered Qianzhao and Han Baozhen to lead fifty thousand men through San Pass, He Chongjian of Xiongwu to advance through Longyou, and Li Tinggui of the Imperial Escort to march through Ziwu Valley. All were to converge on Yong. Tinggui had barely left Ziwu Valley when he learned that Kuangzan was being driven by Wang Jingchong, abandoned his position, and fled east. He was the first to withdraw. By then Qianzhao, Fucheng, and Baozhen had halted at Chencang and could not agree among themselves. Hou Yi heard that Kuangzan was gone and Tinggui had withdrawn, changed his mind about submitting, and shut himself behind his walls. The director of the Astronomical Bureau, Zhao Tingshu, repeatedly warned that the omens were unfavorable. Baozhen and Fucheng then led their men toward Long Prefecture. When He Chongjian returned to Shu, Qianzhao held Baoji but, finding his force too isolated to advance, withdrew.)〉 He reached Xing Prefecture and died there, overcome with grief and anger.
9
使使 西使
Yang Yanwen was a native of Bian and had begun as a junior officer in the Liang army. Under Zhuangzong he rose repeatedly to deputy commander. During Tiancheng he served as deputy commander at Hezhong. When the Last Emperor governed there, he treated Yanwen with special favor and had him appointed chief commander of the inner guards. In the fourth month of the first year of Changxing, while the Last Emperor was inspecting horses at Yellow Dragon Manor, Yanwen seized the city and rebelled. The Last Emperor sent a messenger to demand, "I have treated you well. Why turn rebel?" Yanwen replied, "I do not mean to repay your kindness with treachery. I am acting on an order from the Bureau of Military Affairs telling me to resist you. I ask only that you return to court." Within days an edict ordered the Last Emperor back to court. Mingzong suspected a ruse and refused to send troops. He appointed Yanwen prefect of Jiang. An Chonghui insisted on military action. Mingzong ordered Suo Zhitong, military governor of the western capital, Yao Yanchou, commander of the palace guard infantry, and others to attack. The city fell in five days. From the closing of the gates to defeat, the affair lasted thirteen days. Before Yao Yanchou marched out, Mingzong warned him, "Bring Yanwen to me alive. I mean to question him myself." When the city fell, they beheaded Yanwen and sent his head to court. Mingzong was furious with Yao Yanchou and his officers. Contemporaries noted that the realm was at peace and arms had been laid aside. Pu was no frontier post but lay at the capital's doorstep. How could Yanwen dare such madness? Most believed that An Chonghui, who was then wielding state power and especially feared the Last Emperor's standing, had engineered the affair as a probe — yet in the end failed to bring him down. Yanwen was a fool used by others, and for that his whole clan was destroyed.
10
The historiographer remarks: The Zuo Commentary says, "An unworthy minister is hated by all under Heaven." I therefore do not weigh their relative merits and faults. Only Qianzhao, who fled to preserve his life, and Yanwen, who was driven by others, deserve some pity when set beside the other rebels in this chapter.
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