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卷二百一十四 列傳第一百三十九 藩鎮宣武彰義澤潞

Volume 214 Biographies 139: Buffer Regions - Xuanwu's Zhangyize Road

Chapter 214 of 新唐書 · New Book of Tang
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Chapter 214
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1
The buffer regions of Xuanwu, Zhangyi, and Zelu
2
耀使
Liu Xuanzuo was from Kuangcheng in Hua Prefecture. As a young man he was wild and idle. He worked as a county constable hunting bandits, broke the law, and was beaten nearly to death by the magistrate's men. He fled and enlisted in the Yongping Army, eventually becoming a junior guard officer. In the Dali period Li Lingyao rebelled and held Bianzhou. Xuanzuo caught him unprepared and took Songzhou; an edict attached the prefecture to his command, and Governor Li Mian submitted a memorial appointing him prefect.
3
使 使使
At the start of Dezong's Jianzhong era he rose to Acting Censor-in-Chief and Military Commissioner of Song, Bo, and Ying. When Li Na rebelled and Li Xu brought Xuzhou back to the court, Na pressed the siege. Xuanzuo was ordered to relieve Xu, routed Na's forces with more than ten thousand heads taken, and southeastern supply convoys could move again. He besieged Puzhou and swept Puyang; both fell. He twice forced the garrison commanders to yield and reopened the ford at Puyang. He was made Acting Minister of War, Concurrent Observation Commissioner for Cao-Pu, Pacification Commissioner for Zi-Qing-Yan-Yan, and Deputy Supreme Commander of Bian-Hua.
4
使
When Li Xilie rose, Xuanzuo allied with Li Mian, Chen Shaoyou, and Geshu Yao, massing troops on the Huai and Ru and repeatedly pinning the rebels. With the emperor at Fengtian and his mind on the east, Xuanzuo was appointed Acting Left Vice Director and Grand Councilor. Xilie besieged Chenzhou; Xuanzuo drove him off and pressed on to take Bianzhou. He was given Bian-Song governorship and overall command of the Chenzhou field armies. His birth name was Qia; the court now bestowed the name Xuanzuo as a mark of favor. At court he was additionally named Deputy Grand Marshal for Jingyuan, the Four Garrisons, and Beiting forces, and Acting Minister of Works.
5
退 使
Extravagant by nature and quick to spend on rich rewards, he left his men all the harder pressed. From Li Zhongchen onward the Bian soldiery had grown insubordinate; under Xuanzuo the disorder deepened. They went on to kill their commanders and mount great plunder—accustomed to gain and reckless of restraint. Though now a great lord, he still had his mother—a woman of real virtue. Each month she wove a bolt of coarse cloth, a reminder never to forget where they came from. She repeatedly urged him to observe full loyalty toward the throne. Once she saw a county magistrate hurry in to report; when he left she warned her son, "That magistrate was terribly cowed. I remember your father in county office; no doubt he was humbled the same way. And you sit above him as if that were natural—is that seemly?" Xuanzuo took the lesson to heart and afterward showed his subordinates more respect. At the Xiangguo Monastery word went around that the Buddha's body was sweating. Xuanzuo went himself and gave lavish gold and silk; officers, traders, and merchants vied to donate for fear of coming late. On the tenth day he called the gifts in, tallied an immense haul, and turned it to army pay. Such was the kind of stratagem he favored. When Li Na sent envoys to Bian, Xuanzuo entertained them with lavishly adorned women and rich presents and learned their whole plot—so Na feared him above all. His favorite clerk Zhang Shinan and adopted son Yue Shichao each piled up wealth in the millions; Shichao had secretly taken one of Xuanzuo's concubines; afraid he would be found out he poisoned him. Xuanzuo died at fifty-eight and was posthumously enfeoffed Grand Tutor with the posthumous name Zhuangwu.
6
使使 便使 使
The army hid his death while waiting for a replacement; the court winked at it. Three days passed before the obsequies were made public. When an envoy came the emperor asked whom they wanted. They answered, "Would Wu Cou of Shaanxi-Guo do?" The army overseer Meng Jie and Chief of Staff Lu Yuan agreed, and Cou was commissioned governor. At Sishui, when the coffin was to be moved, the soldiers demanded full honors; Yuan refused and the men flared up. At dawn the men armed and shouted, set Shining on the coffin on a high seat, smeared his clothes with ink, hailed him leave-behind commander, killed Generals Cao Jin'an and Magistrate Li Mai of Lingyi, salted their corpses, and spared Yuan and Jie alone. Shining opened the treasury and rewarded the officers and ranks. Jie reported in; the emperor convened the council. Dou Can said, "The Bian troops are using Li Na to hold the court hostage—refuse them and they will surely join him and the affair will be beyond remedy." Shining was made Left Golden-Crown Guard General and confirmed as governor.
7
紿
Xuanzuo's adopted sons Shigan and Shichao had been in the capital. Shigan, suspecting foul play in his father's death, sent a servant with a blade under pretense of mourning and killed Shichao in his quarters. The emperor abhorred his private justice and had Shigan executed too.
8
使
Before the edict reached him Shining secretly contacted Wang Wujun, Liu Ji, Tian Xu, and others; the other fiefs would not support him and detained every envoy. He was brutal—sometimes killing guests at table with his own hand; he violated his father's concubines and took officials' and commoners' women by force, sometimes making them perform naked; when he hunted he stayed out for days on end. His men wearied of him and would not stand behind him.
9
使 使 西 使使
Li Wanrong, once Xuanzuo's neighbor and friend, was generous and held the soldiers' regard. Shining feared him, took away his troops, and left him administering the prefecture. With Shining hunting south of the city with twenty thousand men, Wanrong entered headquarters at dawn, called the loyal troops in garrison and announced, "The Son of Heaven has recalled the commissioner—I am your new governor. Every soldier will receive thirty thousand cash." The men bowed assent. Troops sealed the gates and a messenger told Shining, "The edict calls you—go quickly, or in haste we may present your head." Seeing he had no support Shining fled with five hundred horse; by Zhongmu half his following was gone; at Luoyang only a handful of concubines remained. In the capital he was confined to his house and forbidden to leave. Wanrong executed dozens of Shining's adherents and paid the army two hundred thousand strings from the treasury; the court ordered Shining's estate seized to cover the cost. Wanrong was appointed acting commander of forces. He listed hundreds of unruly troops for western autumn garrison; men slated for duty grumbled. Commanders Han Weiqing and Zhang Yanlin asked to lead the detachment but were refused—Wanrong's son Nai was put in command. Before marching, Yanlin exploited the men's anger and turned them on Wanrong; beaten, they seized convoy money and civilian wealth, slew and robbed thousands, and broke up. Weiqing fled to Zhengzhou; Yanlin surrendered at Luoyang; both were spared death but banished to the frontier wastes. The survivors fled to Songzhou and Liu Yihuai took them in; Wanrong killed every family they had left behind, and the troops grew restless; someone shouted in the market that a host was coming to break the city." Wanrong arrested and interrogated them; some said Shining had stirred them up; he executed the prisoners and reported up, and Shining was exiled to Chenzhou.
10
使
Before long Wanrong received the full governorship. Falling seriously ill he transferred the forces to Deng Weigong. Weigong came from Wanrong's own ward. His son Nai, named regent, was Chief of Staff; Wanrong had posted Generals Li Zhan, Zhang Pi, and Yilou Sui outside hoping to kill them, but could not. The night Wanrong died Weigong and Army Overseer Ju Wenzhen seized Nai, sent him to court, and had him flogged to death in Jingzhao; Dong Jin took the command.
11
使
Wu Shaoqing came from Lu in Youzhou and entered office by inherited privilege as Registrar in the Princes' Households. Passing through Jingnan, Governor Yu Zhun took him in and made him a guard officer. On the return to court he passed Xiangyang, decided Liang Chongyi would rebel, and drafted a secret plan for the throne; Li Xilie exposed it—but an edict praised him and raised him to Prince of Tongyi. When Chongyi rose, Xilie made Shaoqing his van. After peace he received a fifty-household substantive enfeoffment. When Xilie rebelled he fought hard; after Xilie's death he backed Chen Xianqi, then killed him; the men chose Shaoqing and Dezong made him Acting Governor of Shen, Cai, and Guang.
12
使
In governing, Shaoqing was sparing and rebuilt the army's stores. Under Xilie Shen and Cai had been ground down by harsh rule; when the old leading families passed away the young knew only raiding and took combat lightly. Horses were scarce—they fought mounted on mules in what was called the "Mule Army," notoriously fierce. They painted Thunder Lord and star signs on their armor as charms and cursed the court's troops. Subordinates Zheng Chang and Yang Ji tried to capture Shaoqing and expel him in submission to the court; the plot failed and both died. Shaoqing forgave every general involved to keep the corps united. In Zhenyuan 5 he received the full governorship.
13
退 使使 退 退
Long afterward Qu Huan died; Shaoqing thought Chen Xu had no chief, attacked Linying, found the commander Wei Qing in league with the enemy, and though Acting Governor Shangguan Sui sent three thousand all were taken; then they besieged Xuzhou. Enraged, Dezong removed Shaoqing's offices and ordered sixteen commands to advance against him. Yu Di's Xiangyang force fought at Wufang and Langshan and captured three rebel generals. Wang Zong's Shouzhou troops routed them at Qiu Fence stockade. The allied armies were huge yet leaderless; eunuch overseers held the reins and quarreled. At the Xiaobin engagement the columns broke before joining battle and cast away supplies in heaps. Dezong named Han Quanyi of Xiaye Pacification Commissioner for Huai-Cai with Shangguan Sui as deputy; every commander fell under his command. Against Wu Shaoyang and others at Guanglichuan they lost again, fell back to Wulou, were overrun, and collapsed completely. Quanyi and Overseer Jia Yingxiu fled by night to Linshui. Troops of Bian-Song, Xu-Si, and Ziqing fell back to Chenzhou. Shaoqing pitched camp near Linshui; Quanyi in fear pulled back to Chen; armies of Lu, Hua, Heyang, and Hezhong scattered home; only Meng Yuanyang of Chen-Xu and Su Guangrong of the Shence Corps held at Linshui. He executed commanders Xia Houzhongxuan of Lu, Shi Ang of Hua, Quan Wendu of Heyang, and Guo Xiang of Hezhong to steady morale—and failed. Shaoqing then led his force away.
14
紿 退 使
In defeat Shaoqing seized hundreds of letters from grandees in Quanyi's tent and told the men, "The court's ministers told Quanyi that when Cai fell he might seize your wives and daughters as concubines." With that he inflamed them and killed any wish to submit. Contemptuous of the imperial forces, he wrote Yingxiu begging clearance. The emperor convened ministers; Jia Dan said, "After Wulou he did not pursue—that shows he wants another road." The emperor relented a little and Shaoqing dug in once more. Still eunuchs supervised the allied hosts. Wei Gao of Jiannan urged appointing a senior commander instead, naming Hun Jian and Jia Dan: "If Your Majesty will not trouble the elders again, let me take ten thousand picked men down the Yangtze toward Jing-Chu and strike the ringleader. Or, when he sues for pardon, wash his offenses specially and stand down the He armies—that would be second best. Let Shaocheng's evil brim over until rebellion breaks out in his own camp—it will be the same rebel clique, rewarded again with offices and titles; one Shaocheng dies, another rises in his place—what could we trust in that? The Emperor took it and pardoned Shaocheng, restoring every office and title.
15
When Shunzong succeeded, he rose to co-grand councilor, Acting Minister of Works, and was reassigned as Duke of Puyang. He died in Yuanhe 4 (809); the court posthumously named him Minister over the Masses, and Wu Shaoyang took his place.
16
西 使 使 使
Shaoyang was from Qingchi in Cang Prefecture. He and Shaocheng had served together in the Weibo Army and were close friends. Once Shaocheng held Huai West, he lavished gold and silk to draw him in, treated him as a sworn younger brother, gave him a senior command, and kept him at his side without reserve. Shaoyang judged that Shaocheng was suspicious and ruthless, and feared what might befall him; he asked to serve on the outer line of defense, and Shaocheng memorialized to appoint him prefect of Shen. His rule was easy and lenient, and the whole army came to depend on him. When Shaocheng fell gravely ill, his household slave Shan Yu Xiong'er forged a summons for Shaoyang, assumed the vice commissionership and command of the army, killed Shaocheng's son Yuanqing, and declared himself acting military commissioner. Since Wang Chengzong was in open revolt, Xianzong promptly confirmed Wang as military commissioner and let Shaoyang serve as acting commissioner. Three years later he was formally appointed military commissioner.
17
Shaoyang kept no corvée rolls and simply taxed the people as each day demanded. The region was rich in open country and marshland, and he bred horses in ever greater numbers. He repeatedly raided the tea hills of Shou, preyed on merchants, and gathered outlaws from every direction to strengthen his forces. He refused to attend court, but sent tribute horses again and again by way of apology, and the Emperor came to look on him with favor.
18
In the ninth year of his rule he died; his son Yuanji hid the death, reported only that he was ill, and forged a memorial asking that Yuanji be allowed to take command. The Emperor sent the court physician to examine him; Yuanji promptly claimed Shaoyang was improving and refused a visit.
19
婿
Yuanji was his eldest son—a towering brow, a swallow's jaw, a heavy jowl, and a nose six inches long. He began his career as a probationary Director of Harmonization and acting prefect of Cai. Dong Chongzhi, Shaocheng's son-in-law, was fierce in battle, a veteran commander, and skilled in war; Yuanji leaned on him, and Chongzhi urged him to take three thousand picked men by a secret route from Shou to seize Yangzhou, while in the east Li Shidao's fleet would strike Run and hold it; send raiders to strike Shang and Deng, capture Yan Shou, and push on to hold Xiangyang, unsettling the southeast; then Jing, Heng, Qian, and Wu would topple at a rumor, and the Five Ridges would slip from the court's grasp. He also asked for five hundred light troops to lead himself in a three-day strike on the Eastern Capital; the empire would convulse, and they could sweep all before them. Yuanji wavered and would not act on it.
20
西使
Earlier his officers Su Zhao, Yang Yuanqing, and Hou Weiqing had urged Shaoyang to come to court; when some accused them of disloyalty, Yuanji had Zhao strangled and his body sent back, and Weiqing thrown into prison. When both were dead, the Emperor posthumously honored Weiqing as Minister of War and Zhao as Right Vice Director. Yuanqing was then in Chang'an on court business; he saw Chief Minister Li Jifu, laid out the whole Huai West situation, and asked that any Cai envoy on the road be arrested on the spot. Forty days after Shaoyang's death the Emperor still did not suspend court; he rotated commanders and reinforced the garrisons to await whatever came.
21
使 使 使 使使 西退 使
Then rumor ran that Chongzhi had killed Yuanji and wiped out his family; Jifu seized on it to ask for court mourning for Shaoyang, condolence envoys with burial gifts, and a posthumous grant of Right Vice Director. Yuanji received no appointment from the throne; he threw his whole army outward, burning Wuyang and Ye and ravaging Xiangcheng and Yangdi. People in Xu and Ru hid in brush and thicket; raiding and capture ran for more than a thousand li, and the eastern heartland was gripped by fear. The condolence mission reached the border but could not get in and turned back. The court then ordered Wu Chongyin to serve also as prefect of Ru and march his army to the frontier; Cao Hua of Ning served as his deputy and held Xiangcheng; Li Guangyan was made military commissioner of Zhongwu and massed his army in camp; Shannan East was split off; Yan Shou was named pacification commissioner for Shen, Guang, Cai, and the rest, with the eunuch Cui Tanjun to supervise his army. An edict stripped Yuanji of rank and title and ordered every circuit to march against him. There was a severe drought; when the edict went out, rain and snow fell for three days. Tian Hongzheng and Han Hong each sent a son with troops to join Yan Shou's and Li Guangyan's commands. Shou camped on Cai's western frontier; after a minor victory he left his guard down, was hit by a rebel raid, routed at Qiuqiu, and fell back to Tang. Linghu Tong of Shou fought and lost again and again; the rebels took Huoqiu, massacred Matang, and Tong shut himself in the city and would not stir. Li Wentong, Grand General of the Left Golden Guard, was sent as consolation commissioner; the court timed his arrival so he could replace Tong.
22
便 使
When Pei Du joined the government the rebels began to fear; but Yuanji could not command them, and Zhao Chang, Ling Chaojiang, Dong Chongzhi, Li You, Li Xian, Wang Lan, Zhao Ye, Wang Renqing, and the rest fought on their own initiative, holding off the imperial armies in the old Shaocheng-Shaoyang style. Li Shidao meanwhile moved salt through Ningling and Yongqiu; Han Hong knew and would not stop it. Wentong met the rebel generals Wang Lan and Dong Chongzhi at Shicuo Ridge and took Wang Lan's head. Guangyan routed them again at Shiqu, then with Chongyin crushed them on the Little Yin River and tore down their camps and trenches. The Emperor blamed Shou for indiscipline, put Han Hong in overall command in his place, and promoted Gao Xiayu to military commissioner of Tang, Deng, and Sui.
23
𨫼 退
In the eleventh year the allied armies gathered in force. Guangyan fortified at Zhanghe; Wentong beat the rebels at Gushi and took Qie Mountain; Xiayu fought at Lang Mountain, took more than a thousand heads, burned the rebel walls, and pushed on to Iron Fort. The rebels feigned retreat; Xiayu chased them to the end and walked into an ambush; his force was nearly wiped out; he fell back to Xinxing and was besieged, and the army supervisor Li Yicheng raced into Tang. Relief arrived, the siege lifted, and he withdrew again to hold Tang.
24
西 使
Yuanji, thinking Xiayu no longer mattered after his defeat, massed his troops to face Chen. That autumn Wentong marched his men gagged by night from Jiunü Plain, overran thirty garrison forts, sent columns northwest along Anyang Mountain, smashed one camp after another by the hundreds, accepted more than ten thousand surrenders, and took two generals. Guangyan routed twenty thousand men at Yancheng, took six generals, then with Chongyin stormed the Lingyun stockade and carried it. Angry that no army had won a decisive victory, the Emperor sent the palace attendant Liang Shouqian to supervise the campaign, with five hundred edicts ready to reward merit and gold and silk to recruit men willing to die. Guangyan was promoted to Acting Left Vice Director; Chongyin to Right Vice Director; Bu to Censor-in-Chief; and Gongwu to Chief Censor. Imperial orders tightened discipline and sharpened rewards and punishments, and the generals were afraid. Xiayu was demoted and Yuan Zi took his place. Zi was too timid to lead an army, so Li Su was made military commissioner of Tang, Deng, and Sui instead.
25
西 使
Yuanji ran out of food; his men exhausted every water chestnut, lotus seed, fish, and turtle, until they were cutting roots and grass to eat. The people starved and fled in every direction; Yuanji rationed his own stores, stopped trying to hold them back, and his generals competed to enlist the deserters. The Emperor began lodging Yancheng and Wufang populations at the field headquarters to reassure the newly surrendered. Su struck their western line, overran more than a dozen stockades, and captured Ding Shiliang and Wu Xiulin, two of the rebels' fiercest fighters. The rebel commander Zhang Boliang brought thirty thousand men against Guangyan at Yancheng and was routed. They took a thousand horses and thirty thousand suits of armor; Boliang fled back to Cai. Cao Hua seized Qingling and severed the road back to Yan. The rebel general Deng Huaijin, in fear, offered surrender at once, and Guangyan accepted. Su raided Lang Mountain again, captured the garrison commander Liang Xiguo, and leveled Wengang and two other forts. Yuanji saw his forces melting away and his best captains lost abroad; he memorialized asking to surrender himself at the northern palace gate, and the Emperor sent word that his life would be spared. Yuanji tried to seize three hundred horses from the field camp; Chongzhi refused, and the surrender fell through. In a raid on the Xing Bridge garrison he captured its commander Li You, spared him, and brought him into his tent to plan; the scheme to strike Cai was born, and rebel morale sank further.
26
使
Shaocheng had held Cai by force for forty years; imperial armies had never pressed the walls, and Han Quanyi and Yu Di had been beaten here; the garrison grew proud and fearless, trusting in moats, floods, and layered defenses—so even with all the empire's armies against them, three years brought only a county or two. After the Emperor demoted Xiayu, Zi, and the rest, the generals at last took their orders. The court called up Shatuo shock cavalry as reinforcements and made Pei Du military commissioner of Zhangyi and pacification commissioner for the Shen-Guang-Cai field headquarters on all four sides. Liang Shouqian and the generals agreed to win glory before Du arrived; they fought again and again and could not break through. When Du arrived he feasted and rewarded the troops; moved to gratitude, they all asked to fight. He sent men secretly into Cai to negotiate Yuanji's surrender, but Yuanji's inner circle blocked him and the surrender failed. Guangyan won the first honors in every fight, so Yuanji massed his whole army to hold him at Shiqu. You advised Su, saying, "The men holding Cai are shopkeepers and spent soldiers; the crack troops are all abroad. Strike straight at Xuanhu and the rebels are yours. Su agreed; he took elite cavalry, raided Cai by night, crossed ditches and walls, and the garrison never knew. The rebels trusted Chongzhi's army at Huaiqu and never expected an attack; when Su hit the inner city more than a thousand defenders still fought; Yuanji woke in alarm, armored himself, and climbed the wall waiting for Chongzhi. Chongzhi chose that moment to surrender, while Li Jincheng seized the rebel armory and pressed the assault at once. The next day they fired the gates; civilians rushed in with bundles of fuel; the imperial archers poured arrows until bolts littered the wall walk. Two days later the gate gave way; Yuanji was taken, and his whole clan was sent to Chang'an in bonds. Thirty thousand garrison troops still held Shen and Guang; all surrendered.
27
使
The Emperor received the captive at Xing'an Gate amid the ministers' congratulations; Yuanji was offered to the state altars, paraded through the market, and beheaded. He was twenty-five. That night his head disappeared. His wife Shen was taken into the palace women's quarters; two younger brothers and three sons were exiled to Jiangling—and all were put to death. More than ten of his officers, including Liu Xiexu, Zhao Ye, and Wang Renqing, were beheaded. When Du returned he left Ma Cong as acting commissioner; soon Ma was appointed military commissioner, and Yin Prefecture was carved out and placed under Chen-Xu.
28
西
When Du first marched out, Han Yu, Right Mentor of the Heir Apparent, served as campaign marshal; the Emperor, admiring Du's achievement, ordered Yu to write the Stele on the Pacification of Huai West. Its text reads:
29
{}
Heaven matched Tang to its own virtue: holy sons and divine grandsons, line upon line, for ten thousand years—reverent, vigilant, never slack—entrusting the whole realm beneath its canopy; within the four seas and nine provinces, without distinction of inner and outer, every land a lord, every people a subject. Gaozu and Taizong cleared away disorder and brought the realm to order. Gaozong, Zhongzong, and Ruizong let the people rest and recover. Under Xuanzong the dynasty reaped its reward and gathered its harvest—glory at its height, wealth overflowing, a vast land and teeming goods—and evil took root in the midst of it all. Suzong and Daizong, and the ancestral virtue of Dezong and Shunzong, met the age with diligence and forbearance. The great evil had only just departed, yet the tares were left unweeded; chancellors and commanders alike—scholars grown complacent, soldiers grown idle—came to accept what they saw and heard as the way things must be. The Sage Civil and Military Emperor, after receiving the court's homage, reviewed the maps and tallied the tribute, and said, "Alas! Heaven has entrusted the whole realm to my house, and now the succession is mine—if I cannot govern every matter well, how can I stand before the altars of Heaven and Earth and the ancestral temple! The ministers, awestruck, withdrew to their duties. The following year Shu was pacified. The year after that, Jiangdong was pacified. Another year brought the pacification of Ze and Lu; Yi and Ding were secured, and Wei, Bo, Bei, Wei, Chan, and Xiang all submitted without exception. The Emperor said, "We must not press war to the limit; I shall give it a brief rest."
30
西
In the ninth year the Cai commander died; the people of Cai set up his son Yuanji and petitioned for court recognition. When the court refused, they burned Wuyang, struck Ye and Xiangcheng to threaten the Eastern Capital, and sent their soldiers raiding on every side. The Emperor questioned the whole court; save for one or two ministers, all said, "The Cai commanders have gone fifty years without court appointment, passing through three clans and four generals. Their roots run deep, their arms are keen, their soldiers are hardened—unlike any other such power. If we soothe them and keep them, they will stay compliant and give no trouble. High officials made presumptuous pronouncements in chorus; ten thousand voices chimed in until one opinion prevailed, fixed and unbreakable. The Emperor said, "What Heaven and the ancestors entrusted to me may well depend on this—how dare I fail to give my utmost! Besides, one or two ministers stand with me—I am not without support. He said, "Guangyan, you command Chen-Xu; all three field armies of Hedong, Weibo, and Heyang shall be under your command." He said, "Chongyin, you already hold Heyang and Huai; this charge is now added to you. All seven field armies of Shuofang, Yicheng, Shan, Yi, Fengxiang, Fuyan, and Ningqing shall be under your command." He said, "Hong, detach twelve thousand troops and send your son Gongwu to chastise them." He said, "Wentong, you hold Shou; all five armies of Xuanwu, Huainan, Xuan-Xi, Zhexi, and Xu-Si operating there shall be under your command." He said, "Daogu, you shall serve as inspector of E-Yue." He said, "Su, you command Tang, Deng, and Sui; each shall advance to battle with its own forces." He said, "Du, as head of the Censorate, go and oversee the army." He said, "Du, you and I are as one—you shall serve as my chancellor, rewarding obedience and punishing disobedience." He said, "Hong, you shall bear the insignia of command and serve as supreme commander of all armies." He said, "Shouqian, you attend me in court; as my close minister, go and hearten the army." He said, "Du, go. Clothe and feed the troops—let none suffer cold or hunger—finish the task, and spare the people of Cai. I grant you the insignia-axe, the heaven-piercing imperial belt, and three hundred guard soldiers. Of all the ministers at court, choose whom you will to accompany you—only the worthy and capable—and do not fear high officials. On the day gengshen I shall come to the gate to see you off." He said, "Censor, I grieve that our officers and soldiers suffer so in battle. From this day forward, save for suburban and temple rites, no music shall be played."
31
西 西
Guangyan, Chongyin, and Gongwu jointly attacked from the north, fought sixteen major battles, took twenty-three fortified counties, and accepted the surrender of forty thousand men. Daogu attacked the southeast in eight battles, accepted thirteen thousand surrenders, twice entered Shen, and breached the outer wall. Wentong fought in the east in more than ten engagements and accepted thirteen thousand surrenders. Su pressed in from the west; whenever he captured rebel generals he spared them, took their counsel, and battle after battle won success. In the eighth month of the twelfth year Chancellor Du reached the army; supreme commander Hong pressed the fighting harder, and Guangyan, Chongyin, and Gongwu fought with redoubled zeal. Yuanji massed all his forces at Huaiqu to make ready. On renshen in the tenth month Su used a captured rebel general as guide; from Wencheng he raced a hundred and twenty li through heaven's heavy snow, reached Cai at midnight, broke the gate, seized Yuanji and presented him captive, and took all his followers and troops. On xinsi Chancellor Du entered Cai and, by imperial command, pardoned the people. Huai West was pacified, and a great feast rewarded the victors. On the day the army marched home, its provisions were given to the people of Cai. Of thirty-five thousand Cai soldiers in all, nine in ten who wished to lay down arms and return to farming were released. Yuanji was beheaded in the capital.
32
祿
Merit was recorded: Hong was made Privy Counselor; Su was made Left Vice Director and commander of Shannan East Circuit; Guangyan and Chongyin were both made Minister of Works; Gongwu, as Regular Attendant, was made commander of Fu, Fang, Dan, and Yan; Daogu was promoted to Grand Master; Wentong was made Regular Attendant; Chancellor Du came to court, was enfeoffed Duke of Jin, raised to Golden Signet and Purple Ray Grand Master of the Imperial Clan, and continued as Chancellor; His deputy Ma Cong was made Minister of Works and given charge of Cai.
33
After he returned and reported, the ministers asked that the sacred achievement be recorded and cut into metal and stone. The Emperor charged his subject Yu; Yu bowed twice to the ground and presented the text, saying:
34
西 退
Tang received Heaven's mandate and brought the myriad lands to submission. Who, dwelling on the near marches, took up brigandage in reckless pride? Under Xuanzong of old the realm rose to its zenith—and then fell. Hebei grew fierce and proud; Henan rose in its wake. Four sage emperors showed no indulgence and repeatedly raised armies to chastise them. Where they could not be subdued, garrisons were thickened with troops. Husbands plowed yet had no grain to eat; wives wove yet had no cloth to wear. Cartloads were sent forth to feed the soldiers. Many in the provinces missed court; long ages passed without an imperial hunt at the sacred peaks. Officials everywhere grew slack; government lost its old order. The Emperor then took the throne, looked about, and sighed, "You civil and military servants—who will tend my house? Having cut down Wu and Shu, he turned and took Shandong. A Weibo general led the way in loyalty; six prefectures submitted and followed. Huai and Cai would not submit, deeming themselves strong. They raised troops, shouting in defiance, demanding the old ways restored. At first the court ordered them punished; then they allied with treacherous neighbors. In secret they sent assassins to strike at the chancellor. While the campaign still hung in the balance, alarm shook the capital. The high ministers submitted, saying, "Better to show mercy and accept their submission. The Emperor acted as though he had not heard and took counsel with Heaven. When chancellor and throne stood as one in purpose, Heaven's judgment was fulfilled. Then he decreed to Guangyan, Chongyin, Su, Gongwu, Daogu, and Wentong, "All shall be unified under Hong; each report your achievements. Three armies attacked from separate quarters; their force numbered fifty thousand. The main force pressed northward, several times that number strong. At Shiqu they once gave battle, and the troops grew restless and confused. Once Lingyun was taken, the Cai troops were driven to desperation. Victory at Shaoling; Yancheng surrendered. From summer into autumn the camps faced one another across the lines. The army stalled without drive; reports of victory came late. The Emperor grieved for the men at war and sent the chancellor to set matters right. Soldiers ate their fill and sang; horses stamped and frolicked at the troughs. Tried at Xincheng, the rebels were broken and fled. They stripped every resource and massed it to hold us off. The western army surged in; on every road none dared stand in their way. Lofty stood the city of Cai, its domain a thousand li wide. Once it was entered and taken, all submitted and awaited their fate. The Emperor spoke in mercy; Chancellor Du came to proclaim: punish only the leaders, spare the common people. Cai's fighting men cast off their armor and shouted for joy. Cai's women came to their gates laughing and calling greetings. When the people of Cai reported hunger, grain was shipped to feed them. When the people of Cai reported cold, silk and cloth were given them. At first the people of Cai were forbidden to travel back and forth. Now they stroll and play together, inner gates open through the night. At first the people of Cai advanced to battle and retreated to execution. Now they sleep and wake to meals spread left and right, grain and porridge in plenty. Men were chosen for them to gather up the weary and restore the land. Officials were appointed, oxen were given, and they were taught farming without levy. The people of Cai said, "We were blind and did not know; now we are fully awakened and ashamed of what we did before. The people of Cai said, "The Son of Heaven is wise and holy: resist, and your clan is destroyed; submit, and your lives are spared. If you do not believe us, look at Cai itself. Whoever will not submit—go cut down his throat. Rebels everywhere are counted by the score; each leans on another's strength and renown. We are mighty yet cannot endure; you are feeble—what do you trust? Let them go tell their elders, their fathers, and their elder brothers; Let them hurry to our threshold and share in our age of peace." When Huai and Cai rose in rebellion, the Son of Heaven marched against his rebellious subjects. Though the campaign had ended, famine followed; the Son of Heaven sustained the people. When the court first debated attacking Cai, not one minister or official would follow. Four years into the war, high and low alike were filled with doubt. He neither pardoned the guilty nor doubted the loyal—such was the Son of Heaven's clarity. All that was won at Cai was won only because he would not waver. Once Huai and Cai were pacified, the peoples of the four quarters all came in submission. Then the Bright Hall was opened, and there he took his seat to govern the realm.
35
Han Yu held that Wu Yuanji's defeat owed to Du Du's ability to fix the emperor's resolve and secure a policy of no pardon, so the generals dared not hang back, and Yuanji was taken at last. Many credited Du with the victory, but Li Su alone was ranked first for the exploit of entering Cai. Li Su's wife was the daughter of Princess Tang'an. Moving freely in and out of the inner palace, she complained that Han Yu's inscription did not tell the truth. The emperor also weighed the need not to alienate his military commanders. He ordered Han Yu's text cut from the stone and commanded the Hanlin Academician Duan Wenchang to compose another in its place.
36
Li You was promoted to General of the Divine Martial Guard for his service and was granted farmland, a residence, rice, and grain. The emperor traced Dong Chongzhi's role in teaching Wu Yuanji rebellion and wished to put him to death, but Li Su had already promised he would not die, so Dong was demoted to registrar of Spring Prefecture; Ling Chaojiang was demoted to registrar of Pan Prefecture. That year Shen and Cai prefectures submitted tribute goods for the first time. Because they had long been absent from court, the Ministry of Revenue asked that they be displayed in the hall on New Year's Day.
37
使 西使
Li You, styled Qingzhi, was later made military commissioner of Xia, Sui, Yin, and You and then transferred to Jingyuan. During the campaign against Li Tongjie he was made commissioner of Cangde and Jing and eventually rose to acting Left Vice Director of the Imperial Secretariat. Not long after his demotion, Dong Chongzhi was made Junior Tutor of the Crown Prince, attached to the Wuning army, then promoted to Left General of the Divine Martial Guard and granted gold and coin equal to the other meritorious officers. He rose through posts as commander of the Left and Right Shence armies and campaign commissioner of Jiannan West, and successively governed Xia, Sui, Yin, and You. He drilled his troops with discipline, and the Qiang and Rong both feared and obeyed him. He ended his career as commander of the Right Dragon Martial Guard and was posthumously granted the title of Right Vice Director of the Imperial Secretariat.
38
使 使
Liu Wu's grandfather Liu Zhengchen had been military commissioner of Pinglu. He attacked Fanyang without success and died in the attempt. His uncle Liu Quanliang, military commissioner of Xuanwu, admired his boldness and appointed him a yamen general. Later, after committing a crime, Wu fled to Lu Prefecture. Wang Qianxiu again appointed him as a general, but Wu fell ill and resigned. When he returned to the eastern capital, he found that Quanliang had left several million strings of cash there. Wu broke the lock and spent it. He ran with violent young men, killing people and butchering dogs, swaggering and breaking the law until he was jailed in Henan. The garrison commander Wei Xiaqing secured his release. Li Shigu welcomed him with rich gifts. At first Shigu did not think much of him, but once, during a cuju match, Wu charged forward on horseback and knocked Shigu from his mount. Shigu flew into a rage and was about to have him executed, but Wu answered back with fierce defiance and showed no fear. Shigu came to admire his talent, put him in command of the rear guard, married him to a woman of the Congwei clan, and gradually raised him to senior posts in the yamen. When military funds ran short, Li Shidao levied money from the merchants for the war effort and put Wu in charge of collecting it. Wu alone showed leniency, and the people came to depend on him. When Li Shidao came under imperial attack, Wu was sent to garrison Cao. His discipline was strict and fair, his word was trusted, and the soldiers served him willingly; not once did the camp alarms sound.
39
退 使使 使使 使 西 使
Tian Hongzheng's army encamped at Yanggu while Wu shifted his camp to Tan and Zhao. Wei troops crossed the Yellow River, took Lu County, and fortified at Aijing. Rumors swept the city that Feng Lishe and Liu Wu should be made commanders. Shidao grew inwardly suspicious and repeatedly summoned Wu for counsel. Wu said, "We and Wei are like wrestlers locked together: the contest is already joined, and whoever pulls back first loses. If I withdraw, Wei will press straight to the walls." His attendants remonstrated, "The outcome of battle is still uncertain. Kill a great general, and who will fight for you?" Shidao agreed with them. Some said Wu was about to mutiny and that Shidao had best leave at once. Shidao sent two sets of envoys to demand that Wu attack, while secretly instructing his deputy Zhang Xian to kill him. The envoys spoke with Zhang Xian in private for a long while. Wu grew suspicious, and Xian told him the whole plot. Wu then killed the envoys, summoned the generals, and said, "Weibo's troops are strong. If we go out, we are defeated; if we stay in, we die. Besides, the Son of Heaven seeks only to punish the Minister himself. We are being driven to our deaths. Would it not be better to turn the army, seize Yan, win a great victory, and turn peril into wealth and honor?" All murmured agreement, but the subordinate general Zhao Chuiji tried to stop them. Wu killed him, then killed thirty others he hated and laid their corpses before the tent. The army was cowed into submission. He issued an order: "When we enter Yan, each man shall receive one hundred thousand cash. Private scores may be settled, and goods and livestock may be taken freely—only the army stores must remain intact. Violators will be executed." He then sent word to Tian Hongzheng asking him to advance on Tan and Zhao. At midnight Wu pressed the west gate. At dawn the gates were opened to him, and he entered and killed Li Shidao together with the great generals Wei Xian and several dozen others. Wu was immediately appointed military commissioner of Yicheng, enfeoffed as Prince of Pengcheng Commandery with five hundred taxable households.
40
使 使 使 退
In the fifteenth year of Yuanhe he came to court and was promoted to acting Minister of War. When Emperor Muzong took the throne, Wu was transferred to command the Zhaoyi army. When Zhu Kerong rebelled, court advisers hoped Wu's reputation alone would suppress the disorder and transferred him to guard Lulong. When he reached Xing Prefecture, Wang Tingcou's mutiny broke out. Unable to enter, he withdrew and encamped where he was. He was promoted to concurrent pacification commissioner of You and Zhen and governed from Xing Prefecture. He besieged Lincheng but lingered without taking it. He clashed with the army supervisor Liu Chengxie, and his troops humiliated Wu while letting their subordinates break discipline until Wu could bear it no longer. Chengxie and the chief general Zhang Wen plotted to bind Wu and send him to the capital, with Zhang Wen to take over the command. When Wu learned of the plot, he surrounded the supervisor with troops and killed several of his attendants. His subordinate Jia Zhiyan rebuked him, saying, "If the late Minister Li could see from the grave what you have done, the army will produce more men just like you!" Wu hastily apologized, "I do not want to hear the name of Minister Li mentioned again. In a little while all will be settled." He immediately withdrew his troops, hid Chengxie, and kept him imprisoned. The emperor, unwilling to defy him, demoted Chengxie instead. From then on Wu grew increasingly high-handed, and his memorials to the throne were often insolent. Criminals and fugitives from across the empire flocked to him, pressing their grievances upon him by force of numbers. He was eventually promoted to acting Grand Preceptor and Grand Chancellor.
41
Early in the Baoli reign, shamans falsely claimed that Li Shidao's ghost was encamped with an army at the Liuli embankment. Terrified, Wu ordered prayers and sacrifices, prepared a feast for a thousand men, and went in person to plead for mercy. Just as he was about to change clothes, he vomited several dou of blood and died. He was posthumously granted the title of Grand Guardian. He memorialized the throne asking that his son Li Congjian succeed him.
42
使 使 使簿 使
Li Congjian's mother came from a humble background, and in youth he was shrewd and slippery. While Li Shidao still ruled, Liu Wu was sent out to garrison the frontier and appointed Congjian as a memorial secretary in his staff. Congjian spent his days gambling and consorting with Li Shidao's household servants, learning all their secret dealings and reporting everything to Wu. It was thus that Wu was able to win his great victory. When Liu Wu died, Congjian took charge as acting commissioner and lavished gold and gifts on those in power at court. Court opinion held that Shangdang was an inner circuit, unlike the Hebei provinces, and that succession could not be granted. Left Vice Director Li Jiang memorialized, "Wu concealed his death, but the troops need not all rise together. Congjian's authority and reputation are not yet established. If the throne issues a decree appointing a great general from another circuit as commissioner and sends him swiftly into the army while they are unprepared, the soldiers will have someone to follow and the plot will collapse of itself. If they refuse the order, the three prefectures cannot long stand alone, and within a few months they can be overthrown." But Li Fengji and Wang Shoucheng had accepted Congjian's bribes and repeatedly interceded for him. Emperor Jingzong therefore made the Prince of Jin nominal commissioner, decreed that Congjian should manage affairs as acting commissioner, and raised him from registrar of the Directorate of Palace Buildings to acting Left Cavalry Captain. The Prince of Jin was the emperor's favorite, and Congjian sent him gift after gift. Before long Congjian was formally appointed military commissioner. Early in the Dahe reign, Li Ting was defeated at Guantao and fled to Qiankou. Congjian led his iron cavalry and yellow-cap guards to his rescue, but Li Ting was dismissed from command all the same. He was promoted to acting Left Vice Director of the Imperial Secretariat, appointed Minister of Works, and enfeoffed as Duke of Pei.
43
輿 貿 使
Since Liu Wu's day the Zhaoyi command had been administered from Xing Prefecture, but the people longed for Shangdang. Congjian moved the seat of government back to Lu. Wu had been harsh and overbearing, whereas Congjian was generous and mild, and so his subordinates attached themselves to him all the more. Still in the prime of life, he burned to win distinction. In the sixth year he requested an audience at court, and Emperor Wenzong received him with exceptional honor. The following year he returned to his command and was promoted to Grand Chancellor. High officials often entrusted him with private favors, and seeing that power at court was divided, he came to look down on the throne and carried himself with arrogance. Li Xun had plotted with Congjian to kill Zheng Zhu. When the Sweet Dew affair erupted, the chancellors were exterminated to the last man, and rumor held that they had died innocent of any crime. Congjian was outraged. Three times he memorialized the throne asking that the cases of Wang Ya and the others be reopened, his words cutting sharply at the eunuchs. The eunuchs were then at the height of their power and the emperor was weak. The newly installed chief ministers Zheng Tan and Li Shi leaned on Congjian's bold memorials to reassert authority at court, while the eunuchs both feared and hated him for it. He also impeached Xiao Ben, declaring that he was not the empress dowager's brother. Qiu Shiliang nursed his anger and spread word that Congjian harbored designs on the throne and was watching for his chance. Congjian, for his part, rashly spoke of "purging evil from the emperor's side," and mutual suspicion between him and the court deepened. When Emperor Wuzong took the throne, Congjian was additionally appointed Grand Preceptor of the Crown Prince. By nature he was extravagant, lavishing ornament on his residence and his horses and carriages. He had no long view of statecraft but was adept at the arithmetic of commerce. He moved his eldest son Li Dao into Lu Prefecture. Each year he monopolized the horse trade and levied taxes on merchants, boiled salt for sale, trafficked in copper and iron, and collected one hundred thousand strings of cash. The sons of merchants who offered horses and gold were immediately made yamen generals and sent to trade through the prefectures and counties. Everywhere they acted with violence and greed, extorting loans from local families. If an official refused them, they appealed straight to Congjian. Those who tried to report them to the throne were sometimes hunted down by roaming assassins, and resentment spread across the empire. Congjian kept a horse nine feet tall at the withers and offered it to the emperor. When the emperor refused it, Congjian suspected Qiu Shiliang had blocked the gift. In rage he had the horse killed and grew all the more embittered. When he heard that Qiu Shiliang's favor was growing ever stronger, his anxiety deepened. He wished to go to court in person but feared he would not escape harm. He therefore feigned illness, then died at the age of forty-one. He was posthumously granted the title of Grand Tutor.
44
退
Earlier there had been a great general named Li Wanjiang, originally of the Turgesh tribe. Li Baoyu had sent him back toward the Uyghurs, but passing Taiyuan his whole encampment followed him on to Lu Prefecture. He pastured his herds at Jinliang Temple, where the land was rich in water and grass and his horses—stocky as ducks yet powerful, the breed known as Jinliang horses—brought in several million in horse revenue each year. Forty-eight of his sons, sons-in-law, and clansmen served in the army. When Congjian moved east into Shandong he feared that relocating the Wanjiang clan would provoke trouble. The younger men were also proud and insolent, showed little respect for Congjian, and so he framed them for rebellion, exterminated three clans, and destroyed more than three hundred households. Concubines who committed the slightest offense were killed on the spot. Everyone knew his end was near.
45
使 使
His nephew Li Zhen was the son of Li Congsu, who had served as a general of the Right Xiaowei Guard. Congjian designated him as his heir. When his illness grew grave, he consulted with his wife, Lady Pei, put her in charge of military affairs, and appointed the great generals Wang Xie, Guo Yi, Liu Wude, and Liu Shouyi to assist Li Zhen. They kept his death secret. Wang Xie then plotted to send the general Jiang Cen to the capital to request a court physician. The eunuch and the physician arrived. By then Li Congjian had been dead for twenty days. Li Zhen said, "The Duke is critically ill and cannot receive the edict. Zhen asks to bow on his behalf." The eunuch said, "It will do to view him as he lies in bed." Zhen declined on the grounds that his mother was attending the sickbed and could not be sent from the room. The eunuch tried to enter at once. Liu Wude and the others barred the door. Fearing a disturbance, the eunuch hurried out and was sent away with a bribe of a million cash. Later envoys followed one after another. When they learned that Congjian was already dead, the men grew fearful before they had gone a few stages. Wude and the general Dong Kewu led ten thousand troops out to welcome and reassure them, but at the headquarters gate they were not allowed to advance. The generals then went to the army supervisor Cui Shikang to persuade him, asking that they follow the Hebei precedent. Shikang was timid and did not dare refuse. He went to the mourning hall, helped Zhen out, wrapped a coarse cloth about his head, and said, "Do not again think of killing the imperial envoys." The generals broke into loud laughter, then went out to appear before the entire army.
46
使
The emperor was enraged that the earlier envoys had not been admitted and banished them to serve at Gongling; The three men Zhen had sent—Jiang Cen, Liang Shuwen, and Liang Shuming—were all beaten to death in the Capital Prefecture. An edict penned by Li Congsu ordered Zhen to escort the coffin back to the eastern capital, but Zhen refused to obey. The emperor ordered the court ministers to deliberate. Li Deyu submitted a proposal: "All Zhen relies on is Hebei. If a senior minister is sent to expound the throne's intent and troops from east of the mountains are mobilized, he will surely be broken." An edict stripped Congjian and Zhen of their offices and commanded all armies to advance against them.
47
使 使使
Wang Maoyuan of Heyang then encamped at Wanshan with his army; Liu Mian of Hedong held Angche Pass and fortified at Yushe; He Hongjing of Weibo built palisades at Feixiang and raided Ping'en; Wang Yuankui of Chengde stationed at Linming and plundered Ren, Yaoshan, and Xiangcheng; Chen Yixing of Hezhong encamped at Jicheng and raided Jishi. Maoyuan separately sent a general to encamp at Tianjing Pass, but the rebel general Xue Maoqing defeated him, captured four generals, and burned seventeen palisades. Zhang Ju attacked Wanshan but could not capture it. Maoyuan was about to flee, but at dusk the rebels broke and scattered on their own. An edict ordered Prince Zhongwu Wang Zai to enter the Huai-Ze field headquarters with his own army. The Chen-Xu troops were fierce warriors, and the rebel masses had long dreaded and feared them. Maoqing, however, took pride in his victories and hoped for a rich reward. Some said, "His troops have deeply violated the imperial domain. The court will soon be angered, and a commission will never come." Zhen agreed. Maoqing's hopes therefore ran high. He then made contact with Wang Zai, feigned battle, fled north in haste, abandoned Tianjing Pass, and the seven camps on either flank all collapsed. Maoqing fled to Ze Prefecture and sent a spy to tell Wang Zai, "Ze can be taken. I will respond from within." Wang Zai was suspicious and did not advance. Missing the agreed time, Maoqing wrung his wrists in frustration and regret. When Zhen learned of his defection, he summoned Maoqing and executed him. Wang Zai advanced, defeated Liu Gongzhi, and captured Lingchuan. Liu Mian also captured Shihui Pass. Li Shi replaced Liu Mian in command of Hedong. Zhen, through Shi's elder brother Li Tian, the prefect of Mingzhou, sent a letter begging to surrender. Li Shi reported this. Right Reminder Cui Jie memorialized asking that the surrender be accepted. The emperor was enraged, demoted Jie to magistrate of Dengcheng, and decreed that anyone who spoke of halting the campaign should be executed in rebel territory. The emperor ordered Li Shi to reply with a letter promising that Zhen could surrender with bound hands. Li Shi galloped to accept the surrender, but Zhen would not come out. Before long the Taiyuan general Yang Bian drove out Li Shi and allied with Zhen. Zhen's generals advised, "We seek to inherit the command lawfully. They are mutinous soldiers. If we join with them, we join with rebels." They shackled the envoy and sent him to the capital, sent Kang Liangqian to encamp at Guyao Ridge, defeated the Taiyuan troops, and captured seven hundred soldiers alive. The emperor still would not grant pardon.
48
使 {}
At the outset, when Congjian was near death, he had commanded Zhen not to flog or humiliate the household servants. Li Shigui and others, together with Wang Xie, therefore wielded power above all others. When soldiers fought, merit went unrewarded, and the ranks lost all will to fight. Wealth in the commission treasury still piled like mountains, yet Wang Xie asked to tax merchants and sent Liu Xi and others to divide up districts and inspect holdings. Xi also lumped ordinary townspeople together to examine their wealth, taking two parts in ten, and the common people began to resent it. Congjian's wife's younger brother Pei Wen guarded Xing Prefecture. He had five hundred recruited troops called the "Night-Flying Generals," mostly sons of powerful clans. Because their families failed to deliver tax payments on time, Xi had them imprisoned. Pei Wen spoke on their behalf. Xi was furious. Wen therefore killed Xi, and together with the prefect Cui Gu beheaded a senior general and surrendered to the Chengde army. Wang Zhao guarded Ming Prefecture and gave the soldiers one bolt of cloth. Zhen issued an edict replacing their annual grain ration. Zhao said to the troops, "The stores still hold plenty. Shall we distribute them as rewards?" The soldiers were delighted. He gave them everything in the stores and sent terms of surrender to the Weibo army. Gao Yu, the general of Ci Prefecture, Wei Yuanzan, the general of Yaoshan, and others surrendered to Chengde one after another. Yuankui killed them because they had long served as rebel garrison commanders.
49
使 沿
When Zhen learned that three prefectures had surrendered, he was terrified. The grand general Guo Yi and Wang Xie first plotted against Zhen. They had Dong Kewu lure Zhen to the northern residence, set out wine, and when the drinking was at its height, beheaded him at once. They took more than twenty of Congjian's sons still in swaddling clothes, together with his nephews Ji, Kuangzhou, and others, and killed them all. They executed the eleven clans of Zhang Gu, Zhang Yan, Chen Yangting, Li Zhongjing, Wang Wo, Wang Yu, Han Maozhang, Maoshi, Jia Xu, Guo Tai, and Zhen Ge, exterminating them to the roots, and killed everyone in the army who had never been loyal. They sent Zhen's head in a box to Wang Zai, who presented it to the capital, reported it at the temple and altars of state, and the emperor received it in state at Xing'an Gate. Liu Gongzhi also surrendered to Wang Zai.
50
Shi Xiong held the border with troops, and his army plundered on a great scale. Guo Yi sent a letter rebuking him, and Xiong nursed a grudge. After Zhen's death, Guo Yi shut Congjian's wife in a side chamber, seized her private wealth for himself, built a great stable, and daily awaited the arrival of a commander's insignia. Chancellor Li Deyu submitted a proposal: "Zhen was base and inferior, but the chaos began with Guo Yi. When the army was cornered, only then did he plot against Zhen to win glory. If he is not executed, there is no way to punish treacherous ministers. Now that troops are at the border, all rebel partisans should be taken and sent to the capital to be judged according to law." Earlier a madman had cried in the Lu market, "Shi Xiong's seven thousand men have arrived!" Li Congjian had him seized and executed, then requested an edict for Shi Xiong to lead that number of troops into Lu. When Shi Xiong reached Lu, he bound Guo Yi, Wang Xie, Liu Gongzhi, An Qingqing, Li Daode, Li Zuoyao, Liu Wude, Dong Kewu, and others and sent them to the capital. All were sentenced to death. Cui Shikang was beaten with the rod and killed. Bai Weixin was a fierce Lu general who had fought Shi Xiong many times. Afraid, he did not dare surrender. From Wuxiang he killed the commander Kang Liangqian, intending to surrender to Lu Jun; Shi Xiong sent men to summon his surrender. Weixin killed them and finally surrendered to Lu Jun. There was an edict: "Since Congjian was about to die, Zhen was only then appointed to military affairs. His coffin should be opened and the corpse exposed in the market for three days." Shi Xiong opened the coffin and looked—the face was as if alive, one eye still open. Xiong struck it three times with a blade. Enemies scraped his bones nearly clean.
51
穿
Guo Yi was a native of Yan Prefecture. His elder brother Ji had served Liu Wu as a headquarters guard and always admired the fine steepness of Fushan. He said, "When I die I shall surely be buried here." A geomancer said, "That ground will for three generations produce a commander of different surname." In Hebei they called such a commander of different surname the highest title of honor. "Yet if the burial is deeper than two zhang it will be unlucky." When Yi, because Ji was acting prefect, dug three zhang deep, they found a stone serpent together with three eggs. The workmen broke them open—all bled. At this time Guo Yi and Ji's three sons were executed together.
52
沿 西
Zhang Gu, Zhang Yan, and Chen Yangting all had literary talent and often spoke of success and failure in past and present to assist Congjian, so he treated these three men well. Gu took as concubine the daughter of a Handan man named Li Yan, called Xinsheng. When Congjian was secretly plotting to usurp and coerce, Xinsheng admonished Gu: "At the beginning the Son of Heaven made Congjian commissioner not because he had merit in field battles or storming cities, but simply because his father brought the twelve Qi prefectures back to the Son of Heaven—and at the moment of departure and return no one could wrest the succession from him. Since there has been a Ze-Lu commission, never has one thread or one hoof been sent as birthday tribute for the Son of Heaven, and those at his side are all scoundrels. In the Zhangwu reign several circuits were overthrown—all were men of heroic talent and outstanding ability, and even they could not secure the Son of Heaven's favor. How much less Congjian, raised up from the hands of women and children? If he did not obtain the command by law, he ought likewise to end by lawlessness. You should leave clan and kin and go west. A true man should not cling to the kindness of a single meal and feed his flesh and blood to sturdy warriors. When she finished speaking she wept in grief. Gu could not decide for three months. Fearing her words would leak out, he strangled her.
53
Li Zhongjing was the elder brother of Li Xun and served as aide in Xiao Hong's commission; he was promoted to investigating censor. Wang Wo was the son of Wang Fan. Wang Yu was a clansman of Wang Ya. Han Maozhang and Maoshi were sons of Han Yue. Jia Xu was the son of Jia Su. Guo Tai was the son of Guo Xingyu. When the Ganlu Affair broke out, they all fled in ragged clothes to Congjian, and Congjian clothed and fed them.
54
使
Zhen Ge was quite chivalrous and bold. Congjian richly supplied him with sacrificial gifts, seated him in the place of honor, and Ge styled himself Jing Ke. Congjian had a grudge with a garrison general of Ding Prefecture and ordered Ge to take his head. Ge therefore paid a respectful visit at an inn, kept him drinking for three days, and in an interval cut off his head. Another day he was again sent to take an enemy's head, but instead led more than ten desperadoes to rob the man. Congjian was displeased and called him "The false Jing Ke."
55
Congjian's wife Pei—because her younger brother had achieved merit, an edict was about to pardon his death sentence. Vice Director of Punishments Liu Sanfu insisted it could not be allowed. Thereupon Wen was granted death by imperial favor, and the corpse was returned to him. Pei's father Chang was a descendant of Pei Mian. He entered Liu Wu's staff, and Wu regarded him as remarkable—therefore he took his daughter for Congjian. When Pei was fifteen, firelight rose from beneath her skirt. The family thought it strange and therefore agreed to the marriage. She was enfeoffed as Lady of Yan. Broad-minded and resourceful, she often urged Congjian to enter court for the sake of his descendants. Congjian had a concubine, Wei, who wished to be enfeoffed as a lady. He agreed. When the edict arrived, Pei was angry, tore up the edict, and would not give it to her. Another day Congjian was feasting with Pei's faction and again produced the edict. Pei pushed it away and said, "In Ziqing, Li Shigu for four generations defied imperial orders—never was a concubine enfeoffed heard of. You enjoy the court's indulgence and ought to diminish yourself and seek cleansing. Yet you would make a maidservant a lady—the clan will perish before many days!" Congjian, abashed, stopped. When Wei reached the capital she said, "When Li Pi surrendered, Lady Pei met the senior generals' wives, weeping and wailing, and said, 'Tell your husbands for me—do not forget the grace of my late father-in-law. I beg to entrust mother and child to you. The other wives also shed tears, and therefore the generals of Lu rebelled all the more firmly." And so they met ruin.
56
使
Earlier the diviner Li Zhuo foretold fortune and disaster; Congjian courted him with rich gifts and made him a senior general. Early in Huichang he told Congjian, "Years ago the long comet crossed the Dipper—you were born straight under it. Now the comet has returned—disaster is coming." Congjian promptly shifted his army east of the mountains, opened a ball ground, dug the Willow Spring, and launched huge public works to ward off the omen. When Congjian grew ill, some said Zhuo's projects all violated the year's cycle and suspected treason; Zhen was ordered to charge and execute him. The headquarters erupted in uproar—and soon Li Pi defected.
57
調 使 使
Li Zuozhi, a collateral grandson, had served repeatedly as magistrate of Henan and was known for blunt integrity. He had once been a guest at Lu; Congjian honored him and would not let him go, made him an aide in the observation office, and he married a cousin of Congjian's clan. Congjian treated distant relatives coldly and stinted on his concubines' upkeep; Zuozhi slighted them as well and barely answered their appeals. When Congjian fell ill Zuozhi pressed him to go back to Luoyang; Congjian could not agree, yet he was moved by the counsel. When the illness turned grave Wang Xie and his faction feared Zuozhi's wife and mother might lobby the court, and hurried the mother back to Luoyang by carriage. Then a servant accused Zuozhi of dealing with outsiders and leaking military secrets; Zhen had him imprisoned. His wife protested that they had shown her no respect; Zhen had him executed.
58
使
Tang Hanbin of Wuxiang, a descendant of Jia Jian, urged Zhen to obey the court when he rebelled; ignored, he and his entire clan were slaughtered. Li Shihui, born of the imperial clan, was brought into Liu Wu's staff. Seeing Congjian grow arrogant, he feigned interest in immortality lore and kept out of politics. When Congjian sent him to Luoyang Shihui feared denunciation by Gu and Yang Ting and asked to stay at She; Congjian suspected nothing. After Zhen's defeat someone spoke for Shihui at court; he was made magistrate of Yique, and Xue Maoqing was posthumously enfeoffed as prefect of Bozhou. Early in Dazhong Hanbin too was posthumously restored as magistrate of his home county.
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使便
Formerly when a Hebei general died the court first sent mourners, then posthumous honors, then a close minister to console the troops, and only after sizing up the army granted the commission; the army was kept in camp until arms were taken up—usually half a year before matters settled—so overbearing generals and rebellious heirs always had time to prepare. Zhen had not expected the emperor's anger to bring instant war; when Maoyuan read him the edict the clan wailed together. He wanted to submit but was too foolish and timid to decide. From Liu Wu to Zhen were three generations spanning twenty-six years.
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使
Li Pi practiced divination by length; he was close to Congjian and made a senior general. When Zhen rebelled the army envied Pi's ability; afraid, he asked to scout deep behind enemy lines to map camps and fortifications, then defected. Some suspected he was a rebel plant; Deyu wrote, "We have fought half a year with the first defector only now—reward him to encourage the others." The emperor received him and made him prefect of Xinzhou. Pi proposed taking Yushe and striking east through Wuan; even if Xing and Ming held out, rebel troops could not relieve Lu. The court refused. When Yang Bian rebelled he sent agents to win Pi over; Pi executed them and sealed the escape routes with his troops. Deyu told the emperor, "Revenue and treasury stores are stacked at Daizhou—Pi now blocks the road and the rebels are finished." He then ordered Pi against Bian; before the army arrived Bian was already taken. He was made prefect of Fen and Jin in turn. Early in Dazhong he received Zhenwu governorship and Acting Minister of Justice. When the Tangut rose he was transferred to Zou-Fang and died in office.
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The commentator writes: The *Tradition* says, "Did the maker of the *Changes* understand thieves?" Only a sage can know what moves a thief's heart. Mid-Tang decline let ambitious men eye the realm and strike; Wei, Zhao, and Yan turned into bandit country; rebellion gripped the north for a century, the people were barbarized, and the court could not recover it. Foolish emperors and mediocre ministers simply did not understand brigandage. They beckoned demons into twilight to steal the daylight—were not men like Ning, Xiao Fu, and Cui Zhi exactly that!
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