Chapter 443: Chaos in Hunan

The Northern Han's Huainan strategy was officially launched. Troops were transferred south, tens of thousands of laborers followed the army, and carts, boats, horses, and wagons stretched on without end. At the time, the prefectures north of the Huai were placed under martial law, and a breath of war spread across the Huai River basin, chilling the heart.

However, the first place where this "war between north and south" between the Northern Han and the Southern Tang erupted was actually in Hunan.

The Tang army had been pacifying Chu for nearly two months, yet just as the Northern Han sovereign and ministers had predicted, Chu was not pacified, and the situation grew ever more chaotic. Indeed, even before the Northern Han had stirred things up behind the scenes, and before some hidden schemes had even been set in motion—

In late August, after the Tang army commander Bian Gao stabilized the situation in Changsha and its surroundings, he dispatched a detached force south to Hengshan to seize Ma Xi'e. Originally, Ma Xi'e had even submitted a memorial to the Southern Tang requesting to return to Changsha and continue as King of Chu, but this move by the Tang army thoroughly shattered whatever illusions he still harbored.

And what was the result? Ma Xi'e lacked the courage to fight the Tang army and directly led the officers and officials of Hengzhou in surrender. From this point on, the Ma clan was thoroughly finished.

In the Lingnan region, Ma Xi'yin, Military Governor of the Chu Jingjiang Army, was still holding things together in Guizhou, but facing the Southern Han army that had come north to profit from the chaos, he was already stretched thin, losing seven prefectures in succession. Though these were all barren lands, it sounded as if his days were numbered. And the room for Ma Xi'yin to maneuver was running out.

On the Southern Tang side, seeing that most of Hunan was settled, the Tang sovereign Li Jing issued several edicts, mainly concerning personnel adjustments in the Chu region and rewards for meritorious officials.

As the commander-in-chief, Bian Gao naturally became Military Governor of the Wuan Army, temporarily overseeing Hunan's military and civil affairs. And because he had previously opened the granaries to relieve the people, he initially won the hearts of the Chu people.

Over a thousand members of the Ma clan and Hunan officers and officials were gradually relocated to Jinling. This was practically clearing away obstacles to rule for those who would come later.

If, after this, the Tang army could have maintained the style it had shown upon first entering Hunan, allowing the Chu people to recuperate and recover, given time, there might indeed have been a possibility of digesting the Chu region.

Then came the Southern Tang upper echelon's foolish moves. Probably because pacifying Chu had been too easy, the Southern Tang sovereign and ministers grew arrogant. They would not listen to the words of worthy talents and good ministers, instead losing themselves in their achievements. Take Feng Yansi for example—at first he remained steady, advising caution, but afterward, the most arrogant of them all was this Chancellor Feng.

At the suggestion of "friend of the Northern Han" Feng Yansi, Li Jing dispatched several envoys to Hunan. These men all received the same mission: to extort the Chu people to fund expenses and make up for the Tang army's losses in the campaign. Basically, it was just like the "levying and borrowing" policy of money and grain that the Khitan had implemented after destroying the Later Jin—a move that won no hearts. A state of scholars, a court of academicians—and yet such harsh governance came from it.

It wasn't just these extortion envoys. The Tang army officers in Chu, after behaving themselves for a short while, gradually bared their fangs as well, joining in this feast of plundering wealth, which gradually turned into rape and robbery.

And as the military and civil chief of Hunan, Bian Gao did nothing at such a time. His nature was mild, soft and indecisive, fond of playing the good fellow, and he had no restraining power over the officers under his command. All day he spent in the governor's mansion burning incense and praying to Buddha, letting the chaos in Hunan run unchecked.

As a result, the Chu region fell into immediate turmoil. The Tang army's plundering behavior across the prefectures of Hunan could be summed up in one sentence: they didn't even spare the barbarian folk in the mountains.

Another late autumn arrived. Since the Ma clan's internal strife began, the Chu people of Hunan had suffered for years, never finding peace.

On the left side of Changsha city, over twenty boats pulled ashore. At the dock, mountains of money, grain, and goods were piled up, and soldiers and laborers began, under urging, to haul them aboard the ships.

This was already the fourth time. The Tang army was shipping the wealth plundered from Changsha and the surrounding areas south by boat, through Liling and Pingxiang, back to their own country. Even "scraping the earth three feet deep" could hardly describe the Tang army's actions in Hunan. Gold, silk, rare treasures, granary grain, even ships, pavilions, and the finest flowers and fruits—all were transported to Jinling, as if they intended to strip the prefectures and counties of Hunan bare.

Among the laborers doing the hauling, there was a squad of Tang troops, and a burly man dressed as a junior officer stood off to the side with a gloomy expression. This man was named Sun Lang, Commander of the Tang Fengjie Army. He was not a native-born Tang general, but had fled to the Southern Tang in the early days of the Han, following the Jin minister Xian Vice Minister when the Central Plains fell into chaos.

Though brave and martial, he had always been sidelined in the Tang army. He had remained under Xian Vice Minister's command the whole time, and after several years, had only reached the position of Commander of one army, leading barely over a thousand men. The only consolation was that these thousand-plus men were all trustworthy fellow countrymen from north of the Huai, people he could band together with for warmth.

This time, he had come with Xian Vice Minister on the campaign to conquer Chu. Not long ago, when the Southern Tang court distributed rewards according to merit, Xian Vice Minister was promoted and sent south to Hengzhou as Military Governor. Sun Lang, however, was left in Changsha. His northern-origin army stood out awkwardly among the Tang forces, and with no Xian Vice Minister above to shield them, they suffered considerable discrimination over time.

Good things never came to this Fengjie Army, but dirty and exhausting work never missed them. With such treatment, how could Sun Lang, as their Commander, be in good spirits?

At the dock, watching his own soldiers being used like coolies, the wind was cold, and his heart grew even colder. And as he watched those empty boats being filled to the brim with plundered goods, a flicker of eagerness rose unbidden in his eyes. But glancing at the Tang garrison troops around the dock, he could only suppress it.

The thousand-plus men of the Fengjie Army were quartered in a civilian ward in the northwest of Changsha city, not far from the governor's mansion. Returning to camp a bit later, Deputy Commander Cao Jin came back—a tall, lean fellow with dark skin. Seeing Sun Lang, he said angrily: "That scoundrel Wang Shaoyan has docked our rewards again! Says they still need to be verified before distribution!"

"Outrageous! Does that thief Wang think my saber is dull?" Hearing this, Sun Lang couldn't help slapping the table and roaring.

Wang Shaoyan was the grain and supply commissioner of the Tang army's field headquarters, responsible for the army's logistics and rewards. However, he had always despised northerners, and had always looked down on Sun Lang's "northern army." It was only natural that he made things difficult for them.

Cao Jin said indignantly: "I heard there's a silver mine in Liu Yang, and the Yuanzhou troops there have gotten tens of thousands of taels of silver. Now the southern army is scraping wealth from all directions and reaping richly, while we're here being used as laborers. The court treats us like Chu soldiers! We have merit but no increased rewards—instead they're cut back! How unfair!"

Hearing this, Sun Lang felt it deeply. His thick brows twitched as he said excitedly: "When we followed Lord Xian in surrendering to Tang, we thought we'd gain wealth and honor and keep ourselves safe. This time in pacifying Chu, even if we have no merit, we have toil and hardship to our credit, yet how shabbily the Tang army treats us! Now Lord Xian has gone to Hengzhou, and we brothers in Changsha face an even more worrying situation. I've thought about it for a long time—rather than being used as coolies and swallowing this humiliation, why not rebel!"

At his words, Cao Jin was startled. He hurriedly looked outside, went to close the door, and said hesitantly: "But we only have a thousand-plus men!"

Faced with the talk of rebellion, Cao Jin showed no sign of opposition—his words only expressed doubt about the strength at their disposal.

Hearing this, Sun Lang seemed to cast off a weight from his chest, his spirit clear and bright, his eyes lucid, and said: "We may only have a thousand soldiers, but they are all close companions, each nursing grievances. An angry army is one that can be used. The Tang army in Hunan is scattered about plundering. Changsha has only five or six thousand of them, and they've long lost any will to fight."

"We only need to catch them off guard, rise up suddenly, attack the governor's mansion, kill Bian Gao and Wang Shaoyan, divide the spoils, and then rally the Chu people. The Chu people now, deeply suffering under the Tang army, harbor even greater hatred than we do. Take Changsha—if we succeed, we hold Hunan; if we return to the Central Plains, we won't miss out on the rank of duke or marquis."

"Let's do it!" Cao Jin, his blood fired by Sun Lang's words, gritted his teeth.

Sun Lang and Cao Jin, these two brothers, were at the time a pair of hot-headed fellows. They acted as soon as they decided. That very night, they led their Fengjie soldiers, carrying firewood to burn the government offices, and launched a surprise attack on the Wuan Army governor's mansion. Bian Gao was startled from his sleep and hurriedly beat the drums and horns to muster troops to suppress them.

In the end, Sun Lang and Cao Jin had underestimated the Tang army in Changsha. Moreover, they lacked a thorough plan and had insufficient troops. After attacking the governor's mansion for two ke without taking it, they saw the situation turning bad and, fearing encirclement, hastily retreated. Thanks to their courage, they cut through the gates and broke out, fleeing to Langzhou to seek refuge with Li Yan, Military Governor of the Wuping Army.

Though Sun and Cao's plot failed, it still succeeded in throwing Changsha into chaos. The great fire in the government offices spread to dozens of official buildings and civilian homes. Nearly a thousand Tang garrison troops were killed or wounded, and the common folk grew even more restless.

Meanwhile, in Wuling of Langzhou, the actual powerholders of the Wuping Army—military men like Wang Kui and Zhou Xingfeng—were conspiring with the Northern Han envoy Shi Wende, Pacification Commissioner of Lizhou, on the great matter of "expelling the Tang army and pacifying Hunan."

This pedant Shi Wende, after one diplomatic mission to the Eastern Capital, had become utterly awed by the Great Han's authority. After returning to Hunan, he devoted himself wholeheartedly to spreading word of the Son of Heaven's wisdom and grace. With his status as one of the "Eighteen Academicians of the Tiance," he had considerable renown in Hunan, and indeed quite a few Hunan soldiers and civilians, weary of chaos and without anyone to rely on, were swayed by him.

He had been ordered to Wuling precisely to discuss the matter of dispatching troops with Wang Kui and the other military men. Wang Kui and the others in Wuling had originally been cowed by the Tang army's momentum, but then they saw the Tang rulers making blunder after blunder, the Hunan situation spiraling completely out of control, and the Three Xiang region in utter chaos—and they were all delighted.

Though Wang Kui and the others had sworn brotherhood as the "Ten Brothers" to temporarily quell internal strife, one Wuling city could not hold ten hungry tigers after all. They had long been restless in Langzhou, eager to drive out the Tang army and redraw the map of territory.

And the Han army's proactive contact gave them even more confidence. Shi Wende had already assured them that if they attacked the Tang army, they would be made Military Governors of the various prefectures and rule Hunan, with imperial edicts as proof.

The arrival of Sun Lang and Cao Jin further boosted the Langzhou army's confidence. Sun Lang told Wang Kui everything about the Southern Tang's military and political situation and the state of the Tang army in Hunan, declaring bluntly that taking Hunan was as easy as picking up a blade of grass, and that he was willing to lead troops as the vanguard.

First the Han army, then Sun and Cao. In the tenth month of the fourth year of Qianyou, winter, Langzhou Commander Wang Kui joined forces with the Han army of Lizhou, raising six thousand troops to march south and attack Tan. Once the banner of "Expel the Tang army, defend our homeland" was raised, the Chu people flocked to follow, righteous armies rose like swarms, and together they struck at the Tang army. The Hunan situation slid completely into the abyss of chaos and calamity.

Not long after the chaos reignited in Hunan, in Suzhou, the fully prepared Great Han southern expeditionary army formally launched its attack on Huainan. Its spearhead, just as Suzhou Militia Commissioner Zhao Kuangyin had predicted, pointed directly at the key Huainan stronghold of Shouzhou.

In an instant, the clouds of war drifted completely from beyond the northern frontier to the southern lands. From Hunan to Huainan, beacons of war blazed up everywhere.