Chapter 367: Pig Teammates, Unreliable

An Zhongrong really was preparing to rebel. Zhang Zhao closed the letter and let out a long sigh.

In the letter, An Zhongrong said he had already reached an agreement with Bai Chengfu, the great chief of the Tuyuhun.

The Tuyuhun people of Daibei, along with the Yellow Tangut, Turks, the the Shatuo, and others, would all support him.

They would provide twenty thousand elite cavalry, which, combined with the twenty thousand men of An Zhongrong's own Chengde Army, would strike straight from Dingzhou at Yedu.

At the same time, An Zhongrong had also contacted An Congjin, the Military Governor of Shannan East Circuit. This An Congjin had always been a thorn in Shi Jingtang's side.

Ever since Shi Jingtang came to power, he had been preparing to rebel, spending many years in Xiangzhou, that is, Xiangyang. When An Zhongrong raised troops, An Congjin would raise troops too, attacking from south and north in a pincer.

In An Zhongrong's imagining, the two of them were both of Daibei military-merit background and both battle-hardened fierce generals.

Shi Jingtang had come to the throne illegitimately in the first place. As long as they raised troops, everyone else would stand by and watch, and Shi Jingtang had no more than sixty or seventy thousand men in hand, utterly unable to withstand a pincer from north and south.

What was more, he had also written separately to Zhang Zhao and Yang Guangyuan.

At this time, Yang Guangyuan was in Shandong as the Pinglu Military Governor at Qingzhou, outrageously overbearing. He had even sought out a physiognomist to read his face and see whether he had the countenance of a Son of Heaven. He had been preparing to rebel for quite some time.

If, at the same time that An Zhongrong and An Congjin raised troops in the north and south, Zhang Zhao of Hexi led his army into Guanzhong, and Yang Guangyuan raised troops from Qingzhou and struck straight at the Eastern Capital.

Then on top of the north-south pincer, there would be a simultaneous east-west advance. Even if Shi Jingtang had three heads and six arms, he would be doomed.

After the deed was done, An Zhongrong would occupy Hebei, Yang Guangyuan would occupy the Eastern Capital and the lands east of Kaifeng, An Congjin would occupy the Luoyang heartland, and Guanzhong would be Zhang Zhao's. The four houses would divide the Central Plains among themselves.

The plan was quite well made, and the pie in the sky was drawn decently too, but Zhang Zhao merely let out a long sigh.

The plan was fine, but it still needed people to carry it out! This An Zhongrong and An Congjin were in fact both reckless military men. Historically, when it came to execution, they made a complete mess of it. Take An Zhongrong's powerful backer, Bai Chengfu, the great chief of the Daibei Tuyuhun. This man was the leader of the Tuyuhun people of Daibei, specifically of the border region between the mountains and Shaanxi.

At this time, the Tuyuhun people were very strong in this area, scattered here and there but numbering in the hundreds of thousands.

This Bai Chengfu was greedy for wealth and gain. He was moved by An Zhongrong's promises, and in addition, the Tuyuhun and Turkic tribes nomadizing beyond Daibei were being oppressed by the Khitan, with Yelu Deguang levying heavy taxes on them.

Therefore, the non-Khitan tribes of Daibei very much hoped that a military governor like An Zhongrong, who firmly opposed the Khitan, would shelter them.

But precisely because he was greedy for wealth and gain, and his original intent was only to escape Khitan oppression, Bai Chengfu was not truly willing to go to war with Shi Jingtang.

Moreover, the one who could influence Bai Chengfu was not only An Zhongrong. Liu Zhiyuan, the Military Governor of Hedong stationed at Taiyuan, could also influence Bai Chengfu.

Historically, An Zhongrong assumed Bai Chengfu would certainly raise troops and follow him, but in the end Liu Zhiyuan pulled the rug out from under him.

It turned out that just five days before Bai Chengfu was to prepare his cavalry, Liu Zhiyuan sent his trusted man Guo Wei with gold, silver, and bolts of silk to Daibei to placate Bai Chengfu.

What caliber was this An Zhongrong? What caliber was Guo Wei? Ten An Zhongrongs tied together could not out-scheme one Guo Wei. So Bai Chengfu immediately decided to stand him up and went over to Liu Zhiyuan instead.

After that, this branch of Tuyuhun under Bai Chengfu stayed with Liu Zhiyuan. By the time of the Northern Han period, they were the trusted backbone of the Liu family. An Zhongrong's greatest reliance simply vanished.

An Congjin in the south was even more hopeless. He raised troops from Xiangzhou, tens of thousands of men in grand array, and in the end could not even defeat the few thousand men of the Weisheng Army's Military Governor.

In the end, Shi Jingtang ordered Gao Xingzhou to join forces with Gao Conghui, King of Jingnan, and Ma Xifan, King of Chu, and they surrounded and killed him with combined armies.

As for Yang Guangyuan, that was even more damn laughable. This fellow was preparing to raise troops, but a few words from someone completely deflated his spirit.

It turned out Yang Guangyuan had a scabby bald head, and his wife had something wrong with her legs. People of the time mocked them, saying: "How could there be a bald Son of Heaven and a lame empress?"

That one sentence struck deep into the innermost inferiority of Yang Guangyuan's heart, and the raising of troops was called off just like that!

After recalling the deeds of these clowns in rebellion, Zhang Zhao was speechless for a long while.

Although An Zhongrong deeply hated Shi Jingtang for selling out the country for personal gain, and had the resolve to take back Yan-Yun, which the Khitan had seized.

He was at heart just a warlord, utterly ignorant of politics. Rebellion was a complex undertaking that required managing the interests of all parties, and he simply could not handle it.

An Congjin was even more of a case of ambition exceeding ability. He prepared for six or seven years, yet the stir he caused was less than that of Zhang Congbin, who acted on a whim.

Yang Guangyuan was even less capable of accomplishing anything.

The one thing Zhang Zhao saw in the affair of An Zhongrong's rebellion was this: the righteous cause of the Son of Heaven truly was useful!

Even in the Five Dynasties, even with a child-emperor like Shi Jingtang, he could still make most people in the realm support him and not choose to rebel along with An Zhongrong. Even rulers of states like Gao Conghui and Ma Xifan could be brought to follow orders.

Zhang Zhao now bore the great cause of returning to the nation. If there were real prospects, it would be worth a try, but at the level of An Zhongrong's fooling around, he would not take part.

However, he could take advantage of this opportunity to first deal with the Li family of the Dingnan Army.

"You are to set out at once and go quickly to the Eastern Capital. First, bring Pei Yuan's family to Liangzhou. Second, keep a close watch on Liu Zhiyuan's movements. If Shi Jingtang releases Liu Zhiyuan back to Taiyuan, report immediately by relay horse at eight hundred li a day!"

Zhang Zhao thought for a while, then began by instructing Zhang Liecheng. The greatest beneficiary of An Zhongrong's rebellion was precisely Liu Zhiyuan. Originally distrusted by Shi Jingtang, he used the situation to return to Taiyuan.

But after Zhang Zhao arrived, many circumstances had changed. Shi Jingtang's strength had actually increased. If he did not release Liu Zhiyuan back to Taiyuan, then there might be real prospects after all.

Therefore, Zhang Zhao did not refuse outright either. He summoned An Zhongrong's adopted son again and expressed his dissatisfaction with Shi Jingtang serving the Khitan as a father. Although he did not say he would definitely raise troops, the meaning of approval was very clear.

But then, turning around, Zhang Zhao sent a secret envoy to Yuanzhou to inform Liu Zaisheng, the Prefect of Yuanzhou, to step up infiltration of the Qingzhou Tangut and stir up conflict between the Guiyi Army and the Li family of the Dingnan Army.

If Shi Jingtang did not release Liu Zhiyuan to Taiyuan, and Bai Chengfu followed An Zhongrong in raising troops, then the timeline had already been altered.

In that case, Zhang Zhao would simply send troops east into Qinzhou and Yuanzhou. Once Shi Jingtang was defeated at Yedu, he would immediately advance and seize control of Guanzhong.

If Shi Jingtang released Liu Zhiyuan to Taiyuan, and An Zhongrong and the others were quickly suppressed, then he would start a war with the Li family of the Dingnan Army. By the time Shi Jingtang finished off An Zhongrong, he would have more or less finished off Li Yiyin as well.

In the Eastern Capital, Kaifeng Prefecture, Shi Jingtang was not, as Zhang Zhao imagined, single-mindedly set on dealing with An Zhongrong.

In fact, Shi Jingtang was somewhat stirred by what An Zhongrong had said in his memorial.

Although An Zhongrong cursed him for serving the Khitan as a father, calling it the eternal shame of the Jin, this memorial did not say he would rebel. What An Zhongrong had always expressed was a desire to resist the Khitan on Shi Jingtang's behalf.

At this very time, Zhao Chong, the Deputy Military Governor of Shuozhou, whose territory had just been ceded, raised troops and drove out the Khitan forces. On top of that, Yelu Deguang had always treated Shi Jingtang with contempt, even demanding that he hand An Zhongrong over to the Khitan. This made Shi Jingtang feel especially humiliated and furious.

Even a child-emperor was not without temper. In Shi Jingtang's understanding, his serving the Khitan as a father was merely imitating King Goujian of Yue, not that he was truly content to be a child-emperor.

Therefore, although Shi Jingtang worried that An Zhongrong wanted to use the name of resisting the Khitan to carve out Hebei for himself, deep in his heart he still wanted to give it a try.

Even if it failed, letting An Zhongrong strike a blow against the Khitan's arrogance would not be a bad thing.

But just at this moment, a secret memorial from Sang Weihan, far away in Yanzhou, arrived overnight.

Sang Weihan had been sent out earlier this year to be the Military Governor of Taining Army at Yanzhou.

For others, being sent out was a good thing: they could occupy a region and act as a local tyrant. But for Sang Weihan, it was not.

He was a man of letters and simply could not handle the local yabing guards. He was called a Military Governor, but it was more like being under house arrest.

The ostensible reason for Sang Weihan being sent out was that his conflict with Yang Guangyuan was too great, and Shi Jingtang, fearing to offend Yang Guangyuan, chose to send Sang Weihan out.

But in reality that was not the case, because Yang Guangyuan also went to Qingzhou shortly afterward to be the Pinglu Military Governor, yet Sang Weihan was not recalled. The excuse of avoiding Yang Guangyuan did not hold up.

This was in fact Shi Jingtang deliberately distancing himself from Sang Weihan. Serving the Khitan as a son and selling away the Sixteen Prefectures of Yan-Yun had both been Sang Weihan's ideas. At the time, Shi Jingtang had been desperate to save his own life, so he had agreed to them a thousand times over.

But now that his seat was somewhat secure, Shi Jingtang privately felt that he had given the Khitan too much back then, which had made everyone despise him.

As the running dog, Sang Weihan was no better off — if even Shi Jingtang was despised by all, Sang Weihan could hardly fare well either.

So when Shi Jingtang looked at Sang Weihan, it was rather like a man covered in his own filth who still found others stinking.

Thus he simply drove Sang Weihan out of the court, lest people cursing Sang Weihan drag him, Shi Jingtang, into it as well.

This was precisely Shi Jingtang's state of mind shifting — he wanted to reverse his image by cutting off Sang Weihan and showing a hardline attitude toward the Khitan.

But after patiently reading through Sang Weihan's secret memorial for a while, Shi Jingtang's restless heart settled down.

Because Sang Weihan clearly saw things more clearly than Shi Jingtang did.

Sang Weihan first analyzed the Khitan's national strength, arguing that the Khitan were too powerful and absolutely must not be plotted against now.

For now they should consolidate their foundations and train their troops, awaiting Heaven's timing. He cited the examples of Emperor Gaozu of Han making peace through marriage with the Xiongnu, and Emperor Taizong of Tang's White Horse Covenant, urging Shi Jingtang to endure.

He then pointed out that An Zhongrong, under the name of resisting the Khitan, was in truth seizing the moral high ground and carrying out separatist schemes.

Whether An Zhongrong succeeded or failed, he would bring Shi Jingtang no benefit whatsoever.

If he failed, the Khitan would certainly demand an accounting; if he succeeded, An Zhongrong would claim all the credit himself, and might even wield the moral high ground to turn and strike at Shi Jingtang.

Moreover, if Shi Jingtang tacitly allowed An Zhongrong to make trouble, relations with the Khitan would sour.

Then other schemers would go cling to the Khitan's thigh, and when the time came, others might imitate him and raise troops at Taiyuan — Shi Jingtang might not be able to hold the Eastern Capital.

Therefore Shi Jingtang must campaign against An Zhongrong, cling even tighter to the Khitan's thigh, and make the other military provinces give up any thought of following that example.

In short, since he had already become a dog, he must be the most doglike dog from beginning to end, leaving others no chance to be dogs at all.

Shi Jingtang suddenly rose. Stifled in his heart, he violently swept the jade paperweight from his desk to the floor.

"Appoint Gao Xingzhou as Supreme Commander of the Southern Front, leading Jiao Jixun, Guo Jinhai, and other generals to guard against An Congjin.

Summon Du Chongwei to muster the Husheng Army and the Huguo Army and accompany me personally on campaign against Yedu."

Shi Jingtang rapidly issued orders to the Vice Director of the Secretariat, He Ning, then his expression darkened.

"Have Liu Zhiyuan return to Taiyuan, appoint him Military Governor of Hedong and Defender of the Northern Capital (Taiyuan). He is to recruit the Tuyuhun tribes of Daibei at once, and not allow them to be used by An Zhongrong."

All chapters have been cached for you. Download the APP to view them.