Chapter 99: The War in Shu

Why is it so fast?
In addition to the rebels' bravery in fighting, their military discipline and their policies were also key.

The rebel army led by Li Shun had strict military discipline and did not harm ordinary people. Wherever they went, they would crack down on local corrupt officials and landlords who enslaved the people. While eliminating harm to the people, they also distributed money and property to the local people.

As a result, people everywhere welcomed the rebels.

"He recruited talented people, protected the good, issued strict orders, and violated no one wherever he went. At that time, there was a great famine in the two Shus. Within ten days, tens of thousands of people returned to him. The prefectures and counties where he went opened their gates to welcome them, and wherever his edict was passed on, there was no intact fortification left."

Many places even took the initiative to open their gates to welcome Li Shun's army. 】

Han Dynasty, the fourth year of Yuanshou.

No one is harmed and military discipline is strict.

Many people thought of the time when Emperor Gao first entered Xianyang, he also enforced strict military discipline and did not allow the invasion of civilians, which eventually won the hearts of the people. The key point is that it formed a sharp contrast with Xiang Yu's brutality, which was also one of the reasons why Emperor Gao was able to rule the world.

Song Dynasty and several generations later.

Some officials looked down upon Li Shun and the rebels' actions and despised them: "These are all mean actions. These villains only know how to use these petty gains to lure the people, but they have no other methods and do not understand the true and noble way."

"That's right! These people are also rioters. The rebel army's small interests have made them betray the country and forget their gratitude!"

[The Song Dynasty also responded to this. Wu Yuanzai, the prefect of Chengdu who had previously sent troops to attack Wang Xiaobo, was dismissed from his post. Guo Zai was sent to govern Chengdu, and Fan Zhigu, the transport envoy of Xichuan, was transferred to assist Guo Zai in serving in Chengdu and jointly suppress the rebels.

However, there are some problems with both of these candidates.

Guo Zai was a very arrogant person. He felt that the rebel army was nothing and that the previous failure to suppress it was due to Wu Yuanzai's incompetence. As for Fan Zhigu, it was not known whether he was depressed because he thought he was not valued or he was worldly-wise and knew that this rebel army would be difficult to deal with, so he always said that he had a foot disease and had not yet taken up the post.

Although Guo Zai later brought Fan Zhigu to Chengdu, he did not achieve any outstanding results. He only relied on the high city walls of Chengdu to defend and failed to reverse the overall defeat of the officers and soldiers.

The one who made some achievements was Lu Bin, the then inspector general, who was also a general who followed Cao Bin in the Eastern Route during the Yongxi Northern Expedition. After Li Shun surrounded Chengdu, he led 600 soldiers to Chengdu, fought for months, and defeated many rebel forces.

Song Dynasty, the fourth year of Chunhua.

The corner of Zhao Guangyi's eye twitched. Indeed, the court did react. But this reaction seemed to be meaningless!

Who are these two candidates? If you want to know Chengdu, shouldn't they find a few people who can stabilize the internal situation and fight against external forces at this time? Why did they find these two people?

Fan Zhigu knew that he had previously communicated with Chen Shu, the Vice Minister of State Affairs, and leaked the palace's words. He was rash and always made mistakes when he was working in the Ministry of Revenue. However, he was previously appointed as the Transport Envoy and was quite praised, so I threw him back to continue to be the Transport Envoy. Unexpectedly, now he can't even do the job of the Transport Envoy well - he is depressed, isn't it because he is dissatisfied with me?

"Fan Zhigu, I trust him, so I appointed him as the transport envoy of Xichuan to inspect the counties of Sichuan and Shu. But at this time, the people of Shu were living in poverty and corrupt officials were rampant. How did he do it as a transport envoy?" Zhao Guangyi simply cursed. How did he do it? It was known from the sky that he always said that he had a foot disease. I'm afraid he said that it was difficult for him to move, so he simply didn't go out to inspect.

It was Lu Bin who really made his eyes light up.

A few years ago, Lu Bin had quelled unrest in the local area, and was even called back to the capital by him to be rewarded in person. Now it seems that he is really a rare talent!
He smiled and said, "I remember that during the Northern Expedition, Lu Bin was the one who suggested to Guo Hua (Cao Bin's pen name) that we should form an army formation when retreating. He is indeed a mighty, powerful, sharp and courageous general!"

Ming Dynasty, Hongwu Years.

The princes continued to gossip among themselves.

Zhu Su felt that he had found a reason why Zhao Guangyi had repeatedly failed: "I think that every time he faced external forces, he failed to succeed when there was internal strife among the enemy. His poor selection of people was also a reason."

"That makes sense. Chengdu chose two people, and neither of them is very good. The one who played a role was Lu Bin, who had previously served as the Metropolitan Inspector. No one was specially transferred this time. His vision... Even if Lu Bin was not transferred, Lu Bin's duties would have to be taken over, but they couldn't just choose two people." Zhu Chong agreed with this.

"No, no, no," Zhu Di poked his head over, "I think it's not just a matter of selecting people. The chaos in Shu has been going on for such a long time. Emperor Taizong of Song himself found hundreds of corrupt officials in Shu. Why didn't he replace the officials in charge of Shu? For example, Fan Zhigu was the transport envoy of Xichuan before. He didn't go out to inspect, and a lot of mess happened in Shu. Emperor Taizong of Song actually let Fan Zhigu stay in office..."

[But neither Guo Zai and Fan Zhigu, who passively defended, nor Lu Bin, who fought bravely, could prevent the fall of Chengdu.

At the beginning of the first month of the fifth year of Chunhua, the rebel army besieged Chengdu for the first time, but was defeated at Xiguo Gate.

In order to paralyze the Chengdu defenders, Li Shun pretended to withdraw his troops from Chengdu, and then directly attacked Pengzhou and Hanzhou, which had relaxed their vigilance. It took only two days to capture the two cities.

At this time, Chengdu relaxed its vigilance again, so Li Shun made a counterattack and returned to besiege Chengdu at lightning speed.

On the 16th day of the first lunar month, Chengdu was captured. Guo Zai and Fan Zhigu fled Chengdu with their followers and ran to Zizhou. Lu Bin also retreated to Zizhou.

After Li Shun entered Chengdu, he immediately announced the establishment of "Da Shu", proclaimed himself the King of Da Shu, named the reign "Ying Yun", appointed officials from the central Secretariat to local prefects, and minted coins such as "Ying Yun Yuan Bao".

At this time, the rebel army had expanded to hundreds of thousands. Li Shun did not stop, but divided his troops to capture many counties in Sichuan, from Wuxia in the east to Jianmen in the north and Jiazhou in the south. Most of the areas in Shu became part of Dashu.

Song Dynasty, the first year of Kaibao.

Zhao Dezhao suddenly remembered something. Zhao Kuangyin had said that after this incident, the court had formed a complete system to deal with turmoil: "Dad, the system to deal with turmoil, in addition to providing relief to the victims and stabilizing the situation, when the turmoil breaks out, in addition to suppressing it, is it to take back the army?"

After all, the loophole left in the conscription system was specifically prepared for this purpose. It's just that the central government has never taken the unrest in Shu seriously this time, and has not used this mechanism.

"But I mentioned before that the number of troops in our Song Dynasty has skyrocketed... Could it be that it's all because of taking in refugees? Then how many riots have there been? Can the court afford to support so many people?"

Zhao Dezhao was a little overwhelmed. Even if the majority of the troops in the local army were local soldiers, the refugees they took in were just for food. This was also countless supplies! But if they couldn't feed them, they could only find ways to increase fiscal revenue again. Wouldn't that mean there would be more refugees?

Zhao Kuangyin also reacted after Zhao Dezhao said this. This matter is indeed a bit of a vicious cycle, but there is no better way - before changing the fundamental policy of the Song Dynasty. Moreover, if the number of troops expands several times as the miracle says, then from another perspective, it also shows that this approach is indeed effective in stabilizing society and suppressing unrest.

In the third year of Zhenguan in the Tang Dynasty, seeing Li Shun's uprising army winning victory after victory and finally occupying most of Shu, the eyes of the generals lit up.

"The next step is to attack Jianmen!" Cheng Yaojin said excitedly. As an important transportation route, the throat into Shu, and an important military town, Jianmen must of course be in his own hands. By controlling Jianmen, he can prevent foreign troops from entering Shu to a great extent, which means buying time for himself.

The counselors also agreed with this. Zhang Sun Wuji said: "To take Jianmen is like taking Sichuan." In the past, Prime Minister Zhuge first set up a pass at Jianmen to resist thousands of enemies, and then Jiang Wei led 30,000 troops to resist Deng Ai's 100,000 troops of Wei State outside the pass. The importance of Jianmen can be seen.

"However, if this 'rebel army' fails, they may not have captured Jianmen before the arrival of the Song Dynasty army," Li Shimin analyzed.

The generals who were poured a basin of cold water were quite unhappy: "Yeah, that's right..."

[At this time, which was the first month of the fifth year of Chunhua, Zhao Guangyi heard about the Sichuan-Shu Rebellion and learned that the rebel army had captured Chengdu Prefecture. He was greatly shocked.

Therefore, Zhao Guangyi immediately ordered his trusted eunuch Wang Jie'en to serve as the envoy to recruit peace in Xichuan and lead a large army to suppress the rebellion.

Wang Jie'en completely followed the route that Song Taizu Zhao Kuangyin used to conquer Shu. He rushed to Wu Gorge and advanced westward along the Yangtze River by both land and water into Shu. Another route was to go straight to Jianmen Pass to ensure that the reinforcements and war supplies could flow into Sichuan unimpeded.

However, when the imperial army was about to arrive, Li Shun made a fatal strategic mistake.

After conquering Chengdu and recovering most of Shu, Li Shun sent the main force of the rebel army to attack Zizhou, and only sent tens of thousands of people to attack Jianmen, the gateway to Shu. Naturally, the rebel army that attacked Jianmen was defeated and had no chance of taking Jianmen. Zizhou's defense was also extremely strong and tenacious. The rebel army besieged it for more than 80 days without taking it, and suffered heavy casualties.

At this time, Li Shun did not think about transferring the main force to attack Jianmen, or to provide reinforcements for the capture of Jianmen, so that this key area into Shu was still in the hands of the Song army, which opened the door for Wang Jie'en to enter Shu and laid the groundwork for the subsequent retreat of the uprising army. 】

Song Dynasty, the fourth year of Chunhua.

Zhao Guangyi was excited and delighted: "Jianmen has not fallen into the hands of the thieves. This is a happy event for our Song Dynasty!"

The ministers also congratulated him, saying, "The thieves destroyed the Great Wall themselves, not knowing the importance of Jianmen, and instead focused on attacking Zizhou. This just shows that the destiny is with you, and God still favors the Song Dynasty!"

Zhao Guangyi was beaming with joy. Yes, he had such a good opportunity and a large number of soldiers, but the enemy still failed to capture Jianmen. Doesn't this just show that God blesses him?
He laughed and said, "A thief is still a thief after all. No matter how powerful he is, he lacks vision and strategy. He only cares about some false reputation and small profits, but does not understand what is really important."

Song Dynasty, the first year of Kaibao.

Zhao Kuangyin breathed a sigh of relief: "Fortunately, Jianmen is still in the hands of our Song Dynasty and has not fallen into the hands of thieves."

It's not that Li Shun has Jianmen, the government troops can't suppress the rebellion, but it will take more effort and delay a lot of time. Now Jianmen is still in the hands of the government troops, which saves more than just a little trouble, it saves a lot of trouble.

After all, he was really afraid of Zhao Guangyi's involvement in combat operations.

Ming Dynasty, Hongwu Years.

Zhu Bai was somewhat disinterested, probably because he wanted to watch the show but failed to do so: "Why didn't Li Shun use all his strength to take down Jianmen first? It just gave the Song army an advantage."

Zhu Su also sighed: "Who said it wasn't true? What a pity."

Zhu Chong and Zhu Di were both a little confused: "Why do you think so? Xiao Twelve is young, so it's OK if he doesn't know, but don't you know that Li Shun failed?"

"Of course I know he failed," Zhu Su rolled his eyes at his second and fourth brothers, "After all, the Song Dynasty had Liao, Jin, Xixia, Jiaozhi, Dali, and finally Mongolia, but no Dashu."

"..."

Seeing that his two brothers were speechless, he continued, "But I haven't studied it carefully, so of course I don't know that Li Shun didn't even concentrate on attacking Jianmen, and he actually threw away such a crucial point."

Jin Wang Zhu Gang, who had come over at some point, laughed out loud: "That's right, Fifth Brother, you are right. The Song Dynasty had everything, but it really didn't have the Great Shu."

[Wang Jie'en advanced on two fronts, actually forming a pincer attack on Li Shun's rebel army.

After entering Shu, he first concentrated his forces to seize strategic locations such as Jianzhou, Mianzhou, Langzhou, and Bazhou near Jianmen, eliminating the possibility of the rebels attacking Jianmen and consolidating the support and logistics routes of the Song army.

At the same time, he also sent troops to reinforce the besieged Zizhou, forcing back the rebels attacking Zizhou, and advancing southward together with the Song army near Jianmen, forcing the rebels to retreat across the board.

In May of the fifth year of Chunhua, Wang Jie'en surrounded Chengdu, the center of Dashu. In the end, Wang Jie'en conquered Chengdu, destroyed the Dashu regime, and basically put down the uprising.

From this perspective, Wang Jie'en still had some military skills. He put down the uprising quickly. Although there was an old example of Emperor Taizu Zhao Kuangyin recovering Shu, Wang Jie'en made good use of it.

Song Dynasty, the fourth year of Chunhua.

Zhao Guangyi was quite happy, both because Wang Jie'en had pacified the bandits so quickly and because of his vision in choosing Wang Jie'en.

He was a little dismissive of the rebellion in Shu: "I heard from Tianmu earlier that the unrest in Shu was the largest 'peasant uprising' in the early days of the Song Dynasty. Now it seems that it is nothing more than that. Even though the number of people was huge and the momentum was huge before, it was just a phantom that would burst with a single poke."

The many officials below did not refute because they were also relieved.

If this so-called largest "peasant uprising" in the early Song Dynasty was just like this, then they had nothing to worry about. After all, it was put down so easily. It seemed that they were just a group of rabble, and they would collapse at the first blow when facing the imperial army. Maybe they even dispersed on their own.

Ming Dynasty, Hongwu Years.

Zhu Bo was also very puzzled: "Is the unrest in Shu over now?"

"Of course not," Zhu Di replied, "It's just 'basically' pacified." He emphasized the word "basically", and Zhu Bo suddenly realized that there seemed to be more to come.

(End of this chapter)