Wang Shenzhi - Service Under Wang Chao

Service Under Wang Chao

In 891, Chen Yan grew deathly ill. Chen sent an order to Wang Chao, summoning him to the circuit capital Fu Prefecture (福州), intending to entrust the matters of the circuit to him. Before he could depart, however, Chen died, and Chen's brother-in-law Fan Hui (范暉) got the soldiers at Fu Prefecture to support him as acting governor to resist Wang. Fan, however, soon lost the support of the soldiers, and Wang Chao sent his cousin Wang Yanfu (王彥復) and Wang Shenzhi as Wang Yanfu's deputy to lead an army to attack Fu Prefecture. However, they could not capture it quickly, and Fan sought aid from Dong Chang the military governor of Weisheng Circuit (威勝, headquartered in modern Shaoxing, Zhejiang), who dispatched an army to aid him. Hearing that news, Wang Yanfu and Wang Shengui submitted a report to Wang Chao, requesting to withdraw. Wang Chao refused. When they requested that he come to the front to oversee the attack, he responded:

If soldiers die, I will replace the soldiers. If the generals die, I will replace the generals. If the soldiers and the generals all are dead, I will go myself.

Wang Yanfu and Wang Shenzhi, fearful of the rebuke, intensified their attacks. By summer 893, the food supply in Fu Prefecture ran out. Fan abandoned it and fled, and the Weisheng army, still on the way, hearing that Fan had fled, returned to Weisheng. Fan was killed by his soldiers in flight. Wang entered Fu Prefecture and claimed the title of acting governor. After Wang Chao was subsequently made governor of Fujian, and then the military governor (with the circuit's name upgraded from Fujian to Weiwu (威武)), Wang Shenzhi served as deputy military governor. It was said that whenever Wang Shenzhi had faults, Wang Chao would batter him, but Wang Shenzhi would not complain. In 897, when Wang Chao grew ill, he did not try to pass his authorities to any of his sons; rather, he entrusted the matters of the circuit to Wang Shenzhi. After Wang Chao died around the new year 898, Wang Shenzhi offered the authorities to Wang Shengui, who was then the prefect of Quan Prefecture, but Wang Shengui declined on the account that he considered Wang Shenzhi more accomplished. Wang Shenzhi thus claimed the title of acting military governor of Weiwu and submitted a report of what occurred to then-ruling Emperor Zhaozong, who commissioned him as acting military governor and later in the year made him full military governor.