Initial Service As Jiedushi
During the brief duration that Chen Xianqi served as military governor, he had sent some 5,000 Huaixi troops to the western border of the empire to assist the defense of that border with Tufan. After Wu Shaochen assassinated Chen, he secretly ordered the commander of those troops, Wu Fachao (吳法超), to return to Huaixi. Wu Fachao thus mutinied in spring 787, took the troops, and headed back toward Huaixi without permission, and when the general commanding the operations against Tufan, Hun Zhen, sent troops to intercept Wu Fachao, Wu Fachao defeated the troops he sent. However, as Wu Fachao went through Shan'guo Circuit (陝虢, headquartered in modern Sanmenxia, Henan), he was crushed by the governor (Guanchashi, 觀察使) of Shan'guo, Li Mi, with only some 47 soldiers making it back to Huaixi. Wu Shaocheng, as he did not want to damage his relations with the imperial government over this small number of soldiers, executed them and pretended to know nothing of their mutiny.
Wu Shaocheng was said to be an effective, diligent, frugal, and fair governor, but was not loyal to the imperial government. Later in 787, he strengthened the walls of Huaixi's capital Cai Prefecture (蔡州), intending to be ready to stand against any imperial attacks. Meanwhile, his secretary Zheng Chang (鄭常) and officer Yang Ji (楊冀) plotted to expel him and submit to the imperial government, and they had the scribe Liu She (劉涉) forge a number of imperial edicts, addressed to various Huaixi officers, to try to get them join the plot. Thereafter, when an imperial eunuch messenger arrived at Cai Prefecture, Wu went out of the city to welcome the imperial messenger, and Zheng and Yang were set to carry out their plot. However, someone informed the plot to Wu, and Wu executed Zheng, Yang, and another official involved in the plot, Zhang Boyuan (張伯元). Two others, Song Min (宋旻) and Cao Ji (曹濟) fled to the imperial capital Chang'an. In 789, Emperor Dezong made him full military governor.
In 793, when Liu Shi'ning (劉士寧) the military governor of nearby Xuanwu Circuit (宣武, headquartered in modern Kaifeng, Henan) was expelled by his soldiers, and his officer Li Wanrong (李萬榮) took over, Wu took his troops to the borders with Xuanwu and demanded an explanation. Li, however, sent back sarcastic replies, and Wu, judging himself to lack the strength to attack Xuanwu at the time, withdrew. In 797, without imperial permission, Wu was digging a new canal, Dao Canal (刀溝), that would divert from Ru River (汝水, flowing through modern Zhumadian), claiming that it would be beneficial to the farmers, and when Emperor Dezong sent eunuchs to stop him, he refused to stop. When Emperor Dezong thereafter sent the official Lu Qun (盧群) to dissuade him, Lu pointed out that if he openly defied an imperial order, he risked having his subordinates defy him as well. Wu thereafter stopped the Dao Canal project.
Read more about this topic: Wu Shaocheng
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