The videos I watched became popular in ancient times

Guo Chongtao, whose courtesy name was Anshi, was a native of Daizhou and initially served under Li Kexiu.

After Li Kexiu died, he went to Li Keyong's side and has been Li Keyong's close minister ever since.

Guo Chongtao is known for his efficiency and integrity in his work, and he is alert and calm in dealing with situations.

After Li Cunxu, Emperor Zhuangzong of Later Tang, inherited the throne, he valued him even more and appointed him as the deputy envoy of Zhongmen, participating in confidential affairs together with Meng Zhixiang and Li Shaohong.

Soon, Li Shaohong went to Youzhou to take up a post, and Meng Zhixiang asked Li Cunxu to take up a local post.

Because there were two former middle gate messengers who, although loyal, were punished and killed.

"Meng Zhixiang was afraid of following in her footsteps, so he requested an external post and sent his wife to beg the empress dowager for permission."

"Li Cunxu asked Meng Zhixiang to nominate someone to replace him, and Meng Zhixiang recommended Guo Chongtao."

"From then on, Guo Chongtao took charge of confidential affairs and followed Li Cunxu in his campaigns, working diligently and without complaint."

"That year, Guo Chongtao followed Li Cunxu to attack Zhang Wenli in Zhenzhou. The Khitan used the excuse of rescuing Zhenzhou to attack and reached Xinle."

"When the Jin army saw the Khitan troops approaching, they were very panicked and asked to return Weizhou. Li Cunxu was hesitant."

"Li Cunxu followed Guo Chongtao's advice and marched north to fight against the Khitan army, and indeed won the victory."

"After Li Cunxu proclaimed himself emperor, Guo Chongtao was appointed Minister of War and Privy Councilor."

"At that time, Li Cunxu was fighting against the Liang army on both sides of the Yellow River, and Weizhou had just been captured by the Liang army. The situation was very unfavorable to the Jin army."

"Moreover, the last emperor of Liang, Zhu Youzhen, followed Jing Xiang's advice and appointed the strategic and famous general Wang Yanzhang as the commander-in-chief, and the battle situation became stalemate."

"After Wang Yanzhang captured the southern city of Desheng, he moved eastward along the Yellow River and headed straight for Yangliu, where Li Cunxu was defending. The battle was unprecedentedly fierce."

"The generals thought that the attempt to destroy the Later Liang Dynasty was in vain again. When Li Cunxu was surrounded in Yang and Liu and looked around the city walls with no idea what to do, Guo Chongtao analyzed the situation and offered advice to comfort Li Cunxu."

"Guo Chongtao led more than 10,000 people to cross the river to the south at night, and built fortifications overnight to protect the new crossing, day and night."

"Guo Chongtao personally took command and forgot about his fatigue. When he took a nap on the camp bed, he suddenly felt something cold in his pants. When his personal soldiers looked, they found it was a snake. The urgent military situation at that time made him so tired."

"Three days later, the Liang army came to attack them. The fortress had just been built and was not stable yet. Wang Yanzhang led the troops to attack fiercely."

"Guo Chongtao led the troops and rushed around to command the resistance. He went wherever there was danger. The fortress was almost captured several times."

"Fortunately, Li Cunxu led his troops to support them, and the Liang army retreated. The siege of Yangliu finally ended with the victory of the Jin army."

"In this battle, Guo Chongtao's strategy played a decisive role, and his extraordinary strategy is evident from this."

"However, this was only a minor battle and did not bring about a fundamental change in the overall campaign."

"Soon after, Liang general Kang Yanxiao surrendered to Li Cunxu, and Guo Chongtao invited him into his bedroom to learn about the internal situation of the Liang army."

"When Li Cunxu learned about this, he became very worried and summoned all his generals to discuss countermeasures. Li Shaohong, the envoy of the imperial court, suggested giving up Yunzhou and making peace with the Later Liang in exchange for Weizhou, which was captured by the Later Liang, with the Yellow River as the boundary, and then looking for an opportunity to go south and destroy Liang later."

"Li Cunxu was very unhappy when he heard this, but he didn't have any good solution, so he went back to his tent and lay down alone, and then asked someone to call Guo Chongtao to ask for advice."

"After hearing what Guo Chongtao said, Li Cunxu stood up and said excitedly that a man who wins will be the king."

"Then Li Cunxu ordered the army to send all family members back to Weizhou. He also sent the queen and his son away, saying goodbye in tears."

"Li Cunxu led his troops across the river from Yangliu, and was victorious along the way. He captured Wang Yanzhang alive, seized Bianzhou, and destroyed the Later Liang."

"And then force Duan Ning to surrender. Guo Chongtao's strategy to destroy Liang was a complete success in less than ten days."

"Because of his first merit in destroying Liang, Guo Chongtao was appointed Jiedushi of Zhenzhou and Jizhou, and was promoted to Duke of Zhao. He was also granted an iron certificate, which exempted him from ten death sentences."

"Guo Chongtao's prestige in the Later Tang court increased greatly as a result, and civil officials and military generals all admired him."

Su Shi: In the early days of destroying Liang, he collected a little bit of property, and some of his relatives and friends reminded him.

Sure enough, when Li Cunxu held a suburban ceremony, Guo Chongtao contributed all his property to reward generals and ministers.

Although Guo Chongtao was selfless, this approach was not a good one. He suffered from this later and was falsely accused of corruption and bribery, and was eventually killed.

But for the sake of his own power, he also tried to exclude others.

In order to completely control the power of the Privy Council, he appointed Zhang Juhan, a eunuch younger than him, to serve as Privy Councilor together with him, and appointed Ma Shaohong, who was once above him, to serve as Xuanhui Envoy.

This made Ma Shaohong resentful, and he gathered other eunuchs to attack him. Guo Chongtao gradually made political enemies and began to go down the road of death.

After hearing this, Guo Chongtao agreed very much and acted according to the plan.

He submitted three memorials firmly requesting to resign from the post of Privy Councilor, but Li Cunxu comforted him each time and did not agree.

Guo Chongtao then took the second step and secretly reported to Li Cunxu, requesting that Liu be made queen.

Then he submitted a memorial listing 25 major things that should be done nowadays. All of them were very practical, and some were measures that would benefit the people and win people's hearts.

Then, he resolutely resigned from the post of Jiedushi which he concurrently held, and Li Cunxu agreed.

Li Cunxu and Liu were both very happy when Liu was made queen. The twenty-five major events also showed that Guo Chongtao was indeed very talented in governing the country.

Moreover, Li Cunxu did many of the things he was told later, which played an important role in governing the country.

However, Guo Chongtao was often slandered and framed by eunuchs and actors, and he was always looking for a better way to escape and avoid disaster.

There was a county magistrate in Henan named Luo Guan. He was a very upright man. Because he enforced the law impartially, he offended the eunuchs and Henan Yin Zhang Quanyi.

Zhang Quanyi also framed him in front of his adopted daughter, Empress Liu, and the eunuchs also spoke ill of him in Li Cunxu's ears.

Guo Chongtao knew that Luo Guan was wronged and tried his best to clear up the matter for him, but Li Cunxu actually believed the slander and beheaded Luo Guan in public.

In order to prevent Guo Chongtao from dissuading him, Li Cunxu closed the palace door himself and prevented him from entering.

The opportunity finally came. The envoy who went to Shuzhong came back and reported that the politics there was extremely corrupt and that they could take advantage of the situation to attack.

Li Cunxu was moved and discussed the matter of attacking with Guo Chongtao. The candidate for the general should have been Li Siyuan, who was the commander-in-chief of all troops at that time.

But Guo Chongtao thought this was a good opportunity to make great achievements. With great military achievements, he could restrain the eunuchs who excluded him.

The king and his subjects cooperated well in this matter. In the end, Li Jiji was appointed as the commander-in-chief and Guo Chongtao was appointed as the general to attack Shu. Before the troops were dispatched, Guo Chongtao also recommended to Li Cunxu the candidate for the future commander of Shu to show his loyalty.

Li Cunxu nodded in agreement and even held a farewell banquet for his generals.

Guo Chongtao's military strategy was indeed extraordinary. In order to act prudently and ensure success, he made full use of the strategic principles in "The Art of War".

He sent troops to capture Fengzhou first. The defenders of Fengzhou surrendered without a fight, and Guo Chongtao obtained a large amount of food and 8,000 soldiers.

This also ensures that the route back is open in case of retreat, so as to avoid being cut off by the enemy and being attacked from both sides.

"Guo Chongtao also sent troops to force Sanquan and other places to surrender, fully replenishing the military supplies needed in the future."

"After that, the military conquest went extremely smoothly, and the Former Shu regime was destroyed in just 70 days, and the Former Shu ruler Wang Yan also surrendered."

"History is so similar. During the Three Kingdoms period, the Kingdom of Shu was also destroyed by the Kingdom of Wei in the north, and Adou also surrendered."

"There is a saying in history that Shu was in chaos first and then governed. This place is very rich but its military strength is weak."

"Once the northern army launches a large-scale attack, it will be difficult to defend. Zhuge Liang often sent troops to the north, which was actually a strategy of attacking for defense."

"But over time, if the ruler and his subjects indulge in pleasure, it will be difficult to defend this place."

"After the fall of Former Shu, Guo Chongtao's fate did not improve, but instead took a turn for the worse."

"Since he was basically the one planning and directing the destruction of Shu, there is no need to talk about military strategy."

"Even after the rebellion was pacified, Guo Chongtao was in charge of all political affairs. He was in charge of recruiting old generals, appointing officials, and reporting between the army and the court. However, Li Cunxu's son, Li Jiji, the Prince of Wei, was neglected."

"Li Jiji has no ambitions, and he is young, so he has no conflicts with Guo Chongtao."

"But the eunuchs around Li Jiji were a bunch of greedy villains. They saw that there was a constant stream of people coming and going in front of Guo Chongtao's door, and there was an endless stream of people giving gifts and currying favor with him."

"But he had no chance to make any money, so he did everything he could to stir up trouble in front of Li Jiji and frame Guo Chongtao."

"Guo Chongtao himself was also somewhat careless in his actions. He moved into the home of the surrendered general Wang Zongbi without any hesitation."

"Wang Zongbi was also a scheming villain. After Wang Yan, the last ruler of Former Shu, surrendered, Wang Zongbi took all the treasures and valuables from the palace to his own home."

"When Guo Chongtao arrived, he selected Wang Yan's concubines and treasures to offer to Guo Chongtao, and then asked Guo Chongtao to appoint him as the chief garrison commander of Shu."

"Guo Chongtao agreed to recommend him. In fact, this was also to appease a surrendered general like him, because Guo Chongtao had already recommended Meng Zhixiang to Li Cunxu before he sent troops."

"When Former Shu surrendered, Wei Wang Li Jiji sent people to ask Wang Yan for money to reward the army, but Wang Yan refused to pay, which made Li Jiji very angry."

"Compared with other things that happened later, it is not difficult to find that this was actually an excuse for the eunuchs to make money."

"After the King of Wei entered the city, he was punished for his disloyalty and beheaded along with his son. This incident caused a conflict between Guo Chongtao and Li Jiji."

"Moreover, while Wang Zongbi was asking Guo Chongtao for the position of governor of Shu, he also joined forces with others to write a petition requesting Guo Chongtao to be the governor of Shu."

"Under the instigation of the eunuchs, the conflict between Li Jiji and Guo Chongtao gradually deepened."

"At this time, Li Congxi sent the eunuch Xiang Yansi to Shu with an imperial edict, ordering Guo Chongtao to return to the court."

"But Guo Chongtao did not follow the etiquette to greet Xiang Yansi in the suburbs when he arrived. It may be because he usually has conflicts with eunuchs."

"But this just gave the eunuchs an excuse to frame him, if Guo Chongtao had thought it through more carefully."

"Even if they put on some superficial show and pretended to please others, they wouldn't end up with a tragic ending where the father and his son were killed."

"Xiang Yansi was furious that Guo Chongtao did not greet him, and Li Congxi took the opportunity to finish his words to him, and the two men shed tears facing each other."

"After Xiang Yansi returned, he exaggerated the situation and frightened Empress Liu to the point that she cried and begged Li Congxi to find a way to save her son, Li Jiji."

"Li Cunxu looked at the report from Shu again and said with dissatisfaction that people said that Shu had countless gold, silver and jewelry, so why did Shu pay so little?"

Wen Tianxiang: Xiang Yansi took the opportunity to say that I had asked many people in Shu, and they all said that all the treasures of Shu had been brought into Guo Chongtao's mansion.

It was also said that Guo Chongtao had made off with more than ten thousand taels of gold, four hundred thousand taels of silver, a thousand famous horses, sixty of Wang Yan's beauties, a hundred musicians, and a hundred rhinoceros horn and jade belts.

His son Guo Tinghui also had 100,000 taels of gold and silver, 70 beautiful prostitutes, and other valuables. But the Prince of Wei's palace only got a few horses.

Li Cunxu was a little unhappy when he first heard that Guo Chongtao wanted to stay in Shu. Now he heard that he had brought all the treasures, geishas and musicians in Shu into his mansion, and he couldn't help but look furious.

He immediately ordered the eunuch Ma Yangui to rush to Shu to investigate whether Guo Chongtao had returned. If so, that was fine. But if he intended to delay his stay, he and Li Jiji would get rid of him.

Ma Yangui probably had a long-standing conflict with Guo Chongtao like other eunuchs, so he went to Empress Liu in an insidious way.

If a disaster were to occur in an instant, how would we have time to request the emperor's decree from thousands of miles away?

When Empress Liu heard this, she panicked and went to Li Cunxu to tell him that Li Cunxu was not yet completely incompetent at that time.

When the Empress Liu, who had brought misfortune to the country, saw that Li Cunxu was unwilling to order the killing of Guo Chongtao, she wrote an edict herself and asked Ma Yangui to give it to Li Jiji, asking him to kill Guo Chongtao first.

Guo Chongtao returned a little late, not because he had any ulterior motives, but because Shu had just been pacified and there were many bandits in the mountains and forests.

Since Meng Zhixiang had not yet taken office, Guo Chongtao sent his generals to various places to pacify the rebellion.

He was afraid that once he returned, there would be chaos in the area again, but he didn't expect that this would give Ma Yangui an excuse.

After Ma Yangui arrived, Guo Chongtao had already set the date for departure and arranged for generals to stay behind and wait for Meng Zhixiang to take office.

When the deployment was completed, disaster struck.

Seeing that Li Jiji refused to obey, Li Congxi deliberately created trouble to make Guo Chongtao offend Li Jiji.

Then they started to instigate others. After all, Li Jiji was young and inexperienced, so he couldn't help but stand on their side.

The next morning, Li Congxi summoned Guo Chongtao to discuss matters in the name of Li Jiji. Li Jiji went upstairs to hide. After Guo Chongtao came in, the ambushers on the left and right came out and beat Guo Chongtao to death with iron clubs.

His five sons were also killed, two of them died in Shu, and the other three were killed elsewhere, and all his property was confiscated.

After Emperor Mingzong of the Later Tang ascended the throne, he issued an edict to allow Guo Chongtao to be buried in his hometown and to return his old property in Taiyuan. (End of this chapter)