History of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms

Chapter 112: Great Smoothness
This year was the first year of the Dashun reign of the Tang Dynasty (890). History really knows how to play jokes, and it happened that during the "Dashun" years, a series of "everything went wrong" were staged.

No matter whose perspective we take when looking at this year, we can't help but sigh: countless miracles are just one step away from happening. This is the fun of history.

As Zhu Wen, Li Keyong, Yang Xingmi, Sun Ru, and Qian Liu expanded, their spheres of influence finally intersected and sparked passionate sparks. Allying with the east to attack the west, making friends with distant countries and attacking nearby ones became their common tricks. It was dull and unremarkable.

If we must find a highlight, perhaps we should introduce Zhu Wen's "Alliance to Kill the Hu".

In the first year of Dashun (890), during the Spring Festival, Li Keyong completed the annexation of Dongzhaoyi, expanding his sphere of influence to the east of Taihang Mountain. Then, in February, Li Keyong led his army to attack Helianduo in Yunzhou (now Datong City, Shanxi Province).

The feud between Li Keyong and Helian Duo can be traced back to ten years ago. At that time, Helian Duo led the Tuyuhun tribe to unite with the neighboring vassal states, drove Li Keyong and his son into the Tatar tribe, and imitated "Guo Jia's legacy to conquer Liaodong" and bribed the Tatar chieftain to put Li Keyong and his son to death.

A gentleman's revenge is never too late.

Li Keyong had just swallowed up the entire Zhaoyi Army, and he could not wait to launch a fierce attack on Helian Duo of Yunzhou in the north to settle an old score from ten years ago.

Helian Duo quickly asked for help from Li Kuangwei, the governor of Lulong Army, and Li Kuangwei led an army of 30,000 to reinforce.

Li Keyong's favorite general An Jinjun was shot dead by stray arrows, morale suffered a severe blow, and the elite "Wansheng Camp" in Hedong mutinied and surrendered. Li Keyong suffered an unprecedented defeat in Yunzhou, and Xuzhou Shi Pu also asked for help at this time, which is why Li Keyong only sent a mere 500 cavalry.

After suffering the defeat, Li Keyong retreated to Luzhou to rest.

Luzhou was the headquarters of the Xizhao Righteous Army, and the governor was Li Keyong's younger brother Li Kexiu. Li Kexiu was always low-key, restrained, and simple, cherishing the people's strength, advocating diligence and thrift, and was deeply loved by the people of Luzhou.

When entertaining Li Keyong, Li Kexiu paid special attention to the pomp and circumstance, and made it appropriately extravagant and luxurious.

Obviously, Li Kexiu, who was diligent and frugal, still failed to satisfy his brother. His "luxury" was still a bit shabby in his brother's eyes. Poverty limited Li Kexiu's imagination.

Li Keyong was so angry about the defeat in Yunzhou that he had no place to vent his anger. So when he arrived in Luzhou, he raised his eyebrows and looked at me with displeasure. How could this be a question of poor hospitality? It was clearly a mockery of me being a defeated general and deliberately perfunctory to me, right?

Li Keyong scolded his brother Li Kexiu and became angrier the more he scolded, so he whipped him again.

Li Kexiu felt wronged, wronged, and frightened. After being whipped, he fell seriously ill and passed away just a few days later at the age of 31.

After Li Kexiu died, Li Keyong appointed another brother, Li Kegong, as the governor of Zhaoyi Army.

This Li Kegong was mean and ungrateful, cruel and willful, but he knew nothing about military affairs, let alone encouraging people to engage in agriculture and sericulture or to sympathize with the people. He was in stark contrast to the previous governor Li Kexiu.

The people of Zhaoyi missed their former commander Li Kexiu even more and were dissatisfied with his tragic fate. As a result, the military in Zhaoyi was demoralized and disunited. Dissatisfaction with the Hedong region was heard everywhere.

【Luzhou Crisis】

With his ruling power at stake, Li Keyong again requested conscription from the Zhaoyi Army, and ordered Li Kegong to select the elite troops of the Zhaoyi Army, the "backyard generals", and select the 500 most brave and combat-savvy soldiers from them and send them to Taiyuan Prefecture. Li Keyong's ambitions for Yunzhou and the towns in Hebei were well known to everyone. These 500 elite soldiers were obviously intended to be used as cannon fodder by Li Keyong.

The soldiers were in danger of war and far from home. The five hundred "backyard generals" were going to Taiyuan and there was a high possibility that they would never return. The families of the soldiers and the people in their hometowns felt sorry for them. When they were about to leave, the spontaneous farewell team seemed like a funeral procession, with crying and sadness.

Li Kegong was ordered to send people to escort the "backyard generals" to Taiyuan. On the way, as expected, a mutiny occurred. A junior officer, Feng Ba, raised his arms and called on his subordinates to rebel, recruiting soldiers along the way, and soon developed a force of more than 3,000 people.

Another general, Li Yuanshen, failed to suppress the mutiny and fled back to Luzhou with injuries.

Li Kegong went to visit the wounded, and at the same time he also inquired from Li Yuanshen about the strength of the mutinous army and discussed strategies for suppression and recruitment.

The generals in Luzhou City were also ready to make a move, such as General An Jushou.

At the beginning, when Li Keyong attacked Zhaoyi Army, Jiedushi Meng Qian surrendered. In fact, it was not only Meng Qian who wanted to surrender. Many generals including An Jushou also submitted surrender applications to Li Keyong.

However, Li Keyong was so overwhelmed by the victory of annexing Zhaoyi Army that he only rewarded Meng Qian and his close followers, while ignoring generals such as An Jushou, who were filled with resentment and fear.

Therefore, An Jushou also took the opportunity to launch a mutiny. He led his troops to surround Li Yuanshen and Li Kegong and killed them both. Then he claimed to be the regent and sent people to contact Feng Ba outside to build a new home in Zhaoyi together.

Unexpectedly, the rebel general Feng Ba showed a very cold attitude towards An Jushou's solicitation. The reason was obvious. Although Feng Ba and An Jushou were both rebel generals, An Jushou killed Li Keyong's brother Li Kegong, and therefore would become Li Keyong's number one enemy for revenge. It was very unwise to be in the same boat with him. Secondly, An Jushou claimed to be the heir, so why would Feng Ba bother to make wedding clothes for others?

After losing Feng Ba's support, An Jushou was greatly frightened, so he hurriedly sent someone to contact Zhu Wen, expressing his willingness to surrender the city in order to obtain Zhu Wen's protection.

After Zhu Wen got the news, he was overjoyed and saw the opportunity not to be missed, so he hurriedly sent Heyang Governor Zhu Chongjie to lead an army into Luzhou to temporarily take over the governor (acting governor).

Li Keyong also hurriedly sent generals Kang Junli and Li Cunxiao to seize the strategic location - Luzhou.

The Luzhou mutiny was like a stone that caused a thousand ripples, breaking the dull deadlock and pushing the annexation of the vassal states to a new climax.

[Zhaozong's Opportunity]

Tang Zhaozong in the Chang'an Palace had just dealt with Tian Yan's party and dealt a heavy blow to the eunuchs, and was looking forward to the opportunity to finish off the eunuchs and weaken the power of the feudal lords. Now, he had waited for an opportunity to weaken the feudal lords.

Externally, Helian Duo of Yunzhou and Li Kuangwei of Lulong jointly submitted a petition, accusing Li Keyong of raising an army without reason and arbitrarily sending troops to annex neighboring vassal states, which was an unforgivable crime, and demanded that the court issue an order to suppress the attack;
Zhu Wen of Bianzhou also made a well-founded memorial, saying that as the governor of Huainan, he had an obligation to quell the chaos in Huainan. When Shi Pu of Xuzhou openly sent troops to obstruct him, his subjects had to defend themselves. However, Li Keyong did not obey the imperial edict and sent troops to help Shi Pu without authorization. He also invaded his subjects' hometown and dug up their graves. This was really outrageous and intolerable! This was also Li Keyong's act of blatant rebellion against the court. I am willing to lead Xuanwu, Yicheng, Heyang and the three towns of Hebei (Lulong, Chengde, and Weizhou) to jointly fight against him. I hope the court will grant me the order!

By this calculation, there were at least seven vassal states willing to attack Li Keyong. They had an absolute advantage in military strength and had sufficient legitimate reasons. It seemed that Li Keyong would be wiped out in the blink of an eye with just an imperial edict.

Thanks to "The Big Tree is Me", "Pure Lsp", "feitian", "Book Friend 151023051918540", and "Shang Jianxiu" for their recommendation votes and support!
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(End of this chapter)