History of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms

Chapter 157 Eagle and Tiger Theory

Dongzhaoyi had three prefectures under its jurisdiction: Xingzhou, Cizhou and Mingzhou. Ge Congzhou consumed one third of Dongzhaoyi in one day.

It’s only one third. Ge Congzhou has just stretched his muscles.

A few days later, Ge Congzhou led his troops to the headquarters of Dongzhaoyi - the city of Xingzhou, and the governor of Xingzhou abandoned the city and fled.

Ge Congzhou, who had no place to use his energy, immediately rushed to Cizhou, where the governor of Cizhou committed suicide by cutting his throat.

Li Keyong fought with the Meng Qian brothers for several years before he finally took control of Dongzhaoyi. He also experienced the rebellion of Li Cunxiao and fought with Wang Rong of Zhenzhou, and paid a heavy price before he finally controlled Dongzhaoyi. However, Ge Congzhou took only a few days to occupy and control it, so that Li Keyong had no time to react.

When Li Keyong lost Dongzhaoyi, he also lost all the land east of Taihang Mountain, and the power of Hedong was compressed back to the west of Taihang Mountain.

Zhu Wen ordered Ge Congzhou to be the regent of Dongzhaoyi.

In August of the same year, Emperor Zhaozong returned to Chang'an. He upgraded Huazhou to Xingde Prefecture, issued a general amnesty, and changed the reign title to Guanghua.

Zhaozong sent a third-rank official to act as a special mediator to mediate the dispute between Li Keyong and Zhu Wen. He issued imperial edicts to each of them and asked the prime minister to write letters to them to urge peace talks.

Li Keyong, who was at a disadvantage, was of course willing to accept it, but he did not want to lower himself. A big man always has to save face, so he wrote a letter to Wang Rong of Zhenzhou, asking him to help pass the message to Zhu Wen, expressing his willingness to turn hostility into friendship.

Zhu Wen successively received the ceasefire edict from Emperor Zhaozong, the handwritten letter of condolences from the prime minister, and the greetings from Li Keyong conveyed by Wang Rong. He smiled coldly and refused.

It is advisable to chase the poor with the courage of the left, but not to be the overlord.

Why don't you take this opportunity to eliminate Li Keyong and keep him around for the New Year?
Li Keyong was forced into a desperate counterattack. He sent his adopted son Li Sizhao and general Zhou Dewei to lead 20,000 troops out of Qingshankou to recapture Dongzhaoyi.

Li Sizhao led the way and approached Xingzhou. Ge Congzhou went out of the city to fight, defeated Li Sizhao, and forced him to retreat. Ge Congzhou then made a roundabout move and cut off the retreat route at Qingshankou. The Hedong Corps collapsed in an instant and fled in all directions. Li Sizhao was unable to control the situation and saw that his troops were about to be wiped out, so he also prepared to break out and escape.

At this time, Li Siyuan, another adopted son of Li Keyong, arrived with his troops in time, stopped Li Sizhao's horse, held his reins, and said: "If you run away, the situation will be irreversible! Please allow me to launch an attack. If it fails, it will not be too late to escape!"

Li Siyuan had made great contributions in the "Hedong Anti-encirclement and Suppression Campaign" and crushed the Northern Army Group. This man was steady, sophisticated, low-key and introverted. His appearance made Li Sizhao regain his sanity, "Okay, I'll listen to you."

Li Siyuan ordered all the cavalry to dismount, climb to a high place, and prepare their bows and arrows, while he himself stood at the highest point, waving the command flag and commanding an army that did not exist at all.

When Ge Congzhou pursued here, he saw Li Siyuan dispatching troops in a serious manner. He thought that there were a large number of Hedong troops behind Gao Gang and did not dare to advance rashly.

Li Siyuan seized the opportunity of Ge Congzhou's hesitation and immediately ordered a counterattack, while Li Sizhao also cooperated and attacked from behind Ge Congzhou.

Ge Congzhou mistakenly thought he was ambushed and ordered a retreat.

Li Siyuan cleverly used the strategy of confusing the enemy to scare off Ge Congzhou's pursuers. Sun Jian in the Three Kingdoms period had used this strategy to scare off countless pirates by himself; Zhang Fei also used the bluff to scare off Cao Cao's pursuers at Changbanpo.

People at a disadvantage rarely have any choice, and the strategy of feigning an attack is one of the few risky moves available.

Although Ge Congzhou was scared away and a small victory was achieved in the Battle of Qingshankou, it only saved Li Sizhao from the fate of being completely annihilated and did not achieve the original strategic goal. Ge Congzhou did not suffer any substantial losses and the three states of Dongzhao and Yi were still in Ge Congzhou's hands.

To make matters worse, Li Keyong suffered betrayals from Li Cunxiao and Liu Rengong one after another. After losing Dongzhaoyi, another person betrayed him. This person was Li Hanzhi.

Li Hanzhi and Liu Rengong were very similar. They both came to surrender with great desperation, were equally ambitious, and were equally clever in bribing Gai Yu. When Li Keyong eliminated Wang Xingyu in the "Three Towns Invading the Palace", Li Hanzhi clearly stated his request to replace Wang Xingyu as the Jiedushi of Jingnan Army in Bingzhou.

After being rejected by Li Keyong, Li Hanzhi could not hide his inner disappointment and complained to Gai Yu, saying that it had been many years since he lost Heyang and was under the protection of Li Keyong. Now he was getting older and was no longer suitable for military battles. His only hope was to get Li Keyong's mercy, and hope that Li Hanzhi would give him a small position of Jiedushi in consideration of his many years of following him and his condolences after the "Shangyuanyi Incident" so that he could have a warm bed with his wife and children and enjoy his old age.

Gai Yu also kept recommending Li Hanzhi to Li Keyong, but Li Keyong always ignored him.

Within Li Keyong's sphere of influence, whenever there was a vacancy for a Jiedushi or the like and a meeting was held to discuss suitable candidates, Li Keyong never included Li Hanzhi as a candidate.

Li Hanzhi became more and more frustrated, full of complaints and grievances.

Gai Yu seemed to have noticed something and was worried that Li Hanzhi would do something stupid, so he found Li Keyong privately and reminded Li Keyong to properly satisfy the appetite of such a person.

Li Keyong laughed and said, "How could I be stingy with a military governor? Have you heard of the theory of eagles and tigers? Li Hanzhi is an eagle. He is useful when hungry and leaves when full."

This is Cao Cao's evaluation of Lu Bu.

Li Keyong's eyesight was indeed not good, and when he looked at Li Hanzhi, he made a mistake again. Li Hanzhi was a tiger, and he should be fed with meat. If he was not fed, he would bite people.

When Li Keyong lost Dongzhaoyi, Xue Zhiqin, the governor of Xizhaoyi, died in his headquarters in Luzhou due to illness.

Li Hanzhi immediately led the Zezhou troops to station in Luzhou overnight and forcibly took over. Then he reported to Li Keyong: "Xue Zhiqin is dead, Xizhaoyi is leaderless, and this place is under the threat of the Bian army. I am afraid that there will be chaos here, so I came to appease it. Please give further work instructions."

This was tantamount to announcing in a tactful way his actual control over Xi Zhaoyi, executing him first and reporting to Li Keyong later, and asking him to go along with it and acknowledge this fait accompli.

This situation happened a thousand years ago. During the Chu-Han Contention, Han Xin declared himself "King of Qi" and reported to Liu Bang that he was just a fake king, defending the land for his master. Liu Bang was also furious, but soon regained his senses and encouraged Han Xin to be the real king, thus avoiding a substantial split, preserving overall strength, and ultimately winning the Chu-Han Contention.

At this moment, Li Keyong was unable to regain his sanity in his rage. He remembered Cao Cao's eagle-tiger theory, but forgot Liu Bang's "King of Qi" mind. Perhaps because his "eagle theory" was slapped in the face by the "tiger theory", he was too embarrassed, so he became angry and refused to listen to the advice.

Not only did Li Keyong not approve Li Hanzhi's request to succeed as the governor of Xizhaoyi, he also sent an envoy to Luzhou to severely rebuke him, "Do you want to rebel?"

So Li Hanzhi sent his son to Bianzhou, using his son as a hostage, and surrendered the city to Zhu Wen.

This was a good thing Zhu Wen could never have dreamed of! Pie in the sky really fell, Xi Zhaoyi actually came to him on his own!
Xizhaoyi is adjacent to Hedong Taiyuan Prefecture in the north. If Zhu Wen controls Xizhaoyi, it will pose a direct threat to Li Keyong's heart, and he will form a siege against Li Keyong together with Dongzhaoyi, Wang Rong of Zhenzhou and others.

The importance of Xizhaoyi to Li Keyong is beyond words. Li Keyong, who had already lost Dongzhaoyi, could not allow Xizhaoyi to fall into Zhu Wen's hands again, and immediately ordered Li Sizhao to recapture it as soon as possible.

Li Sizhao also knew the interests involved, so he withdrew from the Dongzhaoyi battlefield without stopping and arrived in Zezhou at lightning speed. He captured Zezhou on the same day, searched for Li Han's family members, and took them all to Taiyuan Prefecture.

Zhu Wen recommended Li Hanzhi as the Jiedushi of Xizhaoyi, and dispatched troops to prepare to enter Luzhou and take over Xizhaoyi.

A pie fell from the sky, but two pieces of shit were smeared on it.

The largest ones are Huainan and Weizhou.

(End of this chapter)