History of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms

Chapter 225 Death of Li Keyong

The Zhaoyi area has always been the focus of contention between the Hedong forces and the Bianzhou forces, and it is also a barometer of the strength of Jin-Bian. The ownership of the Zhaoyi area is a direct reflection of the strength of both sides.

For a long time before Zhu Wen usurped the Tang Dynasty, the forces of Bianzhou had been crushing the forces of Hedong, and the Zhaoyi area had always been firmly controlled by Zhu Wen. Zhu Wen therefore held the initiative in the war, while Li Keyong was on pins and needles and was always worried.

Until Emperor Zhaozong was assassinated, Ding Hui, a veteran of the Bian army stationed in Xizhaoyi and a trusted general of Zhu Wen, actually surrendered the city to Jin and offered Luzhou to Li Keyong of Hedong. The peace in Zhaoyi was immediately broken. Zhu Wen felt like a thorn in his throat.

After Zhu Wen became emperor, the first thing he did was to recapture Luzhou. The Battle of Luzhou became the first battle of the founding of the Later Liang Empire.

The top leaders of both Jin and Bian attached great importance to the Battle of Luzhou and sent their most elite armed forces to fight a peak showdown with Luzhou as the core and the entire Xizhaoyi area as the main battlefield. The result of the battle had a profound impact on the world situation and became one of the "three major battles" of the Later Tang Dynasty to destroy the Later Liang Dynasty.

This battle lasted for more than a year. The Later Liang side deployed more than 100,000 direct combat troops and changed commanders three times in more than a year. The Hedong side put all its efforts into the battle and mobilized almost all the troops in the country.

The Later Liang army was first led by General Kang Huaizheng. After three months of fierce attack without success, he was replaced by General Li Sian.

Kang Huaizheng built the "Yuanyuan Trench" outside Luzhou City. After Li Sian arrived at the front line, he continued to expand the scale of the fortifications on its basis, and actually built a "jiazhai" (also known as "jiacheng"), which was a huge defensive fortification that surrounded the enemy city in a complete circle.

The so-called "siege" or "siege" generally refers to cutting off the main roads in and out of the city and setting up checkpoints at strategic locations. That's why there are scenes where warriors still escape from the city at night or take shortcuts to seek help after a city is besieged. However, Li Sian's "encirclement" is a true encirclement, impenetrable.

The advantages of "Jiazhai" are self-evident, for example, it can "prevent internal attacks and external reinforcements"; but its disadvantages are also obvious, such as the huge demand for manpower and materials.

In particular, the demand for manpower, in addition to countless laborers, also requires patrol and combat troops several times the number of laborers to perform guard and combat missions.

The defender of the city was Li Sizhao, a famous general of the Hedong Group. He would not sit idly by and watch the completion of the "Jiazhai". Although the overall number of troops was not as large as that of the Bian Army, Li Sizhao always found an opportunity to go out of the city to harass, concentrate his forces to attack the weak defenses of the Bian Army, turn the overall disadvantage into a local advantage, and gain a lot. The Bian Army was exhausted and could not bear the harassment.

In order to ensure the smooth completion of the "Jiazhai", Li Sian constantly recruited reinforcements and supplies from the rear, and Zhu Wen had to mobilize food and grass from Shandong to support the Luzhou front. The Hedong reinforcement general Zhou Dewei specifically intercepted the Shandong supply line. Li Sian had no choice but to build the second phase of the "Jiazhai" project and built a "Great Wall" to protect the entire transportation line and connect it to the "Jiazhai". This undoubtedly increased the burden on the front line.

In this way, due to the tenacity of Li Sizhao in Hedong and the crazy spending of Li Sian, the famous "Battle of Jiazhai" in Luzhou was deadlocked for more than a year.

In March of the second year of Kaiping (908), Zhu Wen led the army in person and stationed in Zezhou, south of Luzhou. At the same time, he transferred Liu Zhijun, the governor of Kuangguo Army in Tongzhou, to lead the forces of the Western Theater to join forces in Zezhou.

Afterwards, Zhu Wen summoned Li Si'an to Zezhou, accused him of fighting for a long time without success (more than 40 officers and officers were killed, and tens of thousands of soldiers were killed), dismissed him from his post, stripped him of all his official titles, and sent him back to his hometown for labor reform; while the chief political commissar (guardian) Yang Minzhen was beheaded. The emperor ordered Liu Zhijun to take command and continue the expedition.

Liu Zhijun, a surrendered general from Xuzhou, was originally a general under Shi Pu in Xuzhou. Because of his extraordinary courage and strategy, Shi Pu was suspicious of him. Therefore, when Zhu Wen was on the Eastern Expedition, he led his 2,000 troops to surrender to Zhu Wen. After that, he repeatedly made military achievements under Zhu Wen and was nicknamed "Liu Kaidao".

Zhu Wen looked at him expectantly, "Please open a road to Taiyuan for me."

Liu Kaidao was confident and agreed immediately.

At this time, the reinforcements from Hedong suddenly retreated to Taiyuan Prefecture. Liu Zhijun led 10,000 elite troops to attack, captured and killed many people. Liu Zhijun was very proud and wrote a letter to Zhu Wen, asking His Majesty to return to the capital first, and the important task of taking back Luzhou and conquering Taiyuan would be entrusted to me, Liu Zhijun, alone.

Since Zhu Wen had mobilized a large number of troops from Guanzhong, he was also worried that Li Maozhen and Wang Jian would take advantage of the situation, so he ordered Liu Zhijun not to be greedy for merit and advance rashly, but to stay there to rest first.

The Bian Army on the Luzhou front was also immersed in joy. It seemed that the capture of Luzhou was just around the corner. A negative and lazy mood of waiting for victory arose throughout the army.

In addition to guarding against potential threats from Li Maozhen and Wang Jian, another reason why Zhu Wen returned from Zezhou was that, like the Bian army on the front line in Luzhou, they all believed that Luzhou was a sure win and victory was just around the corner.

The reason for this illusion is that a major event suddenly occurred in Hedong, giving Zhu Wen's group sufficient reason to be confident - Li Keyong died.

In the first month of the second year of Kaiping (908), Li Keyong was critically ill.

At his deathbed, Li Keyong summoned his younger brother Li Kening, the eunuch Zhang Chengye, the military supervisor, the general Li Cunzhang, the aide Lu Zhi and others, and instructed them on his affairs after his death, asking them to serve as his trusted ministers to assist his son Li Cunxu in succeeding to the throne.

Li Keyong took out three arrows, handed them to Li Cunxu solemnly, and said to him: "I have three major regrets in my life, which are also my three major wishes. You must fulfill them for me!"

The first arrow was aimed at Liu Rengong and his son in Youzhou. "Liu Rengong was the one I established, but he betrayed me."

The second arrow was aimed at Zhu Wen of Bianzhou. The "Shangyuanyi Incident" is an eternal pain in my heart. Zhu the thief murdered the emperor and usurped the throne of the Tang Dynasty, which was hated by both humans and gods. My family is full of loyal and brave people, and has been Tang officials for generations. You must eliminate Zhu the thief and overthrow the Later Liang Dynasty!
The third arrow was from Yelü Abaoji, the leader of the Khitan. I made a pact with him to be brothers, vowing to destroy Liang and restore Tang, but he broke his promise and joined Zhu the thief.

The saying of "Three Arrows to Entrust an Orphan" is recorded in the "Five Dynasties History Missing Texts", and it is clearly pointed out that it is a "folk legend" and a rumor. But I still accept it, because even if it is a folk fabrication, it has a certain reference value. It not only romantically depicts the process of the transfer of the highest power of the Hedong Group, but also has profound political significance. It is the future military action program and political behavior code of the Hedong Group.

Without Youzhou, he could not control Heshuo. Without Heshuo, he could not pose a fatal threat to Zhu Wen. Therefore, Youzhou was the key to conquering the Central Plains.
Zhu Wen murdered the emperor and usurped the throne of the Tang Dynasty, making him a public enemy of the world. "Destroying Zhu Wen and revitalizing the Tang Dynasty" was the political guiding principle of the Hedong forces, and was the legal basis and political correctness for the Hedong forces to dominate the world.
The Khitan was a potential threat to the Central Plains dynasty. If the Khitan was not eliminated, the "national destiny" of the Hedong forces would not last long.

Therefore, Li Keyong's "three arrows to entrust the orphan" was actually a plan for the future development of the Hedong forces, a "three-step" strategy. In this way, Li Keyong's descendants could rest assured in the Central Plains and the throne would be passed down forever.

Gifting arrows has special significance in Tibetan rituals, especially when given at the time of death. It is equivalent to the meaning of "Imperial Seal" in Central Plains culture, which means the transfer and inheritance of supreme power.

Therefore, Li Cunxu placed these three arrows in Li Keyong's temple. Before going out on a campaign, he would offer a sacrifice with a Shaolao (one pig and one sheep) to report his intention, and then solemnly take out one of them, put it in a brocade quiver, and send his personal guard to carry it on his back. When he achieved his goal and returned triumphantly, he would present the arrow together with the enemy's head with the same grand ceremony.

Very ceremonial.

In the later Water Margin, Chao Gai broke an arrow into two pieces before his death. Song Jiang and Lu Junyi each held half and agreed that whoever captured and killed Shi Wengong would become the leader of Liangshan. This scene should be a tribute to the barbarians, which is both romantic and chivalrous.

Interestingly, Li Cunxu only accomplished the first two steps brilliantly, but not the last step. Just like Li Keyong's idea, he first controlled Youzhou and Hebei, and then used Hebei as a springboard to overthrow the Later Liang. Li Keyong's descendants also suffered from the disaster of the Khitan and ruined their country.

Therefore, when we look back from the perspective of God, we can't help but respect the "Three Arrows to Guard the Orphan". Even if it is just a rumor, I still insist on recording it here.

Finally, Li Keyong looked worried and said, "Li Sizhao is trapped in an isolated city, and I don't have time to see him again. After burying me, you must do your best with Zhou Dewei to rescue Li Sizhao!"

Li Cunxu burst into tears.

Li Keyong pointed at Li Cunxu and said to Li Kening and other important ministers in charge of his son, "Ya Zi, I entrust him to you." As soon as he finished speaking, Li Keyong closed his eyes forever. He was 53 years old.

"Ya Zi" is Li Cunxu's nickname. When the "Three Garrisons Invaded the Palace", Li Keyong came to the rescue and ordered the 11-year-old Li Cunxu to meet Emperor Zhaozong. Emperor Zhaozong saw that Li Cunxu had an extraordinary appearance and amazing bones, and he sighed and said: "This child is as good as his father." The emperor's words were golden, so Li Cunxu was given the reputation of "Li Ya Zi".

In addition: In the character entry of Li Cunxu on a certain website, it is shown that "Ya Zi" is his courtesy name, which is inaccurate and should be considered an "alias."

At the age of 24, Li Cunxu took the top position of the Hedong Group. As the saying goes, when a young ruler ascends the throne, the country is in doubt. Li Cunxu was facing serious internal and external troubles, and the Hedong Group was even in danger of self-collapse.

A severe test is waiting for the 24-year-old boy.

(End of this chapter)