History of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms

Chapter 235 Liu Shouguang Becomes Emperor 1
【Liu Shouguang proclaimed himself emperor】

Like father, like son. Liu Shouguang was just like his father Liu Rengong, short-sighted but cruel and tyrannical.

"Human nature is stupid... lewdness and cruelty become more serious" - "Old History of the Five Dynasties"

"Simple and Foolish" - "New History of the Five Dynasties"

He entered the historical stage with a shameful and immoral case: he had an affair with his father's concubine and was expelled by his father Liu Rengong. When Zhu Wen attacked Youzhou, he accidentally seized the military power and first imprisoned his father. Later, with the support of the Khitan, Tuyuhun and other tribes, he captured and killed his brother Liu Shouwen, and then served as the commander of Youzhou Lulong Army and Cangzhou Yichang Army. From then on, Liu Shouguang thought he was blessed by God and became more arrogant and self-willed.

Liu Shouguang was a psychopath who loved to use all kinds of torture to kill people. He proposed a new torture method, namely, burning with fire, which was a famous torture in history. He invented a new torture method: stuffing people into iron cages and then baking the cages red. This would not only greatly prolong the death process of the prisoners, but also bring greater psychological deterrence to the prisoners.

For example, using an iron brush to brush a person’s face until they die... and so on.

Without exception, the father and son of the Liu family knew nothing about geopolitics. They completely isolated the Youzhou forces with their strength and surrounded them with enemies. When Zhenzhou and Dingzhou asked for help, Liu Shouguang refused to send troops and watched the fire from the other side. Now, Hedong Li Cunxu defeated the Houliang army in Baixiang and took the opportunity to deeply root the Hedong forces in Heshuo. Liu Shouguang was unwilling to be lonely and wanted to grab the fruits of victory.

Liu Shouguang sent envoys to Wang Rong of Zhenzhou and Wang Chu of Dingzhou to convey the message, "I heard that Li Cunxu of Hedong has sent troops. I also have 30,000 elite soldiers here, and I plan to help you fight against the Later Liang. However, the four towns' armies will fight together, so there must be a commander. So who should be the commander-in-chief...if not me?"

Wang Rong quickly reported to Li Cunxu.

Li Cunxu sneered, "I've seen shameless people, but I've never seen someone this shameless. When Zhenzhou urgently requested help, this guy didn't send a single soldier. After I risked my life to win, he wanted to grab the fruits of victory. He is not bringing disgrace to the family."

The generals of Hedong all agreed that Liu Shouguang of Youzhou posed a substantial threat to the northeastern part of Hedong's forces. Only by eliminating Liu Shouguang of Youzhou first could they move south with peace of mind to compete with Zhu Wen.

Great minds think alike. When Li Keyong entrusted his son with three arrows, he had already pointed out the development path for the Hedong Group: destroy Youzhou to stabilize Hebei; stabilize Hebei to fight for Henan; if you take Henan, you will have the world, and after you have the world, you must eliminate the Khitan to secure your throne.

Therefore, Li Cunxu led the main force to retreat in an orderly manner and lifted the siege of Weizhou and Xingzhou one after another. This is the node mentioned above, the Hedong Army took the initiative to retreat, and Yang Shihou of the Bian Army entered Weizhou.

To express his gratitude to the Hedong Army, Wang Rong personally went to Zhaozhou to meet Li Cunxu, rewarded the Hedong soldiers, and sent his adopted son Wang Deming to lead a group of elite guards to Taiyuan to be at Li Cunxu's disposal. Wang Deming, whose original name was Zhang Wenli, would do something earth-shattering in the future, and he would be recorded in history as "Zhang Wenli", so we will continue to use "Zhang Wenli" in the following text.

After a short stay in Zhaozhou, Li Cunxu left Zhou Dewei to lead 3,000 men to garrison Zhaozhou, while he led the main force back to Taiyuan and began to plan a military operation against Youzhou.

At this time, Liu Shouguang was unaware of the impending danger and still had an attitude of "Heaven is the boss, Earth is second, and I am third".

He was wearing a dark red robe (Tang Dynasty emperors wore dark red dragon robes), looked around at the generals, and asked: "Now, the world is in chaos, and many heroes are vying for supremacy. My Youzhou has a vast territory, a strategic location, and a strong army... I also want to face the south and back the north, claiming to be alone and have a taste of being an emperor, what do you think?"

His adviser Sun He was the first to express his opposition, saying that the internal problems in Youzhou (imprisoning father, killing brother and seizing power) had just been resolved and everything needed to be rebuilt. Li Cunxu of Hedong had coveted Youzhou for a long time, and Abaoji of the Khitan had also been eyeing Youyun for a long time. Under such circumstances, if he hastily proclaimed himself emperor, there would be no good results.

Liu Shouguang was very unhappy.

Sun He quickly offered suggestions, saying that now they should recuperate, implement benevolent policies, strengthen military training, and stockpile food and grass. Soon, the people would be willing to support them and all the directions would submit.

Liu Shouguang was short-sighted and arrogant. He only wanted to enjoy himself now, not for the long-term. He felt good for a while, but his whole family was buried in the crematorium. Liu Shouguang sent envoys to visit Zhenzhou and Dingzhou, asking them to respect him as "Shangfu".

Wang Rong reported this to Li Cunxu. Li Cunxu convened a meeting to discuss the situation. The result was: If God wants to destroy someone, he must first make him crazy. Liu Shouguang is already on the verge of madness, and we need to make him stronger!
The Hedong generals understood what he meant and laughed out loud. They then decided to fan the flames and make trouble for Liu Shouguang and lead him into the ditch.

So, Li Cunxu took the lead and formed a group to deceive him.

Liu Shouguang just wanted Wang Rong of Zhenzhou and Wang Chuzhi of Dingzhou to recognize his status as "the number one in Hebei" and respect him as "Shangfu". However, Li Cunxu of Hedong took the initiative to pull Wang Rong of Zhenzhou, Wang Chuzhi of Dingzhou, Li Sizhao of Zhaoyi, Zhou Dewei of Zhenwu, Song Yao of Tiande and other six governors to call Liu Shouguang "big brother" and jointly recommend him as Shangshu Ling and Shangfu.

As expected, Liu Shouguang fell into the trap. He thought that the entire Hebei and Shanxi, including Li Cunxu, were afraid of Youzhou's power and were all willing to be his lackeys... As a result, Liu Shouguang became even more arrogant.

Liu Shouguang forwarded the joint letter of the six towns led by Li Cunxu to Zhu Wen, saying: "Look! The Prince of Jin took the lead and firmly supported me to be the Minister of the Chancellery and the Minister of the Court, but I have received Your Majesty's great favor and dare not accept it rashly. How about this, Your Majesty, please appoint me as the Commander-in-Chief of Hebei, and I will help Your Majesty to take over Hebei and Hedong at once. You don't need to do anything, I can do it myself."

Zhu Wen was also at a loss for words. He thought to himself, I have seen many idiots, but I have never seen such an idiot. It is more than an idiot, it is simply an idiot! They are playing with you, they are teaming up to play with you!

Although Liu Shouguang's words were euphemistic and pleasant, his subtext was that he wanted to break away from Later Liang and divide the Yellow River with Zhu Wen. The land south of the Yellow River would belong to Zhu Wen, and the land north of the Yellow River, including Shanxi, would belong to him, Liu Shouguang.

Zhu Wen's response was also quite funny. He appointed Liu Shouguang as the "Hebei Dao Interview Envoy". In the early Tang Dynasty, the central government had ten interview envoys, which were abolished after the "Anshi Rebellion". Now, the administrative divisions of each road have been basically disrupted. Not only has the "interview envoy" become a mark of the times, but even the "observation envoy" of each road has disappeared, leaving only the Jiedushi and Defense Envoy. The original roads were dismantled and pieced together at will by the emerging warlords.

Appointing Liu Shouguang as the "Hebei Dao Interview Envoy" at this time is like giving someone the title of "General Eunuch" today, which is obviously a joke. This should be regarded as Zhu Wen's response to Li Cunxu, tit-for-tat but humorous. The two leaders should smile at each other, then turn to look at Liu Shouguang and say, "Please start your performance."

Liu Shouguang did not understand why, and he happily accepted the appointment as "Hebei Dao Interview Envoy". He also took it upon himself to let his subordinates plan the ceremony to accept the Shangfu and Interview Envoy.

This was very difficult for the ceremonial officer, because "Shangfu" was not an official title. It is generally believed that it was originally a respectful title for Jiang Ziya, and it was a respectful title given to him by later generations. Jiang Ziya did not even know that he was called "Shangfu", let alone a ceremony to accept the title.

In later historical records, there were also a very small number of shameless people who called themselves Shangfu, such as Dong Zhuo in the late Han Dynasty and Wang Xingyu in the late Tang Dynasty.

The eunuch had an idea and copied the etiquette of appointing the Grand Marshal (one of the Three Dukes) of the Tang Dynasty and presented it for review.

Liu Shouguang frowned and read from beginning to end, then looked back from end to end, and asked puzzledly: "Why is there no step of changing the year in the year of the year?"

Liu Shouguang should be a typical person who is half-full and half-full. He is not completely ignorant, but he does not fully understand. He vaguely remembers that in the various chronicles of emperors, when they ascended the throne, they often saw words such as "something happened in the southern suburbs" and "change of era name and amnesty". "Don't cut corners for me, give me the whole package."

The eunuch used all his strength to hold back his laughter. "The emperor is responsible for offering sacrifices to the gods and changing the reign title. Although the Shangfu is extremely noble, he is still a subject of the emperor... You don't need to worry about the emperor's affairs..."

Upon hearing this, Liu Shouguang flew into a rage and threw the etiquette sheet to the ground. "I have a territory of 2,000 miles and an army of 300,000. Can't I be the emperor of Hebei? Who cares about Shangfu?"

So, Liu Shouguang ordered on the spot to draft a list of ceremonies for his enthronement immediately. I want to be the emperor!

(End of this chapter)