History of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms

Chapter 273: The Test of Founding a Nation
[Test of founding a nation]

Li Sizhao, the adopted son of Li Kerou, the younger brother of Li Keyong, was short in stature but brave, sturdy, courageous, modest and cautious. When he was young, he developed the bad habit of alcoholism, and Li Keyong criticized and educated him. From then on, Li Sizhao never drank alcohol for the rest of his life. During the expansion of the Hedong Group, Li Sizhao was one of the most popular star generals of the Hedong Group.

On the battlefield, he was a fierce general that the enemy was terrified of; in the local area, he was a kind and lenient official who loved the people. After Zhou Dewei was killed in battle, Li Sizhao temporarily took over the affairs of Youzhou. Three months later, when Li Sizhao was ordered to leave, the people of Youzhou spontaneously stopped Li Sizhao's motorcade, wept and begged Li Sizhao to continue to serve in Youzhou. Li Sizhao had no choice but to sneak away at night.

After Li Cunxu became emperor, he posthumously awarded him the titles of Grand Tutor and Prince of Longxi in appreciation of his past contributions. After Emperor Mingzong ascended the throne, Li Sizhao was allowed to be enshrined in the temple of Emperor Zhuangzong.

However, Li Sizhao's descendants ruined the reputation that their father had worked so hard to build.

Li Sizhao had seven sons. The eldest son, Li Jichou, was the governor of Zezhou and was cowardly and incompetent, while the second son, Li Jitao, was cunning and scoundrel.

Li Sizhao was the military governor of Zhaoyi Army in Luzhou during his lifetime, and Zezhou was his subordinate state. According to convention, the position of military governor of Zhaoyi Army in Luzhou should be inherited by his eldest son Li Jichou. After Li Sizhao died in battle, Li Cunxu ordered his seven sons to escort the coffin to Taiyuan for burial and to deal with the issue of inheritance division.

Li Jitao joined forces with his brothers to disobey orders, led thousands of soldiers to forcibly transport Li Sizhao's coffin to Luzhou, and imprisoned his brother Li Jichou, ordering the three armies to support him as the leader of Luzhou Zhaoyi Army.

The heroic father's body was still warm when the bastard son launched a mutiny.

Li Cunxu sent his younger brother Li Cunwo to mediate, but Li Jitao and others had a bad attitude and almost killed Li Cunwo.

At that time, the war on the Zhenzhou front was tense, and the importance of Luzhou was needless to explain. Li Cunxu was afraid that Li Jitao would defect and surrender to Liang, so he immediately ordered the Zhaoyi Army to be renamed "Anyi Army" (to avoid the taboo of Li Sizhao. Li Sizhao did not avoid the taboo when he was alive, but avoided it after his death, which shows how eager Li Cunxu was to please Li Jitao), and appointed Li Jitao as the commander of Luzhou Anyi Army.

In order to support the front line in Zhenzhou, the General Logistics Department requisitioned 50,000 rations from Luzhou, but Li Jitao only provided 30,000 on the grounds of tight funds. Li Cunxu did not dare to blame him, but appeased him with kind words.

Li Cunxu's appeasement and compromise did not change Li Jitao's mind. He was obsessed with rebellion. His confidants Wei Zhuo and Shen Meng happened to return from a business trip to the headquarters and actively instigated him, saying that the Hedong Group was strong on the outside but weak on the inside, empty inside, and without talents, and would be eliminated by the Later Liang sooner or later, so we had better make plans early. So Li Jitao began to plan a big thing.

Soon, the battle of Zhenzhou ended, and Li Cunxu planned to ascend the throne and become emperor. He would set up civil and military officials and prepare to build a central government. He ordered Li Jitao and others to come to Weizhou to participate in the establishment of the empire.

Wei Zhuo and Shen Meng warned Li Jitao: "The king has urgently summoned you. I'm afraid it's a Hongmen Banquet. It's more likely to be disastrous than good!"

Li Jitao's younger brother, Li Jiyuan, who was only fifteen or sixteen years old, said to Li Jitao: "Brother, our family has a million in assets, and the food and grass reserves can be used for ten years. You should also plan for yourself and not be controlled by others!"

"Well... good brother, what should we do?"

Li Jiyuan pointed at Wei Zhuo and Shen Meng and said, "Since Hedong will be defeated by Houliang sooner or later, why don't we join Houliang now? Hedong is facing internal and external troubles and has no time to care about us. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for us!"

The internal troubles that Li Jiyuan mentioned were that the rebellions in Zhen and Ding states had just been quelled and needed some time to digest; the external troubles were that the Khitans had once again moved south and the Later Liang Dynasty was taking the opportunity to counterattack Hebei. We will talk about this in detail later.

Li Jitao agreed with this, so he sent Li Jiyuan to lead more than a hundred cavalrymen, announcing that they were going to patrol Jinzhou and Jiangzhou to search for Later Liang soldiers. While patrolling, they took the opportunity to cross the border and surrender to Zhu Youzhen in Bianzhou, saying that they were willing to give up Luzhou and surrender to Later Liang.

Zhu Youzhen was overjoyed and immediately sent Dong Zhang to lead troops to support them and station them in the south of Luzhou. He changed the Anyi Army to the Kuangyi Army and appointed Li Jitao as the Jiedushi of the Luzhou Kuangyi Army and gave him the title of Prime Minister (Tongpingzhangshi). In order to show his sincerity to Zhu Youzhen, Li Jitao sent his two beloved sons to Bianzhou as hostages.

Pei Yue, the garrison commander of Zezhou, refused to carry out Li Jitao's order. He called the generals together and cried to them, saying, "I have followed our old commander Li Sizhao for more than 20 years. I have seen him lead the troops and share the hardships with them. He also paid out of his own pocket to reward the soldiers and was determined to destroy the enemy. Now, our old commander has unfortunately died. Before his coffin is buried, his son has betrayed his parents. I, Pei Yue, would rather die than obey!" The generals were moved to tears and expressed their willingness to join hands with him to fight the enemy. So Pei Yue led the generals to occupy Zezhou and refused to hand it over to the Later Liang. When Dong Zhang of the Later Liang led his army to attack, Pei Yue resisted stubbornly while sending letters to Li Cunxu for help.

After receiving the report, Li Cunxu was filled with emotion and said to the generals around him: "How can I be so unkind to Ji Tao and so kind to Pei Yue? Pei Yue knows right from wrong and loyalty from treachery. My brother Si Zhao's family is unfortunate to have given birth to such an evil creature!" Then he ordered Zhao Dejun to lead the army to rescue. Before leaving, Li Cunxu told Zhao Dejun: "Zezhou is just a tiny place. I don't care about its gains and losses. I just want you to rescue Pei Yue no matter what!"

In fact, Zezhou is the southern gate of Luzhou, and it is also the throat of the Taihang Mountains. It is one of the strategic locations for the struggle between Jin and Bian, and has been repeatedly seen in the tug-of-war in Zhaoyi area. Zezhou is certainly not an insignificant place. Li Cunxu would rather give up Zezhou and save Pei Yue.

Zhao Dejun, also known as Zhao Xingshi, was given the name Li Shaobin by Li Cunxu. Therefore, most historical materials recorded this story as "Shaobin was sent to lead 5,000 cavalrymen to fight against him". Li Shaobin, Zhao Xingshi and Zhao Dejun are the same person. This book calls him "Zhao Dejun" because this name is more well-known. He will do several major things in the following text, making the name "Zhao Dejun" a laughing stock for thousands of years.

In March, Li Jitao defected to Liang and Zezhou was besieged. When Zhao Dejun set out from Liaozhou to provide assistance (Zizhi Tongjian says it was in August, and Old Five Dynasties History says it was in June), Pei Yue had been fighting alone for several months and had run out of ammunition and food. Before the reinforcements arrived, Zezhou fell and Pei Yue was killed.

Upon receiving the bad news, Li Cunxu was deeply regretful and sad.

Luzhou is a legendary town. It is a strategic location that was repeatedly fought over by Jin and Bian. Its ownership will directly determine the initiative of the war. There are many strategic towns, and Luzhou is just one of them. Its legendary color is mainly reflected in the process of changing ownership.

It always brings surprises. When the two sides are fighting, it stands firm; when the two sides relax, it takes the initiative to surrender. For example, Ding Hui surrendered to Jin, and Li Jitao surrendered to Liang.

The city was surrounded in March, but reinforcements did not arrive until several months later. The reason for this was that the internal and external troubles of the Later Tang regime, as described by Li Jitao's gang, did indeed prevent Li Cunxu from extricating himself temporarily.

For example, the threat from the north: the Khitan harassment from the south.

As analyzed in the previous article, after the nomadic peoples of the northern grasslands were integrated by a strong leader, they would inevitably move south to invade the Central Plains. This is an inevitable law of history.

Yelu Abaoji, instigated by the traitors Lu Wenjin and Wang Yu, marched south twice. Lu Wenjin and Wang Yu only played a catalytic role. Even without these two guides, the Khitan would have marched south. Looking through the history books, it is not difficult to find that the daily tasks of the Khitan when they marched south to invade the Central Plains, in addition to several large-scale invasions, were numerous small-scale harassment and looting.

Before Li Cunxu ascended the throne, the Khitan invaded Youzhou once again, and the troops penetrated into Yizhou and Dingzhou, looting the food and money transported to Youzhou from various places. Youzhou had less than half a year's worth of food, and the situation was tense.

Li Cunxu transferred General Li Cunshen to lead the expedition from Cangzhou to Youzhou, and ordered Li Siyuan to replace Li Cunshen in Cangzhou. Li Cunshen was already ill in bed at this time, so he had to go to the front line despite his illness.

Li Cunru, the governor of Weizhou (a prefecture under the Weizhou military), was originally named Yang Po'er. He was a famous opera performer and was favored by Li Cunxu. He was given the name Li Cunru and made the governor of Weizhou. During his tenure in Weizhou, he was corrupt and levied heavy taxes. He believed that money was the most important thing and that everything could be negotiated as long as money was paid. For example, sentinels on duty could go home and rest as long as they handed over a certain amount of money.

Therefore, Duan Ning (Zhu Wen's elder brother-in-law) of the "foreign relatives gang" of the Later Liang took advantage of the loopholes in Weizhou's defense and led his army to attack Weizhou at night. Under the cover of darkness, he climbed the unmanned city wall, easily controlled Weizhou, and captured Li Cunru alive. After that, he joined forces with the commander-in-chief Dai Siyuan to expand the victory, captured other cities in Weizhou, and recovered all the land west of Chanzhou and south of Xiangzhou, so that the territory of the Later Liang Dynasty was able to cross the Yellow River again.

The food and supplies of the Weizhou army stationed in Hedong were lost by up to one third.

Weizhou was recaptured by the Later Liang; Luzhou rebelled and surrendered to the Liang; the Khitan invaded Youzhou... In addition, the successive deaths of generals (Zhou Dewei, Shi Jiantang, Yan Bao, Li Sizhao, Li Cunjin) caused panic in Hedong and the morale of the army was shaken. Li Cunxu and his new regime, the Later Tang, faced an extremely serious test of establishing a country.

(End of this chapter)