History of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms

Chapter 328 Guo Chongtao's Death 7 Inescapable

[Guo Chongtao's death is inevitable]

1. After Guo Chongtao entered Shu, he openly and ostentatiously accepted bribes on a large scale, to the point that eunuchs like Li Congxi around Li Jiji became jealous. Was Guo Chongtao corrupt?

Just as what Li Jiji said when he helped him out, Guo Chongtao also said the same thing at the beginning of the conquest of Liang. The bribery trend in the officialdom of Former Shu was even worse than that of Later Liang. If he refused their bribes, "would he not be afraid?"
2. Guo Chongtao's tacit approval of Wang Zongbi as the governor of Xichuan was a stopgap measure and a delaying tactic.

First of all, before leaving, Guo Chongtao personally recommended the candidate for the Jiedushi of Xichuan to Li Cunxu - Meng Zhixiang. How could he now slap himself in the face and recommend the surrendered general Wang Zongbi?
Secondly, Guo Chongtao only verbally agreed to Wang Zongbi and did not "report it".

Finally, after basically controlling the situation in Chengdu, Guo Chongtao found a reason to kill Wang Zongbi and his entire family.

From this, it can be seen that Guo Chongtao's agreement to let Wang Zongbi stay in Xichuan was completely to use Wang Zongbi, using his prestige and power to control and appease the situation in Chengdu. When this number one "traitor of Shu" lost his value, he would be ruthlessly abandoned.

3. Guo Chongtao stayed in Sichuan and was supported to stay in Sichuan because of the situation. Based on the actual situation, it was not appropriate for him to return to Luoyang immediately.

We have repeatedly stressed that the Later Tang expeditionary force to attack Shu had only 60,000 soldiers, and what they had to face was a former Shu Empire that had been run by two generations of fathers and sons for 35 years, with 50 to 60 states, more than 200 counties, and hundreds of thousands of troops. Except for the "Battle of Sanquan", the former Shu did not put up any resistance, and such a huge empire surrendered. Behind the seemingly miracle was an immeasurable management cost.

In short, the people of Shu refused to surrender. "We are all willing to fight to the death, why did Your Majesty surrender first?"

Under the glamorous appearance of being invincible, there is a turbulent undercurrent. That is why Guo Chongtao used Wang Zongbi's reputation to suppress the ground.

Even so, rebellions still broke out in Former Shu, and the entire Shu region fell into chaos and out of control. If Guo Chongtao withdrew the main force of the Later Tang expeditionary force at this time, then Shu would be dominated by many heroes, and all the previous efforts of the Later Tang would be in vain.

In order to protect his vested interests, Guo Chongtao pretended to agree to stay in Shu to appease the surrendered generals of Former Shu, while at the same time sending his deputy generals Ren Yuan, Zhang Yun and others to divide their troops and suppress rebellions in various places, so he could not return home immediately.

In short, there are reasonable explanations behind Guo Chongtao's seemingly disloyal and unlawful actions. I personally also believe that Guo Chongtao is innocent.

I believe it, but Li Cunxu doesn't.

The reason for our disagreement is our different perspectives. As the saying goes, the head follows the butt. My perspective is that of a spectator who will speak up for the tragic hero and worry about right and wrong. Li Cunxu, on the other hand, is sitting on the emperor's throne, overlooking the world from the perspective of a king. Anyone who poses a challenge to his authority must be eliminated. He would rather kill three thousand people by mistake than let a single person escape.

Duke Zhou was afraid of rumors, and Wang Mang was humble before he usurped the throne. You were a loyal minister before, but does that mean you will be a loyal minister in the future?
The eunuchs slandered Guo Chongtao in front of Li Cunxu all day long, and over time, Li Cunxu began to have doubts. After the surrender of Former Shu, Li Cunxu sent the eunuch Xiang Yansi to Chengdu to urge Guo Chongtao to return to the capital.

The eunuch Xiang Yansi arrived in Chengdu exhausted, but Guo Chongtao did not go out to meet him. Not only was there no welcoming ceremony, but during the formal meeting, Guo Chongtao always acted condescending, which made the eunuch Xiang Yansi extremely angry.

Afterwards, Xiang Yansi met with the military supervisor eunuch Li Congxi. When eunuchs met, their eyes were filled with tears. The two eunuchs had too much in common to talk about. Xiang Yansi said, "Look at how arrogant Guo Chongtao is. The prince is young and weak, and he can't control Guo Chongtao at all. Guo Chongtao is arbitrary and doesn't take the prince seriously at all. I think even if the prince becomes an official, he will find it difficult to suppress Guo."

Li Congxi added fuel to the fire and said, "Who said it wasn't true? Hey, you don't know, Guo Chongtao's son Guo Tinghui is even more arrogant, leading a large number of guards all day long, swaggering through the streets, drinking and having fun with the generals in the army and the local tyrants, pointing out the country's affairs, writing inspiring articles, and being very awesome! What's more terrible is-"

The two of them looked around like thieves, closed the doors and windows, lowered their voices, and whispered in each other's ears: "It was this Guo Tinghui who instructed the surrendered generals in Shu to jointly petition and put pressure on the court to demand that Guo Chongtao stay in Shu. Guess why he wanted to stay? This little Guo told his father, Lao Guo, that Shu has fertile land, rich people, and a natural barrier..."

Li Congxi shook his head and sighed, saying: "Now, the surrendered generals in Shu are all followers of Guo and his son. The prince is in a very dangerous situation now, like temporarily living in the mouth of a tiger. Once the Guo family makes trouble, we don't know where we will be buried!"

The two eunuchs were so moved that they couldn't help but burst into tears.

Finally, Li Congxi asked Xiang Yansi to report the prince's dangerous situation to the Queen Xiao Liu and think of a way to save the prince's life.

We are all foxes in the same mountain, so let's not talk about Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio. Xiang Yansi gave Li Congxi a look that said it all, "Don't worry, you know what I mean."

After returning to the capital, the eunuch Xiang Yansi ran to Empress Liu to cry and exaggerated Li Jiji's dangerous situation. It seemed that Guo Chongtao wanted to kill Li Jiji and then split Shu and proclaim himself emperor.

Empress Liu quickly ran to Li Cunxu and cried, asking him to think of a way to save her son's life.

The surrendered generals in Shu jointly petitioned to retain Guo Chongtao, which had already touched Li Cunxu's red line. Li Cunxu was very unhappy at the time. Now, after hearing the report from Xiang Yansi, who had just returned from an inspection in Shu, he became more suspicious. Could it be that Guo Chongtao really turned evil?
When Xiang Yansi was reporting on his work, he also mentioned seemingly unintentionally that Guo Chongtao did not "come to the suburbs to welcome him" and was arrogant. Although Xiang Yansi was a person who had been punished, a eunuch who had castrated people and killed people... he came here by imperial decree and represented the emperor's power. When you beat a dog, look at its owner. You, Guo Chongtao, clearly despise the emperor!
Li Cunxu's main purpose of this expedition was to plunder the wealth of the Former Shu, because it was rumored that the land was rich. However, when he checked the account books of the Former Shu palace, he found that the spoils of war were very few, and he couldn't help but wonder: "Didn't they say that the gold and silver treasures in the land of Shu were countless? How come there are only so few?"

Now, Xiang Yansi, who had returned from Shu, solved the mystery for him. "It is true that Former Shu was rich, but when it surrendered, all the gold and silver treasures fell into the hands of Guo Chongtao and his son. After he passed through their hands, only this much was left... Guess how much they stole? Guo Chongtao himself took away 10,000 taels of gold, 400,000 taels of silver, 1 million strings of cash, 1,000 famous horses, and other property that was not much different from that. The amount that his son Guo Tinghui embezzled and withheld has not been calculated, and the amount that his other staff and confidants embezzled is even more impossible to count. Your Majesty, take a look, the amount that was finally handed over to you is only this much."

Li Cunxu's face changed drastically at that time, and he was furious. We will soon mention that Li Cunxu's main purpose of attacking Shu was to make money to fill the huge financial deficit. So when he heard about Guo Chongtao's arrogance, he just became suspicious and murmured, and when he heard that Guo Chongtao touched his money bag, he was extremely angry.

Meng Zhixiang was coming to Luoyang from Taiyuan to report to the capital and accept the job transfer and work instructions from the leader. When he left Luoyang to govern Xichuan, Li Cunxu secretly gave him a secret mission: to kill Guo Chongtao. The reason was that Guo Chongtao was plotting a rebellion.

Meng Zhixiang was shocked, so he defended Guo Chongtao, saying that Guo Chongtao had made great contributions to the empire, and had just destroyed Liang and pacified Former Shu, so how could he suddenly rebel? This must be strange, Your Majesty, please don't worry, wait for me to go and investigate secretly, if he really rebelled, I will kill him; if not, I will send him back and you can talk to him in person, how about that?

Li Cunxu thought about it and felt that what Meng Zhixiang said made sense, so he agreed to this compromise.

(End of this chapter)