History of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms

Chapter 348 Li Siyuan Becomes Emperor 1
【Li Siyuan proclaimed himself emperor 1】

Li Siyuan was faced with a huge challenge, and the resources he had were too few to intimidate and control the entire empire. Morality, territory, army, money and food... Li Siyuan had almost nothing. He only had one thing - brains.

That's enough.

When Li Siyuan ascended the throne, he was already in his sixties. He had been fighting in the army since he was a child (13 years old), and had successively followed Li Guochang, Li Keyong, and Li Cunxu. He had served three generations of Li Cunxu's descendants. He had gone through life and death for 47 years, and finally became a general and prime minister, and a general who could take charge of the Hedong Group. With 47 years of experience in political and military struggles, what kind of storms and waves had he not seen? What kind of bloody storms had he not experienced?

The older the emperor, the spicier it is. Li Siyuan rode the waves in the stormy sea, not only solving the above difficulties and making the transition of power smooth, but also basically making the empire walk out of the scars of war and gradually move towards prosperity. Li Siyuan is also recognized as the second wise and holy ruler among the "Five Dynasties" emperors. Yes, the first one is the undisputed one.

Below is Li Siyuan’s high-end operation.

First, be legitimate

On the day Li Siyuan entered Luoyang (April 4), Prime Ministers Dou Luge and Wei Shuo led hundreds of civil and military officials and jointly requested Li Siyuan to ascend the throne and become emperor.

Li Siyuan said that it was all a misunderstanding. He was a loyal minister who came to protect the emperor, not a traitor who wanted to kill the emperor. He had never thought about becoming emperor.

"It's not too late to think about it now." Dou Luge and others pleaded again and again, but Li Siyuan always refused.

In the following days, all civil and military officials made the second best choice and said, since you don't want to be emperor, then please serve as regent. After all, the country cannot be without a ruler for a day.

Li Siyuan tried to decline the offer modestly as usual, "I have no virtue or ability, I dare not."

As usual, after three attempts, on April 4, Li Siyuan "reluctantly" agreed, and moved into the palace the next day (April 7), and began to accept audiences from civil and military officials.

At this time, Li Siyuan's orders were no longer called "edicts" but "instructions"; civil and military officials were no longer called "Your Majesty" but "Your Highness".

After temporarily stabilizing the situation in Luoyang, Li Siyuan immediately transferred Shi Jingtang to be the commander of the Shanzhou Baoyi Army, stationed in Shanzhou (now Sanmenxia City, Henan Province) to block Li Jiji's attack on Luoyang; and ordered Li Congke to be the commander of the Hezhong Huguo Army to prevent Li Jiji from fleeing north to Taiyuan.

As early as the Weizhou mutiny, Li Cunxu sent his eunuch Zhang Hanbin to rush to Shu to urge Li Jiji to return to the capital as soon as possible to rescue the emperor. At that time, Li Jiji was suppressing Kang Yanxiao's rebellion. Zhang Hanbin urged him very hard.

There was a military adviser named Chen Min, who was an old friend of Zhang Hanbin. So he secretly asked him about the situation in Luoyang, "I heard that the emperor in Luoyang has been replaced. Who is the new emperor?"

Zhang Hanbin looked serious and said, "I came here on the orders of the emperor and I am doing what he ordered. I dare not know anything else."

Chen Min added, "Don't be afraid. I have my own connections. Rumors have long been circulating that Li Siyuan has become the emperor. Why are you hiding it from me? What I mean is that if Luoyang really has a new emperor, it would be best if Li Jiji didn't rush back. He should stay in Shu first and observe how the situation develops. He can wait and see and then make plans."

Zhang Hanbin lowered his head. "To be honest, when I arrived, Li Siyuan had already crossed the Yellow River. I don't know what happened afterwards. I received the emperor's decree in person. How could I disobey it just because of a few rumors I heard from others?"

Finally, under Zhang Hanbin's repeated urging, Li Jiji hurriedly accelerated towards Luoyang.

When Li Jiji hurried to Xingping, west of Chang'an, he got the news of the unrest in Luoyang. Li Jiji decided to return to Fengxiang temporarily to wait and see how the situation developed, so the whole army turned around and headed west. Not long after they walked a short distance, the eunuch Li Congxi said, "It is a blessing, not a disaster. If it is a disaster, it is inevitable. Your Majesty, you'd better rush to the capital and take advantage of the fact that the rebels have not yet established a firm foothold to pacify the capital in one fell swoop."

Li Jiji thought it made sense, so he turned around again and headed east along the Yellow River.

The officials in Chang'an cut off the floating bridge of the Yellow River in advance to block Li Jiji's advance. Li Jiji ordered the whole army to swim across the Yellow River, bypass Chang'an and continue eastward.

During this process, a large number of soldiers fled, including Li Jiji's trusted eunuch Lu Zhirou. Li Jiji also fell into a situation of being deserted by his friends and relatives.

At this time, the eunuch Li Congxi once again offered his advice: "Your Majesty, things have come to this point... I know that you are a respectable man, please make your own decision."

Li Jiji wandered around crying, and finally, he made up his mind and said to his personal guard Li Huan: "You come and help me look decent."

Li Huan knelt down and cried bitterly, and was reluctant to do it. After much persuasion, Li Huan finally said to Li Jiji's nurse: "I can't bear to see the king. If the king really has no way out, please cover your face."

Then Li Jiji lay face down on the bed, and Li Huan strangled him to death with a rope from behind.

This Li Huan was the one who killed Guo Chongtao by shooting him in the head with a hammer.

Ren Yuan took over the command and led the troops to continue eastward. Shi Jingtang was ordered to comfort the troops halfway, and the expeditionary army gladly accepted it without any objection.

Li Siyuan sent his trusted confidant Li Chong to Huazhou as a military supervisor to welcome and appease Li Jiji's troops. Although Li Chong did not have many scenes, he was meticulous and ruthless. Like An Zhonghui and Huo Yanwei, he would take the blame for his master and do some dishonorable things.

After Li Chong arrived in Huazhou, he first forced the governor Shi Jingrong to report to the capital; then Li Cunjing, the governor of Kuangguo Army in Tongzhou, passed by Huazhou (probably to report to the capital), and Li Chong killed Li Cunjing and his entire family.

Shi Jingrong and Li Cunjing both appeared when Li Cunxu was trying to kill Li Kening. Shi Jingrong was an informer who accused Li Kening of "rebellion", while Li Cunjing conspired with Li Cunzhang, Zhang Chengye and others to kill Li Kening.

Especially Li Cunjing, he is Li Keyong's adopted son. Can such a person be kept? Of course not, kill his whole family!
After Ren Yuan arrived with the army to attack Shu, Li Chong killed the eunuch Li Congxi because Li Congxi was the chief political commissar of the army (commander-in-chief of the Xichuan camp).

After doing all the disgusting things for his master, Shi Jingrong also went to the capital and cried to the Privy Councilor An Zhonghui about his grievances. Shi Jingrong was indeed not a "Li Cunxu's accomplice", but was forced to be involved in the political struggle and was used by Li Cunxu. Apart from that, he seemed to have no intersection with Li Cunxu until this time when he appeared in the history books for the second time. This may be the reason why Li Chong did not kill him directly, but sent him to An Zhonghui to let him decide.

An Zhonghui tried to appease him with kind words and ordered him to stay in Huazhou. Then he transferred Li Chong back to Beijing to make a deep self-examination and severely criticized him for killing Li Cunjing and Li Congxi without authorization, saying, "How could you do this? Don't do this again in the future."

Ren Yuan led 20,000 people to Luoyang. Li Siyuan met him in person and comforted him for a long time. After a few words of greeting, Li Siyuan could not wait to ask the question that was weighing on his mind, "Where is Li Jiji?"

When he learned that Li Jiji had hanged himself and had been buried by Ren Yuan in the southwest of Huazhou, Li Siyuan finally breathed a sigh of relief, and the big stone in his heart fell to the ground.

"By the way, you said a few days ago that you wanted me to be the emperor, right?"

(End of this chapter)