History of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms

Chapter 496 When a Politician Meets a Traitor

Speaking of this person, his identity is quite prominent: he is the son-in-law of Li Keyong and the adopted son of Yelu Abaoji. He is Wang Yu, the son of Wang Chuzhi, the former governor of Yiwu Army in Dingzhou.

"History of Liao" says that he was Wang Chuzhi's "evil son", which is concise and easy to understand.

After Wang Chucun, the governor of Yiwu Army in Dingzhou, died, the three armies supported his son Wang Gao. When Zhu Wen was pacifying Heshuo, Wang Gao sent his uncle Wang Chuzhi to lead troops to resist. Wang Chuzhi was defeated and then launched a mutiny, claiming to be the regent. Wang Gao abandoned the city and fled to Hedong. Because Wang Yu was not liked by his father Wang Chuzhi, he abandoned his father and followed his cousin Wang Gao to flee to Hedong. Li Keyong married his daughter to him and appointed him as the defense envoy of Xinzhou.

Zhang Wenli of Zhenzhou murdered Wang Rong and started a rebellion, so Li Cunxu sent troops to attack. Zhenzhou and Dingzhou were interdependent, and Wang Chuzhi was worried about being annexed by Li Cunxu, so he instructed Wang Yu to collude with the Khitan for help. Wang Yu then defected to the Khitan and was adopted by Yelu Abaoji. From then on, he became a slave of three families.

Afterwards, Wang Yu became a die-hard traitor, helping the Khitans to invade the Central Plains from the south, following the "Imperial Army" to fight east and west, and made many contributions.

After Yelü Abaoji passed away, Wang Yu's wife (daughter of Li Keyong) cried in front of Empress Dowager Shulü, saying that she missed her hometown. Since her husband and wife had served their godfather for many years and now that his godfather was gone, she wanted to return to her hometown and visit her biological father's grave.

"Okay." Empress Dowager Shulü held her hand, expressing her reluctance to let her go. She said a lot of words like a dear daughter. The scene was very emotional and touching.

At this time, Wang Yu jumped out and angrily scolded his prodigal wife, "Godfather is gone, don't we still have godmother?" Then he burst into tears and expressed his loyalty to Empress Dowager Shulü, "I was originally the son-in-law of the Tang Dynasty. Now that the Tang emperor has been murdered (Li Cunxu was killed), how can my husband and I be tolerated? You are our biological mother, and I am willing to serve you for the rest of my life!"

Born as a Khitan, died as a Khitan soul, Khitans are all superior to others.

The Empress Dowager Shulü was so moved that she said in person: "Among the Han people, only Wang Lang is the most loyal and filial!"

However, Wang Yu died of illness soon afterwards, and the Khitans lost another guide on their journey south to the Central Plains.

The death and escape of the "guides" was also one of the reasons why the Khitans were unwilling to launch a large-scale war to the south.

At the beginning of Li Congke's enthronement, Yelu Bei sent someone to deliver a secret letter, informing him of the situation in the Central Plains, revealing the strengths and weaknesses of the Central Plains, pointing out that now was a good opportunity to invade the Central Plains, and begging Yelu Deguang to send troops south.

Therefore, the Khitans decided to take advantage of the situation, and Yelu Deguang finally led his troops south in person, using the war to accumulate reputation and consolidate power.

This time, the main force of the Khitan chose Yunzhou, which is the northeastern part of Hedong, as their route of advance, because Zhao Dejun had been operating in Youzhou for many years and was a tough nut to crack.

It was precisely because of this large-scale harassment by the Khitan that Li Congke released Shi Jingtang to return to Hedong to resist the Khitan.

After the previous defeat in Dingzhou, Yelu Deguang fought very cautiously this time, forming a confrontation with Shi Jingtang and waiting for a turning point.

At this time, Li Song and Lu Qi gave Li Congke advice and advocated reconciliation with the Khitan, "pacifying the country before resisting foreign aggression" and dealing with Shi Jingtang first. However, they were obstructed by the "angry young man" Xue Wenyu.

History gave Li Congke a chance, but he did not seize it.

Next, history gave Shi Jingtang a fair chance. Shi Jingtang's advisers Zhao Ying, Sang Weihan and others also proposed to seek help from Khitan to deal with Li Congke first. Zhao Ying first went to Khitan to ask for help.

Yelu Deguang, who was eager to go south to make achievements, immediately asked Empress Dowager Shulü for permission, saying that Li Congke had killed the emperor and established himself as the emperor, which was condemned by both humans and gods. We are acting on behalf of heaven and have the right to do so. He requested the Queen Mother's permission to go south!

Empress Dowager Shulü was very scheming and had far-sighted plans. These high-sounding words were spoken to outsiders. She was upholding justice and supporting justice? What were the benefits? The Khitans were not philanthropists, and the world police also had to eat.

Being reserved is not a rejection, but a request for a price. Waiting for a price that makes you excited.

The battle in Hedong at that time was like this: Zhang Jingda and Yang Guangyuan surrounded Taiyuan and fought fiercely; Li Congke ordered Fan Yanguang to lead troops from Weizhou to the west, cross the Taihang Mountains, and support from the southeast of Taiyuan; he ordered Zhao Dejun to lead troops from Youzhou to the west, cross the northern part of Taihang Mountains, and support from the northeast of Taiyuan.

In particular, the strategic goal of Zhao Dejun's troops was to intercept the Khitan reinforcements and outflank the Khitan army from behind.

It can be seen that Li Congke is a veteran after all. Although he is not very good at governing the country, he is still remarkable in military deployment and command of large-scale troop operations.

However, things went against one's wishes. The most important armed force, Zhao Dejun of Youzhou, had other ideas.

If the "powerful" officials in the late Mingzong period were ranked according to their comprehensive strength, they should be Zhao Dejun, Shi Jingtang, Li Congke, and Fan Yanguang.

Therefore, after Li Congke ascended the throne, he tried his best to win over these three big men, such as promoting Zhao Yanshou (Zhao Dejun's adopted son), allowing Shi Jingtang to return to his hometown, and forming a marriage between his children and Fan Yanguang's (Prince Li Chongmei married Fan Yanguang's daughter).

Now that Shi Jingtang was openly plotting rebellion, Li Congke's wishful thinking was of course to use the tiger to drive away the wolves and let Zhao Dejun and Fan Yanguang help him to redress his name.

Zhao Dejun also had his own little calculations. When the news of Shi Jingtang's rebellion came, Zhao Dejun was extremely happy. He thought that the rare goods were worth keeping, and he also wanted to take advantage of the fire to rob. As the saying goes, knowing yourself and knowing the enemy, you can fight a hundred battles without danger. Zhao Dejun also knew that Li Congke had to rely on his Youzhou forces to counter Shi Jingtang in Hedong, so he took the opportunity to blackmail and force Li Congke to give him greater benefits.

Zhao Dejun's ultimate goal was to take over the Heshuo region and make the area east of Taihang Mountain and north of the Yellow River his sphere of influence. After receiving the order to march west, Zhao Dejun did not follow Li Congke's order to encircle the area from the north of Taihang Mountain, but adjusted his marching route to the south, even surpassing Fan Yanguang's marching route of Wei Bo and going further south than Fan Yanguang.

In this way, Zhao Dejun's troops would cross the entire Heshuo area, so Zhao Dejun pretended to have an imperial edict and ordered the troops of the prefectures and counties along the way to follow him. In other words, Zhao Dejun used the imperial edict as a cover to annex the troops in the Heshuo area and occupied the land of the Heshuo area without any soldiers.

The troops he annexed included Liu Zaiming, commander-in-chief of the Northern Army Group (commander-in-chief of the Northern Camp) and governor of Zhaozhou; and Dong Wenqi, deputy commander-in-chief of the Northern Army Group and governor of Zhenzhou Chengde Army.

Despite this, Zhao Dejun also submitted a memorial complaining that the number of troops was too small and that they must join forces with the Xizhaoyi Army in Luzhou and then march north together.

The Luzhou Xizhaoyi Army was located west of the Taihang Mountains. Zhao Dejun was like a hungry beast, not only eating up the land east of the Taihang Mountains, but also stretching his greedy claws west of the Taihang Mountains.

(End of this chapter)