History of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms

Chapter 506 Shi Jingtang's Struggle
Li Congke, originally surnamed Wang, was from Zhenzhou. He lost his father at a young age and lived with his mother, Wei. Mrs. Wei was quite pretty. When Li Siyuan plundered Hebei in 895, he took Wei as his concubine. At that time, Li Congke was only ten years old, so Li Siyuan adopted him as his son, brought him by his side, and gave him the name "Li Congke".

According to Li Siyuan himself, at that time, he was just a low-ranking military officer with a meager income. He was so poor that he had no clothes to wear and no food to eat. Little Li Congke went out to collect firewood and carry horse manure to supplement the family income.

When Li Congke grew up, he followed Li Siyuan into battle, fighting in many places and making many contributions.

The greatest contribution was in the "Battle of Huliupi" in 919. In that battle, Zhou Dewei was killed, Li Cunxu's army was demoralized, Li Siyuan secretly returned to the north, and Li Congke stayed by Li Cunxu's side, risking his own life, and finally turned the tide and stabilized the situation. At that time, Li Cunxu wanted to execute Li Siyuan by military law for deserting the battlefield and intending to rebel and seize power, but he spared Li Siyuan's life because of Li Congke's contribution.

Later, in the "Battle of Desheng and Jiacheng" in 922, Li Congke led a dozen cavalrymen and actually mixed in with the Houliang troops and retreated to the Houliang army camp. When they arrived at the camp gate, they suddenly shouted and killed several Houliang soldiers, causing chaos in the Houliang army. Then they took advantage of the chaos to cut down the Houliang watchtower and retreated safely. Even the "one-on-one tough guy" Li Cunxu couldn't help but exclaimed: "What a great man, Ah San!"

The following year (923), he and Li Siyuan traveled thousands of miles to attack Bianzhou and destroyed the Later Liang. Li Cunxu held Li Siyuan's hand outside the city of Bianzhou and said, "The restoration of the Tang Dynasty is the work of you and your son."

The Old History of the Five Dynasties evaluated him as: brave, sad, and cowardly, which correspond to the three historical periods of Li Congke.

When he was young, he was invincible in battle and could go in and out of enemy lines, "how brave he was"; but when he was in power, he had no talent for governing the country, and he appointed a bunch of mediocre people such as Lu Wenji and Xue Wenyu, and the situation was unfavorable and he was not blessed by heaven, "how sad"; when he led the army in person at the end, he was afraid of Shi Jingtang's army and the strength of the Khitan, so much so that he shed tears outside the city of Luoyang, "how cowardly he was".

Shi Jingtang searched for Li Congke's remains from the ashes and buried him in Huiling in March of the following year. After Shi Jingtang entered Luoyang, he announced that Li Congke would be demoted to a commoner, but history still gave Li Congke a fairer title. The Old History of the Five Dynasties called him the "Last Emperor" and the New History of the Five Dynasties called him the "Deposed Emperor". In short, Li Congke's status as an emperor was recognized.

Success or failure does not determine a hero. In any case, when a king faces destruction, he either flees or surrenders, but only a few can commit suicide and sacrifice their lives for their country. Li Congke may not have the talent to rule the country, but he has the backbone to die for the country. He is a real man.

Luoyang welcomed its new master, Shi Jingtang, the founding emperor of the Later Jin Dynasty.

Shi Jingtang's throne became extremely weak due to the strong intervention of Khitan. Since Mingzong, we often say that Mingzong Li Siyuan is a weak claimant and has to face a serious court deficit, so Li Siyuan behaves very weakly and compromises everywhere; Li Conghou and Li Congke face a more difficult situation than Li Siyuan.

Compared with Shi Jingtang, they lived a very comfortable life.

In addition to these standard difficulties, Shi Jingtang had an additional shackle: recognizing the enemy as his father. In terms of diplomacy, he was inferior to others. Not only did he have to pay tribute to his Khitan father every year, but he also had to be told what to do in domestic affairs by his Khitan father.

Outside, the Khitans treated him as their son; inside, his subjects treated him as their grandson. After Shi Jingtang entered Luoyang, he did not dare to carry out a purge, saying "a new emperor chooses new ministers" and that everyone should be happy. However, to everyone's surprise, the surrendered generals actually turned around and bullied Shi Jingtang.

Faced with bullying from all sides, Shi Jingtang dared not say a word and had to put on a smiling face everywhere.

Following the previous summary of Yelu Deguang’s “Biography”, we can also briefly summarize the content of Shi Jingtang’s “Biography”:

1. Long Live Father-in-Law

2. Long Live Khitan Dad

3. Suppressing the Rebellion

4. Long live the rebel general
If you do not resonate with the "handful of bitter tears" when you pick up "Dream of Red Mansions", please switch to "Old Five Dynasties History" and read "Chronicle of Jin Gaozu". Now we will enter the third of the Five Dynasties - Later Jin, and take a look at the painful struggle of the "child emperor".

1. Political Propaganda

The most urgent thing for Shi Jingtang's group was to find a seemingly reasonable legal basis for Shi Jingtang, that is, to whitewash the "traitor".

They put a lot of effort into it:
1. Emperor Min's "Last Will"

When Li Congke rebelled in Fengxiang, the imperial army lost the first battle. Li Congke took advantage of the victory and approached Luoyang. Li Conghou then ordered Shi Jingtang to rescue the emperor.

Regarding the above history, Shi Jingtang's propaganda team whitewashed it in this way:
"…Emperor Min urgently summoned the emperor to the palace, hoping to entrust the country to him…"

But later, in the explanation of the "Weizhou Incident", although only a few dozen words were used to describe Shi Jingtang as an innocent naive person and throw all the dirty water on Li Congke, but it created a bug with the previous statement "wanting to entrust the country to others".

In short, Emperor Min Li Conghou was the legal heir of Emperor Mingzong Li Siyuan. Since he "wanted to entrust the country to him", Shi Jingtang was the only designated legal heir to the Later Tang Dynasty.

2. Vision of the Nativity

As an emperor, how could he be included in the "Annals" if there were no strange signs when he was born? Shi Jingtang was naturally close to science when he was born.

Shi Jingtang's birth was relatively peaceful, with only ten simple words describing it: "There was white mist filling the courtyard, and people were very surprised." The delivery room suddenly became a fairyland, just like the heavenly palace in the 86 version of "Journey to the West."

3. This is God’s will

3.1 Ancient Wood Book
It is said that 30 years ago, when Zhu Wen usurped the Tang Dynasty (907), Li Si'an of Luzhou reported to the emperor that a strange thing happened when villagers in Shurang Township, Huguan County, Luzhou, were cutting down trees. A tree fell down on its own and then split in two. There were six large characters in official script written inside the tree - "天四载石进".

The villagers reported it to Li Sian, who then reported it to Zhu Wen. Zhu Wen gathered experts from all walks of life to analyze and study "Approaching Science", but no one could understand its meaning. So Zhu Wen hid the book in his inner palace.

It was not until thirty years later, when Shi Jingtang proclaimed himself emperor and entered Luoyang, that an "expert" finally figured out the secret: In "天四四", if you remove half of the "天" and "四", and put them together, you get the character "丙"; the same goes for "十" and "四", which can form the character "申". The year that Shi Jingtang proclaimed himself emperor (936) happened to be the "丙申年".

There is no need to explain "载石进". So the meaning of the heavenly book is that in the year of Bingshen, someone with the surname Shi will become emperor.

Another explanation is that the Later Tang regime lasted exactly fourteen years from the establishment of the dynasty by Li Cunxu to the self-immolation of Li Congke, so "Tian Shi Si" means that the shelf life of the Later Tang Dynasty ends this year, and "Jin" means "Jin", so the Heavenly Book says that the Later Tang regime will be replaced by the "Da Jin" regime this year.

In short, as early as when Zhu Wen usurped the Tang Dynasty, God had given the people of the world a brain teaser in Luzhou.

(End of this chapter)