History of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms

Chapter 855: Battle of Zelu 1
[Battle of Zelu]

Zhao Kuangyin took control of the Central Imperial Guards and thus ascended the throne smoothly. However, the emerging Song Dynasty still faced internal and external troubles, and Zhao Kuangyin did not dare to take it lightly.

The external threat mainly comes from the Khitan. Currently, only the Khitan has the ability to fight against the Central Plains. However, since Emperor Taizong Yelü Deguang, the Liao Dynasty has lacked the internal motivation to move south, especially now - during the reign of Emperor Muzong Yelü Jing, the Khitan is basically in a semi-paralyzed state. This strange Khitan leader will be described in detail later.

The internal troubles are easier to understand. Zhao Kuangyin came to power through a military coup and mainly relied on the power of the central imperial guards. The attitude of local vassal forces became the biggest uncertainty factor.

If the local vassal forces obediently submitted to Zhao Kuangyin and recognized the legal status of the Song Dynasty, then everyone would be happy. In addition, they had two other choices:

Form cliques and factions, establish independence; collude with foreign aid and overthrow the Central Plains.

These practices were common during the Five Dynasties period, with some successes and some failures.

Therefore, after Zhao Kuangyin came to power, in addition to rewarding "meritorious officials", he also focused on pacifying local forces. Among them, Fu Yanqing, Wang Jing, and Li Yiyin were the top priorities, and with these three people as the leaders, "the rest of the governors were promoted to higher ranks."

Why were these three people the leaders of the various vassal states? Because at that time, Fu Yanqing was stationed in Weizhou, Wang Jing was stationed in Qinzhou, and Li Yiyin was stationed in Xiazhou, which were the three major towns in the north, northwest, and southwest of the Central Plains Dynasty. In other words, if they rebelled, the cost to the Song Dynasty would be the highest, so they had to be taken care of first.

As early as the period of Chai Rong, a series of political, military, and economic reforms had been carried out to effectively reverse the power balance between the central and local governments. This is also the reason why Zhao Kuangyin, who controlled the central imperial army, could change the world in one day. The power of local vassal states has been effectively curbed. In this case, will there be local forces that will rise up to challenge the authority of the central government?

Have.

The first person to openly oppose the Song Dynasty was Li Yun, the governor of Zhaoyi Army in Luzhou.

During the reign of Emperor Mingzong of the Later Tang Dynasty, the prince Li Congrong was appointed as the chief judge of the six armies and guards, which established Li Congrong's position as the crown prince. Li Congrong then recruited warriors to form his own direct armed forces. On this day, a big man with well-developed limbs came to the door with his own bow and arrows and recommended himself. Li Congrong asked the guards around him to try the bow he brought, and found that the bow had a force of over 100 kilograms, and no one could pull it open. But this big man could easily pull it to the full extent and hit the target one after another, with strength and accuracy. Li Congrong immediately kept him by his side. This big man was Li Yun when he was young. His name was Li Rong at that time. He changed his name to Li Yun after Chai Rong ascended the throne to avoid taboos.

When Li Congrong launched the "Tianjin Bridge Coup", Li Yun served as his personal bodyguard and followed him closely. He shot and killed more than ten people in succession. Later, he realized that something was wrong, so he abandoned his horse and fled, successfully escaping the disaster.

As a "remnant of Li Congrong", Li Yun could only hide and live in fear all day long. Fortunately, Li Congke raised an army in Fengxiang in time, which quickly turned the page on the "Li Congrong Rebellion Case". Li Yun also had his day to shine and was recruited into Li Congke's imperial army.

When the Khitan destroyed the Later Jin Dynasty, Zhao Yanshou had heard of Li Yun's name for a long time, so he summoned him to serve under him. Then Yelu Deguang died of illness in Shahulin, "grandfather and grandson fight for power" and "crossing agreement", unprecedentedly fierce factional struggles broke out within the Khitan, during which Zhao Yanshou was also imprisoned in Zhenzhou.

Li Yun united a group of Later Jin generals who were forced to return north, and agreed to use the bell sound as a signal to launch a mutiny in Zhenzhou, expelling the Khitan garrison and gaining control of Zhenzhou. He then supported Feng Dao as the leader, but after being politely rejected, he turned to support Bai Zairong as the regent.

Afterwards, Li Yun quickly submitted his loyalty to Liu Zhiyuan and sent his son to the capital as a hostage, which was highly praised by Liu Zhiyuan. However, due to a mistake in his work, Liu Zhiyuan mistakenly regarded Bai Zairong, who was picking up fish, as the first meritorious person in the Zhenzhou mutiny, so he awarded Bai Zairong the title of Zhenzhou governor, and only awarded Li Yun the title of Bozhou governor. This made Li Yun quite unbalanced.

When Guo Wei was stationed in Weizhou, he recommended Li Yun to his own army. From then on, Li Yun became Guo Wei's direct confidant, and assisted Guo Wei together with another confidant Guo Chongwei. After Guo Wei became emperor, Li Yun finally joined the circle of friends in the vassal state and became a Jiedushi.

Li Yun had made contributions in the "Execution of Two Kings" and the expedition against Murong Yanchao of Yanzhou. After pacifying Yanzhou, Guo Wei appointed Li Yun as the Jiedushi of Zhaoyi Army of Luzhou, and regarded him as a "meritorious contributor to the founding of the country", and successively promoted him to the titles of Inspecting Taifu and Co-Prime Minister.

At the beginning of the "Battle of Gaoping", the Northern Han Dynasty attacked Luzhou with great momentum. Li Yun's first battle was unfavorable, which encouraged the enemy's arrogance. In the subsequent counterattack, Li Yun made up for his crime and supported Fu Yanqing with Zhang Yongde to repel the Khitan reinforcements.

In the subsequent "Three Expeditions to Huainan", Li Yun had been guarding Luzhou for the Later Zhou Dynasty, repelling the Northern Han's attempts several times. He also took the initiative to attack, penetrated deep into the heartland of the Northern Han, smashed, looted and burned, occupied Liaozhou, and expanded the territory for the Later Zhou Dynasty.

However, Chai Rong was quite dissatisfied with Li Yun, or rather, he did not trust him. Li Yun was a direct descendant of the previous emperor Guo Wei, and he was in an important city and commanded a large number of troops, which was enough to make Chai Rong sleepless. Li Yun did not take Chai Rong seriously, and he was proud of his achievements and did some rather outrageous things, such as "using taxes arbitrarily", "collecting fugitives", "imprisoning the military supervisor for personal grudges", etc.

From a political perspective, the above three items just happen to touch upon sensitive areas such as economy and military, and each of them carries a minimum penalty of death.

"Emperor Shizong could not bear it, but only issued an edict to reprimand him." In just these few words, we can already feel Chai Rong's anger and helplessness. He was deploying troops in Jianghuai at that time, and could only endure and not act against Li Yun of Luzhou.

After Chai Zongxun ascended the throne, Li Yun sent troops into the territory of Northern Han to smash, loot, burn, and plunder.

After Zhao Kuangyin became emperor, he appointed Li Yun as the Minister of the Central Secretariat and sent envoys to appease him, hoping that he would recognize the emerging Song Dynasty regime.

Li Yun had been in charge of Luzhou for more than eight years and was deeply rooted. He "relied on his bravery and was arbitrary" and "secretly planned to be domineering." He had long had the ambition to establish his own regime and even compete for the capital of Bianzhou, but he did not expect Zhao Kuangyin to get there first.

Therefore, after receiving the imperial edict, Li Yun's first reaction was to reject it. He clearly expressed his irreconcilable attitude towards the traitor Zhao Kuangyin. This frightened his attendants so much that they tried to persuade Li Yun with all their heart and finally he gritted his teeth and went against his conscience and very reluctantly accepted Zhao Kuangyin's edict.

Li Yun had been playing the role of an extra since the time of Emperor Mingzong of Later Tang, and it was not until this moment that he truly stepped onto the center of the historical stage. It was also from this moment that we could see his full picture of strong limbs and simple mind. Looking at his actions, it is not difficult to understand the negative evaluation of him by later generations.

Li Yun knelt down unwillingly to receive the order, and his appearance was still disrespectful. Li Yun's subsequent mysterious actions made people even more confused:
After receiving the imperial edict, a banquet was held as usual to entertain the envoy who delivered the imperial edict. As soon as the banquet began, Li Yun took out Guo Wei's portrait, hung it in the center of the hall, and then burst into tears facing the late emperor.

I fear the air suddenly freezing.

Li Yun's guests and staff were frightened by this scene, and hurriedly explained to the messenger that Li Yun was drunk and was acting crazy, and it was definitely not his true feelings.

The envoy was also worried that Li Yun would use him as a scapegoat, so he decided to back off and said, "Since we've drunk too much, let's meet again another day." He hurriedly set off on his journey back to Bianzhou.

In the above, we briefly sorted out Li Yun's life trajectory. It is not difficult to find that his first half of life was full of ups and downs. It seemed that the Creator was deliberately teasing him and arranged several noble people for him in succession. However, every time he went astray at the last moment, he almost had to kneel down with the noble people.

The first noble was the crown prince Li Congrong. If Li Congrong could hold back his temper and wait for two more days, then Li Yun would become a direct confidant of the emperor and become a general or a prime minister. However, his dream was shattered by the "Tianjin Bridge Incident".
The second noble person was Li Congke, who pulled Li Yun back to the top from the quagmire of the "Tianjin Bridge Incident", but the life of the platform was too short, and it ended when Shi Jingtang started an uprising in Taiyuan and Li Congke burned himself to death;
The third nobleman is Zhao Yanshou. As the "remnant of Li Congke", Li Yun's situation in the Later Jin Dynasty can be imagined, but his reputation was still recognized by his colleagues. For example, Zhao Yanshou pulled Li Yun from the low status into the upper class, but he was just a Khitan "kneeling tribe";
The fourth nobleman was Liu Zhiyuan. Li Yun finally bought the emperor's original shares, but the "Hou Han Co., Ltd." showed a chaotic accounting system in terms of dividends, and attributed Li Yun's contributions to others, which made shareholder Li Yun very depressed.
The fifth benefactor was Guo Wei. It was not until then that Li Yun met a true benefactor. Guo Wei led Li Yun out of the sea of ​​suffering and led him to the pinnacle of life step by step.

We have every reason to believe that Li Yun had deep and sincere feelings for Guo Wei. It was not a deliberate performance but a true expression of his feelings. So at the banquet for the fall of the country, Li Yun hung the portrait of Taizu Guo Wei instead of Chai Rong.

From a personal perspective, Li Yun's actions came from the heart, but from a public perspective, Li Yun's actions were simply courting disaster.

First, he showed great reluctance when kneeling to receive the imperial edict, and then he publicly hung and cried and worshiped the portrait of the previous dynasty's Taizu at the banquet. This was an extremely serious political incident, so serious that the consequences were unimaginable. If it were to be imagined, the starting price would be the extermination of nine generations of his clan.

The incident of crying and worshipping Guo Wei quickly became a hot topic, and everyone on earth knew about it, including the Northern Han.

Thanks to my old friend "江湖留白" for the monthly ticket support! Thank you for your encouragement

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(End of this chapter)