This year is the first year of Dashun in the Tang Dynasty (890). History is really good at joking, but it happened that during the "Dashun" year, "everything went wrong" was staged.
No matter whose perspective we look at this year, we will all sigh involuntarily. Countless miracles are only just a step away. This is where history gets interesting.
With the expansion of Zhu Wen, Li Keyong, Yang Xingmi, Sun Ru, and Qian Liu, their spheres of influence finally intersected, and sparks of passion collided. Alliances with the east and attacks in the west, and close friendships with distant enemies have become their common tricks. Boring and lackluster.
If we have to look for a bright spot, perhaps it’s time to launch Zhu Wen’s “Kill Hu Alliance”.
In the first year of Dashun (890), during the Spring Festival, Li Keyong completed the annexation of Dong Zhaoyi and expanded his sphere of influence to the east of the Taihang Mountains. Then, in February, Li Keyong led his army to attack Helianduo in Yunzhou (now Datong City, Shanxi Province).
The feud between Li Keyong and Helianduo can be traced back to ten years ago. At that time, Helianduo led the Tuyuhun tribe to unite with neighboring vassal towns to drive Li Keyong and his son into the Tatar tribe. He also followed "Guo Jia's legacy plan to determine Liaodong" and bribed the Tatar chiefs to put Li Keyong and his son to death.
A gentleman's revenge is never too late.
As soon as Li Keyong swallowed the entire Zhaoyi Army, he couldn't wait to launch a fierce attack on Helianduo in Yunzhou in the north to settle the old scores from ten years ago.
Helianduo quickly asked Li Kuangwei, the military governor of Lulong Army, for help. Li Kuangwei led an army of 30,000 reinforcements.
An Jinjun, Li Keyong's favorite general, was shot to death by a stray arrow. His morale suffered a severe setback, and the elite "Wansheng Battalion" in Hedong mutinied and surrendered. Li Keyong suffered an unprecedented defeat in Yunzhou, and it was at this time that Xuzhou Shipu asked for help. This is why Li Keyong only sent a mere 500 cavalry.
After suffering the defeat, Li Keyong immediately retreated to Luzhou to rest and recuperate.
Luzhou is the location of the headquarters of the Xizhao Yijun, and the military governor is Li Kexiu, Li Keyong's younger brother. Li Kexiu has always been low-key, restrained, connotative, simple and unpretentious, cherishes the people's strength, advocates diligence and thrift, and has won the hearts of the people of Luzhou.
When entertaining Li Keyong, Li Kexiu also paid special attention to the ostentation, appropriate extravagance and waste, and made it luxurious and decent.
Obviously, Li Kexiu, who is diligent and thrifty, still failed to satisfy his brother. In his brother's opinion, his "luxury" is still a bit shabby. Poverty limited Li Kexiu's imagination.
Li Keyong was simmering with anger due to the defeat in Yunzhou and had nowhere to vent. Therefore, when he came to Luzhou, he raised his eyebrows and raised his eyes, not liking anything he looked at. Where is the problem of poor hospitality? He was clearly mocking me for being a defeated general and deliberately perfunctory me, right?
Li Keyong scolded his younger brother Li Kexiu. The more he scolded, the angrier he became, so he whipped him again.
Li Kexiu felt aggrieved, wronged, and frightened. After being flogged, he fell seriously ill and died just a few days later at the age of 31.
After Li Kexiu's death, Li Keyong appointed his younger brother Li Kegong as the military governor of the Zhaoyi Army.
This Li Kegong was mean, ungrateful, cruel and willful, but he knew nothing about military matters, let alone admonishing farmers and mulberry trees, and was considerate of the people. This was in sharp contrast to his predecessor, Li Kexiu, the military governor.
The people of Zhaoyi missed their former governor Li Kexiu even more, and they also complained about his tragic experience. As a result, the military in Zhaoyi area was disorganized and disengaged. Voices of dissatisfaction with Hedong rose to the sky.
【Luzhou Crisis】
With his dominance in jeopardy, Li Keyong put forward conscription requirements for the Zhaoyi Army, and ordered Li Kegong to mobilize the elite troops of the Zhaoyi Army - the "backyard generals", and select the 500 most brave and capable soldiers and send them to Taiyuan Prefecture.
Li Keyong's ambitions for Yunzhou and Hebei towns are well known to everyone. These five hundred elites were obviously going to be used as cannon fodder by Li Keyong.
The war was fierce and dangerous, and they were far away from home. Five hundred "backyard generals" went to Taiyuan, and it was very likely that they would never return. The families of the soldiers and the people in their hometown felt sorry for them. Before setting off, the spontaneous farewell procession turned into a funeral procession, filled with cries and sadness.
Li Kegong was ordered to send someone to escort the "backyard general" to Taiyuan. Halfway through, a mutiny broke out as expected. Feng Ba, a low-level officer, raised his voice and hijacked his troops to rebel. He recruited troops along the way and soon grew to more than 3,000 people.
Another general, Li Yuanshen, failed to suppress the mutiny and was wounded and fled back to Luzhou.
Li Kegong came to visit the injured, and at the same time, he also learned from Li Yuanshen's mouth the reality of the rebel army, and discussed strategies to suppress and recruit troops.
The generals in Luzhou City are also ready to make a move, such as General Ya, An Jushou.
At the beginning, Li Keyong attacked the Zhaoyi Army, and Meng Qian, the Jiedushi commander, surrendered. In fact, it was not just Meng Qian who wanted to surrender at that time. Many generals, including An Jushou, submitted surrender applications to Li Keyong.
However, Li Keyong was dazzled by the victory of successfully annexing Zhaoyi Army, and only generously rewarded Meng Qian and his close followers, while ignoring generals such as An Jushou. An Jushou and others were filled with resentment and fear.
As a result, An Jushou also took the opportunity to launch a mutiny, led his troops to surround Li Yuanshen and Li Kegong, and killed them. Then he claimed to be staying behind and sent people to contact Feng Ba outside to build a new home in Zhaoyi.
Unexpectedly, the traitor general Feng Ba was very indifferent to An Jushou's efforts. The reason is obvious. Although Feng Ba and An Jushou were both traitorous generals, An Jushou killed Li Keyong's younger brother Li Kegong and therefore became Li Keyong's number one enemy for revenge. It was very unwise to sit in the same boat with him; Secondly, after An Jushou claimed to stay, why did Feng Ba bother to make wedding clothes for others?
After losing Feng Ba's support, An Jushou was greatly frightened, so he hurriedly sent someone to contact Zhu Wen and expressed his willingness to surrender the city in order to obtain Zhu Wen's asylum.
After Zhu Wen got the news, he was overjoyed and couldn't miss the opportunity. He hurriedly sent Heyang Liuhou and Zhu Chongjie to lead his army into Luzhou to temporarily act as Liuhou (Quan Zhiliuhou).
Li Keyong also hurriedly sent generals Kang Junli and Li Cunxiao to seize the strategic location of Luzhou.
The Luzhou Mutiny can be said to have stirred up a thousand waves with one stone, breaking the dull deadlock and pushing the annexation of feudal towns to a new climax.
[Zhaozong’s opportunity]
Emperor Zhaozong of the Tang Dynasty in Chang'an Palace had just finished dealing with the Tian eunuchs and dealt a heavy blow to the eunuch forces. He was waiting with great ambition for the opportunity to deal a last blow to the eunuch forces and weaken the power of the vassal town. Now, he was waiting for an opportunity to cut down the feudal clan.
Externally, Helian Duo of Yunzhou and Li Kuangwei of Lulong jointly submitted a petition, accusing Li Keyong of raising troops for no reason and sending troops to annex neighboring vassals without permission. This was really a heinous crime and requested the imperial court to issue an edict to punish him;
Zhu Wen of Bianzhou was equally well-founded, saying that as an envoy to Huainan, it was his duty to quell the chaos in Huainan. When he encountered Xuzhou, Pu openly sent troops to obstruct it, and his subjects had to defend themselves. However, Li Keyong did not obey the edict. , sent troops to help Shi Pu without authorization, and also invaded the hometown of his subordinates and dug up graves. It is really outrageous to both humans and gods and cannot be tolerated by nature! This is also Li Keyong's flagrant rebellion against the imperial court. I am willing to lead Xuanwu, Yicheng, Heyang and the three towns in Hebei (Lulong, Chengde, Weibo) to jointly attack, and I hope the imperial court will grant the decree!
Based on this calculation, at least seven vassal towns are willing to attack Li Keyong. They have an absolute advantage in military strength and have enough legitimate reasons. It seems that with just one piece of edict, Li Keyong will be wiped out in a chat and laughter.
