This was the most serious crisis Li Keyong had faced since he returned to the Central Plains. The central court and local vassal towns joined forces to plot to carve up Hedong. Surrounding Taiyuan Prefecture in Hedong are four major army groups that are eyeing them:
To the west: are the Central Forbidden Army commanded by Prime Minister Zhang Jun and the Kansai Army Group including Jingnan, Fengxiang, Baoda, and Dingnan;
To the south: the coalition forces of Xuanwu, Yicheng, Heyang and other vassal towns under the command of Zhu Wen;
To the east: the Chengde, Wei Bo, and Yichang coalition forces led by Wang Rong and Luo Hongxin;
Northeast: Lu Long Army led by Lee Kuang Wei;
To the north: the Datong Army commanded by Helianduo and tens of thousands of coalition forces including the Tibetan tribe and the Qigasi Khanate.
Commander-in-Chief Zhang Jun is high-spirited and wears a feather fan and silk scarf. Li Keyong, don’t you look down on me? Today I will show you a sample. Look, with just a few words, I attracted almost all the powerful vassals, including Zhongyuan, Guanxi, Heshuo... One person can turn Taiyuan Prefecture into a swamp with just a spitting breath. Just asking you if you are afraid!
Li Keyong, you don't need to panic. All reactionaries are paper tigers. At first glance, they look like tigers on Mount Tai to suppress the coalition forces, but in fact they are just a ragtag group of sick cats. Each person has a trumpet, each blows his own tune, and has his own little calculation.
Therefore, Li Keyong's strategy for retreating from the enemy was to defeat them one by one.
For example, the Zhengdong Front Army sat on the ground and raised prices before the war began, blackmailing the imperial court and asking the imperial court to recognize Lu Yanwei.
Five years ago, the Yichang army in Cangzhou mutinied. Lu Yanwei, the governor of Dezhou, expelled Yang Quanmei, the Jiedushi envoy, and claimed that Yichang Liu was here, but the court did not recognize it. Now, Chengde Wang Rong and Wei Boluo Hongxin took the opportunity to send troops to bring up the old matter again. The court was forced to agree in order to carry out the united front work.
Eliminating Li Keyong is not the real desire of Wang Rong and other towns in Hebei. On the contrary, they need to retain Li Keyong. They just hope to maintain the status quo, achieve regional balance of power, let Helianduo contain Li Keyong, and build a buffer zone with Yunzhou and Datong so that Li Keyong's sphere of influence stops at the Taihang Mountains. Ensure that the towns in Hebei are not infringed upon.
As for weakening Li Keyong, Zhu Wen and the Central Army are enough. Therefore, after the Zhengdong Front successfully defrauded the imperial court, it went through thunder without rain and did not enter the battle at all.
The due east front army is in name only, a professional actor.
Only Helianduo of the True North Front wanted to kill Li Keyong the most. Therefore, Helianduo was the first to join the battle and fought very seriously. At the beginning of the war, he achieved impressive results and occupied Weizhou and other places. Some places northeast of the river.
However, these places were not Li Keyong's core interests. Although the True North Front advanced with great success, it only injured Li Keyong's skin, but did not touch his muscles, bones and internal organs.
Helianduo fired the first shot of the war.
The person Li Keyong sent to the north was his adopted son Li Cunxin. Li Cunxin is one of Li Keyong's most proud adopted sons. He is brave and good at fighting, and his reputation is second only to Li Cunxiao. Li Cunxin and Li Cunxiao are quite similar to Zhu Zhen and Li Tangbin (please remember this metaphor).
Li Cunxin barely supported, but the results were not ideal. So Li Keyong sent another adopted son, Li Siyuan, to help out and serve as Li Cunxin's deputy.
With the help of Li Siyuan, Li Cunxin finally defeated the Zhengbei Front and captured Li Kuangwei's son and Helianduo's son-in-law alive.
Li Siyuan is cautious, honest, calm, honest and thrifty. After defeating Helian Duo and Li Kuangwei, Li Cunxin and other generals boasted about their achievements and showed off their bravery and strategy at the celebration banquet, but Li Siyuan remained silent. When the generals were tired of boasting, Li Siyuan slowly said: "You like to kill the enemy with your mouth, but I like to use my hands." Then the generals felt ashamed and stopped boasting.
Please remember this low-key and introverted Comrade Li Siyuan, he will also be promoted to the Ninth Five-Year Plan in the future.
After Li Keyong eliminated the threats to the east and north, the coalition forces in the west and south barely managed to form a fighting force.
For example, Zhu Wen of the South Front.
Zhu Wen took advantage of the Luzhou mutiny and sent general Ge Congzhou to lead a thousand elites to march overnight into the city to assist in the defense; he ordered Zhang Quanyi, the governor of the National Army, and his eldest son Zhu Youyu to lead subsequent troops to reinforce Ge Congzhou; he also sent Li Fan and others The troops will attack Zezhou to contain Hedong and prevent it from reinforcing Luzhou.
In order to encircle and suppress Li Keyong with all his strength, Zhu Wen made a pragmatic decision: temporarily abandon Huainan and appoint Sun Ru as the military governor of Huainan. He instigated Sun Ru and Yang Xingmi to continue fighting for Huainan and let them consume their strength so that he could have the opportunity to intervene in Huainan affairs in the future.
Zhu Wen's control of Huainan was in name only. Although he had the title of Jiedushi, he never gained actual control.
In order to commend Zhu Wen's high-spirited and bright spirit of voluntarily resigning from Huainan Jiedu, the imperial court appointed Zhu Wen to concurrently lead the Huazhou Yicheng Army Jiedushi.
In fact, Huazhou Yicheng Army has long been Zhu Wen's sphere of influence. After Zhu Zhenxue came to Huazhou at night, Zhu Wen asked his confidant Hu Zhen to be the military envoy of Yicheng Army. Hu Zhen was Zhu Wen's direct subordinate and was Zhu Wen's subordinate when he was in the Cao Army. Zhu Wen's decision to rebel against Qi and surrender to Tang Dynasty was inseparable from Hu Zhen's active operation.
Zhu Wen was "upright and upright", and the court "borrowed flowers to offer to Buddha", which disgusted each other.
In order to avoid his father's taboo, Zhu Wen asked the court to change the Yi Cheng Army to the Xuanyi Army, and the court agreed.
By getting rid of the useless Huainan, Zhu Wen can concentrate all his efforts on dealing with Li Keyong.
After Zhu Wen took control of Luzhou, he reported the good news to the court immediately and pretended to ask the court to appoint senior officials to take over Luzhou.
This was a superficial article, showing that he was sending troops under orders and that the crusade against Li Keyong was not out of selfish interests. Therefore, after taking Luzhou, he would naturally dedicate it to the imperial court. Of course, the imperial court will follow the trend, "Come on, why send someone else to do it? Just bother me and take care of it."
This is a general procedure, just like Zhu Wen's resignation from Huainan and the imperial court's gift to Yicheng. It is a tacit understanding between the central and local governments.
However, Zhang Jun, who had great ambition but little talent, unceremoniously appointed Sun Kui, the deputy commander-in-chief, as the military envoy of Zhaoyi Army. Regardless of his appearance, Zhang Jun hurriedly allocated three thousand soldiers and horses to escort Sun Kui to Luzhou and take over the fruits of Zhu Wen's victory.
The nerdy Sun Kui obviously did not understand the intrigues in the political arena and did not correctly understand Zhang Jun's painstaking efforts. Sun Kui showed off his official power and airs and went to Luzhou slowly to show the majesty of the imperial court.
Mr. Sun was wearing a gorgeous and majestic official uniform. He was sitting in a luxurious car with a tall umbrella. He was cheering in front and behind in a majestic manner. He also ordered the honor guard to hold high the banner of "Deputy Commander-in-Chief of Conquest and Suppression" and the title given to him by the emperor. Fu Jie, as the leader of the team, walked unhurriedly towards Luzhou.
This is not a new official taking office in a time of peace. This is a land grabbing and meat snatching from the wolf's mouth during a war.
Sun Kui successfully attracted the enemy's attention. Li Cunxiao, the strongest general in Hedong, ambushed him with 300 cavalry and successfully captured Sun Kui, the eunuch Han Guifan and more than 500 guards alive. The remaining officers and soldiers were massacred by Li Cunxiao.
Li Cunxiao put handcuffs and shackles on Sun Kui and others, tied their necks with plain ropes, and led them to the foot of Luzhou City like a dog, letting the defenders watch, and shouted to the top of the city: "The newly appointed Jiedushi Commander Sun Kui Your Excellency has come to take over Luzhou. This is the Official Seal Festival. Tell Ge Congzhou that it's time for you to go home."
This made Zhu Wen very passive.
Li Cunxiao dedicated Sun Kui to Li Keyong. Li Ke used both kindness and power to lure Sun Kui to surrender and become his deputy envoy to Hedong Jiedu and serve as a political vase. .
Although Sun Kui is corrupt and bureaucratic, he is also a man of iron bones and iron blood. Faced with Li Keyong's hard and soft tactics, Sun Kui spoke righteously, "I am a high-ranking official appointed by the emperor today. I deserve to be defeated and killed. How can I condescend to serve a small local official?"
Li Keyong was furious, "Isn't it easy to die? Someone, please saw him!"
The skin is elastic and the executioner cannot effectively saw into it.
Sun Kui scolded: "You uneducated dog slave! You should use a splint when sawing someone."
Under Sun Kui's guidance, the executioner used two wooden boards to clamp him firmly, and then used an iron saw to cut in smoothly. Sun Kui took his time and continued to curse until he died. Purely manly.
Sun Kui created a problem for Zhu Wen with his stupidity and was captured, and then solved it with his generous sacrifice.
