["The Traitor" Liu Kutou]
The most direct reason why Han Jian dared to kill the princes of the Sixteenth House was that he confirmed that Li Keyong from Hedong had no time to look west. The reason Li Keyong had no time to look west was because he was trapped in another battlefield - Youzhou.
Previously, Li Keyong took advantage of the civil strife of the Lulong Army in Youzhou to easily capture the Twelve Lulong Prefectures. He demonstrated that Liu Rengong would be Lulong's successor and left some of his troops with him.
In fact, the Hedong forces lacked a mass base on the ground in Youzhou. They adopted blitz warfare and heart-wrenching warfare to annex Youzhou. They concentrated their superior forces and attacked their headquarters in Youzhou, occupying it in less than a month, thus declaring an attack on Lulong. The ruling power of the twelve states, most of the states and cities of the Lulong Army, were "determined by propaganda" and changed their appearance in a confused way. It is completely different from the long tug-of-war to annex the Zhaoyi Army.
In other words, the people of Youzhou did not surrender to Li Keyong from the bottom of their hearts. Li Keyong ate too fast and suffered from indigestion.
In addition, the senior leaders of the Hedong forces also have political discrimination against the Youzhou Lulong Army and regard the people of Youzhou as second-class citizens. Political oppression will inevitably lead to economic exploitation. For example, Li Keyong stipulated: The land of the Youzhou Lulong Army Except for a small portion of the rent and taxes reserved to maintain the operation of the local ruling machinery, the rest were all transferred to Hedong. Naked exploitation and oppression.
In response to the rule of Lu Longjun, Hedong parachuted a group of political commissars, military supervisors, and branch secretaries to take over the leadership of the army and local administrative power. They also left a large number of troops to act as thugs and guard homes and homes... The people of Youzhou have a strong sense of resistance. One wave after another.
In order to ease the conflict, Li Keyong could only seek a highly respected local to be the nominal supreme ruler of Youzhou, so as to appease and quell the resistance of the locals and act as the agent of the Hedong forces in Youzhou, that is, "with Tranquility governs secludedness."
There are two selection criteria for agents:
First, you must be loyal to the forces in Hedong and be willing to be a "traitor", a puppet, and a traitor;
Second, if you are highly respected and well-known in the local area, it is best to have held a high-level position in Youzhou before.
In the end, Li Keyong selected "Liu Kutou" Liu Rengong to be Hedong's agent in Youzhou.
In fact, Liu Rengong was not Li Keyong's number one candidate at the beginning.
First of all, Li Keyong's first impression of Liu Rengong was not good. He thought he was a profit-seeking, shameless, seller-seeking, and capricious power villain.
Secondly, Liu Rengong was only a middle- and lower-level officer in the Lulong Army before, and he only served as the county magistrate of a poor small county, which was not enough to convince the public.
However, Li Keyong didn't know how despicable Liu Rengong was, let alone his little tricks. The cunning and insidious Liu Rengong finally succeeded in gaining power through a series of conspiracy methods and gained Li Keyong's trust.
Liu Rengong is cunning and insidious, but he has no power. Before he debuted, he made no secret of his ambitions. He often told people around him that he would definitely become famous in the future and become the leader of a party, because he once had a dream in which a person An old immortal with a white beard told himself that when he was 49 years old, he would become the governor of the feudal town.
He also paid a certain price for his arrogance and arrogance. At that time, Li Kuangwei, the governor of Lulong, was very annoyed with him, just because Liu Rengong had followed the old commander Li Quanzhong (father of Li Kuangwei) for many years and had made military exploits, which was regarded as a "former" "Old minister of the court", and indeed he had a certain amount of resourcefulness and talent, so Li Kuangwei spared no effort to kill him directly, but instead sent him to the small Jingcheng County to be the county magistrate.
Later, a rebellion broke out in Yingzhou. Liu Rengong privately recruited warriors and successfully suppressed the rebellion. Only then did Li Kuangwei let him lead troops again and garrison Yuzhou.
When the garrison period expired, there was no order to rotate the defense, because at that time Li Kuangwei was leading troops outside to assist Zhenzhou Wang Rong against Li Keyong in Hedong, and Li Kuangchou was planning a mutiny.
When Li Kuangchou launched a mutiny and occupied Youzhou, Liu Rengong sensed a secret, so he incited the Yuzhou garrison to follow him to "quell the rebellion" and fight back against Li Kuangchou. Unfortunately, he failed, so he fled to Hedong and defected to Li Keyong.
After surrendering to Li Keyong's account, Liu Rengong was not idle for a moment. He first packaged himself as a tragic hero, "Living in Yan is not guilty, and he is driven out by slander." Then he actively betrayed his "mother country" and tried to tell the truth about Youzhou. , proved that Youzhou was extremely easy to capture, and actively planned for Li Keyong to attack Youzhou.
Even if Youzhou is desirable and easy to acquire, it is not the core of Li Keyong's strategy, so he lacks the motivation to conquer Yan. This made Liu Rengong so anxious that he jumped up and down to work actively, threatening that as long as he lent him 10,000 Hedong soldiers, he would let Li Keyong enjoy the benefits and own the twelve states of Lulong.
At that time, Li Keyong was busy quelling Li Cunxiao's rebellion and was too busy to resist Liu Rengong's temptation, so he gave Liu Rengong thousands of troops and wanted to give it a try. As a result, Liu Rengong failed again and returned without success.
There is always a way out. Li Kuangchou then took the initiative to invade Hedong and provoke Li Keyong. Liu Rengong once again seized the opportunity and took the initiative to volunteer, willing to lead the way and be the vanguard in the attack on Yan.
Li Keyong, who was angered by Li Kuangchou, finally decided to take action against Youzhou, and that's what happened today.
Since Liu Rengong defected to Hedong, he has figured out the internal organizational structure of Hedong forces. In addition to large-scale indiscriminate bribery of Hedong generals, he also carried out precise bombings and heavy bribes on key figures - Gai Yu. Therefore, everyone around Li Keyong said good things for Liu Rengong.
Gradually, Li Keyong also began to doubt his initial judgment. In order to obtain the objective truth, Li Keyong decided to conduct a public opinion survey, believing that the eyes of the public were sharp.
Li Keyong underestimated the power of money. The "opinion poll" plan was leaked to Liu Rengong by people around him.
Liu Rengong spent money to hire a group of extras. When the investigation team went to visit the people, they got almost unanimous investigation reports: Liu Rengong has extremely high prestige among the people!
The civil and military officials around him unanimously recommended him, and the people's voice was very high. He himself actively volunteered to be a "secret traitor", so Li Keyong used this talent to persuade Liu Rengong to stay behind for Lu Long and let him be his puppet.
Liu Rengong was using Li Keyong from beginning to end, deliberately trying to separate Youzhou to dominate and achieve his life goal. Now, half of his butt is sitting on the throne of Youzhou. If he wants to sit firmly, he must pull out a few nails on the throne:
1. Competitors, old colleagues of Youzhou Lu Longjun.
Liu Rengong is very self-aware and knows that the reputation of these people is higher than his own, and they are the biggest threat;
2. The army stationed in Hedong, a thug who helped Liu Rengong suppress the situation.
These garrisons were nominally to help Liu Rengong watch the show and protect his puppet regime. In reality, they were supervising and restraining Liu Rengong to prevent him from being disobedient.
3. Political commissars, military supervisors, and secretaries.
In name, they assist Liu Rengong in handling official affairs, but in fact they are an extension of Hedong's power, dividing and controlling Liu Rengong's power, supervising the daily operations of Liu Rengong's puppet organization, and reporting on the ideological trends of Liu Rengong's puppet organization... They are the veritable "Emperor" on the ground in Youzhou. .
The most interesting thing is that it is the "Secretary of the Youzhou Party Branch" - Comrade Yan Liude. I don’t know whether it was Li Keyong’s unintentional move or his actual consideration in letting this comrade named Yan Liude serve as the secretary of Yandi and serve as the political commissar of Yandi’s puppet Liu Rengong.
"Liu De" means staying worthy. Li Keyong wanted to keep Yandi within the territory of Hedong and keep it for himself. However, there is also ambiguity in these three words. The land of Yan will remain in the land of Yan, and the people of Yan will get it.
"Yan will remain virtuous", one word became a prophecy, and the land of Yan was indeed left in the hands of the Yan people.
4. Public opinion, substantial support from the military and civilians of Youzhou.
Liu Rengong knew his situation very well. It would be very difficult for him to break away from the control of Hedong forces, even more difficult than capturing Youzhou.
He has a shallow foundation and a weak foundation. He relied on the big tree of Hedong Li Keyong to establish his position in Youzhou. His only support was Hedong Li Keyong. But now, he wants to turn against his backer. What can he rely on?
Rely on the brain. It depends on his insidiousness, otherwise he would not be worthy of his arrogant nickname - "Liu Kutou"!
First of all, relying on bribes and eloquent words, it is said that the people of Youzhou are very afraid of the Hedong garrison. The large number of garrison shows Hedong's distrust of Youzhou. It is a symbol of conquest and slavery, a symbol of colonial oppression, and is not conducive to " The united front work of the "Great River East Co-Prosperity Sphere". At the same time, Liu Rengong vowed that he was fully capable of suppressing the ground.
Therefore, Li Keyong withdrew most of the troops stationed in Hedong, showing Hedong's trust in Youzhou to the soldiers and people of Youzhou.
Secondly, it is to eliminate former colleagues through despicable conspiracy.
The first to bear the brunt were the three brothers Gao Siji.
The three brothers Gao Siji are highly skilled in martial arts and selfless. They are deeply loved and respected by the people of Youzhou and have long been famous in Youzhou. When Li Keyong marched into Youzhou, he was very afraid of the three Gao brothers stationed at Kongling Pass and did not dare to act rashly. Instead, he sent envoys to contact them first, saying that he was avenging Li Kuangwei.
Since ancient times, there have been many generous and tragic people in Yan and Zhao, and many more loyal, brave and chivalrous people. I heard that Li Keyong wanted to avenge his old master, "I happily followed it." Li Kuangchou also abandoned the city and fled after hearing that the three Gao brothers had defected.
If Li Keyong's "opinion poll" could be truly fair and impartial, the votes of the three Gao brothers should be far higher than Liu Rengong's. Therefore, the three Gao brothers became a thorn in Liu Rengong's side and a thorn in his flesh, and they deliberately tried to murder him.
The army stationed in Hedong, Youzhou, had lax military discipline and often committed crimes, causing harm to the local people. The three Gao brothers enforced the law impartially and were punished severely.
Liu Rengong finally found a way to kill two birds with one stone. He first secretly instigated the Hedong garrison to commit evil acts, and then instigated the three Gao brothers to strictly enforce the law and kill the Hedong soldiers who broke the law.
The conquered Youzhou people dared to kill the Hedong garrison? Li Keyong was furious after hearing the news and wrote a letter scolding Liu Rengong. Liu Rengong then produced evidence and blamed the three Gao brothers. So Li Keyong killed the three Gao brothers.
Liu Rengong killed two birds with one stone by getting rid of a serious problem in his heart and arousing the resentment of the people of Youzhou against Li Keyong in Hedong.
This is not over yet. Liu Rengong took the children of the three Gao brothers by his side, "caressed them lovingly to comfort their hearts", and told everyone with practical actions: Hedong Li Keyong bullied us Yan people, and I have done the biggest thing. Working hard to protect you.
All the sons of the Gao family were taken in by Liu Rengong, and two of them would make great achievements in the future: Gao Xinggui and Gao Xingzhou. Now, they are just teenagers, and they will appear later in the story when they grow up.
Through a series of conspiracies such as this, the people of Yandi were extremely hostile to Hedong Li Keyong, but they regarded the number one "traitor" Liu Rengong as a great hero. Liu Rengong's current persona is "the shield of the people of Youzhou". He does not hesitate to lose his dignity and reputation, compromise in front of the Hedong occupiers, and mediate for the soldiers and people of Youzhou.
The happiness and well-being of the people of Youzhou were all fought for by Liu Rengong; the hardships and disasters of the people of Youzhou were all inflicted by the people of Hedong.
Who seduced the people from Hedong? The Liu Rengong authorities avoided talking about it.
