[Liu Shouguang proclaims himself emperor]
Like father, like son, Liu Shouguang is just like his father Liu Rengong, short-sighted but cruel and tyrannical.
"Sex is inherently ignorant... sexual intercourse is the most harmful thing" - "History of the Old Five Dynasties"
"Simple and foolish" - "New History of the Five Dynasties"
He appeared on the stage of history with a scandalous case: he had an affair with his father's concubine and was expelled by his father Liu Rengong. It coincided with Zhu Wen's attack on Youzhou, and he seized military power by mistake and imprisoned his father first. , later with the support of Khitan, Tuyuhun and other tribes, he captured and killed his brother Liu Shouwen, and then served as the Youzhou Lulong Army and Cangzhou Yichang Army. From then on, Liu Shouguang thought he was favored by God and became more arrogant and willful.
Liu Shouguang was a psychopathic man who loved to use all kinds of torture to kill people. He put forward suggestions on improving the famous torture method in history - roasting, and invented a new torture method: stuffing people into iron cages, and then roasting the iron cages red. . In this way, it will not only greatly prolong the death process of the victim, but also bring greater psychological deterrence to the victim.
Another example is using an iron brush to brush people's faces until they die...and so on.
Without exception, the Liu family and his son knew nothing about geopolitics, and relied on their strength to completely isolate the Youzhou forces and make them enemies on all sides. When Zhenzhou and Dingzhou asked for help, Liu Shouguang refused to send troops and watched the fire from across the bank. Now, Li Cunxu from Hedong defeated the Houliang army in Baixiang, and took advantage of the trend to plant Hedong's power deep in Heshuo. Liu Shouguang was unwilling to be lonely and wanted to snatch the fruits of victory.
Liu Shouguang sent an envoy to Zhenzhou Wang Rong and Dingzhou Wang Chu to deliver the message directly, "I heard that Li Cunxu from Hedong has sent troops. I also have 30,000 elite troops here, and I plan to help you fight against the Hou Liang. However, if the divisions of the four towns join forces to fight together, there must be one Commander-in-Chief. So who should I choose as Commander-in-Chief? "
Wang Rong quickly reported to Li Cunxu.
Li Cunxu sneered and said: "I have seen shameless people, but I have never seen anyone so shameless. When Zhenzhou was in urgent need of help, this guy didn't send a single soldier. After I risked my victory and won, he wanted to grab the fruits of victory. No. It’s an insult to the family tradition.”
All the generals in Hedong unanimously believed that Youzhou Liu Shouguang posed a substantial threat to the northeastern part of Hedong's forces. Only by destroying Youzhou Liu Shouguang first could they safely go south to compete with Zhu Wen.
The heroes see the same thing. Li Key had already pointed out the development path for the Hedong Group when he used "Three Arrows to Support the Gu": Only by destroying Youzhou can Hebei be stabilized; only by stabilizing Hebei can we fight for Henan; if Henan is won, the world will be established, and after the world is established, the Khitan must be eliminated , Only then can we have a stable position.
As a result, Li Cunxu withdrew the main force in an orderly manner and successively lifted the siege of Weizhou and Xingzhou. This is the node in the previous article. The Hedong Army took the initiative to retreat, and the Bian Army Yang Shihou entered Weizhou.
In order to express his gratitude to the Hedong Army, Wang Rong personally went to Zhaozhou, met with Li Cunxu, rewarded the Hedong soldiers, and sent his adopted son Wang Deming to lead an elite guard to Taiyuan, and from then on they were at Li Cunxu's disposal. Wang Deming, whose original name is Zhang Wenli, will do an earth-shattering event in the future, and he will always be recorded in history as "Zhang Wenli", so we will use "Zhang Wenli" in the following article.
After stopping for a while in Zhaozhou, Li Cunxu left Zhou Dewei and led 3,000 men to garrison Zhaozhou, while he led the main force back to Taiyuan. Start planning military operations against Youzhou.
At this time, Liu Shouguang had no idea of the coming danger, and still had a desperate attitude of "Heaven is the boss, Earth is the second boss, and I am the third boss."
Wearing a dark red robe (the emperor of the Tang Dynasty wore a dark red dragon robe), he looked around the generals and asked: "Now, the world is in chaos, and all the heroes are vying for the throne. Our Youzhou territory is vast, the terrain is dangerous, and the soldiers and horses are strong... I also want to face the south. What do you think of turning your back to the north, claiming to be a loner, and living like an emperor?"
His adviser Sun He was the first to express his objection, saying that the internal problems in Youzhou (the imprisonment of his father and brother to seize power) had just been solved, and everything was waiting to be done. Li Cunxu of Hedong had coveted Youzhou for a long time, and Khitan Abaoji had been eyeing Youyun for a long time. Under such circumstances, if you declare yourself emperor hastily, you will not get good results.
Liu Shouguang was very unhappy.
Sun He hurriedly offered advice, saying that now we should recuperate and implement benevolent policies, and then strengthen military training and stock up on food and grass. Soon after, the people's will and all directions surrendered.
Liu Shouguang is short-sighted, arrogant and arrogant. He only wants to enjoy himself in time, not caring about eternity. It was a moment of joy to be crowned emperor, and the whole family was cremated.
Liu Shouguang sent envoys to visit Zhenzhou and Dingzhou, asking them to respect him as "Shangfu".
Wang Rong reported this situation to Li Cunxu. Li Cunxu held a meeting to discuss, and the result of the discussion was: If Heaven wants to destroy it, it must first make it crazy. Liu Shouguang is already on the verge of madness, we have to give him more strength!
The generals from Hedong understood this and laughed "haha", so they decided to stir up trouble and set up seedlings for Liu Shouguang and lead him to the ditch.
So, Li Cunxu took the lead and formed a group to fool him.
Liu Shouguang just wanted Zhenzhou Wang Rong and Dingzhou Wang Chuzhi to recognize his status as "Hebei's No. 1 Brother" and respect him as "Shangfu". However, Hedong Li Cunxu took the initiative to attract the governors of six towns including Zhenzhou Wang Rong, Dingzhou Wang Chuzhi, Zhaoyi Li Sizhao, Zhenwu Zhou Dewei, Tiande Song Yao, etc., and together they called Liu Shouguang eldest brother and jointly elected him as Shangshu Ling. Shangfu.
Liu Shouguang fell into the trap and believed that the entire Hebei and Shanxi provinces, including Li Cunxu, were afraid of Youzhou's power and were willing to be his followers... As a result, Liu Shouguang became even more arrogant.
Liu Shouguang forwarded the six-town joint letter led by Li Cunxu to Zhu Wen, saying: "Look! The King of Jin took the lead and firmly supported me as Shangshuling and Shangfu, but I have received your majesty's kindness and dare not accept it hastily. So be it, your majesty. You make me the Commander-in-Chief of Hebei, and I will help His Majesty handle Hebei and Hedong. I don’t need you to do anything, I can do it myself.”
Zhu Wen also couldn't laugh or cry. I said in my heart that I have seen a lot of stupid people, but I have never seen anyone so stupid. Not only stupid, but simply stupid! I am playing with you, but others are joining forces to play with you!
Although Liu Shouguang said it euphemistically and pleasantly, the subtext was that he wanted to break away from the Houliang Dynasty and divide the Yellow River with Zhu Wen to rule. The land south of the Yellow River belonged to Zhu Wen, and the land north of the Yellow River, including Shanxi, belonged to Liu Shouguang.
Zhu Wen's response was quite funny, appointing Liu Shouguang as "Hebei Province Interview Envoy". In the early Tang Dynasty, the central government established ten interview envoys, which were abolished after the "An-Shi Rebellion". Nowadays, the administrative divisions of each province have been basically disrupted. Not only the "interview envoys" have become a mark of the times, but also the "observation envoys" of each province They also disappeared, leaving behind a place full of military envoys and defense envoys. The original envoys were dismantled and pieced together at will by the emerging warlords.
Appointing Liu Shouguang as the "Hebei Road Interviewer" at this time is like awarding someone the title of "General Eunuch" today. It is obviously a joke. This should be regarded as Zhu Wen's distant response to Li Cunxu, tit-for-tat yet humorous. The two leaders should smile knowingly at each other, then turn to Liu Shouguang and say, "Please start your performance."
Liu Shouguang didn't know why, but he really happily accepted the appointment as "Hebei Road Interviewer" and took it upon himself to let his subordinate officials plan the ceremony to accept Shang Fu and the interviewer.
This can hardly harm the ceremonial officer. Because "Shangfu" is not a formal official position in the first place, it is generally believed that it was the earliest honorific title given to Jiang Ziya, and it was also the honorific title given to him by later generations. Jiang Ziya had no idea that he was called "Shangfu", and there was no way to talk about the ceremony for accepting the title. get up.
In later historical records, there are also a very small number of shameless people who call themselves Shangfu, such as Dong Zhuo in the late Han Dynasty and Wang Xingyu in the late Tang Dynasty.
The chief ceremonial officer had an idea and copied the Tang Dynasty's etiquette for appointing Taiwei (one of the three princes) and submitted it for review.
Liu Shouguang frowned and looked from beginning to end, then back again, and asked in confusion: "Why are there no steps to change Jiaotian to Yuan?"
Liu Shouguang should be a typical person who is not satisfied with the bottle but is half-full. It's not that he doesn't understand it at all, he just doesn't understand it completely. He vaguely remembered that in various emperor's annals, when he ascended the throne and proclaimed himself emperor, the words "something happened in the southern suburbs" and "gaiyuan amnesty" were common. "Don't cut corners for me, give me a complete set."
The ceremonial officer used all his strength to hold back his laughter, "Jiaotian and Yuan Dynasty are the work of the emperor. Although Shangfu is extremely noble, he is still the emperor's subordinate... You can't do anything about the emperor's affairs. Worry..."
Hearing this, Liu Shouguang became furious and threw the ceremonial sheet to the ground. "My land is two thousand miles in circumference and my army is 300,000. Can't I be the emperor of Hebei? Who cares about Shangfu?"
So, Liu Shouguang ordered on the spot to immediately draw up a list of ceremonies for me to ascend the throne and proclaim myself emperor. I want to be emperor!
