【Founding Test】
Li Sizhao, the adopted son of Li Keyong's younger brother Li Kerou, was short in stature but brave and courageous, and he was modest and cautious. When he was young, he was addicted to the bad habit of drinking. Li Keyong criticized and educated him. From then on, Li Sizhao never drank alcohol for the rest of his life. During the expansion of the Hedong Group, Li Sizhao was one of the most photographed star generals of the Hedong Group.
On the battlefield, he was a tiger general who frightened the enemy; at the local level, he was a Qingtian parent official who cared about administration and loved the people. After Zhou Dewei was killed in battle, Li Sizhao temporarily took over the affairs of Youzhou. Three months later, when Li Sizhao was ordered to leave office, the people of Youzhou spontaneously stopped Li Sizhao's motorcade, howled and begged Comrade Li Sizhao to continue to stay in Youzhou. Li Sizhao had no choice but to sneak away at night.
After Li Cunxu proclaimed himself emperor, in memory of his old achievements, he posthumously presented it to the Grand Master and the Prince of Longxi County. After Mingzong ascended the throne, Li Sizhao was able to accompany Zhuangzong's temple.
However, Li Sizhao's descendants ruined the reputation that his father had worked so hard for.
Li Sizhao had seven sons. The eldest son, Li Jichou, was the governor of Zezhou and was cowardly and incompetent. The second son, Li Jitao, was cunning and rogue.
During his lifetime, Li Sizhao was the military governor of Luzhou Zhaoyi Army, and Zezhou was its subordinate state. According to convention, the position of military governor of Luzhou Zhaoyi Army should be inherited by his eldest son Li Jichen. After Li Sizhao was killed in battle, Li Cunxu ordered his seven sons to escort the coffin to Taiyuan for burial and deal with the issue of inheritance division.
Li Jitao united with his brothers to disobey the order and led thousands of tooth troops to forcibly transport Li Sizhao's coffin to Luzhou. He imprisoned his brother Li Jichou and ordered the three armies to support him as the rear guard of Luzhou Zhaoyi Army.
The heroic father's body was still cold, and the bastard son launched a mutiny.
Li Cunxu sent his younger brother Li Cunwo to mediate. Unexpectedly, Li Jitao and others had a bad attitude and almost killed Li Cunwo.
At that time, the fighting on the Zhenzhou front line was intense, and the importance of Luzhou was needless to say. Li Cunxu was afraid that Li Jitao would betray Liang Liang, so he immediately ordered the Zhaoyi Army to be renamed "Anyi Army" (to avoid Li Sizhao's taboo, Li Sizhao did not even Avoiding taboos, but avoiding taboos after his death, which shows that Li Cunxu was eager to please Li Jitao) and appointed Li Jitao as the rear guard of the Luzhou Anyi Army.
In order to support the Zhenzhou front line, the General Logistics Department mobilized 50,000 military rations from Luzhou, but Li Jitao only provided 30,000, citing financial constraints. Li Cunxu did not dare to blame, but instead comforted him with words.
Li Cunxu's appeasement and compromise did not bring about Li Jitao's change of heart, and he persisted in rebellion and rebellion. His cronies Wei Zhuo and Shen Meng happened to return from a business trip at the headquarters, and they also actively instigated, saying that the Hedong Group was strong on the outside but cadre on the inside, empty on the inside, without talents, and would be eliminated by the rear beams sooner or later. We had better make plans in advance. So Li Jitao began to plan a big event.
Soon after the war in Zhenzhou ended, Li Cunxu planned to ascend the throne and proclaim himself emperor, appoint hundreds of civil and military officials, and prepare for the establishment of a central government. He sent an order to Li Jitao and others to come to Weizhou to participate in the preparation of the empire.
Wei Zhuo and Shen Meng warned Li Jitao: "The king summons you urgently. I'm afraid it will be a Hongmen Banquet, which will be more dangerous than good!"
Li Jitao's younger brother Li Jiyuan, who was just fifteen or sixteen years old, said to Li Jitao: "Brother, our family has millions of wealth, and the food and grass savings can last for ten years. You should plan for yourself, and don't be controlled by others! "
"Then...good brother, what should we plan?"
Li Jiyuan pointed at Wei Zhuo and Shen Meng, "Since Hedong will lose to Houliang sooner or later, then we might as well join Houliang now. Now Hedong is facing internal and external troubles and has no time to take care of us. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for us!"
The internal worries Li Jiyuan mentioned were that the rebellions in Zhen and Ding prefectures had just been quelled and would take some time to digest; the external worries were that the Khitans were marching south again, and the Houliang Dynasty was also taking the opportunity to counterattack Hebei. We will talk about it slowly later.
Li Jitao was convinced, so he sent Li Jiyuan to lead more than a hundred cavalry, claiming to the outside world that they were going to Jinzhou and Jiangzhou to patrol and capture Houliang soldiers. After patrolling, he took the opportunity to cross the border and surrendered. He went to Bianzhou to meet Zhu Youzhen and said, Willing to sacrifice Luzhou and surrender to Hou Liang.
Zhu Youzhen was overjoyed and immediately sent Dong Zhang to lead his troops to take over and garrison in the south of Luzhou. He changed the Anyi Army to the Kuangyi Army and appointed Li Jitao as the Jiedu Envoy of the Kuangyi Army in Luzhou and the title of Prime Minister (Tongping Zhangshi). In order to show his sincerity to Zhu Youzhen, Li Jitao sent his two beloved sons to Bianzhou as hostages.
Pei Yue, the guard general of Zezhou, refused to carry out Li Jitao's order. He summoned the soldiers and cried to everyone: "I have followed the old chief Li Sizhao for more than 20 years. I have personally seen the old chief lead the soldiers, share the joys and sorrows with the soldiers, and pay for his own money." Reward the sergeant and determine to destroy the enemy. Now, the old officer died unfortunately. Before the coffin was buried, his son betrayed the king and his relatives. I, Pei Yue, would rather die than obey!" The generals were moved to tears and expressed their willingness to join hands with them to fight against the enemy.
Therefore, Pei Yue led his generals to occupy Zezhou and refused to hand it over to Later Liang. When Dong Zhang of the Later Liang Dynasty led his army to attack, Pei Yue resisted tenaciously and sent people to send letters to Li Cunxu for help.
After Li Cunxu received the report, he was filled with emotion and said to the generals around him: "How can I be so little to Jitao, and so much to Pei Yue? Pei Yue even knows what is right and wrong, but my brother Si Zhao's family is unfortunate and he gave birth to a child. Such an evil beast!" Then he ordered Zhao Dejun to lead the army to rescue. Before leaving, Li Cunxu told Zhao Dejun: "Zezhou is just a small place. I don't care about its gains and losses. I only want you to take care of it no matter what. Save Pei Yue!"
In fact, Zezhou is the southern gate of Luzhou, and it guards the choke point for entering and exiting the Taihang Mountains. It is one of the strategic places for Shanxi and Bian's struggle for hegemony, and has been repeatedly seen in the tug-of-war in the Zhaoyi area. Zezhou is certainly not an insignificant place. Li Cunxu would rather abandon Zezhou than save Pei Yue.
Zhao Dejun, also known as Zhao Xingshi, was given the name Li Shaobin by Li Cunxu. Therefore, when most historical materials record this story, it is said that "Shaobin was sent to go with five thousand horses." Li Shaobin, Zhao Xingshi, and Zhao Dejun are the same person. This book uses "Zhao Dejun" as a unified name, because this name is more well-known, and he will do several major things in the following chapters, making the name "Zhao Dejun" a laughingstock and a laughing stock for thousands of years.
Li Jitao defected to Liang in March and Zezhou was besieged. By the time Zhao Dejun set out from Liaozhou to help ("Zi Zhi Tong Jian" said it was in August and "Old History of the Five Dynasties" said it was in June), Pei Yue was already fighting alone. For several months, they ran out of ammunition and food. Before reinforcements arrived, Zezhou fell and Pei Yue was killed.
After receiving the bad news, Li Cunxu felt deeply regretful and grieved endlessly.
Luzhou is a legendary town. It is a strategic location that Shanxi and Biannan have repeatedly competed for, and its ownership will directly determine the initiative in the war. There are many strategic towns, and Luzhou is just one of them. Its legend is mainly reflected in the process of changing hands.
It always brings surprises. When the two sides fought a bloody battle, it stood firm; when both sides relaxed, it actively surrendered. For example, Ding Hui was demoted to Jin, and Li Jitao was demoted to Liang.
It was besieged in March, but reinforcements did not arrive until several months later. The reason for this is that the internal and external troubles of the Later Tang Dynasty as mentioned by Li Jitao's gang really made Li Cunxu temporarily unable to escape.
For example, the threat from the north: the Khitan harassed from the south.
As analyzed in the previous article, after the northern grassland nomads were integrated by a strong leader, they were bound to go south and invade the Central Plains. This is an inevitable law of history.
Instigated by the traitors Lu Wenjin and Wang Yu, Yelu Abaoji went south twice. Lu Wenjin and Wang Yu only played a catalytic role. Even without these two leading parties, the Khitan would have gone south. Looking through the history books, it is not difficult to find that the daily tasks of the Khitan when they invaded the Central Plains from the south, except for several large-scale invasions, were numerous small-scale raids and plunders.
Before Li Cunxu ascended the throne and proclaimed himself emperor, the Khitan once again invaded Youzhou on a large scale. The troops went deep into Yi and Ding prefectures and plundered the grain and wages transferred to Youzhou from various places. Youzhou's grain reserves were less than half a year, and the situation was tense.
Li Cunxu transferred General Li Cunshen to lead the expedition from Cangzhou to Youzhou, and ordered Li Siyuan to replace Li Cunshen in Cangzhou. Li Cunshen was already bedridden and had to go to the front line despite his illness.
Li Cunru, the governor of Weizhou (a state affiliated to Wei Bojun), whose original name was Yang Po'er, was a famous opera performing artist. He was deeply favored by Li Cunxu, who named him Li Cunru and made him the governor of Weizhou. During his tenure in Weizhou, this king was corrupt, perverted the law, expropriated taxes, and pursued the principle of money first. As long as he gave money, everything could be discussed. For example, sentries on duty can go home and rest as long as they pay a certain amount of money.
Therefore, Duan Ning (Zhu Wen's uncle) from the "foreign relatives gang" in the Houliang Dynasty took advantage of Weizhou's defense loopholes and led his army to attack Weizhou at night. Under the cover of night, he climbed the unattended city wall and easily controlled Weizhou. , captured Li Cunru alive. Later, he worked with the commander-in-chief Dai Siyuan to expand the results of the war, capture other cities in Weibo, and recover all the land west of Chanzhou and south of Xiangzhou, and the territory of Houliang was able to cross the Yellow River again.
Wei Bo's troops stationed in Hedong lost up to one-third of their food and supplies.
Weizhou was recaptured by Hou Liang; Luzhou rebelled and surrendered to Liang; the Khitans invaded Youzhou... In addition, the generals (Zhou Dewei, Shi Jiantang, Yan Bao, Li Sizhao, Li Cunjin) were lost one after another, the people in Hedong were panicked, and the morale of the army was shaken. Li Cunxu and his new regime, the Later Tang Dynasty, faced an extremely important test of founding a nation.
