【Weird War】
After Li Cunxu briefly operated in Bianzhou, he came to Luoyang in December, and in February of the following year (the second year of Tongguang, 924), he "had something to do in the southern suburbs."
What’s interesting is that all the utensils used in this Jiaotian Ceremony were carefully prepared by Zhu Youzhen. It was December of the third year of Zhenming (917). Zhu Youzhen planned to have something to do in the southern suburbs when the New Year came. As a result, Yang and Liu fell. Rumors spread that the Hedong Army was approaching Bianzhou. The whole court was shocked, so they hurried back to Bianzhou. Everyone came back, but all the prepared items were left in Luoyang. So Li Cunxu reused the waste.
All officials congratulated him, and Prime Minister Douluge led all officials to present Li Cunxu with the honorific title: Emperor Zhaowen, Ruiwu, Zhide, Guangxiao.
After the Later Tang Dynasty replaced the Later Liang Dynasty, vassal towns all over the country expressed their congratulations and recognized the legitimacy of the Later Tang Dynasty. Among them, there were vassal towns that originally professed vassalage to the Later Liang Dynasty, such as Ma Yin, Gao Jichang, and Qian Liu, while there were also those that did not recognize the Later Liang Dynasty, such as Huainan, Fengxiang, and Nanhan.
It is worth mentioning that except for the weakest Fengxiang Li Maozhen who professed vassalage to the Later Tang Dynasty, Huainan, Qian Shu, and the Southern Han Dynasty only expressed friendship and peace to the Later Tang Dynasty, rather than professing vassalage, insisting that the two countries were equal.
Li Cunxu sent Huainan the news of the extermination of Liang in the form of an imperial edict. Huainan refused to sign because Huainan had not professed vassalage to the Later Tang Dynasty, and you were not qualified to "issue an edict" to us. Therefore, Li Cunxu had to use equal diplomatic etiquette and submitted his credentials, saying "The Emperor of the Tang Dynasty wrote to the Lord of Wu", and the reply from Huainan said "The Lord of Wu Kingdom wrote to the Emperor of the Tang";
The former King of Shu sent envoys to pay tribute, saying "the Emperor of Shu sent a letter to the Emperor of Tang";
Liu Yan of the Southern Han Dynasty sent an envoy to pay tribute, saying "The King of the Han Dynasty sent a letter to the Emperor of the Tang Dynasty".
In short, those among the "Ten Kingdoms" who have proclaimed themselves emperors or are about to proclaim themselves emperors will resolutely defend their sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity. Hou Liang is not our suzerain state, nor is Later Tang; the Zhu family is not our master, and neither are you. Let's not interfere with the water in the well, and we can all be safe.
At the same time, envoys from Silla, Xi, Bohai Kingdom, Uighur, Heishui Kingdom, Turks, Dangxiang, Jurchen and other countries arrived one after another to pay tribute and congratulate them. And most of them paid tribute multiple times over a year, working tirelessly.
The reason is very simple. Later Tang Dynasty had just brought peace to the world and was in urgent need of widespread recognition. This was a good time to "buy goods" and buy at the bottom.
The Khitan people, an old friend of the Shatuo people, were not to be left alone. They also immediately sent envoys to express their congratulations. However, the congratulations of the Khitan people were the most special because in addition to sending gifts to express friendship, they also made a small request. : Please cede your country Youzhou.
——Ceding land? Sorry, we Central Plains people really can't understand the humor of your nomadic barbarians.
——Okay, then we will use force to make you understand better.
The Khitan army went south again and invaded the northern territories such as Youzhou and Yuzhou. The troops once penetrated into Yizhou and Dingzhou.
Li Cunxu ordered Li Siyuan to take command, and sent his troops to Youzhou with Huo Yanwei as his deputy.
The war between the Later Tang Dynasty and the Khitan was very strange.
Li Siyuan took command and set off for the expedition. Within 10 days, he received a report saying that the Khitans had voluntarily withdrawn from the border and returned to the outside of the Great Wall. So Li Siyuan was ordered to take charge of the army. The two armies did not face each other, so they stopped fighting and there was no rain.
Just two months later, Zhenzhou reported that the Khitans came again. Li Cunxu ordered Li Siyuan to station in Xingzhou, and ordered Li Congke and Zhao Dejun to lead the cavalry to patrol and guard.
This time, the Heshuo area was covered with dark clouds. Li Siyuan and his adopted son Li Congke sharpened their swords to make another great contribution to the empire.
However, the Khitans went eastward and harassed the territory under the jurisdiction of the Lulong Army in Youzhou, and deployed troops. Outside Youzhou City, the Khitan cavalry was all over the mountains and fields, as far as the eye could see. Soon after, the Khitan army launched an attack on Youzhou.
Li Cunxu allocated 37,000 imperial troops to Li Siyuan and ordered him to go north to resist the Khitan.
Although the Khitan's reason for launching the war was to secede Youzhou, a large force also came to Youzhou City and launched a tentative attack. But occupying Youzhou is not the Khitan's real demand. This is the strange thing about this war.
The Khitans gave full play to the mobility advantage of their cavalry and galloped across the empire's vast northern frontier. From Youzhou in the east to Taiyuan in the west, they were the targets of Khitan guerrilla attacks. Whenever the Later Tang army arrived, the Khitans People would move quickly, coming and going without a trace. Youzhou, Zhenzhou, and Taiyuan reported one after another that they were attacked.
In addition to the commonplace reasons - the Khitans were not ready to annex the Central Plains, nor did they have the strength, so plundering was their main purpose, plundering strategic resources such as money, food, and population.
Another reason is that Khitan is facing "foreign aggression."
The first is Bohai State. The Bohai Kingdom is located in today's Northeastern region, the northeastern part of the Korean Peninsula, and the Russian Far East, east of the Khitan sphere of influence. Yelu Abaoji was a talented and strategist. He realized that the existence of the Bohai Kingdom was an obstacle to his southward invasion of the Central Plains. Once the Khitan penetrated deep into the Central Plains, the Bohai Kingdom would threaten the Khitan's rear.
If you want to destroy the Central Plains, you must first destroy the Bohai Sea. This is Yelu Abaoji's grand strategy.
The Bohai Kingdom was the Khitan's real intention, and the harassment of Youzhou and other places was actually Yelu Abaoji's attempt to test and contain the Central Plains.
Therefore, once the main force of the Central Plains moves north, the Khitan army will retreat without a fight, preserve its strength, and harass the Heshuo and Hedong areas to the west to distract Later Tang's reinforcements to Youzhou.
Use Youzhou to contain the Later Tang Dynasty, and use Hedong and Heshuo to contain Youzhou. This is a big chess game played by Yelu Abaoji, and it is also the essential logic of the strange appearance of this war.
Secondly, there was a small accident that Yelu Abaoji had not planned - the Jurchens, Uighurs, and Huangtou Shiwei jointly launched an attack on the Khitan.
The Khitan people were not sincere in attacking Youzhou; the later Tang Dynasty was also half-hearted in saving Youzhou. Both sides jointly contributed to the strangeness of this war.
Why did the Later Tang Dynasty be half-hearted? Because Luzhou is in trouble again.
When Hou Liang fell, the most feared vassal town in the world was probably Luzhou.
After the famous Hedong general Li Sizhao was killed on the front line of Zhenzhou, his second son Li Jitao joined forces with his brothers to launch a mutiny and imprisoned Li Sizhao's eldest son Li Jichou in order to save Luzhou. At that time, Li Cunxu Zhengsan was facing the enemy, so he gave in to Luzhou and appointed Li Jitao as the rear guard for the Anyi Army in Luzhou.
Later, Li Jitao conspired with his younger brother Li Jiyuan and others, believing that Li Cunxu would be unable to escape and would be defeated by the Later Liang Dynasty, so he rebelled against the Jin Dynasty and surrendered to the Liang Dynasty. .
Luzhou is the southern gate of Taiyuan. Li Jitao's betrayal opened the gate of Taiyuan, and the heart of Hedong was completely exposed to the enemy's gunfire. Therefore, Hou Liang formulated a military plan of four-pronged counterattack, intending to eliminate Li Cunxu in Hedong in one fell swoop.
If Kang Yanxiao, a traitor, had not appeared in the Later Liang Dynasty, leaked all military plans, and offered the "Left Hook" strategy to level the Liang Dynasty, history would most likely have been rewritten in this year, and a completely opposite script would have been presented. History cannot assume that, but We can imagine: the main force of the Later Liang Dynasty used Luzhou as a springboard, "straight fist" to dig out the heart, and came to Taiyuan City. Li Cunxu and his family set themselves on fire. All civil and military officials surrendered and asked for pardon. Li Cunxu was executed by his subordinates on the front line along the river and his head was sent to death. Go to Bianzhou to report his merits... Maybe Daliang can persist until the Mongolian cavalry appears.
In short, Li Jitao is definitely the number one traitor in the Later Tang Dynasty, and his crime cannot be forgiven. Li Jitao knew this very well. When the news of the destruction of Liang Dynasty in the Later Tang Dynasty came, Li Jitao was uneasy. After some careful consideration, Li Jitao embarked on the road of becoming a traitor without hesitation.
