[Li Siyuan proclaims himself emperor 1]
Li Siyuan faced huge challenges, and the resources he had at his disposal were minimal and simply not enough to intimidate and control the entire empire. Morality, territory, army, money and food... Li Siyuan had almost nothing. He only had one thing - brain.
That's enough.
When Li Siyuan ascended the throne and proclaimed himself emperor, he was already in his sixties. He had been fighting with the army since he was 13 years old. He followed Li Guochang, Li Keyong, and Li Cunxu successively. He has served three generations of Li Cunxu's descendants for 47 years, until he became the emperor. General and prime minister, becoming the sole general of the Hedong Group, with 47 years of experience in political and military struggles, what kind of storms and waves have you not seen? What kind of bloody storms have you not experienced?
Ginger is old and spicy. Li Siyuan was able to navigate the turbulent waves, not only solving the above-mentioned difficulties and making the transition of power smooth, but also basically getting the empire out of the devastation of war and gradually moving towards prosperity. Li Siyuan is also recognized as the second wisest saint among the emperors of the "Five Dynasties". Yes, the first one is the undisputed one.
The following is Li Siyuan’s high-end operation.
First of all, it must be justified
On the day Li Siyuan entered Luoyang (April 3), prime ministers Douluge and Wei Shuo led hundreds of civil and military officials to jointly request Li Siyuan to ascend the throne and proclaim himself emperor.
Li Siyuan said that everything was a misunderstanding. He was a loyal minister who came to protect him, not a traitor who killed the king. He had never thought about becoming the emperor.
"It's not too late to think about it now." Douluge and others repeatedly begged, but Li Siyuan always refused.
In the following days, the civil and military officials retreated to the next best thing. Since you do not want to proclaim yourself emperor, then please ask the country to be regent. After all, a country cannot be left without a master for a day.
As usual, Li Siyuan had to be humble and declined, "I have no virtue and no ability, I don't dare."
Following the old rules, after three times, on April 7, Li Siyuan "reluctantly" agreed, and moved into the palace the next day (April 8), and began to accept the visits of civil and military officials.
At this time, Li Siyuan's orders were not called "chao" but "teaching orders"; civil and military officials were not called "your majesty" but "your highness".
After temporarily stabilizing the situation in Luoyang, Li Siyuan immediately assigned Shi Jingtang to serve as the guard of the Shaanzhou Protectorate Army and take charge of Shaanzhou (today's Sanmenxia City, Henan Province) to prevent Li Jiqi from attacking Luoyang; he also ordered Li Congke to serve as the guard of the Protectorate Army in Hezhong to prevent Li Then he fled to Taiyuan.
As early as the Weizhou mutiny, Li Cunxu sent his minister Zhang Hanbin to gallop through Shu, urging Li Jiji to quickly regroup and ask King Qin to rescue him. Li Jiji was suppressing Kang Yanxiao's rebellion at the time. Zhang Hanbin urged him very hard.
There was a staff officer named Chen Min in the army who was an old friend of Zhang Hanbin, so he secretly asked him about the situation in Luoyang, "I heard that Luoyang has changed its emperor. Who is the new emperor?"
Zhang Hanbin looked serious and said: "I came here under the emperor's order and acted according to the order. I don't dare to know other things."
Chen Min added: "You don't have to be afraid. I also have my own connections. Rumors have spread a lot that Li Siyuan has become the emperor. Why are you hiding it from me? I mean, if Luoyang really changes The new emperor, it is best not to let Li Jiji rush back, but stay in Shu for now, observe the development of the situation, and wait for the situation to be calm before making plans later."
Zhang Hanbin lowered his head and said, "To be honest, Li Siyuan had already crossed the Yellow River when I came here, and I really don't know what happened after that. I obeyed the emperor's imperial edict in person, how could I disobey it just because of a few rumors I heard from hearsay? Don’t comply?”
Finally, under Zhang Hanbin's repeated urging, Li Jiji hurriedly accelerated towards Luoyang.
When Li Jizhen rushed to Xingping, west of Chang'an, he got news of the unrest in Luoyang. Li Jiji decided to temporarily return to Fengxiang to wait and see how the situation would develop, so the entire army turned around and headed west.
Not far away, the eunuch Li Congxi said: "This is a blessing, not a curse, but it is a curse that cannot be avoided. Your Majesty, it is best for you to enter the capital quickly and pacify the capital in one fell swoop before the rebels have a stable foothold."
Li Jiqi thought that what he said made sense, so he turned around again and walked eastward along the Yellow River.
The left-behind officer in Chang'an cut off the pontoon bridge on the Yellow River in advance to block Li Jiji's advance. Li Jiji ordered the entire army to swim across the Yellow River, bypass Chang'an, and continue eastward.
During this process, a large number of soldiers fled, including Li Jiji's confidant eunuch Lu Zhirou. Li Jiji also fell into a situation where everyone was betrayed and separated from his relatives.
At this time, the eunuch Li Congxi once again offered his words: "Your Majesty, the matter has come to an end... I know that you are a decent man, please settle it yourself."
Li Jiji wandered and cried, and finally made up his mind and said to his personal bodyguard Li Huan: "Please help me show my dignity."
Li Huan knelt down and cried bitterly, refusing to take action. After persuading him for a long time, Li Huan said to Li Jiji's wet nurse: "I can't bear to see the king's face. If the king really has no way out, then please cover your face."
So, Li Jiji lay face down on the bed. Li Huan strangled him to death from behind with a rope.
This Li Huan was the one who killed Guo Chongtao with a hammer headshot.
Ren Wan took over the command and led the troops to continue eastward. Shi Jingtang was ordered to appease the labor force halfway, and the expeditionary force readily accepted it without anyone objecting.
Li Siyuan sent his confidant Li Chong to Huazhou as a supervisor to welcome and appease Li Jiji's troops. Although Li Chong doesn't have many scenes, he is thoughtful and shady. Like An Chongjie and Huo Yanwei, he will take the blame for his master and do some disgraceful things.
After Li Chong arrived in Huazhou, he first forced Shi Jingrong, the Jiedushi envoy, to go to Beijing to report on his duties; then Li Cunjing, the Kuangguo army's Jiedushi envoy from Tongzhou, passed by Huazhou (probably going to Beijing to report on his duties), and Li Chong had Li Cunjing killed.
Shi Jingrong and Li Cunjing appeared when Li Cunxu killed Li Kening. Shi Jingrong was the informant, reporting Li Kening's "rebellion", while Li Cunjing, Li Cunzhang, Zhang Chengye and others jointly plotted to kill Li Kening.
Especially Li Cunjing, who is Li Keyong's adopted son. Can such a person be retained? Of course not, kill his whole family!
After Ren Wan arrived with his army to conquer Shu, Li Chong killed the eunuch Li Congxi, because Li Congxi was the general political commissar of this army (the governor of the Xichuan camp).
After all the disgusting things were done for his master, Shi Jingrong also arrived in the capital and cried out to the Privy Councilor An Chonghui about his grievances. Shi Jingrong is indeed not a "Li Cunxu ally", but he was forced to get involved in the political struggle and was used by Li Cunxu. Apart from this, he and Li Cunxu seemed to have no intersection, and it was not until this time that they appeared for the second time in the annals of history. This may be the reason why Li Chong did not kill him directly and sent it to An Chongjie for him to make a decision.
An Chongjiao comforted him with kind words, but still ordered him to stay in Huazhou, and then transferred Li Chong back to Beijing to conduct a deep self-examination, and severely criticized his practice of killing Li Cunjing and Li Congxi without permission, "How can you do this? From now on? Don’t do this anymore.”
Ren Wan led 20,000 people to Luoyang. Li Siyuan personally met him and comforted him for a long time. After a few words of greetings, Li Siyuan couldn't wait to ask the question that was deep in his heart, "Where is Li Jiji?"
When he learned that Li Jiji had hanged himself and had been buried in southwest Huazhou by Ren Wan, Li Siyuan finally breathed a sigh of relief, and the big stone in his heart fell to the ground.
"By the way, you said a few days ago that you wanted me to be the emperor, right?"
