Li Conghou spent all his treasury to reward the soldiers of the Forbidden Army, and "the treasury was completely empty."
Today's Li Conghou is very much like Li Cunxu before the "Xingjiaomen Incident". There is not enough money in the treasury to reward sergeants. This is strange. Didn't I just take over the "Mingzong Prosperity"? Where's the money?
The history books say that it was because of the construction of a mausoleum for Li Siyuan that "at that time, there was a mountain mausoleum, and this gift was restored, and the treasures of the palace were completely empty." Just to build Li Siyuan's tomb, the country was hollowed out... Are you building the Mausoleum of Qin Shihuang?
In fact, the real reason is that in the late Ming Dynasty, the "harem sect" Wang Defei paid tribute to the "sucking father and plotting against Liu". According to historical records, after killing An Chongjie, Wang Defei and the eunuch Meng Hanqiong squandered the treasury unscrupulously, without even paying a white note, and embezzled without reason or limit.
When Li Siyuan was alive, he launched three large-scale wars. Jingnan, Liangchuan, and Xiazhou were all defeated due to logistical problems. In one word, no money.
As I said, the "prosperity of Mingzong" itself is a beautiful bubble, false prosperity. Three wars hollowed out the empire. In the later period, Wang Defei turned into a prodigal woman. Li Congrong launched a coup, which made the empire worse (rewarding heroes was also a big expense). As for building a mausoleum for Li Siyuan, it was just a rhetoric.
In short, Li Conghou was not really supported by these people in the first place, and his pitifully small direct descendants were also squeezed out by the "Rocket Faction". He had no right to speak at all, and now he has no money. Li Conghou recreated the dilemma before Li Cunxu's "Xingjiaomen Incident".
Li Conghou almost begged: "After the Fengxiang rebels are defeated, we will definitely give out additional rewards, two hundred guan each! If the treasury is not enough, we will sell off the treasures and treasures in the palace. Don't worry, I will definitely give them to you."
Faced with the emperor's empty promise, the soldiers of the Forbidden Army did not appreciate it. They looked at the empty treasury and took the rewards in their hands. What they thought in their minds was not how to be loyal to the emperor and serve the country, but to seek glory from the seller. They actually shouted openly: "When you get to Fengxiang, you will accept Li Congke's reward! (If you get to Fengxiang, I will give you one more point)"
Li Congke's forward troops caught up with Wang Sitong, captured him alive, and escorted him to Li Congke.
Li Congke blamed him for not being able to adapt to the changing circumstances and support him in time.
Wang Sitong's answer was resounding, "I was promoted from a small soldier to such a high position by the late emperor, but I suffered from not having the opportunity to repay the emperor's favor. Don't I know that surrendering to you will bring glory and wealth, and being loyal to the court will lead to disaster? I am just worried that I will lose my face after death. See the late Emperor at Jiuquan."
Li Congke was moved by his loyalty and integrity and comforted him with kind words, "I won't kill you, you can go and rest." He also planned to re-appoint him as a high official after seizing the throne in the future.
However, Yang Siquan, Yin Hui and others were eager to execute Wang Sitong. Especially Yin Hui, who had already taken Wang Sitong's property, wives and concubines in Chang'an as his own. If Wang Sitong was allowed to return to power, how would he reap the rewards? So they all lobbied Li Congke's confidant Liu Yanlang and persuaded him to kill Wang Sitong.
One day, Li Congke was drunk, and Liu Yanlang and others secretly executed Wang Sitong's wife, children, and children. When Li Congke woke up, he was furious with Liu Yanlang. He didn't smile for several days and sighed without listening.
On the second day after Li Conghou sent Kang Yicheng to the expedition, Li Congke arrived in Huazhou, captured Yao Yanchou alive, and then continued eastward. Along the way, An Chongba, the governor of Kuangguo Army in Tongzhou, and An Yanwei, the military governor of Hezhong Protectorate Army, surrendered one after another. Li Congke's troops moved more and more powerfully.
Only Kang Sili, the governor of the Shaanzhou Baoyi Army, was prepared to hold on to Shaanzhou and wait for the main force of the Forbidden Army led by Kang Yicheng to come for reinforcements.
Previously, five hundred forbidden troops were stationed in the west of Shaanzhou, forming the first line of defense of Shaanzhou. Now, they transformed into Li Congke's vanguard. They rushed to the city and shouted to the defenders on the city: "One hundred thousand forbidden troops have supported Li Congke for a long time. What use can you people do? You are just fighting for one city." The common people bring bloody disasters. Those who know the current affairs are heroes!"
The Forbidden Army officers and soldiers in the garrison rushed out and expressed their intention to change their stance and support Li Congke. Kang Sili was unable to stop it, so he also ordered Kaicheng to surrender.
On March 27, Li Congke settled in Shaanzhou. At the suggestion of the counselor, he temporarily stayed in Shaanzhou and sent a notice to the people in Luoyang, which was nearby. The general message was that I, Li Congke, was not going to cause trouble, but to "clear the emperor's side" and help the emperor eliminate the villains around him. This time I came I just want to kill the whole family of Zhu Hongzhao and Feng Yun. All other civil and military officials are innocent, so the people should not panic.
After Kang Yicheng led the imperial army out of Luoyang, the officers and soldiers, ranging from dozens to hundreds, broke away from the large army in groups and came to Li Congke's army to express their submission.
Since they are all surrenders, why should you, Kang Yicheng, betray us? We sell ourselves, no middlemen make the difference!
When Kang Yicheng walked to the east of Shaanzhou, there were only dozens of cavalry left under his command, and he happened to encounter a dozen of Li Congke's scout cavalry. Kang Yicheng took off his bow, arrows and saber as tokens, and entrusted the scouts to present them on his behalf, asking for surrender.
Li Conghou was completely panicked and issued an edict to make An Congjin, the commander-in-chief of the Forbidden Army Cavalry, serve as the commander of Luoyang City Defense and be responsible for organizing the defense battle of Luoyang. What he didn't know was that An Congjin had also made secret contact with Li Congke and secretly reached a surrender agreement. The city defense commander was already ready to cooperate inside and outside.
When the news of Kang Yicheng's surrender reached Luoyang, Li Conghou was completely panicked and hurriedly summoned Zhu Hongzhao to the palace to discuss countermeasures.
Zhu Hongzhao sighed and said: "At this time, asking me to enter the palace so urgently is probably a disaster. Hey, forget it, I will take my own life." After that, he threw himself into the well.
After the "inner ghost" An Congjin heard that Zhu Hongzhao had committed suicide, he immediately led his troops into Feng Yun's home, beheaded his entire family, cut off Feng Yun's head, and packed it together with Zhu Hongzhao's head and sent it to Shaanzhou.
Wang Sitong, who traveled thousands of miles to give away his life; Kang Yicheng, who was a seller seeking glory; An Congjin, who penetrated into our army... Li Conghou really became a polished commander, and he found the last trustworthy comrade - the eunuch Meng Hanqiong.
Meng Hanqiong made great contributions when he killed Li Congrong, and it was he who went to Weizhou to replace Li Conghou and came to the capital to ascend the throne. It can be said that it was Meng Hanqiong who promoted Li Conghou to the throne. At this time when everyone was betraying relatives and leaving, Li Conghou regarded Meng Hanqiong as the last straw.
Li Conghou asked Meng Hanqiong to return to Weizhou for deployment. He planned to escape to Weizhou and Xu Tu planned the future.
However, Meng Hanqiong gave a big "NO" and escaped from Luoyang alone. Instead of going to Weizhou in the east, he quickly fled to the west and went to Shaanzhou to join Li Congke.
Who else is Li Conghou’s direct descendant? There really was one, Murong Qian, the general of the Forbidden Army.
