【Four Deadly Sins】
The last time we saw monarchs and ministers scolding each other in official historical records was between Emperor Xizong and Gao Pian of the Tang Dynasty.
Li Congke must have been really angry. Judging from his brief reply, it can be said that he was really unscrupulous with his words, like spitting excrement at others, hurting the enemy a thousand times and damaging himself eight hundred.
This time the scolding war lasted very short, for two main reasons: first, both sides were disgraceful, and their butts were not clean. They were quarreling back and forth, and both sides were grinding with their bare butts - spinning in circles, which was embarrassing; The second is that the relationship between the two parties has broken down. The imperial court has dispatched the army to preemptively strike. If you can, don't make a fuss.
Shi Jingtang summoned his staff and made an impassioned speech, enumerating the four crimes of the imperial court:
One is breaking promises and breaking promises.
When Shi Jingtang left Luoyang and went to control Hedong, Li Congke made a golden promise to him, "I will never change my mind with Qing Beimen in my life." The emperor said it himself. He asked me to take charge of Hedong, and I would neither remove him nor move the town. However, Now he has moved me to Yunzhou.
Second, misunderstanding and suspicion.
The "Long Live Xinzhou Oolong Case" aggravated Li Congke's suspicion of Shi Jingtang, and was probably the trigger for this order to move the town. Although Shi Jingtang killed thirty-six soldiers, he could not dispel Li Congke's doubts.
Third, he made a gaffe while drunk.
The princess went to Luoyang to attend Li Congke's birthday party. After Li Congke got drunk, he told the princess in public, "You are very anxious to return and want to rebel against Shi Lang." Speaking the truth after drinking, Li Congke lost his disguise under the influence of alcohol. In Shi Jingtang's words, "This suspicion of me is solid and clear."
Fourth, the government is dim.
Li Congke was close to villains and wise ministers, his politics were dark, and he was full of treacherous people.
Afterwards, Shi Jingtang burst into tears and cried out his grievances and injustices: "I am loyal to the imperial court and have never had second thoughts! However, the imperial court took the initiative to start a war. If I don't take action, I can only sit back and wait for death. What's more, Taiyuan I live in a dangerous place and have enough food and grass, so what should I be afraid of? If the court can tolerate me, I will serve him; if he dares to resort to force, then don't blame me for being rude!"
The Shi Jingtang Group was mainly divided into two factions. One faction, headed by Zhao Ying, advocated obeying the imperial edict and going to Yunzhou to serve; the other faction, headed by Duan Xiyao, Sang Weihan, and Liu Zhiyuan, advocated resisting the imperial edict and using force against the imperial court. Xue Rong, the staff member, said that he was just a scholar and did not understand military affairs, so he chose to abstain.
Among them, the chief strategist Sang Weihan presented a crucial strategy to Shi Jingtang: collude with the Khitan for aid.
A vigorous war to destroy the country is about to begin. This war is of great significance. Its nature is to mobilize forces from abroad to support domestic anti-government forces, overthrow the legal regime, and establish a new puppet regime. Doesn’t this sound like something the Lighthouse Country often does?
This battle also gave birth to a famous traitor regime in China - the Later Jin Dynasty.
Because this period of history is relatively unpopular, many people subjectively ignore and disdain it, and have preconceptions that the Khitan army is brave and invincible and the Central Plains army is fragile. Therefore, the Khitan army went south and destroyed everything. Li Congke of the Later Tang Dynasty was defeated, and Shi Jingtang established the Later Jin Dynasty.
This is a serious misunderstanding.
In fact, this history has many opportunities to be rewritten. The Khitan army was not that invincible, and the Khitan people's will to fight was not that firm (why should they work for Shi Jingtang?), and the army of the Later Tang Dynasty was enough to pose a fatal threat to the Khitan army. The Later Tang Dynasty also had an ultimate winning weapon - Yelu times.
The Khitan army actually fought very cautiously, and at one point they were even ready to abandon Shi Jingtang and flee.
However, the final result was that Shi Jingtang established the Later Jin Dynasty and Li Congke died. It's sad and sighing. Below, I will expand on it in detail, and think deeply about the reasons from different perspectives.
At the beginning of the rebellion, Shi Jingtang listed the "four sins" committed by Li Congke's court and gave his rebellion a legal cloak, making himself look justifiable and well-known.
On May 14, Li Congke issued an edict to deprive Shi Jingtang of all official positions and titles, and ordered Zhang Jingda and others to lead troops to attack. The war officially started.
As soon as the war broke out, An Shenxin, the commander-in-chief of the vanguard army, rebelled before the battle, and together with An Yuanxin and other generals, they led hundreds of personal guards to defect to Shi Jingtang.
The reason is that An Yuanxin, the general of the imperial army stationed in Daizhou, was a good friend of Zhang Lang, the governor of Daizhou. After receiving the news of the outbreak of the war, An Yuanxin secretly said to Zhang Lang: "I think Shi Jingtang is a loyal elder and will definitely win." In the final victory of the war, it is best for us to secretly surrender to protect ourselves.”
Zhang Lang flatly refused.
An Yuanxin wanted to assassinate Zhang Lang, but the plot was exposed, so he led his troops to flee to An Shenxin's office. Er An immediately burned, killed and looted the station, and then fled to Taiyuan hand in hand.
An Shenxin is the nephew of the old hero An Jinquan and has a close personal relationship with Shi Jingtang.
Shi Jingtang received Er'an and asked Anyuan: "How do you know that I will win in the end? At present, the imperial court is powerful, but I am weak."
An Yuanxin replied: "I don't know anything about astrology, and I don't know about fortune. But I know a truth, a person cannot stand without faith, let alone a king who governs the world? Now, Li Congke has broken faith with you (a crime), you He is his relative, comrade-in-arms, and a hero of the country. He can even let you down, let alone us alienated and humble villains? Therefore, I assert that Li Congke will definitely fail!"
Shi Jingtang was elated when he heard this and had great trust in him.
When two armies confront each other, it is very common for generals to defect. Some commanders handle the situation very well. With a little trick, they can kill people with a knife, making the local commanders suspicious of their traitorous generals, and then kill them.
But the imperial army was extremely stupid. They arrested Er'an and the wives, children, and children of all the defecting soldiers, took them to Taiyuan City, and beheaded them all.
This was done, firstly, to vent anger, and secondly, to scare our own soldiers and warn them not to rebel. But there are two major disadvantages in doing so: first, it strengthens the will of the defecting soldiers to fight and their deep hatred forces them to be loyal to the enemy; second, it helps the defecting soldiers obtain surrender certificates so that the enemy no longer suspects that they are pretending to surrender.
History books say that Shi Jingtang trusted Er'an and the soldiers they brought so much that he allowed them to continue leading the army. They had to believe that Li Congke killed their whole family and they had no choice.
After Li Congke issued the order to start the war, he sent people to search for the relatives of Shi Jingtang's hostages left in Luoyang.
Among them, Shi Jingtang's two sons, Shi Chongying and Shi Chongyin, fled to the countryside and hid in private homes. They were caught and beheaded, along with their entire family;
Shi Jingtang's younger brother, Shi Jingde, killed his wife and children with his own hands, then fled, but was also caught and executed (one theory is that he committed suicide);
Shi Jingtang's cousin Shi Jingwei committed suicide.
