Li Congke, whose original surname was Wang, was from Zhenzhou. He lost his father when he was young and lived with his mother, the Wei family. Mrs. Wei was quite beautiful. At that time (895) Li Siyuan plundered the land of Heshuo and took the Wei family as his concubine. At that time, Li Congke was only ten years old, so he was recognized by Li Siyuan as his adopted son, took him with him, and gave him the name "Li Congke".
According to Li Siyuan himself, at that time, he was only a low-level officer with a meager income. He was so poor that he had no clothes to wear and no food to eat. Xiao Li Congke went outside to collect firewood and horse dung to supplement the family income.
When Li Congke grew up, he followed Li Siyuan on expeditions in the north and south, and made many achievements.
The biggest contribution was the "Battle of Huliupi" in 919. In that battle, Zhou Dewei was killed, Li Cunxu's army was demoralized, Li Siyuan secretly returned north, and Li Congke stayed by Li Cunxu's side, risking his own life, and finally turned the tide. , stabilized the position. At that time, Li Cunxu wanted to use military law to kill Li Siyuan, who had escaped from the battle and intended to rebel and seize power. He spared Li Siyuan because of Li Congke's contribution.
Later, in the "Battle of Desheng Jiacheng" in 922, Li Congke led more than a dozen cavalrymen to mix with the troops of the Houliang Army and retreated to the Houliang barracks together. When they reached the camp gate, they suddenly shouted and beheaded Several Houliang soldiers caused chaos in the Houliang army, and then took advantage of the chaos to cut down the watchtower of the Houliang army and retreated intact. Li Cunxu couldn't help but admire "You are so strong, Asan!"
The following year (923), he and Li Siyuan ran thousands of miles and took the lead in attacking Bianzhou and annihilating Houliang. Li Cunxu took Li Siyuan's hand outside Bianzhou City and said: "The restoration of the Tang Dynasty is the result of your father and son."
"Old History of the Five Dynasties" evaluates him as: brave, sad, and timid. They respectively correspond to Li Congke's three historical periods.
When he was young, he fought bravely and invincibly, entering and exiting the enemy's formation, "how brave he is"; when he was in power, he had no talent for governing the country, and appointed a bunch of mediocre people such as Lu Wenji and Xue Wenyu. The current situation was unfavorable and destiny was unfavorable, "good people are pitiful"; finally When the imperial commander was on his own expedition, he was afraid of Shi Jingtang's military front and the power of Khitan, so much so that he burst into tears outside Luoyang City, saying "how cowardly he is."
Shi Jingtang searched Li Congke's remains from the ashes and buried them in Huiling in March of the following year. After Shi Jingtang took control of Luoyang, he announced that Li Congke would be deposed as a commoner. However, history still gave Li Congke a fairer title. The "Old History of the Five Dynasties" called him the "Last Emperor" and the "New History of the Five Dynasties" called him the "Deposed Emperor". "Emperor", in short, recognized Li Congke's status as an emperor.
Don't judge heroes by success or failure. In any case, when the king of a country faces destruction, he either flees or surrenders, and those who can commit suicide and sacrifice their country are, after all, only a few. Li Congke may not have the talent to know the world and the strategy to stabilize the country, but he has the character to be a king and die for the country. He's a man.
Luoyang ushered in its new owner, Shi Jingtang, the founder of the later Jin Dynasty.
Shi Jingtang's throne became extremely weak due to the strong intervention of the Khitan. Since the Ming Dynasty, we have often stated that Emperor Li Siyuan had a weak claim and faced a serious court deficit, so Li Siyuan behaved very weakly and compromised at every turn; Li Conghou and Li Congke faced even more difficult situations than Li Siyuan.
And if compared with Shi Jingtang, their life was not very comfortable.
Politically weak claims, economically serious fiscal deficit, military vassal separation... In addition to these standard difficulties, Shi Jingtang also had an additional shackle: recognizing thieves as his father. In diplomacy, he was inferior to others. Not only did he have to honor his Khitan father every year, but he also had to be dictated by his Khitan father in domestic affairs.
Outside, the Khitans regarded him as their son; at home, his subjects regarded him as their grandson. After Shi Jingtang took control of Luoyang, not only did he not dare to carry out a general purge, he said that "one emperor and one courtier", everyone was happy, but what was shocking was that the surrendered generals actually turned around and bullied Shi Jingtang.
Facing the bullying from all directions, Shi Jingtang didn't even dare to fart, and kept smiling at every turn.
Following the previous summary of Yelu Deguang's "Benji", we can also briefly summarize the contents of Shi Jingtang's "Benji":
1. Long live my father-in-law
2. Long live Khitan father
3. Counterinsurgency
4. Long live the traitor general
If you pick up "A Dream of Red Mansions" and do not resonate with "A Handful of Bitter Tears", please change the "Old History of the Five Dynasties" and read "The Chronicles of Jin Gaozu" once.
Next we will enter the third generation of the Five Dynasties - the Later Jin Dynasty, and take a look at the painful struggle of the "son emperor".
1. Political propaganda
The most urgent thing for Shi Jingtang Group is to find a seemingly reasonable legal basis for Shi Jingtang, that is, to help clean up the "traitor".
They put in a lot of effort:
1. Emperor Min’s “edict”
When Li Congke rebelled against Fengxiang, the imperial army failed in the first battle. Li Congke took advantage of the victory and approached Luoyang. Li Conghou ordered King Shi Jingtangqin to rescue him.
Regarding the above period of history, Shi Jingtang’s political propaganda team whitewashed it like this:
"...Emperor Min urgently ordered the emperor to go to Que, hoping to use Sheji as a support..."
But later, in the explanation of the "Weizhou Incident", although only a few crosses were used, Shi Jingtang was described as an innocent fool, and all the dirty water was poured on Li Congke. The argument "for entrustment" has caused a bug.
In short, Emperor Min Li Conghou was the legal heir of Emperor Mingzong Li Siyuan. Since he "wanted to rely on the state of the country", Shi Jingtang was the only designated legal heir of the Later Tang Dynasty.
2. Birth Vision
As an emperor of a generation, if there were no visions when he was born, how could he be embarrassed to be selected into the "Benji"? Shi Jingtang naturally wanted to get closer to science when he was born.
Shi Jingtang's birth was relatively peaceful, and he simply used ten words, "There is white air filling the courtyard from time to time, and people are very different." The delivery room suddenly became a fairyland, just like the heavenly palace in the 1986 version of "Journey to the West".
3. This is God’s will
3.1 Ancient Wood Book
It is said that 30 years ago, when Zhu Wen usurped the Tang Dynasty (907), Li Sian of Luzhou reported that in Shurang Township, Huguan County, Luzhou, a strange thing happened when villagers were cutting down trees. A tree fell on its own. , then split into two halves, and there were six official script characters written inside - "The stone will advance in the fourteenth year of the sky."
The villagers reported it to Li Sian, and Li Sian reported it to Zhu Wen. Zhu Wen gathered experts from all walks of life to analyze and study "Approaching Science", but no one knew its metaphorical meaning. Therefore, Zhu Wen hid this heavenly book in his inner palace.
Until today, thirty years later, when Shi Jingtang proclaimed himself emperor and entered Luo, an "expert" finally understood the secret of heaven: in "Tian Fourteen", half of "Tian" and "4" were removed, and then combined, it was "C" The word "十" and "四" can be formed into the word "Shen" in the same way. The year when Shi Jingtang proclaimed himself emperor (936) happened to be the "Year of Bingshen".
"Carrying stones forward" requires no explanation. Therefore, the meaning of the Book of Heaven is that in the Bingshen year, the person named Shi will become the emperor.
Another explanation is that from the establishment of Li Cunxu to the self-immolation of Li Congke, the regime of the Later Tang Dynasty lasted for exactly fourteen years, so the "fourteenth day" means that the shelf life of the Later Tang Dynasty is until this year, and "jin" means "Jin". So the Book of Heaven says that the Later Tang regime will be replaced by the "Great Jin" regime this year.
In short, as early as when Zhu Wen usurped the Tang Dynasty, God gave the world a brain teaser in Luzhou.
