In China's five-thousand-year history, there are many famous generals, so who is the most powerful one?
There are many theories about this, some say that Jiang Shang, the Prince of Jiang at the end of the Shang Dynasty, said that he was still fishing in the river in his seventies, but as soon as he came out of the mountain, he helped King Wu lay the foundation for the Zhou Dynasty for eight hundred years; some said that it was Bai Qi of the Warring States, saying that he opened up the territory for the Qin State and was undefeated in his life; there are also Han Xin in the early Han Dynasty, saying that he helped Liu Bang win half the world, and his merits were unbeatable...
Of course, there is also a sentence with an unknown provenance, called "Wang is not too much, will not be Li" However, this sentence is too dead, many people do not agree, but it at least shows that the two people in the sentence have a certain status in the folk.
So, who are these people?
People who know a little about Chinese history may react immediately when they see the first half of the sentence. "Wang but xiang" is not xiang yu, because there are not many celebrities with the surname Xiang in Chinese history. However, when I saw the second half of the sentence, some people hesitated, who is this "Li" for, Li Guang? Li Shimin? Li Jing?
It refers to a xiao general at the end of the Tang Dynasty, named: Li Cunxiao. The status in the folk is equivalent to the Zhao King Li Yuan in the "Biography of Tang Dynasty", making the 800-pound Yu Wang, known as the "Flying Tiger General".
Before talking about this person, let's look at a recent news story. According to a newspaper report by a certain media, in the Maling Mountains at the junction of Shandong and Jiangsu, there are two footprints, one large and one small. These two footprints are a local attraction that is visited by a large number of people every day. So, the question is, what is so strange about these two footprints? It has attracted so many people to come and find out.
Originally, according to local legend, Li Cunxiao, the first general at the end of the Tang Dynasty, once herded sheep here when he was young. At that time, his name was not Li Cunxiao, but An Jingsi. Legend has it that one day he encountered a tiger on the way to herd sheep, and if ordinary people saw this scene, their legs would be weak, but An Jingsi was not like this.
When he saw the tiger, he did not panic in his heart, but thought: "When this tiger has been doing evil in this place for a long time, the townspeople have been deeply affected by it, so I might as well do a good thing and beat the tiger to death." "To say, this first fierce general of the late Tang Dynasty really didn't blow, and in the end, the tiger was really beaten by his three or five punches.
Speaking of which, I think people are most concerned about those two footprints, whether li Cunxiao left behind when he fought the tiger?
Don't worry, here we will leave a suspense, we will talk later.
In other words, this scene of fighting a tiger happened to be seen by Li Keyong, who was across a mountain, and seeing that he was so heroic at a young age, he recruited him into his command.
So, who is Li Keyong?
He was the emissary of Hedong Jiedushi, who was running rampant at that time.
At the end of the Tang Dynasty, the imperial power was weakened, and there were many feudal towns, and most of the lords of these clan towns did not listen to the announcement, and even attacked each other to expand their territory. And Li Keyong is such a clan leader, although he is called Jiedushi, in fact, he is like a prince of one side, with boundless power. During this period, he suppressed the Huang Chao army and recaptured Chang'an, defeated the warlords in Guanzhong, and confronted Zhu Wen for hegemony...
After An Jingsi joined the army, he followed Li Ke to the southern conquest of the northern war and made countless military achievements. Seeing that he was so brave, Li Ke accepted him as a righteous son and named him Li Cunxiao. According to folklore, Li Keyong had a total of thirteen sons, who were called the Thirteenth Taibao at the time, and Li Cunxiao happened to rank thirteenth, but he was the most famous of the thirteen.
The thirteen Taibao here are: Li Siyuan of the Great Taibao, Li Sizhao of the Second Taibao, Li Cunxun of the Third Taibao, Li Cunxin of the Fourth Taibao, Li Cunjin of the Fifth Taibao, Li Siben of the Sixth Taibao, Li Siben of the Seventh Taibao, Li Cunzhang of the Eighth Taibao, Fu Cunxuan of the Ninth Taibao, Li Cunxian of the Tenth Taibao, Shi Jingsi of the Eleventh Taibao, Kang Junli of the Twelfth Taibao, and Li Cunxiao of the Thirteenth Taibao, all of whom were named as Taibao, and sometimes referred to the thirteenth righteous son, Li Cunxiao.
Li Cunxiao's bravery is comparable to Xiang Yu in qin, which can be seen from the story of his fighting tiger.
He has been a pioneer in the army for many years, does not avoid swords, and passes through places that are invincible. Many enemies, just by hearing his name, were so frightened that they opened the gates and surrendered. In the speech, he said that his most powerful battle was to attack Chang'an City with eighteen cavalrymen, and beat Huang Chao's 100,000 soldiers and horses to a defeated army, and even Wang Yanzhang, who was famous in martial arts at that time, was his defeated general.
However, later, he had a conflict with Li Keyong's other son, Li Cunxin, which made Li Keyong no longer trust him as before. In other words, although this Li Cunxin is called "Cunxin", he has no faith to speak of. Because Li Cunxiao had made outstanding achievements in battle over the years and was deeply loved by Li Keyong, Li Cunxin secretly became jealous and began to falsely accuse Li Ke of plotting rebellion.
And Li Keyong was also a servant who did not distinguish between loyalty and adultery, and after listening to his words without careful investigation, he believed it to be true.
Not long after, he actually sent troops to attack Li Cunxiao, and after some conquest, Li Cunxiao's soldiers were defeated and captured. It is said that in March of the first year of Qianning (894), Li Cunxiao ascended the city tower and cried to Li Keyong under the city: "Is it true that the son of the king is a great favor and is the supreme general, is he willing to abandon the father-son relationship and surrender to the enemy?" This is due to the slander of faith. I hope to live to see the king, and to die if I say a word. ”
Li Ke was very sentimental and sent Liu Shi into the city to comfort him. Liu Shi brought Li Cunxiao back, and he prostrated his head and pleaded: "Eryu Jin has meritorious deeds and no faults, and the reason why he has come to this place is because of his faith!" Li Ke said with a sigh: "The letters you wrote to Zhu Quanzhong and Wang Rong wantonly slandered me, is this also what Li Cunxin forced you to do?" In the end, Li Cunxiao suffered the punishment of car splitting and was unloaded in five pieces, and everyone sighed.
Legend has it that before he died, Li Cunxiao thought to himself: "Anyway, I have reached such a point, I am bound to die, if I struggle any longer, what is the benefit?" Instead of living and suffering, it is better to be liberated early and let go of everything. ”
Therefore, he said to Li Cunxin: "Fourth brother, our brothers have reached such a point that there is no need to say anything. But you will not be able to kill me in this way, nor will you be able to obey the orders of your Father and King. I say to you, 'If you want the car to rip me to death, there is only one way, that is, to break my tendons and ankles so that my hands and feet cannot exert force; to break my knees and elbows so that my limbs cannot be connected, and then with the strength of five horses, it is possible to kill me.' You and I have been brothers for so many years, look at the face of my brother, give me a hard time. ’”
Hearing Li Cunxiao say this, Li Cunxin nodded and did the same. This time, the five horses ran together and finally separated Li Cunxiao completely. A generation of famous generals, the world's unparalleled thirteen Taibao, this contains unjust death. In fact, Li Ke did not want to kill him, hoping that the people would intercede for him, so he was spared his sins, who knew that all the generals were jealous of him, and none of them interceded for him. Li Keyong deeply hated the generals for this, but he did not condemn Li Cunxin. Li Ke regretted his filial piety and ignored political affairs for more than ten days.
After Li Cunxiao's death, Li Keyong also quickly went into decline, and the world eventually fell into the hands of Zhu Quanzhong. However, clear-eyed people can see that the record of Li Cunxiao is indeed somewhat untrue. Among them, there are many exaggerated examples of war, all from the so-called wild history or legend. However, the fact that his deeds can be so touted by people in the folk also shows that he was indeed not an ordinary person at that time.
Here, back to the question before us, are these two seals related to Li Cunxiao's fight against the tiger?
According to my personal deduction, the story of these two footprints is probably forced by the locals to attract tourists. Not to mention the footprints, whether this kind of thing can survive for such a long time under natural conditions, just by flipping through the history books, you can see the clues.
Shi Zai Li Cunxiao is a Daizhou native, where is Daizhou? In Shanxi. As mentioned earlier, Li Cunxiao's income under the account is used as the emissary of Hedong Jiedushi, where is Hedong? Also Shanxi. Of course, Li Cunxiao's fight against the tiger has indeed been mentioned in history, but no matter what, the place where the tiger was fought can only be somewhere in Shanxi, not in Maling Mountain on the border between Shandong and Jiangsu.
It is said that throughout the country, there are many more like this "Li Cunxiao's Tiger Seal".
Resources:
["History of the Old Five Dynasties, Volume 53, Book of Tang Dynasty V", "History of the New Five Dynasties , Biography of Li Cunxiao", "History of the New Five Dynasties , Tang Benji"]