In 923, Li Cunxun established the Later Tang. Shortly after becoming emperor, Li Cunxun ushered in a great joy when Lu Shun, the defender of Later Liang Prefecture, defected and surrendered, and brought news that the troops in Yun Prefecture were empty. Yun prefecture was extremely close to Kaifeng, the capital of the Liang state, and its strategic location was quite important, so Li Cunxun secretly sent people across the Yellow River despite the objections of his ministers and took yunzhou city in one fell swoop. Li Cunxun personally led the army and began his battle to destroy Liang.
The fall of Yun Prefecture gave the Later Liang court a great shock, and the emperor Zhu Youzhen was even more terrified, feeling that Hou Liang was about to end, and was in a hurry in the palace. At this juncture, The Prime Minister Jingxiang, who has not asked about political affairs for a long time, has arrived. Moreover, as soon as he arrived, he was clamoring to hang himself, and Zhu Youzhen, who was already panicked, was shocked and rushed to let people stop him.
This old minister Jingxiang, who stood in front of Zhu Youzhen, could be said to be highly respected in the rear liang. He was the most important adviser in the Zhu Wen era, who made great contributions to laying the foundation for Zhu Wen and was the founding hero of Later Liang. When Zhu Wen hit the world, the two people he trusted the most were his wife Zhang Shi and Jingxiang.
Zhu Wen once had a concubine Liu Shi, who was very favored, and was known as "Lady Guo", which was such a lovely person, but later zhu Wen gave jingxiang who had just lost his wife without blinking. Of course, Zhu Wen was a man, even his daughter-in-law had to warm his bed, and although this Liu clan remarried to Jingxiang, he still went in and out of the palace from time to time and shared a bed with Zhu Wen.
As a courtier, Jingxiang could only be angry about this matter. Although he was hurt by Zhu Wen, he was still loyal to Hou Liang. However, after Zhu Wen's death, the next two emperors, Zhu Youjue and Zhu Youzhen, were not wise emperors, and Zhu Youzhen was even more faint and incompetent, with a bunch of traitors around him. Jing Xianggui was the prime minister and was ostracized everywhere, so he had to turn a blind eye to the government and politics.
However, at this time, the rear beam was in danger of collapse, and he had to stand up. In the face of Zhu Youzhen, Jingxiang was very excited, and after the hanging was stopped, he said Zhu Youzhen with excitement before he explained the strategy of resisting the enemy. This strategy was very simple, that is, to let Zhu Youzhen reuse a general, and this person who made Jingxiang pay so much attention was Wang Yanzhang, the famous general who could fight most in Later Liang.
Wang Yanzhang and Jingxiang were both important ministers at the founding of Zhu Wen, and he was brave and good at war, winning many confrontations with the Jin army and achieving outstanding military achievements. Such a capable person was also jealous of the courtiers in the DPRK, and under some rumors, Wang Yanzhang was also deliberately alienated by Zhu Youzhen and was not reused. However, at this time, when the national disaster was current, Zhu Youzhen agreed to Jingxiang to reactivate Wang Yanzhang.
Wang Yanzhang was also a proud man, and in the face of Zhu Youzhen's appointment, he was full of self-confidence, saying that he could retreat from the enemy in three days, which caused the traitors to scorn him. As a result, Wang Yanzhang proved with practical actions that he was not a braggart, punching the faces of those traitors who could only chew the root of their tongues. It took him two days to reach the front line of Huazhou, and took advantage of the night to send troops to personally lead the army to attack the Later Tang military fortress of Deshengkou.
By the time Li Cunxun received the news to come to his aid, Wang Yanzhang had already attacked the southern city of Deshengkou. After a fierce battle, the Liang army finally occupied this strategic place and forced Li Cunxun to withdraw. At this time, it was exactly three days before Wang Yanzhang went out on the expedition, which showed that he deserved to be called a famous general. In the months that followed, Wang Yanzhang fought many major battles with the Later Tang and regained the lost land almost at the speed of one city in three days.
A series of military victories spread to the DPRK, but Zhu Youzhen's traitors were not happy, but extremely jealous. This was mainly because when Wang Yanzhang left Beijing, he made a cruel remark, saying that when he returned triumphantly, he would kill all a group of courtiers around Zhu Youzhen. Therefore, seeing that Wang Yanzhang had won victories one after another, those people began to panic.
In order to prevent Wang Yanzhang's crazy victory, the traitorous courtiers led by Zhao Yan and Zhang Hanjie secretly gave Wang Yanzhang a stumbling block to obstruct his military operations, which led to Wang Yanzhang's defeat to Li Cunxun in the Battle of Yang Liu. At this moment, he gave Zhao Yan and other people facts, accused Wang Yanzhang of incompetence in front of Zhu Youzhen, and finally made him make up his mind to remove Wang Yanzhang from the position of commander.
In this way, Jingxiang gave Zhu Youzhen a plan to retreat from the enemy with death, but Zhu Youzhen only used half of it and failed to persist. He replaced Wang Yanzhang and let the deputy general Duan Ning take Wang Yanzhang's place. As a result, less than three months after Duan Ning took office, Li Cunxun's army occupied the capital of the Liang state, Fenjing, and the Liang Dynasty was destroyed.
Jingxiang could have survived, but after Li Cunxun entered the capital, he ordered a pardon for the minister of Liang guo to stabilize people's hearts. However, Jingxiang showed great loyalty, and shortly after Li Cunxun entered Beijing, he hanged himself one night and was martyred. Such a character is admirable, but it is a pity that the faint Zhu Youjue was spread out, and the result was such an ending.