preface:
Youzhou is located in the northern part of the North China Plain, surrounded by mountains and seas, since ancient times, it has been the northern gateway of the agricultural civilization of the Central Plains, and it is also the dividing line between the Han regime and the ethnic minority nomadic regime, where the Han and northern nomadic peoples have long been integrated and exchanged. For the Han regime in the Central Plains, if it controls Youzhou, it can restrain the northern nomads from going south and ensure the safety of the dynasty; for the northern nomads, they control Youzhou, and they can take the opportunity to go south and enter the Central Plains; they can retreat to defend the city and defend their territory, so Youzhou's strategic position is very important.
Map of the situation at the end of the Tang Dynasty
In the second year of the tang dynasty, Tang Xuanzong set up a jiedu envoy in Youzhou, controlling the two towns of Youzhou and Lulong, with heavy troops and great power, making it a northeastern barrier of the Tang Dynasty. After the Anshi Rebellion, Youzhou Jiedu caused Li Huaixian to start dividing Youzhou, and the years were returned to it, becoming a typical divided feudal town, until the last Jiedu caused Liu Shouguang to be destroyed by the Later Jin.
In the last years of the Tang Dynasty, the Khitan people rose to the north, and their leader Yelü Abaoji took advantage of the opportunity of the tang dynasty's various divided regimes to fight each other to march into the Tang Dynasty's Hedong region and occupy the Tang Dynasty's Longhua Prefecture. In 905, Abaoji also took advantage of the chaotic battle between the Later Jin li ke and the later Liang Zhuwen clique to attack Yunzhou, forcing Li Keyong to make an alliance with it, and two years later, established the Liao Dynasty of the Khitans.
The khitan people were able to rise so quickly, and historians mostly believe that it was related to Li Keyong's destruction of the Youzhou Liu Shouguang clique. After liu Shouguang's demise, a large number of youzhou people flowed into the Khitan and made the politics, economy, and culture of the Khitan develop rapidly. After Liu Shouguang's death, most of the soldiers belonged to the Khitans, and most of the soldiers and civilians in the north were plundered by the Khitans, and the Khitan became more and more powerful. In particular, after Liu Shouguang's generals Lu Wenjin and Han Yanhui were returned to the Khitans, they led the Khitan to attack and plunder between Youyou and Ji, captured their people, and taught the Khitan to be full of Chinese weavers, and the Khitan became stronger... It has been a Tang patient for more than ten years, and wenjin has also been ''.
Liu Rengong
At the end of the Tang Dynasty, the last jiedu of Youzhou made Liu Rengong and Liu Shouguang rule Youzhou for nineteen years, although hovering between Liang and Jin, abusing punishment and cruel exploitation of the people of Youzhou, its defense against the Khitan was quite successful, and the Tang people also respected Liu Rengong. Liu Rengong fought more than ten battles in the Khitan and the Khitans, winning and losing against each other, and circling with the Khitan for many years. It can be said that it was Liu Rengong's defense in Youzhou that delayed the rise of the Khitans.
First, the comprehensive situation of Youzhou at the end of the Tang Dynasty
In the Tang Dynasty, Youzhou contained thirteen prefectures, including You, Zhuo, Ji, Ying, Mo, Tan, Fei, Ping, Ying, Ying, Shun, Xin, Confucian, and Wu, including most of the present-day provinces of Hebei and Shanxi. Youzhou faces the sea to the east, Taihang to the west, the desert to the north, Chengde to the south, the Central Plains to the inside, and the Shuo Desert to the outside, which has always been a place where soldiers and families must fight.
Youzhou is located in the Central Plains and the northern ethnic minorities intersection, since ancient commodity trade developed, ''there are fish salt jujube chestnut Rao, Korean, Zhenfan profit'". Before the middle of the Tang Dynasty, it was a feng shui treasure land with economic prosperity and people's stability.
In the last years of the Tang Dynasty, warlords divided their territories and fought with each other, and the social economy was seriously damaged, and Youzhou was not spared. When Liu Rengong's father and son ruled Youzhou, in order to resist the Khitan in the north and the neighboring towns of Weibo and Hedong, Youzhou was also constantly in war for many years, a large number of young and middle-aged people died in the war, the vast number of peasants could not engage in normal agricultural production, a large number of land was barren, the population was sharply reduced, and the economy was in retreat.
Youzhou City
Liu Rengong's father and son, who occupied Youzhou, were quite self-aware. They knew that they were not the heroes of the world, so they tried their best to do a good job in the defense of Youzhou and invested their military forces in strategic defense. In particular, the defense against the northern direction of the Khitan people was the focus of Youzhou's defense.
To the north of Youzhou is a defense system of the Great Wall built by the Qin Dynasty. However, since the fall of qin, the ancient Great Wall has fallen into disrepair and can no longer be used as a barrier to the north of Youzhou. When Liu Rengong was in Youzhou, he repaired the Youzhou section of the Great Wall connecting Lulong and Jieshi in the east and Taihang and Changshan in the west, so that the original Great Wall defense system was restored to a certain extent, and a pass was set up at yuguan (present-day Shanhaiguan), Gubeikou, Konglingguan and other dangerous points, so that the restored Great Wall became a dangerous barrier in the north of Youzhou.
Liu Rengong's father and son had an army of about 200,000 men, two of whom were his main forces against the Khitans. These two units were called "'Tooth Army'" and ''Dingba Army'', of which the Tooth Army was Liu Rengong's pro-army, the number was about 10,000; the Dingba Army was the main field force in Youzhou, which was composed of selected men over fifteen years old, and these non-commissioned officers had the word ''Dingba'' tattooed on their faces and the words ''One Heart Lord' tattooed on their arms, and their combat effectiveness was quite strong. According to the "Yuzhitang Tanhui", the combat effectiveness of Liu Rengong's Dingba army was not under the world-famous Yang Xingmi's "Black Cloud Army" and Li Siyuan's "Hengjie Army".
Second, the demise of Liu's father and son
Liu Rengong, nicknamed "Liu Gutou", was originally a subordinate of Lu Longshuai Li Keju. After Li Keju's death, his son Li Converse succeeded him and was very appreciative of Liu Rengong, and later Li Converse was killed by his younger brother Li Kuangcuo, and Liu Rengong raised an army to avenge Li Converse and defected to Taiyuan Li Ke to attack Li Kuangwei and borrow troops from Li Ke to avenge Li Converse. After a year of war, Liu Rengong eliminated Li Kuangcuo and seized the Youzhou area occupied by Li Kuangcuo. After Li Keyong was elected to the imperial court, Liu Rengong became the emissary of The Lulong Army in Youzhou and became the lord of Youzhou.
Li Ke used
After Liu Rengong got Youzhou, he used the strategy of borrowing a knife to kill people, removed Li Keyong to spy on gao Siji and others, and used Li Keyong to break with Li Keyong when he was fighting with Zhu Quanzhong, and became the true master of Youzhou. After that, Liu Rengong attacked Cangzhou, Jingzhou, and Dezhou, and his power was great. At this time, Youzhou had become a powerful town, a force that could compete with Li Keyong and Zhu Quanzhong.
At this time, Liu Rengong's son Liu Shouguang and his father's concubine Luo Shi committed adultery, and Liu Rengong was furious, beat Liu Shouguang severely, and threatened to sever the father-son relationship with Liu Shouguang. Frightened, Liu Shouguang, together with Li Xiaoxi and others, launched a coup d'état, captured liu Rengong and defeated his brother Liu Shouwen, who had come to lead an army to rescue his father. Liu Shouwen was furious and asked the Khitan for help. However, Liu Shouwen's Khitan reinforcements were once again defeated by Liu Shouguang, and Liu Shouwen's father and son were killed by Liu Shouguang, and Liu Shouguang became the new master of Youzhou.
Liu Shouguang was morally corrupt and implemented a high-pressure policy of rule over Youzhou, and the people under his rule could not stand his extravagance and extravagance, and fled to other places. Liu Shouguang not only did not reflect, but on the contrary, he was conceited and powerful, and actually had the heart to be called emperor.
Li Keyong and Jin Jun
In August 911, Liu Shouguang proclaimed himself Emperor of Great Yan and established the Great Yan regime. The following year, Li Cunxun, the King of Jin, sent Zhou Dewei to attack Liu Shouguang, captured and executed Liu Rengong and Liu Shouguang's father and son, and many of the people of Youzhou fled to Khitan. In particular, after the youzhou generals Lu Wenjin and Han Yanhui surrendered to the Khitans, they were familiar with the geography and people's feelings of Youzhou, and they helped the Khitan policy of jingluo Youyun a lot, which made the Khitan power soar.
3. The Khitan invaded the south
In 916, after Yelü Abaoji established the Liao state, under the banner of revenge for Liu Rengong, he sent Lu Wenjin to lead the Khitan army to invade Youzhou and defeat Li Cunxun's general Zhou Dewei. Li Cunxun sent Li Cunxun to lead 70,000 people to reinforce Youzhou and break the Khitans. In the following years, the Khitan and Jin launched repeated battles and battles against Youzhou in the Hebei region, and Although Li Cunxun faced the pressure of the two-front battle between Houliang and the Khitans, he still defeated the Khitan attack twice by defeating the crowd.
After several failures, Yelü Abaoji was deeply impressed by Li Cunxun's courage, so he appointed his second son Yelü Deguang as the Grand Marshal and captured Pingzhou, the gateway to the back of Youzhou. In the same year, Li Cunxun destroyed Hou Liang and established the Later Tang regime. Youzhou became a battlefield for the later Tang dynasty to directly clash with the Khitans.
Youzhou offensive and defensive battles
In 926, there was a coup d'état in the Later Tang Dynasty, and Li Siyuan established himself; almost at the same time, the Ye lawyer Ah Baoji died, and Yelü Deguang, with the support of Empress Shulu, succeeded to the emperor's throne as a grand marshal, and for the sake of the stability of the throne, he launched a great purge of the Khitan royal family and the generals in charge of the army, and the strength of the Khitan was weakened. Later, Emperor Mingzong of Tang took the opportunity to achieve the "Great Victory of Dingzhou" against the Khitans, and the two sides fell into a confrontation stage.
In 933, Li Siyuan was critically ill, and a struggle for the throne broke out in later Tang, and finally Li Congke, the king of Lu, ascended the throne. Later, when The Tang Dynasty caused Shi Jingtang to rebel, he took the initiative to defect to the Khitans, and at the cost of being a vassal, performing fatherly rituals, and ceding Youyun Sixteen Prefectures, he asked the Khitan to send troops to help.
Yerushalayim light
How could yerushalayim pass up this opportunity to come to the door? With the keen eyes of a statesman and the insight of a military man, he persuaded Empress Shulu to send 50,000 Khitan main cavalry, and a wave of anger broke the main force led by Later Tang Zhang Jingda to conquer the Later Tang capital Luoyang, forcing the last emperor Li Congke to commit suicide, and Later Tang perished. Shi Jingtang sent the Khitans to the otherworldly Youyun Sixteen Prefectures, and the Khitan renamed Youzhou Nanjing, and from then on Youzhou fell into the hands of the Khitans.
IV. Review of the Development of Youzhou in Khitan
When Liu Rengong was defending Youzhou, he combined conventional military defense with unconventional tactical strategies, which achieved very good results and effectively curbed the Khitan people's covetousness for the Central Plains. Regardless of the achievements of Liu's father and son in youzhou, they still made great achievements in defending against foreign invasions from the south.
According to the Zizhi Tongjian, in the method of the Khitans, Liu Rengong often chose to train troops and go deep in the autumn. Every frost sent people to burn the weeds, and khitan mado starved to death, often bribing Ren gong with good horses to buy pasture land. This practice of burning the wasteland after the autumn and cutting off the khitan horse hay had a miraculous effect, causing a large number of Khitan horses to starve to death, and the Khitan people had to say good things to Liu Rengong and send bribes to make him not do so.
Liu Shouguang
When Liu Shouguang was defending Pingzhou, the Khitan prince of Sheli led more than 10,000 cavalry to attack. Liu Shouguang pretended to negotiate with him and captured the prince of Sheli with a plan, and later the Khitans exchanged five thousand war horses for greatly demoralizing the Khitans, and the Khitans did not dare to attack for more than ten years.
In order to resist the Khitans, Liu Rengong united with the Heichefu Weibu, Xibu and other ethnic minority tribes to form a joint front against the Khitans, one side had difficulties, and the eight sides supported, and also effectively curbed the Khitan invasion of the south.
In order to defend the Khitans, Liu Rengong's father and son placed most of the troops of Youzhou in the northern defensive line, and relatively speaking, the western and southern defense capabilities were not very sufficient. Therefore, in the face of the invading Later Tang army, Liu Shouguang quickly collapsed and became a prisoner of Later Tang. After the Later Tang occupied Youzhou, the internal political struggle was fierce, and Shi Jingtang, who was guarding Youzhou, took the initiative to surrender to the Khitans, causing the Later Tang to lose the Youzhou position that could effectively defend the Khitans, which was an important reason why the Khitan was able to destroy the Later Tang and rise as a dynasty that unified the north.
Liao army
For the Khitans, although there were also factional struggles within, on the issue of Youzhou, the government and the public were unanimous. By capturing Youzhou, the Khitans occupied this strategic area, thus laying the foundation of the Liao state for two hundred years and becoming a lingering shadow of the Song Dynasty in the Central Plains. After the capture of Youzhou, the Khitans adopted the method of dividing the Han dynasty into Han dynasties to govern the Youyun area, "governing the Khitan with the state system and the Han people with the Han system", which also promoted the integration of the Han nationality and the ethnic minorities in the north, and the advanced civilization of the Han nationality influenced the ethnic minorities in the north from the political, economic, cultural and scientific aspects. It can be said that the rise of the Liao state began with the seizure of Youzhou.
Resources:
History of the Old Five Dynasties, History of the New Five Dynasties, History of Liao, Zizhi Tongjian