Mention Li Cunxiao's name, everyone is familiar with him, in the folk rumors "the king is not hegemonic, will not be Li" saying. "Wang is not hegemonic", refers to the king of hegemony is not better than the Western Chu king Xiang Yu, this sentence is indeed worthy of the name, posterity commented on Xiang Yu said: "The god of feathers is brave and unique throughout the ages." "General will not be able to li", the original meaning is to say that the generals who lead the troops to fight are no better than Li Cunxiao, this sentence is exaggerated and a bit outrageous, why? Let's analyze it for everyone.
In the historical records, Li Cunxiao was born in 858 AD, his original surname was An, his name was Jingsi, and he was born in Feihu County, Daizhou (Datong Lingqiu, Shanxi). When Li Cunxiao grew up, he was good at horseback archery, brave and good at fighting, and never met an opponent in the local area.
In 881, Huang Chao attacked the Tang dynasty capital Chang'an, and the northern general Chen Jingsi led the Shatuo army and the Tuhun and Anqing armies of 10,000 people to Chang'an. When they reached Daizhou, the Shatuo army was in chaos, plundered and returned. Chen Jingsi felt that the Shatuo army had no way to control except Li Keyong, so Emperor Tang issued an edict recalling Li Keyong from Tatar (Mongolia), appointing him as the envoy of Dai Prefecture and the camp north of Yanmen, and ordering him to lead the army to Chang'an to attack Huangchao's army.
Born on October 24, 856, Li Keyong was a Turkic Shatuo. He is nicknamed "Li Ya'er", because of a blind eye, also known as "one-eyed dragon". He was brave and good at fighting, good at riding and shooting, and the military called him "Flying Tiger Son." Li Keyong often led his elite troops to charge into battle, and his troops were very brave and good at war, known as the "Crow Army", and were famous far and wide.
After Receiving the appointment, Li Keyong led 10,000 men of his Han army out of Shiling Pass (Yangqu, Taiyuan, Shanxi), and when passing through Taiyuan, Li Keyong demanded that the imperial court pay him, and Hedong Jiedu made Zheng Congchen only give him a thousand strings of coins and a thousand stones of rice, which caused Li Keyong to be greatly dissatisfied, so he ordered his subordinates to plunder and return.
After the Huangchao army occupied Chang'an, it had 600,000 troops, but was defeated by the Tang general Zheng Bi for a while, losing more than 20,000 people, and there were subordinates Zhuge Shuang, Zhu Wen and others who defected and surrendered to the Tang Dynasty.
In the first month of 883, Li Keyong again received an edict from Emperor Tang, so he and Chen Jingsi led an army of 17,000 troops to the river, and the troops were in Qiankeng. When Huang Chaojun heard this, he said in horror, "The Crow Army has arrived." ”
Subsequently, Li Ke led his army to Shayuan and defeated Huang Chao's younger brother Huang Yu. In February, Li Ke defeated Huang Chaojun's younger brother Huang Yi (黄邺) at Shidi Valley. In March, Li Ke defeated Huang Chao's generals Zhao Zhang and Shang Rang at Liangtianpo, and Huang Chao's army suffered heavy losses.
In April, all the Tang armies gathered in Chang'an from all sides, Li Keyong and the generals of Hezhong and Zhongwu Town took the lead in attacking, Huang Chao led a large army to meet the battle at Weiqiao, three battles a day, Huang Chao's army was defeated, other Tang armies also took the opportunity to launch an attack, Huang Chao's army was defeated, defeated and retreated into Chang'an City.
On April 14, Li Ke took advantage of the victory to pursue and attack Chang'an City from Guangtai Gate, and fought a major battle with Huang Chao's army at the Shengyang Hall of Wangchun Palace, but Huang Chao's army was defeated, so he withdrew from Chang'an overnight, and the Tang army subsequently recaptured Chang'an.
In the battle to retake Chang'an, Li Keyong made the greatest military contributions, and Emperor Tang appointed Li Keyong as the inspector Sikong, Tongzhongshu Menxia Pingzhangshi, and Hedong Jiedushi, and Li Keyong's father Li Guochang as the envoy of the camp north of Yanmen.
After that, Li Ke returned to Taiyuan, Shanxi with his troops, and in order to expand his army, he let his subordinates plunder heavily. Li Keyong's men plundered Li Cunxiao's hometown, and the 26-year-old Li Cunxiao led his people to revolt, but because they were outnumbered, Li Cunxiao was captured by Li Keyong's men and became Li Keyong's slaves, staying in Li Keyong's big tent and doing some heavy work.
Soon, Li Ke saw that Li Cunxiao was good at riding horses and archery, xiao yong and good at war, and was a rare general, so he took Li Cunxiao as a righteous son. In fact, Li Keyong was only 2 years older than Li Cunxiao, but in order to win people's hearts, receiving a righteous son was a more common means at that time.
In folklore, Li Cunxiao is known as the "Thirteenth Taibao". However, in history, Li Keyong had only nine righteous sons, namely Si Yuan, Si Zhao, Si Ben, Si En, Cun Xin, Cun Xiao, Cun Jin, Cun Zhang, and Cun Xian, which shows that Li Cun Xiao's title of "Thirteen Tai Bao" only exists in folk terms.
After Huang Chao's army withdrew from Chang'an, there were still 150,000 troops left to enter Shangshan (Shang County, Shaanxi) via Lantian Pass. Huang Chao's army retreated south to Cai Prefecture, surrendered to Qin Zongquan, and then led an army to attack Chen Prefecture.
In 884, Zhou Qian, Zhu Wen and other Tang armies were defeated by Huang Chao's army and asked Li Keyong for help, and Li Keyong led an army of 50,000 to rescue Chen Prefecture, and Li Cunxiao went with him.
In April, Li Ke, along with various Tang armies, defeated Huang Chao's general Shang Rang at Taikang (Taikang, Zhoukou, Henan), and Huang Chao's younger brother Huang Yi (黄邺) at Xihua (Huaiyang, Zhoukou, Henan). Huang Chao led his army to besiege Chen Prefecture for hundreds of days, but was never able to capture Chen Prefecture, and all the Tang armies swarmed again, so Huang Chao withdrew from Chen Prefecture and retreated to his hometown of Yangli in the north of Chen Prefecture.
In May, after several days of heavy rain, the flat water was three feet deep, Huang Chao's military camp was flooded, and when he heard that Li Keyong's army was about to arrive, Huang Chao led his army to retreat to Beizhou. Huang Chao's army retreated to Zhongmu (Zhongmu, Zhengzhou, Henan), reached the Yellow River, and before he could cross the river, Li Ke led his army to pursue, Huang Chao's army collapsed in panic, fled in a big defeat, killing and wounding more than 10,000 people, Huang Chao's general Shang Rang surrendered to the Tang general Shi Pu, and Li Chen and others surrendered to Zhu Wen.
Huang Chao's army suffered heavy losses, and Huang Chao led the remnants of his army to flee to Fengqiu (Fengqiu, Xinxiang, Henan), and Li Keyong arrived with his army and defeated Huang Chao's army again. At this time, it was heavy rain again, and Huang Chao only collected 1,000 remnants of his soldiers and fled east of Yanzhou in the rain. Li Keyong ordered his men to chase, and after three hundred miles a day and one night, he chased after the wronged quorum (Heze, Shandong), did not catch up with Huang Chao, and returned to the army.
On June 15, the Tang general Li Shiyue and the general Shang Rang pursued him to Flawed Hill (兖州, Shandong), and Huang Chao led his army to fight the Tang army to the death, and his men were all killed and wounded. Huang Chao and his nephew Lin Yan saw that the opportunity was not good, so they fled and fled to xiangwang village (Laiwu, Shandong) in the Wolf and Tiger Valley of Mount Taishan, and Lin Yan saw that the trend had gone, so he killed Huang Chao.
At this point, the Huangchao rebel army was completely wiped out, and in this stage of the battle, Li Cunxiao followed Li Keyong, often with Li Cunxin, Li Cunjin and others leading the cavalry as the vanguard of the army, and every battle was won without defeat. However, the Huangchao rebel army was already weakening day by day, and it had been beaten by Li Keyong's army before, so it could not reflect Li Cunxiao's own ability.
On May 14, 884, Li Keyong and Zhu Wen's army returned to Bizhou, and Zhu Wen invited Li Keyong to a banquet at ShangyuanYi, and Li Ke lost his temper with drunkenness, angering Zhu Wen. In the evening, Zhu Wen ordered his soldiers to attack Li Keyong's residence, and Li Ke was awakened by his servant Guo Jingba and killed more than a hundred of Zhu Wen's men in succession. Just in time for heavy rain, the fire was extinguished, and Li Ke took the opportunity to flee back to his troops with his entourage Xue Tieshan, He Huihu and others. Since then, Zhu Wen and Li Keyong have formed a grudge.
In 888, Yin Zhang quan of Henan attacked and occupied Heyang (Mengzhou, Henan), and Heyang Jiedu caused Li Hanzhi to surrender to Li Keyong. Li Keyong ordered Li Cunxiao to lead 7,000 cavalry, together with Xue Atan and An Xiuxiu, to lead a total of 30,000 troops to assist Li Hanzhi in attacking Heyang.
Zhang Quanyi asked Xuanwu Jiedushi for help from Zhu Wen, and Zhu Wen ordered his generals Ge Congzhou, Ding Hui, Niu Cunjie, and others to lead an army to aid Zhang Quanyi and engage Li Keyong's army in the area around Wen County. Zhu Wen's army preemptively held the dangerous place of the Taihang Mountains, and defeated Li Keyong's army at Liuhedian. Li Cunxiao suffered a crushing defeat and had to retreat.
In November 883, Li Ke sent his younger brother Li Kexiu to attack the General Meng Fangli at Huangchao in Zhaoyi, taking ze and Lu prefectures. Meng Fangli was defeated and took Shandong, and Li Keyong formed the Zhaoyi Army.
In the autumn of 886, Li Keyong only held Zezhou and Luzhou (長治, Shanxi). Zhaoyi Jiedu, who had already surrendered to the Tang Dynasty, made Meng Fangli occupy xingzhou (Xingtai, Hebei), Huanzhou (Hebei Yongnian), and Cizhou (Ci county, Hebei). Li Ke used to seize Meng Lifang's territory, so he sent Li Kexiu to attack Meng Lifang again. Li Kexiu led an army to occupy many cities east of the Taihang Mountains, and appointed the general An Jinjun as the Assassin of Xingzhou. In 888, Meng Fangli sent the general Xi Zhongxin to attack Liaozhou in Hedong, and Xi Zhongxin was defeated and captured by Li Kexiu.
In the summer of 889, Li Ke used Li Hanzhi as the main general and Li Cunxiao as his deputy general to attack Meng Fangli. Li Hanzhi was agile and powerful, and in his early years he became a monk, and then he fell into the grass as a Kou, and was cruel by nature, nicknamed "Li Moyun". Under the leadership of Li Hanzhi, he quickly captured Puzhou and Cizhou. Soon, Meng Fangli sent the generals Ma Shu and Yuan Fengtao to resist, and at Liulipi they were defeated by Li Hanzhi, and both generals were captured. Subsequently, Li Hanzhi and Li Cunxiao led an army to besiege Xingzhou.
Because Meng Fangli was suspicious by nature, he often suspected that his subordinate generals had betrayed him, and the generals resented him, and at this time they no longer obeyed him. In desperation, Meng Fangli committed suicide. Subsequently, the generals supported Meng Fangli's younger brother Meng Qian. Meng Qian asked Zhu Wen for help, and Zhu Wen was in the eastern expedition at the time, and had no time to take care of it, but only ordered Wang Qianyu to lead hundreds of elite soldiers to come to his aid. Seeing that he could not win, Meng Qianyu captured Wang Qianyu and surrendered to Li Keyong. At this point, Li Keyong controlled the entire territory of Zhaoyi.
In 890, because The Assassin of Yunzhou Shi Helian Duo had participated in the conquest of Li Guochang and Li Keyong's father and son in his early years, Li Keyong sent An Jinjun to attack Helian Duo in Yunzhou, and Lu Longjie of Youzhou made Li Converse send troops to rescue Helian Duo, and defeated An Jinjun's army in Weizhou.
Therefore, Li Converse, Helian Duo, and Zhu Wen all wanted to take advantage of Li Keyong's great defeat to eliminate Li Keyong. Forced by the situation, Emperor Zhaozong of Tang appointed Sun Yu as an envoy to Zhaoyi Jiedushi, Zhang Jun as the commander of the four-sided camp in Taiyuan, and Han Jian as his deputy envoy to attack Li Keyong.
Soon, the Luzhou general Feng Ba rebelled against Li Keyong and surrendered to Zhu Wen. Zhu Wen then sent the generals Ge Congzhou and Zhu Chongjie to Luzhou, and ordered Li Chen to attack Zezhou, while sending three thousand soldiers to escort Sun Yu to his post.
Li Keyong, on the other hand, sent Kang Junli to lead an army to attack Luzhou, and then sent Li Cunxiao to lead three hundred cavalry to ambush Sun Yu and his party on the mountain road around the eldest son, and captured Sun Yu. Li Cunxiao then commanded 5,000 cavalry to aid Zezhou, and captured Zhu Wen's general Deng Jijun under the city of Zezhou, defeating Li Chen's army, Li Chen was defeated and retreated, Li Cunxiao pursued all the way to Ma Prison Pass, and then led his army to Luzhou to support Kang Junli. Ge Congzhou and Zhu Chongjie saw that Li Keyong's army was strong and abandoned the city, and Li Keyong was able to reoccupied Luzhou.
In the recapture of Luzhou, Li Cunxiao believed that he had the greatest merit, but Li Keyong appointed Kang Junli as Zhaoyiliu, and only Li Cunxiao was appointed as the Assassin of Fenzhou. Li Cunxiao was greatly dissatisfied with this and did not think about tea for several days.
In November, Li Ke ordered Li Cunxiao to defend Zhao Cheng. Ordered Li Cunxin and Xue Atan to lead an army to attack Zhang Jun and Han Jian. Soon, Li Cunxin and Xue Atan engaged Zhang Jun's army in Yindi (Shang County, Shaanxi), and Zhang Jun's army was defeated in three battles, and Zhang Jun had to lead the remnants of his army to retreat to Jinzhou. Li Cunxiao took the opportunity to lead his troops to attack Jinzhou, and Zhang Jun sent an army to fight, but was defeated by Li Cunxiao, zhang Jun and Han Jian, seeing that the situation was not good, abandoned the city and fled. At this point, Li Keyong broke the Tang Dynasty's attack. After the war, Li Cunxiao was appointed by Li Keyong as the Assassin of Ying Prefecture (邠州, Inbin County, Shaanxi).
In March 891, The Xingzhou Assassin Shi An Zhijian secretly associated with Zhu Wen, and when Li Keyong learned of it, he replaced An Zhijian with Li Cunxiao as the Assassin of Xingzhou, and An Zhijian defected after learning of this.
Soon, Li Keyong sent Li Cunxiao to attack Wang Rong at Chengde Jiedu at Changshan, and Li Cunxiao quickly conquered the cities of Lincheng and Yuanshi, and Wang Rong asked Lu Longjiedu for help from Li Converse, and Li Converse sent troops to attack Li Cunxiao, and Li Cunxiao was defeated and retreated to Xingzhou.
In the first month of 892, Wang Rong and Li Converse led an army of 100,000 to once again defeat Li Cunxiao, who had retreated to Xingzhou, and Li Cunxiao led the remnants of his army to flee to Yaoshan. When Li Keyong learned of this, he appointed Li Cunxin as the commander of mabudu of the Han Dynasty to support Li Cunxiao. Li Cunxiao and Li Cunxin were suspicious and jealous of each other, and stayed with each other, so Li Ke replaced Li Cunxiao with the only reason to reassign Li Sixun.
Soon, Li Cunxin and Li Sixun defeated Wang Rong and Li Converse's 100,000-strong army at Yaoshan Mountain, killing and capturing more than 30,000 people. After Li Cunxin returned to Li Keyong's garrison, he said to Li Keyong: "Li Cunxiao, a person with two hearts, often avoids fighting and refuses to attack Wang Rong with all his might. When Li Cunxiao learned of this, he panicked and secretly sent people to unite with Zhu Wen and Wang Rong.
In February, Li Keyong and Hezhong Jiedu made Wang Chucun attack Wang Rong, and the two armies engaged in a battle in Xincheng, and the combined forces of Li Keyong and Wang Chucun were defeated by Wang Rong, and more than 30,000 people were killed and taken prisoner. On March 17, Li Keyong led his army to retreat to Luancheng. In August, Li Converse attacked Li Keyong's Yunzhou, and Li Ke defeated Li Converse with his troops.
In October 892, Li Cunxiao formally rebelled against Li Keyong in Xingzhou.
In July 893, Li Ke sent troops to attack Li Cunxiao, and Li Cunxiao saw that Li Ke was strong with troops, so he asked Wang Rong for help. Wang Rong sent troops to the rescue, but was defeated by Li Keyong at Pingshan, and Wang Rong was forced to surrender to Li Keyong. Li Ke used Wang Rong's army, totaling 30,000 men, to garrison Ren County in Xingzhou, while Li Cunxin led his army to garrison Liulipi in Longgang, Xingzhou.
In September, Li Cunxiao sent troops to attack Li Cunxin's camp at night, and Li Cunxin's army was in chaos. Li Ke personally led his troops to dig trenches to besiege the city of Xingzhou. Li Cunxiao was very passive, and the grain and grass in the city were gradually exhausted.
In March 894, Li Ke attacked the city of Xingzhou and captured Li Cunxiao. Subsequently, Li Ke escorted Li Cunxiao back to Taiyuan and executed Li Cunxiao with the punishment of car splitting.
In summary, li Cunxiao participated in several battles, the first battle, Li Cunxiao led the clan to rebel against Li Keyong's army, was captured by Li Keyong's subordinates, and became a slave.
In the second battle, Li Cunxiao accompanied Li Keyi on a campaign against Chen Prefecture and Xuzhou, and together with Li Cunxin, Li Cunjin, and others as the vanguard, attacked the Huangchao army, which was already weakening, and won the final victory. However, Li Keyong's army was already very strong, and it was also a rebel army attacking the rabble, so this battle could not reflect Li Cunxiao's own ability.
In the 3rd battle, Li Cunxiao led 7,000 cavalry, together with Xue Atan and An Xiuxiu, led a total of 30,000 troops to assist Li Hanzhi in attacking Heyang, and was defeated by Zhu Wen's generals Ge Congzhou, Ding Hui, Niu Cunjie and others at Liuhedian.
In the 4th battle, Li Cunxiao accompanied Li Hanzhi in attacking Meng Fangli, conquered Huanzhou and Cizhou, and captured Meng Fangli's generals Ma Shu and Yuan Fengtao, and won the victory. However, before Meng Fangli had been defeated by Li Kexiu many times, his strength had been greatly reduced, and Li Cunxiao had won a victory under the leadership of the fierce general Li Hanzhi, so this battle did not reflect Too much of Li Cunxiao's own ability.
In the 5th battle, Li Cunxiao followed Kang Junli to capture Luzhou and attack Zhu Wen's army, and he captured Sun Yun and Deng Jijun, defeating Li Yu's army, Ge Congzhou and Zhu Chongjie fled in defeat, and achieved the final victory. However, Li Ke's army was originally stronger than Zhu Wen's army, and it was more numerous than Zhu Wen's army, and it was expected that this battle would be victorious, and it did not reflect Li Cunxiao's own ability.
In the 6th battle, Li Cunxiao attacked Zhang Jun's army and conquered Jinzhou, achieving victory. However, in this battle, Zhang Jun's army had already been defeated three times by Li Cunxin and Xue Atan, and Li Cunxiao only took the opportunity to beat the falling water dog, and if he did not win, it would be impossible to say, so this battle did not reflect Li Cunxiao's own ability.
In the 7th battle, Li Cunxiao attacked Wang Rong's army and conquered the two cities of Lincheng and Yuan, but was quickly defeated by Li Converse, retreated to Xingzhou, and was defeated at Xingzhou, retreating to Yaoshan, Li Ke replaced Li Cunxiao with Li Sixun, and it was Li Sixun and Li Cunxin who defeated Wang Rong and Li Kuangwei's 100,000 troops.
In the 8th battle, Li Cunxiao rebelled against Li Keyong, Li Keyong used to recruit Li Cunxiao, Li Keyong first defeated and surrendered Wang Rong, and then attacked Xingzhou, captured Li Cunxiao, and finally Li Cunxiao's car split and died.
In the battles in which Li Cunxiao participated, he was captured by Li Keyong twice, defeated twice, and won 4 battles, but he was still achieved under the condition of strong troops and horses and absolute superiority, and a total of 8 battles won and lost half, which shows that Li Cunxiao's combat ability is very general.
In the "Art of War of Sun Tzu", it is said that those who are generals must have five virtues, namely wisdom, faith, benevolence, courage, and strictness, which means that those who will be generals must have wisdom, honesty, benevolence, bravery, and strictness. Of these five items, Li Cunxiao could not occupy any of them.
In terms of wisdom, he did not see Li Cunxiao once win a battle with a weak victory over a strong battle, and he was far worse than Xiang Yu, Han Xin, Ran Min, Li Mu, Chen Qingzhi, Li Jing, and others who fought many famous battles with fewer victories.
In terms of honesty, Li Cunxiao was greatly dissatisfied because he was given a low official position, and later he rebelled against Li Keyong, with no integrity to speak of, far from being comparable to Guan Yu, Yue Fei and others.
In terms of benevolence and righteousness, Li Cunxiao was narrow-minded and did not necessarily have much benevolence and righteousness toward his subordinates, which was far from being comparable to the benevolence of Wu Qi, Li Guang, and others to his subordinates.
Strictly speaking, Li Cunxiao was from a barbaric ethnic group and was not good at training the army itself, far from being comparable to Sun Wu, Bai Qi and others.
In terms of bravery and brave combat, Li Cunxiao was even less in line, Li Cunxiao was not as good as Guan Yu, and Guan Yu single-handedly rushed into the enemy position of thousands of troops and horses and killed the general Yan Liang, and won the battle with his own strength;
Li Cunxiao was inferior to Xiang Yu, and Xiang Yu single-handedly beheaded Taishou Yintong, killed a hundred of Yin Tong's subordinates, and single-handedly forced all of Yin Tong's soldiers to surrender; Li Cunxiao was inferior to Xue Rengui, who single-handedly shot arrows three times to pacify the Tianshan Mountains;
Li Cunxiao was no better than Shi Wanzai, and the Turks were frightened to retreat and flee when they heard Shi Wanzai's name; Li Cunxiao was not as good as Yang Zaixing, who died heroically in the first battle of Xiaoshangqiao, and the arrows on his body reached as many as two liters.
All of this, Li Cunxiao was exaggerated by Luo Guanzhong's "History of the Five Dynasties of the Cruel Tang Dynasty", but it is only a novel and does not represent the real history. Of course, there are many famous generals in history, which are not comparable to Li Cunxiao. Therefore, calling Li Cunxiao "will not be Able to Li" is indeed not worthy of the name. What do you think about this?