Many outstanding generals who have shaken the ancient and modern worlds and left their names in the future generations have been invincible in the chaotic world, conquering all directions, and achieving the good name of "the king of the world, and the achievement of the name of the deceased". However, many people's brilliant lives have come to an abrupt end in the middle of the way, and the stars will suddenly fall. According to statistics, in ancient Chinese history, from the Spring and Autumn Period to the last years of the Qing Dynasty, a total of 3756 wars occurred, during which countless generals died. In the last year of the Tang Dynasty, Li Ke, the king of Jin, used his number one fierce general, Li Cunxiao, to be only thirty-six years old when he was defeated and killed, which was a typical "greatness of life, suffocation of death".
Li Cunxiao, a fierce general at the end of the Tang Dynasty
In the middle and late Tang Dynasty, the situation of land annexation was serious, the local warlords were not able to fall, after the catastrophe of the anshi chaos in the early period, and the turmoil of the Huangchao Uprising later, once brilliant, the empire of the world was already thin and dark. In the war to eliminate Huang Chao and Qin Zongquan, the powerful and powerful people in various places took the opportunity to expand their own strength. Xuanwu Jun Jiedushi, Zhu Wen the King of Liang, And Li Keyong, the Prince of Hedong, and Li Keyong, the King of Jin, were the two most powerful local warlords.
The warlords of the late Tang Dynasty divided the situation
Zhu Wen was originally a capable general under Huang Chao, and later turned to the Tang Dynasty to deal with Huang Chao, gradually expanding his territory with Henan as the center, holding the emperor hostage and dominating the Central Plains. When Zhu Wen was a teenager, he stole and sold the owner's iron pot, led the army to fight, turned against the enemy, killed his subordinates and prisoners indiscriminately, and after middle age, he was incestuous, and his reputation in later generations was not very good.
Later Liang's founding emperor Zhu Wen
Li Keyong is the leader of the Shatuo Clan, who has been blind since he was a child, but he is proficient in riding and archery, and he is also a fierce person who kills and decides. During the Rebellion to quell the Yellow Nest, he was appointed as the emissary of Hedong Jiedushi, and was assassinated by Zhu Wen on the way to Uehara, Bian Prefecture. Li Keyong and Zhu Wen formed a grudge, and Liang and Jin confronted each other for decades.
Later Tang Taizu Li Ke used
The protagonist we are talking about today, Li Cunxiao, whose real name is An Jingsi, was adopted as an adopted son by Li Keyong when he was young. The New Book of Tang records that Li Keyong received a total of nine righteous sons. Later generations, together with Li Keyong's own son Li Cunxun, the famous generals Li Cunzhen, Shi Jingsi, and Kang Junli were interpreted as the "Thirteen Taibao" at the end of the Tang Dynasty.
These thirteen Taibao "all of them are once heroic and martial warriors", and they are all well-known big coffee-level figures. The Third Taibao Li Cunxun and the Grand Taibao Li Siyuan successively became emperors of the Later Tang Dynasty, and the Second Taibao Li Sizhao, the Ninth Taibao Li Cunzhen, and the Eleventh Taibao Shi Jingsi were all military generals with outstanding military achievements. Among them, the thirteenth Taibao Li Cunxiao, the most courageous and good at war, was known as the first fierce general of the late Tang Dynasty by posterity.
Li Cunxiao, a fierce general at the end of the Tang Dynasty
Let's see how strong and fierce this grandfather is. Li Cunxiao often fought as the vanguard of the Jin army, wearing heavy armor and holding a heavy hammer, charging into battle, and being sharp. The cavalry that followed was encouraged and followed by a shout of charge. The enemy was soon killed in horror, the formation collapsed, and they scattered and fled.
Because Li Cunxiao was physically strong, the armor was also very heavy, and the various weapons he carried with him, so that the warhorses were overwhelmed. Therefore, when Li Cunxiao was in battle, he took two warhorses to rotate and ride, always maintaining the speed and physical strength of the warhorses.
In 889, Li Cunxiao led an army to attack meng Fangli, the Zhaoyi army, and successively attacked Huan prefecture (洺州, in modern Yongnian, Hebei) and Cizhou (present-day Ci County, Hebei), and sent troops to the city of Xingzhou (邢州, in modern Xingtai, Hebei), and Meng Fangli was forced to commit suicide.
Map of Puzhou, Cizhou, Xingzhou
In 890, Li Cunxiao attacked and occupied Xingzhou. Subsequently, Luzhou mutinied and was annexed to the imperial court. The imperial court appointed Jing Zhaoyin Sun Yu as the envoy of Zhaoyi Jiedushi, and Li Cunxiao led three hundred cavalry to ambush and capture Sun Yi. After Zhu Wen dispatched the general luzhou, he sent troops to attack Zezhou. Li Cunxiaochi aided Zezhou, drove away Zhu Wen's defenders, and immediately returned to capture Luzhou, which was not the same for a while.
Like many famous generals in ancient and modern China and abroad, Li Cunxiao was a military genius, but he fell in the whirlpool of politics. Li Cunxiao won consecutive battles and killed four sides, which was deeply used by Li Ke, the king of Jin, and also caused the jealousy of some colleagues around him. Li Cunxin, the fourth Taibao, was astute and intelligent, good at observing words and colors, and was fluent in many languages. Because they both wanted to compete for merit in front of Li Keyong, the King of Jin, Li Cunxin and Li Cunxiao had a very poor relationship and were in the same situation.
It is not known whether it was because of Li Cunxin's suggestion, or because Li Keyong was originally uneasy about Li Cunxiao, after recovering Luzhou, Li Cunxiao, who made the greatest contribution, was appointed as the Assassin of Fenzhou, and appointed the old qualified general Kang Junli as zhaoyi liuhou. Li Cunxiao fought hard, and when he saw that the duck with his mouth was gone, he was naturally very dissatisfied. The relationship between Kang Junli and Li Cunxin was very close, and he constantly provoked Li Cunxin and Li Cunxin to make enemies.
The imperial court used the chancellor Zhang Jun as a solicitation to march into Hedong, but after being defeated by Li Cunxiao and others, they retreated to Jinzhou and did not dare to fight again. Li Cunxiao believed that it was not appropriate to directly confront the imperial court at this time, and that the captive prime minister would become the target of everyone's attention, so he broke the siege and retreated fifty miles and allowed Zhang Jun to flee. This move was difficult not to be suspected by Li Keyong, and soon Li Cunxiao was transferred to the post of Assassin of Ying Prefecture. Since then, Li Keyong and Li Cunxiao have not been as close as before, and gradually become angry and detached from Morality.
In early 892, Li Cunxin and Li Cunxiao were sent to coordinate the conquest of Wang Rong, the envoy of Chengde Jiedu, and Li Converse of Youzhou Jiedu. Li Cunxin and Li Cunxiao, because of their mutual hatred, both stayed on the sidelines and stalled, and Li Keyong had no choice but to order other generals to fight. Li Cunxin came back to warn Li Keyong, "Cun Xiao has two hearts, and often avoids Zhao and does not attack. ”
Tang Dynasty fan towns were distributed
Li Cunxiao followed Li Keyong for many years, knowing that his righteous father ruled the army harshly, killing decisively, and not being soft-hearted. With dissatisfaction and complicated emotions such as self-preservation, Li Cunxiao secretly contacted Zhu Wen and Wang Rong, and the imperial court submitted to the three prefectures of Xingzhou, Huanzhou, and Cizhou, requesting that they join forces with various armies to fight Against Li Keyong. In 893, Li Ke personally led a large army to conquest Wang Rong, and when he learned that Li Cunxiao had secretly communicated with Wang Rong, he could not help but be furious and directly sent troops to attack Li Cunxiao. The righteous father and son finally broke up openly.
The reinforcements sent by Wang Rong were defeated by Li Keyong, and he turned around and joined Li Keyong in recruiting Li Cunxiao and besieging Xingzhou, where he was stationed. It was not until March 894 that the city ran out of food. Li Cunxiao complained to Li Ke under the city with tears about the love of father and son. Li Keyong remembered his past experiences, and his heart was very sad, so he let his wife Liu Shi enter the city to comfort him. Li Cunxiao went out of the city to prostrate himself, indicating that it was Li Cunxin who obstructed him.
As a strong local warlord and a strong military ruler, Li Keyong will certainly not be easily persuaded, and needs to be considered and weighed in many ways. In order to frighten the generals and kill a hundred people, Li Cunxiao was escorted back to Taiyuan and executed by the punishment of car splitting. Because Li Cunxiao was usually too arrogant, flying and wandering, and there was no one in sight, no one interceded for him at this time.
After Li Cunxiao's death, Li Keyong's mood was very low, "he hated the generals who could not tolerate it, and did not look at things for more than ten days." He often thinks of Li Cunxiao with tears after drinking, and he never forgets the things of the past. Kang Junli disagreed with this, and finally angered Li Keyong, who was poisoned by poisoned wine.
Looking back at Li Cunxiao's death, it is both an internal political struggle and a self-inflicted responsibility. Li Cunxiao was undoubtedly an extremely outstanding fierce general, but he seriously mishandled internal relations. In that age of loyalty and betrayal, glory and bloodshed, it was also intolerable to turn away from the king. This incident caused heavy losses to the Hedong military clique and became a turning point in the strength of Li Keyong and Zhu Wen, and Li Keyong gradually turned into a passive defensive situation.
Later Liang Jianguo
In the years that followed, Zhu Wen continued to exert military and political pressure on Li Keyong. Li Ke used his command Youzhou Jiedu to make Liu Rengong rebel and stand on his own, and his subordinates defected Li Hanzhi to Zhu Wen; The two sides repeatedly competed for Xingzhou, Huanzhou, and Cizhou, with Zhenzhou and Dingzhou attached to Zhu Wen. In 901, Zhu Wen attacked Jinzhou, Daizhou, and Hezhong, and attacked Li Keyong with multiple advances, and the following year Lianke fenzhou, Cizhou, and Kuizhou besieged Taiyuan Province.
In 907, Zhu Wen forced Emperor Ai of Tang to take the throne, established Hou Liang, and made the capital Kaifeng Province. In the winter of the same year, Li Keyong became seriously ill and died in the first month of the following year. The Tang Empire came to an end, and Chinese history entered an even more chaotic period of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms.