If Li Ke is allowed to use himself to select the three mistakes related to interpersonal relations that he has made in this life, it is estimated that Li Cunxiao can only be ranked third, and the first one is definitely reusing Liu Rengong.
Liu Rengong was originally an ordinary general of Lu Longjun's army, and once led his troops to garrison Weizhou after a rotation period but did not wait for the replacement, and the generals under his command were all very thoughtful and had great opinions. There was no way, the benevolent brother had to send someone back to inquire about the situation, only to learn that Lu Longjie had made Li Converse's younger brother Li Kuangchu have already stood on his behalf on behalf of his brother, and Li Converse has also been killed in Zhenzhou. So he attacked Youzhou with the support of the soldiers, and did not expect to be defeated by the defenders only when he reached Juyongguan, and there was no way out, so this person had to lead the remnants of the soldiers to Hedong and defected to Li Keyong.
Because this person was very familiar with Lu Longjun's internal affairs and had courage and strategy, he was reused by Li Keyong. At this time, Li Keyong did not expect that this new arrival would have countless entanglements with the rest of his life, and let him still remember it at the end of his life.
As for Liu Rengong, Li Keyong had actually heard of it earlier, because in the battle in which Lu Long attacked Yizhou in the first year of Emperor Guangqi of Tang Dynasty (885), it was this person who unexpectedly used the method of digging tunnels into the city to capture the city. Therefore, Liu Rengong not only became famous from this war, but also obtained the title of "Liu Grotto".
And when this "Liu Gutou" was taken under his command, this use was really worthy of the name. This man had a flexible mind, marched and fought without sticking to the inherent rules, and played a considerable role in his battle to pacify Li Kuangchu in Youzhou. Therefore, Li Ke used a happy moment to raise Liu Rengong as Lu Long's stay after pacifying the whole territory of Lu Long, and left the soldiers to guard Youzhou and returned to Jinyang himself. Later, Li Ke was made with a big mistake of repentance.
Because Liu Rengong is a very politically ambitious person. When he was still serving as a general under Lee Converse, he told his comrades-in-arms that he had dreamed of a large flag growing out of his finger, which meant that he would be able to achieve moderation at the latest when he was no more than forty-nine years old. Such blatant self-aggrandizement, although not strange today, was definitely a sensation at the time. In fact, he did attract attention at that time, and When Li Converse heard about this, he was so disgusted that he directly drove him to the local government to become a county official (Jingcheng Ling). If he had not been lucky, encountered the Yingzhou military turmoil, killed the defenders, and gave him a chance to recruit troops to quell the chaos, it is estimated that Liu Rengong would have bid farewell to his military career early.
Of course, that incident also taught Liu Rengong a very profound lesson, so that he understood that before fully grasping the direction of the situation, he should never expose himself or his ambitions. It turned out that he did it, and he did it so well that Li Ke used this kind of old jianghu that read countless people to fool him.
The scheming Liu Rengong's work of stealing Lu Long's command began when Li Ke used it back to Jinyang. His first move was called killing with a knife.
At that time, there was a pair of Gao Siji brothers in Lu Long's army, who were known to be shrewd and strong, and were convinced by the people around Yandi, so Li Keyong appointed Gao Siji's brothers as generals, respectively, in charge of the original army in Youzhou. The native soldiers of Youzhou have always been strong and good at war, and the soldiers of the Gao brothers are from places such as Shanbei where the natural conditions are even worse, and most of them are the sons of the Hao clan there, needless to say, they are even more fierce, which makes Liu Rengong very jealous.
However, unlike everyone imagined, Liu Rengong did not wait for the opportunity to get rid of the Gao brothers because he was jealous of them, because Liu Rengong clearly realized that if he wanted to get rid of them, there was no need to directly attack them himself. The reason is simple, with the personality and style of the Gao family brothers, they will definitely clash with the troops of the Hedong Army stationed in Youzhou first.
As Liu Rengong expected, Gao Siji's brothers killed many people because of their severe punishment of the hedong army soldiers who were running rampant in Youzhou, which directly triggered the strong dissatisfaction of the hedong garrison. The matter was soon reported to Li Keyong, who was said to be very angry and immediately sent someone to rebuke Liu Rengong.
The opportunity really came. Liu Rengong immediately said that all the contradictions were caused by the excessive sentencing of gao Siji's brothers, and given that the two were deeply supported by the locals and had heavy troops, he could not intervene to stop them.
Li Ke was even angrier, and he immediately sent a message to Liu Rengong: Kill Gao Siji's brother and carry out my orders!
So at the strong request of Li Keyong, Gao Siji's brothers were killed by Liu Rengong. But the sons of the two brothers were taken into account by Liu Rengong and raised as if they were their own sons. This hand can be said to be quite high, and the good feelings of the military and civilians in Lulong Town towards Liu Rengong have instantly increased by several grades, and the disgust for Li Keyong and HedongJun has increased.
Li Keyong did not know the new changes in the hearts and minds of the people in Lulong Town, when he was busy leading his troops to the south to serve the king, and he would not notice things in the north at all. In his heart, Liu Rengong was still the image of that reliable general, so on this trip south, Li Keyong also helped Liu Rengong to win the official appointment of Lu Longjiedushi to the imperial court.
Liu Rengong really thanked Li Keyong very much in his heart, after all, Li Keyong helped him realize his old wishes and allowed him to develop his own power in a justifiable way, which was really too intimate. In order to live up to Li Keyong's kindness, Liu Rengong tried every means to pull people into the company, painstakingly accumulated strength, and prepared for a showdown with Li Keyong.
After more than two years of unremitting efforts around the clock, by the fourth year of Qianning (897), Liu Rengong had truly controlled Lu Long from top to bottom, and not only the army returned to his heart, but even the common people supported and recognized him. At the same time, Li Keyong finally began to sense that something was wrong with Liu Rengong.
When he first attacked Wei Prefecture of Wei Bo's army, Li Keyong wanted to use the strength of the brave and good warrior Lu Longbing, who knew that he sent someone to find Liu Rengong to send troops, and the reply was that the Khitans were coming, and it was inconvenient to send troops. Later, Li Ke wanted to send troops to rescue Zhu Xuan and find an important person in Youzhou, but Liu Rengong still answered the same. And when Li Keyong was about to go to Huazhou and recruit Liu Rengong for the third time and was attacked by the other side with the Khitan attack, those who were slow to react should also realize that Liu Rengong must have a problem. Therefore, Li Ke sent emissaries to Youzhou in succession to urge and inquire about the situation by the way.
But the problem was that even though Li Ke sent dozens of emissaries from there and investigated them for several months, Liu Rengong was still not afraid and did not send troops.
Such being ignored was unacceptable, so Li Ke was in a hurry, and he wrote a letter and sent someone to Youzhou.
This letter was not to inquire about the situation, but to directly scold, so after reading this letter, Liu Rengong was on fire at that time, he threw the letter to the ground, and also scolded Li Ke for it. After scolding Li Keyong, Liu Rengong did not stop, first arrested Li Keyong's emissaries, and then banned all the people who remained in The LuLong Army in Taiyuan, and then Liu Rengong announced a very high reward and lured the native soldiers of the Hedong Army to surrender. If it is not balanced, it is because the money is not spent enough, Liu Rengong gave enough money, so the Hedong army has not yet gone to war, basically it has been defeated under Liu Rengong's money attack, a large number of native soldiers defected to Youzhou, and almost scattered Li Keyong's old home. It is intolerable and intolerable.
In August of the fourth year of Qianning (897), Li Keyong temporarily shelved the action of going to Huazhou to Qinwang, and personally led an army to attack Lu Long (it was precisely because of this that Han Jian dared to blatantly kill King Yan and other princes) On September 5, after more than ten consecutive days of rushing, Li Keyong finally reached the first target of attack, the Ansai army.
After resting for four days, the Hedong Army launched an attack on the Ansai Army. With the level and strength of the defenders of the Ansai Army, it was impossible to resist the Battle-hardened Hedong Army in any case, so Li Ke entrusted the work of commanding the front line to his adopted son Li Cunxin, and he was busy drinking in the barracks, only to wait for the arrival of the good news.
However, Li Keyong did not wait for the good news, but waited for the news that the cavalry of Lu Longjun came to help.
"Where is Liu Rengong?" Li Ke asked the question he was most concerned about with drunkenness.
"I only saw Shan Keji and other generals coming, but I didn't see Liu Rengong." His subordinates hurried back to the road.
"Alone can reach that kind of goods where worthy of our opponents!" Li Ke waved a large hand and immediately ordered the army to take the initiative to attack.
On this day, Li Keyong did not leave the tent at all, so he did not know that the weather outside was very bad, it was a foggy day. It is also a serious level of "even if they meet and should not be recognized", and people and things cannot be seen clearly. But Li Ke used the order, it must be carried out, and the Hedong Army set out, groping its enemy in the fog. When the army marched to a place called Papaya Stream, the 50,000 troops accidentally fell into the ambush of Yang Shikan, the general of the Lulong Army, and were crushed in one fell swoop, and most of the troops suffered casualties. If it were not for the heavy rainy weather of heavy wind and rain, it would really affect the continued pursuit and annihilation, and it is estimated that the Hedong Army that fought in the battle would have been completely destroyed.
Li Ke used the estimation that it was in Shangyuanyi (the place where Zhu Wen designed to capture Li Ke) that he developed a physique that woke up after a dozen thunderstorms, Lu Longjun retreated, and others also woke up. When he woke up, he was furious. This is understandable. After all, anyone who came together learned the bad news, and the mood was definitely not beautiful. When there was a fire, it was necessary to vent, and the first to bear the brunt of it was naturally a few generals led by Li Cunxin, who were scolded fiercely by Li Keyong. The generals who were scolded so bloodily thought that after the great defeat, Li Keyong would definitely give the order to return to Taiyuan, who knows, Li Keyong's latest order was not to retreat, but to march, to march into Dai Prefecture. ：
On the afternoon of September, the Hedong Army arrived in Daizhou. What is puzzling is that after Li Ke used Dai Prefecture, he did not organize an army to attack any target, nor did he send troops to plunder any place, but just stopped there, as if waiting for someone Li Keyong was indeed waiting for someone, and he was waiting for Liu Rengong.
And he was sure that Liu Rengong would definitely come and ask him for his sins. Liu Rengong was really excited after learning that he had defeated the Hedong Army. The first thing he did was to go to the imperial court to win, and implored the imperial court to approve him as the commander-in-chief, and to crusade Li Ke with the imperial court to point li ke at Li Ke to uphold justice, naturally killing would not agree, so Liu Rengong's request was quickly rejected by the imperial court. So Liu Rengong hurriedly turned his attention to Zhu Wen in Bian Prefecture, and he sent someone to send the first rank of the Soldiers of the Hedong Army captured by Papaya Stream to Zhu Wen, which meant that he would use this as a name for himself, and then he would follow Zhu Laoda.
Boss Zhu was very happy, and immediately went to the imperial court and asked Liu Rengong to be added to Tongping Zhangshi, but only that. Although Zhu Wen and Li Keyong did not deal with each other, at best they only intended to stay at the level of small fights and small troubles, and at most limited local wars, and they did not intend to completely tear their faces with Li Ke and engage in a strategic decisive battle.
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There's no way around that. Now there are only two options left in front of Liu Rengong, one is to fight alone with Li Ke to the end and fight a fish to the death; the other is to take the initiative to admit to Li Ke with the posture of a victor to avoid a retaliatory attack by the Hedong Army. Without waiting for Liu Rengong to make a choice, he received a surprising news that the Hedong army after the defeat of the war did not retreat, but instead marched to Dai Prefecture.
Does this move mean that even if you are commanding a newly defeated army, you are sure to defeat me? Liu Rengong had no doubt that Li Keyong had such an ability, so he no longer hesitated, and immediately sent an envoy to Dai Prefecture to apologize to Li Keyong: "Ren Gong did not deliberately betray the king, and things have developed to this point, all of which are forced by the situation!" Ren Gong was also very afraid and uneasy at this time! ”
Li Keyong originally had no intention of continuing to fight Liu Rengong, he just wanted to save the last bit of face. Now seeing that Liu Rengong had yielded, Li Keyong also went down the slope, and he immediately replied to Liu Rengong with the following content: "Now that your excellency has the runes of the imperial court in hand, controls the army, manages the people, and self-enacts the degree, and selects talents, he definitely wants the other party to repay your kindness, and the selection of generals naturally hopes that he will thank you for your grace, but you yourself are not the one who knows the rewards, so how can others believe in you!" I reckon that in the future, you will definitely be jealous of your relatives and suspicious of the wenwu around you, and people like you will sooner or later take their own trouble! ”
In Liu Rengong's view, this was just Li Ke's use to vent his anger, and there was no need to pay serious attention, so he laughed at that time. But ten years later, if Liu Rengong can recall Li Ke's words, it is estimated that he will have a hard time laughing.
Li Ke used to return to Hedong, after all, there was still an emperor in Huazhou who was looking forward to the stars and the moon, waiting for him to send troops to save the car. Liu Rengong, on the other hand, completely got rid of Li Keyong's control and completely internalized Lu Longjun into his own industry. After that, Liu Rengong was desperate to recruit troops and strengthen army building.
Half a year later, Liu Rengong defeated Lu Yanwei, who was fighting with him for salt and profit, with the powerful Lu Long army, and took the three prefectures of Cang, Jing, and De under his rule to his own, and appointed his son Liu Shouwen as the queen of Yichang.
After Liu Rengong was already ambitious, his army had increased, and his territory had expanded, so his appetite was naturally not satisfied by occupying Yan land. Like his old boss Li Converse, Liu Rengong soon had the intention of annexing Heshuo and sweeping the world. Coincidentally, seeing that Liu Rengong's career was getting stronger and stronger, Zhu Wen, who had never loved to take care of Youzhou before, actually took the initiative to send emissaries to reconcile with Liu Rengong, and put forward a suggestion, that is, the two families joined forces and then called Luo Hongxin of Wei Bo to attack Li Keyong together.
This proposal was quickly highly recognized by Liu Rengong. If Li Keyong could be destroyed at this point, he Liu Rengong would no longer be invincible in the north; if he could not be destroyed, it did not matter, he also had many opportunities to weaken the strength of Li Keyong and Luo Hongxin in this battle, and lay out in advance for the future advance of the Heshuo region. So the two sides hit it off and made plans for the attack.
In April of the first year of Gwanghwa (898), according to the previous agreement, the Xuanwu army launched first. Under the personal command of Zhu Wen, Xuanwu's army reached Julu.
Under julu city, Zhu Wen led an army to break through the more than 10,000 defenders in the east of the river, and then took advantage of the victory to chase and defeat the army until Qingshan Pass. Zhu Wen's strategic intention was already obvious, that is, to unite Liu Rengong and Luo Hongxin to wipe out Li Keyong's Zhaoyi army under his control, thus squeezing Li Keyong's forces out of the Heshuo area.
After the victory of julu, Zhu Wen began to divide his troops, and he sent Ge Congzhou to lead a division to attack Puzhou. Attacking Huanzhou was a piece of cake for a general of Ge Congzhou's level.
At first, the situation was indeed unfavorable to Li Keyong, and before the Jinyang side could react, Xuanwu army captured the three prefectures of Xing, Luo, and Ci, while Ge Congzhou was appointed by Zhu Wen as Zhaoyi Liu, replacing Li Keyong's men.
In September of the first year of Gwanghwa (898), Wei Bojiedu caused Luo Hongxin to die, and the military pushed his son Luo Shaowei, the deputy envoy of Jiedu, to be Wei Boliu. The balance of power in the Heshuo region no longer existed. Li Ke took advantage of Wei Bo's high-level changes to launch a counterattack and prepare to retake the three prefectures of Zhaoyi, which were occupied by Zhu Wen. To this end, he sent the Second Taibao Li Sizhao and the general Zhou Dewei to lead the infantry out of Qingshan and take Xingzhou directly.
On October 6, the Hedong Army launched a campaign to attack Xingzhou. As a retainer of Zhaoyi, Ge Congzhou calmly responded to the battle, carefully analyzed the enemy situation, and after discovering the weakness of the Hedong Army, he decisively attacked and broke the vanguard of the Hedong Army.
Upon learning of the defeat of the former army, Li Sizhao immediately made a decision and led his troops to retreat into Qingshan. Who knew that Ge Congzhou was very fierce, and actually chased after the footsteps of the defeated former army, and even preemptively blocked the return of the Hedong army. In the face of the mighty Xuanwu Army, the infantry of the Hedong Army, which had always been fearless, actually collapsed on its own, and Ren Li Sizhao shouted and broke his throat, and the deserters cut until they were weak and could not contain the momentum of this rout.
The general trend has gone, and it seems that there is only a way to run. Just as Li Sizhao also turned the horse's head and prepared to evacuate with his life, a man suddenly flashed out and stopped him: "If even those of us who are generals run away, the Hedong Army will definitely not be able to hold out any longer." Now let me try to help you defeat the enemy and turn defeat into victory! ”
If others had said these words to Li Sizhao at this time, Li Sizhao would definitely have chosen to ignore them directly, go back on horseback, and wash and sleep early. But this person is different, because this person is Li Siyuan, the Grand Taibao. Li Siyuan was not only a lucky general, but also a fierce general. With such a blessing and courage in one Li Siyuan, Li Sizhao naturally had nothing to worry about. It's a big deal, as Li Siyuan said, if you don't live, you will die, and it's better than being a fugitive or a prisoner.
"In that case, I am willing to follow behind you and fight until the last moment!"
Li Sizhao made a promise without any hesitation. Li Siyuan nodded and immediately began to act.
He first ordered his cavalry to unsaddle the horses to rest, and then led everyone to sharpen their sharpened heads and sharpened their swords.
Seeing that the preparations were almost complete, Li Siyuan climbed up to a high place to arrange the combat lineup, and generously pointed and drew back and forth in front of the native soldiers of the two armies. The soldiers of the Xuanwu Army did not know what Li Siyuan was doing for a while, and temporarily delayed the offensive in order to avoid ambush.
Li Siyuan did not simply imitate Zhang Fei, who was guarding the Changsaka Bridge, and to some extent, he seemed to be fiercer than Brother Zhang Yide, because as soon as this benevolent brother got on his horse, he was running to Ge Congzhou, the main general of the Bian Army.
It has to be said that Li Siyuan's rampage was not chaotic, and the five hundred rampages were all like caged tigers under his command, and they rushed left and right into the ranks of xuanwu's army with the courage of ten thousand men. After collecting the remnants of the army, Li Sizhao followed Li Siyuan and his cavalry, and took out the spirit of killing one to make enough money and killing two to earn one, and fought to the death with the Xuanwu army.
It was hard to win, and if you were hacked to death by this group of lifeless guys at the last moment, it would be too much of a loss. Seeing that Li Siyuan and the others were becoming more and more courageous in the war, it was not easy to completely annihilate, and Ge Congzhou's army began to retreat backwards. Li Siyuan sensed signs of the enemy's retreat, so he attacked harder, and finally repelled the Xuanwu army, and retreated into Maling Pass with Li Sizhao.
In this battle, Li Siyuan showed quite bravery, although he was a lucky general, he could not avoid being injured. After returning home, Li Siyuan was hit by four arrows in total, and the blood flowed all the way to his thighs, staining a large piece of clothing red. Seeing that Li Keyong was very distressed, he personally undressed and dressed this adopted son.
Judging from Li Siyuan's later life development, his penetrating wounds in this battle were not in vain, and the blood was not in vain. Because he got a comment from his righteous father, Li Ke. This sentence is: Wu'er God Man also! Wei Wu'er, a few laughed from Zhou.
This comment can be said to be the highest evaluation that Li Ke used for his sons, and even for his subordinate generals, even when Li Cunxiao, the recognized first fierce general of the late Tang Dynasty, was alive. Therefore, this became one of the most important political capitals for Li Siyuan in the future.
Li Ke's plan to retake Zhaoyi failed, but his feud with Liu Rengong did not end.
In the third year of Tianyou (906), in order to compete for control of the Heshuo region, Liu Rengong and Zhu Wen launched a decisive battle at Luzhou, and as a result, the Youzhou army was not only defeated, but Liu Rengong's son Liu Shouwen was also besieged by Zhu Wen in Cangzhou. Liu Rengong tangled with 200,000 troops to go to the rescue still to no avail, in order to save his son's life, Liu Rengong had to abandon his old face and send people to Hedong to contact Li Keyong. The topic of contact is very simple, two words one by one to ask for help.
It was such a simple matter, but Liu Rengong sent more than a hundred emissaries back and forth, because Li Keyong really hated him very much, saying that he was not willing to send troops to help Liu Rengong, a capricious villain. Li Keyong's idea is understandable, but if Liu Rengong's father and son are allowed to be destroyed, it will be unfavorable for Hedong. So the insightful people of the Hedong Army also came forward to speak.
"This is the time for our Hedong Army to revitalize!" Facing li Keyong, who had an angry face, the spokesman first aroused his interest.
"As the situation today is, there are already seven or eight clan towns that have surrendered to Zhu Quanzhong, and powerful clan towns like Cheng De, Wei Bo, and Yi Ding do not dare to disobey orders. Therefore, north of the Yellow River, the only people who can compete with Zhu Quanzhong are We Hedong and Liu Rengong. If Lu Long and Hedong can work together, it will be a problem for Zhu Quanzhong's henchmen! People who fight the world should not care about small grudges, and if we can repay the grievances with devotion, we can use this to impress the other party and win more support, which can be described as killing two birds with one stone, and the king must not lose this opportunity because of resentment. ”
This passage is thoroughly analyzed, reasonable, and convincing. And that speaker was None other than Li Keyong's son, Li Cunxun, who was twenty-one years old at the time. In his early twenties, he had such insight that he was worthy of the opportunity to conclude the chaotic world of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms in advance.
Under the strong persuasion of Li Cunxun, Li Ke finally changed his mind and agreed to send troops. After consultation with senior generals in the army, the rescue plan formulated by the Hedong side was to join forces with the Lulong army to attack Luzhou (潞州, in modern Changzhi, Shanxi Province) in order to force the Fenjun army to lift the siege of Cangzhou.
In December, the Hedong army captured Luzhou, directly threatening the flank of Zhu Wen's army, and Zhu Wen had to lead his troops back.
Zhu Wen withdrew, Cangzhou was saved, and after this battle, Liu Rengong clearly realized that Li Keyong had already been trapped by himself, and if there was a similar crisis in the future, the Hedong Army would definitely rescue itself at all costs in order to protect itself. So Liu Rengong was relieved and entered the mode of indulgence. He ordered people to build an incomparably magnificent pavilion on the Da'an Mountain, which was suspended on all sides and was easy to defend and difficult to attack, and raised many beautiful women he had selected from all over Lulong. At the same time, he also invited a group of alchemists to live with high salaries, cultivating elixirs for himself and seeking immortality.
Building a mansion, raising beautiful women, inviting alchemists, refining immortal elixirs, no matter which one needs to spend a lot of money, but Liu Rengong does not have so much money, what to do? Easy to do! Find ways to amass all the money in the territory and create some monopoly industries. Therefore, he explicitly banned tea merchants from entering Jiangnan and sent people to collect the leaves of grass and trees in the Da'en Mountains as tea and sell them in the market. At the same time, the people were ordered to use clay as money, and they buried the copper coins they had collected on a hill and used it as private money. Of course, the person responsible for hiding the money was killed by Liu Rengong after the incident.
Referring to the leaves as tea, the rampant conquest, Liu Rengong's perverse behavior made the people of Lulong angry. Of course, there are also many angry people around Liu Rengong, such as his second son Liu Shouguang.
The reason why Liu Shouguang remembers his father is not because he can't see his father's tyranny, but because he was severely whipped by his father and expelled from the house. However, most people do not think that this is Liu Rengong's problem, after all, Liu Shouguang hooked up with his father's concubine Luo Shi, Liu Rengong did not kill him because of this, and he was already very much about father-son affection.
But Liu Shouguang did not see it this way, so he took advantage of the fact that He attacked Li Si'an in Youzhou, gathered some soldiers who were dissatisfied with Liu Rengong, first repelled Li Si'an, then attacked Da'an Mountain, and captured his father Liu Rengong back to Youzhou City and imprisoned him. From then on, he established himself as Lu Longjie's envoy, and a year later, he sent troops to kill his brother Liu Shouwen and forced his nephew Liu Yanzuo to surrender, completely taking Liu Rengong's hometown.
After being imprisoned in the fourth year of Tianyou (907), Liu Rengong secretly gave birth for seven years, and finally was captured by the fierce man Li Cunxun and beheaded in Daizhou. Born of injustice, died of shame. I have nothing more to say about this man