In the first year of Tianfu (901), Zhu Wen, who had already surrendered to the hebei domain, began his grand plan to conquer the world. His first goal was to step into the river and cut off the last wing of his old enemy Li Ke.
At the critical moment of life and death, Wang Ke continued to send emissaries to Hedong to ask for help from his father-in-law Li Keyong. According to the records in the history books, Wang Ke's emissaries were "successive roads", which was more urgent and spectacular than the twelve gold medals that followed. But what people can't understand is that so many emissaries have been sent, not to mention the reinforcements from Hedong, and even Li Keyong's reply has not been seen. So Lady Ying Guo was also anxious, and she personally wrote a distress letter to Li Keyong for help.
This Lady Ying Guo was not an outsider, but Wang Ke's wife and Li Keyong's beloved daughter.
Since they were all from their own families, Mrs. Ying Guo naturally did not need to be polite nonsense, and the letter she wrote went straight to the subject: the daughter was about to become a prisoner, how could the father bear not to come to the rescue.
Realistically speaking, in the face of the son-in-law's successive messengers and daughter's rebukes, Li Keyun should be extremely painful in his heart. Because the truth is not that Li Ke is too cruel, but that he is too powerless. After discovering the true strength that Zhu Wen possessed at this time, Li Ke clearly realized that he had lost to the rogue villain he had despised incomparably.
In the past few years, Zhu Wen has turned a deaf ear to other things, single-mindedly engaged in expansion, and after the Eastern Expedition to the West and the Southern Expedition to the North, he has basically controlled the vast Yellow River Valley, and his strength has improved by leaps and bounds. On the other hand, Li Ke used this side, it seems that although he is also quite busy every year, but after more than ten years, the territory has basically not expanded, and it is difficult to capture Lulong Town, and it is also taken by Liu Rengong's conspiracy, which can be said to be a white busy.
Now that the gap in strength is so huge, Hedong's self-protection is still too much to fear, so why lend a helping hand to pull other families. Reaching out to pull others, there is only one possibility of being pulled into the water by others, holding hands to see the Dragon King. Li Ke said very realistically, in the face of the son-in-law's successive messengers and daughter's rebukes, Li Ke should be extremely miserable in his heart.
He understands this truth, but he can't say it, otherwise people's hearts will be scattered, and this team will be even more unable to bring it. But it is really impossible to say that the baby daughter did not give a reply. So Li Keyong had no choice but to send someone to his daughter with a sentence, a big truth: "Now that the thieves (referring to the Xuanwu Army) have blocked the road, and the strength of the enemy and us is very different, the enemy and ours are outnumbered, if we save you, we will definitely go to the same fate as you, so you and Wang Lang can abandon the city and flee to the imperial court." ”
After receiving Such a reply from Li Keyong, Wang Ke was very disappointed, and after li Maozhen failed to ask for help, Wang Ke could no longer think of any other way. He only followed the path that Li Ke had pointed out to himself, abandoned the city and fled to Chang'an, seeking the protection of the imperial court. But at this time, Wang Ke suddenly found that it was not so easy to run. For some reason, the pontoon bridge outside the city was broken, and due to the weather, the river was frozen and silted up the Yellow River, making it difficult for ships to navigate.
What was even more fatal was that at this time, Wang Ke's soldiers did not pay much attention to him, and there was no way, Wang Ke could only surrender to his former enemy Zhu Wen. Zhu Wen, who had always killed his opponents, would certainly not let him go, and soon Wang Ke was assassinated at the huazhou inn.
Hezhong was thus easily occupied by Zhu Wen, and according to this trend, the Xuanwu army could go all the way north with a single blow, and enter hedong with the momentum of destruction and decay, and destroy Li Keyong.
To tell the truth, Zhu Wen did have this plan, but a message from Bian Prefecture made him give up this good opportunity to level the east of the river.
The news that changed the course of history and, to some extent, sowed the seeds of the demise of the future Hou liang, has only five words: Madame Zhang is critically ill.
The so-called Lady Zhang is Zhu Wen's wife Zhang Hui. This strange woman is the love of Zhu Wen's life, and judging from Zhu Wen's performance of getting the news of her critical illness and running back to BianZhou in spite of all the stars, in Zhu Wen's eyes, this woman is more important than his world, or Zhang Hui is the only boundary he is unwilling to give up.
Li Ke, who had always been arrogant, took the opportunity to send emissaries to visit and sent gifts, and it was a generous gift, which made many of Zhu Wen's subordinates deeply open their eyes. With so many good things, Li Ke used only one small request, that is, to ask for a good return.
Zhu Wen smiled and accepted Li Keyong's gift, and at the same time sent emissaries to follow Li Keyong's teeth to return Zhang Te back to Taiyuan to show li keyong, but to be precise, Zhu Wen made up his mind to continue to send troops. The reason for this lies in the letters used by Li Ke.
It is said that although Li Keyong said in the letter that he was good, hello, good, harmonious coexistence, and good neighborliness and friendship, the arrogant energy between the words could not be suppressed at all, which made Zhu Wen very angry.
Why, all mixed up in the active dispatch of envoys to seek peace, they even look down on me in their hearts and eyes? Can't kill you!
On March 20, Zhu Wen personally ordered six people and horses to besiege Hedong.
Due to the great disparity in strength between the two sides, the Xuanwu army triumphed all the way, and the counties of Hedong fell one after another, and at the end of April, the six-way army met under Jinyang City, and the first Battle of Jinyang began.
Originally, the situation was very unfavorable to Li Keyong, and if the normal development continued, the Hedong Army would undoubtedly be defeated, but at this time, God helped Li Keyong a lot - the Jinyang area actually rained a rainstorm that lasted for more than ten days.
When the soldiers of the Xuanwu Army first arrived in Jinyang, they were already a little unsatisfied with the situation, but coincidentally they caught up with the long-lasting heavy rainfall that fell all night and all day, and the conditions of the garrison not only deteriorated rapidly, but even their meals were affected.
It should be known that Zhu Wen had originally sent nearly 100,000 people this time, and later collected tens of thousands of Hedong soldiers along the way, which undoubtedly greatly increased the burden of transporting grain. Now that it's rainy, the roads are muddy and the time it takes to transport food is getting longer. The supply of military food on the front line is affected by these two factors at the same time, and it is inevitable that it will become tense.
If you don't eat well and rest well, your body will inevitably have problems. The outbreak of malaria and dysentery began to occur in the barracks, but in fact, it was more than that, and many native soldiers also had swollen feet and difficulty walking, which further affected the combat effectiveness of the Fenjun army.
The city soon learned of these relevant situations in the Xuanwu Army camp, and Li Keyong decided that it was time to counterattack. So he found his two best adopted sons, Li Sizhao and Li Siyuan, and ordered them to wait for the opportunity to go out of the city to attack and speed up the collapse of the enemy army.
So from the last few days of April onwards, every night the Xuanwu army would be attacked or robbed by the elite cavalry commanded by Li Sizhao and Li Siyuan, and either the soldiers were killed or captured by the Shatuo cavalry that came and went like the wind, or the tents were forcibly broken through, or they were set on fire by the Hedong army.
The situation developed to such a point that even the well-trained Xuanwu Army could not bear it, and seeing that more than 100,000 people were tossed to the point where only one breath remained, the whole army was about to collapse. Zhu Wen, who learned of the situation on the front line, hurriedly sent someone to convey an urgent order: withdraw the troops, withdraw the troops.
At the beginning of May, the various units of the Xuanwu Army began to withdraw to their places of departure one after another.
Of course, Li Keyong would never give up this good opportunity to defeat the enemy. After confirming the information on the retreat of the Xuanwu army, he immediately sent Zhou Dewei and Li Sizhao to lead 5,000 elite cavalry to pursue.
Although the general of the Bian Army had long expected Li Ke's use of this move, the soldiers under him had basically lost their combat ability, so they could only watch as the troops were killed by the Shatuo cavalry.
The First Battle of Jinyang ended, in which the Xuanwu Army killed or recruited more than 20,000 people of the Hedong Army along the way, and the final pursuit battle, coupled with the loss of wounds and sick, was conservatively estimated to be about 17,000, so the casualties on both sides were about equal.
To sum up this duel between Zhu and Li in one sentence, I think the most appropriate one should be: the Hedong army won without victory, and the Xuanwu army was undefeated and defeated, which can be said to be a draw.
In November of the same year, the chancellor Yi yin joined forces with Zhu Wen to forcefully eliminate the eunuch forces in the dprk, and the grand eunuch Han Quanjie and others abducted Tang Zhaozong Li Ye to Fengxiang in order to protect themselves, and a great scuffle around Tang Zhaozong began.
At this time, although Li Keyong was already weak and had just suffered a major defeat, he still sent troops after receiving the edict of His Majesty the Emperor.
Li Keyong could see that with Zhu Wen's current strength, he only destroyed a little soldier and captured a warrior, which could not attract his attention at all, let alone disrupt his overall plan. In view of this, Li Ke decided to increase the chips, increase the number of troops on a large scale, and make the movement bigger.
So Li Keyong sent his most trusted generals Li Sizhao and Zhou Dewei to attack Cizhou and Yizhou separately. This move proved to be effective, and Zhu Wen heard that the Hedong army was in full swing, and in early February he led the troops back to the river quickly.
His Majesty the Emperor temporarily lifted the siege, but Li Ke used it miserably, although Li Sizhao and Zhou Dewei were brave and scheming generals, but under the disparity in strength, any combat technology and experience were pale and weak.
In March of the second year of Tianfu (902), Xuanwu's army once again defeated the Hedong army and pursued it to Jinyang City, which was the Second Battle of Jinyang.
At this time, although Zhou Dewei and Li Sizhao had collected the remnants and returned to the city, the troops in the city were still insufficient. This was also a matter of course, first, Li Keyong handed over the tens of thousands of people he could use to Zhou Dewei and Li Sizhao to go out to the rescue, and there was no reserve left in the first place; second, Li Keyong never dreamed that the Fenjun army could be so strong and directly hit Jinyang City, so he did not take any precautions. As a result, under the fierce offensive of the Xuanwu Army, Li Keyong had no choice but to personally go into battle, turning the axis incessantly morning and evening, commanding the native soldiers in the city to guard against death, and it is said that he often could not even eat food and did not sleep.
You know, this year's Li Keyong is no longer a young man in his early twenties and energetic, this year he is already forty-six years old, at that time he was almost half a hundred years old in other people.
The siege of the city was so urgent, to tell the truth, even the hairy young man may not be able to survive for ten days without sleep, let alone a person of Li Ke's age. In fact, Li Keyong, who insisted on defending the city above the city tower, himself also felt that his body and spirit were just like this Jinyang City and was about to reach the critical point of collapse. So he decided to convene a meeting to announce an important decision.
"If you want to abandon the city and go to Baoyun Prefecture, what do you think?"
As soon as the news was announced, there was an immediate uproar in the venue.
"The sons are here, and they will be able to hold the city." Please, Great King, don't make plans to retreat to Yunzhou, so as not to shake people's hearts!"
Li Sizhao and Li Siyuan almost immediately stood up and expressed resolute opposition, but Li Cunxin supported Li Keyong's opinion.
Li Cunxin mentioned the worst situation that Li Keyong feared: if the isolated city was helpless and besieged again, it was really that there was no way to the heavens, no door to the earth, and there was no doubt that he would die.
Therefore, Li Keyong did as Li Cunxin wanted, but the opposition of Li Sizhao, Zhou Dewei and other generals was very fierce, and for a while Li Keyong became hesitant and unable to decide.
Just when things reached an impasse, a person who had never spoken from the top came out, and this person was Li Keyong's wife, Liu Taifei. Thinking that this woman had properly handled the follow-up problems of the Shangyuanyi incident and thus saved Li Keyong and Shatuo with her own strength, now at this critical moment of life and death, she once again took on the heavy responsibility of history.
"Li Cunxin is just a sheep herding baby from Beichuan, who knows what it means to be far-sighted." You often laugh at Wang Xingyu's cowardice and incompetence, and easily abandoned the city and fled, only to be in a different place before he ran far, and died at the hands of the unknown people, but today you want to emulate him?"
After coldly looking at Li Keyun, Princess Liu immediately changed her tone to a worried tone and continued: "Moreover, you were almost assassinated by the people there when you were temporarily living in Da tatar in the past, but fortunately, the imperial court was troubled at that time, so you were able to come back again." Now that you're out of the city on one foot, and your concubines are likely to have an immediate and unpredictable upheaval, do you really think we can go out of the city safely?"
With The completion of Liu Taifei's reasonable and well-founded words, Li Keyong no longer had the idea of abandoning the city and running away.
Li Ke, who has been a hero for most of his life and is very proud, how can he allow himself to leave as a bereaved dog, so even if he dies, he will die here, and he will also die on the road to charge against the enemy! So it was decided, I will not go anywhere, vowing to coexist and die with Jinyang!
In order to crush the strong enemy, Li Keyong once again convened an emergency meeting to brainstorm. After synthesizing the opinions of the generals, Li Keyong issued three orders:
First, speed up the collection of remnants of soldiers abroad to make up for the lack of strength of the defenders:
Second, do our best to ask the outside world for teaching assistance, and count one aid as one, so as to make adequate preparations for long-term combat against the enemy:
Third, after returning to the camp, the generals should find ways to boost the morale of their troops and encourage everyone to use their brains to make suggestions and suggestions for breaking the enemy.
Li Keyong gave the order, and from that day on, the whole of Jinyang began to work in an orderly manner.
With the efforts and deployment of Li Sizhao and other generals, within a few days, the scattered soldiers were assembled again, and the defense of the city was guaranteed.
During this period, there was also a very touching scene, that is, Li Kening, who had just finished seeing his brother Li Keyong and was walking on the way back to Xinzhou, where he was appointed as an assassin, heard that the Fenjun army was besieging the city in a big way, and Jinyang might not be safe, and then returned with the guards and entered the city. After entering the city, he said this to the people who asked him why he had gone and returned:
"This city will be the place where I died in battle, and where can I go after leaving this city?"
The actual actions of the relatives of the King of Jin, coupled with this sentence, were a hundred times stronger than any propaganda effect, and the people's hearts in Jinyang City were gradually stabilized. After all, people with the identity of Li Kening have come back to fight to the death, and ordinary people still talk about something.
With the unity of the city, Jinyang City will not be easily breached, and all that remains is to test the martial general's ability to break the enemy
Li Sizhao and Li Siyuan were worthy of being good generals in surprise attacks and broke the enemy, and overnight the two of them actually led several times the death squads to raid the enemy's camp, cut down the generals and pulled out the flag, causing the Army to be shocked several times a night and not to be at peace.
Under the harassment of Li Sizhao, the combat level of the Fenjun army, which could not take a good breath, greatly declined, and even the situation of involuntarily dozing off when they were still fighting.
Zhu Wen knew that he could no longer continue to fight, he had already seen very clearly that Jinyang City was difficult to breach without a year and a half, and it was already remarkable that his army could hold out for another ten days and a half months under the existing conditions (it was said that there was an epidemic at this time), so Zhu Wen made a rather wise decision: withdraw.
On March 20, Xuanwu Army took the initiative to burn down the camp and leave. So the scene of a year ago was almost repeated: Li Sizhao and Zhou Dewei heard the news and led the troops in pursuit, and the Bian army was unable to fight, with more than 10,000 casualties. The Hedong Army seized the opportunity to counterattack and took advantage of the gap to capture ci, hei, and three states, but the hedong army's offensive ended here.
The two jinyang defense battles had already given Li Keyi a very clear understanding of the terror of Zhu Wen's existing strength, and he knew that the only thing he could do was to protect himself and develop. If the Hedong Army had not yet had a new atmosphere before the next large-scale attack of the Bian Army, then the end of him and the Shatuo people would really come.
Li Keyong had no intention of being the last shatuo leader, otherwise it would be very embarrassing to send a message to the patriarchs after a hundred years. Therefore, since then, he has made great efforts to deal with internal affairs, and has achieved good results, and Hedong has opened a new chapter.
After the news of Zhu Wen's usurpation of Tang spread, Wang Jian of Shu prefecture sent someone to send Li Ke a handwritten letter, advocating that he and Li Ke should be called emperors and fight with Hou Liang, and when everyone had teamed up to pacify Zhu Wen, they would then seek out the descendants of the Li family to jointly establish themselves as emperors, and they would take the initiative to abdicate and continue to be the kings of the domain.
This suggestion was undoubtedly very attractive in the chaotic world of people's hearts, but Li Ke was silent after reading it, and finally only sent someone back to Wang Jian: I swore that I would not dare to lose my subjects in this life.
This oath was made by him in front of Yang Fuguang, and after more than twenty years, he did not forget a moment, and he did it all his life. Therefore, although the Tang Dynasty is gone, Li Keyong is still holding out.
Realistically speaking, his perseverance is really very difficult. The hard-won Prefecture of Luzhou was besieged by the Liang general Kang Huaiying's 100,000-strong army, and his brother Yelü Abaoji, who had not been able to marry, also took the initiative to send bubbles to his enemy Zhu Wen and send envoys to repair it (at that time, Yelü Abaoji had already established himself as the Khitan Emperor).
In the end, he fell ill, became seriously ill, and eventually died without seeing any hope, so he was not reconciled.
So there is that well-known legend, he called his heir Li Cunxun to the hospital bedside, handed him three arrows, and said the famous last words in history: The first arrow you want to fight Liu Rengong, you can't take it south of the Yellow River without first attacking Youzhou; the second arrow wants you to defeat the Khitans, Yelü Abaoji shook hands with me and formed an alliance, became a brother, swore to restore the Tang Dynasty together, but now he is treacherous and clings to the thieves, you must fight him; the third arrow wants to destroy Zhu Wen. If you can fulfill these three wishes, I will die without regrets.
In the fifth year of Tianyou (later Liang Kaiping II, 908), on the first month of the new month, Li Keyong died at the age of fifty-three.
The development of the aftermath proved that Li Keyong, who was heroic and loyal to the Tang Dynasty, should have been blind, because his good son Li Cunxun.
After Li Keyong's death, Li Cunxun, who was twenty-four years old at the time, succeeded him as the envoy of Hedong Jiedushi and attacked the Jin Dynasty, while inheriting his father's unfinished business.
He first killed his righteous brothers Li Cunhao, Li Cunshi and others who were worried about his succession, stabilized the internal affairs of the Hedong Army, and then began the process of his own conquest of the world.
After nearly ten years of conquest, Li Cunxun not only captured Youzhou and captured Liu Rengong and Liu Shouguang's father and son, but also repeatedly reversed the tide, defeated the combined forces of Later Liang and Khitan and occupied a large area of land north of the Yellow River.
In April of the twentieth year of Tianyou (923), Li Cunxun was proclaimed emperor in Wei Prefecture, changed the twenty years of Tianyou to the first year of Tongguang, took Tang as the national name, posthumously honored his father Li Keyong as Taizu, and rebuilt the Tang Dynasty, which was called Later Tang in history.
After that, under the still unstable situation, Li Cunxun sent troops to attack Yezhou with a brilliant strategic vision, personally led the army to fight for more than six months, captured Wang Yanzhang, the last fierce man of Later Liang, and occupied Zhongdu (present-day Yishang County, Shandong Province), and the Later Liang army had no power to fight back.
In the first nine days of October in the first year of Tongguang (923), in accordance with Li Cunxun's strategy of taking advantage of the false attack on Bei, Li Siyuan led his army to Beizhou and attacked the city, Zhu Youzhen was cornered and ordered the generals to kill him, and Liang surrendered Wang Zhan Kaicheng. On the same day, Li Cunxun arrived with his troops and entered Bian Prefecture from Da Liang Men as a victor. At this point, the Liang and Jin dynasties that had lasted for a full forty years from Shangyuanyi drew a real end, and Li Ke could finally once again arrogantly despise Zhu Wen, a shameless villain, under the Nine Springs.