Li Siyuan in "Painting the Rivers and Lakes"
The Weizhou Mutiny in February of the fourth year of the Later Tang Dynasty (926) triggered a domino effect of chain rebellions in Hebei. Li Siyuan was ordered to lead an army to quell the rebellion, but he could not fully control his army, and in March, there was a mutiny under the capital of Yidu, which was simply a repeat of emperor Fuhui's rebellion in Weizhou.
Li Siyuan stayed in Yidu for only two days, and then he led his troops to move to Wei Prefecture. At the beginning of the Wei Bo Emperor Fuhui rebellion, Emperor Zhuangzong Li Cunxun originally sent Yuan Xingqin to recruit envoys for the Yi capital camp and lead an army to suppress the rebellion. However, Yuan Xingqin's troops were not successful, not only could not be attacked for a long time, but also mutinied in many places in Hebei. Therefore, there was a later incident in which Li Siyuan took command to put down the rebellion.
Li Siyuan
When Li Siyuan escaped from the capital of Yi and led his army to Wei Prefecture, he did not make up his mind to rebel, so he sent the general Zhang Qianzhao to the Yuanxing Qin camp to quell the rebellion together. However, the confluence of Li Siyuan and the rebels in Yidu was already known to the world, and how could Yuan Xingqin believe that he did not have a conspiracy. Yuan Xingqin did not trust Li Siyuan and reported to the imperial court that Li Siyuan had joined forces with the rebels.
After Li Siyuan's army experienced Zhang's defeat and mutiny, in fact, there were less than a hundred people who followed him to Weizhou, and after gathering Huo Yanwei's five-thousand Zhenzhou army, the strength of the army gradually recovered. Li Siyuan, who was in Wei Prefecture, was actually in a dilemma, and Emperor Zhuangzong had always been suspicious and attacked him, and the Yicheng Mutiny, even if Li Siyuan was coerced, could not escape accountability. On the other hand, if we are desperate to take risks and rebel, and there are insufficient troops, it is difficult to predict whether we will win or lose in the end.
However, a simple analysis of strength is not enough to make an accurate judgment of the situation at that time. Li Siyuan was the founder of the Shatuo Li clique, the second most important person in the Later Tang Dynasty after Li Cunxun, and his subordinates were all over the place, so influence was also an important parameter in the analysis of strength.
Rebel army
At this time, Li Siyuan's close associate An Zhongzhi played a key role. The "History of the Old Five Dynasties" records that "Emperor Mingzong retreated to Wei County, and the trend was unknown. An Zhongzhi will recruit troops in the four directions, and in front of the tent, he will count the names of the various Daotun troops and the main generals, and attach oral transmissions, and come one after the other. An Zhongzhi came forward to recruit troops from all over the world, he naturally did not have that appeal, and Li Siyuan behind him was the core that could gather strength.
The people who can "come next to each other" are naturally Li Siyuan's old departments, which came to the old leaders. For example, Wang Yanqiu, whose people had gone north with Huo Yanwei to resist the Khitan in the second year of Tongguang, was subordinate to Li Siyuan to solicit envoys to the north. At that time, Wang Yanqiu garrisoned at Waqiao, and Li Siyuan "sent people to recruit him."
Li Cunxun
In addition to Wang Yanqiu, Huo Yanwei, Fu Xi, Fang Zhiwen, An Zhentong, Wang Jianjian, Li Congke, Li Congzhang, Shi Jingyao and other old people also followed one after another. After Emperor Zhuang ascended the throne, he appointed eunuchs and courtiers with the intention of weakening the power of local clan commanders and strengthening the centralization of power. Li Siyuan was not only the leader of the old group of Daibeixun, but also the leader of various local clan towns, with him as the core, forming a group that seemed to be loose but powerful.
Li Siyuan's clique survived Emperor Zhuangzong's offensive and quickly formed a joint force after the sharp change after Wei Bo's mutiny. Most of Li Siyuan's clique were Zhenshu Northern Frontier people and local clan marshals, with powerful troops, and he seemed to organize such forces not only for self-preservation, but also to say that there was no ambition to covet the throne, it was really too naïve.
<h1>Li Siyuan gathered a large army in WeiZhou, where to go, and what changes will occur in the political situation of the Tang Dynasty after that? </h1>