In the history of our country, the throne has been the goal of countless people, and the ways to achieve it are also diverse. For example, some people seized the throne by launching uprisings and mutinies; some people were enthroned on the throne by virtue of their noble blood and prominent status. Somewhat different from them, Li Congke, the last emperor of the Tang Dynasty after the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period, also launched a rebellion, but eventually obtained the throne by crying. It is worth mentioning that as he eventually self-immolated and died, the famous Chuanguo Yuxi also disappeared and lost his voice.
In the first year of emperor Guangqi of the Tang Dynasty (885), Li Congke was born in Pingshan County, Zhenzhou, in the area of present-day Pingshan County, Shijiazhuang, Hebei Province. His original surname was Wang, but because after he lost his father at an early age, his mother Wei was adopted by Li Siyuan as a concubine, and he became his adopted son, so he changed his surname to Li. According to the "History of the Old Five Dynasties", Li Congke was "young and reticent, and strong, more than seven feet long, fang Yi was large, majestic in appearance, and called Xiao Guo", that is, from a young age, he was rigorous and steady, silent and taciturn, and when he grew up, he was dignified and courageous.
When he grew up, Li Congke began to follow his adoptive father Li Siyuan to assist Li Cunxun, the King of Jin. On the battlefield, Li Congke showed considerable bravery, and made great achievements through several adventure battles, which was appreciated by Li Cunxun, who was also known for his brave style of combat. In the twentieth year of Tianyou (923), Li Cunxun declared himself emperor in WeiZhou and established the Later Tang dynasty, while Li Congke was awarded the title of Weizhou Assassin for his founding of the country.
In the following years, Li Congke was continuously promoted, and after his adoptive father Li Siyuan ascended the throne, he was appointed as a taiwei and fengxiang jiedushi, and also received the title of king of Lu. However, with the death of Li Siyuan and his son Li Conghou succeeded to the throne, the high-powered Li Congke began to be suspected. Because he was jealous of Li Congke, Li Conghou transferred him from Fengxiang to Hedong, while relieving his son of his military power and summoning his daughter to the palace as a threat.
Knowing that he had been seen as a thorn in the side of the emperor, Li Congke launched a rebellion, while Li Conghou sent the general Wang Sitong to lead several soldiers and horses to fight. Because his strength was indeed weak, Li Congke's base camp Fengxiang City was about to be breached, and at a critical moment, he climbed the city tower and took off his clothes, revealing many scars left by years of conquest. Subsequently, he tearfully said that he was born and died for the sake of the country, but now he is suspected for no reason, which is forced to rebel.
A miraculous scene appeared, and Li Congke's true feelings really touched many generals and soldiers who attacked the city. In this way, Li Congke not only did not lose his troops and was killed, but also turned the offensive and began to raise troops to counterattack Luoyang, the capital city where Li Conghou was located. Perhaps Li Congke was really the chosen one, and on the way to the march, there were successive soldiers and horses sent by Li Conghou to join his camp, and various counties and counties also surrendered. Not long after, Li Congke smoothly entered Luoyang, and Li Conghou fled in a hurry.
Soon, Li Congke was jointly elected as the new monarch by the prime minister, the empress dowager and others, and it can be said that he ascended to the throne indirectly by crying bitterly in Fengxiang City. At the beginning of his ascension to the throne, Li Congke could be described as full of vigor, but it was not long before he made trouble. When he first set out from Fengxiang, he had promised to reward one hundred dollars after capturing Luoyang in order to win over the soldiers, but after capturing Luoyang, he learned that the deposits of the national treasury could not be cashed. For this reason, Li Congke went so far as to order the looting of property from the people.
Objectively speaking, Li Congke is actually an emperor with his own ambitions and hopes to govern the country well. This can be seen in his encouragement of outspokenness. Unfortunately, before Li Congke could properly govern the country, he was threatened by Shi Jingyao, the envoy of Hedong Jiedu. Shi Jingyao was Li Siyuan's son-in-law, who fought alongside Li Congke in his early years, and both were known for their bravery, so they often fought in secret.
After Li Congke ascended the throne, he explicitly reused Shi Jingyao, but in his heart he was always worried about his rebellion, and Shi Jingyao was also afraid that Li Congke would get rid of him. The result of the separation between the monarchs and the subjects was that Shi Jingyao officially rebelled in the third year of the Qing Dynasty (936). Similar to Li Congke's rebellion at the beginning, Shi Jingyao also fell into passivity at the beginning of his army because of his weak strength, but he immediately invited the Khitans from the north in return for Youyun Sixteen Prefectures.
With the help of the Khitans, Shi Jingyao was defeated and won, while Li Congke fell into depression from then on, only knowing how to use wine to dispel his sorrows day and night. At the end of November, Shi Jingyao's troops were about to invade Luoyang, and Li Congke, seeing that the general situation had gone, took the empress, empress, and son to the Xuanwu Tower and set himself on fire. According to legend, Li Congke was also burned with the national treasure Offidelity, and since his death, the jade seal has disappeared, and his whereabouts have become a mystery for eternity.
To sum up, Li Congke is definitely one of the more special ones among the last emperors of our country. First of all, it was not that he could not govern the country, nor did he not fight, but his opponent Shi Jingyao leaned on the high branch of the Khitan people, which made him lose the power to resist; secondly, the most important reason why Li Congke was able to become emperor was that he cried bitterly and won the throne by tears, which is also quite rare in history. Another regrettable point is that if Li Congke had not been defeated by Shi Jingyao, perhaps youyun Sixteen Prefectures would not have been ceded to the Khitans, and the Central Plains Dynasty would not have been in the shadow of the northern regime ever since.