In the last years of the Tang Dynasty, after the blows of the Huangchao Uprising, Li Tang's rivers and mountains were crumbling, and the local feudal towns were self-respecting, and the rule of the imperial court had already existed in name only. In the chaotic world, Zhu Wen, a rogue from Yanshan County, stepped onto the stage of history, first following the Huangchao rebel army, then surrendering to the Tang Dynasty, and after more than ten years of conquest, he became the most powerful warlord at that time. Some people even said that Zhu Wen was even more cunning than Cao Cao, but why couldn't he unify the world?
A great man said of Zhu Wen, "Zhu Wen is in the land of four battles, slightly the same as Cao Cao, but cunning is excessive." The author believes that this sentence is very correct, in some ways, Zhu Wen is even stronger than Cao Cao. Let's first make a comparison, Cao Cao is the grandson of the eunuch Cao Teng, and his father relied on spending money to buy officials and became a lieutenant, so we can say that Cao Cao was born in a rich family, and the Cao family was rich and powerful.
The background of the Cao family was the capital of Cao Cao's rise, he served in the dprk very early, and later relied on the family's assets to start a military campaign. Let's look at Zhu Wen again, he can be said to be completely self-made. Zhu Wen's father was a "village teacher", but he died very early, and his mother and his family lived by "working" for the landlord's family. Forced by life, Zhu Wen and his second brother defected to the rebel army together and lived a life of licking blood with knives every day.
With his bravery and intelligence, Zhu Wen stood out and became an important general under Huang Chao. Later, seeing that Huangchao was about to fail, Zhu Wen led his army to surrender to the Tang Dynasty. On the one hand, Zhu Wen quelled rebellions in various places for the Tang Dynasty, and on the other hand, he used this opportunity to expand his power. In 907, Zhu Wen declared himself emperor and established the Later Liang regime, which included most of Henan, Shandong, Shaanxi, and Hubei, as well as anhui, Jiangsu, Hebei, Shanxi, and Ningxia.
After Zhu Wen declared himself emperor, the separatist regimes of Wuyue, Chu, Fujian, and southern Han successively declared themselves vassals and expressed their acceptance of his rule. But Zhu Wen failed to unify the world, why is this? It turned out that three people became a stumbling block for Zhu Wen, and later one of them also crushed the Later Liang regime! This first person is Li Keyong! Li Keyong was a Shatuo native, and his father was given the surname Li by the Tang Dynasty. Li Ke used to divide the Shanxi region and fought against Zhu Wen all the time.
Zhu Wen led his army on many occasions, and even surrounded Taiyuan City, but he failed to completely defeat Li Keyong. Zhu Wen was proclaimed empress, and Li Keyong still used the Tang Dynasty era name to confront Zhu Wen. This second figure is Li Cunxun, the son of Li Keyong, who succeeded to the throne after his father's death. Li Cunxun was even more powerful than Li Keyong, and he turned the tide of the battle, defeating Zhu Wen at the Battle of Baixiang, capturing the Hebei region, and killing tens of thousands of Hou Liang's elite army.
Since then, Liang Yi has been in a slump, but Zhu Wen is "lucky" and did not become the king of the country, but was killed by his own son. After that, Li Cunxun led his army commanders to drive straight in and destroyed the Later Liang regime in one fell swoop. In addition, there is another character, which also makes Zhu Wen a headache, he is Yang Xingmi. Yang Xingmi was the founder of the State of Wu among the Ten Kingdoms and ruled the richest area around Jianghuai. After Zhu Wen pacified Henan, he sent an army of 100,000 to the south to capture the Jianghuai region.
The economic prosperity of the Jianghuai region is an important source of wealth, and if it is seized by Zhu Wen, then he will have the capital to unify the world. However, Yang Xingmi was good at using troops, winning more with less and defeating Zhu Wen's army. Since then, the two sides have repeatedly fought wars, but Zhu Wen has never taken advantage, and the two sides can only face each other across the river. Zhu Wen's rule was the Central Plains region, which had been plagued by war and was attacked on all sides, so that he could not break the situation and eventually had to be destroyed.
References: 1. "History of the Old Five Dynasties"; 2. "History of the New Five Dynasties"; 3. "Zizhi Tongjian"