Li Gu was a famous courtier from the fifth dynasty to the early years of the Northern Song Dynasty, and the three dynasties of the Later Tang, Later Jin, and Later Han dynasties were able to see the situation clearly at the turning point of history and judge things wisely. These talents of his may come from his early hard work, of course, they are inseparable from his thick and resolute personality.
Li Gu was eight feet tall, with a great appearance, and when he was a teenager, he was brave and powerful, good at archery, often supporting the weak and punishing the strong, helping the poor and the poor, but he was coerced by the townspeople at that time, and his ambition was difficult to reward. Therefore, he began to study hard, reading books like classmates, never forgetting. At the age of twenty-seven, Li Guju became a jinshi and was recruited one after another to serve in Hua and Tai Prefectures.
During the Later Jin Dynasty, Li Gu served as a push official, and after the Young Emperor Shi Chonggui ascended the throne, he appointed Li Gu as the official Langzhong . In the spring of the ninth year of Tianfu, the young emperor Shi Chonggui personally conquered the Khitan and issued an edict allowing Li Gu to follow him, making him a privy councillor and adding officials to the matter. At that time, in the imperial court, Li Gu was not without political enemies, but was ostracized by Feng Yu and Li Yantao. When the young emperor Shi Chonggui went to Hebei again, he had Li Gu reappointed as the deputy envoy of the Third Division, and the third secretary of the Quan Judgement Liu Division.
In the Later Jin Dynasty, Li Gu was ostracized in the imperial court, but the young emperor Shi Chonggui entrusted him with a heavy responsibility, and he had to know the en Tu, even if the court was weak and the young emperor was captured, he would be loyal to the emperor. The founding emperor of the Later Jin Dynasty, Shi Jingyao, relied on the Khitan to develop, promised to cede the Khitan "Yanyun Sixteen Prefectures", and became the "child emperor" of the Khitans, and established the Later Jin with the support of the Khitans. When the Young Emperor Shi was in a high position, the imperial court and the Khitan were at odds and went to war. In the autumn of the second year of the start of the shipment, Li Gu was appointed as the envoy of Cizhou Thorn History and the Northern Water and Land Transport. The Khitan entered The Khitan and the Young Emperor Shi Chonggui was captured and sent to the Khitans. None of the old ministers dared to come to greet him, only Li Gu greeted him on the road. Junchen wept face to face, and Li Gu said: "The minister has not met people with his face, and he has failed His Majesty." Then he gave all his belongings in and out as a valuable use for the captured Young Emperor Shi. The Khitan sent emissaries to Li Gu's prefectures, and after Li Gu arrested them, he beheaded them all, and secretly surrendered to Liu Zhiyuan, and secretly sent Liang Hui, a powerful nobleman of Heshuo, to occupy Anyang. Regarding the war situation under Li Gubu, the Khitan lord was very worried and discussed returning.
Li Gu was able to see the situation clearly under the chaotic situation, not only loyal to the Young Emperor, but also to find a way back for himself, surrendering to Liu Zhiyuan, who later became the ancestor of the Later Han Dynasty, and also allowing the powerful nobles to occupy Anyang, which showed his vision and strategy. At that time, the later Jin forces were weak and could not defeat the Khitans. Anyang could not do it, if the news did not spread out, so that the Khitan people mistakenly thought that the city's troops were very strong, they could resist for a while. Unexpectedly, someone reported the fact that the troops in the city were weak to the Khitans, and the Khitan returned to attack Anyang and captured the city, and Li Gu went out of the prefecture to investigate the Khitan movements, and was captured by the Khitans. The Khitan lord first put out the instrument of torture and said to him, "Why did you betray me and submit to Taiyuan?" "At that time, the Later Jin regime and the Khitan were originally inseparable from each other, and after the Split between the Young Emperor Shi Chonggui and the Khitans, they were still nominally one. Li Gu said: "There is no such thing. The Khitan lord then put his hand in the car and seemed to go to get the letter he had received. However, Li Gu knew that he was pretending to be a gesture and had no letters at all, so he pleaded: "If there is such a thing, please ask for a public display." "The Khitan system was that those who did not confess their sins were not executed immediately. From then on, the Khitan lord questioned him six times before and after, and he always kept his words unchanged. The Khitan lord was sick and said to Li Gu, "When I was traveling south, someone said that you must not return. Now that I am very ill, if you can save me, I will make you rich. Li Gu said: "In fact, there is no means, it is just being framed by people." Li Gu's face remained unchanged, and the Khitan lord finally forgave him.
Li Guzhi's negligence was not only manifested in the face of the Khitan lord's persecution and not fear of danger, but also good at mobilizing for war and doing aftercare work, and thus saving the lives of many people.
In the twelfth year of Tianfu, Emperor Taizong of Liao died of illness in Luancheng on his way back to the north, and Liu Zhiyuan, the emperor of later Han, established the Later Han regime in Taiyuan and incorporated it into Kaifeng. At this time, Li Gu was appointed by Emperor Yelü Nguyen of Liao shizong as a minister and remained in Hengzhou. In the same year, he Fujin, the former commander of The Yingzhou Regiment in Hengzhou, and Li Yun, the former commander of the Crane, plotted to expel the Liao army, but the Khitan army was still very strong in Hengzhou, so they hesitated. After that, most of the Liao army went to various places, and only 800 people remained in the city, and He Fujin and others decided to start a fight. On July 29, the Han army attacked the Liao army guarding the gate, and Li Yun occupied the arsenal and distributed the armor to the Han army and the people, and the generals came to help, and the Liao army retreated to the northern city. In August, the Liao army attacked again from the north gate, killing more than 2,000 people. In the midst of the crisis, Li Gu invited former prime minister Feng Dao and others to visit the labor army in person, and the morale of the Han army was greatly shaken. After dusk, thousands of villagers were clamoring outside Hengzhou in an attempt to seize money and women from the Liao army. The Liao army was alarmed, so it withdrew and fled north, and Hengzhou was successfully recaptured by the Han army.
After the war, Bai Zairong, a senior general in Hengzhou, was pushed to stay behind. Bai Zairong coveted the family wealth of former prime ministers Li Song and He Ning, and sent soldiers to surround the two men's mansions and ask for rewards. Li Song and Ning each gave their family wealth to Bai Zairong, but after Bai Zairong received a large amount of money, he wanted to kill the two of them. After Hearing the news, Li Gu immediately found Bai Zairong and rebuked him: "Now that the country is dead and the lord is humiliated, you have elite soldiers in your hands, and you cannot rescue them to the end of the festival." Now that only one khitan general has been expelled, nearly three thousand people have been killed in the battle in the city. I have just been spared death, and you immediately want to kill the prime minister, and if the new Tianzi (who claimed to be the emperor's soon-ago emperor, Liu Zhiyuan), accuses you of killing without authorization, how will you deal with it? Bai Zairong was greatly frightened, so he did not dare to move, and Li Song and the others were spared death. Bai Zairong again wanted to seize the people's wealth and give it to the Han army, but Li Gu strongly discouraged it, and he stopped this plan.
Li Gu saw the political situation clearly, promptly led people to expel the Khitan and submitted to Liu Zhiyuan, and then elected the former prime minister Feng Dao and others during the critical period of the war, stabilizing the hearts of the army, stopping the killing after the war, and not allowing Bai Zairong to be greedy and greedy for money and killing indiscriminately. Li Gu's vision and wisdom seem to be related to his teenager's reading, of course, he has repeatedly experienced in the political situation, forming a strong and thick character, which is enough to convince the public.