Chapter 42 Extravagant and desperate to die at the hands of actors

As Sima Guang said in his poem, Li Cunxu "knows the art of using troops, but not the way of the world." He is a brave and invincible general on the battlefield, who is victorious in every battle.But ever since he ascended the throne and became the emperor, he thought that he would get his revenge, so he became more arrogant and self-indulgent. , disrupting the administration of officials;Not only that, but he also became suspicious of the former heroes and killed them.Guo Chongtao's murder was a case of great injustice. Guo Chongtao was a famous general counselor in the Later Tang Dynasty. He was honest, capable, alert and calm in dealing with situations.Li Cunxu regarded him very highly after inheriting the throne.He defeated Khitan with his strategy and won many battles with Liang.The key battle to destroy Liang, the Battle of Bianzhou, was also successful under his planning.However, Guo Chongtao was loyal, upright and dared to advise, and offered advice to the imperial court. He once wrote 25 articles on current affairs and interests.Even for Li Cunxu himself, he was merciless in persuasion.After Li Cunxu ascended the throne, he became more and more extravagant. One summer was unbearably hot.The eunuch said: "The buildings in Da Nei are not as high as those of the ministers' houses in Chang'an in the past. In the past, there were two palaces, Daming Palace and Xingqing Palace, with hundreds of houses. They were all carved beams and painted buildings. It’s cool, but now His Majesty’s palace doesn’t have any tall buildings to block the scorching sun, so there’s no place to enjoy the cool air.” Hearing this, Li Cunxu was very unconvinced: “Now that I’m rich in the world, can’t I build a tall building?” He immediately ordered someone to build it, But he was afraid that Guo Chongtao would dissuade him, so he sent someone to tell Guo Chongtao: "This year, the heat is unbearable. I used to fight against the enemy on the bank of the Yellow River, and the palace was also hot and humid, but I didn't feel it at that time. It was like enjoying the cool air. Now I am safe. Living in a deep palace, but can't bear it, why?" I hope Guo Chongtao will tell him to build the palace.But Guo Chongtao said: "When your majesty was on the battlefield in the past, the back beam was not flat, and your majesty forgot to eat and sleep, and his mind was on the war, so he didn't care about the heat and cold. Now the world has been settled, and the Central Plains is fine. You can eat, drink and enjoy frequently. You have nothing to worry about. When you arrive In summer, even if there are tall buildings and nine-story palaces, you can’t forget the scorching heat. I hope that your majesty will often think about the difficult business in the past, so that the current heat can become cool.” Li Cunxu did not expect that Guo Chongtao would pretend to be confused and come here for him With a neither soft nor hard hand, he was speechless for a while, but he still let the eunuchs build tall buildings.Guo Chongtao knew about it, and played again: "There is a lot of construction in the palace, wasting property, but disasters are happening in some places, and the people can't eat enough. I ask the emperor to stop the construction." Li Cunxu refused to listen to him.So after going back and forth like this, Li Cunxu became bored with Guo Chongtao's persuasion.Guo Chongtao also felt uneasy. In order to protect himself, he followed the advice of his subordinates and submitted a letter to ask for Liu's empress, in order to obtain the support of the palace.It's just that this Liu family is a person who is following the trend, and has a cold nature. He doesn't even recognize his own father for the sake of wealth and honor. How can he care about Guo Chongtao's little "persuasion"?I'm afraid even Guo Chongtao didn't expect that he would die in the hands of Empress Liu in the end.

In the third year of Tongguang (925), Li Cunxu learned that the former Shu was politically corrupt and its military force was empty, so he had the idea of ​​destroying Shu. He appointed his son Wei Wang Li Jiji as the marshal and Guo Chongtao as the deputy general to attack Shu.Li Jiji was still very young at the time and had no combat experience, so Guo Chongtao planned all the battles.Shuxi went first, and the army advanced later, so he surrendered without a fight, and wiped out Qianshu within 70 days.However, since he was basically planning and commanding the destruction of Shu, he was also in charge of all the political affairs after the pacification. Just got left out.Li Jiji didn't have any ambitions, and he was young, so he didn't have any conflicts with Guo Chongtao.But the eunuchs around him are a bunch of money-grubbing villains. Seeing that Guo Chongtao's door is full of traffic, and there is an endless stream of people giving gifts to curry favor, but he has no chance to get any money, so he does everything possible to sow discord in front of him and frame Guo Chongtao .Under their provocation, the contradiction between the two became deeper and deeper.

Li Cunxu's later Tang Dynasty was advertised as revitalizing the Tang Dynasty, so he accepted all the laws and regulations of the Tang Dynasty, but he did not choose them, and even learned the bad government of eunuchs supervising the army.Although there are good people among the eunuchs, such as Zhang Chengye.But Li Cunxu's blind trust in eunuchs led to chaos in the government.However, Guo Chongtao was upright and had always hated eunuchs.He once said to Li Jiji: "After the land of Shu is leveled, the king will be the prince. When he ascends the throne in the future, he must choose a noble family and get rid of all those eunuchs." You don’t even want to ride a gelding.” The eunuch naturally hated him and gritted his teeth.At this time, the eunuch Xiang Yansi brought an edict to Shu, ordering Guo Chongtao to return to the imperial court, but Guo Chongtao always looked down on the eunuch, and did not follow the etiquette to go to the suburbs to greet Xiang Yansi when he arrived.Xiang Yansi was very angry about this, and the eunuchs around Li Jiji added fuel to him, saying that Guo Chongtao was in power, arrogant and domineering, and all the generals in the army belonged to Guo Chongtao's party, and Wei Wang had no power to restrain himself. If Guo Chongtao is ordered to be the class teacher, there will probably be disasters and chaos.After Xiang Yansi returned, he went to provoke Empress Liu again, and Li Cunxu, who was greedy for money, was also dissatisfied that Guo Chongtao offered him too little gold and silver, so Xiang Yansi took the opportunity to say that all the treasures of Shu had entered Guo Chongtao's mansion.Li Cunxu couldn't help being furious, and immediately ordered the eunuch Ma Yangui to rush to Shu to investigate.The eunuchs said in front of Empress Liu that the disaster started in an instant, so there was no time to ask the Holy Majesty for a decree.Empress Liu panicked, and went to Li Cunxu again, but Li Cunxu was not completely stupid, thinking that he did not understand the truth of the matter and could not give a clear order.Seeing that Li Cunxu refused to give the order, Empress Liu, who was wronged by the country, wrote a decree by herself and asked the eunuch to hand it over to Li Jiji, asking him to kill Guo Chongtao first.Li Jiji knew it in his heart, saying that Guo Chongtao had nothing wrong with him, and he couldn't do anything against his conscience.Those eunuchs deliberately created troubles to make Guo Chongtao offend Li Jiji, and then provoked them. After all, Li Jiji was young and inexperienced, so he couldn't help but sided with them.The next day, in the name of discussing matters, Guo Chongtao was lured and killed.

After Guo Chongtao died, Li Cunxu listened to the slander of actor Jing Jin and unjustly killed the hero Zhu Youqian's family.General Kang Yanshou rebelled under the banner of avenging Guo Chongtao and Zhu Youqian, and Sichuan was in chaos.After Kang Yanshou was defeated and killed, Sichuan continued to fight, which plunged the situation in the later Tang Dynasty into chaos.At this time, the guarding period of Weibo Town officers and men guarding Waqiao Pass had expired. When passing through Beizhou on the way back to the town, Li Cunxu suddenly ordered that he was not allowed to return to his hometown and was stationed on the spot.Under such circumstances, coupled with the turmoil in Sichuan and the fluctuating hearts of the people, the soldiers mutinied and marched southward to invade Weizhou.Upon hearing the news, Li Cunxu hurriedly sent troops to suppress him, but he collapsed at the first touch.Li Cunxu had to send Li Siyuan, who had always been suspicious, to lead the guards to crusade.

Li Siyuan is the adopted son of Li Keyong, and also a hero with great military exploits in the Later Tang Dynasty.When the soldiers arrived at the city of Weizhou, Li Siyuan decided to attack the city the next day, but the army he led mutinied that night.The soldiers approached Li Siyuan's camp, Li Siyuan reprimanded the rebellious general, but the soldiers said: "The emperor has no sympathy for our soldiers. He heard that after the rebellion in Weizhou was put down, he wanted to kill us all. We didn't betray our hearts, but we just didn't want to. Death in vain. We have already discussed that we will join the army in the city, and after repelling the armies from all walks of life, we will support you and the emperor to divide the rule across the river and be our emperor." Under the coercion of the mutinous soldiers, Li Siyuan had no choice but to advance After entering Weizhou City, he was able to escape by summoning scattered soldiers from all walks of life under the pretext of going out of the city.After leaving Weizhou City, he gathered his troops and wanted to go back to the capital to express his heart to Li Cunxu, but his subordinates thought it was impossible to explain the truth: where there was a mutiny abroad, the leader of the army could have nothing to do with it, and advised him to act decisively.Li Siyuan had no choice but to march south.

Li Cunxu at this time can be said to have betrayed his relatives, but he never imagined that the one who killed him in the end was his favorite actress.Guo Congqian, the leader of the "Congmazhi" soldiers around him, was originally an actress, with the stage name Guo Mengao.He usually regarded Guo Chongtao as his uncle and Li Cunyi's adopted son. After both Guo Chongtao and Li Cunyi were wrongly killed by Li Cunxu, Guo Congqian hated the injustice and prepared to take revenge.Cong Mazhi was in Luoyang because of hunger and cold, and some wanted to mutiny and rebellion, and were suppressed for leaking secrets.When Li Cunxu was chatting with Guo Congqian, he asked him why he relied on Guo Chongtao and Li Cunyi, and why he instigated soldiers to rebel.Li Cunxu was used to joking with actors and officials, so he didn't mean to question him when he said these words.But Guo Congqian thought that Li Cunxu had noticed something, and he felt extremely uneasy, so he launched a mutiny, led the rebel soldiers to kill and hack, set fire to the Xingjiao gate, and took advantage of the fire to enter the palace, and the capital fell into chaos.Among the rebellious army, Li Cunxu was shot by a stray arrow and died soon after.All the people fled, except for a benevolent actor who picked up some discarded broken musical instruments and set them on fire to burn Li Cunxu's body. Li Cunxu, who favored the actor, ended up with such an end.

Later, Li Siyuan invaded Luoyang, sent people to find some scattered bones of Li Cunxu from the ashes, and buried them in Yongling.As a "supervisor of the country", he first took control of the political power. After learning that Wei Wang Li Jiji was killed in Sichuan, he accepted the persuasion of the ministers and succeeded him as emperor.At this time, it was only three short years since Li Cunxu established the Later Tang Dynasty and occupied the Central Plains.