Chapter 65 Chapter 64 Emperor Zhaowen Li Shou

Li Shou is the cousin of Li Xiong, the king of Cheng.Because of his cleverness, eagerness to learn, and sudden generosity, he was highly regarded by Li Xiong, and he was named a general and king of Jianning successively.Li Shou was also loyal and dedicated, and made many contributions to the establishment of the foundation of the country, so he was called "Xian Xiang".After Li Qi became emperor, Li Shou was renamed King of Han.Li Qi's cousin Li Shi wanted to join forces with Li Shou to attack Li Qi, but Li Shou was too timid to agree.Li Shi became furious, ran to Li Qi, framed Li Shou, and asked to kill Li Shou.Since Li Qi also wanted to use Li Shou's army to attack Li Ban's younger brother Li Yu who had surrendered to the Eastern Jin Dynasty, he ignored Li Shi.

Although Li Qi did not use Li Shi's hand to kill Li Shou, he was very suspicious of Li Shou's reputation.Fearing that he would be killed, Li Shou often made a pilgrimage to Li Qi on the pretext that the border situation was too tense for Chengdu, and secretly planned to attack Chengdu with the chief ministers Luo Heng and Xie Siming.In April of the third year of Yuheng (338 A.D.), Li Shou led 10,000 soldiers to attack Chengdu.Li Shi, Li Shou's son, was a lieutenant in the Yi Army in Chengdu at that time. Seeing Li Shou's arrival, he opened the city gate to let Li Shou enter the city.Li Shou set up camp at the gate of the palace and ordered his soldiers to loot wantonly in the city.A few days later, Li Shou deposed Li Qi as Duke of Qiongdu County.

Abolishing Li Qi clearly meant that Li Shou would take over the throne.However, is it appropriate to be called king or emperor?The ministers were divided.Luo Heng and Xie Sishun persuaded Li Shou to become the king of Chengdu and a minister to the Eastern Jin Dynasty; Ren Tiao and Cai Xing urged Li Shou to become emperor.Li Shou was hesitant, so he asked the wizard to do a divination to decide which one to choose.The wizard said solemnly: "You can be the emperor for a few years." Li Shou was very happy when he heard that, he took the throne, changed the name of the country to Han, and changed the Yuan to Han Xing.Li Shou first replaced all the central and state officials with his cronies, and then killed all of Li Xiong's sons.

After Li Shou proclaimed himself emperor, he was able to inherit Li Xiong's political style at the beginning, being lenient and frugal. After a few years, he started to act recklessly. In order to satisfy his extravagant desires, the people were exhausted and complained.The left and right servants shot Cai Xing and Li Yi frankly told Li Shou that this was a waste of money and people, but Li Shou not only refused to listen, but killed them.In the sixth year of Hanxing (343 A.D.), Li Shou died of illness at the age of 44. He was buried in Anchang Mausoleum with the posthumous title of "Emperor Zhaowen" and the temple name of "Zhongzong".