Chapter 36 Dreams are strong, reality is weak

Originally, in the mind of Emperor Dezong Li Shi, Li Xilie, the governor of Huaining, was definitely a talent that could be created.He believed that in time, Li Xilie could grow into an imperial hero like Guo Ziyi. When Li Xilie volunteered to attack Liang Chongyi, Dezong was not to mention how happy he was. He praised Li Xilie many times in front of the civil and military officials of the Manchu Dynasty, saying that he worried about the world and was commendable for his loyalty and bravery.However, upon hearing such compliments, several ministers disagreed, such as Prime Minister Yang Yan, and Li Cheng, the envoy of the central government responsible for inspecting local officials.

At that time, Li Cheng just came back from Huaining inspection, and he had already noticed Li Xiyeol's ambition.He worriedly said to Emperor Dezong: "Li Xilie will definitely make achievements in this battle, but the problem is that after that, he is likely to take credit for himself and disobey the central government. At that time, the imperial court may launch a second crusade against him." Dezong didn't listen at all at the time, but now, he finally understands——Li Xilie's so-called loyalty is only because he doesn't have enough bargaining chips for betrayal; once he has enough strength, he will definitely become a confidant of the court!

On September 9 of the same year, two days after Li Xilie was appointed as Tongping Zhangshi, Emperor Dezong appointed Li Cheng as the governor of Shannan Dongdao, and asked him to rush to Xiangyang to take over the territory left by Liang Chongyi. Before Li Cheng left, Dezong proposed to let the Imperial Army escort him, but Li Cheng politely declined. In his opinion, Li Xilie had just occupied the Shannan East Road, and his foothold was not stable. He would not dare to turn against the court. If he went with the forbidden army, it would definitely arouse Li Xilie's suspicion and panic, and even force him to take risks.

Therefore, Li Cheng decided to go to the post alone.He knew that Li Xilie would definitely regard him as a thorn in his side, but he believed that under the current situation, Li Xilie still dare not do anything to him. As Li Cheng expected, when he arrived in Xiangyang with the appointment letter from the imperial court, although Li Xilie hated him so much, he didn't dare to do it lightly. He just put him under house arrest in a hotel, threatened and intimidated him in every possible way, in an attempt to put him to death. Go back to Chang'an in fear.But Li Cheng knew that Li Xiyeol was just bluffing, so he remained unmoved.

In the end, Li Xilie really had nothing to do with the new Jiedu Envoy, so he had to plunder all over Xiangyang before leading his troops away angrily. Although Li Xiyeol's army withdrew, he left a general in Xiangyang. In name, he said that he was staying with the army supplies, but in fact he put a nail in Xiangyang.After Li Cheng took over the Xiangyang Military Mansion, it took almost a year to get the military and political affairs back on track.At the same time, Li Cheng also sent his confidantes to Xuzhou and Caizhou several times, secretly bought several of Li Xilie's cronies, and prepared to look for opportunities to kill Li Xilie.

So far, the relationship between Dezong's court and Li Xiyeol has reached a dangerous edge. Although on the surface they are peaceful and peaceful, behind the scenes they are full of tension and turbulent undercurrents. From the winter of the second year of Jianzhong, the Tang Dynasty government army and the rebel feudal clans launched the second stage of contest.To Emperor Dezong's great relief, the officers and soldiers had won successive victories on the battlefield. First, at the beginning of November of this year, Shuofang general Tang Chaochen and others defeated Ziqing and Wei Bo's armies in Xuzhou, and opened up the Jianghuai transportation line that had been blocked for half a year in one fell swoop.Immediately afterwards, in the first month of the third year of Jianzhong (AD 782), Ma Sui and other troops defeated Tian Yue's Wei Bo army in Huanshui, killing more than 20,000 enemies and capturing more than 3,000 people.

Tian Yue fled back to his hometown Weizhou overnight with more than a thousand remnants, but Li Changchun, the general guarding the city, shut the door behind him. Obviously, Li Changchun wanted to surrender the city after the officers and soldiers came to kill him.But until the next morning, Li Changchun still did not wait for the officers and soldiers, so he had to open the city gate.Tian Yue froze outside the city all night and became furious. As soon as he entered the city, he killed Li Changchun, and then ordered all the troops to go to the city to guard. However, there were only a few thousand soldiers left in Weizhou City at this time, and their morale was extremely low.Especially the families of those who died in battle were crying and wailing all over the streets, making the whole city of Weizhou panic.

Tian Yue was greatly worried. This was the most serious crisis of trust he had encountered since he succeeded Jiedushi.He realized that if he couldn't appease people's hearts and revive morale as soon as possible, the soldiers might have chopped off his head and offered it to the court before the officers and soldiers came to attack. At this critical moment of internal and external troubles, it is the best test of a leader's ability to control people's hearts.If you handle it well, you still have a chance to start all over again; if you don't handle it well, your wealth and life may end at any time!

So, can Tian Yue survive this crisis of confidence? As Tian Chengsi's nephew, Tian Yue was able to compare all of Tian Chengsi's sons, and was selected as Tian Chengsi's successor. Of course, there are some advantages. On the day he fled back to Weizhou, Tian Yue called the soldiers and civilians to lecture at the gate of Jiedushi's mansion.He rode on a horse, raised his saber high above his head, and said with tears: "Tian Yue is not a weapon. He was recommended by two uncles (Li Zhengji and Li Baochen) of Ziqing and Chengde to inherit his uncle's career. Now , the two uncles have passed away, but their sons (Li Na and Li Weiyue) cannot inherit their father's business. I dare not forget the great kindness of the two uncles, and I am determined to recommend their sons, so I overestimate my strength and resist the court. It's my own fault that I've come to this point today, and I've hurt my parents and villagers. There is an old mother in Tianyue who can't commit suicide. I just hope that you can use the knife in my hand to cut off my head. Open the gates of the city and dedicate it to the officers and soldiers, get rich and honor yourself, don't fall into death with Tian Yue!"

Before the words fell, Tian Yue made a look of grief and fell off the horse. The soldiers turned pale with fright and rushed up to hug him in a hurry. Jiedushi's words were really impassioned and touching!The soldiers and civilians were greatly moved, and expressed their opinions on the spot: "Your Excellency, you raise your troops out of justice, not for your own selfishness. Victory or defeat is a common matter in military affairs. I have received Tian's kindness for many generations, how can I bear to hear these words! My lord, fight to the death, if you can't win, it won't be too late to die with you!"

With tears streaming down her face, Tian Yue said excitedly: "Everyone will not abandon me because of defeat. Even if Tian Yue is under the Nine Springs, he will not dare to forget the deep kindness of all brothers!" This tragic card was played so beautifully that everyone present was moved to tears. Tian Yue quickly wiped away the tears from her face, then swung a knife to cut off her hair, and became brothers of life and death with all the generals.Immediately afterwards, Tian Yue opened the treasury again, took out all the more than one million yuan that had been accumulated for many years, and distributed it to all the soldiers. After this double baptism of feelings and money, all the soldiers were full of energy and courage, and each of them vowed to live and die with Jiedushi, and to live and die with Weizhou City! Under the attack of tear bullets and silver bullets, Tian Yue successfully captured the hearts of all soldiers.As a result, Wei Bo "the hearts of the people began to settle" and "the army regained strength". (Volume 227) A few days later, Ma Sui and other ministries besieged Weizhou and attacked day and night. However, the rebels' will to resist was much stronger than he expected, so they were still unable to conquer. In the middle of the first month of the third year of Jianzhong, the imperial army won a series of victories on the battlefield. First, Wei Bo’s general Li Zaichun surrendered in Bozhou (now Liaocheng City, Shandong Province), and Tian Ang, Tian Yue’s cousin, surrendered in Mingzhou (now southeast of Yongnian County, Hebei Province); then, Zhu Tao and Zhang Xiaozhong defeated Li Weiyue in Shulu (now Xinji City, Hebei Province) , and then conquered Shenzhou (now Shenzhou City, Hebei).At the end of the first lunar month, General Kang Rizhi of Chengde returned to Zhaozhou (now Zhao County, Hebei).At the end of the first lunar month, Cheng Dexiao's general Wang Wujun launched another mutiny, beheaded Li Weiyue, and then beheaded him to surrender to the officers and soldiers. Li Weiyue's head was passed to Chang'an, and Dezong and the officials were greatly excited. At the beginning of February, General Yang Zhengyi of Chengde returned to Dingzhou (now Dingzhou City, Hebei). At this point, the north of the Yellow River was largely pacified, leaving only Tian Yue trapped in the isolated city of Weizhou; while the army south of the Yellow River stormed Li Na in Puzhou (now Juancheng County, Shandong).Li Na was at a loss and was basically defeated. Faced with such a good situation, Dezong's court was immediately full of optimism. From the emperor to the officials, everyone believed that the world would be peaceful from now on. However, no one expected that just when Dezong's court was only half a step away from the final victory, the situation suddenly took a turn for the worse, dragging the empire into a larger-scale war again... After most of the jurisdictions of the rebellious vassals were recovered by the army, the imperial court began to divide the territory. For a while, the towns in Hebei were really busy dividing the land. The imperial court divided Chengde into three: Yi, Ding, and Cang were given to Zhang Xiaozhong, and he was appointed as the Jiedu envoy; Heng and Ji were given to Wang Wujun, and he was appointed as the capital training envoy; Rizhi is also a training envoy for the capital.In addition, Dezhou (now Shandong Ling County) and Dizhou (now Huimin County, Shandong) in Ziqing were given to Zhu Tao.The rest of the territory was taken by the court itself. Emperor Dezong was very satisfied with this arrangement - he not only rewarded the meritorious ministers, but also split the old Chengde into three petals, achieving the purpose of making the surrendered generals check and balance each other. Qingdabu and Shannan Dongdao all, such an arrangement is really happy for everyone! But Li Shi was wrong. This arrangement made some people very unhappy. For example, Wang Wujun was full of anger.He thought: since he personally slaughtered Li Weiyue, his contribution is definitely higher than that of Zhang Xiaozhong. Why Zhang Xiaozhong was assigned to three states and served as a military envoy while he was assigned to two states and only Sealed a small "dutuan training envoy", isn't this obviously contemptuous of others?Not only that, but the emperor also issued an edict with ulterior motives, asking him to send three thousand shi of grain to Zhu Tao and five hundred horses to Ma Sui... The more Wang Wujun thought about it, the more angry he became: what does this mean?Isn't this weakening my Wang Wujun's strength?Do you, Li Shi, want to use my hand to clean up Wei Bo's Tian Yue first, and then come to destroy me? In view of this, Wang Wujun refused to obey the edict. Like Wang Wujun, Zhu Tao, the governor of Youzhou, was also extremely upset.He thought that after taking down the rich Shenzhou, he would be able to take it as his own, but he didn't expect that the court would assign it to Kang Rizhi.Zhu Tao repeatedly asked for Shenzhou, but the court refused to agree, so Zhu Tao simply stayed in Shenzhou, saying nothing to give Kang Rizhi any land. At this moment, the scene of the uneven distribution of spoils among the feudal clans was clearly seen by someone. He is Tian Yue who is on the verge of extinction and is trapped in Weizhou City. Tian Yue seemed to have seen a life-saving straw, and immediately sent someone to Shenzhou to lobby Zhu Tao, saying: "It is actually your credit to flatten Li Weiyue. At the beginning, the emperor promised that once Li Weiyue's city was brought down, it would belong to you." , Now it seems that it is purely a lie. The reason for this is that today's son is aiming to cut down the vassal, and intends to replace the generals with civil servants. In this case, if Wei Bo continues to exist, you Youzhou can sit back and relax; Now, you are in danger. If you rescue Wei Bo now, it is tantamount to saving the welfare of your own descendants!" Zhu Tao felt that Tian Yue's thoughts coincided with his own - if the imperial court wiped out all the towns in Hebei, they would not leave Youzhou Town alone in the end.Afterwards, Zhu Tao immediately contacted Wang Wujun, and the two hit it off, and decided to join forces in the three towns (Youzhou, Hengji, and Weibo) to confront the imperial court again. Kang Rizhi, who had just been appointed by the imperial court as the training envoy of the Shenzhao Dutuan, woke up and found himself surrounded by wolves, and immediately sent a distress signal to the imperial court.Emperor Dezong hastily issued an edict and gave Zhu Tao the title of Tongyi County King, trying to appease him. However, what Zhu Tao wanted at this moment was the real thing, not a false title.He tore up the emperor's edict to pieces, and immediately joined forces with Wang Wujun to surround Kang Rizhi in Zhaozhou with some troops, and then the two of them personally led the main force to rescue Tian Yue in Weizhou. The situation suddenly reversed. The previous counter-insurgency forces have now become rebel forces, and the Ma Sui Corps stationed in Hebei suddenly fell into a situation of isolation and helplessness.Dezong urgently recruited Li Huaiguang, Shuofang Jiedu envoy, and ordered him to lead the Shuofang Army and the Shence Army with a total of 15,000 cavalry to the front to support Ma Sui. At the end of June in the third year of Jianzhong, a dramatic scene occurred under the city of Weizhou—reinforcements from both sides entered the battlefield on the same day. Tian Yue immediately slaughtered cattle and sheep to reward Zhu and Wang Yuanjun; Ma Sui, not to be outdone, also put on a grand military appearance to welcome Li Huaiguang's troops. Everyone is very clear that the next battle will determine the fate of the towns in Hebei. Li Huaiguang was eager to win, and planned to launch an attack while the rebels were not gaining a firm foothold.Ma Sui dissuaded him, but Li Huaiguang refused to listen, and led his troops to attack Zhu Tao to the west of Cozy Mountain (north of today's Daming County, Hebei). Zhu Tao was caught off guard, more than a thousand people were killed, and he retreated.Li Huaiguang reined in his horse and walked up a high slope, looking at the fleeing enemy army with a look of complacency on his face.Seeing that the commander had no order to pursue them, the soldiers rushed into Zhu Tao's abandoned camp, frantically fighting for the spoils. Li Huaiguang didn't expect that just when he thought he had won the first battle, Wang Wujun led two thousand fine cavalry to charge forward and cut off his troops at once; Zhu Tao followed closely and launched a fierce attack on him. counterattack. The officers and soldiers who were snatching the spoils were unprepared, collapsed immediately, trampled and squeezed each other as they fled, and countless people drowned in the Yongji Canal.The situation on the battlefield suddenly reversed, and it was too late for Ma Sui to send troops to rescue, so he had to stick to the camp. That night, Zhu Tao sent troops to cut off the official army food road.Ma Sui and others were terrified, and hurriedly withdrew their camp to the west, and at the beginning of July they withdrew to Wei County (now southwest of Daming County, Hebei). The Battle of Cozy Mountain was defeated, Weizhou was besieged, and Zhu Tao sent generals to rescue Li Na who was trapped in Puzhou. For a while, the four towns united, and the rebel forces revived. When the report of defeat spread to Chang'an, Dezong Li Shi stood there for a long time, speechless for a while. In November of the third year of Jianzhong, all the rebellious vassals became kings overnight: Zhu Tao called himself the king of Ji, Tian Yue called himself the king of Wei, Wang Wujun called himself the king of Zhao, and Li Na called himself the king of Qi. The Tang Empire seemed to have entered the Warring States Period overnight. All the vassals set up altars to worship the heavens, and they all recommended Zhu Tao as the leader of the alliance.Zhu Tao called himself "Gu", Tian Yue, Wang Wujun, and Li Na called themselves "widows"; the hall where they lived was renamed "Dian", their official government documents were renamed "Ling", and all the letters written by their subordinates were called "Jian"; Their wives are called "Concubine", and their eldest son is called "Shizi"; they take the states they rule as their prefectures, and set up left-behind and marshals; Shuling and Shizhong; the settings of other officials at all levels are all modeled after the central government, but the names are slightly different. In December of the third year of Jianzhong, even more maddening news came one after another - under the persuasion of the Hebei vassals, Li Xilie, the governor of Huaining, established himself as the marshal, Taiwei, and King Jianxing of the capital of the world. The ambition to be emperor. When the news came, Li Shi suddenly felt dizzy. It's messed up, everything's messed up!Why did the imperial court spend so much effort to pacify the feudal clan, but in the end it turned out to be driving tigers at the front door and wolves at the back door?Why is my dream so strong, but the reality I encounter is so weak? What to do next? Li Shi was at a loss...