Zhang Chengye heard that Li Cunmiao had the intention of becoming the emperor, and he didn't care about his physical illness, so he was carried to Weizhou, and met Li Cunmiao and said: "The king has been loyal to the Tang family for generations and has saved many troubles in the Tang Dynasty, so the old slave has collected wealth for the king for more than 30 years, recruited troops and horses, and swore to destroy the rebellious people to the death, so as to restore the temple of the Tang Dynasty."

Now that the north of the Yellow River has just stabilized, the Zhu family is still there, and the king is in a hurry to ascend the throne and become the emperor, which is very different from the meaning of your original struggle, so how can the hearts of the people in the world not be separated?

Why didn't the king destroy the Zhu family first, avenge the deep hatred of the first king, and then find the descendants of the Tang family to support the emperor, exterminate the Wu country to the south, seize the Shu country to the west, sweep the world, and become a family, at that time, even if Gaozu and Taizong come back to life, who dares to be above you? The longer the humility is kept, the stronger it gets.

The old slave had no other ideas, just because he accepted the great favor of the previous king and was willing to create the foundation for the great cause of ten thousand years for the king. ”

Zhang Chengye said this, it is false to establish a 10,000-year foundation for Li Cunqing, and it is true to delay time, deep in his heart he is actually loyal to the Tang Dynasty that has been destroyed by Zhu Wen, and he does not want Li Cunqiao to be the emperor, if Li Cunqiao really becomes the emperor, he will not be able to clear himself, and then others will think that he is working hard to assist Li Keyong and Li Cunqiao to be emperor.

Li Cunmiao said unhappily: "This is not my wish, but I am helpless against the opinions of the ministers." ”

Zhang Chengye knew that he couldn't stop it, and cried and said: "The princes fought bloodily, originally to restore the great cause of the Tang Dynasty, and now the king himself wants to obtain the throne, what a mistake for the old slave!" ”

Then he returned his fiefdom to Li Cunmiao, and returned to Jinyang like a lost soul, and soon became depressed and died. He was 77 years old.

Looking back on Zhang Chengye's life, he assisted Li Keyong, and when Li Keyong was seriously ill, he was ordered to assist the young master Li Cunqing, and then turned the tide and won by surprise. stopped the rebellion and kept Li Cunmiao's position,

Become the first hero of Hedong. Li Cunmiao was also very grateful to him, extremely respectful, called him "Seventh Brother", often visited his house, and welcomed his mother out to bow down.

Although Zhang Chengye was highly respected, he looked down on power and wealth, and some people proposed to give him an official rank and a knighthood. He rejected them all. He has always been grateful to Li Keyong for saving his life, so he did his best to assist Li Cunqing.

After Li Cunmiao obtained Wei Bo, he moved his base camp to Hebei and fought with the Liang army on both sides of the Yellow River for ten years.

During this period, Li Cunmiao handed over all military and political affairs in Taiyuan to Zhang Chengye.

Zhang Chengye was diligent and conscientious, did his best, recruited the displaced people to produce and farm, recruited troops and horses to support the front line, prepared grain and grass to enrich the army, and managed the rear in an orderly manner. So that Li Cunmiao can have no worries and concentrate on fighting.

In the end, he was able to destroy the Liang Dynasty by surprise. Zhang Chengye played an extremely important role. Therefore, it is said in the history books that "Cheng is a hegemon, and the loyalty of the industry is also." ”

Because Taiyuan is a gathering place for princes and ministers, it is inevitable that some people often put forward some unreasonable demands to him, but Zhang Chengye is selfless and refuses them all, and he not only dares to refuse the ministers. Even to the young master Li Cunmiao, he dared to say no. When Li Cunmiao came back to visit his mother, he needed money to reward his servants and gamble for fun, but Zhang Chengye was more picky and gave very little.

Li Cunmiao took the opportunity to set up a banquet in the treasury to entertain Zhang Chengye, and asked his son to dance for Zhang Chengye during the banquet. After the dance, Zhang Chengye took out his treasure belt, horse and money to Li Cunqiao's son.

Li Cunmiao was very unhappy and pointed to the pile of belongings and said, "Brother He (referring to his son) has no money to spend, so Brother Qi will give him this pile."

A BMW is not something of value. Zhang Chengye apologized and said: "Lang Jun sang and danced for me, and Chengye has already taken out his own money to repay it." And these are the things of the great kingdom's treasury, which are used to support the combat of the three armies, and they dare not use public property as personal gifts to give them away. ”

Li Cunmiao pulled down his face and blamed Zhang Chengye while he was drinking. Zhang Chengye-for-tat: "The minister was originally an envoy sent by the Tang Emperor, and he never sought wealth for his descendants, and saving money was all for the foundation of the king.

If the king wants to reward others himself, he will be of little importance to the old man, but when the wealth is exhausted, he will accomplish nothing. When Li Cunmiao heard this, he was furious, and turned back to his attendant and said, "Go get me the sword!" ”

Zhang Chengye grabbed the corner of Li Cunmiao's clothes, and said with tears: "The old slave was ordered by the former king to entrust Gu, and swore to serve the dynasty to kill the Liang thief, if I was beheaded today because of saving the treasury for the king, then I will die worthy of the first king, please kill me!" ”

Liang Chao descended Yan Bao to untie Zhang Chengye's hand and asked him to step back, Zhang Chengye scolded: "You were in the same stream with Zhu Wen at the beginning, and after you came over, you were not loyal to my king, but now you dare to flatter and flatter my king!" With that, he punched him.

The Queen Mother heard that Li Cunmiao had misbehaved after drinking, so she hurriedly sent someone to summon him. Li Cunmiao usually respects his mother very much, and when he heard that the Queen Mother wanted him to come over, he quickly kowtowed to Zhang Chengye and apologized: "I drank more wine today, which offended Brother Seven, the Queen Mother will definitely blame me, please Seventh Brother drink two cups, and plead for me to share some faults." ”

Li Cunmiao drank four cups in a row, and then persuaded Zhang Chengye to drink some too, but Zhang Chengye did not drink it.

After Li Cunmiao returned to the palace, the Queen Mother sent someone to tell Zhang Chengye: "Xiao'er offended Zhang Gong, I have already beaten him, you can go back." The next day, the Queen Mother led Li Cunmiao to his house to comfort him, and the matter was over here.

Zhang Chengye cherishes talents, and also has a strategy, the secretary Lu Zhen is a talent, but he is addicted to alcohol, and he often gets drunk and smashes the field, so forget it, he also shouted that Li Cunmiao's brothers are pigs and dogs, etc., Li Cunmiao is very annoyed,

You call my brother a pig and a dog, so what am I? Zhang Chengye was afraid that Lu Zhen would suffer losses in the future, so he found an opportunity to say to Li Cunmiao: "Lu Zhen is always unreasonable, and the minister asks the king to kill him, so as to save him from embarrassing everyone again" Li Cunmiao didn't expect this

Zhang Chengye's strategy, hurriedly said: "I am now recruiting talents and creating a hegemony, how can Seventh Brother say that?" Zhang Chengye saw that Li Cunqiao took the bait, so he said with a straight face: "Since the king said so, there will be no problem in winning the world." ”

Since then, Lu Zhi has been sometimes presumptuous. But Li Cunqiao can always tolerate him, and he has never used excuses to cause harm.

Soon, Li Cunmiao began to visit the old ministers of the Tang Dynasty, intending to prepare hundreds of officials in the imperial court. Su Xun, the former secretary of the Ministry of Rites, went to Weizhou, entered Yacheng, and bowed down when he saw the government. It's called the Worship Temple. Seeing Li Cunmiao, he shouted long live, dancing with his hands, crying and claiming to be his subordinate.

The next day, Su Xun gave Li Cunqiao another 30 large brushes, called "painting day brushes". Li Cunmiao was very happy, and immediately reinstated Su Xunguan and appointed him as the deputy envoy of Hedong Jiedu.

On April 25, Li Cunqiao ascended the altar and offered his prayers to heaven. Immediately ascended to the emperor's treasure, and the country name was Datang.

His mother, Mrs. Cao of the Jin Kingdom, was the empress dowager, and his father's wife, Mrs. Liu of the Qin State, was the imperial concubine. Posthumously honored his great-grandfather Li Zhiyi as Emperor Yizu Zhaolie, his grandfather Li Guochang as Emperor Xianzuwen, and his father Li Keyong as Emperor Taizuwu. Zong Temple was established in Jinyang, from Gaozu, Taizong, Yizong, Zhaozong to Yizu, a total of seven temples.

He also appointed Dou Luge as his subordinate servant, and Lu Cheng as the Zhongshu waiter. Guo Chongtao and Zhang Juhan were privy envoys, and Lu Zhen and Feng Dao were bachelors of Hanlin. Zhang Xian is the squire of the Ministry of Industry and the envoy of rent, and Li Dexiu is the middle of the imperial history. Then Weizhou was promoted to Xingtang Mansion, built Tokyo, and built Xijing in Taiyuan Mansion, and at the same time promoted Zhenzhou to Zhending Mansion and built the northern capital. Wang Zhengyan, the judge of Wei Bojiedu, was appointed as the secretary of the Ministry of Rites. He also serves as Xingtang Yin.

Taiyuan Mabu Du Yu waited for Meng Zhixiang as Taiyuan Yin, and served as the deputy of Xijing. The Luzhou Observation Judge Ren Yuan was the secretary of the Ministry of Industry, and Zhending Yin, who was the deputy of Beijing. The prince Li Jiqi was the envoy of the Northern Capital and the Xingsheng Palace, and sentenced the guards of the Sixth Army. At that time, the Tang State had a total of thirteen festivals and fifty states.

Next, the Tang Army triumphed all the way: April. Li Siyuan conquered Yunzhou; In June, Li Cunmiao led his army south and defeated the Liang army, and the Liang army retreated to Desheng; In September, Li Siyuan defeated Wang Yanzhang's troops; On October 2, the Tang army conquered Zhongdu and captured Wang Yanzhang; On October 3, Li Siyuan led his army to attack Liangdu Daliang at night, and Zhu Youzhen, the late emperor of Later Liang, committed suicide, and the Tang army captured Daliang, and Houliang perished. Soon Li Cunqiao moved the capital to Luoyang.

After more than ten years of fighting, Li Cunqiao finally basically fulfilled his father's will.

Here I also want to mention an old friend in front of me - Li Maozhen.

After Zhu Wen became emperor, Li Maozhen did not send troops to fight against Zhu Wen, nor did he claim the title of emperor, but closed the door and became the de facto emperor: opened the Qi Wangfu, set up a hundred officials, took his residence as a palace, and his wife was called the queen, and all kinds of honor guards were the same as the emperor.

However, because his strength was not as good as before, in the following ten years, Li Maozhen was repeatedly defeated by Hedong, Liang Dynasty and Qianshu. By the end of the Later Liang Dynasty, only seven states remained in his domain, and it became an independent pocket kingdom.

After Li Cunmiao destroyed the Liang Dynasty, Li Maozhen wrote a letter to Li Cunmiao in the name of his uncle, congratulating him on the capture of Kaifeng.

After Li Cunmiao set the capital of Luoyang, he was very uneasy, so he called his minister, let his son go to the court to see Li Cunmiao, and attached to the Later Tang Dynasty, Li Cunmiao because he was a veteran of the old dynasty, he respected him very much, and still let him hold the original position, and also renamed him the king of Qin.

When Li Maozhen was ill, Li Cunqiao sent someone to send him medicine and condolences, and soon after, Li Maozhen passed away at the age of 69, saying that he was loyal to the king.

Brilliant life

Guo Chongtao, a native of Dai County, Shanxi, originally served under Li Keyong's younger brother Li Kexiu, and after Li Kexiu's death, he returned to Li Keyong's side, and has been Li Keyong's close minister ever since.

Guo Chongtao is an honest official, capable of doing things, and alert, and after Li Cunqiao succeeded to the throne, Meng Zhixiang, the envoy of the Central Gate, strongly recommended him, saying that he was of great use and could manage more difficult things, so Li Cunqiao appointed him as the deputy envoy of the Central Gate, and participated in confidential affairs together with Meng Zhixiang and Li Shaohong.

Soon, Li Shaohong went to Youzhou to take up his post, before that, the Zhongmen envoy Wu Qi and Zhang Qianhou were both punished for not being able to get Li Cunxuan's favor, and after Li Shaohong went out of Youzhou, Meng Zhixiang was afraid of following in their footsteps, so he said that he was sick and resigned.

Li Cunqiao asked him to nominate someone to replace him, and Meng Zhixiang recommended Guo Chongtao, Guo Chongtao didn't think it was a fire pit, so he took office in a hurry.

Since then, Guo Chongtao has been in charge of state secrets, following Li Cunmiao's saddle and horse, fighting in the south and the north, diligently and without complaints.

In 922, Guo Chongtao accompanied Li Cunqiao to conquer Zhang Wenli of Zhenzhou, and the Khitan sent troops to attack under the pretext of rescuing Zhenzhou.

When they arrived in Xinle, the soldiers of the Jin army saw that the Khitan soldiers were pressing, they were very panicked, and they asked to return to Weizhou, Li Cunqiao was hesitating, Guo Chongtao said to him: "Abaoji led the troops south this time, not to save Zhenzhou. Rather, he came for the goods, and if the striker was defeated, he would definitely retreat.

What's more, we have just defeated the Liang army, which is threatening the north, and our morale is also strong, so we should take this opportunity to expel the Khitan. It's going to be a big win! Li Cunmiao listened to his advice, waved his army north to confront the Khitan army, and really won a big victory.

During the battle of Liang, Jin, Yang and Liu, Guo Chongtao was the secretary of the military department and the privy envoy.

At that time, Li Cunmiao was fighting with the Liang army on both sides of the Yellow River, and Weizhou had just been captured by the Liang army, and the situation was very unfavorable to the Jin army.

After Wang Yanzhang conquered the southern city of Desheng, he marched east along the Yellow River to take Yang Liucheng, which was held by Li Cunqiao.

At this time, all the generals were very pessimistic. I thought that the heavens were not in favor of the Tang Dynasty, and this battle to destroy Liang was going to be in vain. Guo Chongtao offered a plan to Li Cunqiao and said: "The enemy attacked Yang Liu in order to capture Yunzhou, if we don't break through and go south to rescue Li Siyuan, it will be difficult to predict the outcome of the battle."

Please allow the minister to lead his troops to the south bank and build another ferry to rescue Yunzhou.

But Wang Yanzhang will definitely come to stop him when he learns about it, so he asks His Majesty to recruit people who dare to die and challenge the Liang army every day. Pin down the enemy, if ten days without interference. Then the new city will be completed, and at that time, victory will be in sight. Li Cunqiao thought so, so he ordered Guo Chongtao to lead tens of thousands of troops to cross the river south at night.

Guo Chongtao came to command in person, day and night, to build fortifications. Six days later, the Liang army really came to attack, at that time because the city had just been built, it was not stable, and Wang Yanzhang supervised the fierce attack. Guo Chongtao took the lead, running in all directions, commanding resistance. At this time, Li Cunqiao led his army to support, and the Liang army retreated, and the siege of Yang and Liu finally ended with the victory of the Jin army.

Soon, Liang general Kang Yanxiao came to surrender, Guo Chongtao was very enthusiastic to invite him into his bedroom, of course, he did not have a foundation with Kang Yanxiao, but carefully inquired about the reality of the Liang army, Kang Yanxiao said: "The Liang army will send troops from all directions to attack us." ”

Li Cunxuan was very worried when he found out, and convened the generals to discuss countermeasures, and Xuanhui envoy Li Shaohong suggested making peace with the Liang army, abandoning Yunzhou in exchange for Weizhou captured by the Liang Dynasty, and then taking the Yellow River as the boundary, and then going south to destroy Liang when the time was ripe.

Li Cunmiao was very unhappy after hearing this, and after dropping the words "So I will die and have no place to be buried", he returned to the account alone and lay down, and then he called Guo Chongtao to ask for advice.

Guo Chongtao then explained his plan to destroy Liang to him and Pan, saying: "Your Majesty has not combed your hair, washed your face, or disarmed your armor for fifteen years, and your ambition is to wash away the deep hatred of the country. Now that you have rightfully become the emperor, the people north of the Yellow River look forward to peace in the world every day, and we are just now

If you get this very small place in Yunzhou, you can't hold on to it and have to give it up, so how can you occupy all the land of the Central Plains?

What I am worried about is that the soldiers will be discouraged, and in the future, when the food is eaten and everyone will scatter, even if the river is drawn as a boundary, who will hold the position for His Majesty?

I asked Kang Yanxiao in detail about the situation south of the Yellow River, speculated about myself, estimated the enemy, thought about it day and night, and thought that the chance of success or failure was this year.

The Liang State now handed over all the elite to Duan Ning, occupied our southern side, and broke the river embankment to protect themselves, believing that we could not cross the Yellow River immediately, so they no longer defended it. He also sent Wang Yanzhang to approach Yunzhou, hoping that there would be traitors to cause chaos within us.

Duan Ning is not a general, he can't make decisions on the spot, there is nothing to fear.

The people who surrendered said that Daliang had no army, and if His Majesty could leave part of his troops to defend Weizhou, defend Yang Liu, and personally lead the elite to rendezvous with Yunzhou and then go straight to Bianliang, their city would be empty, and they would definitely collapse by looking at the wind. If the puppet lord surrenders or is killed, then their generals will naturally surrender as well.

Otherwise, the grain harvest will fail this autumn and the military rations will be exhausted. If Your Majesty does not make up his mind, how can the great work be accomplished? As the saying goes: 'When you build a room, you won't succeed in three years.' ’

The emperor conforms to the fortune of heaven, and there will definitely be a mandate of heaven, and the key is that His Majesty can no longer hesitate. Li Cunqiao said: "These are exactly what I think.

If the husband succeeds, he will be king, and if he fails, he will be captured, and I have decided to act. Then Li Cunmiao ordered all the generals' families to be sent back to Weizhou, and he sent the queen and his son away. Then he led the troops to cross the river from Yang Liu, triumphed all the way, captured Wang Yanzhang alive, captured Bianzhou, destroyed Houliang, and forced Duan Ning to surrender, so he unified the north and became the lord of the world.

Guo Chongtao's strategy of destroying Liang was a complete success in less than ten days. (To be continued......)