Meng Zhixiang

Meng Zhixiang

Meng Zhixiang (874-934), the founder of the late Shu Dynasty, was named Baoyin, Longgang County, Xingzhou (now Xingtai, Hebei). He was the founding emperor of the late Shu Dynasty in the period of Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms.

Li Keyong, king of Jin Dynasty, appreciated him for his marriage. Li Cunxu was the successor of Zhongmen envoy, marquis Yu of mabujun, and left behind in Beijing. After the fall of the former Shu, he became the governor of Xichuan.

In the later period of the reign of emperor mingzong of Tang Dynasty, Meng Zhixiang gradually became self-supporting and rebellious. In the fourth year of Changxing (933), he led the army to annex Dongchuan and occupy the land of the two rivers. He defeated the imperial expeditionary troops, worshipped Chengdu Yin and conferred the title of king of Shu. In the first month of the first year of Yingshun (934), he was officially called emperor, established houshu, and changed the morality of the Yuan Dynasty and Ming Dynasty. He died in the same year. He was sixty-one years old. His temple was named Gaozu, and his posthumous title was Emperor Wenwu Shengde Yinglie Mingxiao. He was buried in Heling.

Life of the characters

Early experience

When he was young, Meng Zhixiang was appreciated by Li Keyong, the king of Jin Dynasty, and was appointed coach Zuo. He married Princess Qionghua, the daughter of Li Kerang, and became Li Keyong's niece (or son-in-law).

In 908, Li Keyong died of illness. His eldest son, Li Cunxu, was the king of Jin, and Meng Zhixiang was appointed as the envoy of Zhongmen. Before that, many Zhongmen envoys were killed for offending. Meng Zhixiang asked to change his post. Li Cunxu changed Meng Zhixiang to Marquis Yu, the capital of Mabu army, and asked him to recommend a successor. Meng Zhixiang recommended Guo Chongtao, so he got Guo Chongtao's gratitude.

In the first year of Tongguang in the later Tang Dynasty (923), Li Cunxu became emperor and established the latter Tang Dynasty as Zhuangzong. After the demise of Liang Dynasty, the capital was set in Luoyang, and Taiyuan was upgraded to Beijing. Meng Zhixiang was appointed as the left behind and Taiyuan Yin of Beijing.

The governor of Xichuan

In the third year of Tongguang (925), Emperor Zhuang Zong of the Tang Dynasty appointed Guo Chongtao as the envoy to fight against the former Shu together with the Wei King Li Jiji. Before he left, Guo Chongtao recommended Meng Zhixiang to Zhuangzong of the later Tang Dynasty as the best person to guard Xichuan after he pacified Sichuan. Soon after the collapse of the former Shu Dynasty, Zhuang Zong appointed Meng Zhixiang as the governor of Chengdu Yin and Jiannan Xichuan.

After receiving the appointment, Meng Zhixiang went to Luoyang to resign. Li Cunxu held a banquet and had a good talk with Meng Zhixiang. He said to Meng Zhixiang, "I heard that Guo Chongtao has a different heart. When you get to Chengdu, kill him for me." However, Meng Zhixiang said, "Guo Chongtao is a meritorious Minister of the country and should not be killed. When I get to Chengdu, I'll observe it. If he doesn't have a different heart, I'll send it back. "

In 926, Meng Zhixiang arrived in Chengdu, while Guo Chongtao had been wrongly killed. Soon, Li Jiji returned to Luoyang. Kang Yanxiao, a pioneer, rebelled on the way and conquered Hanzhou (now Guanghan, Sichuan). Meng Zhixiang immediately sent General Li renhan to join forces of Ren Huan and Dong Zhang to suppress Kang Yanxiao, capture and kill him, and take over and demote Li Zhao, Hou Hongshi and others.

In April of the same year, Tang Zhuangzong was killed in the change of xingjiaomen, and Li Jiji was also killed in Weinan. Li Keyong's adopted son, Li Siyuan, was adopted as emperor of the Ming Dynasty. Meng Zhixiang gradually came up with the idea of being king according to Shu. He trained soldiers, expanded his forces, added Yisheng, Dingyuan, Xiaorui, Yining, feifen and other troops, and was led by Li renhan, Zhao Tingyin, Zhang Ye and other close friends.

Refuse to obey orders

Before that, Li Jiji and Meng Zhixiang had collected 6 million yuan as military reward, but only 4 million yuan was spent, leaving 2 million yuan. Ren Huan, the prime minister, was in Xichuan at that time, which is very clear. In June of the first year of Tiancheng (926), Meng Zhixiang paid homage to Shizhong. Ren Huan then took Zhao Jiliang, the eunuch, as the envoy of the three rivers, and made taxes for the two rivers. At the same time, he urged Meng Zhixiang to hand over the remaining two million yuan as military reward. Meng Zhixiang was very angry and refused to obey the imperial edict. Zhao Jiliang and Meng Zhixiang had always been friends and were detained in Chengdu.

An chongjiao, the Privy envoy, was aware of Meng Zhixiang's separatist intention. Regardless of Tang and Ming Zong's practice of "banning all the ways to supervise the army", he appointed Li Yan, the envoy of Hakka Province, to supervise the army in Xichuan, intending to strengthen the control over Xichuan. Li Yan had been an envoy to the former Shu before, and after returning to the dynasty, he offered the strategy of destroying Shu, which was deeply hated by the people in Shu. Meng Zhixiang was very angry, and said: "all the vassal towns have abolished the garrison, but the garrison is still set up in Xichuan. This is Li Yan's contribution to establishing and destroying Shu again." So he led a large army to the border to meet Li Yan, hoping to scare him away and make him dare not enter Sichuan. However, Li Yan always had an air of self-confidence.

In the first month of the second year of Tiancheng (927), Li Yan arrived in Chengdu and Meng Zhixiang hosted a banquet. Li Yan showed an imperial edict at the banquet, asking Meng Zhixiang to kill Jiao Yanbin, the former supervisor who was still in Shu. Meng Zhixiang didn't listen and said to Li Yan, "now all the vassal towns have abolished the military supervision. Why do you come here?" He ordered his guest to take Wang Yanzhu down and kill Li Yan immediately. When Tang mingzong learned that he was unable to investigate the matter, he sent Li renju, the envoy of Hakka Province, to send Meng Zhixiang's family members detained in Fengxiang to Chengdu to show his kindness. In April, Meng Zhixiang invited the imperial court to take Zhao Jiliang as the Deputy envoy of Xichuan to participate in the decision-making of government affairs.

In the third year of Tiancheng (928), Emperor mingzong of the later Tang Dynasty changed Zhao Jiliang to regiment training envoy of Guozhou (now Nanchong, Sichuan), and he Zan took over as deputy envoy of Xichuan Festival. Meng Zhixiang, on the other hand, secretly made the book. He asked Zhao Jiliang to stay in office. After being rejected, he sent Lei Tinglu to Luoyang to discuss it again. Tang mingzong finally had to agree. Later, Emperor mingzong of Tang ordered Meng Zhixiang to send troops to the Three Gorges to cooperate with the officers and soldiers to attack Jingnan Jiedu envoy Gao Jixing. Meng Zhixiang ordered Mao Chongwei to garrison Kuizhou (now Fengjie, Chongqing) with 3000 troops. Soon after, Gao Jixing died of illness, and his son Gao became a minister to the later Tang Dynasty. Meng Zhixiang called for the withdrawal of the Kuizhou garrison, which was not approved. Under the instigation of Meng Zhixiang, Mao Chongwei encouraged the soldiers to mutiny and broke up by himself.

In the fourth year of Tiancheng (929), Emperor mingzong of the Tang Dynasty wanted to worship heaven in the southern suburbs, so he sent Li renju to Xichuan to ask Meng Zhixiang for one million yuan. Meng Zhixiang thought that this was because the imperial court wanted to drag itself down economically and refused to pay. Later, because he could not refuse, he had to pay 500000 yuan.

Raise troops to revolt

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< sub > the battle of attacking Liangchuan in the late Tang Dynasty

Before that, an chongjiao suspected that Meng Zhixiang was rebellious, and ordered his trusted generals to guard the states under the rule of Liangchuan and serve as their army. In the fourth year of Tiancheng (929), an chongjiao took Xia Luqi as the governor of Wuxin army, Li renju as the governor of Baoning army, and Wu Qianyu as the governor of mianzhou. Wu Qianyu is an chongjiao's cousin, while Li renjusu is not at peace with Dongchuan Jiedu envoy Dong Zhang. Both Meng Zhixiang and Dong Zhang were worried and thought that the imperial court was going to attack Liangchuan. Dong Zhang sent an envoy to propose marriage, hoping to form an alliance with Meng Zhixiang. Meng Zhixiang listened to Zhao Jiliang's opinions and married Dong Zhang to form an alliance against the imperial court. At the same time, they asked the court to withdraw Xia Luqi, Li renju and others. Emperor Ming of Tang Dynasty issued an imperial edict to comfort them.

In February of the first year of Changxing (930), Emperor mingzong of the later Tang Dynasty paid homage to Meng Zhixiang as the order of Zhongshu. In September, Dong Zhang fought against the Tang Dynasty, conquered Langzhou (now Langzhong, Sichuan), and captured and killed Li renju. Meng Zhixiang soon responded. Emperor mingzong of Tang Dynasty issued an imperial edict to deprive Meng Zhixiang of his official rank, and ordered Shi Jingtang, the Jiedu envoy of Tianxiong army, to lead his army to fight against Xichuan, with Xia Luqi as his deputy general. Meng Zhixiang sent Li renhan, Zhang Ye, Zhao Tingyin and others to join Dong Zhang to attack Suizhou (now Suining, Sichuan), and Hou Hongshi to help defend Dongchuan. Then he ordered Zhang Wu to attack Yuzhou (now Chongqing) by sending troops to the Three Gorges.

In November of the same year, Dong Zhang sent an envoy to Xichuan for help because the Jianmen gate was lost. Meng Zhixiang sent Zhao Tingyin to help. However, after the Tang army broke through Jianmen, it stopped in Jianzhou (now Jiange in Sichuan). Meng Zhixiang was overjoyed at the news: "if the Tang army rushes to Dongchuan, it will certainly be able to solve the siege of Suizhou. By then, the situation of the two rivers will be critical. Now it's not a worry to stop marching. " In December, Shi Jingtang fought with Zhao Tingyin in Jianmen and returned after a defeat. Before long, Zhang Wu and Yuan Yanchao seized Yuzhou and Qianzhou one after another.

In the first month of the second year of Changxing (931), Li renhan conquered Suizhou and Xia Luqi committed suicide. Meng Zhixiang appointed Li renhan to stay in Wuxin army, and let people hold xialuqi's head in front of the army. Shi Jingtang withdrew and returned. Li Yanke, governor of Lizhou, and an chongruan, governor of Kuizhou, abandoned the city and fled. At that time, the logistics supply of the Tang army also had problems. Emperor mingzong of the later Tang Dynasty was responsible for this. Soon, an chongjiao was killed for alienating Meng Zhixiang, Dong Zhang and others. In the later Tang Dynasty, Emperor mingzong sent Xichuan to play official Su Yuan and Du shaoben back to Xichuan to appease Meng Zhixiang, saying that all his family members who stayed in Luoyang were safe and sound.

Annexation of Dongchuan

When Meng Zhixiang learned that his family was well and that an chongjiao had been killed, he wanted to invite Dong Zhang to apologize to the court. But Dong Zhang disagreed and said, "the family of Meng Gong is safe and sound, but my descendants were killed. Why should I apologize?" Meng Zhixiang sent envoys to persuade him three times, but he refused, so he asked Li Hao, the judge of observation, to go to tell him the truth. Dong Zhang thought that Meng Zhixiang betrayed himself and insulted Li Hao in his anger. Li Hao advised Meng Zhixiang to attack Dong Zhang.

At this time, Dong Zhang had already taken the lead in attacking Meng Zhixiang and conquering Hanzhou. Meng Zhixiang led Zhao Tingyin and others to fight against Dong Zhang at jiqiqiao, and ordered Dongchuan to surrender Dong Zhang. Dong Zhang said: "things have come to this point. We can't regret it." He waved his troops to fight under the clamor of the soldiers. As a result, just after the two armies were at war, general Zhang Shoujin surrendered to the Xichuan army. Meng Zhixiang took the opportunity to defeat Dong Zhang.

After Dong Zhang was defeated, he wanted his son Dong Guangsi to surrender to Meng Zhixiang in order to save his family. Dong Guangsi cried: "since ancient times, no one has killed his father to survive. I would rather die with you." Father and son fled together. Meng Zhixiang ordered Zhao Tingyin to pursue him, but he didn't catch up. Soon after, Dong Zhang fled to Zizhou (now Santai, Sichuan), but was killed in the mutiny, and Dong Guangsi hanged himself. Meng Zhixiang then annexed Dongchuan and occupied the land of the two rivers, but he did not plead with the court again.

Chinese PinYin : Meng Zhi Xiang