Background
Li Huaiyu was born in 733, during the reign of Emperor Xuanzong of Tang. He was of Goguryeo extraction and was born in Tang's Pinglu Circuit . As of 758, he served in the military at Pinglu Circuit's capital prefecture, Ying Prefecture , along with his cousin Hou Xiyi . In 758, when the military governor Wang Xuanzhi died in the midst of the Anshi Rebellion, Emperor Xuanzong's son and successor sent an emissary to Pinglu, preparing to find a successor to Wang in the Pinglu army. However, Li Huaiyu believed that Wang's son would be made military governor and did not want that to happen, so he killed Wang's son and supported Hou to succeed Wang. In response, Emperor Suzong initially made Hou deputy military governor and then eventually military governor.
Service under Hou Xiyi
By 762, however, Pinglu, which was cut off from Tang territory by the rebel state and facing repeated attacks from Khitan and Xi tribes, was in a desperate situation. Hou Xiyi thus took the Pinglu army and attacked the Yan general Li Huaixian at Fanyang , and then, after battling with Li Huaixian, took his army south to the Shandong Peninsula, subsequently assisting other Tang generals Tian Shen'gong and Neng Yuanhao in attacking Yan generals in the east. In 762, after Emperor Suzong's death, Emperor Suzong's son successor made Hou also the military governor of Ziqing Circuit , governing six prefectures. Subsequently, Hou led his Pinglu army in continued campaigns against the final Yan emperor Shi Chaoyi and participated in the campaign ending in Shi's destruction in 763. Li Huaiyu followed Hou in these campaigns and served with distinction, and Hou made him ''bingmashi'' , serving as Hou's assistant.
Meanwhile, though, Hou began to lose the support of his soldiers, because he favored hunting and games, as well as building Buddhist towers and temples, because these activities drained the circuit treasury and forced the soldiers into difficult labor. Meanwhile, he saw that Li Huaiyu was gaining the support of the soldiers and became apprehensive, and he relieved Li Huaiyu from his post even though Li Huaiyu had not had faults. In summer 765, on an occasion when Hou happened to have spent the night outside the city with sorcerers, the soldiers mutinied and closed the gates, disallowing his return. They supported Li Huaiyu as their new commander. Emperor Daizong made his son Li Miao the Prince of Zheng the titular military governor of Pinglu, but made Li Huaiyu the acting military governor and changed his name to Zhengji . Li Zhengji, however, governed Pinglu effectively independent of the imperial government, in alliance with several other military governors who were acting similarly — Li Baochen, Tian Chengsi, Xue Song, Li Huaixian , and Liang Chongyi. By this point, Pinglu consisted of 10 prefectures.
As ''Jiedushi''
Li Zhengji was soon made military governor. He continued his alliance with the other military governors who sought ''de facto'' independence from the imperial government in order to pass the territory to their descendants, however, and as part of the alliance system he gave a daughter in marriage to Li Baochen's son Li Weicheng and took a daughter of Li Baochen's as the wife of his son . By 775, however, both Li Zhengji and Li Baochen were displeased with another member of the alliance — Tian Chengsi, who had seized much of Xue Song's Zhaoyi Circuit and merged it into his own Weibo Circuit and who had offended both Li Zhengji and Li Baochen by looking down on him and by caning Li Baochen's brother Li Baozheng , a son-in-law, to death. In 775, both Li Zhengji and Li Baochen submitted proposals to Emperor Daizong to attack Tian, and Emperor Daizong approved, mobilizing the armies several other circuits loyal to the imperial government as well to join Li Zhengji and Li Baochen in attack. The joint army initially were successful against Tian, causing Tian much apprehension, but soon began to fall apart, with Li Zhengji initially withdrawing his army after his army complained that Li Baochen's army was receiving more rewards than they were. Tian further sent messengers to flatter Li Zhengji and hinting that he would be willing to yield his land to Li Zhengji, thus causing Li Zhengji to hold off his attacks entirely. Eventually, after Tian was able to play Li Baochen off against Zhu, Emperor Daizong was forced to abandon the campaign against Tian and, at Li Zhengji's urging, permitted Tian to remain at his post.
In 776, after the death of Tian Shenyu , the military governor of Biansong Circuit , Tian Shenyu's subordinate Li Lingyao seized control of Biansong Circuit and tried to act independently as well. This time Emperor Daizong reacted by ordering Li Zhengji, Li Zhongchen, Li Mian, Ma Sui, and Chen Shaoyou to attack Li LIngyao. The main attack against Biansong's capital prefecture Bian Prefecture was commanded by Li Zhongchen and Ma, but the other military governors also attacked Biansong from other sides, and, as part of the campaign, Li Zhengji seized five of the eight Biansong prefectures and requested that they be merged into Pinglu. Emperor Daizong agreed, and Li Zhengji moved his headquarters from Qing Prefecture to Yun Prefecture , leaving Qing Prefecture in Li Na's hands. Also at his request, Emperor Daizong incorporated Li Zhengji's line into the imperial clan rolls. It was said that by this point, Li Zhengji became the most powerful military governor, with 100,000 men in his army. He governed Pinglu with a harsh hand, such that the citizens in Pinglu did not dare to converse with each other publicly, but it was also said that his laws were fair and simple and the tax burden was low. The military governors of the nearby circuits were all fearful of him. Emperor Daizong created him the Prince of Raoyang.
In 779, after Emperor Daizong's death and succession by his son , who had a reputation of being capable and wanting to suppress the power of the military governors, Li Zhengji, wanting to flatter the young emperor, offered to submit a large amount of cash as tribute. Emperor Dezong, listening to the advice of his Cui Youfu, sent imperial messengers to Pinglu to accept the tribute from Li Zhengji and immediately distribute the tribute to the Pinglu soldiers. Li Zhengji was said to be impressed by but became even more apprehensive of the new emperor as a result. After Emperor Dezong put down a rebellion led by Liu Wenxi in 780 and showed Liu's head to Li Zhengji's messengers, Li Zhengji became even more fearful and planned for war against the imperial troops.
In spring 781, Li Baochen died, and Emperor Dezong rejected the request by Li Baochen's son Li Weiyue to succeed his father as the military governor of Chengde Circuit . As per the alliance agreement, Li Zhengji and Tian Chengsi's nephew Tian Yue, who had succeeded Tian Chengsi in 779 with imperial approval, prepared for war against the imperial troops, using as an excuse that the chancellor had recently been killed due to false accusations by fellow chancellor Yang Yan. As part of his preparation, Li Zhengji unsuccessfully tried to stop the food shipments from the Yangtze River region, through the , to the Tang capital Chang'an, as the imperial general Zhang Wanfu was able to escort the food shipments through despite intimidation by Pinglu troops.
Li Zhengji died in summer or fall 781. His son, Li Na, as was the case with Li Weiyue, was refused imperial approval to succeed him, but eventually the Emperor Dezong was forced to agree to his succession.
No comments:
Post a Comment