Daming Super Dimension Company, President Zhu Yuanzhang!

"After this battle, Li Cunxu temporarily suspended his offensive against the Later Liang Dynasty and prepared to seize the Hebei region first. The first person he chose to attack was Liu Shouguang, the Prince of Yan who had imprisoned his father Liu Rengong and succeeded him."

Imprisoning one's own father is extremely filial.

This sentence flashed by, and Xiao Ran continued to talk about Li Cunxu's plan, "He adopted the strategy of arrogant soldiers, united the five towns to submit the imperial edict, and jointly respected Liu Shouguang as the Shangfu. Liu Shouguang mistakenly believed that the six towns were afraid of the military power of Youzhou. He ignored the opposition of the generals of the shogunate and proclaimed himself emperor in Youzhou in August of the eighth year of Tianyou. The country was named Dayan, known in history as Jie Yan. Seeing that the time was ripe, Li Cunxu ordered Zhou Dewei to unite Chengde Town and Yiwu Town to attack Liu Shouguang together."

"In the ninth year of Tianyou, Zhou Dewei besieged Youzhou, and Liu Shouguang asked for help from the Later Liang. Zhu Wen personally led the army north, and although he broke through Zaoqiang, he was defeated by the Jin army in Xi County. Zhu Wen was ashamed and angry and fell ill, so he withdrew his troops back to Luoyang, and was soon murdered by his son Zhu Yougui."

"In the tenth year of Tianyou, the last emperor of the Later Liang Dynasty ascended the throne. The Jin army successively seized Youzhou Town and governed many places. Later, Li Cunxu personally led an expedition to the State of Yan, captured Liu Rengong and Liu Shouguang, who had been imprisoned for a long time, and left Zhou Dewei to guard Youzhou. The following year, Li Cunxu executed Liu Rengong and his son to commemorate Li Keyong."

Li Shimin's eyes showed admiration, "He can govern the world with his civil skills, and he can conquer the battlefield with his military skills."

"It's a pity that he is not a descendant of your Li family." Zhu Yuanzhang on the side sighed.

If this were a descendant of the Li family, there would be no problem in restoring the Tang Dynasty.

Li Shimin's face turned black, "Stop talking!"

At this point in the topic, Li Yu didn't dare to say a word.

Xiao Ran suppressed his laughter and said jokingly, "At least your last name is Li."

"Why are you still learning from Zhu Yuanzhang?" Looking at Xiao Ran speechlessly, Li Shimin also disliked his own descendant Li Yu very much in his heart.

Xiao Ran spread his hands, "I was right, how come he has the surname Li?"

Seeing that Li Shimin was annoyed, Xiao Ran cleared his throat and said, "I will continue."

"In the 12th year of Tianyou, Emperor Liang wanted to weaken the power of the vassal states, which resulted in a mutiny. The new governor He Delun was imprisoned, and the mutiny leaders surrendered to Jin. Li Cunxu took the opportunity to capture Weizhou and executed Zhang Yan and others who led the mutiny to stabilize the chaos. He recruited Wei Bo's soldiers as his personal army, and then captured Dezhou and Chanzhou, and finally confronted Liang general Liu Xun."

"In the 13th year of Tianyou, Li Cunxu pretended to return to Taiyuan. Liu Xun fell into the trap and sent troops. As a result, he was attacked from three sides by Li Cunxu, Li Siyuan and Fu Cunshen. The whole army was defeated and fled to Huazhou. Li Cunxu sent troops to capture Weizhou and other places in succession. Except for Liyang, all areas north of the Yellow River were occupied by Jin. At this time, the situation between Houliang and Jin was reversed."

"In the blink of an eye, it was the 14th year of Tianyou. The governor of Shouzhou, Lu Wenjin, rebelled and joined the Khitan. The Khitan emperor, Yelu Abaoji, personally led a large army into Youzhou. The defending general Zhou Dewei held Youzhou alone, so Li Cunxu ordered several commanders to go north to rescue. The Jin army defeated the Khitan army and lifted the siege of Youzhou."

"Li Cunxu has a lot of useful people under his command," said Zhu Yuanzhang.

Xiao Ran said with a smile, "If there were no available people, it would not be so easy for him to take down Hou Liang."

Then, he stretched out his hand and drew a circle on the map. "This is the territory of Jin when Li Keyong died. In just a few years, it has expanded to this extent."

Two circles, one large and one small, were drawn, and the expressions of Li Shimin and Zhu Yuanzhang were similar.

Li Yu said subconsciously, "This is too impressive." "That's only half of it. The final territory of the Later Tang Dynasty was this much." Xiao Ran circled another large area with his fingers.

"So, if Li Yu gets the support of Li Cunxu, there will be no worries about the stability of the country, and perhaps he can even expand the original territory of the Tang Dynasty."

These words made Li Shimin's eyebrows move slightly. Such talents must be accepted!
Zhu Yuanzhang said, "We want to hear what he did later."

"The Khitan retreated, and Li Cunxu began to move his troops southward to fight with the Liang army for key points along the Yellow River."

"In the 14th year of Tianyou, Li Cunxu led his army eastward and attacked Yunzhou and Puzhou. At that time, the emperor of Later Liang was holding a ceremony to worship the heaven. Upon hearing the news, he hurried back to Luoyang to organize the recapture of Yangliu City. However, the Later Liang army fought many times and still failed to recapture Yangliu City. In August of the following year, Li Cunxu mobilized his troops to gather in Weizhou, preparing to destroy Liang in one fell swoop."

"Li Cunxu crossed the Yellow River from Puzhou and fought a bloody battle with the Later Liang army. The Jin army was defeated and Zhou Dewei was killed. Li Cunxu used cavalry to attack and turned the tide, defeating the Liang army. The Jin army suffered heavy casualties and had to withdraw."

"In the 16th year of Tianyou, Fu Cunshen stationed in Desheng City and built two cities, north and south. The Later Liang army besieged the southern city of Desheng and blocked the reinforcements led by Li Cunxu. Li Jian led 300 warriors to break through the Liang army's fleet, allowing Li Cunxu to cross the river and defeat the Liang army. Afterwards, Liang general Wang Zan stored a large amount of military supplies, and Li Cunxu also conscripted tens of thousands of civilians to expand the northern city. The two armies faced each other, with more than a hundred battles of varying sizes every day, with both victories and defeats."

Everything was going smoothly in the beginning, with various victories, but when it came to the direct confrontation with Later Liang, the victories turned into narrow ones, and they also lost great generals like Zhou Dewei.

Xiao Ran showed a look of regret, "It's a pity that Zhou Dewei died."

"Li Cunxu is still too anxious." Zhu Yuanzhang said in a deep voice.

Li Shimin also thought so. "Zhu Wen of the Later Liang Dynasty held power in the court for many years and even asked the emperor to abdicate. But this was inseparable from the deterrence of military power. Without military power, he would not have been able to reach this point. And the Jin State was just the fiefdom of the King of Jin at the beginning. Even with the military forces accumulated for many years, it was still not enough to face the Later Liang army."

"A narrow victory is the best possible outcome."

Xiao Ran said, "This is the fact."

The carriage continued to move forward steadily, and Xiao Ran drank the water and continued his narration.

"In the 17th year of Tianyou, Zhu Youqian, the governor of Hezhong, rebelled against Liang and surrendered to Jin. He was besieged. Li Cunxu sent troops to rescue him, defeated Liu Xun twice and pursued him. Hezhong Town acceded to Jin."

"In the 18th year of Tianyou, Zhang Wenli, a general of Chengde Army, instigated a mutiny. Li Cunxu was forced to appease him and rejected the proposal to establish a country and become emperor. In August, Li Cunxu ordered an expedition to Chengde Town. Zhang Wenli died of fear, and his son Zhang Chujin continued to resist. At the same time, Wang Chuzhi, the governor of Yiwu, colluded with Yelu Abaoji and intended to betray the State of Jin, but was imprisoned by his adopted son Wang Du. Unfortunately, he was soon besieged in Dingzhou by the Khitan army."

"For this reason, in the following year, Li Cunxu personally led an expedition to the north, defeated the Khitan army, lifted the siege of Dingzhou, and pursued the victory to Youzhou. However, Yan Bao, a general of the Jin army, was frustrated in the siege of Zhenzhou and died of shame and anger. His successors Li Sizhao and Li Cunjin also died in battle one after another. The Liang army recaptured Xiangzhou, an important town in Hebei. Not long after, Zhenzhou was finally captured due to the siege and lack of food, and Li Cunxu directly incorporated Chengde Town into the Jin State."

"In the 20th year of Tianyou, Li Cunxu proclaimed himself emperor in Weizhou and changed the 20th year of Tianyou to the first year of Tongguang. He continued to use Tang as the country's name, posthumously conferred the title of emperor on his father and grandfather, and listed them as one of the seven temples along with Tang Gaozu, Tang Taizong, Tang Yizong, and Tang Zhaozong, in order to show that he was the legitimate successor of the Tang Dynasty."

Li Shimin's face turned ugly, and he couldn't help cursing, "How dare you!"

How dare they put their three generations of ancestors on the same level as Emperor Taizong of Tang! (End of this chapter)