Li Sheng () (727 – September 13, 793), courtesy name Liangqi (), formally Prince Zhongwu of Xiping (), was a Chinese military general, monarch, and politician during the Tang dynasty, mostly known for his service under Emperor Dezong in destroying the rebel Zhu Ci and restoring Emperor Dezong.
Background Li Sheng was born in 727, during the reign of Emperor Xuanzong. His family was from Tao Prefecture (洮州, in modern Dingxi, Gansu). His ancestors, including his grandfather Li Sigong () and father Li Qin (), served as low-level military officers on the borders. Li Qin died when Li Sheng was only a few years old, and it was said that Li Sheng was filially pious to his mother. He was brave and strong-willed, and capable in riding and archery.Old Book of Tang, vol. 133 .
Li Sheng started his military service when he was 17. At that time, he was tall and brave, impressing the army. He served under Wang Zhongsi, the military governor (jiedushi) of Hexi Circuit (河西, headquartered in modern Wuwei, Gansu), on a campaign against Tufan.As Wang Zhongsi was only the military governor of Hexi from 746 to 747, the campaign must have happened during that period. See Old Book of Tang, vol. 103 . At one fort, there was a Tufan officer who was fierce in defending on top of the fort walls and who killed many Tang soldiers. Wang requested for a volunteer to strike down the Tufan officer, and Li volunteered; he then fired a single arrow that killed the Tufan officer. Wang was impressed, patted his back, and stated, "This is one who can rival 10,000." Later, Gao Shengya () the military governor of Fengxiang Circuit (鳳翔, headquartered in modern Baoji, Shaanxi), who had known Li by reputation, invited Li to serve under him. While serving under Gao, Li was victorious in two campaigns against rebellious Qiang tribes, and was promoted to the rank of general.
During Emperor Daizong's reign Early in the Guangde era (763–764) of Emperor Xuanzong's grandson Emperor Daizong, the then-military governor of Fengxiang Circuit, Sun Zhizhi (), made Li Sheng the commander of high mobility troops, and after Li defeated the Dangxiang tribal chieftain Gao Yu (), he was given the honorary title of Tejin () as well as honorary position as a minister.
Early in Emperor Daizong's Dali era (766–779), the subsequent military governor of Fengxiang, Li Baoyu, made Li Sheng the commander of his right wing troops. In 768,According to Li Sheng's biography in the Old Book of Tang, this event occurred in 769. However, the Zizhi Tongjian, harmonizing the account with the dating of other related events, placed the event in 768. Compare Old Book of Tang, vol. 133, with Zizhi Tongjian, vol. 224. Tufan forces put Ling Prefecture (靈州, in modern Yinchuan, Ningxia) under siege. Li Baoyu gave Li Sheng 5,000 men to attack Tufan troops to try to alleviate the siege. Li Sheng declined—stating, "If I were going to use overwhelming power, 5,000 are not enough; if I were going to use strategies, 5,000 are too many." Instead, he took only 1,000 men and advanced out of Dazhen Pass (大震關, in modern Baoji) and attacked a Tufan garrison in Tao Prefecture, which had then been seized by Tufan; he slaughtered the Tufan garrison and burned the Tufan supplies stored there. When Tufan forces sieging Ling Prefecture heard the news, they lifted the siege and withdrew.Zizhi Tongjian, vol. 224. For his contributions, he was given the honorary title of Kaifu Yitong Sansi (). He was soon made the military commander under Ma Lin () the military governor of Jingyuan Circuit (涇原, headquartered in modern Pingliang, Gansu), and on an occasion, after Ma was defeated by Tufan troops at Yancang (鹽倉, in modern Pingliang) and could not regroup to return to Jingyuan's capital Jing Prefecture, it was by Li Sheng's efforts that Ma's troops were able to fight past the Tufan troops back to Jing Prefecture.The Zizhi Tongjian gave a somewhat different version of the battle that credited Duan Xiushi instead. See Zizhi Tongjian, vol. 224. On account of this battle, Li was created the Prince of Hechuan. However, Ma was jealous of his battle prowess and displeased that he was not giving Ma proper respect, and therefore subsequently sent him to the capital Chang'an. Emperor Daizong kept Li at Chang'an to serve as a general of the Shence Army (), which was under direct imperial control.
During Emperor Dezong's reign
Before Zhu Ci's rebellion In 779, during the reign of Emperor Daizong's son Emperor Dezong, there was a joint Tufan and Nanzhao attack on Xichuan Circuit (西川, headquartered in modern Chengdu, Sichuan). Emperor Dezong sent Li Sheng and Qu Huan (), commanding imperial guards and troops from several circuits, against Tufan and Nanzhao troops, defeating them and relieving Xichuan Circuit from attack.Zizhi Tongjian, vol. 226.
In 781, after several circuits that had been de facto independent—Chengde (成德, headquartered in modern Shijiazhuang, Hebei), Weibo (魏博, headquartered in modern Handan, Hebei), Pinglu (平盧, headquartered in modern Tai'an, Shandong), and Shannan East (山南東道, headquartered in modern Xiangfan, Hubei)—took a defiant stand against the imperial government over Emperor Dezong's refusal to allow Chengde's military governor Li Baochen to be succeeded by his son Li Weiyue and Pinglu's military governor Li Zhengji to be succeeded by his son Li Na, Emperor Dezong sent Li Sheng, Ma Sui, and Li Baozhen (Li Baoyu's cousin) against Weibo's military governor Tian Yue, who was then sieging Linming (臨洺, in modern Handan), which was in Li Baozhen's Zhaoyi Circuit (昭義, headquartered in modern Changzhi, Shanxi). Their joint forces defeated Tian's, forcing Tian to withdraw back to Weibo's capital Wei Prefecture (). However, the imperial troops' attacks stalemated and was additionally hampered by discord between Ma and Li Baozhen. Meanwhile, Li Weiyue's general Wang Wujun had killed Li Weiyue and submitted to imperial authority, but rebelled again, along with Zhu Tao, who had previously been loyal to the imperial government, over Emperor Dezong's failure to reward them as they believed they deserved. When Wang subsequently pressured Zhaoyi's Xing Prefecture (邢州, in modern Xingtai, Hebei), Li Baozhen sent some of his troops to defend Xing Prefecture—drawing Ma's ire in that Ma believed Li Baozhen was merely trying to preserve his own territory, to the point that Ma considered withdrawing entirely. Only with Li Sheng's intercession was the relationship between Ma and Li Baozhen restored. Subsequently, though, after imperial forces suffered a defeat at the hands of Zhu and Wang and were forced to lift the siege on Wei Prefecture in 782, Li Sheng took his troops and rendezvoused with the troops of Zhang Xiaozhong the military governor of Yiwu Circuit (義武, in modern Baoding, Hebei) to lift the siege that Wang Wujun's son Wang Shizhen had been laying against Zhao Prefecture (趙州, in modern Shijiazhuang), then held by a general loyal to the imperial government, Kang Rizhi (). He and Zhang thereafter planned to attack Wang's headquarters at Heng Prefecture (恆州, in modern Shijiazhuang).Zizhi Tongjian, vol. 227. In spring 783, he, along with Zhang's son Zhang Shengyun () attacked Zhu's officer Zheng Jingji () at Qingyuan (清苑, in modern Baoding). This, however, drew a response from Zhu, who left Wei Prefecture and arrived at Qingyuan to battle Li Sheng. He defeated Li Sheng, forcing Li Sheng, who grew ill after the defeat, back to Yiwu's capital Ding Prefecture ().Zizhi Tongjian, vol. 228.
During Zhu Ci's rebellion In fall 783, Jingyuan troops, then at Chang'an to wait for deployment to the eastern battlefield, mutinied when Emperor Dezong did not give them sufficient rewards, forcing Emperor Dezong to flee to Fengtian (奉天, in modern Xianyang, Shaanxi). They supported Zhu Tao's brother Zhu Ci as their leader, and Zhu Ci soon declared himself the emperor of a new state of Qin and put Fengtian under siege. Li Sheng, upon his recovery later in the year, wanted to head immediately toward Fengtian to aid Emperor Dezong, but Zhang Xiaozhong, whose Yiwu Circuit was wedged between Zhu Tao's and Wang Wujun's territory and feared that he would be attacked, tried to keep Li Sheng at Yiwu. Only after Li Sheng bribed Zhang's subordinates with jade and also kept his son Li Ping () at Yiwu (to be married to Zhang's daughter) did Zhang agree to let Li Sheng depart, and he further had his subordinate Yang Rongguo () accompany Li Sheng to aid Emperor Dezong. Emperor Dezong gave Li Sheng the title of military governor of Shence Army. As he arrived in Chang'an's vicinity, however, with only 4,000 soldiers, he was not able to challenge Zhu's sieging army directly, and so stopped at the East Wei River Bridge () near Chang'an. It was said that because he was capable in leadership and in sharing the soldiers' difficulties, people were happy to follow him, and soon, with soldiers in Chang'an's vicinity joining him, his troops grew to 10,000.Zizhi Tongjian, vol. 229.
The major general Li Huaiguang soon arrived and forced Zhu Ci to lift his siege on Fengtian. However, Emperor Dezong then alienated Li Huaiguang by refusing to meet him and instead ordering him to rendezvous with Li Sheng and two other military governors, Li Jianhui () and Yang Huiyuan () in attacking Chang'an. When Li Huaiguang did rendezvous with Li Sheng, Li Jianhui, and Yang, he not only did not attack Chang'an, but simply halted at Xianyang (咸陽, in modern Xianyang). By spring 784, Li Sheng had begun to suspect Li Huaiguang's intentions and (correctly) believed that Li Huaiguang was in communications with Zhu Ci. He, fearing that Li Huaiguang would seize his troops, received permission from Emperor Dezong to return to East Wei River Bridge. He subsequently submitted a secret petition to Emperor Dezong urging Emperor Dezong to anticipate a rebellion by Li Huaiguang and keeping the path to the Hanzhong and Shu (蜀, i.e., Xichuan) region clear. Emperor Dezong hesitated and tried to calm Li Huaiguang to let Li Huaiguang remain in the imperial camp. Instead, Li Huaiguang publicly announced that he was rebelling, and Emperor Dezong fled to Liang Prefecture (梁州, in modern Hanzhong). Prior to fleeing, Emperor Dezong gave Li Sheng the honorary chancellor designation Tong Zhongshu Menxia Pingzhangshi (), effectively making Li Sheng the supreme commander of the troops in the Chang'an region still loyal to the imperial cause.Zizhi Tongjian, vol. 230.
At that time, Li Sheng was effectively stuck with a small army between Zhu Ci and Li Huaiguang. He sent humble letters to Li Huaiguang urging Li Huaiguang to reconsider and again join the imperial cause, and while Li Huaiguang did not do so, he was sufficiently embarrassed that he did not attack Li Sheng. Soon, with a number of Li Huaiguang's subordinates defecting and accepting Li Sheng's orders, Li Huaiguang feared an attack from Li Sheng, and therefore withdrew from the region entirely, back to Hezhong (河中, in modern Yuncheng, Shanxi), leaving Li Sheng and his allies to face Zhu's state (which by that point had been renamed Han). Zhu Ci tried to persuade Li Sheng to join his cause by treating Li Sheng's relatives remaining in Chang'an with kindness, but Li Sheng was not swayed.
Soon, with Emperor Dezong sending the general Hun Jian toward Chang'an as well, Li Sheng prepared his assault against Chang'an. On June 12, 784, Li Sheng announced to his troops that the battle for Chang'an was to begin, and then began moving toward Chang'an, in coordination with Hun, Luo Yuanguang (), and Shang Kegu (). Han troops made several attacks against his advancing troops but were defeated each time, and on June 19, Li Sheng entered Chang'an, forcing Zhu Ci to flee. (Zhu Ci was subsequently killed in flight by his own subordinates.)Zizhi Tongjian, vol. 231.
After Zhu Ci's rebellion