Li Ju Returns to the Mountain

When Tang Su Zong first took the throne in Lingwu, there were less than thirty civil and military officials around him. Some of the military generals were not willing to listen to the command. Su Zong needed a competent person to help him in order to quell the rebellion.

At this time, he remembered his good friend Li Ju (pronounced bì) from his days as a prince and sent someone to bring Li Ju from Yinyang (in present-day Henan Province) to Lingwu.

Li Ju was originally from Chang'an, and as a child, he was very smart and read a lot of books. When the chancellor Zhang Jiuling saw his poetry, he thought highly of him and praised him as a "prodigy". When Su Zong was the crown prince, Li Ju was already grown up and he submitted a memorial to Emperor Xuan Zong with some opinions on state affairs. Emperor Xuanzong admired him and summoned him to see him, wanting to give him an official position. He pushed that he was young and did not want to be an official. Xuanzong asked him to make a friend with the prince. Later, he often went to the East Palace, and the prince also liked to approach Li Ju, treating him as a teacher.

Later, Li Ju was not used to seeing Yang Guozhong in power and once wrote a poem to satirize Yang Guozhong. For this, he was ostracized from Chang'an by Yang Guozhong. Seeing the political chaos, he did not want to suffer this anger, so he simply ran to Yingyang and lived in seclusion.

This time, when Tang Su Zong came to invite him, he thought that the court was suffering from difficulties, so he went to Lingwu. When Tang Su Zong saw Li Ju, he was as happy as a treasure. In those days, the temporary court was not so concerned about etiquette. Tang Su Zong and Li Ju were just like when they were young, they went in and out together, and they discussed all the big and small things with him. There was no idea that Li Ju had that Tang Su Zong would not listen to him.

When Tang Su Zong wanted to make him a chancellor, Li Ju did not want to do so. He said, "Your majesty treats me like a friend, and that is more than being a prime minister, so why must I be titled?"

Su Zong saw that he could not force him, so he let it go. When he was living in seclusion in the countryside, Li Ju wore a cloth coat, and when he arrived in Lingwu, he still wore the same old cloth coat.

Once Li Ju accompanied Tang Su Zong on a horse tour of the army, and the soldiers were behind him, pointing and saying, "That man in the yellow robe is the emperor, and the one in the white coat is a hermit from the mountains."

When Tang Su Zong heard the soldiers' comments, he thought it was too conspicuous, so he gave Li Ju a purple official uniform and insisted that he put it on. Li Ju had no choice but to put it on. Su Zong smiled and said, "Since you are wearing an official uniform, how can you not have an official title?" With that, he took out an imperial edict from his sleeve, appointing Li Ju as the chief historian of the Marshal's Office (equivalent to a military division).

Li Ju refused to agree, and Tang Su Zong said, "Now the country is in difficulty, so I have to give you a temporary commission, and after the rebellion is settled, I will still listen to your freedom."

By that time, Guo Ziyi had also arrived at Lingwu. The imperial court had to command the war in the whole country, and military affairs were very busy. Paperwork was sent from all directions without a break from morning to night. Emperor Su Zong of Tang ordered that all the papers received should be sent to Li Jiu to open and read first, and only those that were particularly important should be sent to Su Zong. The key to the palace gate was in the hands of Prince Li and Li Ju. Li Ju was so busy that he couldn't even eat and didn't sleep well.

Tang Su Zong, who was determined to return to Chang'an, asked Li Ju, "What shall we do with such a powerful enemy?"

Li Ju said, "A Lushan started a rebellion, but only a few people helped him sincerely, the rest were forced to participate. According to my estimation, in less than two years, they can be wiped out." Then, he gave Su Zong a military plan to suspend the recovery of Chang'an and send Guo Ziyi and Li Guangbi to march into the north of the river in two ways to attack the rebels' nest, Fangyang, so that the rebels would be in a dilemma, and then launch a siege of all official armies to wipe them out.

In the spring of the next year, the rebels had internal strife and An Lushan's son, An Qingxu, killed An Lushan and became the emperor himself. This was a good opportunity to destroy the rebels. But Su Zong was eager to go back to Chang'an and disobeyed Li Jiu's plan. He transferred Guo Ziyi's men back from Hedong and attacked Chang'an by force, which resulted in a defeat. Later, Guo Ziyi borrowed the elite troops of Huihe (one of the ancient northern ethnic groups in China, The pronounced hé) and concentrated 150,000 men to take Chang'an down. Then, Luoyang was recovered, the rebel leader An Qingxu fled to Hebei, and Shi Siming was forced to surrender.

When the Tang army recovered Chang'an and Luoyang, Tang Su Zong felt satisfied and brought Li Ju to Chang'an on a steed.

The Tang Emperor's favorite consort Zhang Liangdi and the eunuch Li Fuguo, who resented Li Ju's power, had been colluding with each other to get rid of him.

When Prince Li found out that Zhang Liangdi and the eunuchs wanted to harm Li Ju, he told Li Ju. Li Ju said, "It doesn't matter. I have an appointment with the emperor, and when the capital is recovered, I will return to the mountain, and there will be no problem."

This time, when Li Ju saw that the Tang army had recovered the two capitals, it was a wish fulfilled and he was determined to leave the court.

One night, Emperor Su of Tang invited Li Ju to drink and stayed with him to sleep. Li Ju took the opportunity to say to Su Zong, "I have already repaid Your Majesty, please let me go home and be an idle man again!"

Tang Su Zong said, "I have been in trouble with you for several years, and now I want to enjoy peace and happiness with you, why do you want to leave?"

Li Ju said earnestly, "I befriended His Majesty too early; His Majesty used me too much and trusted me. It is because of these reasons that I cannot stay away."

Tang Su Zong said, "Go to sleep today, and we will talk about it the next day."

Li Ju said, "Today I am sitting on a couch with His Majesty to talk, and you don't promise me. When I come to the public court, there will be no room for me to talk. If you don't let go, it would be like killing me."

Although Tang Su Zong was reluctant to let Li Ju leave, he could not resist Li Ju's repeated requests, so he agreed.

Li Ju went to Mount Heng (in present-day Hunan Province), built a house on the mountain, and resumed his reclusive life.

After Li Ju's departure, there was one less upright minister around Emperor Su Zong of Tang, and a group of eunuchs such as Li Fu Guo became more powerful.