Wang Wujun
Wang Wujun, courtesy name Yuanying, né Monuogan, posthumous name Prince Zhonglie of Langye, was an ethnic Khitan military general and politician of China's Tang dynasty. He served as a long-time jiedushi of Chengde Circuit during the reign of Emperor Dezong and ruling Chengde in a de facto independent manner from the Tang imperial court.
Background
Wang Wujun was born in 735 and originally known as Muonuogan. He was from Nujie tribe, of Khitan stock. His grandfather was named Kenagan, and his father was named Luju. During Emperor Xuanzong of Tang's Kaiyuan era, Luju followed his leader Li Shi, who took 5,000 households in crossing into Tang borders to submit to Tang. Emperor Xuanzong praised them and allowed them to live in Ji Prefecture.It is not known when Wang Wujun acquired the name of Wujun, but it is known that by age 14, he was known for his horsemanship and archery, and he became as famous as Zhang Alao in the region. Both of them later served the army officer Zhang Zhongzhi, who in turn served under the general An Lushan, who then controlled the region.
Service under Li Baochen (Zhang Zhongzhi)
In 755, An Lushan rebelled against Emperor Xuanzong, and soon declared himself the emperor of a new state of Yan. Zhang Zhongzhi served as a major general of the Yan state, but by 762, Yan, then with Shi Chaoyi as its emperor, was nearing final defeat, and Tang forces were entering the heart of its territory north of the Yellow River. Zhang was then defending Heng Prefecture, and Wang Wujun persuaded him to submit to Tang. Zhang agreed and submitted to Tang with the five prefectures that he controlled, and turned against remaining Yan forces. Emperor Xuanzong's grandson Emperor Daizong, then emperor of Tang, bestowed the imperial surname of Li on Zhang, and Zhang thereafter became known as Li Baochen. Li Baochen was allowed to retain control over the territory he had, which was organized into Chengde Circuit, with Li Baochen as its military governor. As Wang contributed in the subsequent campaign that cleared the territory, he was created the Prince of Weichuan.As Li Baochen grew old and intended to pass the territory to his son Li Weiyue, he began killing a number of officers that he feared Li Weiyue could not control. However, as he took a great liking to Wang's son Wang Shizhen and gave Wang Shizhen his daughter in marriage, and Wang Shizhen subsequently gained Li Baochen's trust as well as insider information at LI Baochen's headquarters, Wang Wujun escaped the fate of many of his colleagues.
Service under Li Weiyue
Meanwhile, Li Baochen had also been in alliance with several other military governors who were also ruling their circuits independently from the imperial regime and intending to pass their realms to their descendants — Li Zhengji the military governor of Pinglu Circuit, Tian Chengsi the military governor of Weibo Circuit, and Liang Chongyi the military governor of Shannan East Circuit. When Li Baochen and Li Zhengji, in succession, died in 781, then-emperor Emperor Dezong, wanting to break up the warlords' power, refused to let Li Weiyue and Li Zhengji's son Li Na inherit their fathers' positions. Li Weiyue, Li Na, Tian Chengsi's nephew and successor Tian Yue, and Liang thus prepared for war against the imperial regime. Liang was quickly defeated by Li Xilie and committed suicide, while imperial forces inflicted serious damage on Tian's and Li Na's forces. Meanwhile, Zhu Tao the acting military governor of Lulong Circuit attacked Li Weiyue from the north and was quickly able to persuade two key Chengde officers, Zhang Xiaozhong the prefect of Yi Prefecture and Kang Rizhi the prefect of Zhao Prefecture, to submit their respective prefectures turn against Li Weiyue. When Li Weiyue tried to counterattack in spring 782, Zhu and Zhang's joint forces defeated him at Shulu, forcing him to flee back to Chengde's capital Heng Prefecture. It was said that during the Battle of Shulu, Wang Wujun, serving as Li Weiyue's forward commander and believing that Li Weiyue was already suspicious of him, decided not to fight to the best of his ability, and that this led to the defeat.After the defeat, Li Weiyue was even more suspicious of Wang, but his advisors pointed out that there was no one other than Wang who would be capable to command the army. Li Weiyue thus commissioned Wang, assisted by Wei Changning, to attack Zhao Prefecture, and put Wang Shizhen in charge of security at headquarters. Wang Wujun was relieved to get to leave Heng Prefecture, and once he exited the city, initially wanted to flee to Zhang. Wei pointed out that Emperor Dezong had issued an edict promising to give the offices that Li Weiyue wanted to whoever would cut off Li Weiyue's head and advocated for an attack on Li Weiyue. Wang Wujun thus notified Wang Shizhen and involved Li Weiyue's close associate Xie Zun in the plot at well. He made a surprise attack against Heng Prefecture, and Wang Shizhen and Xie opened the city gates to welcome him. Wang Wujun killed Li Weiyue and his associates and surrendered to the imperial government.
Rebellion against Emperor Dezong
Emperor Dezong, in the aftermaths, divided Chengde's seven prefectures into three smaller circuits — with Zhang Xiaozhong receiving three prefectures and the title of military governor of the newly created Yidingcang Circuit, while Wang Wujun and Kang Rizhi received two prefectures each with lesser titles of military prefect, of Hengji and Shenzhao. This displeased both Zhu Tao and Wang — as Zhu had wanted Emperor Dezong to give him Shen Prefecture, which went to Kang instead and Di, both then still held by Li Na, and Wang believed that Emperor Dezong had reneged on the promise to reward him with the positions that Li Weiyue had wanted. He was further fearful when he received orders to provide Zhu's army with food and Ma Sui's army with horses, believing that Emperor Dezong might be using those orders to divert his power and getting ready to attack him next.Tian, hearing of Zhu's disaffection, sent emissaries to Zhu to persuade him to turn against the imperial forces and aid him. Zhu agreed, and in turn sent emissaries to Wang, persuading him to join the alliance as well and agreeing to give him Shen Prefecture, which Zhu occupied at the time. Wang was pleased, and agreed to join him and Tian. When Emperor Dezong sent emissaries to order Zhu and Wang to advance south against Tian, Wang arrested the imperial emissaries and delivered them to Zhu, thus openly turning against imperial authority. Zhu, as promised, transferred control of Shen Prefecture to Wang, while sending forces to join Wang's in sieging Kang at Zhao Prefecture.
However, by this point, Tian was in desperate straits under siege from imperial forces commanded by Ma, Li Baozhen, and Li Qiu at his capital Wei Prefecture. Zhu and Wang thus advanced south to relieve him, and as they arrived, so did additional imperial forces commanded by Li Huaiguang. Against Ma's advice of waiting until his soldiers had enough rest, Li Huaiguang decided to battle Zhu and Wang immediately. He had initial successes, but Wang cut his soldiers off from each other with a charge, leading to a major defeat for the imperial forces. Zhu and Wang then tried to cut off the imperial troops escape, but Ma then promised to request that Emperor Dezong put Zhu in charge of the entire region north of the Yellow River. Despite Wang's stern opposition, Zhu believed him and did not pursue imperial forces further, so the imperial forces were able to withdraw over a river from Wei Prefecture, and were able to take up a posture against the rebel forces, thus putting the armies into a stalemate. Zhu, seeing that he had been tricked by Ma, apologized to Wang, but Wang, while accepting the apology, thereafter resented Zhu.
In the aftermaths of the imperial forces' defeat, Tian was grateful to Zhu, and offered to subjugate himself and Wang to Zhu — in effect, offering the emperor title to Zhu. Zhu declined, crediting Wang rather than himself for the victory. At the suggestion of Zhu's staff member Li Ziqian and Wang's staff member Zheng Ru, they decided to each claim a princely title to show independence from imperial authority, but keep Tang's era name in order not to completely break from Tang. On December 9, 782, in an elaborate ceremony, Zhu claimed the title of Prince of Ji; Wang claimed the title of Prince of Zhao; Tian claimed the title of Prince of Wei; and they issued a letter offering Li Na the title of Prince of Qi. They also established administrations with governmental structures paralleling the Tang imperial government to further show independence, although the titles were intentionally different from Tang's to show some subordination.
As self-proclaimed Prince of Zhao
Meanwhile, though, as Zhu Tao's and Wang Wujun's troops were continuing to battle Tang imperial troops on Tian Yue's soil, all three of them were becoming financially drained. They pinned their hopes on alliance with Li Xilie, who had even greater pretensions, who was then ruling Huaixi Circuit, which was then wealthy. They, along with Li Na, thus sent emissaries to Huaixi, suggesting to Li Xilie that he take imperial title. Li Xilie did not do so immediately, but began to claim titles greater than the ones bestowed him by Emperor Dezong.Meanwhile, in summer 783, an incident would occur to further to erode the alliance between Zhu and Wang. The imperial general Li Sheng had wanted to cut off the supply lines between Lulong and Weibo by capturing Lulong's Zhuo and Mo Prefectures, and therefore joined forces with Zhang Xiaozhong's son Zhang Shengyun in sieging Zhu's general Zhang Jingji at Qingwan. Zhu left his general Ma Shi at Weibo and personally relieved Qingwan, defeating Li Sheng and Zhang Shengyun and forcing them to withdraw back to Yi Prefecture, under Zhang Xiaozhong's control. Upon defeating Li Sheng and Zhang Shengyun, however, Zhu did not immediately return to Weibo, and Wang sent his subordinate Song Duan to Zhu, urging him to return to Weibo as soon as possible. When Song met Zhu, Song was harsh in his words, and Zhu threw a fit of anger—causing Wang to be fearful and to apologize to Ma in person. Zhu's angers subsided, and it was said that he continued to treat Wang as an ally, but that Wang's secret resentment toward Zhu grew even more. Wang subsequently responded to an overture by Li Baozhen into forming a secret alliance, although he also continued in alliance with Zhu, Tian, and Li Na.
In fall 783, soldiers from Jingyuan Circuit, then at Chang'an in preparation for deployment to the Weibo front, were angry that they were not given sufficient rewards, and they mutinied, forcing Emperor Dezong to flee to Fengtian. The mutineers supported Zhu Tao's brother Zhu Ci — who had previously served as a major imperial general but who been forced into retirement after Zhu Tao turned against the imperial government — as their leader. Zhu Ci subsequently declared himself the emperor of a new state of Qin, and he created Zhu Tao crown prince. Zhu Tao, upon receiving the communique from Zhu Ci, immediately spread the news to the other circuits in hopes that they would declare for Zhu Ci as well. Upon news of Emperor Dezong's flight to Fengtian arriving at the imperial camp at Weibo, the imperial troops scattered, with Li Huaiguang heading for Fengtian to aid Emperor Dezong, and Ma Sui, Li Baozhen, and Li Qiu returning to their respective circuits. Upon the imperial troops' withdrawal, Zhu Tao and Wang also withdrew to their own circuits. Meanwhile, Zhu Tao, who had earlier married a daughter of a Huige khan, requested aid from Huige. Huige sent 3,000 soldiers to aid Zhu Tao in his efforts to further advance south to capture the eastern capital Luoyang. However, by this point, Li Baozhen had persuaded Wang to turn against Zhu Tao — pointing out that if Zhu Tao and Zhu Ci were successful together, Wang would be under their control and further that Zhu's title of Prince of Ji showed implicit ambition to possess Wang's Ji Prefecture. Emperor Dezong also sent messengers to Tian and Li Na, urging them to turn against Zhu Tao as well, and when Emperor Dezong declared a general pardon in spring 784 — the scope of which included even Zhu Tao, Wang, Tian, Li Na, and Li Xilie and implicitly promising them that if they submitted to nominal imperial authority again, he would not dare to interfere with them again — Wang, Tian, and Li Na all renounced their self-claimed royal titles.