Li Decheng

Li Decheng (李德誠) (863-August 5, 940), formally Prince Zhongyi of Zhao (趙忠懿王), was a prominent general of the Chinese Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period state Wu. He and his family would remain highly honored during the time of Wu's successor state Southern Tang.

Li Decheng was born in 863, during the reign of Emperor Yizong of Tang. He was from Guangling (廣陵, in modern Yangzhou, Jiangsu — although an alternative account indicated that he was from Xihua (西華, in modern Zhoukou, Henan). In his youth, he came under the service of the late-Tang warlord Zhao Huang, who was then the governor (觀察使, Guangchashi) of Xuanshe Circuit (宣歙, headquartered in modern Xuancheng, Anhui).

As of 889, Zhao and his capital Xuan Prefecture (宣州) were under the siege by another warlord, Yang Xingmi the prefect of Lu Prefecture (廬州, in modern Hefei, Anhui). The siege became desperate enough that Zhao's officer Zhou Jinsi (周進思) expelled Zhao and defended the city himself. Zhao tried to flee to Guangling (which was then under the control of the greater warlord Sun Ru, who then ruled Huainan Circuit (淮南, headquartered at Guangling)), but was captured by Yang (and subsequently executed). It was said that during Zhao's expulsion and capture, only Li and another officer, Han Qiu (韓球), did not abandon him, and apparently were also captured by Yang. Yang was set to send Li back into the city to try to persuade Zhou to surrender, but Li fell ill at that time, so Yang sent Han, whom Zhou promptly executed. However, the other officers in the city soon seized Zhou and surrendered. Impressed with Li, Yang gave the daughter of a clansman to him in marriage.

Yang Xingmi took over Xuanshe, which then-reigning Emperor Zhaozong (Emperor Yizong's son) then upgraded into Ningguo Circuit (寧國) and made Yang its military governor (Jiedushi). Yang then entered into an alliance with the major warlord Zhu Quanzhong the military governor of Xuanwu Circuit (宣武, headquartered in modern Kaifeng, Henan), against Sun Ru. In 891, Sun, believing that he should destroy Yang first, decided to abandon Guangling and take his entire army south against Yang's Ningguo army. He thus set fire to the city of Guangling and departed it. In the aftermaths of the city's burning, Yang sent Zhang Xun (張訓) and Li Decheng to Guangling, to put out the fires in the city and to save the grain there so that the people would not starve. Subsequently, when another warlord, Shi Pu the military governor of Wuning Circuit (武寧, headquartered in modern Xuzhou, Jiangsu) tried to head south to take over Huainan, Yang sent Li and Zhang Xun to face him, and they defeated and repelled him at Chu Prefecture (楚州, in modern Huai'an, Jiangsu), forcing him to withdraw; they also then used this opportunity to seize Chu's prefect Liu Zan (劉瓚) and take over that prefecture for Yang. Yang later defeated Sun, took over Huainan, and eventually took the entire region.

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