Li Weiyue (died 9 March 782) was a Chinese officer during the late Tang dynasty. His father Li Baochen was the military governor (jiedushi) of Chengde around present-day Shijiazhuang, Hebei, which he ruled in de facto independence from imperial control. After Li Baochen's death in 781, Li Weiyue tried to succeed him as the Chengde military governor and waged a campaign against the Tang when Emperor Dezong refused to let him do so. In 782, with his losses mounting, his own officer Wang Wujun killed him and submitted to imperial government.
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Life
Early years
The exact year of Li Weiyue's birth is unknown but, though his half-brother Li Weicheng (李惟誠) was older, he was considered Li Baochen's proper heir since he was the eldest son of Li Bochen's wife. Li also had at least one younger brother, Li Weijian (李惟簡).
Li Baochen had been a general of the rebel state of Yan during the Anshi Rebellion, but nominally submitted to the Tang in 762 in exchange for recognition as the lawful military governor (jiedushi) of Chengde. He ruled his province as a de facto independent state and wanted to eventually pass it on to Li Weiyue, who served as his chief general (行軍司馬, xingjun sima) and as the prefect of the provincial capital's Heng Prefecture. However, since Li Weiyue was considered young and weak willed, Li Baochen began to kill a number of his officers that he viewed as potential threats to his son. The only two major officers who escaped this fate were Zhang Xiaozhong, who remained in Yi Prefecture within modern Baoding, Hebei, and refused repeated summons by Li Baochen to report to Hengzhou, and Wang Wujun, whose son Wang Shizhen was a son-in-law to Li Baochen and brother-in-law to Li Weiyue.
Attempted succession to Changde
Li Baochen died in the spring of 781. Initially, Li Weiyue did not announce his father's death but forged an imperial petition in his father's name, requesting that Li Weiyue be allowed to succeed him as the military governor of Changde. Emperor Dezong refused and sent the imperial official Ban Hong (班宏) to visit Li Baochen. When Ban arrived in Chengde, he realized that Li Baochen had died and Li Weiyue tried to bribe him to recommend Li's succession to his father's office. Ban refused. Once Ban returned to the imperial capital Chang'an and reported everything to Emperor Dezong, Li Weiyue publicly announced his father's death and claimed the title of acting military governor. He had his subordinate officers submit an imperial petition requesting that he be formally commissioned as full military governor, but Emperor Dezong rejected that petition as well.
Li Weiyue thus prepared for war against the imperial government, aided by several other military governors who were also ruling their lands independently and who had previously entered into alliances with Li Baochen. These were Li Zhengji, the military governor of Pinglu (平盧) around modern Tai'an, Shandong; Tian Yue, the military governor of Weibo (魏博) around modern Handan, Hebei; and Liang Chongyi, the military governor of East Shannan Circuit (山南東道) around modern Xiangfan, Hubei. Hearing of this plan, Li Baochen's secretary Shao Zhen (邵真) tearfully begged Li Weiyue to reconsider and suggested that, if he arrested Li Zhengji's messengers and delivered them to Chang'an, he might gain sufficient trust to be lawfully commissioned to his office. The secretary general Bi Hua (畢華), however, argued that the imperial government might still not trust Li Weiyue anyway and, if Li Zhengji then attacked in response, Chengde would be defenseless. Li Weiyue sided with Bi. Li Weiyue's uncle Gu Congzheng (古從政) also opposed resisting the imperial government. He suggested that Li Weiyue should leave his half-brother temporarily in charge of his realm and go in person to Chang'an to pay homage to Emperor Dezong to establish more trust. Li Weiyue again refused, and Gu committed suicide.
Tian sent his officer Meng You (孟祐) north along with 5000 soldiers in order to aid Li Weiyue in his defense of Chengde, while he himself launched preemptive attacks on Zhaoyi (昭義) around Changzhi, Shanxi, then controlled by the imperial general Li Baozhen. By the fall of 781, however, Tian was being defeated by Li Baozhen and Ma Sui, to the point that he actually needed aid from both Li Weiyue and Li Zhengji's son and successor Li Na.