Wang Du (Chinese: 王都) (died March 26, 929[1][2]), né Liu Yunlang (劉雲郎), was a warlord during the early Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period of China as the military governor (Jiedushi) of Yiwu Circuit (義武, headquartered in modern Baoding, Hebei).
It is not known exactly when Wang Du was born—although subsequent events cast a timeframe as to when his birth might have been, and it was clearly late in the Tang dynasty.
He was initially born in a household in Xingyi (陘邑, in modern Shijiazhuang, Hebei), with the name of Liu Yunlang.
At that time, Wang Chuzhi did not yet have a son, and Li gave Liu Yunlang to him to be his child, stating to him, "This boy has an honored appearance."
The next day, Wang Chuzhi held a feast for them to comfort them, but secretly recorded the names of all who attended.
Unhappy that Wang Chuzhi did not favor him, he fled to Li Keyong the military governor of Hedong Circuit (河東, headquartered in modern Taiyuan, Shanxi), and Li Keyong gave him a daughter in marriage, eventually promoting him to be the military prefect (團練使, Tuanlianshi) of Xin Prefecture (新州, in modern Zhangjiakou, Hebei).
)[7] Shortly after, Li Cunxu put Chengde's capital Zhen Prefecture (鎮州) under siege.
[7] As Li's relief force approached Ding Prefecture, Emperor Taizu advanced to Xinle (新樂, in modern Shijiazhuang) to confront him.
At a battle there, however, he was defeated by Li and forced wo withdraw, lifting the siege on Ding in the process.
During Emperor Zhuangzong's reign, Wang continued to act as a semi-independent warlord, commissioning the prefects for the two subordinate prefectures (Qi (祁州) and Yi (易州), both in modern Baoding) by himself, not submitting census counts to the imperial government, and keeping the tax revenues for his own army without submitting them to the imperial government.
[3] (It was for the purpose of opening a polo field for Emperor Zhuangzong to welcome Wang at that Emperor Zhuangzong destroyed an altar that he had initially received the imperial title in 923—an act that the deputy defender of Yedu, Zhang Xian (張憲), considered a sign of misfortune since it showed a lack of gratitude for the Mandate of Heaven.
Soon, his adoptive brother, the general Li Siyuan, who had led a separate mutiny, arrived at Luoyang and claimed imperial title (as Emperor Mingzong).
[3] Wang therefore tried a number of ways to ally with other military governors—including trying to enter a marriage alliance with Zhao Dejun the military governor of Lulong; asking to become blood brothers with Wang Jianli the military governor of Chengde, who had an enmity with An; sending secret letters encased in wax to the military governors of Pinglu (平盧, headquartered in modern Weifang, Shandong) (Huo Yanwei), Zhongwu (忠武, headquartered in modern Xuchang, Henan) (Fang Zhiwen (房知溫)), Zhaoyi (昭義, headquartered in modern Changzhi, Shanxi) (Mao Zhang (毛璋)), Xichuan (西川, headquartered in modern Chengdu, Sichuan) (Meng Zhixiang), and Dongchuan (東川, headquartered in modern Mianyang, Sichuan) (Dong Zhang), trying to alienate them from the imperial government; and trying to entice the general Wang Yanqiu the military governor of Guide Circuit (歸德, headquartered in modern Shangqiu, Henan), who was then commanding the imperial defense against Khitan incursions.
However, the main city's walls were secure and difficult to attack, so Wang Yanqiu relaxed his attack, while building a temporary Yiwu headquarters (as Emperor Mingzong put him temporarily in charge of Yiwu), collecting the taxes from the three prefectures (Ding, Qi, and Yi) to supply his troops.
[1] Shortly after, another Khitan army arrived, and Wang Yanqiu and Zhang Yanlang withdrew some distance away from Ding.
Wang Yanqiu also defeated another subsequent wave of Khitan reinforcements, and then put Ding under siege again.
With Khitan forces discouraged by their defeat at Wang Yanqiu's hands, Ding's situation became difficult.
Shortly after, Wang Du's officer Ma Rangneng (馬讓能) opened up the city gates to let the imperial forces in.