October 24, 856 - Li Keyong
A formidable warlord operating at the fracture point of Tang dynasty collapse, Li Keyong built and wielded military power in ways that reshaped the political map of northern China. His consolidation of Shatuo influence in Shanxi made him one of the most consequential regional strongmen of the era, capable of defying central authority while positioning his lineage for what would follow. The principality he established outlasted the dynasty he nominally served, laying groundwork for the Five Dynasties period that defined the century after Tang.
From Wikipedia
Li Keyong (Chinese: 李克用; pinyin: Lǐ Kèyòng) (October 24, 856 – February 24, 908) was a military general and politician of Shatuo Turk ethnicity, and from January 896 the Prince of Jin (Chinese: 晉王; pinyin: Jìn Wáng), which would become an independent state after the fall of the Tang dynasty in 907. Li served as a Jiedushi provincial military governor during the late Tang period and was an instrumental figure in the development of a Shatuo base of power in what is today's Shanxi Province of China. His son Li Cunxu (Emperor Zhuangzong), a child of his concubine Lady Cao, would succeed him as Prince of Jin and eventually become the founding emperor of the Later Tang dynasty in 923.
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