In October 884, the town of the Kwantung Domain asked Tang Xizong to return to Chang'an. In the first month of the following year, Xi Zong set off to return to Beijing and returned to Chang'an on March 12.
On March 13, he re-ascended the Xuanzheng Palace, granted amnesty to the world, and changed the Yuan Guangqi.
Xi Zong returned to his hometown, but he couldn't get rid of the melancholy in his heart. Although the mountains and rivers are still the same, the empire is in tatters, the feudal towns are divided, and the situation is turbulent. The Book of the Old Tang Dynasty depicts the scene of the feudal towns competing to dismember the Tang Empire when the Emperor returned to Beijing, and could not control dozens of states in Hexi, Shannan, Jiannan, and Lingnan West Dao, and could only control dozens of states.
Qin Zongquan was originally a native of Xuzhou, and because of the military rebellion in Xuzhou, he took the opportunity to take Caizhou as his own, and was later appointed as the envoy of Jiedu by Xuzong. However, in the second year of neutralization, Xi Zong adopted the suggestion of Yang Fuguang, the supervisor of the Zhongwu Army, and appointed Qin Zongquan as the envoy of Feng** Jiedu, and in the third year of neutralization, Qin Zongquan was defeated by Huang Chao to attack and surrendered to Huang Chao.
Qin Zongquan thought that the time was ripe, and led the army to attack the city and plunder the land, and his brutal behavior was outrageous. He expelled the Shannan West Dao Jiedu to make Niu Xuan, occupy Xingyuan, and claimed to stay behind.
Subsequently, his generals Wang Jian, Han Jian and others defected to Tian Lingzi, who adopted them as adopted sons and sent a forbidden army to attack Xingyuan, and Lu Yanhong was forced to abandon Xingyuan and flee to Xiangyang.
Qin Zongquan, Qin Huan, and Zhao Delu joined forces to capture Xiangyang, and Shannan Dongdao Jiedu made Liu Jurong flee to Chengdu. Lu Yanhong then took possession of Xuzhou and claimed to be the queen. The Imperial Court of Xizong had no choice but to appoint him as the envoy of the Loyal Army.
Qin Zongquan's subordinates carried out devastating destruction of Luoyang, killing people without blinking, robbing everywhere, scattering fish and birds, cutting off people, and covering the wilderness. Their brutality is appalling, especially when they salt corpses for military rations.
Why did the Emperor delay for two months and not leave for Beijing until the first month of the first year of Guangqi? One of the reasons is "fear of suzerainty". On the surface, Emperor Xi issued an edict to appease Qin Zongquan on the 2nd, and set off on the 23rd, as if to remove the threat of Qin Zongquan.
However, Qin Zongquan was not only not accepted by Emperor Xizong, but openly proclaimed himself emperor and appointed hundreds of officials when Emperor Emperor returned to Chang'an. The attack and fighting between the feudal towns, the court of Xizong was powerless to stop it, so it could only let it go.
For those who openly claim to be emperors, the Li Tang royal family has always been intolerable. Therefore, Emperor Xi issued an edict to use Wu Ning Jiedu to envoy Shi Pu as the commander of the troops and horses in Caizhou on all sides, and organized a crusade against Qin Zongquan.
At this time, Qin Zongquan had captured more than 20 states in the neighboring provinces, and he was successful everywhere, and there were only two opponents left in Henan, one was Zhu Quanzhong, the envoy of Xuanwu Jiedu, and the other was Zhao Li, the assassin of Chenzhou.
Zhu Quanzhong thought that his troops were ten times stronger than Qin Zongquan, but he was defeated by him many times, and he became angry and mobilized heavy troops to attack Bianzhou. When Zhu Quanzhong heard the news, he hurriedly sent his troops to recruit 10,000 troops from Zhu Zhen across the border to Ziqing, and grabbed 1,000 horses, and his troops increased suddenly.
In May of the second year of Guangqi (886), Zhu Quanzhong defeated Qin Xian's attack in Weishi County, and Guo Yan led 30,000 cavalry to attack Caizhou. In July, Qin Zongquan captured Xuzhou and killed Lu Yanhong, the envoy of the festival.
His younger brother Qin Zongyan since the first year of Guangqi September into the siege of Jingnan more than a year, Jingnan stayed after Zhang Yan insisted on many ways, the city is short of food, a bucket of rice is worth 40,000 yuan, the starving dead pillow, the soldiers eat armor, drum skin to fill the hunger, so that there is no drum to warn, at night by hitting the door to alert the night, but still persevere.
Qin Zongyan couldn't attack for a long time, so he had to withdraw his troops. Zhu Quanzhong took the initiative to attack, preemptively attacked, and personally led his troops to attack Qin Xian's camp. Qin Xian really didn't take precautions, and was broken by Zhu Quanzhong and beheaded more than 10,000 people.
Zhu Quanzhong continued to use the battle with Qin Zongquan to expand his forces, and sent Guo Yan to Heyang, Shaanzhou, Yuzhou and other places to recruit more than 10,000 people and return.
Zhu Quanzhong launched an attack on Zhang Hui's camp on May 3, the third year of Guangqi, and won a great victory. Faced with the defeat of the two generals, Qin Zongquan personally led elite troops from Zhengzhou to support.
However, Zhu Quanzhong mobilized the troops of Yanzhou Zhu Xuan, Yunzhou Zhu Jin, and the Yicheng Army, preparing to fight Qin Zongquan. In the end, Zhu Quanzhong fought a decisive battle with Qin Zongquan in Bianxiao Village, a northern suburb of Bianzhou, on May 7, and defeated Qin Zongquan's army with a brutal ** army of four towns, killing more than 20,000 people.
Qin Zongquan had chosen to flee overnight after the defeat. The Caizhou generals stationed in Luoyang, Xuzhou, Zhengzhou and other places also abandoned the city and retreated to Caizhou after hearing the news of Qin Zongquan's defeat in Bianzhou, and at the same time carried out large-scale burning and plundering.
This battle greatly weakened the power of Qin Zongquan.
At that time, there were battles between feudal towns, and the imperial court no longer distinguished right from wrong for them. So, they began to swallow each other, looking only at the size of the power, and no longer afraid of anything. ”
Zhu Quanzhong and Li Keyong's enmity against each other seems to be a personal grudge on the surface, but in fact it is an inevitable contradiction between two feudal towns with expansionist ambitions. Zhu Quanzhong gradually conquered the north of the Huai River, Hebei and parts of Guanzhong, and established the Later Liang; Li Keyong established a base in Shanxi and confronted Zhu Quanzhong in the north and south.
Although both sides regard each other as a thorn in their side, they are fledgling, and neither can eat anyone for a while. Each of them used stratagem and force, and took advantage of the contradictions and struggles between feudal towns or between feudal towns and the imperial court to expand their power.
In the situation at that time, Zhu Quanzhong took the two towns of Yan and Yun in the east as the first target.
In the confrontation with Qin Zongquan, Zhu Quanzhong twice received assistance from Zhu Xuan and Zhu Jin brothers in Yan and Yun Prefectures. However, once the threat of Qin suzerainty was lifted, Zhu Quanzhong began to consider how to incorporate the two states into his own territory.
The help of the Zhu brothers has made him unknown, and he needs a way to disguise his intentions. At this time, his advisor Jing Xiang came up with a plan, suggesting that he send soldiers to pretend to defect into the territory of the Tianping Army, and blame it for the fault of the Zhu brothers in order to provoke them.
The Zhu brothers were outraged by this, and replied that Zhu Quanzhong used this as an excuse to send his generals to attack them, and finally won the victory. In addition, Zhang Quanyi played an important role in supporting Zhu Quanzhong's domination of the Central Plains economically.
He once participated in the Huangchao Uprising and served as the secretary of the Ministry in the Great Qi regime, and later under the leadership of Zhuge Shuang, the envoy of the Heyang Festival, he was gradually promoted to the assassin history. In October of the second year of Guangqi, Zhuge Shuang died, and Zhang Quanyi, with the support of Li Keyong, was appointed as Henan Yin.
He led his troops into Luoyang, saw the tragic situation after the city was burned and plundered by Qin Zongquan and Sun Ru, and decided to take measures to restore agricultural production. He appointed 18 people as "generals" and dispersed them to villages in 18 counties of Luoyang, persuaded them to teach agriculture, and at the same time implemented a policy of leniency, punishing only those who killed people with death, and only slapping the board for other crimes, and at the same time not collecting taxes.
These measures attracted fugitive peasants to return home.
Zhang Quanyi himself personally supervised the farming and mulberry classes, and often went out to patrol the countryside during the farming season, and when he saw that the crops were growing well, he dismounted and went to the field with his wingmen to carefully **, and summoned the farmer, gave him wine and food, and comforted him.
When it was time for the harvest, he sometimes went to the harvest house in person, called out the whole family, young and old, and rewarded them with tea, colorful clothes, and other things. Zhang Quanyi's love and concern for agricultural production even exceeded his preference for sound and music, and he admired the good wheat cocoons with a smile, while mercilessly punished the cultivators for the abandoned fields and the crops that did not grow well.
Zhang Quanyi not only cares about agricultural production, but also promotes a culture of mutual help among neighbors. If there is a lack of manpower or power, he blames their neighbors and urges them to help each other.
After several years of operation, the urban and rural areas of Luoyang gradually prospered, and the population increased to 50,000 or 60,000. Zhang Quanyi brought great economic benefits to Zhu Quanzhong by restoring agricultural production in the Luoyang area.
However, the chaos in the Hebei domain also made Zhang Quanyi see the weakness and incompetence of the Tang Dynasty's centralized power. He took advantage of all kinds of contradictions, and became a powerful vassal in the north.
However, he also understands that in order to protect himself, he must rely on the power of other feudal towns. Therefore, his political marriage with the king of Yiwu Jiedu was actually a way to seek benefits.
In the battle of Hebei Domain, Li Ke's strength played a decisive role. He helped Wang Chucun to relieve the danger of Dingzhou, and at the same time, because of the battle of the feudal town, the power of Lu Longjun's envoy was transferred, and Wang Quanzhong called himself Lu Longliu.
Although the court of Xizong recognized Wang Quanzhong's status, the powerlessness of the Tang Dynasty's centralization of power made Chang Jun's recital only an empty word.
Despite this, the henchmen of Xizong and Tian Lingzi were still terrified and afraid"This is spread in the feudal town, will it not cause its suspicion! "In the end, Chang Jun was demoted to death, just to cater to the strong domain.
This fully reveals that the fate of the Tang Empire being a strong vassal cannot be escaped.