Zhu Wen brutally ended the Tang Dynasty and opened the prelude to the troubled times of the Five Dynasties
In March of the fourth year of the Tang Dynasty (907), the city of Luoyang was full of flowers, willow green and pink, however, a great era and a once incomparably powerful dynasty came to an end in the spring when everything recovered.
After clearing the remnants of the Li and Tang royal families and killing important ministers, Zhu Wen, the envoy of the Xuanwu Army, who had the power of the government and the opposition and ruled the world alone, couldn't wait to accept the puppet emperor and Tang Emperor Li Ji's concession, and then ascended the throne in Kaifeng and established the Later Liang.
The gorgeous neon clothes and feather clothes, the melodious slow song and slow dance, after all, can't resist the moment when the song ends; The majestic nine-fold city gate and numerous palace gates cannot stop the moment of prosperity.
The bright moon shines on Chang'an, the autumn wind blows Weishui, the glorious prosperity and the prosperity of the Tang Dynasty are all condensed into eternal memories in the spring of Luoshui. However, the dark chaos and turmoil of the five dynasties and ten kingdoms slowly fell like dust, opened the curtain and lasted for more than 50 years.
Zhu Quanzhong, a name full of irony, was neutralized in four years, and although the Huangchao Rebellion was defeated, it dealt a heavy blow to the Li Tang Dynasty.
The old empire has fallen into tatters, and new powers are beginning to rise. Signs of the country's disintegration were becoming more and more apparent, and the authority of the imperial court was already very weak. In this chaotic situation, in February 885 AD, Tang Emperor Li Yu finally returned to Chang'an, which had been absent for many years.
The once prosperous capital of the Tang Dynasty is now only ruined by buildings and devastation. Outside of Guanxi, the envoys of each town and section were in control of the army, and the imperial court could not decide on their abolition; The taxes of the two rivers and rivers are no longer handed over to **; Only a few states and counties still obeyed Tang's orders.
In that era of separation, Zhu Wen was born in Dangshan, Songzhou in 852 AD, and his father died when he was young, so that he and his mother and brothers could only seek a living in Liu Chong's family in Xiao County.
In the environment under the fence, Zhu Wen's personality gradually became dark and cunning. The hardships and hardships of life made him even more determined to achieve great things.
When Zhu Wen was growing up, the Huangchao Rebellion broke out, and he joined the army, and because of his combat bravery, he was constantly promoted. At the end of 880 AD, Huang Chao's army invaded Chang'an, and Zhu Wen was successively appointed as the pioneer envoy of the southeast camp and the assassin of Tongzhou, becoming an important general under Huang Chao.
However, when Tongzhou fell into the siege of the Tang army, Zhu Wen repeatedly asked Huang Chao for help, but received no response. Seeing the plight of the rebel army, Zhu Wen weighed it and decided to sacrifice Tongzhou and lead the entire army and people to surrender to the Tang Dynasty.
Tang Xizong was overjoyed when he heard the news, not only added an official to the knighthood, but also gave him the title of "Quanzhong", hoping that he could be loyal to the Tang Dynasty wholeheartedly. However, the development of history and Zhu Wen's actions prove that the words "Quanzhong" are simply ironic to him.
In the process of exterminating the Yellow Nest, Zhu Wen made many military exploits, and his power grew day by day. But he was ambitious, and on the surface he was attached to the imperial court, so that he was able to justifiably suppress the rebels and exterminate the local separatist forces that did not obey the Tang court, but in fact, he supported his own army and secretly planned to usurp the throne and stand on his own.
In March 888, Tang Emperor Li Yi died of illness in Chang'an at the age of 27. This son of heaven, who was born in troubled times, seems to have a bad fate and is difficult to escape the torrent of history.
At the beginning of his succession, he encountered the largest Huangchao Uprising at the end of the Tang Dynasty, the rebel army broke through Tongguan, and Xizong was forced to flee to Chengdu for refuge, which was five years.
The reign of Emperor Xizong was full of unrest and turmoil. He was plagued by rebellions and flights, and his body gradually weakened. When he was in Fengxiang, he finally died of illness, ending his life of exile.
Although he retained a certain amount of power and majesty during his lifetime, his fate could not be compared to that of Tang Zhaozong, who succeeded him. If Emperor Xizong had lived a few more years, he might have faced an even more terrifying and severe challenge.
However, the will of heaven could not be disobeyed, and Emperor Xizong died on March 6, and two days later, the emperor's younger brother Li Ye ascended the throne in front of the spirit and became Tang Zhaozong.
The young Emperor Zhaozong was determined to reinvigorate the dynasty, but the challenges he faced were extremely severe. In the first year of his succession, he took advantage of the contradiction between Chen Jingxuan and Wang Jian, the assassin of Lizhou, to send troops to attack Chen Jingxuan, although Chen Jingxuan's power was eliminated, but the land of Xichuan fell into the hands of Wang Jian.
At the same time, although Huang Chao was defeated and died, his remnant party Qin Zongquan occupied Caizhou and became the emperor of Henan, becoming the most powerful rebel group in the Central Plains.
The Tang court was declining day by day, and was unable to crusade, so it could only hope that another feudal town on the border of Henan, Zhu Quanzhong, who was guarding Bianzhou, would come to quell the rebellion. After that, Zhaozong repeatedly increased the number of officials to Zhu Wen, and Zhu Wen also took this opportunity to expand his territory and enrich his troops, and gradually became the most powerful local warlord in the vast areas north of the Yangtze River, the Huai River, and the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River.
Just as Zhu Wen was rising in Huang and Huai, Li Keyong, who occupied Taiyuan, also took advantage of the chaos in the north to raise troops and wantonly annex and conquer in order to expand his own power, which also caused panic among the surrounding separatist forces.
These rebellious ministers and thieves without a king and father were instantly loyal to their bodies in the face of danger, and they asked the court for help, hoping that Zhaozong would come forward to uphold justice. Li Keyong did have a disobedient act, and when the soldiers came to Chang'an, causing Xizong to flee Xingyuan, it was this person who did it.
The young Emperor Zhaozong also wanted to eradicate this biggest hidden danger in the east as soon as possible, so he united with the feudal domains to send troops to attack Hedong. However, the military campaign to encircle and suppress Li Keyong failed again, and after the war, Li Ke sent a letter to the imperial court in strong terms, saying that he would personally enter Beijing to "ask for guilt", and Zhaozong had to dismiss the ** who was in favor of sending troops at the beginning, in order to show weakness and apologize, to calm Li Keyong's anger.
The two successive defeats in the crusade against the feudal towns not only caused the Shence army to ensure the final safety of the Tang Dynasty to lose everything, but also caused the prestige of the Tang Dynasty and *** to fall to the bottom.
Faced with such a challenge, Zhaozong faced unprecedented pressure, and he must do everything he can to save the dying dynasty.
After the siege of Fengxiang for three years, the lack of food in the city, the severe cold and hunger that led to the death of countless people, Li Maozhen could not continue, and he was forced to reach a settlement with Zhu Wen after killing more than 70 eunuchs including Han Quanyu.
In the first month of 1903, Zhu Wen successfully welcomed Zhaozong back to Chang'an. However, the history of the Tang Dynasty has thus turned the darkest and bloodiest page. After moving the capital to Luoyang, Zhu Wen plotted against the king, took over Chang'an, and took control of Guanzhong.
Fearing that the eunuch dictatorship would be repeated and endanger his vital interests, he immediately killed more than 700 eunuchs, leaving only more than 200 eunuchs with low positions and young age for his use.
He also used the false message of the emperor's will to disband the forbidden army controlled by the eunuch group, the "Shence Army". Subsequently, he killed the important official Cui Yinxing and Zheng Yuangui, the secretary of the Criminal Department, for the crime of "despotizing the country and dividing the monarch and ministers".
Under Zhu Wen's cruel methods, the *** institutions of the Tang Dynasty were completely paralyzed. The outer court and the inner court all fell under Zhu Wen's control. At this time, Tang Zhaozong Li Ye had neither army nor power, and he became a real loner, at the mercy of Zhu Wen.
Although Zhaozong obeyed Zhu Wen's words, frequently flattered and promoted officials to the knighthood, this powerful Zhu Wen was not satisfied, he knew that the land of Chang'an was prone to change, and he wanted to expand his sphere of influence.
So, in the first month of the first year of Tianyou, Zhu Wen once again asked to move the capital to Luoyang, and Zhaozong reluctantly agreed. After the emperor left Chang'an, Zhu Wen immediately ordered the destruction of Chang'an's palace and Baisi, and transferred the timber to Luoyang, and the once prosperous Chang'an was reduced to ruins.
On the way to Luoyang, Zhaozong lost the protection of the forbidden army, and Zhu Wen was even more uneasy, secretly killing 200 Xiaohuangmen around the emperor, replacing their identities with children with similar faces in order to monitor the emperor.
Zhaozong didn't know anything about it, and it wasn't until later that he realized that he no longer had any cronies and could only accept the status quo. When the emperor arrived in Luoyang, he found that he had been completely controlled by Zhu Wen, and any speech and action were under Zhu Wen's surveillance.
At this time, Zhu Wen had become a powerful person, but the princes of the feudal towns around him had their own evil intentions, and they were ready to unite against Zhu Wen under the banner of reviving the Tang Dynasty.
However, the titular Tang Emperor has lost the power to command the world, and "coercing the Son of Heaven to order the princes" has also lost its practical significance. Zhu Wen was worried that Li Ye would get out of his control, so he decided to take this opportunity to kill Zhaozong in order to prevent future troubles and completely cut off the hope of others reviving the Tang Dynasty.
In August of the first year of Tianyou (904), Zhu Wen instructed his men to break into the palace at night, kill Pei Zhenyi, the wife of Hedong in the harem, and then break into Zhaozong's Jiaolan Hall and kill him.
Zhaozong fell asleep after being drunk, smelled the sound, realized that the catastrophe was coming, hurriedly got up, only dressed in single clothes, and took refuge around the temple pillars to escape, but was finally caught up and killed by the rebels at the age of thirty-eight.
After a series of bloodbaths, Zhu Wen swept away the obstacles to usurping the Tang Dynasty, ** the emperor, and then pretended to pass on the holy decree and supported Zhaozong's son, only thirteen-year-old Hui Wang Li Ji as the emperor, known as the Tang Emperor in history.
In order to get rid of the charge of rebellion, Zhu Wen skillfully led the army out to fight before he started, and returned to Luoyang after Zhaozong was killed, and cried bitterly in front of the coffin, shouting "You have failed me and made me bear the notoriety of eternity", and confessed to Emperor Wai that he had no intention of ** emperor and usurpation.
However, because of the tragic death of his father and the tyranny of Zhu Wen, the young emperor was so frightened that he lost his soul and became a mud puppet and meat on the chopping board, and even did not dare to have the only proof of the emperor's identity - the era name, and still used the era name "Tianyu" of Tang Zhaozong after succeeding to the throne.
Zhu Wen's heart hides the Pandora's box of **, and once it is opened, the world will be shrouded in cruel and bloody purges. In February 905, Jiang Xuanhui and others held a banquet in Jiuquchi, pretending to mourn the emperor's will and summoning the nine princes of Zhaozong to the banquet.
These Li Tang clansmen were changing their glasses at the banquet, but after three rounds of drinking, Jiang Xuanhui's men suddenly broke into the banquet, strangled the princes to death with ropes, and threw their bodies into the Jiuqu Pool.
This "Hongmen Banquet" ** Li Tang Sect descendant, but Zhu Wen was still not satisfied, and aimed the butcher's knife at the noble ministers who had high expectations in the imperial court. In June of that year, Zhu Wen once again falsely preached the holy decree, and summoned more than 30 important ministers and celebrities of the Tang Dynasty, such as Pei Shu and Cui Yuan, the left servant, and Cui Yuan, all the important ministers and celebrities of the Tang Dynasty were summoned to the White Horse Post in Huazhou, and with the crime of "superficiality", they all killed everyone overnight and threw their bodies into the Yellow River, which is the famous "Disaster of the White Horse Station" in history.
Through these two **, the descendants of the Tang Dynasty royal family and the ** power were wiped out, and all the obstacles to the usurpation of the Zhu Wen dynasty were completely cleared, and it was only one step away from the road to the final ninety-five honor.
Under Zhu Wen's obscenity, in order to save his life, Emperor Wai repeatedly added officials to him, and by December 906, Zhu Wen had been awarded the title of Xiangguo, General Baihua, and King of Wei.
At the same time, he enjoys the treatment of "entering the dynasty without trending, going to the palace with the sword, praising and worshipping the nameless, and having the life of Jiuxi", which can only be had at the end of the dynasty and when the powerful ministers usurped the throne. However, although Zhu Wen went to the table three times and resolutely resigned from King Wei and Jiuxi, he repaired the palace in Bianliang, and his ** heart and transgression have been revealed.
Of course, everyone is clear about Zhu Wen's ultimate goal. In March of the fourth year of Tianyou (907), the young emperor, under constant hints from Zhu Wen and continuous pressure from his cronies, issued an edict in desperation, expressing his willingness to abdicate.
In April, under the persuasion of hundreds of officials, Zhu Wen accepted Emperor Wai's concession and ascended the throne as emperor in Bianliang, with the country name Daliang and the Yuan changed to Kaiping. So far, the Tang Dynasty, which has a history of nearly 300 years, has come to an end under the leadership of "Quan Zhong".
After Zhu Wen usurped the Tang Dynasty and became emperor, although he set up his adopted son Zhu Youwen as the crown prince, his health deteriorated, and several princes were always overwhelmed, which made Zhu Wen very worried. Zhu Wen's second son, Zhu Youqi, the king of Ying, learned that his father had the intention of being in someone else's place, and he was afraid that the throne would fall, so he decided to strike first.
In the second year of Qianhua (912), Zhu Youqi secretly infiltrated the forbidden army in civilian clothes and found his henchman Han Qing to discuss the assassination. At the last moment, Zhu Wen ran frantically in the dark hall to escape for his life, and was caught up by Zhu Youqi's cronies after exhaustion, pierced the abdomen with a sword, and a generation of traitorous male Zhu Wen flowed out of his stomach and fell into a pool of blood, ending his despicable and cruel life in horror and anger.
Everything in the world has cause and effect, Zhu Wen usurped the throne and killed the monarch back then, but now he has tasted similar bitter fruits in the hands of his own son. Soon after Zhu Youzhen usurped the throne, he was eager to get rid of potential competitors, and Zhu Youzhen rebelled, and Zhu Youzhen could only end his life in the palace confinement.
All these turmoil led to the weakening of the Later Liang state until it was destroyed by the Later Tang Dynasty in 923. The turmoil of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms lasted for a long time, and it was not until Zhao Kuangyin established the Northern Song Dynasty in 960 that the chaos in the Central Plains ended for half a century.
It was not until more than 400 years later in the Zhu Ming Dynasty that the Han Chinese dominated the great unified regime in East Asia once again.