The tang dynasty in history is a dynasty with very strong comprehensive national strength, and its existence has left a rich and heavy mark for history, but such a strong dynasty cannot escape the fate of extinction.
The Tang Dynasty experienced the Anshi Rebellion and the Huangchao Uprising, and although these two turmoils did not completely destroy the Tang Dynasty, the tang Dynasty's national capital had shaken the Yuan, and it was difficult to return to the original peak situation.
In the last years of the Tang Dynasty, on the surface, the Tang king still maintained the power of the state, but behind the scenes, it was already controlled by those in power. And these manipulators launched the Disaster of the White Horse Station after planning, and this conspiracy not only buried 9 princes, but also more than 30 loyalists were thrown into the Yellow River, and the Tang Dynasty was completely destroyed!
Zhu Liming fought secretly
The failure of the Huangchao uprising was largely attributed to Li Keyong and Zhu Wen, who were originally peasant armies who revolted with Huangchao, and because of his bravery in battle, he soon became a fierce general in Huangchao's troops.
Although Huang Chao attached great importance to Zhu Wen, Zhu Wen was a person who loved to take shortcuts, and he was very hard in the peasant army on the surface, but behind his back, he wanted to break away from the rebel army and submit to the Tang Dynasty.
In 882, after the Tang Dynasty had experienced several major battles in the rebel army, it was obvious that it had the advantage, at which time Zhu Wen, who had been observing for a long time, saw the opportunity to fight against the water with his confidant general, and beheaded the overseers in the army as a surrender to the imperial court.
At that time, the leader of the Tang Dynasty, Tang Xianzong, was very happy to learn that Zhu Wen had surrendered, and he thought that Zhu Wen was a great general who was brave and brave in battle, so he made him a general of Jinwuwei.
In this way, Zhu Wen led the Tang Army to formally break with the peasant army, because he was familiar with the internal situation of the peasant army, so he led the Tang army to win battles many times and made rich achievements, so the peasant army gradually began to decline.
When the peasant army was dying, Li Keyong led the troops to give it a fatal blow, and finally completely annihilated the peasant army, although Zhu Wen and Li Keyong did not have any friendship at that time, but they were both great generals who had made meritorious contributions in the middle of the war.
However, at a celebration banquet in 884 AD, Zhu Wen and Li Keyong formally married Liangzi, because Li Keyong was drunk, so he scolded Zhu Wen twice at the banquet, and even if zhu Wendang, who was resentful, led the troops to burn Li Keyong's tent camp, if it were not for the cover of the troops, Li Keyong might have been burned alive inside.
In this way, the two formed a great vendetta, but in the end, under the mediation of Tang Qizong, the two of them could not say anything more, but they were wary of each other in their hearts.
After this, Zhu Wen embarked on the road of the Southern Expedition and the Northern Expedition, and by 900 AD, he had become a great general who could shock the imperial court, at this time Zhu Wen was no longer satisfied with being a great general, but set his sights on the throne.
At that time, his biggest opponent was the Li family and those Hedong forces, so a new round of fighting between them began.
Fights in the court
In the court of the late Tang Dynasty, whichever family won the power belonged to whomever it was, and the emperor had become a puppet. "One mountain does not tolerate two tigers", out of this concept, Zhu Wen's measures against the Li family can be described as a thunderous means, leaving no spare energy.
At that time, Li Maozhen and Li Ke also struggled to resist in the face of Zhu Wen's poor pursuit and fierce attack, but in the end they were defeated because Zhu Wen's forces were too strong.
In this battle, Li Maozhen was executed by Zhu Wen, Li Keyong was also a great power, since then the court has become Zhu Wen's court, it can be said that at this time the Tang Dynasty has died in name only, the puppet emperor Tang Zhaozong did not have any real power in his hands, he was also obedient to Zhu Wen, did not dare to have a little slackness, and it was possible to turn over again.
At this time, Zhu Wen was very similar to Dong Zhuo in the Three Kingdoms period, but in any way, he had some advantages over Dong Zhuo.
Driven by ambition, Zhu Wen was determined to start preparing for the establishment of his own dynasty, first using a plot to kill the Tang chancellor Cui Yin, who was a threat to him, and then forcing Tang Zhaozong to move the capital to Luoyang.
Suddenly wanting to leave the Chang'an City that his fathers had built for hundreds of years, Tang Zhaozong naturally disagreed in his heart, but he had no real power in his hands and could only obey Zhu Wen's words.
At this time, Li Keyong, who was on the side of power, could not look at it anymore, and he could not watch the Tang Dynasty fall into zhu Wen's hands, so he united with the tang dynasty's clan relatives to launch a crusade against Zhu Wen.
In the face of a huge crusading army, Zhu Wen first beheaded Tang Zhaozong, made his son Tang Aizong emperor, and then led a large army to fight out of the pass and annihilated the crusading army.
After returning from the triumph, Zhu Wen felt that the time to become emperor was ripe, so he killed Tang Aizong and became emperor himself. But after he became emperor, he also caused the dissatisfaction of many people in the world, especially those ministers who were loyal to the Tang Dynasty, who knew that they did not have the strength to fight against Zhu Wen, so they caused trouble behind their backs.
The White Horse Rebellion
In order to stabilize his dynasty, Zhu Wen had to get rid of these ministers loyal to the Tang Dynasty, especially those who still had illusions about the Tang Dynasty, and Zhu Wen wanted them to know that the Tang Dynasty had completely perished.
But how do you kill the hearts and minds of the people? Zhu Wen set his sights on Tang Zhaozong's sons, and he gathered the descendants of the Tang family together, set up a feast at the Hongmen Gate, and killed them all after three rounds of drinking, especially Tang Zhaozong's nine sons.
Subsequently, Zhu Wen carried out a series of reforms, and anyone who disobeyed himself would be killed by him, so many people succumbed to Zhu Wen's obscenity.
However, there were more than thirty ministers who swore to die and be loyal to the Tang Dynasty, which caused Zhu Wen a headache, and at the suggestion of his subordinates, Zhu Wen slaughtered these loyalists at BaimaYi, and then threw their bodies into the Yellow River, implying that they who regarded themselves as high and high would be wiped out forever, and the Tang Dynasty would perish.
brief summary:
The Tang Dynasty, which was extremely prosperous, finally fell into such a tragic fate of annihilation, which is really regrettable, but on the other hand, it is natural to think about the demise of a feudal dynasty, after all, every dynasty cannot prosper for a long time.
What people did not expect was that the Tang Dynasty was actually defeated by opportunistic people like Zhu Wen, and Zhu Wen, in order to establish his own new dynasty, also killed the Tang clan relatives, especially those ministers who were loyal to the Tang Dynasty.