The Tang Dynasty is an era that many people yearn for, but looking at the ancient dynasties and dynasties, although each feudal dynasty has strongly claimed to be able to continue for thousands of generations, in fact, each dynasty will inevitably decline in the end, even if it is as strong as the Han and Tang Dynasties, it cannot escape this law.
The Tang Dynasty is the dynasty with the strongest sense of identity, and we still regard ourselves as Tang people, but although the Tang Dynasty was once strong and powerful, it welcomed the world with an open mind, and cast the world of great rule such as the rule of Zhenguan and the prosperity of the Kaiyuan Dynasty, but the water overflowed, and the development of the Tang Dynasty began to decline after reaching its peak. The Anshi Rebellion and the Huangchao Rebellion directly dragged down the great Tang Dynasty, and the person who really ended the glory of the Tang Dynasty and buried the Tang Dynasty in the grave of history was Zhu Wen.
After the Tang Dynasty passed through the rule of Zhenguan and the rule of Yonghui, its national strength increased year by year, and when Tang Xuanzong Li Longji reigned, it created a Kaiyuan prosperous era, which made the development of the Tang Dynasty reach its peak. In the early days of his reign, the Tang Dynasty presented a prosperous and prosperous scene under the vigorous rule of Li Longji, but in the face of praise from the DPRK and the people, Tang Xuanzong in his later years was immersed in the glory he had created and could not extricate himself and began to covet pleasure.
During the reign of Emperor Xuanzong of Tang, the degree of moderation strengthened its power unprecedentedly, not only to recruit and train troops independently, but also to have a high influence on local finances and personnel, which was also the main reason why the Tang Dynasty faced the division of feudal towns in the later period. The Anshi Rebellion, the turning point of the Tang Dynasty's transition from prosperity to decline, was triggered by the rebellion of An Lushan against the imperial court by the Three Towns Festival, and since then, the national strength of the Tang Dynasty has gradually declined, and no matter how hard the successor emperor tries, he will not be able to regain his former glory.
In addition to the emissaries of Jiedushi, the eunuch group that was severely suppressed during the Tang Taizong period also began to come to the foreground at this time, and the eunuch Gao Lishi was a very representative figure, even the princes and princesses saw him and called him "Awung", and in the late Tang Dynasty, the eunuchs were more in charge of the power of the government, and many emperors were able to ascend the throne under the support of eunuchs.
In the late Tang Dynasty, the politics were corrupt, there were eunuchs stirring up trouble inside, there were feudal towns outside, they did not listen to the dispatches of the imperial court, and what was worse was that the peasants rose up one after another when they did not have enough to eat. Even if the situation deteriorated to this extent, Tang Zhaozong Li Ye still wanted to revive the great tang dynasty, and at the beginning of his reign, he began to recruit soldiers on a large scale and formed a team of 100,000 people.
Perhaps Li Ye's desire for revival was too eager, and when the imperial court was not fully prepared, he impulsively made Li Ke show his fangs to the stronger degree, and as a result, he was defeated and the prestige of the imperial court was once again attacked. Later, he sent troops to attack Li Maozhen, the envoy of Fengxiang Jiedushi, but as a result, he was beaten so that he could not find the north, and could only humiliate and order several important courtiers to behead each other to make reparations, and from then on, Tang Zhaozong was no longer able to use troops to various self-respecting feudal towns.
Tang Zhaozong Li Ye saw that he could not beat the outside, and his mind turned back to the palace, and the moderation made it impossible to provoke, and these eunuchs in the palace could still punish themselves. However, Tang Zhaozong underestimated the strength of the eunuch clique, his throne itself was obtained with the help of eunuchs, the forbidden army guarding the safety of the palace was still in the hands of eunuchs, and the difficulties encountered in trying to eradicate the eunuchs' forces would be very great.
Tang Zhaozong, who wanted to be a Ming Emperor, still gave his hand to the eunuchs, but after more than a hundred years of development, the eunuch group also had various entangled relationships behind him, and for Tang Zhaozong's practice of crossing the river and demolishing the bridge, the eunuchs naturally would not sit still, so they imprisoned Tang Zhaozong twice and wanted to depose him and establish another emperor. The chancellor Cui Yin saw that this was not okay and wanted to save the emperor quickly, so he asked Zhu Wen to lead his troops into the customs, which although this move removed the eunuch, which was a cancer of the imperial court, but also attracted Zhu Wen, the culprit who caused the demise of the Tang Dynasty.
Zhu Wen was also a poor peasant in the early days, and with the early death of his father, he could only live a life under the fence with his mother, and the young Zhu Wen felt the warmth and coldness of the world in advance. As an adult, Zhu Wen joined the Huangchao rebel army to rebel against the Tang, but Zhu Wen also knew how to judge the situation, and when he found that the rebel army had a tendency to decline, he immediately surrendered to the Tang Dynasty, and he was also reused by the emperor Tang Qizong because of his bravery in battle, and his position was also promoted step by step, and he was even named the king of the county.
During the reign of Emperor Zhaozong of Tang, the eunuchs rebelled, and Zhu Wen led his troops to eliminate the eunuchs and bring Emperor Zhaozong back to Chang'an. Although the eunuchs who interfered in the government had been eliminated, Zhu Wen would not be easily sent out, his eyes were already on the emperor's position, not to mention that at this time the emperor was in his hands, and he could completely imitate Cao Cao to blackmail the heavenly son to order the princes.
After Zhu Wen destroyed a pass in Chang'an, he moved the capital to Luoyang with Tang Zhaozong and stepped up the pace of forcing the emperor to take the throne, but what was unexpected was that Tang Zhaozong had just shown his dissatisfaction with the Zen position, and Zhu Wen ordered someone to assassinate him. Unfortunately, Tang Zhaozong had the heart to revitalize the Tang Dynasty, but he was unable to return to heaven, and he died at the age of only 38.
According to the Old Book of Tang, "And Emperor Yingjie was not a group, and all the loyal parties were in the west, and the worries changed in the middle, so the emperor was extremely popular." The emperor was drunk, and the smell rose suddenly, Shi Tai entered the Pepper Hall with a sword, and the emperor walked away in a single robe, too chasing and killing. Emperor, Chinese New Year's Eve eight. ”
After getting rid of Tang Zhaozong, Zhu Wen made Zhaozong's son Li Yu the new emperor, the last emperor of the Tang Dynasty, and in order to eliminate the consequences, Zhu Wen also came up with a plan to completely eliminate Tang Zhaozong's sons. In 905, Zhu Wen hosted a banquet at Jiuqu Pond for the remaining 9 sons of Emperor Zhaozong except Emperor Aizong of Tang, and the princes were also well aware that there was no good banquet, but they were forced by Zhu Wen's power to go to the banquet.
Sure enough, at the banquet, Zhu Wen ordered the 9 princes to be strangled to death and throw their bodies into the Jiuqu Pool. Two months later, Zhu Wen killed more than 30 important ministers loyal to the Li Tang royal family at Baima Yi, and in order to destroy the corpses, Zhu Wen threw the corpses of the ministers into the Yellow River, which is the famous "Disaster of Baima Yi".
According to the Zizhi Tongjian, "Shi Quanzhongjushu and more than thirty others and courtiers degraded officials at Baima Yi, killed them overnight, and threw their bodies into the river." ”
After removing all obstacles, Zhu Wen finally stopped hiding his ambition to become emperor, and forced Tang Aizong to give him the throne in 907 AD, and the Tang Dynasty, which had been established for nearly 300 years, was destroyed. Zhu Wen established Hou Liang for Later Liang Taizu, but during the reign of Zhu Wen, who stole the throne, he not only coveted pleasure, but also liked to kill innocents indiscriminately, and did things that many gods were indignant about, and in just four years, Zhu Wen died at the hands of his own son, perhaps this is the "retribution" that Zhu Wen got from destroying the Tang Dynasty.
As the saying goes, many unrighteous deeds will kill themselves, Zhu Wen is unjust to kill the king, and his son is not filial to his father. However, Zhu Wen's usurpation of the Tang Dynasty triggered the Period of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms that devastated the lives of the Central Plains, which brought deep disasters to the ordinary people, and perhaps this is one of the reasons for Zhu Wen's reputation in history.
References: Zizhi Tongjian, Old Book of Tang
(Picture from the Internet, invasion and deletion)