In 875, Wang Xianzhi led an uprising in Henan, Huang Chao responded in Shandong, and the vigorous peasant revolt of the late Tang Dynasty began. In the 7-year-long unrest, two people stood out, one was Zhu Wen (Later Liang Taizu) and the other was Li Keyong (Later Tang Taizu, posthumously).
Zhu Wen was a fierce general under the command of Wang Xianzhi and huangchao rebels, and he was also an opportunist. At the critical moment, he led his troops to surrender to the Tang Dynasty, and in turn surrounded and suppressed Huangchao.
Li Keyong was a descendant of Shatuo, whose ancestors had been given the surname Li by Emperor Xuanzong of Tang, when the Huangchao rebellion, the Tang army was vulnerable, in order to resist the Tang Dynasty, Tang Emperor had to lead the Shatuo army to suppress Huangchao, the result was easy to send the gods to the gods, Li Ke used The King of Qin to succeed, he kidnapped Tang Zhaozong.
Under the suppression of Zhu Wen and Li Ke with their two, the Huangchao Uprising failed, and subsequently, a mountain did not tolerate two tigers, and Zhu and Li began a long confrontation. Later, Zhu Wen defeated Li Keyong. Li Ke died of illness, and Zhu Wen held military power in his hands, becoming the largest vassal of the Tang Dynasty.
First, the confrontation between "clear flow" and "turbid flow"
After Zhu Wen defeated Li Keyong and became the first powerful minister, Tang Zhaozong, under the pressure of Zhu Wen, made Zhu Wen the envoy of the Four Towns Festival, and Zhu Wen's power fell to the world, with the intention of threatening the Son of Heaven and ordering the princes. But at this time, Tang Zhaozong was in the hands of Li Maozhen in the Fengxiang Festival. In 902, Zhu Wen brought troops into Guanguan, defeated Li Maozhen, and completely controlled Tang Zhaozong in his own hands, forcing Tang Zhaozong to move the capital to Luoyang.
Two years later, Zhu Wen suspected that Tang Zhaozong was "disobedient", so he assassinated Tang Zhaozong and made Tang Zhaozong's son Li Li emperor, known as Emperor Tang. Emperor Tang Wasting was just a puppet, when the Tang Dynasty royal family was weakened, Zhu Wen led his cronies to occupy major positions, and it was also humiliating to Emperor Tang, and many Qingliu officials in the DPRK were indignant. There was a "clear stream" and there was a "turbid stream", at that time, Zhu Wen's power was in the sky, many speculators tended to be inflamed and attached to the situation, and Zhu Wen was formed, forming a "turbid stream", and the two fought openly and secretly in the court, and confronted each other, either the east wind overwhelmed the west wind, or the west wind overwhelmed the east wind.
Thus, the dispute between "clear stream" and "turbid flow" began.
Prelude to the Scourge: The Nine Kings Are Killed
The leader of Qingliu was Pei Shu, the chancellor of several dynasties, and the representative figures of Turbidity were another chancellor, Liu Xuan, and Li Zhen, a military master under Zhu Wen.
The trigger was a personnel transfer in 905 AD, because the position of Secretary of the Taichang Temple was vacant, and Zhu Wen proposed that zhang Tingfan, a confidant, should take the position. Pei Shu, the chancellor, believed that the secretary of the Taichang Temple was in charge of ceremonies and foreign affairs, and since ancient times, it was a civilian official, while Zhang Tingfan was a military general, which was not very appropriate. Zhu Wen was very happy that the prime minister refused, so he moved his killing heart.
At the same time, another prime minister, Liu Xuan, had a very stiff relationship with Pei Shu, and Liu Xuan used the change of stars to say to Zhu Wen: "This is too many people in the world full of resentment, and we should kill them to block the disaster." Li Zhen also believed: "Those Qingliu people who are trying to destroy us into a big thing should kill them all!" ”
(Li Zhen) said to Quan Zhong: "This generation often claims to be a clear stream, and it is advisable to throw itself into the Yellow River and make it turbid!" Quan Zhong smiled and followed.
(From the Zizhi Tongjian)
Li Zhen said to Zhu Wen, "Aren't they boasting of clear streams, so they might as well throw them into the Yellow River and turn them into turbid currents." ”
Before clearing Qingliu, Zhu Wen planned to do a big thing to deter the courtiers. At that time, there were still nine princes in the court, and In order to achieve his ambition to become emperor, Zhu Wen first designed to remove the nine princes. Zhu Wen asked the Privy Counsellor Jiang Xuanhui to set up a banquet at Jiuqu Pond and invite the nine princes to the banquet in the name of the Sacrifice of Emperor Tang. The youngest of the nine princes was only nine years old, and all of them came stupidly, and after they had drunk enough to eat, Zhu Wen sent someone to strangle them all and throw them into the pool. The Feast of the Nine Songs has become a famous banquet of "killing the Nine Kings with one feast", which is even more dangerous than the Hongmen Feast.
The death of the Nine Kings made those Qingliu panic, they seemed to have lost their spiritual support and began to panic, at the same time, Zhu Wen began an intensive mobilization of personnel, demoting Pei Shu, DuGu And others from the court, and appointing his own cronies to the position of prime minister.
Third, the disaster of the White Horse Station: Qing flows into the Yellow River
Although the Qingliu were degraded one by one, Zhu Wen was still uneasy, and 3 months later, he launched a massacre plan that horrified history.
In June 905, Zhu Wen asked Liu Xuan, Jiang Xuanhui, and others to issue an order in the name of Emperor Ai of Tang, and let Pei Shu, Du Guzu, and more than 30 other Qingliu all gather at Baima Yi (白馬驿, in present-day Hua County, Henan), and although these Qingliu knew that there would be a trick in this trip, they were loyal to the Tang Dynasty, and Emperor Tang let them go, and they had to go. When they arrived in Huazhou, Liu Xuan, Jiang Xuanhui and others had already led troops to ambush here, and more than 30 unarmed Qingliu officials were killed in this way, and all their bodies were thrown into the Yellow River.
This is the most tragic, vicious and tragic massacre in history, because it happened at the White Horse Station, so history calls it the "Disaster of the White Horse Station".
And the general director of this massacre plan is Zhu Wen. After more than 30 Qingliu lost the Yellow River, their corpses were extremely similar to the fate of the Tang Dynasty, no matter how big the waves of the Yellow River were, these corpses could no longer be the master, and could only float with the waves.
After these people were killed, Zhu Wen was still angry, and he gave the long-retired Sikong Pei Zhen to death, and liu xun, a guest of the prince who had returned to his hometown, Li Yangu, and others who had returned to their hometowns were all suppressed, and those Tang dynasty ministers who were unwilling to bow to Zhu Wen were swept away by Zhu Wen like chopping melons and cutting vegetables. The scourge of the White Horse Is a terrible word.
Fourth, after entering the Qinglou, I still want to set up a memorial arch
After all, Zhu Wen wanted to be the emperor, and he did not want his cruelty to be recorded in the history books in the future, so he began to plan to "throw the pot", in other words, to unload and kill the donkey. He declared to the outside world that he did not know about the killing of these Qingliu, but was done privately by Liu Xuan, Jiang Xuanhui and others.
In December 905, Zhu Wen began to arrange "charges" for Liu Xuan and Jiang Xuanhui:
Xuan Hui privately served Empress Dowager He of Jishan Palace, and made an alliance with Liu Xuan and Zhang Tingfan to seek the prosperity of Tang Zuo.
That is to say, Zhu Wen declared to the outside world: Liu Xuan, Zhang Tingfan and others co-opted Empress He, and together with Zhang Tingfan and others, they swore an oath to restore the Tang Dynasty. Therefore, Empress He was deposed as a Shuren, then given to death, and Liu Xuan was demoted to dengzhou assassin, then killed, and then Jiang Xuanhui was secretly killed, and Zhang Tingfan and others were also divided into corpses by five horses.
In this way, the "murderer" of the White Horse Yi Disaster was all killed by Zhu Wen. The so-called mantis catching cicadas, the yellow bird is behind, Liu Xuan, Zhang Tingfan and others are certainly dead, but their deaths, after all, can not wash away Zhu Wen's sins. Since Zhu Wen had entered the Qinglou, he could no longer erect a memorial arch.
Fifth, the corpse of Qingliu sank the Yellow River, and the Tang Dynasty died from then on
After one massacre after another, the forces loyal to the Tang Dynasty were finally completely eliminated, and even the executioners who killed people were cleaned up by Zhu Wen, so that Zhu Wen, the black hand behind the scenes, became a "hero". Emperor Tang lost his mother, lost his relatives, and lost his court dependencies, and in desperation, he could only follow Zhu Wen's wishes and seal Zhu Wen as Xiang Guo and add Jiu Xi. Where is Juvin willing to meet?
In 907, Zhu Wen forced Emperor Tang to ascend the throne, Zhu Wen ascended the throne, and Emperor Tang was demoted to the position of King of Jiyin, and later poisoned by Zhu Wen. Zhu Wen ascended the throne, changed the name of the country to Liang, the curtain of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms was opened, and the Tang Dynasty died!
6. Impact and Warnings
Zhu Wen used his own butcher knife to slaughter all the opponents, the disaster of the white horse station caused the Tang Dynasty to destroy many excellent cultural traditions and morals, once the soul of the loyal subjects was cleaned up, it was bound to produce unpredictable consequences, and the Tang Dynasty could not be maintained.
The scourge of the white horse, Zhu Wen's dehumanization of the practice, was pointed out by thousands of people. After Zhu Wen ascended the throne for 6 years, he was killed by his son's own hands, which can also be regarded as self-inflicted.