Why did the victory of jointly destroying the Yellow Nest cause Li Keyong and Zhu Wen to fight each other all their lives?
Wen and Yunchao
Sha Tuojun yong used Li Ke in the Tang Dynasty when he was prosperous and vigorous, and he was four years younger than Zhu Wen. And Zhu Wen started with Huang Chao, submitted to the Tang Army, served as a party emissary, and actually did not dare to pursue the defeated Huang Chao rebels, and needed to unite with Li Keyong to act, it seems that Li Keyong looked down on Zhu Wen from his heart. Zhu Wen invited Li Keyong to a banquet at Shangyuan Yi, intending to curry favor with him. As a result, Li Keyong drank wine, and could not help but speak out, deeply dampening Zhu Wen's self-esteem.
Zhu Wen is not a fuel-saving lamp, not only can flex and stretch, but also adapt to changes. He was able to use his service soft to "borrow strength" to deal with Huang Chao, which showed that his heart was deep. However, after being humiliated, he immediately decided to lay down a fierce hand to get rid of Li Keyong, which really made posterity feel unexpected, and it can also be seen that Zhu Wen's actions were decisive. In the first half of this story, the two people were unhappy at the banquet, and Zhu Wen was suspicious or jealous of this, and it was still reasonable; and in the second half of the story, Zhu Wen ambushed Li Keyong that night, and the truth or falsity of this part or the hidden feelings behind it have always been doubted.
Portraits of Emperor Tang and Li Ke
It is said that that night, Li Keyong fell asleep after getting drunk, and Zhu Wen ambushed the soldiers to set fire to the inn, hoping to create a fire accident to kill Li Keyong. The servant Guo Jingba hid Li Keyong under the bed, splashed Water on Li Keyong and told him that he was ambushed and that the inn was on fire. The two managed to escape, and miraculously, suddenly heavy rain poured out the fire outside the house.
Li Ke escaped from the weishi gate (the southern gate of Kaifeng City in Bian Prefecture, named after Weishi County) with his retinue Xue Tieshan and He Huihu outside, and Ai made Shi Jingsi desperately cover for it and was killed in battle. Shi Jingsi was born in the Shi clan of the Ninth Surname of Zhaowu in the Western Regions, and was an extraordinary Xiao Yong, one of the famous Taibao for Li Ke, and was on a par with Li Cunxiao. His sons Shi Jianyao and grandsons Shi Kuangyi and Shi Kuanghan were all famous generals of the Later Tang Dynasty. Even Chen Jingsi, the overseer who had previously recommended the use of the Shatuo Army, also died in this incident.
Li Keyong later returned to Taiyuan to inform Emperor Tang of the matter, requesting an army to be sent to Beizhou, and sent his brother Li Kexiu to lead 10,000 troops to garrison the hezhong region. Emperor Tang continued to persuade him to make peace, and he also added the title of Li Ke as the "King of Longxi County" to appease him. Since then, the Shatuo Li clan and the Zhu Wen family have always had a deep hatred like the sea, and it will not be completed until Later Tang Zhuangzong Li Cunxun completely destroys Hou Liang.
At that time, Li Ke's Shatuo army was just outside the city of Bizhou, Zhu Wen had originally asked for help, at this time, because of the drunken quarrel, what was the benefit to him for killing Li Keyao? With Zhu Wen's always calm mind, it is said that he will not be so reckless and impulsive. Moreover, Yang Yanhong, who participated in the incident, was not Considered Zhu Wen's confidant, and zhu Wen also pushed the responsibility for the accident to him later. That is to say, if Zhu Wen really wanted to make such a decision, he should not look for Yang Yanhong to plot.
However, it is simply said that Yang Yanhong instigated Zhu Wen, such as Zhu Wen later deduced that it was purely Yang Yanhong's own opinion, that he had no grudge with Li Keyong, that he was easy to cause trouble for himself, that it was easy to be unflattering at both ends, and third, that he would act without orders. How to mobilize the Xuanwu Army to form a pursuit and killing of Li Ke with three hundred relatives? It is also difficult to explain the ins and outs of the entire Shangyuanyi incident, and it is obviously untrue to say that Zhu Wen was not involved at all.
It should be known that Li Ke's three hundred relatives, including Shi Jingsi and Chen Jingsi, were almost all dead, and Yang Yanhong's action was not just to send dozens of people to surround the mansion and then set a few fires. If it is only like this, it is possible not to alarm others, but the final evolution of Shangyuanyi is not so simple. Therefore, whether there are other secrets behind this matter is still unknown, and it can only be inferred that it was due to the last Yellow Nest incident.
A comic strip about the Yellow Nest
According to the time node of the Shangyuanyi incident and the collapse of the Yellow Nest, it seems that one or two backgrounds can be inferred, but it cannot be used as a confirmation.
First, Huang Chao was destroyed and killed after Li Keyong pursued him, but Li Keyong did not fully gain great merit, he helped The Wuning Army Shi Pu and Li Shiyue to drive them into Shandong, and finally let the Wuning Army gain great merit. Huang Chao died in mid-June of the fourth year of Zhonghe, when Li Ke used the Shatuo army to turn around, just at this time to pass through Bian Prefecture. Therefore, Zhu Wen received the news that the Wuning Army had received Huang Chao and other desperate ends, and the time of the reception and banquet for Li Ke was June 14—almost at the same time, the next day, Huang Chao was killed by his nephew in the Wolf tiger valley and surrendered to the Wuning Army (however, in today's authoritative history books, the "History of the Old Five Dynasties" was only collected from the Yongle Canon after the Qing Dynasty, and the entire book of Liang Zhuwen was not preserved at all. Instead, it is also based on the scattered basic historical materials after the Song Dynasty, such as the scattered "Yuangui of the Book of The Imperial Household", "The History of the New Five Dynasties", "Zizhi Tongjian", "New and Old Book of Tang", etc., which are no longer the original appearance, and some nodes about Zhu Wen's life, of course, cannot be disbelieved in the history books, but cannot be easily fully believed).
Second, Zhu Wen failed to reap full merit in the Central Plains, only participated in the pursuit of Huang Chao, and surrendered a group of generals, Zhu Wen's status was always an ordinary moderation in the land of the four wars in the Central Plains, and the strength of the troops was not very strong (for example, in the face of Qin Zongquan, he was also more embarrassed). Zhu Wen naturally has a strong sense of crisis, hoping to get a great achievement in order to reuse more and also to strengthen his strength. However, Li Keyong helped Wu Ningjun Shi Pu and others to get the final merit, and Li Keyong was still outspoken when he accepted Zhu Wen's reception to express his friendship, and Zhu Wen's strong dissatisfaction in his heart was not the slightest suspense.
Third, Zhu Wen will set up a banquet to entertain and marry Li Keyong, and there are also shatuojuns used by Li Ke to hope to cooperate in the future, and the reason why Li Ke uses disdain is that there is a role in this arrogant mentality, and then for a while, he reveals all kinds of sarcastic ridicule about Zhu Wen's origin and strength, so as to arouse a sudden change in Zhu Wen's attitude.
The above can only be an analysis of the background of the matter, but the conclusion of the Shangyuanyi incident is very clear, and it is natural that Li Keyong and Zhu Wen will be in the same situation after that.
During the final reign of Emperor Tang, Zhu Wen and Li Keyong had not yet formed a fierce confrontation between the two sides. At that time, Li Keyong was still stabilizing Heshuo, especially Tian Lingzi on the side of the imperial court was very annoyed that Li Keyong occupied the salt pond, and in fact, in his bones, it was also implied that Li Keyong was using to flatten the Yellow Nest, and as a foreign tribe, the various worries and fears of the rise of power were jealous.
And Zhu Wen as xuanwu army emissary, in order to continue to grow his strength, his actual focus is on dealing with Qin Zongquan with Cai Prefecture as the foundation, because both of them are in the heart of Henan, because Zhu Wen performed well, in fact, at the last moment, Tang Emperor Huanzong also relied heavily on Zhu Wen, and constantly increased his authority, such as the Huainan Jiedushi envoy (at that time, the predecessor Huainan Jiedu made Gao Biao killed by his subordinates), the inspection school Taifu, the king of Wuxing County, and other titles were all rewarded, so it was also to stabilize Zhu Wen and want to solve the ambitious Qin Zongquan first.
It has been mentioned before that Qin Zongquan was then proclaimed emperor after the fall of the Yellow Nest, and after successive expansions, his strength was actually above Zhu Wen. In July of the second year of Guangqi (886), Emperor Qin attacked Xuzhou and killed Lu Yanhong (a former confidant of Yang Fuguang of the Zhongwu Army, who had asked Zhu Wen for help at the last moment). In the third year of Guangqi (887), Qin Zongquan concentrated his forces and began to attack Bian Prefecture, and the troops Zhang Yi and Qin Xian each led tens of thousands of horses as the vanguard and stationed them in the northwest of Beizhou.
Zhu Wen preemptively attacked, defeated the Qin army, and won more than 10,000 people. Subsequently, with the support of the Zhu Jin brothers (the Tianping Army was the Jiedu envoy who had previously started huang chao and tried to surrender, and was under the jurisdiction of Yun Prefecture, Cao Prefecture, and PuZhou, which was separated from the former Ziqing JieduShi) Zhu Xuan and Yanzhou's Taining Jiedushi made Zhu Jin brothers support (from Zhu Wen to zhu Jin, Zhu Xuan's brothers broke qin Zongquan, it can be seen that although the previous show of favor to win over Li Keyong was selfish, but the willingness to cooperate with the other side's military strength should be there, not a pure trap). The original envoy of the Taining Army was Qi Kerang, and Zhu Xuan actually brought soldiers and horses to annex the Taining Army when he married, and let his brother Zhu Jin take over (Qi Ke rang's whereabouts are unknown and may be killed).
Portrait of Zhu Wen
At this time, Zhu Wen's coalition forces launched an attack on Qin Zongquan at The Village of Bianxiao on the northern outskirts of The City of Bianzhou, killing more than 20,000 people, and after this battle, Qin Zongquan's army was greatly weakened and had to retreat back to CaiZhou. In the first year of Emperor Zhaozong's succession to the throne (888, this era name was originally set by Emperor Zhaozong of Tang, but Emperor Zhaozong succeeded to the throne in March, so it was basically used by Emperor Zhaozong), Zhu Wen concentrated his forces on besieging Caizhou. Xuanwu's army defeated Qin Zongquan at Longpi (Longpi was a horse-rearing ranch in the middle and late Tang Dynasties, where Tang Xianzongyuan and later destroyed the town of Huaixi Domain, located southwest of CaiZhou), and after several months of siege, Qin Zongquan was sent to Bian Prefecture by the general Shen Cong, and the following year was beheaded by Tang Zhaozong in Chang'an.
Just when Zhu Wen received the help of Zhu Xuan and Zhu Jin's brothers to defeat Qin Zongquan, Zhu Wen's ambitions also began to swell. Zhu Wen's Xuanwu Army's Fenzhou and Song Prefectures had no barriers and were very dangerous territory. However, his strength was not strong enough, and he was very eager to plot the Tianping Army and the Taining Army, so the assistance to Zhu Xuan and Zhu Jin was a temporary interest, and then he looked for opportunities to take action.
Three years before, zhu Wen had used the Zhu family brothers to induce the soldiers of the Xuanwu Army to desert, and Xiu Shu severely accused Zhu Xuan, and Zhu Xuan also sent a resolute reply to deny it. Zhu Wen actually always remembered this, so he sent Zhu Zhen and Ge from the Zhou Dynasty to attack Cao Prefecture under the Tianping Army and execute Shi Qiu Hongli. Following the attack on Puzhou, Zhu Xuan and Zhu Jin were defeated in battle, and the two sides tore their faces, and Zhu Xuan and Zhu Jin later turned to join forces with Li Ke to deal with Zhu Wen.
Tang Xianzong stayed in Chengdu for more than four years and basically escaped the Yellow Nest crisis. However, when this Heavenly Son returned to Chang'an, the Tang Dynasty was basically divided, and once again returned to the situation in which the local forces were bigger, and the Divine Strategy Army of the Imperial Court had been defeated, and there was no longer the strength to reintegrate the four sides. (Many of the large number of northern scholars who followed Emperor Tang into Shu stayed in Bashu, such as Wang Jian, who recruited a lot of them, laying the most critical foundation for the cultural prosperity of Sichuan scholars in the later Song Dynasty.) ）
At that time, Li Changfu was based on Fengxiang (Li Changfu's jiedushi envoy originally belonged to his brother Li Changyan, and when Emperor Tang went to Chengdu, Li Changyan held Yuxingping in the name of Fengxiang Jun, and died of illness in the fourth year of Zhonghe, 884, and Was replaced by Li Changfu. Xingping is the original Shiping County, which was originally subordinate to Jingzhao County, and the famous Tang Dynasty Ma Songyi was on the western outskirts of Xingping City, because the local soldiers and horses made Li Huan support Suzong to participate in the history of peace and security, and changed the name of Xingping to Xingping), Wang Chongrong according to Pu, Shaanxi, Zhuge Shuang according to Heyang and Luoyang, Meng Fangli according to Xing, Huan, Li Ke according to Taiyuan, Shangdang, Zhu Wen according to Bian, Song, and Shui, Qin Zongquan according to Xu, Cai, Shi Pu according to Xu, Si, Zhu Xuan according to Yun, Qi, Cao, Pu, Wang Jingwu according to Zi, Qing, Gao Biao according to Huainan Eight Prefectures, Qin Yan according to Xuan, She, Qian According to Zhejiang East, The imperial court basically coaxed them, except for Gao Biao, who was a slightly better general in the imperial court, and all of them became the actual local feudal forces.
Although Emperor Tang returned to Chang'an, the Divine Strategy Army that the emperor and the imperial court had originally relied on was no longer what it had been, and Tian Lingzi once had an opinion on Wang Chongrong, and tried to unite with Emperor Yingning to make Zhu Mei and Fengxiang Jiedu to make Li Changfu go to war against Wang Chongrong. In March of the fifth year of Zhonghe (885), Wang Chongrong called for help from Li Keyong, and the two of them joined forces to defeat Zhu Mei and Li Changfu and rushed into Chang'an. The Shen Ce army was completely scattered, and Tian Lingzi once again fled with Emperor Xuanzong to Fengxiang in December of the first year of Guangqi to attach himself to Li Changfu.
By the first month of the second year of Guangqi (886), Zhu Mei, Li Changfu, and others suddenly plotted to depose Emperor Xiangzong and planned to make Li Xi the Prince of Xiang the emperor (Li Xi was a relatively distant descendant of the clan, whose great-grandfather was Emperor Suzong's ninth son, Li Xian the Prince of Xiang. Li Xian was a member of the clan who was unable to follow Emperor Xuan out of Chang'an in time due to illness), and at the same time informed Wang Chongrong, who had come to besiege him. Wang Chongrong and Li Keyong both reprimanded Zhu Mei and Li Changfu and plotted to welcome back Emperor Xianzong. Although both of them showed loyalty to Emperor Xianzong at this time, the actual targets were focused on Tian Lingzi, the eunuch who had long controlled Emperor Xianzong.
The root cause of Emperor Xianzong's suffering was: First, Tian Lingzi provoked the invasion of Hedong Salt Pond in Shanxi, which triggered a conflict between the two sides; second, Tian Lingzi took the emperor to flee without authorization, which in turn caused the clan and generals to have ambitions to abolish the establishment. Naturally, all sins are inseparable from Tian Lingzi.
Together with Wang Chongrong, Li Keyong requested Emperor Tang to return to Chang'an with peace of mind, and tied tian lingzi for crimes, and asked emperor Tang to kill tian lingzi. However, after all, Tang Xianzong remembered Tian Lingzi's friendship for many years and only drove him away. Let another eunuch serve as a privy councillor and lieutenant of the Divine Strategy Army, that is, Yang Fugong, the brother of Yang Fuguang, who was very powerful before, and the Yang family brothers and Tian Lingzi have always had contradictions.
Yang Fugong's degree of stubbornness is also an important node that cannot be bypassed when studying the rise in status of the five generations of privy councillors at the end of the Tang Dynasty. Yang Fugong spread the habit of "sticking yellow" at that time, and could directly tamper with the edict issued by the emperor. That is to say, the edicts issued by the emperor were distributed in six books or places by the hands of the Privy Council. Yang Fugong could use the technique of "sticking yellow" according to his wishes, and change the yellow silk such as the number of appointees and the number of money and grain to replace the emperor's will. Although all the ministries and local officials were aware of the eunuch's arrogance, they generally did not easily doubt and question the edict, so Yang Fugong's privy councillor reached an unprecedented level.
Before Tian Lingzi and Emperor Xianzong defected to their brother Chen Jingxuan, they were in Chengdu for more than four years. Except for some ceremonial occasions such as new year festivals and scientific expeditions, Emperor Tang secretly played the same game, alienating the minister of culture and military affairs. The brothers Yang Fuguang and Yang Fugong and the brothers Tian Lingzi and Chen Jingxuan have also always had prominent contradictions. However, Tian Lingzi's position was prominent, and with the support of Chen Jingxuan, Yang Fugong could not compete with Tian Lingzi except for some suggestions to pacify Huang Chao.
This time, due to problems caused by Zhu Mei and Li Changfu, Tian Lingzi's prestige plummeted, and Emperor Tang asked Yang Fugong to replace him, and Tian Lingzi left the emperor and re-entered Xichuan to join Chen Jingxuan. After Yang Fugong ascended to the throne, he passed on the four sides, recruited those who could kill Zhu Mei, and promised to grant the post of envoy to Jiedushi of Yingning, and Zhu Mei's subordinate Wang Xingyu entered the capital division from Fengzhou (that is, in the early years of Qi Prefecture, the northern dynasty and Western Wei changed its name to Fengzhou, and after the middle of the Tang Dynasty, it belonged to Shannan Province) to enter the capital division and kill Zhu Mei, while Li Xi, Pei Che, Zheng Changtu and other hundred officials fled to Dongwei Bridge. Wang Chongrong sent emissaries to greet him under false pretenses, killed Li Xi and his bureaucrats, and sent the first rank to the xingzai.
In March of the third year of Guangqi (887), Emperor Tang returned to Beijing again, and the party had just arrived in Fengxiang, and Li Changfu forcibly stayed in the name of waiting for the repair of the Chang'an Palace. By June, Under the pretext of clashing with his subordinates, Li Changfu's forbidden army guarding the emperor directly attacked Emperor Xianzong's palace, and as a result, the soldiers fled to Longzhou, and Emperor Tang ordered Li Maozhen to pursue him, and Li Changfu was beheaded. After that, the area around Fengxiang and Longyou was controlled by Li Maozhen and became a local domain town, known as an alternative of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms at the end of the Tang Dynasty, and did not belong to either side. In the end, Li Maozhen only nominally submitted to Later Tang Li Cunxun and was crowned King of Qin, but Later Tang did not own its territory at that time. It was not until after Li Maozhen's death that Later Tang Mingzong Li Siyuan managed to collect Fengxiang and Longyou from Li Maozhen's son Li Yan and other descendants of Later Tang.
In February of the fourth year of Guangqi (888), Emperor Li of Tang, who had been displaced many times, was already ill, such as the last time he went out to Fengxiang, emperor Huanzong relied on the newly approached general of the Divine Strategy Army, Wang Jian, to lead the horse all the way, and even so, Wang Jian, tired of walking, also let Emperor Xian sleep on his lap. From Wang Jian's point of view, although there was a component of dedication to serving the emperor deliberately, if you can see from the end of Tang Shuzong, his body has collapsed.
Biography of Emperor Tang
It was easy to return to Chang'an again, and after visiting the Temple, Emperor Tang held a general amnesty and changed the yuan to "Wende". After sending Tian Lingzi away, it seemed that Emperor Li of Tang dynasty had finally begun to understand things. This time the solemn worship of the Taimiao Temple, the emperor seems to feel landless and remorseful about the badness of his ten years of governing the world, and the history books say that he fell ill in March and could not do it for only one week. The only fortunate and comforting thing is that although Emperor Tang escaped several times during his reign, he eventually died at the Wude Hall in the Chang'an Palace, but in fact he was only a young man of twenty-seven years old.
Emperor Tang was undoubtedly the main party to the collapse of the Tang Dynasty, and has always regarded the great calamity that ushered in Wang Xianzhi and Huang Chao soon after his ascension to the throne as a sign of the fall of the Tang Dynasty. But then again, in fact, it should not be completely blamed on Li Yan, who is still a young man. Li Yan was only a teenager when he ascended the throne, and he could not cope with such a difficult mission. There is no cadre around him who can really turn the tide, that is to say, unless he is a genius like Taizong Li Shimin, he may be able to clean up the world by himself in more than ten years. In other words, the second-class figures of Xuanzong Li Longji, Xianzong Li Chun, and Xuanzong Li Chen must also rely on the assistance of powerful people around them to succeed, otherwise it will be difficult to solve the problem during their reign. Li Yan was almost an extremely mediocre ordinary commodity, he grew up in a playful and hedonistic environment, but this disaster was not caused by Tang Xianzong's reign for more than ten years, the author has stressed many times before, it was the last years of Emperor Xuanzong and the years of Tang Yizong that were constantly promoted, and finally after Tang Yizong ascended the throne, it suddenly broke out into a terrifying storm.
The real problem with Tang Xianzong was that because he was a mediocre waste of firewood, when he encountered the crisis of Wang Xianzhi and Huang Chao, there were nearly eight years before and after, which was also the most important age for Tang Xianzong's growth, but he had not been well accepted for reflection. Even if he ran to Chengdu for more than four years, he did not accept the lesson, but continued to be deceived by Tian Lingzi. The Cambridge History of China's Sui and Tang Dynasties commented that "his reign was an era when people were overwhelmed by crises in all aspects, far beyond the ability of the Tang Dynasty to solve." Indeed, not to mention the previous assumption that the emperor of what level in the Tang Dynasty could solve the problem, that is, to alleviate all kinds of contradictions far beyond the ability level of Tang Qizong, and he still had no intention of perking up for a long time, and finally there was no chance to show him a trace of repentance in the Taimiao Temple, and the Tang Dynasty collapsed after only ten years, and the great storm of the Tang Dynasty naturally became the main symbol.
After the chaos of the Yellow Nest, the whole world has once again formed a number of feudal towns, and even some hereditary chiefs have begun to appear, which naturally serves as a condition for the collapse of the Tang Dynasty and the entry into the new Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms. For example, in addition to Shatuo Li's Heshuo, the Wuyue area in Jiangnan has gradually separated from Li Tang, which is also thanks to Huang Chao's qianjiao.
Qian Wei, also an ordinary villager involved in smuggling salt, has practiced a good skill since childhood. In the second year of Qianfu (875), at the age of twenty-four, he joined the township yong recruited by Dong Chang in Shijingdu Town (this statement is only found in the "History of the New Five Dynasties", which says that Dong Chang disturbed the place, and then each of the eight counties formed a township yong to protect himself. The Zizhi Tongjian also refers to Dong Chang as the commander of the Eight Capitals, but the statement is different. If Dong Chang was only a town general, he originally did not have the prestige to order the eight counties to form eight capital soldiers, so the credibility is indeed not very high). Shijingdu belonged to the so-called Eight Capitals of Hangzhou in the late Tang Dynasty, which belonged to the Town Navy Jiedushi in the late Tang Dynasty, while the eight capitals of Hangzhou belonged to the surrounding counties, Shijing belonged to Lin'an County, Qingping was Yuhang County, Yanguan belonged to Yanguan County, Wu'an was Xindeng County, Tangshan was all part of Changhua County, and so on.
At first, Qian Wei participated in the pacification of the localities, and three years later he was promoted to the position of envoy of the Inner Soldiers and Horses and the right post of zhen navy. In the sixth year of Emperor Qianfu of Tang (879), when the Huangchao rebels entered eastern Zhejiang, they attacked Lin'an. Qian Used tactics such as ambush and bluffing to win more with less, so that Huang Chao did not dare to attack Hangzhou. The Huainan Jiedu, who was in charge of pacifying the Yellow Nest at the time, made Gao Biao said to have praised Qian's performance.
In the second year of Zhonghe (882), Liu Hanhong (a native of Yanzhou, Shandong, known in history as a scoundrel in shandong), initially went down to deal with Wang Xianzhi for the Taining army, but Liu Hanhong was dissatisfied with the status quo and actually defected to the rebel army with his subordinates, and later submitted to the rebel army after being recruited by Wang Duo. Succeeding the previous envoy of Eastern Zhejiang, Liu Hanhong insisted on paying tribute to Emperor Tang of Chengdu, and was praised, so his position was relatively stable) And he had a conflict with Dong Chang and ordered his brother Liu Hanyu and Duyu Houxin to garrison Xiling (present-day northwest of Xiaoshan, Zhejiang). Qian Wei led eight soldiers to cross the Qiantang River and attacked secretly, burning his camp. Liu Hanhong also ordered his troops to send Huang Jue and He Su to Zhuji and Xiaoshan, all of which were defeated by Qian. He Su and Xin Yue were killed in battle, and Liu Hanhong fled back to Yue Prefecture (yuezhou) (present-day Shaoxing, Zhejiang) disguised as a butcher.
Portrait of Yang Fugong
In the fourth year of Zhonghe (884), Emperor Wuzong of Tang appointed the eunuch Jiao Jupan as an envoy to Hangyue, hoping that Dong Chang and Liu Hanhong would strike and reconcile, but neither of them would obey the order. In the second year of Guangqi (886), Dong Chang ordered Qian Wei to attack Yuezhou, indicating that after occupying eastern Zhejiang, he would grant Hangzhou to Qian Wei. Qian Wei led his army straight to Cao'e Dai (about forty miles southeast of present-day Shaoxing), took the eastern Zhejiang general Bao Junfu, entered Tunfeng Mountain, and followed him to attack Yuezhou. Liu Hanhong was defeated in Taizhou (present-day Linhai, Zhejiang), and was captured by The Taizhou Assassin Du Xiongsheng for Qian, and was eventually beheaded by Huiji. Dong Chang occupied eastern Zhejiang and claimed to be "aware of the military affairs of eastern Zhejiang", moved the town of Yuezhou, and fulfilled his promise to cede Hangzhou to Qian Wei.
In the third year of Guangqi (887), Dong Chang was appointed as an observer of Eastern Yue Prefecture in Zhejiang, and Jia Qian was made a general of the Left Guard and the Assassin of Hangzhou. Soon, Zhejiang West Province and Huainan Province changed successively. Zhenhai Jiedu caused Zhou Bao to be expelled by his subordinates Liu Hao and Xue Lang and fled to Changzhou, where suzhou was captured by The Town of Liuhe and Xu Yue. The Huainan Jiedu of the Tang Dynasty made Gao Biao imprisoned by the general Bi Shiduo.
Qian Ordered Cheng and Du Ling to attack Changzhou and take Zhou Bao to Hangzhou, but Zhou Bao soon fell ill and died. Du Ling captured Runzhou (陳州, in modern Zhenjiang, Jiangsu) to drive liu hao away and capture Xue Lang. In the first year of Wende (888), Qian Killed Xue Lang to pay tribute to Zhou Bao, and then ordered his brother Qian Lu to defeat Xu Yue, and was appointed by Tang Zhaozong as a defense envoy for Hangzhou. At this time, the situation of Qian Wei's division in the Suzhou and Hangzhou Chang area was basically formed, and after that, Qian Wei gradually gathered talents and his position was very consolidated. Yang Xingmi, another important figure in the Jiangnan region, which had long been at odds with Qian, also formed the climate during the reign of Emperor Tang.
Yang Xingmi was the same age as Qian Wei, a native of Hefei, Luzhou, who was a poor peasant in his early years, and once joined the rebel army of Huangchao, but was captured, and some officials saw that he was strong and strong, so they released him to join the army (this period of birth feels very similar to Wang Jian), and constantly accumulated merits, and the Huainan region where he was located was appreciated by Gao Biao.
In the third year of Emperor Zhongzong of Tang (883), the Tang Dynasty appointed Yang Xingmi as the Assassin of Luzhou. When Huainan Jiedu sent Gao Biao to be attacked by Bi Shiduo, Emperor Gao Biao asked Yang Xingmi to be made the marching Sima and Yang Xingmi led thousands of soldiers and horses to the aid, and when he reached Tianchang (present-day Tianchang City, Anhui), Bi Shiduo had already imprisoned Gao Biao and summoned Qin Yan of Xuanzhou to enter Yangzhou, Yang Xingmi did not succeed in entering Yangzhou at that time, and the Tun army was in Shugang (northwest of Yangzhou City, adjacent to Yizheng and Liuhe, and the famous Slender West Lake was in Shugang).
Bi Shiduo led tens of thousands of troops to attack Shugang, and Yang Xingmi pretended to fail, abandoning the camp and fleeing. Bi Shiduo's soldiers did not carry military food and rushed into the camp to collect military funds. Yang Xingmi returned to attack, Bi Shiduo's troops were defeated, and fled back to Yangzhou City on a single horse, and killed Gao Biao, a generation of late Tang dynasty generals ended up in such a fate, which really made posterity sigh every time when reading history, Gao Biao died at the age of sixty-five.
Portrait of Gao Biao
However, why Gao Biao was imprisoned and killed by his subordinate Bi Shiduo, according to the history books, in his later years, Gao Biao began to superstitiously believe in the jianghu warlocks, and used Lü Yongzhi and Zhang Shouyi to form a new army of 20,000 people in MoXiandu and handed them over to the two, alienating the original old department and causing dissatisfaction among many of his subordinates, such as Lei Man and Zhang Gui, who simply led the troops to leave. Bi Shiduo was a general of the Huangchao rebel army, and was afraid of being framed by Lü Yongzhi and Zhang Shouyi, so he took the opportunity to counterattack, drive the two people away, imprison Gao Biao, and annex the centaurs. Regarding Gao Biao's deeds, the New Book of Tang and the Zizhi Tongjian add many notes to the novel material, although the details are rich, but not all of them are credible. In particular, some of the deeds of Gao Biao and Huang Chao, including details of their attitudes toward Nanzhao, are basically based on the fact that there are many later sources and are often wrong. On the contrary, the author believes that the background of Gao Biao's reverence in his later years is generally credible, because most of Gao Biao's life was spent in The Western Shu River and Huai in Lingnan, and all of the above are The prosperous areas of Taoism, especially in the late Tang Dynasty, the Taoist masters were multiplied, and there was a considerable historical background for obsessing with immortality and being confused in his old age.
When Yang Xingmi heard that Gao Biao was dead, he ordered the whole army to wear white mourning clothes and weep for three days, and then attacked the West Gate, Qin Yan and Bi Shiduo fled to Dongtang, so Yang Xingmi entered Yangzhou.
At that time, Qin Zongquan in Cai Prefecture sent his brother Qin Zongheng to attack Huainan, Qin Yan and Bi Shiduo turned to unite with Qin Zongheng, and Yang Xing closed the city. Soon, Qin Zongheng was killed by the general Sun Ru, who attacked Gaoyou County, which belonged to Yangzhou. Yang Xingmi's protégé Yuan Xian said: "We guard the empty city with newly recruited troops, and most of the generals are Gao Biao's subordinates, and they must have generous benevolence and strong control to convince them." Now Sun Ru's army is in full swing and invincible, and this is the time when the generals hold both ends, choose the strong and weak, and choose the opposite. Hailing Town makes Gao Ba, an old general of Gao Biao, and certainly cannot be used by me. Yang Xingmi summoned Gao Ba with a military order, and Gao Ba led his troops into Guangling (now part of Yangzhou, Jiangsu), and Yang Xingmi wanted Gao Ba to keep Tianchang County (now part of Chuzhou City, Anhui Province, adjacent to Gaoyou, Liuhe, Yizheng, and other places, which used to belong to Yangzhou), Yuan Xi said: "We summoned him because we suspected that Gao Ba had two hearts, can we use him again now?" Besides, if we can defeat Sun Ru, there is no need to use the high bully, if we are not victorious, how can we still have it! It is better to kill the High Bully and annex his troops. "Yang Xing secretly rewarded the army, captured and destroyed Gao Ba, and gained thousands of his men.
Soon, Sun Ru also killed Qin Yan and Bi Shiduo, annexed soldiers and horses, and continued to attack Yang Xingmi. Yang Xingmi wanted to abandon Yangzhou for Hailing (which belonged to Taizhou City, Jiangsu Province), but Yuan Xi said: "Hailing is difficult to defend, and Luzhou is our old land, the city is intact, the grain and grass are abundant, and it can be used as a base for future plots." So Yang Xingmi retreated to Luzhou. After that, Yang Xingmi had been competing with Sun Ru for Huainan, leaving Qian Wei with a chance to breathe, and finally formed a situation where the two families were sitting in Jiangnan separately.
From a general point of view, the turmoil of huangchao in the past few years was indeed an important part of contributing to the collapse of the Tang Dynasty and the formation of the situation of the five dynasties and ten kingdoms, but the emergence of the Huangchao crisis could not be blamed entirely on Emperor Wuzong, because Emperor Li was only twenty-seven years old when he died, and his son was still very young, when Yang Fugong, who was on the throne, was in charge of the Divine Strategy Army, and the chancellor of the court preferred the emperor's brother Li Bao the Prince of Ji as his heir, and only Yang Fugong considered from the perspective of blood relations, and supported Emperor Tang's half-brother Li Jie, who was the future Tang Zhaozong, who was five years younger than Emperor Zhaozong. Unfortunately, this equally young emperor was unable to reverse the tang situation.