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One night in August 904, Chang'an City was shrouded in darkness. Tang Zhaozong was resting in the Empress's Jiaolan Hall.
Suddenly, there was a noise outside the door, and the door was immediately kicked open.
Tang Zhaozong was shocked and looked at several officers covered in blood in front of him who were holding butcher knives to him. Tang Zhaozong hurriedly asked:
"Ai Qing, what happened to breaking into the palace late at night?"
One of them casually threw the head of Tang Zhaozong's concubine Pei Zhenyi in front of him, and Tang Zhaozong was paralyzed in fright when he boarded.
"On the order of King Liang, I specially invite the saint to go on the road."
One of the officers showed his slaughtering knife and walked towards Tang Zhaozong.
Tang Zhaozong immediately got up and followed Qin Shi Huang to dodge around the pillars of the palace, but the officer was quick and chased after Tang Zhaozong's back with a knife, and Tang Zhaozong immediately fell in a pool of blood.
The officer calmly took the emperor's first rank and rushed to the Liang palace to ask for merit.
Fallen scholars emerged
In 874 AD, the people of Shandong were suffering from a rare drought. There was no harvest in the farmland, and the people had even eaten the grass roots on the ground.
However, the local official, on the grounds that the imperial court "continued to use troops and became more and more urgent", refused to report the disaster, intending to let the people survive on their own.
So, Wang Xianzhi, the leader of the local salt sellers, stood up, determined to take risks and lead the people of Shandong to seek a way to survive.
Soon, he gathered more than 1,000 hungry people in Changyuan County to rise up, storming the prefecture and robbing the rich and helping the poor. Wang Xianzhi's deeds soon reached the ears of a down-and-out scholar.
This scholar had traveled to the capital Chang'an many times to take the imperial examination, and was confident that reading poetry would earn a reputation so that he could serve the imperial court.
However, the cold reality left him with tried-and-true ridicule, and his heart gradually changed from longing to hatred, and he saw clearly the weakness of the imperial court and the collusion and corruption of officials.
He knew very well that with his origins, he would never be able to squeeze into the officialdom of the Tang Dynasty, and his full belly was also doomed to nothing.
As a result, he made a decision that changed his life and even Chinese history, and he led his people to rebel in response to Wang Xianzhi, and quickly gathered thousands of people around him.
In June 875, he led his troops to join Wang Xianzhi.
Wang Xianzhi's strength has been further strengthened, so he is very happy.
From then on, this young man named Huang Chao has become Wang Xianzhi's best partner, and the two will join forces to unveil the curtain of the demise of the Tang Dynasty.
The addition of Huang Chao helped Wang Xianzhi establish a higher political program, and their rebel army immediately opened warehouses and released grain every time they captured a city, so the prestige of the rebel army spread among the people, and the troops continued to recruit young and middle-aged troops, and their strength was further expanded.
In the autumn of 876, the rebel army met in the Central Plains and prepared to show its strength.
At this time, the Tang Dynasty was weakening and local warlords were doing their own thing, and the central government could not effectively organize all forces for pre-war deployment and prevention.
Therefore, most of the cities in Henan and Anhui almost fell in the face of the huge rebel army. Seeing that the rebel army was approaching the eastern capital Luoyang, the imperial court was really anxious.
Prime Minister Wang Duo pondered hard and finally had a plan.
He asked the 13-year-old little emperor Tang Yuzong to issue an edict to recruit Wang Xianzhi, and as long as Wang Xianzhi was moved, he could disintegrate the rebel army from within.
The little emperor agreed to Wang Duo's suggestion, so he recruited Wang Xianzhi with a mid-level official rank such as "Zuo Shen Zhi Army Supervising the Royal History". Wang Xianzhi was born in poverty, and really could not resist the temptation from the imperial court, and immediately planned to surrender.
Huang Chao was shocked when he heard the news, and immediately rushed to advise Wang Xianzhi.
The angry Huang Chao punched Wang Xianzhi and roared:
"If you surrender, what will we people do? Are so many people rebelling to find an idle job for you? ”
Wang Xianzhi was ashamed when he heard this, and tore up the letter of appointment sent by the imperial court in front of Huang Chao.
However, Wang Xianzhi had a mustard for Huang Chao in his heart, and he began to think of leaving Huang Chao and taking his own path, and his heart still longed to be able to accept Zhao'an and eat the imperial food of the Tang Dynasty.
As for what his subordinates will do in the future, he can't care so much.
Soon after, Wang Xianzhi really led his troops and Huang Chao to part ways and embarked on another road of no return.
The ultimate villain is here
Wang Xianzhi's departure did not discourage Huang Chao, and Huang Chao has become more and more courageous since then, continuing to carry out his own path of struggle.
Wang Xianzhi, who lost Huang Chao's assistant, suffered constant military blows, and his power was constantly weakened, and he was finally beheaded by 50,000 by the Tang general Zeng Yuanyu in the area of Huangmei, and he was also killed, and the first rank was sent to Chang'an.
After Wang Xianzhi's death in battle, the rest of the people were annexed to Huang Chao, and Huang Chao became the leader of the most powerful peasant army in the late Tang Dynasty.
In order to boost morale and show his determination to fight the imperial court, Huang Chao proclaimed himself the "Soaring General", and modeled the Tang Dynasty in establishing a year name and establishing a hundred officials.
At this point, Huang Chao's ultimate mission was clearly to overthrow the Tang Dynasty and establish a new national regime.
After that, in order to avoid the Tang army with superior strength on the battlefield in the Central Plains, Huang Chao adopted the method of mobile warfare and began to gradually clear the local military strength of the Tang Dynasty, and he swept his division south to take Lingnan.
At this time, Huang Chao was not completely sure of attacking the important town of Guangzhou, so he was determined to test his opponent, and Huang Chao said that if the imperial court could give him the official position of Tianping Army, he would be willing to turn the war into a victory.
However, the imperial court refused.
Seeing the tough attitude of the imperial court, Huang Chao estimated that Guangzhou would be difficult to take for a while, so he took a step back and said again that as long as he was appointed as the envoy of Guangzhou, he was willing to put down the butcher knife.
But this time, the imperial court still refused.
In the eyes of the imperial court, Wang Xianzhi has already passed on the nine sides, what is the yellow nest? Sooner or later, it will also be necessary to kill them all.
Huang Chao was rejected twice, and his face was very unbearable, and he couldn't help but be angry, so he immediately mobilized before the war and led an army to storm the city of Guangzhou, and in September of that year, Guangzhou, a major tax town of the Tang Dynasty, fell.
Huang Chao did not stay in Guangzhou for long, he immediately swept north, up the Shuoxiang River, and in October the Changsha troops pointed directly at Hubei.
In 880 AD, Huang Chao's army was so powerful that it swept half of China in one go.
In November, Huang Chao conquered the eastern capital Luoyang, and in early December, Tongguan fell, and the Huang Chao army at this time was like the Anshi rebels of the year, staring at Chang'an City, the capital of the Tang Dynasty.
Tang Yuzong fled in a hurry, leaving the great ancient capital behind him to Huang Chao.
After Huang Chao captured Chang'an, he began to work on the matter of claiming the emperor, but relaxed his management of the army.
The soldiers were able to observe discipline at first, but after a few days looking at the bustling Chang'an City, the soldiers' desire could no longer be suppressed.
As a result, Chang'an City fell into a catastrophe.
Soldiers looted everywhere, killed and set fires, and the streets and alleys burst into flames, and the people of Chang'an City seemed to be in purgatory, almost slaughtered overnight.
Although Huang Chao disliked this practice at this time, the law did not blame the public, and the people under him had already killed the red eye, and Huang Chao could not control the situation at all, so he would not pursue it.
As soon as the auspicious day arrived, Huang Chao ascended the throne as emperor in the Hanyuan Hall, established the state as "Daqi", changed the yuan to "Jin Tong", and granted amnesty to the world.
At that time, many Chang'an celebrities also came to work under the Huangchao tent, including the famous late Tang poet Pi Rixiu as a bachelor of Hanlin.
Just when Huang Chao was satisfied, a news came that made him cry bitterly: the general Zhu Wen had rebelled. And Zhu Wen's defection eventually contributed to Huang Chao's tragic life of prosperity and decline.
Create purgatory on earth
In the spring of 882, Huang Chao appointed his general Zhu Wen to attack Tongzhou, and Zhu Wen led his troops from Danzhou to attack Tongzhou.
During the Tang Dynasty, Wang Chongrong had tens of thousands of troops to confront Zhu Wen. After several battles, Zhu Wen was defeated by 30,000 elite troops led by Wang Chongrong, and quickly asked Huang Chao for help.
However, Huang Chao's left army made Meng Kai jealous of Zhu Wen's military exploits and wanted to kill with a knife.
Therefore, Meng Kai privately intercepted Zhu Wen's distress letter and did not report it, and Zhu Wen played ten times in a row to ask for support, but Huang Chao did not respond.
Seeing that he was unable to protect himself, Zhu Wen then led the rest of the people to surrender to Wang Chongrong.
The imperial court was naturally very happy to have a member of the Yellow Nest Formation.
Emperor Yuzong of Tang then gave Zhu Wen the name "Quanzhong" and made him an envoy of assimilation, hoping that he would change his mind and serve the imperial court.
Zhu Wen, who changed the court, was willing to be a pawn, and he hated Huang Chao, who could not be saved, so he took the initiative to act as a pioneer and led other Tang troops to attack Huangchao's rebel army.
At the same time, the imperial court recruited another fierce general at the time, Li Keyong, a Shatuo man nicknamed "Flying Tiger Zi".
Zhu Wen and Li Ke used these two heroes of the world to join forces to send troops, and Huang Chao heard the news that he knew that the big thing was not good, and he cried bitterly.
In April 883, Li Keyong took the lead in attacking Chang'an, and Huang Chao led the crowd to break through.
After that, the morale of Huang Chao's troops collapsed, and they were constantly attacked by local armed forces surrounded by the court's pursuers.
On June 17, Huang Chao ushered in its own end. All seventeen members of his family were killed in Wolf Tiger Valley, and this generation of heroes ended.
Although Huang Chao died, the Tang Dynasty was also exhausted.
Emperor Yuzong of Tang, who had returned to Chang'an, had lost his dignity and was unable to control the situation. After several tosses, this tragic Son of Heaven came to the end of his life.
In 888, the faint and incompetent Emperor Yuzong of Tang died and was succeeded by his younger brother Li Ye as Emperor Zhaozong of Tang.
Tang Zhaozong was an emperor completely at the mercy of eunuchs, whose functions were no different from puppets. Zhu Wen saw that the Great Tang Qi had run out, so he began to accumulate strength to secretly do evil things.
Zhu Wen used the armed forces in his hands to conquer Caizhou, pacify Yan, and attack Fengxiang in the west, and his military strength grew rapidly, gradually developing into a hegemon in the Central Plains.
Even Li Keyong was unable to compete with him for a while, and was defeated by Zhu Wen.
In 903, Fengxiang Jiedu made Li Maozhen surrender, and Zhu Wen completely controlled the central power, and he immediately killed the eunuchs large and small in the imperial court.
Subsequently, in order to emulate Cao Cao, Zhu Wen ordered Tang Zhaozong to be moved to his sphere of influence Luoyang.
At the same time, Zhu Wen ordered the destruction of Chang'an City, and the magnificent ancient capital was reduced to ashes.
On the way of the emperor's migration, Zhu Wen showed no mercy and strangled all the emperor's more than two hundred attendants halfway.
After entering Luoyang, he sent Zhu Youjue and others to complete the evil deed of killing the monarch while the night was dark.
After the death of Emperor Zhaozong of Tang, Zhu Wen established Emperor Zhaozong's ninth son, Li Qi, as emperor of Tang.
However, after killing Tang Zhaozong, Zhu Wen was not at ease, and he must cut the grass and remove the roots.
In February 905, Zhu Wen hosted a banquet for Tang Zhaozong's nine sons by the Jiuqu Pond.
During the banquet, he ordered the samurai to forcibly drunk all 9 princes, and then took off the bowstrings and strangled them one by one, and the emperor's family was almost destroyed.
Zhu Wen himself drank wine and admired the whole process of the execution, and finally ordered the corpse to be dumped in the Jiuqu Pond, and mocked that the Jiuqu Pond was a pond containing nine curved corpses.
Zhu Wen believed that the ministers who migrated from Chang'an still missed the old lord and would not sincerely serve themselves.
So one day in June, Zhu Wen summoned these thirty or so imperial officials to Baimayi outside the city of Huanzhou, and the columnists hacked them all to death, and pushed their bodies into the Yellow River.
Zhu Wenyi said hesitantly:
"These people usually think of themselves as clear streams, and today I threw them all into the Yellow River and let them soak the pig cages to see if they were dirty."
In April 907, seeing that the time was ripe, Zhu Wen forced Emperor Chan, Emperor Chan, of Tang to give up the throne, ascended the throne himself, established the state as "Liang", and changed the yuan to "Kaiping".
The glorious Great Tang Empire declared its death.
The following year, Li Qi, who was only 16 years old, was killed by a cup of poisoned wine by Zhu Wen and became a victim of political struggle. Zhu Wen opened the chaotic era of five generations and ten kingdoms, but did not leave a good reputation.
Before him, all usurped ministers were able to treat the last emperor of the old regime well, but since Zhu Wen, the usurpation has become bloody and terrifying, and there is no human favor, which also dooms the chaotic pattern of five generations and ten countries.
And Zhu Wen himself, after only 5 years as emperor, was killed by his own son Zhu Youjue, and died without a blind eye.
Zhu Wen's hands were stained with blood, how could the fall of the Tang Dynasty be a tragic word! It still makes us unbearable to read it.