Preface
The Tang Dynasty was one of the most glorious dynasties in Chinese history, with its vast territory, prosperous culture, clear politics and strong military, and was known as the "rule of Zhenguan" and "the prosperous era of the Kaiyuan Dynasty".
However, the prosperity of the Tang Dynasty did not last long, starting from the Anshi Rebellion, the Tang Dynasty fell into one turmoil and war after another, the national power was declining, the feudal towns were divided, and the imperial court lost control of the place.
Among them, one of the most powerful feudal towns was the town of Weibo in Hebei, which was once a loyal minister of the Tang Dynasty, but after the Anshi Rebellion, it became a major problem for the Tang Dynasty, not only did not listen to the orders of the imperial court, but also rebelled against the imperial court many times, and united with other feudal towns against the central government.
The emperors of the Tang Dynasty all tried to recover the town of Weibo, but they all ended in failure, the army of Weibo town was known for its bravery, and the tooth soldiers of Weibo town were unparalleled in the world, making the army of the Tang Dynasty fearful.
The secession of Weibo Town lasted for more than a hundred years, until the end of the Tang Dynasty, a man appeared, and he was Zhu Wen, the later founding emperor of the Later Liang Dynasty.
1. Anshi no Ran
An Lushanben, who was born in the Hu people, lived in Liaodong, and was later taken in by the Tang Dynasty general Zhang Shouqi and fought with him, showing outstanding command talent. After Zhang Shouqi's death, An Lushan took over as the envoy of Pinglu Jiedu, and supported troops in Hebei, Hedong and Youzhou counties.
An Lushan, who was deeply favored by Xuanzong, often went to Beijing to pay homage, and had close contact with Xuanzong's fortunate minister Yang Guifei. He took this opportunity to invite merit, gradually strengthen his own strength, and even built a palace in Youzhou. After that, An Lushan's ambition became increasingly revealed, plotting against the Tang Dynasty and setting up a new emperor.
As a subordinate of An Lushan, Shi Siming made great achievements, and once led the team to return to An Lushan in Tibet, and won the attention of An because of his loyalty. The two conspired to raise troops, and Shi Siming became the second person.
In December 755, An Lushan mobilized an army of 150,000 troops from Fanyang (now Zhuozhou, Hebei) to the south, launched the Anshi Rebellion, and captured Luoyang, Chang'an and other important places.
The situation forced Tang Xuanzong and Yang Guifei to flee to Chengdu, and lost the hands of Li Guangde, Gao Xianzhi and others, the heads of famous generals, and once controlled half of the empire. An Lushan proclaimed himself emperor in Fanyang, established the "Dayan" regime, changed the Yuan Guangde, and proclaimed himself "emperor".
This disaster inspired the feudal towns in various places to take advantage of the situation to raise troops, and some feudal towns supported the imperial court and sent troops to fight against the Anshi Rebellion, such as the elite Tang army led by Li Keyong, the envoy of Hedong Jiedu and Guo Ziyi, the envoy of Henan Jiedu, which was repeatedly promoted and turned the tide.
It took 8 years for the Anshi Rebellion to be quelled, which had a huge impact on the Tang Dynasty. It caused the population to plummet, the national power was weakened, and the feudal towns were numerous, and the prosperity was no longer there.
2. How did the secession of Weibo Town, a feudal town in Hebei, take shape after the Anshi Rebellion?
After the Anshi Rebellion, the centralization of power in the Tang Dynasty was seriously damaged, and the feudal towns in various places began to divide one side, disobey the orders of the imperial court, and even rebelled against the imperial court, attacking each other with other feudal towns, forming a chaotic situation.
One of the most powerful feudal towns was the town of Weibo in Hebei.
The predecessor of Weibo Town was Weizhou and Bozhou in the Tang Dynasty, which were located in the central part of Hebei Province, centered on Handan and Hengshui, respectively, and controlled the central and southern regions of Hebei.
Weizhou and Bozhou were important military bases of the Tang Dynasty, and the army was mainly responsible for defending the northern border of Hebei Province against the invasion of foreign enemies such as the Khitan and Turks.
After the Anshi Rebellion, Weibo was the least damaged of all the feudal towns, and at the same time, Weibo was still a very wealthy feudal town, good at crafting weapons.
As a result, Weibo Town became one of the most powerful towns in Hebei.
Originally, he was supposed to recuperate after the war, but Tian Chenghei's festival in Weibo Town increased the taxes of the people and used the money to build weapons. He gradually revealed his ambitions.
Later, the number of soldiers in the town of Weber grew to 100,000. In addition, Tian Chengsi selected 10,000 elite soldiers as tooth soldiers. The ferocity of the Ya soldiers in Weibo Town is known to the world.
In foreign warfare, the tooth soldiers showed unparalleled bravery and combat effectiveness, and since then a fierce atmosphere has begun to breed in the army. Even in the subsequent reduction of feudal domains, some feudal towns may have disappeared, and some feudal towns may have been controlled by the imperial court.
Only the fangs of Weibo Town did not move, and they showed great influence and power.
Once the interests of the tooth soldiers are damaged, they will cause trouble at least and kill the festival envoys at worst. As a result, the tooth soldiers of Weibo Town became a problem for the imperial court, and the successive envoys were even more frightened every day.
For example, the Wei Bo festival made one of the Tian cloth.
He was the son of Tian Hongzheng and inherited his father's position and power.
Although Tian Bu is one of the three towns in Hebei, he does not have his father's prestige and talent, he does not know how to govern the military and politics, only knows how to spend extravagantly, scatter all his family wealth, and even give his wife and concubine to the guards in order to please the tooth soldiers.
He also pampered the veterans in the army, treating them as brothers and unrestrained.
Such behavior caused him to lose his prestige and respect in the army, and also caused dissatisfaction in the imperial court.
When he led his troops to crusade against Wang Tingcuo, he encountered heavy snowfall, food and grass were scarce, and morale was low. Shi Xiancheng took the opportunity to incite the morale of the army, accused Tian Bu of incompetence, and asked him to go into the wilderness. Tian Bu couldn't resist, so he had to kill himself, and was humiliated by Shi Xiancheng after his death.
And it is sad and ridiculous that the dignified and modest-minded envoy still wants to use money and wives and concubines to please his subordinates.
Another example, the festival makes Le Yanzhen.
Le Yanzhen had a tense relationship with the imperial court, repeatedly refused orders and requisitions from the imperial court, and also formed alliances with other feudal towns to threaten the rule of the central government.
In 888 AD, Le Yanzhen was opposed by the tooth soldiers because he wanted to change the traditional system of Weibo Town.
The tooth soldiers had an argument during a gambling and took the opportunity to launch a mutiny, invaded Le Yanzhen's mansion, killed Le Yanzhen and his cronies, and then elected Luo Hongxin as the queen.
Luo Hongxin went to the imperial court to ask for pardon and appointment, and in order to stabilize the situation in Hebei, the imperial court had to posthumously recognize Luo Hongxin as the envoy of Wei Bojie and give him the military title of the Tianxiong Army.
Later, after Luo Hongxin's death, his wife Luo Shaowei succeeded to the throne. But he was an ineffective man of letters, and his military talent was far inferior to that of the burly tooth soldiers, and he was alienated from the rank-and-file soldiers.
These brave and warlike soldiers, who ignored the rules and were accustomed to provocation, even participated in several incidents of deposing or supporting the establishment of Jiedu envoys, such as the Tian clan, the Han clan, and the Le clan.
Faced with such a situation, Luo Shaowei, who was very afraid of the might of the tooth soldiers, could only ask Zhu Wen for help with a cheeky face to help him eradicate hidden dangers, so as to achieve internal stability.
However, what he didn't know was that this decision weakened Wei Bo's army, and at the same time, Luo Shaowei also became a puppet of Zhu Wen and lost his sovereignty......
In 905, the general of the Yabing Army, Li Gongjiao, staged a coup d'état, and after Luo Shaowei found out, Li Gongjiao led the crowd to flee Weizhou and wandered to Cangzhou, arousing Luo Shaowei's concern about the influence of the Yabing.
The following year, Luo Shaowei again asked Zhu Wen for help. But Zhu Wen's mind is not pure, he wants to occupy Weibo Town.
Taking advantage of the combination of the inside and the outside, Zhu Wen immediately launched a beheading operation, slaughtering more than 8,000 Wei Boya's soldiers and relatives, leaving no room for error.
This operation eliminated Hebei's hidden dangers, but also greatly weakened Wei Bo's power. After that, Luo Shaowei became a vassal of Zhu Wen and lost his autonomy. This incident also consolidated Zhu Wen's hegemony in Hebei and laid an important foundation for his future establishment of the Later Liang regime.
Fourth, how did Zhu Wen destroy the separatist forces in Weibo Town?
After Zhu Wen pacified the tooth soldiers in Weibo Town, he did not stop there, he also wanted to completely eliminate the separatist forces in Weibo Town and make him a loyal vassal of Hou Liang.
First of all, Zhu Wen changed the military system of Weibo Town, he abolished the system of tooth soldiers and generals, and changed it to a garrison system.
The garrison system is Zhu Wen's own innovation, which is based on the conscription system of the Tang Dynasty, and adds some new regulations.
For example, the army of Weibo Town was divided into three parts, stationed in Weizhou, Bozhou, and Xiangzhou, each of which had a Jiedu envoy under the command, but they all obeyed Zhu Wen's orders;
In addition, the army of Weibo Town is divided into the regular army and the reserve army, the regular army is the elite selected by Zhu Wen personally, and the reserve army is composed of the original soldiers of Weibo Town, the treatment and equipment of the regular army and the reserve army are different, and the regular army is superior to the reserve army;
In addition, the army of Weibo Town was divided into standing and non-reserved, the standing army was an army ready to go out at any time, and the non-reserve army was an army that was mobilized only in wartime, and the training and discipline of the standing army and the non-reserve army were also different, and the standing army was stricter than the non-reserve army.
The purpose of Zhu Wen's establishment of the garrison system was, first, to disperse the military forces of Weibo Town and prevent it from concentrating on rebellion; second, to distinguish the military ranks of Weibo Town and disintegrate its military unity; and third, to control the military activities of Weibo Town and restrict its military autonomy.
Secondly, Zhu Wen changed the political system of Weibo Town, he abolished the hereditary system of Weibo Town and replaced it with an appointment system.
The hereditary system of Weibo is another special system of Weibo Town, which allows the Jiedu envoys of Weibo Town to pass on their positions to their children and grandchildren, forming a family politics that is passed down from generation to generation.
This system made the Jiedu of Weibo Town have strong local influence and political stability, but it also made it easy for the Jiedu of Weibo Town to break away from the control of the imperial court and be disloyal to the imperial court.
After that, the Jiedu envoys of Weibo Town were appointed by Zhu Wen himself, not by the tooth soldiers of Weibo Town, and the appointed Jiedu envoys were all Zhu Wen's cronies and subordinates, not the locals of Weibo Town.
The first is to break the hereditary tradition of Weibo Town and prevent it from forming family power; the second is to break the local solidification of Weibo Town and prevent it from forming local forces; and the third is to break the integration of civil and military forces in Weibo Town and prevent it from forming military forces.
To a certain extent, this enabled Zhu Wen to successfully extinguish the separatist forces of Weibo Town, and Weibo Town became an ordinary frontier state town in Houliang, completely eliminating the threat and challenge of Weibo Town to Houliang. This move by Zhu Wen also laid the foundation for the later unification of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms.
But Zhu Wen's measures were not fundamentally resolved, and after Zhu Wen's death, Weibo made a comeback. Since then, many generals have tried to solve the problem of the feudal town, but they have all failed, and most of these people have died as a result.
And it was Zhao Kuangyin who really solved the problem of the feudal town.
However, Zhu Wen's achievements are worthy of recognition, and it is his practice that provides experience and lessons for future generations.