Preface
The Anshi Rebellion had an impact on the Tang Dynasty in all aspects, and on a national scale, the central government lost absolute control over the localities.
In the central government, it has become a well-known fact that the tail of eunuchs is not big.
So much so that some people jokingly called it the "middle and late Tang Dynasty", which was the peak era of Chinese eunuch interference!
Yes, although the eunuchs of the Eastern Han Dynasty and the Ming Dynasty are also more famous, in the final analysis, they are just the emperor's domestic slaves, and the only ones who can really abolish the Son of Heaven are the eunuchs of the Tang Dynasty!
And if you want to talk about which eunuch has the most influence on the emperor, it must be Wang Shoucheng, this is an existence that directly affects the life and death of the four Tang Dynasty emperors, so what did he experience?
1. End the murder of Yuan and ZTE
Speaking of which, after the Anshi Rebellion, although the state affairs of the Tang Dynasty can be called obscure, there have indeed been a few good emperors, such as Tang Xianzong, who created Yuan and Zhongxing.
In the early days of Tang Xianzong's reign, he also made great efforts to govern the country, appointed virtuous ministers and good generals, and successively pacified the Wu Yuanji brothers in Huaixi and Li Shidao in Ziqing.
and both soft and hard to let the three towns of Hebei return to the central government, and the brilliant achievements once made people think that the Tang Dynasty was about to end the situation of separating the feudal towns!
However, it is difficult for those who start well to end well.
Although Tang Xianzong made a lot of political achievements, during his reign, not only did he not restrict the rights of the eunuchs, but allowed the eunuchs to further grasp the military power of Shence.
Second, after the policy of cutting the feudal domain achieved remarkable results, he also began to indulge in pleasure, began to seek immortals, and worshiped the Buddha and took medicine.
More importantly, although Tang Xianzong had already set up the crown prince Li Heng early.
But at the last moment of his life, I don't know if it was the ancestral royal suspicion or the pill was too much, or if he listened to the slanderous rumors of his cronies and eunuchs, he even had the idea of abolishing the prince.
Then, Wang Shoucheng came out.
Wang Shoucheng was not the most prominent eunuch in the palace at that time, but he was a close confidant in charge of Tang Xianzong's daily life.
In addition, in the last two years of Tang Xianzong's life, because of the pills, his body became weaker and weaker, and he could not go to the court, and it was difficult for ordinary ministers to see the emperor.
And, with the intake of heavy metals, his personality is becoming more and more irritable, and he is becoming more and more crazy when he starts doing things, and he has to execute a lot of palace maids and eunuchs every day!
All of these made Wang Shoucheng tremble, and they also made him have some other thoughts, that is, should he also engage in a wave of dragons and conform to the emperor's wishes?
After all, in the Tang Dynasty, there is also a tradition, there is Gao Lishi of Tang Xuanzong in the front, Li Fuguo of Tang Suzong in the back, and even this Tang Xianzong relied on the support of eunuchs to sit on the throne.
Therefore, Wang Shoucheng took the initiative to find the crown prince Li Heng and told him the news that Tang Xianzong was going to change the crown prince.
Li Heng, who learned the news, was naturally very nervous, so he found Liang Qian, another eunuch who held the military power of Shence, and his mother Guo Guifei.
The four of them reached a consensus together, that is, Tang Xianzong saw his ancestors and supported the crown prince to ascend the throne!
Then came another bloody night.
On the night of the twenty-seventh day of the first month of the fifteenth year of Yuanhe, Wang Shoucheng took his henchman Chen Hongzhi and took advantage of the emperor's sleeping opportunity to end the life of the lord of Zhongxing.
At the same time, Liang Shouqian also led his Shence army to carry out a planned massacre in Chang'an City, killing Tutu Chengxuan and other opponents.
Subsequently, the crown prince succeeded to the throne, and this was Tang Muzong.
Not surprisingly, as a hero of Conglong, Wang Shoucheng also became the top eunuch of the Tang Dynasty, and directly affected the life and death of the three later sons of heaven!
Now let's take a look, how did Wang Shoucheng continue to influence the Sons of Heaven?
2. Supporting the Three Emperors
It's really helpless to say, if Tang Xianzong is proud and complacent after his achievements, let himself go, and indulge in pleasure.
Then Tang Muzong is really embarrassed, without the shadow of his father's hard work, in the second month of becoming emperor, he began to enjoy life before his father's filial piety period had passed.
This is a lively emperor, in the year when he became the emperor, he collected tens of thousands of servants from all over the country, and let them perform various songs and dances for themselves in the palace day and night.
And the shot is also quite bold, not only the treatment is extremely generous, but as long as any servant begs for a good fortune, the emperor is a hundred silk cloth.
As a result, only one year after ascending the throne, more than 2 million yuan was spent in order to take care of the emperor's song and dance troupe!
The ministers were still distressed by this, and they wrote to admonish them, but the emperor was a minister who came to admonish, which was to admit his mistake obediently, and after the minister left, he continued to do his own thing.
As for such an absurd act of the emperor, the eunuchs represented by Wang Shoucheng were happy to see it.
It's just that happiness is sad, and after three years of such a comfortable life, Tang Muzong sent himself away because of excessive pleasure and superstitious Fang Tu, and he took pills wildly.
After Tang Muzong's death, Tang Jingzong, who was only 16 years old, succeeded to the throne with the support of eunuchs represented by Wang Shoucheng.
Although his temple name has an honorific character, it is true and there is no professionalism.
This young emperor, like his dead father, is also a very fun-loving and troublesome master.
After ascending the throne, Tang Jingzong had little time and energy to take care of those heavy state affairs, and he was too lazy to deal with the party differences between the ministers of the DPRK and China.
There is only one thing he likes to do, and that is safari.
According to historical records, in the second month after succeeding to the throne, the emperor rode a horse and led people out of Chang'an to hunt.
If it's just hunting, it's nothing, but the emperor still likes to wrestle with people.
If you just like wrestling, it's nothing, but this emperor is still a cautious eye.
But if someone wrestles and wins the emperor, or if they don't perform well when they pretend to lose, so that the emperor can see the clues, they will usher in severe punishment!
At the worst, he was beaten to the point that his skin was opened, and at worst, he was directly confiscated and the whole family was exiled!
So, in 826 AD, this ridiculous son of heaven, after returning from a hunting, was killed in his sleep by the eunuch Liu Keming and the soldiers beside him!
Subsequently, the eunuch Liu Keming immediately falsely passed on the holy decree and announced that he would support Li Wu, the king of Jiang, as the son of heaven.
But how can this method hide from the time-tested Wang Shoucheng?
After learning that Tang Jingzong died suddenly, Wang Shoucheng immediately united with several other eunuchs, mobilized troops to attack and kill Liu Keming, and supported Li Ang, the later Tang Wenzong.
So far, Wang Shoucheng, the despised eunuch, has successfully completed the brilliant achievement of killing one emperor and establishing two emperors!
But do you think that's the end of his saga?
Third, the turmoil continues
Compared with the emperor who is not very reliable in the first two digits, Tang Wenzong should be more reliable.
Just after ascending the throne, Tang Wenzong released more than 3,000 palace maids in the palace, dismissed more than 1,000 useless officials, and returned the land that had been converted into polo fields and manors by the emperor to the people to cultivate the land.
Moreover, compared with the previous two emperors who often did not see their ministers, Tang Wenzong was actively in the court, carefully studying the national situation with his ministers, and he did seem to have the demeanor of a wise monarch.
But it's a pity that it didn't take long for the ministers to find out that the emperor looked good, but why didn't words count? Today, let's go east, and Wang Shoucheng will go west.
In this regard, the emperor also said helplessly, it's not that I want to change the order, it's really the one behind me who can't be provoked!
Which one of the latter can't be messed with? Of course, it is Wang Shoucheng, a real veteran of the Four Dynasties, a peerless eunuch who has worked from the dragon three times.
At that time, he had already mastered the power of the Shence Army and the finances of the imperial palace, and even the emperor did not dare to go against his will.
As for those who dare to stand up and provoke this eunuch, I'm sorry, they are either dismissed and exiled, or they are confiscated and distributed, even if they are prime ministers.
The emperor acquiesced in this.
It's not that he is spineless, it's that the deaths of the previous sons of heaven are more convincing.
However, Tang Wenzong was not willing to be at the mercy of the eunuchs, after nine years of dormancy, he finally won over the eunuch group through division, and found a variety of channels for a strong prime minister to help, and successfully forced the invincible Wang Shoucheng to a dead end little by little!
In the ninth year of Taihe, Wang Shoucheng was given to death by the emperor's cup of poisonous wine!
After learning of Wang Shoucheng's death, both the emperor and the hundred officials were very relieved, this eunuch who had held the highest power in the Tang Dynasty for more than ten years had finally turned the page!
What people didn't expect was that the funeral of the great eunuch became the fuse to bury the political life of the young emperor!
It turned out that Tang Wenzong wanted to strike while the iron was hot, and set a trap for Wang Shoucheng to make a fortune, and kill all the other eunuchs in power!
But what the emperor didn't expect was that those ministers under him had other ideas, don't get me wrong, it's not that they oppose the killing of eunuchs, it's just that they want to grab a credit.
The result is that these fools who have not achieved enough things and have more than enough failures wanted to trap and kill the eunuchs, but they were killed by the eunuchs because of insufficient preparation!
The eunuchs, represented by Qiu Shiliang, discovered the trap set by the emperor and his ministers, led the army to kidnap the emperor, and immediately slaughtered hundreds of officials in the court! More than 2,000 officials and literati who had often criticized eunuchs were killed!
If it weren't for the Fengxiang Festival at that time, the envoy couldn't stand it anymore and warned him, I really don't know how far those eunuchs would have been killed!
This is the famous Manna Change in history.
As for Tang Wenzong, after this incident, he was also completely hollowed out by the eunuchs and became a puppet, and left a rather bleak dialogue, sighing that Zhou Hao and Han Xian were trapped by the princes, but they were subject to domestic slaves!
In 840 AD, Tang Wenzong died, and after his death, the eunuchs not only killed the eunuchs who were close to the emperor during his lifetime, but also killed the crown prince!
Subsequently, with the support of the eunuchs, Tang Wuzong ascended to the throne! Datang also ushered in another ZTE.
epilogue
For the emperor, the eunuch was a sword in their hands.
They want to use this sword to consolidate their power.
But as everyone knows, one day, this sword will turn around and stab at the emperor himself.
With the increasing power of the eunuchs, the emperor has become a fish on the chopping board, and the eunuchs have been slaughtered.