At the end of the Tang Dynasty, the state was in decline, and the eunuch dictatorship was monstrous, resulting in the emperor being controlled. Emperor Zhaozong of the late Tang Dynasty was deeply persecuted.
Emperor Zhaozong is the younger brother of the previous Tang Xizong, the relationship is very good, when Xizong was in power, he often dealt with some military affairs, and was praised by Tang Xizong and the ministers, and had a certain prestige.
At that time, the Tang Dynasty was also suffering from internal and external troubles, Tang Xizong was seriously ill, and the eunuch leader Yang Fugong insisted on supporting Zhaozong as the emperor, so Tang Zhaozong succeeded to the throne.
Tang Zhaozong succeeded to the throne at the beginning, quite the heroic posture of Wuzong at that time, full of imperial demeanor, certain political and military talents, and received the respect and courtesy of the ministers.
However, the first problem faced at that time was the problem of the dictatorship of the eunuchs, Zhaozong flattered Yang Fu on the surface, and secretly planned to weaken the power of the eunuchs, win the hearts of the people, and hit the eunuch power step by step.
Next, the second issue is the feudal regime. Tang Zhaozong was very smart, he thought it was important to have his own army that could be deterred, so that he would not let the forces of the feudal town behave indiscriminately, so he recruited troops, gathered elites, and formed a forbidden army, with 100,000 people.
At the beginning of Tang Zhaozong's war against the West, although Zhaozong personally formulated a set of ruling strategies to adapt to the situation, it still failed, and successive defeats made Emperor Zhaozong depressed and lost his prestige.
The power of the vassal king became bigger and bigger, and Tang Zhaozong returned to the court in embarrassment, but he was persecuted by the remnants of the eunuchs and bureaucratic contradictions, and wanted to abolish Zhaozong and support the crown prince as the emperor, he was put under house arrest.
Later, Zhu Wen re-established Zhaozong to restore the throne, and from then on, Tang Zhaozong fell into another crisis, subject to Zhu Wen, and became a veritable puppet emperor.
Zhaozong was surrounded by people installed by Zhu Wen to spy on the emperor, and Tang Zhaozong tried to get rid of Zhu Wen's forces, but they all failed.
In the first year of Tianyou (904), Zhu Wen was worried that Tang Zhaozong would recover his strength and become a threat to himself, so he sent people to assassinate him, and re-established Emperor Tang Ai to succeed him.
(The picture comes from the Internet)