Sasha today in its history.
Author: Sasha
This article is Sasha's original and will not be reprinted by any media
【Sasha Lecture Hall No. 1395】 (Lecture 681 of the Historical Series)
A Tang eunuch killed a hundred officials a hundred times more than Wei Zhongxian: on December 14, 835, Tang Wenzong, dissatisfied with the eunuch's monopoly, joined forces with Li Xun and Zheng Zhu to launch a ganlu rebellion, which resulted in the killing of hundreds of officials.
Since ancient times, there have been four kinds of power in the Chinese royal family: courtiers, princes, foreign relatives, and eunuchs.
Lords of power
It is easy to understand that a minister of power is a minister with real power and outstanding ability.
The emperor is a hereditary system, and Lao Tzu has a lot of things about his son's straw bag. The emperor himself was incompetent, and of course he had to appoint competent ministers. If the system of dynasties is not very reasonable, over time, power will be concentrated in the hands of the powerful.
For example, during the Southern and Northern Dynasties and the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period, many emperors were killed by the rebellion or usurpation of the throne by the powerful ministers.
Zhao Kuangyin was also a usurper of the throne.
However, after the establishment of systems such as the Song Dynasty, the Ming Dynasty, and the Qing Dynasty to guard against the powerful subjects, it was basically impossible for the powerful ministers to usurp the throne, and at most they could gain more power.
Rajah
Wang Ye was the emperor's brother, and many of them were people who had failed in the struggle for the right to inherit. Zhu Di's kind of person is not incompetent, but his father does not like him. Wang Ye was also a member of the royal family and posed a great threat of usurpation of power and seizure of the throne.
After Zhu Di usurped the throne, he said to the other party:This is a matter for the Zhu family, and outsiders must not interfere.
Indeed, the common people and ministers generally do not care about the usurpation of the throne by the prince, anyway, they are all done within the family, who is not the same as the emperor?
Therefore, in history, there have been many princes who have seized power in coups and even waged wars.
However, throughout the dynasties, the emperor was strict with his brothers.
After Zhu Di of the Ming Dynasty, he completely abolished the military and administrative powers of the imperial princes, and could only eat and drink. The princes of the Qing Dynasty could not leave the city of Beijing casually, and directly became captive.
Foreign relatives
The threat of foreign relatives is mainly that the emperor is young or incompetent and sick, and the empress dowager or empress will rule on her behalf.
And ruling is not something that can be played by one person, and these women must use the power of their mother's family to help.
As a result, the foreign relatives also became powerful.
In addition to the deliberate elimination of foreign relatives in the Ming Dynasty, foreign relatives interfering in politics were common in all dynasties and generations.
The reason for the emergence of the famous Three Kingdoms is essentially the result of the indiscriminate administration of the foreign general He Jin, and the chaos in the world. The Lü family after Lü, the wu zetian martial family, all had power and controlled the government.
However, foreign relatives are not difficult to deal with. Often the empress dowager or empress dowager died or lost her power, and the foreign relatives soon disappeared.
eunuch
The eunuch was the least threatening of the four forces, but the influence was great.
In addition to the founding emperors, most of the other emperors were "raised in the deep palace and raised in the hands of women". In the palace, the prince only came into contact with palace women and eunuchs day and night, and there were no friends to say.
Palace women are women who cannot be reused, and eunuchs often grow up with the emperor, and the two sides have a certain affection.
At the same time, eunuchs have long been in the court, especially the eunuchs around the emperor, who usually have some political ability and political skills.
When the emperor needed to employ people, eunuchs as confidants were often entrusted with some power.
There are also reasons for the emperor's trust in eunuchs, one of which is that eunuchs have no descendants.
Without descendants, the possibility of eunuchs usurping the throne is very low, and who will usurp the throne at the risk of the Nine Tribes?
Since there was no one to pass on the throne, the eunuch might as well earn more money before he died, eat, drink and have fun for a lifetime, and it would be almost the same.
Therefore, in Chinese history, officials and eunuchs were quite powerful, including the change of Ganlu mentioned today.
During the Anshi Rebellion, the world was in chaos, and many so-called loyal generals rebelled, and the emperor did not know who to trust.
Starting from Emperor Dezong of Tang, he appointed his confidant eunuchs to control the forbidden army and became a system.
Whoever controls the Forbidden Army may kill the Emperor in a coup.
The emperor chose to choose, or thought that the eunuchs around him were more reliable.
However, this move is extremely inappropriate.
At that time, eunuchs, as liaisons between the emperor and his ministers, had already held some political power, and now they had military power. As long as anyone has the two major powers of military and political power, he is equivalent to the earth emperor and can do whatever he wants within the scope of his own power.
Tang Dezong's mentally handicapped behavior laid a big pit for future generations.
In 826, Emperor Jingzong of Tang was killed by the eunuch Liu Keming, who supported Li Wu the Prince of Dai to succeed to the throne.
Wang Shoucheng, the great eunuch who held real power, immediately dispatched a forbidden army to eliminate the gang, and then installed Li Ang, the second son of Emperor Muzong of Tang, as Emperor Wenzong of Tang. Tang Wenzong was the younger brother of Tang Jingzong.
Completely different from his absurd brother, Tang Wenzong was quite capable.
Unfortunately, the political situation in the Tang Dynasty was chaotic at that time. The local feudal towns were divided, and the supporters were self-respecting, and the Tang army was powerless to suppress them, and could only resign themselves to it.
Outside, powerful ethnic minorities such as the Tubo and Uighurs of the foreign race are eager to try and constantly infiltrate and invade.
Internally, in addition to the eunuch dictatorship, the political struggle of the scholars was also very fierce. The Niu And Li Party has fought to the point where you live and die, and as long as it is a hostile faction, it will all be rectified to death. In addition to politicians, even the poets Du Mu and Li Shangyin were implicated simply because of the problem of taking sides.
They fought very hard, resulting in serious internal friction in the bureaucracy.
In this case, Tang Wenzong still tried to reform: 3,000 women were sent to the palace and more than 1,200 officials were dismissed.
These reforms are helpful to the country, but they are irrelevant to the overall situation. Tang Wenzong gradually realized that the biggest enemy was the eunuch clique.
At this time, the eunuch clique had already taken the throne and did not take the emperor seriously.
The reason why Li Zongmin, the leader of the Li Party, became prime minister was the result of collusion with eunuchs.
Li Zongmin recommended to Emperor Wenzong of Tang the niu monks and children, and Emperor Wenzong was even powerless to oppose it, and was forced to appoint Niu as prime minister. In the face of Li Dang's wanton attack on political enemies and the expulsion of The Bull Party leader Li Deyu from the central government to serve as the envoy of Sichuan Jiedu, Tang Wenzong could not interfere.
The most exaggerated thing is that during his time in Sichuan, Li Deyu defeated Tubo in one fell swoop and recovered the important town of Weizhou (present-day eastern Ganzi Prefecture, Sichuan). The Niu Dang, with the support of eunuchs, did not give rewards, and even forced Tang Wenzong to issue an edict demanding that Li Deyu return Victoria to Tubo. Li Deyu was extremely angry and almost rebelled.
Tang Wenzong believed that the Niu Party was only a pawn of eunuchs, and only by cleaning up the eunuch clique could they completely grasp the power.
Therefore, he began to consult with the ministers Li Xun and Zheng Zhu.
Interestingly, Li Xun and Zheng Zhu were the grand eunuch Wang Shoucheng, who recommended the undercover agents to Tang Wenzong's side.
However, Li Xun and Zheng Zhu were resourceful people, and they had the psychology of loyalty to the monarch in the tradition.
These two men knew that the power of the grand eunuch Wang Shoucheng was extremely large and difficult to deal with, and still helped Tang Wenzong to give advice.
Interestingly, Wang Shoucheng believes that Li Xun and Zheng Zhu are his own people, and Zheng Zhu is still his good friend for many years, and he has no doubts about the two and relaxes his vigilance.
The ministers also believed that Li Xun and Zheng Zhu were eunuch henchmen.
At the suggestion of the two men, Tang Wenzong gradually weakened the eunuchs.
Tang Wenzong first executed the grand eunuch Chen Hongzhi on the pretext that he was involved in the killing of Tang Xianzong. Not long after, Tang Wenzong, under the pretext of corruption and laziness of Wei Element, a lieutenant of the Left Shence of the Forbidden Army, dismissed him from his post and was succeeded by Qiu Shiliang, the leading general of the Right Army, in order to seize the military power of the Forbidden Army.
Qiu Shiliang was also a eunuch, but his relationship with Wang Shoucheng was very poor.
At this time, Wang Shoucheng was also quite difficult, he held the government for 15 years, participated in the emperor's abolition three times, and made many enemies.
Even within the eunuch clique, there were many people who opposed him.
In the initial killing of Tang Xianzong, it was generally believed that Wang Shoucheng was the one behind the scenes. There were differences within the eunuch clique, and Wang Shoucheng went so far as to rebel and use thunderbolt means to kill Li Yun and the grand eunuch Tutu Chengcui.
The Tang Jingzong incident was also a disagreement within the eunuch clique. In order to maintain his power, Wang Shoucheng mercilessly killed a group of people, including Li Wu the Prince of Qi, and the eunuch Liu Keming.
Two consecutive massacres within the eunuch clique caused Wang Shoucheng to rebel.
The eunuchs thought that he only had power in his eyes, cold-blooded and ruthless, and could turn his face at any time and could not be relied on.
Originally, Wang Shoucheng was definitely going to be finished, but at this time, Tang Wenzong was too anxious.
After seizing Wang Shoucheng's military power, Emperor Wenzong of Tang ordered the eunuch Li Haogu to take his soldiers and forcibly pour poisoned wine on Wang Shoucheng and poison him to death.
Wang Shoucheng's younger brother Wang Shoujuan quickly fled and was killed by Tang Wen's faction.
After killing the king, the power of the eunuch clique remained.
The terrified eunuchs united, renounced infighting, and unanimously elected Qiu Shiliang as their leader.
Qiu Shiliang held military power and also had certain political ability, which was difficult to deal with.
At such a critical time, Tang Wenzong's right and left arm went wrong.
The chancellor Li Xun was jealous of Zheng Zhu's position and repeatedly warned Tang Wenzong that Zheng Zhu was ambitious and was likely to become the second powerful minister.
Tang Wenzong was weak-rooted, and began to be jealous of Zheng Zhu, so he appointed Li Xun as chancellor and sent Zheng Zhu to other places to serve as an envoy, and Tang Wenzong planned to kill the eunuchs once he was eliminated. Zheng Zhu's political ability was far stronger than that of the rhetorical Li Xun, which led to a great reduction in Tang Wenzong's power.
At this time, Tang Wenzong decided to still follow the plan formulated by Zheng Zhu and prepare to start at Wang Shoucheng's funeral, and to wipe out hundreds of eunuchs, including Qiu Shiliang.
However, Li Xun was afraid that the success of the plan would make Zheng Zhu make a comeback, and he actually decided to preemptively do it himself and get the first merit.
In 835, the general Han Youzuo of the Jinwu Wei Dynasty called the pomegranate tree in the Zuo Jinwu Courtyard a sign of auspiciousness.
Li Xun thought that this was a good opportunity to start ahead of time, so he tricked Tang Wenzong into going to see it in person, without telling him the truth about what he was going to do.
As long as Tang Wenzong went outside the palace, most of his confidant eunuchs would follow him, which was a good opportunity.
Li Xun arranged for hundreds of soldiers to hide in the courtyard, preparing to kill the eunuchs as soon as Tang Wenzong arrived.
However, Tang Wenzong also had some doubts about Li Xun. When his palanquin arrived outside the courtyard, he first sent eunuchs such as Qiu Shiliang and Yu Zhihong to inspect it.
As soon as Qiu Shiliang entered, he found that there were soldiers in ambush here and fled in a hurry. Qiu Shiliang was very clever and immediately understood that it was Tang Wenzong and Li Xun's plan.
Therefore, he immediately abducted Tang Wenzong and fled, claiming that Li Xun had rebelled. Frightened, Li Xun hurried to stop the palanquin to explain to Tang Wenzong, while ordering the soldiers to begin killing the eunuchs.
At this time, Tang Wenzong could not tell whether Li Xun was trying to kill him, and could only flee for his life first.
Li Xun chased after him and grabbed the palanquin, but was knocked to the ground by the eunuch Xi Zhirong, who fled to the Xuanzheng Palace surrounded by the emperor.
Li Xun's soldiers killed many eunuchs, but none of the core eunuchs died and kidnapped Tang Wenzong.
After returning to the palace, Qiu Shiliang, who held the military power, immediately ordered the forbidden army to counterattack.
Hundreds of soldiers quickly disintegrated, and after Li Xun fled, he was captured and killed.
Qiu Shiliang thought that this was Tang Wenzong's attempt to eliminate the eunuch clique and decided to turn his face. He used force to coerce Emperor Wenzong of Tang into issuing an edict saying that Li Xun had joined forces with Zheng Zhu in rebellion and was trying to establish Zheng Zhu as emperor.
As a result, Qiu Shiliang sent soldiers to kill the ministers indiscriminately, and hundreds of ministers were killed.
Zheng Zhu and most of his henchmen were killed, thousands of people.
Of Zheng Zhu's 6 henchmen, except for Li Jingyi, who had been sent to fight and did not participate in the Ganlu Rebellion, the remaining 5 people and more than 1,000 of Feng Xiang's relatives were wiped out.
When the minister Qian Kefu was surrounded by soldiers, he begged them to spare his fourteen-year-old daughter.
The daughter was quite spineless: "You killed my father in person, what face do I have to live again!" "Holding the money can beg for death, so he is also killed."
The only surviving family member was the wife of the chancellor Lu Hongmao, Xiao Shi.
When the soldiers surrounded her, Xiao Shi shouted angrily: "I am the empress dowager's sister, you slaves have come to kill me!" The soldier listened to this sentence and did not dare to move.
Qiu Shiliang once said, "All relatives must be killed, and children will not be spared, and wives and daughters can avoid death but must also become slaves." The eunuch Tian Quancao even threatened: "When I enter the city, all those who obey Confucianism should be killed without any nobility!" ”
This is the famous "change of manna".
Tang Wenzong was not killed, but was completely overthrown and became a puppet emperor.
Qiu Shiliang killed Emperor Wenzong's Concubine Yang Xian, his younger brother Li Rong the Prince of An, and Emperor Jingzong of Tang's son Li Chengmei the Prince of Chen to intimidate the emperor.
Once Tang Wenzong wrote an annotate a small matter, and the eunuchs still ordered it to be carried out according to their intentions.
Tang Wenzong was furious, thinking that he was the emperor after all, and he couldn't even take care of this little thing? Trying to find the eunuchs theorists.
Empress Wenzong of Tang advised him: Your life is still in the hands of the eunuchs, so why should you anger them for such a trivial matter.
Once Tang Wenzong and the scholar Zhou Qi chatted idly. Zhou Qi thought that Tang Wenzong's previous reforms were quite successful, and he complimented him a few words.
Tang Wenzong said, however, "I am subject to domestic slaves, and where have the emperors of all dynasties had such a nest of me?" Say it and cry.
Zhou Qi was also in tears and fell to his knees.
Afterwards, Zhou Qi was afraid of being suspected by the eunuchs, and never dared to go to the court.
If the emperor is still like this, the minister will be even more miserable.
For a long time after that, officials from Zhongshu Province and Menxia Province bid farewell to their families and ordered their families to prepare for the aftermath, because they did not know when they would encounter an accident.
This Qiu Shiliang controlled the government for more than 20 years, and in addition to killing hundreds of officials, he also assassinated the second king, the first concubine, and the fourth prime minister until he died of illness at the age of 63.
It can be said that Qiu Shiliang is much more powerful than Wei Zhongxian.
As a result, the eunuchs held power until more than 70 years later, after Zhu Wen killed the eunuchs in 903, and finally disappeared. However, it did not take long for the Tang Dynasty to perish.
statement:
Text reference
The image comes from the Baidu image of the network, if there is any infringement, please notify the deletion.