In March of the first year of Da Shun (890), Li Kexiu, the second fiercest man in the family after Li Keyong, died of illness. Tang Zhaozong Li Ye listened to the rumors, did not remember Li Ke's efforts to restore, and seized the opportunity to cut Li Ke's official titles and subordinates. He appointed the chancellor Zhang Mao (張濬) as an envoy to the capital of the Hedong Camp, with Jing Zhaoyin (京兆尹孙揆) as his deputy. At the same time, he also appointed Han Jian as the capital Yu Waiting and the envoy who supplied military food and materials to be responsible for the heavy grain and grass, with Xuanwu Jiedu to make Zhu Quanzhong an envoy to the south, Chengde Jiedu to make Wang Rong an envoy to the east, Lu Longjiedu to make Li Converse solicit envoys for the north, and Helian Duo to recruit deputy envoys to the north, and the troops were divided into three routes, and all the armies would go straight to their opponents and eliminate all the stubborn resisters who dared to block, and when the time came, they would attack in three ways and finally attack Jinyang.
It was a military plan that looked perfect, but it was finally implemented...
Although the situation was indeed unfavorable to Li Keyong at first, with the brave charge of Li Cunxiao, Li Hanzhi, and Li Siyuan, the coalition army quickly collapsed.
In this counterattack war, Li Cunxiao, who was called "the first fierce general at the end of the Tang Dynasty" by posterity, was even more invincible and made great achievements, but it was also this war that made Li Cunxiao's inner world begin to collapse.
Li Cunxiao recaptured Luzhou for Li Keyong and defeated the Bian army, which can be described as a great achievement. However, when discussing the reward for meritorious deeds, Li Keyong gave the seat left by Zhaoyi to Kang Junli, and Li Cunxiao was only given the position of a Fenzhou Assassin. Li Cunxiao couldn't figure out how to think about it, why he had been busy for half a day, but the benefits were all taken by Kang Junli, who didn't know what he was doing. Li Cunxiao went on a hunger strike for several days in protest, but he finally sadly found that everything was useless.
Previously, Li Cunxiao had always thought that his world (Li Keyong) had thrown himself away, but it turned out that in fact, his world had no time to take care of himself. The development of the aftermath shows that Li Cunxiao's anger cannot be quelled by time. This anger was like a poisonous sprout, which continued to grow in Li Cunxiao's heart and eventually caused him to betray his righteous father.
The direct cause of Li Cunxiao's betrayal was Li Cunxin.
The relationship between Li Cunxiao and Li Cunxin has always been not very harmonious, although they are both Li Keyong's adopted sons, but to say that they have basically not grown up and lived together, and the basic feelings of brotherhood cannot be talked about. Li Cunxiao only knew that this Uighur boy was obviously less qualified and brave than himself, but he still had to compete with himself, which was very hateful. Li Cunxin, on the other hand, believes that he has been proficient in riding and shooting since he was a child, and he has mastered four languages and is proficient in the Six Scripts, which is far better than the mangy Man An Jingsi (Li Cunxiao's real name) who can only shout and kill.
Therefore, Li Cunxiao was determined to make a great contribution, so that Li Cunxin lost convincingly. Li Cunxin chose to stay by Li Keyong's side, and by getting Li Keyong, he eventually killed Li Cunxiao.
Practice has proved that Li Cunxin finally succeeded. Under his continuous deliberate slander, Li Keyong gradually became suspicious of Li Cunxiao's loyalty.
For more than ten years, Jin Ge's iron horse was even less than Li Cunxin's mouth, and Li Cunxiao's dissatisfaction finally broke out, he did not want to see Li Cunxin flaunting his martial prowess in front of him, and he was even more resentful of Li Keyong's partiality. But in this regard, Li Cunxiao was powerless to change.
Under the soft knife, even a fierce person like Li Cunxiao is just a weak person who can be slaughtered.
With Li Cunxiao's character, he naturally will not sit still. In order to protect himself, Li Cunxiao secretly contacted Wang Rong and Xuanwu Jiedu to make Zhu Wen, and went to the imperial court, hoping to return to the three prefectures of Xing, Huan, and Ci under his control in exchange for the Jingjie of the envoy and the edict of the imperial court to qi various Daoist soldiers to fight against Li Keyong.
Tang Zhaozong, who had just been beaten down by Li Ke, quickly gave a reply, which roughly meant: to the imperial court, welcome; Granted the Festival, can; Crusade against Jinyang, no.
Seeing that the imperial court did not dare to take action, Li Cunxiao had no choice but to choose to be patient. What he didn't know was that his actions had long been known to his righteous father Li Keyong.
Li Keyong's intelligence department did not eat dry food, especially since Li Cunxin repeatedly reflected that Li Cunxiao had two hearts and had not been attacking Chengde with all his strength, they began to pay close attention to Li Cunxiao. After that, Li Cunxiao's "attaching Liang Tong Zhao to Tang" naturally could not escape their eyes.
So after carefully reading the report they submitted, Li Keyun immediately made a decision: send troops to Xingzhou and clean up the portal.
In February of the second year of Jingfu (893), Li Ke personally led troops to besiege Xingzhou and block li Cunxiao inside the city. Li Cunxiao's reaction was swift, and he sent emissaries to Chengde for help before his father's army was encircled.
After Receiving Li Cunxiao's rescue, Wang Rong immediately showed a talent as a politician, and instead of immediately sending troops to rescue Xingzhou, he sent General Wang Zanghai to visit Li Keyong on his behalf and mediate from there.
Hearing that Wang Rong sent someone to mediate his relationship with Li Cunxiao, Li Ke was furious with a sudden burst of anger, and Wang Rong did not read the letter written to him, so he had Wang Zanghai dragged out and cut it down, and then personally led the troops to fight Wang Rong.
Where is Lao Tzu's turn to interject in lao tzu's family affairs, if it were not for the provocation of you outsiders, how could my son turn against me?
Li Keyong first defeated the Cheng German army at Pingshan, and then quickly attacked the town of Tianchang.
The German army could not do the Shatuo cavalry in the field, and it was still no problem to defend the city, and Li Ke used to fight in the small town of Tianchang for ten days, but he did not make the slightest breakthrough.
Originally, Li Ke was helpless, but Wang Rong soon brought him an opportunity.
Speaking of wang rong, in the end, Wang Rong was still too young to hold his breath, and when he heard that Tianchang Town had been besieged for ten days, he was afraid of losing it, so he immediately dispatched troops and dispatched 30,000 people to reinforce.
At this time, Li Ke used the spirit of immediately. Under the Lingri Ridge, Li Ke used the Shatuo cavalry under his command to break the king's reinforcements, beheaded more than 10,000 people, and once again fought into a German army that collapsed and fled in all directions.
After the victory, Li Ke took advantage of the situation to march into Jingxing. Just as Li Keyong was preparing to march on Zhenzhou, the secret agent told him that Li Cunxiao had come to the rescue of Wang Rong with his troops, and had already entered Zhenzhou at this time to discuss with Wang Rong how to deal with it.
Stinky boy, it's really completely against you.
Li Ke's anger value once again broke through the all-time high, and at this moment, he really killed his thirteen taibao.
Li Cunxiao did come to Zhenzhou, and after meeting with Wang Rong for exchanges, the two agreed that to reverse the current unfavorable situation, it was necessary to rely on Zhu Wen. Therefore, wang Rong eventually wrote a letter and sent someone to send a quick horse and whip to Zhu Wen, asking Zhu Wen to send troops to the rescue as soon as possible.
What they didn't know was that at this time, Zhu Wenzheng and Shi Pu were fighting fiercely, and they had no time to take care of other things, but they just took the time to write a text message and send someone to Li Keyong's army, and the content of this letter was as follows:
"I have 100,000 elite soldiers stationed under Yixia, and it is only because of my control that they have not advanced to Hedong."
Personally, I think that Zhu Wen's sentence and Cao Cao's famous sentence "Eight hundred thousand people in the Imaji water army, Fang and the general will hunt in Wu", have the same magic, seemingly understated, but in fact, they are murderous.
Unfortunately, Li Ke used Sun Quan, who had just ascended to the throne, and Li Ke, who possessed the great killing weapon of shatuo cavalry, was much tougher than Sun Quan.
Out of courtesy, Li Ke quickly sent someone back to the letter, and he replied like this:
"If you do have a strong garrison under the command, then I await the arrival of the army; If you really want to duel, please go to the foot of Mt. Tokiyama for a decisive battle!"
Zhu Wen did not reply again, he has been very busy lately, and killing Shi Pu is his main work at this stage. And even if Zhu Wen had a new reply, it is estimated that Li Keyong would not have time to read it, because he was also busy, and he needed to deal with the opponent who had just arrived, Li Converse of Lu Long
Li Converse still came in time and performed very well, defeating the Hedong army on the day of his arrival.
When Li Keyong learned that Li Converse had arrived, he withdrew to Xingzhou first.
Opponents gathered under pressure are not easy to deal with, but as long as the rhythm of the attack is slowed down, the tense nerves of the other party are paralyzed, and the other party is relaxed, it is easy to do.
As it turns out, it is. However, it was not between Li Cunxiao, Li Converse and Wang Rong that changed, but Li Converse's own home.
It turned out that Li Converse had done a rather disgraceful thing at the family gathering before the expedition, and he took advantage of the drunkenness to bully the wife of his brother Li Kuangchu.
The wife encountered such a thing, and the perpetrator was still his brother, Li Kuangchu was naturally very angry, but because Li Converse was in the end Lu Longjiedushi envoy, in charge of the power of life and death, Li Kuangchu had to bite his teeth and bleed, endure it, and wait for the opportunity for revenge.
The opportunity came after Lee Converse's departure.
Taking advantage of Li Converse's absence, Li Kuangchi secretly plotted and successfully launched a mutiny, occupying the Lulong Military Palace and claiming to be the queen.
When the news came, the soldiers under Li Guowei's demons quickly dispersed, leaving only Li Converse and a few of his cronies.
Youzhou could not go back, and Li Converse had no choice but to temporarily stay in Zhenzhou. However, he was not desperate, because according to the custom, such a sudden homeless temperance as him could apply to the imperial court to enter the court to become an idle official, although the real power was not there, but personal safety and quality of life were generally guaranteed.
So Li Converse sent the judge Li Baozhen to Chang'an to apply for admission to the Jing Division. Who knows, the imperial court actually gave him a completely unexpected reply shortly after: No.
No, it's really not. Because Li Converse's reputation as the "Golden Head King" had long been circulated, as soon as the news that he was going to enter Beijing spread, the whole Chang'an City was sensational, after all, it was a city that had experienced many chaos, and the residents' nerves were relatively weak, lest Li Converse come to seize the throne of Li Ye, rumors spread everywhere, and everywhere there were rumors that "the Golden King came to figure out the sheji", and the less timid people directly moved their families into the valley.
Before this man could show his face, the city of Chang'an was jumping and chaotic, and if he really came, His Majesty the Emperor's life was estimated to be really difficult. So rejection is the best choice.
Li Baozhen returned to Zhenzhou disappointed, and then he was surprised to find that the problem was actually solved.
It turned out that Wang Rong heard about Li Converse's encounter and thought that it was all because of his own sake, so he took Li Converse to Zhenzhou for resettlement.
Wang's treatment of Li Guowei can be said to be quite interesting, he built a large mansion for Li Kuangcheng in Zhenzhou, and treated Li Converse like a father, and the confidential affairs in the military did not evade Li Converse at all, basically treating Li Converse as his own.
Li Converse also showed that Wang Rong had the feeling of finding a family, he helped Wang Rong repair the armor of the city, guided Wang Rong's strategy and government affairs, and almost carefully cultivated Wang Rong as his son.
When Li Guowei witnessed the beautiful mountains and rivers of Chengde and personally experienced the comfort and happiness of the return of power, the sleeping ambition throbbed again, and this man in his prime was no longer willing to play a supporting role, whenever he saw the childish but in charge of a big town next to him, remembering the past years, a thought would arise spontaneously:
He can take his place!
When this thought was reflected in his behavior, he began to secretly give small favors and buy people's hearts and minds everywhere.
If this set of methods is used in other clan towns, it will undoubtedly be very effective, and Li Converse's plan to occupy the nest may be successful, but unfortunately, here is Chengde, and the whole army is loyal to the Wang clan without exception, always united around Wang Rong, and the needle cannot be inserted and the water cannot be splashed. Therefore, the harder Li Converse tried, the more disgusted the German army became with him, but Li Converse himself did not know it. His counterexample was to think the time was ripe for action.
The day Li Converse took action was the day of the death of Li Converse's relatives, and Wang Rong naturally went through the palace to participate in the worship. So Li Converse took the opportunity to set up an ambush and abduct Wang Rong to Yacheng.
The Zhenzhou soldiers were collectively angry when they heard the news. There was no need for mobilization, no need for command, and the German army, which was completely ignited by anger, spontaneously dispatched to attack Yacheng.
Li Converse was also estimated to have faced such a lifeless onslaught for the first time, and he actually lost his mind for a while, allowing Wang Rong to be rescued by his servants. When the Cheng German army outside Yacheng saw Wang Rong's safe return, they were no longer jealous and completely vented the anger accumulated during this time. Under the vigorous attack of the ChengDe army, Li Converse was unable to resist in the end and was killed, and his close henchmen were all killed along with them, and none of them remained.
After Li Converse's death, Li Kuangchu attacked the German army in the name of avenging his brother. Although this move did not cause any substantial harm to the Cheng German army in the end, it was equivalent to sending a clear signal to everyone in the world, that is, the alliance of the three towns of Heshuo was completely broken.
Cheng De and Lu Long turned against each other, and if they wanted to block Li Keyong's words, they could only rely on li Cunxiao to unite.
In July of the second year of Jingfu (893), Wang Rong sent troops to rescue Xingzhou. In this rescue, Wang Rong instructed very clearly, to be cautious, pay attention to guard against all suspicious enemy situations, and try his best to meet Li Cunxiao as soon as possible.
However, Li Ke's use of this kind of opponent is not something that can be dealt with with by attention. As soon as cheng's army entered the Pingshan area, it encountered Li Keyong, who had heard the news. After a fierce battle, the Cheng German army was defeated, and Li Ke used the victory to pursue, and rushed all the way to the outside of Zhenzhou City.
Wang Rong was scared. By this time he had lost all his foreign aid, and the young man felt that he was not capable of defeating Li Keyong and causing the Shatuo to retreat. So he had only one choice, to betray Li Cunxiao.
On July 6, the German side sent an envoy to Li Keyong's camp and put forward two conditions for the withdrawal of troops:
One of the conditions was that Cheng De would provide 200,000 soldiers with food and 500,000 troops, and rebuild the old with Hedong;
The second condition was that the Cheng German army was willing to send troops to assist Xingzhou until the city was destroyed and Li Cunxiao was destroyed.
Li Keyong agreed. In fact, Li Keyong did not have the ability to swallow the entire Chengde in one fell swoop for the time being, and all he was worried about was that after Li Cunxiao abandoned Xingzhou, he would throw himself into Wang Rong's command, and if that was the case, Li Keyong's date of controlling Chengde would be delayed by at least ten years.
Now, he can clean the portal wholeheartedly.
After withdrawing from Zhenzhou, Li Ke used a temporary garrison at Luancheng, and Wang Chrome's 30,000 reinforcements were stationed in Ren County, southeast of Xingzhou, according to his arrangement, and Li Cunxin, who was Li Cunxiao's sworn enemy, was naturally not absent, and he commanded his troops stationed in Liulipi, Longgang County, Xingzhou.
At this time, Li Cunxiao in Xingzhou City also knew that he had lost all foreign aid. But he was much calmer and calmer than Wang Rong.
Entering and leaving the battlefield, riding a thousand horses, Li Cunxiao has never been afraid of death, he is only afraid of dying in vain, being spurned and despised by people who do not know the truth.
The proud Li Cunxiao could not bear this at all, and he would rather give up everything than lose his reputation and lose his dignity.
Therefore, when he learned that Li Cunxin, who had framed himself to such a situation, had also arrived, Li Cunxiao made a decision: rob the camp and kill Li Cunxin!
One night in September, the moon was dark and windy. Li Cunxiao secretly led his troops out of the city and quickly advanced towards Liulipi. They took advantage of the darkness to quietly open the antlers of the fence and sneak into Li Cunxin's barracks. Then, with a whistle, Li Cunxiao's soldiers slaughtered their former friendly forces and tonight's sworn enemies with a fierce tiger.
When the knife slashed at the body, Li Cunxin's soldiers reacted. In the face of these uninvited guests, to tell the truth, they were completely defenseless, and coupled with the fact that the other side was desperately desperate to fight and leave no room for a battle, Li Cunxin's camp made a big mess in a short period of time, and Li Cunxin and his generals could not organize an effective resistance at all.
In this way, Li Cunxiao stopped capturing Li Cunxin's Fengcheng army in the first battle, and Sun Kaolao, but because the scene was too chaotic at that time, Li Cunxin was very refined, and finally let the initiator slip away.
Receiving the news that Li Cunxin's camp had been breached overnight, Li Ke was silent. It was a long time before he suddenly stood up and made his last choice:
"Let the king himself meet the contrarian son!"
Li Keyong was very clever, he knew that his adopted son was very brave, and if he died in the face, he would undoubtedly suffer heavy casualties, so he did not command the soldiers to attack the city, but let people dig deep trenches around Xingzhou City and build trenches, intending to trap Li Cunxiao and his cavalry in the city.
What Li Keyong did not expect was that Li Cunxiao had followed him for many years, and he could see through his intentions at a glance, and he was more courageous than imagined, and only by relying on the continuous assault of a small group of cavalry, he beat the construction teams everywhere every day and were physically and mentally exhausted.
Seeing that the barrier could not be carried out, Li Cunxiao could not clean up, and Li Ke used it to get very angry. At this moment, a man named Yuan Fengtao appeared.
This person was originally a general of Meng Fangli, and later became a defeated general under Li Cunxiao and was captured alive, but his luck was good, he was not killed, but slowly became the general of Hedong within four years. His relationship with Li Cunxiao should usually be quite good, at least he can speak, so at this time he sent someone to secretly enter the city to find Li Cunxiao and passed on this sentence:
"The king waited until the trench digging was completed and went back to Taiyuan, and if the trench was not completed, I am afraid that he would have to wait here for a long time." Shang Shu The only person you fear is the Great King, and presumably none of the Generals of Hedong can be your opponent. If the Great King returns to the west, even if it is the Yellow River Heavenly Graben, you are not in trouble, how can this narrow gully stop the sharp edge of Shangshu?"
In this world, some people appear in your life to tell you that you are so deceitful!
Li Cunxiao was so happy by Yuan Fengtao's words that he sat back and watched the construction team outside the city rush to complete the repairs, and when the people finished ten days later, Li Cunxiao was basically finished. It should be known that although Li Cunxiao is good at shooting, he cannot shoot through the stronghold, although he can enter and exit the enemy position with one hand and dance iron with the other, and no one dares to get close, but under the obstruction of the deep and wide trench, he can no longer even reach the enemy position. At this point, even if Li Cunxiao is wearing heavy armor and has two BMWs to ride with him, the hero is invincible, but the hero is useless.
Li Cunxiao was finished. Seeing that the city ran out of food, he himself realized this.
In March of the first year of Qianning (894), Li Cunxiao, who had not seen any movement for several months, suddenly ascended to the head of Xingzhou and said that he had something to say.
Li Keyong quickly learned of this news, and he immediately rode to the city.
Seeing the familiar figure in the distance, Li Cunxiao had mixed feelings, and at that time the tears began to fall. However, he did not cry, because he found that Li Ke, who was sitting on a horse, was looking at himself coldly, which was the familiar look in Li Cunxiao's eyes when he looked at the strong enemy.
So Li Cunxiao began his last public speech in his life.
"If the child is blessed by his father and king, and is the most handsome general, if no one is involved in rumors, how can he abandon the affection of father and son and cling to the enemy!" Although Bao Er's heart and chest are limited, to this point today, it is all caused by Li Cunxin's structure. Now I only wish to be born to see the father and the king, and even if I see it, I will die, and I am willing. ”
Li Cunxiao, who has never been good at words, can say such a thing, which really makes Li Ke feel sour in his heart. So he sent his own Lady Liu into the city to comfort Li Cunxiao and persuade him to remove his armor and leave the city.
Soon, Lady Liu came out with Li Cunxiao.
Seeing Li Keyong's first glance, Li Cunxiao immediately knelt down and prostrated his head, sincerely pleading guilty: "Bao'er has made small contributions, and he has no major faults, but he was slandered by others, and he affirmed that there is no way, so at this point, this is all caused by Li Cunxin's obstruction!"
Li Cunxiao had thought that his initiative to forgive would continue to exchange for Li Keyong's pity, who knows, what was waiting for him was a roar of anger.
"You wrote a letter to Wang Rong and slandered me in a big way, is this also what Li Cunxin forced you to do?"
When Li Ke's words reached Li Cunxiao's ears, the will of the first fierce general of the late Tang Dynasty completely collapsed, and he could not say a word, so he was tied up into rice dumplings by the soldiers li ke summoned with a wave of his hand, loaded into a car, and sent back to Taiyuan.
At the end of the month, Li Cunxiao's ending was finally determined: the car split in the city.
Li Cunxiao ( Li Cunxiao ) , a native of Feihu ( present-day Lingqiu County , Shanxi ) , was originally surnamed An , jingsi , and of the Shatuo clan , and was the adopted son of Li Keyong , known in later generations as the "Thirteenth Taibao". His people are brave and brave, often taking the horse as a pioneer, and have not tasted defeat, "Gaigu Zhangliao, Ganning Zhibiye". However, "Mu Xiu will be destroyed by the forest wind, and the pile will be turbulent above the shore", although Li Cunxiao is brave and fierce, he does not know that he is with the light and dust, and he does not know the world, and finally he is hurt by jealousy and fire, and he is wrongfully killed.
Li Cunxiao died, since Li Ke's military strength was gradually weakened, while Zhu Quanzhong was alone.
Li Cunxin won the victory in the end, but not the final victory. Li Ke used a lot of ordinary things, but he still understood the situation. If he didn't even know why his most powerful general had betrayed himself, the one who dominated the north would not have been surnamed Li.
Moreover, according to Sima Guang, during the period of execution, Li Ke used what he had expected to expect the generals to come forward to intercede for Li Cunxiao, and then pushed the boat along the water to save the people from the execution ground. After all, the method of pulling down again before going to the execution ground is also of great educational significance, which is enough to teach Li Cunxiao a good lesson and let this adopted son change his past wrongdoing. But Li Keyong waited until the prison officer returned to make a difference, nor did he wait for a general to be listed as Li Cunxiao to speak.
Jealousy, are all jealousy, in order to get ahead of themselves, soaring, would rather let the capable death be unclear, what is this quality! How chilling is this kind of colleague relationship that looks at you in person and stabs you behind your back!
After grieving for Li Cunxiao and resting for more than ten days, Li Keyong made a decision to make those who framed Li Cunxiao pay the price they deserved.
The first unlucky egg was not Li Cunxin, but Kang Junli.
This Kang brother had a very good relationship with Li Cunxin in his daily life, so he often helped Li Cunxin to say bad things about Li Cunxiao in front of Li Keyong, but the reason why he was unlucky was not because of this matter, but purely because of his mouth.
In September of this year, Li Keyong had organized a gathering of generals, and at the cocktail party Li Keyong may have drunk a lot, so he opened the mode of drinking and talking, talking about Li Cunxiao, and then began to cry.
According to the principle of the workplace, since the leaders are crying, you follow the tears, otherwise it is okay to be silent there. No, Kang Junli came up with a sentence (sorry, what was specifically said, the history books did not clearly write, I did not check) and li Ke was used to annoy the eyes.
After drinking, Li Ke didn't dare to say anything, didn't dare to do it, pulled out his sword and slashed it with one move, slashed Kang Junli to the ground, and then asked someone to throw him into Ma Busi's big prison.
The next day, he woke up drunk. When everyone thought that Kang Junli was about to be released, a news that shocked everyone came out: Li Ke ordered Kang Junli to be killed in prison.
As we all know, it was Kang Junli who led a group of people to help Li Keyong start a fight, so it can be said that Kang Junli was the first hero of Li Keyong's great cause. After that, he followed Li Keyong to fight in various places, made great achievements, and was an official to Zhaoyi Jiedushi, which was considered to be an old minister. However, it was such a meritorious general who was poisoned by Li Ke without hesitation because he said a bad word from Li Cunxiao. It can be seen from this that Li Cunxiao's position in Li Keyong's heart is indeed unusual.
In any case, there was no li Cunxiao in the world, and when Wang Yanzhang, who was called Wang Tiegun, had fully risen more than ten years later, there was no one under Li Keyong's command who could resist the sharp edge of this famous general.
By the time Li Keyong lost a major general, his opponent Zhu Wen had already won a new decisive victory and was once again reborn. Many people in later generations believe that it was this crucial stage victory that ultimately determined that the fate of the Tang Dynasty would be firmly controlled by this man named Zhu Wen.