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The chaotic era of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms began with the division of the feudal towns after the Anshi Rebellion. When Shi Chaoyi was conferred the throne, the Tang court was also exhausted, at that time Tang Suzong had died, and the newly enthroned Tang Dynasty Emperor had powerful eunuchs within himself, and there were external troubles such as Tubo and Nanzhao outside, so he really did not have the energy to purge Hebei and liquidate the An Shi rebels, so he made the surrendered An Shi rebels all the envoys of Jiedu to obtain his nominal recognition of Tang Ting. Among them, Tian Chengsi was the envoy of Wei BoJiedushi, Li Huaixian was the envoy of Lulong Festival, and Li Baochen was the envoy of Chengde Festival, which was the "Three Towns of Heshuo" that later caused Tang Ting a headache.
After the unsuccessful cutting of the domain during the later Dezong period, the Tang Dynasty and the Hebei Domain had formed a kind of game equilibrium. If the degree of moderation makes this side want father and son to inherit or brothers in succession, the Tang court will delay not to give the symbol of the despotic side of the symbol of moderation- the festival. Because the emissaries of the festival are not legal emperors after all, if the Tang dynasty is delayed, there will often be changes within the town, so the internal degree of the envoy must be respectful to the Tang court. And once the knot of authority symbolized by the degree of moderation was obtained, often the relationship between the Tang Dynasty and the town of the domain became delicate again.
The "Rebellion of the Two Emperors and Four Kings" was a rebellion sparked by the central government during the reign of Emperor Dezong of Tang, who was forced to flee to Fengtian (present-day Qianxian County, Shaanxi)
During this period, the relationship between the Phan and the Tang court was similar to that between the pope and the French cardinal. Before becoming archbishop, the Archbishop of France would do his utmost to curry favor with the Vatican, but as soon as he received the highest office he could bestow from the Pope, the Archbishop of France, he would immediately become a patriot and defend the interests of France at every turn.
Therefore, although there was hostility between hebei fanzhen and tang court, it was more of an interdependent relationship. Heshuo's soldiers are strong and strong, sometimes they can be used by Tianzi, and they have no political ambitions, and these three towns just want to protect their own acres and three points of land. The Tang court could rely on Heshuo's strong troops to guard the frontier, and occasionally conquest other disobedient feudal towns; And the town of Heshuo must also rely on the authority of the central government to maintain the smooth self-succession of power.
When Emperor Wuzong of Tang made Liu Shu a prince, the words spoken by Li Deyu, the chancellor, were already very explicit
Heshuo, Shu Sogami with lips and teeth also. If Wei and Zhen are not in harmony, they will be destroyed. The heir of the third town of Fu, the saint xuzhi. Ask your close ministers to make it clear: "Commander Ezawa Lu shall not regard the three towns as a commander, and if he wants to curse him now, he will use his soldiers to meet him."
At that time, Emperor Wuzong of Tang wanted to attack zhaoyi jiedushi and was worried that zhaoyi town would unite with the three towns of Heshuo. So Li Deyu said, "Three towns, the heirs, the saints." These three towns are hereditary that has been recognized by successive emperors, one for the Tang Dynasty, and two systems. However, Zhaoyi is an inland feudal town and cannot be equated with Heshuo. Tell This to Heshuo and let them feel at ease, not only will they not send troops, but they will also help attack Zhaoyi.
Later, the Zhaoyi Rebellion was put down, just as Li Deyu expected.
Woe to the yuan and
After Emperor Xianzong of Tang succeeded to the throne, he joined forces with Pei Du to pacify Wu Yuanji, the envoy of Huaixi Jiedu. The town of Huaixi was split into three feudal towns and completely brought under the direct jurisdiction of the Tang Dynasty. In the seventh year of Yuan He (812), Wei Bojiedu made Tian Hongzheng submit, completely making the Heshuo Alliance an empty talk. Emperor Xianzong of Tang also keenly seized this opportunity, at the suggestion of Li Chen
If there is no great reward for what they expect, there is no way to comfort the hearts of the soldiers, so that the neighbors will be persuaded.
He quickly gave Tian Hongzheng the Festival, and wei Bo's sergeants received heavy rewards. Standard carrots and sticks. Big stick, there is Wu Yuanji dead before the extinction of the clan; Carrot has various benefits after HiroshiDa's conversion. The towns of Lu Long and Chengde finally softened and took the initiative to hand over the throne to the imperial court. At this point, the Tang Dynasty achieved true unification for the first time after the Anshi Rebellion.
Yuan and ZTE, unified rivers and mountains.
However, there is a dangerous tendency that may be ignored by the elated Yuan and junchen. The three towns of Heshuo were not really "subdued", in fact, the campaign against Chengde jiedu launched at the beginning of Emperor Xianzong's reign made the battle end in failure. Heshuo's obedience is a common result of carrots and sticks, and the carrot factor may be more. How long can the loyalty you buy last? Tang Ting can provide carrots for one day, and Heshuo will submit for a day, but can Tang Ting really maintain this reward indefinitely? There are not many shortcuts in this world, if You completely subdue Heshuo, then the cost of follow-up will not be so high - how good conditions can the general of the defeated army negotiate? And now this kind of redemption-style conquest, if you want to truly internalize the Forbidden Tang Shunmin, I am afraid that the difficulty of the follow-up work is really a headache.
However, Tang Xianzong did not have this mind, and Tang Muzong, who succeeded to the throne, did not have this ability. Mu Zongchao made a very adventurous, but also very symbolic attempt, that is, to adjust the three towns of Heshuo, especially the "pacesetter of the uprising" Wei Bo Jiedushi to make Tian Hongzheng to Chengde Ren Jiedushi, showing the control of the central government. If this is undoubtedly a sign if it succeeds, then the alliance of the three towns of Heshuo can be better dismantled step by step.
However, at this time, the Economy of the Tang Dynasty was no longer able to support the bottomless pit of "redemption-style submission". The reward originally promised to Tian Hongzheng was delayed, and in July 821 (the first year of Changqing), Tian Hongzheng had no choice but to repatriate 2,000 relatives back to Wei Bo, and Tian Hongzheng, who had lost his relatives, was soon killed by the Chengde general Wang Tingzhuo. For a time, the tang court had no choice but to send Tian Hongzheng's son Tian Bu back to Wei Bo as an emissary, but Tian Bu's prestige was far from being comparable to Tian Hongzheng's, and although he tried his best to win over his subordinates (in fact, he had no money), he was still forced by the generals to make Wei Bo an independent domain town, and eventually Tian Bu died in despair. Shi Xiancheng became the new master of Wei Bo, and the three towns of Heshuo returned to an independent state.
The downfall of power
Rewarding this thing, there is no incentive in the ordinary, but there will be resentment when there is a shortage. The appetite of the Heshuo soldiers had been hung up by the Tang Dynasty. If you think about it again, it is almost impossible to go from luxury to frugality. The next development was a vicious circle: the prestige of the early generals was still more effective, but later it became: whoever could meet the soldier's increasing reward requirements, the soldier supported who was the emissary. - "Change the manager, do the same thing"
With the continuous decline of the Tang Dynasty, the role of thriftiness in seeking frugality was also decreasing, which further increased the cost of the soldiers' wanton behavior. This is also the era of the tooth soldiers in the town. During the Era of the Tooth Soldiers, the feudal towns became more politically unconceived, but at the same time they were more unruly and disobedient. Typical examples are the town of Zhaoyi, which Li Deyu pacified.
In the early period of Zhaoyi Town, Zhaoyi Town was "known as Zhongyi", as a sharp knife embedded in Heshuo by the imperial court, and undertook the function of containing Heshuo for the imperial court. However, after the destruction of Zhaoyi, the control of the imperial court did increase, and even sent civilian officials to be emissaries, but after the Zhaoyi army often mutinied and rebelled. In his writings, Qiu Luming divided the town into "economic rebellion" and "political rebellion", and after Muzong, there were more rebellions in the town, but as in the Jingyuan mutiny during the Dezong period, the number of people who frequently claimed the title of king and emperor decreased, that is, the number of "political rebellions" decreased, and the "economic rebellion"—the rebellion that demanded money and food and rewards increased. This in itself is a manifestation of the downward shift in power – because only the families of generals will have further political needs; At the same time, it also strengthens the downward shift of power - the degree of moderation makes it possible to survive only if the needs of the tooth soldiers are met, the tooth soldiers are demanding too much, and the commander can only use more economic benefits to calm the restlessness of the tooth soldiers.
Table from - Zhang Guogang's "Study of Tang Dynasty FanZhen"
This also caused a very strange phenomenon - Tang Ting was obviously very weak, but for a long time there were no feudal towns, including the three towns of Heshuo, who could challenge the status of Tang Ting, in fact, they were more obedient. Because the prestige of the commanders was not enough, they had to spend most of their energy on appeasing the internal forces, and they could not take care of themselves, how could they have a long-term plan? At that time, Wei Bobing, who was able to single-handedly challenge the Divine Strategist Army, could actually get the evaluation of "cowardice in fighting", which had to make people sigh that time had changed. It is conceivable that if there is no Yellow Nest Rebellion, this weak balance between the Tang Dynasty and the FanZhen should continue for a while.
Under the eerie calm before the Late Tang Dynasty Yellow Nest Rebellion, it was such an undercurrent that surged forward. The control of the commander was greatly reduced, and the will of the tooth soldiers was increasing. In fact, the hollowing out of the Jieshuai caused an increase in the nominal control of the Tang court--in addition to Heshuo, such as Shannandongdao, Zhaoyi, xuanwu and other festival towns, the imperial court could use civilian officials to do it. The "rule of the Great Middle" in the era of Tang Xuanzong was the last calm of this turbulent and arrogant Tang Dynasty.
Five generations of habits
This "unhappy mutiny" style has continued for five generations. Take the late Tang Emperor Li Congke as an example, Li Congke was besieged by emperor Min, because many of the soldiers who besieged him were soldiers he had brought, Li Congke showed his scars on the city tower, pained his innocence, and let the soldiers below turn against him. And then what happened?
On the seventeenth day, he led the residents' wealth to reward the sergeant. It was a day, and the emperor was all in the east. On the twentieth day, the second Chang'an, the deputy liu Suiyong, surrendered to the city and led the jingzhao residents to the family wealth and army.
Then after arriving in the capital to succeed to the throne:
Bing Zi, Zhao Henan Province, led the wealth of the residents of the capital to help reward the army. Ding Ugly also decreed that the residents should be borrowed for five months of housing lessons, and they would not ask the scholars, and they would all be implemented. Emperor Su was light on his wealth and charity, and he put it on for the armies from qixia, and told the soldiers' day: "Waiting for Luo, people will be rewarded with hundreds of thousands." In the end, the government was empty, so there was an order to match the rate, and the people in the capital city who cut themselves off one after another.
In a word: Lead the residents' homes to reward the sergeants. In fact, it is to condone soldiers to rob the people to buy the hearts and minds of the army. The process of Li Congke's entry into Beijing is the process of continuous "treating" the army.
And even with such a high reward, how did the soldiers repay Li Congke? When Shi Jingtang's army approached:
He and the emperor sent horse troops to command Song Zhenqian to lead more than a thousand horses to the white horse slope and stepped on the position, and the generals said: "Where is the place that cannot be fought, who is willing to stand here?" "The emperor is asked to return to the palace."
Each time a new monarch is established, it usually means a large reward, even the low-level soldiers can get the hidden benefits of legal plunder (commonly known as rammed city, that is, to plunder the city in which they live), and the soldiers have no intention of fighting to the death. This habit of heavy rewards and light support still had remnants when Emperor Taizong of Song was cutting down the Liao, such as the Battle of Gaoliang River:
The army tasted night terrors and did not know where the emperor was. Those who have a moral record, the emperor is not pleased. Moreover, the northern expedition was unfavorable, and the reward of Taiyuan was not fulfilled for a long time.
The Song Dynasty also did not have a good solution, and finally adopted a continuous carrot and a stick to solve the problem. In terms of carrots, the military expenditure of the Song Dynasty has remained high, accounting for 60% or 70% of the entire fiscal revenue. The expenditure of rewards in the military expenditure of the Song Dynasty was also very high, even higher than the purchase of military weapons and horses. In addition to the example of gifts, that is, the time and place must be necessary: silver shoes money, moon head silver, etc. Like the rest, as long as there are any national ceremonies, including military parades, suburban ceremonies, festivals, etc., there are rewards. And the emperor's ascension to the throne is even more generous. In the Southern Song Dynasty, sometimes there were rewards for losing battles:
The official army was defeated in the Jiankang River, the governor Shang Gonggong, yunqi's fourth prince was almost captured, also known as the reward, when it was said to be almost rewarded with a provincial note.
"Almost winning" is also rewarded, which is not a must.
In terms of the big stick, the Song Dynasty also formulated various complex systems, refining the division of power, so that the arrogant soldiers could not find the main backbone of the rebellion, which made the Song Dynasty indeed settle down for a long time and ended the chaotic world since the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms. However, objectively speaking, it has also caused a lot of adverse effects on the combat effectiveness of the army, of course, this is another topic.