The Tang Dynasty has been in decline since the "Anshi Rebellion" in 755. In the late Tang Dynasty, the division of feudal towns and the monopoly of eunuch power became two major political problems. Coupled with the serious land annexation and sharp social contradictions, the rule of the Tang Dynasty can be described as declining. However, some monarchs in the late Tang Dynasty also tried to restore the tang dynasty's strong and prosperous situation, which was represented by Tang Xianzong.
Before Tang Xianzong came to power, the Tang Dynasty was close to extinction several times. During the reign of Emperor Dezong of Tang, not only was he defeated in the War of Cutting The Domain, but he also triggered the Jingyuan Mutiny, and the Tianzi fled to Fengtian, and the Tang Dynasty was almost destroyed. The Jingyuan Mutiny dealt a great blow to Tang Dezong, after which Tang Dezong lost his positive and enterprising spirit and completely became a dark lord.
On the issue of fanzhen, Tang Dezong no longer cut the domain, but recognized the hereditary privilege of the feudal town; in internal affairs, Tang Dezong denigrated Lu Zhen and other sages, but instead reused eunuchs, and handed over the command of the Shen ce army to the eunuchs Dou Wenchang and Huo Xianming, and from then on, the central armed forces of the Tang Dynasty began to control the eunuchs. In life, Tang Dezong began to plunder and indulge in pleasure. He set up a palace city envoy to buy the goods of the people at a low price, calling it the palace market.
Liu Zongyuan
In 805, Emperor Dezong of Tang died, and Emperor Shunzong of Tang succeeded him. Tang Shunzong was a more thoughtful emperor, and after he came to power, he reused Wang Shuwen, Wang Ling, Liu Zongyuan, Liu Yuxi, and others to carry out reforms, and these people were called "Liu Liu, the Second King". This reform was known as the "Yongzhen Reform", and its main purpose was to exclude eunuchs and attack the feudal towns.
When Tang Shunzong ascended the throne, he ordered that the people be exempted from all kinds of old debts to the government; that the monthly income of local officials and salt and iron envoys should be stopped; that the price of salt in Jianghuaihai should be reduced from 370 yuan to 250 yuan per bucket, and that the price of salt in northern ponds should be reduced to 300 yuan per bucket; that the palace market be abolished; that Lu Zhen and the famous courtier Yangcheng be recalled; and that Jingzhao Yin Li Shi's embezzlement be declared and demoted to the long history of Tongzhou (Daxian County, Sichuan). ——Fan Wenlan, General History of China
The "Yongzhen Reform" shook the eunuchs' power and was opposed by the eunuchs. In August 805, the eunuch Ju Wenzhen and others proclaimed Li Chun as emperor, that is, Tang Xianzong, and Shunzong abdicated as Emperor Taishang, known in history as "Yongzhen Inner Zen". Subsequently, Wang Ling was demoted, Wang Shuwen was killed, and Liu Zongyuan, Liu Yuxi, and eight other people were also relegated to the extremely remote southwest and Lingnan lands. The coup d'état announced the death of the "Yongzhen Reform", and Tang Shunzong seemed to have been killed by eunuchs the following year.
Second, Tang Xianzong's early strength
Tang Xianzong was a more accomplished emperor, he "read the records of the holy records, saw the stories of Zhenguan and Kaiyuan, and could not interpret the scrolls", and he regarded "The Entrepreneurship of Emperor Taizong" and "The Reasoning of Emperor Xuanzong" as examples to emulate.
The first challenge Tang Xianzong faced when he came to power was the rebellion of Liu Feng by Xichuan Jiedushi. In the month when Tang Xianzong succeeded to the throne, the former Xichuan Jiedu made Wei Gao die of illness, and Liu Lu, the deputy envoy of Jiannan Zhidu, claimed to be the empress dowager of Jiedu, and wrote to the imperial court requesting that he be appointed as the envoy of Xichuan Jiedushi. Bashu was the rear of the Tang Dynasty, and if Xichuan Jiedu made the capital divided, then the only place under the direct control of the Tang Dynasty was Guanzhong. Therefore, the Tang Dynasty vetoed Liu Min's request.
Tang Xianzong
Then Liu Lu sent troops to defend the territory and divide the side. At this time, the imperial court had just undergone a coup d'état and the political situation was unstable, so Tang Xianzong was forced to compromise with Liu Yu and appoint him as the deputy envoy of Xichuan Jiedu. However, Liu Min was not satisfied, and not only asked to be the envoy of Xichuan Jiedushi, but also to control Dongchuan and Shannan's Western Provinces. Of course, the imperial court did not agree with Liu Feng's request, so Liu Lu sent an army to attack Dongchuan. At that time, most of the ministers of the imperial court believed that Xichuan was far away and it was difficult to use troops, and the chancellor Huang Bao and The Hanlin scholar Li Jifu strongly advocated being tough on the town and advocating the use of troops.
Emperor Xianzong of Tang accepted the advice of Huang Bao and Li Jifu and appointed Zuo Shen to make Gao Chongwen the commander of the campaign against Liu Min. Soon Liu Min was defeated and cursed, and Gao Chongwen was appointed as the envoy of Xichuan Jiedushi. The Yizhou Rebellion had just been quelled, and Li Qi's rebellion had been launched by Li Qi. Soon Li Qi failed and was killed. The defeat of the envoys of Xichuan and Western Zhejiang caused a great deterrent effect on the other envoys, and even the envoys of Shannan's Eastern Province, who had been planning to rebel for a long time, were also summoned to Chang'an.
After Tang Xianzong destroyed the rebellion of the two major envoys in Xichuan and western Zhejiang, he became somewhat proud and began to use troops against the town of Hebei. In 809, Chengde Jiedu caused Wang Shizhen to die, and the eldest son, Wang Chengzong, followed the custom. However, Tang Xianzong wanted to cut down the town of Hebei, so he refused to appoint him as an envoy to Jiedushi. In that year, Tang Xianzong appointed the eunuch Tutu Chengcui as the commander,000 and sent a total of 200,000 soldiers and horses from the left and right shence, Heyang, Zhejiang West, Xuanshe and other provinces to attack Wang Chengzong. Bai Juyi and others opposed, but Tang Dezong was stubborn and still took Tutu Chengcui as his commander. As a result, the war was defeated, and the prestige of the imperial court was greatly reduced.
At the same time, Tang Xianzong also had problems in internal affairs. In 808, he held a special examination to select talents, and Niu Monk, Li Zongmin, and others pointed out Chen Shizheng, and were ranked among the examiners Yang Yuling and others. However, Li Jifu, the prime minister, slandered the examiners for cheating, and Tang Xianzong did not ask right from wrong, and dismissed the examiners and cattle monks and children.
Since the defeat of Hebei, Tang Xianzong began to reflect and no longer reused eunuchs and traitors. In 810, Tutu Chengcui returned to the Capital Division, and Li Dai and others tried to punish him. Tang Xianzong then demoted Tutu Chengcui to a military envoy, and the following year Tutu Chengcui was demoted to Huainan Supervision Army because of his bribery. After that, Li Dai became the prime minister. Under the leadership of Li Chen, the atmosphere of the imperial court was changed to a certain extent.
In 812, there was infighting in Wei Bo Town, and after the generals supported Tian Hongzheng to stay, Tian Hongzheng took the land of the six prefectures of Wei Bo Town to the Shun imperial court. The matter in Hebei Fanzhen is also over for the time being.
The year 814 was a turning point in Tang Xianzong's life. In this year, he reused eunuchs, and in 814, he transferred Tutu Chengxuan back, and the eunuch power began to flourish again.
In this year, Huaixi Jiedu caused Wu Shaoyang to die of illness, and his son Wu Yuanji secretly inherited his position. The geographical location of the Zhunxi Jiedushi was very important, guarding the Water Transport Route from Jianghuai to the North, and the Tang Dynasty had long wanted to destroy it. However, the Ziqing Jiedushi and Huaixi Jiedu in the Shandong Peninsula made their lips cold, so Li Shidao sent a large number of assassins to the imperial court to assassinate the officials of the main war faction, and the chancellor Wu Yuanheng was killed, and Yushizhong Wasfei du was also injured. Li Shidao also sent a large number of killers everywhere to burn and kill in an attempt to intervene in this operation.
Tang Xianzong was not intimidated by Li Shidao's behavior, but more resolutely used troops against Huaixi. However, Tang Xianzong's way of using generals was very poor. Tang Xianzong appointed Yan Shuo as the commander this time, but Yan Shuo only knew how to marry eunuchs for a year, and he had no merit. In 815, Emperor Xianzong of Tang also appointed Xuanwu Jiedu to make Han Hong commander, but Han Hong himself was a feudal town and therefore stagnant. It was not until 817 that Emperor Xianzong of Tang appointed Pei Du (裴度), who was in charge of the main war faction, as chancellor and abolished the eunuchs' right to supervise the army, and the troops in the front actively waged war against Huaixi. It took three or four years to cut off the Huaixi Jiedushi this time, and its consumption was very huge.
Map of the town of Yuanhe Domain
In 816, Tang Xianzong did not listen to the advice of his courtiers, and ordered 100,000 troops from Hedong, Youzhou, and Wei Bo to attack Wang Chengzong of Chengdezhen, opening up the second battlefield of the cut domain. However, the six armies of Hebei Province were leaderless and all looked at each other. The result was that the war was not really waged, but the attrition caused by the mobilization of soldiers and horses was innumerable.
After the town of Huaixi was breached, it once again caused a great shock to the town. In 818, Henghai Jiedu made Cheng Quan leave the town to become a court official, so the imperial court recaptured Cang and Jing'er Prefectures. In 818, Emperor Xianzong of Tang ordered Wei Botian Hongzheng and others to attack Li Shidao, who was defeated and killed, and the imperial court retaken the twelve prefectures of Zi and Qing. Thereafter, the town of Hebei also declared its submission to the imperial court.
Tang Jingling
Ziqing Jiedushi was the largest feudal town at that time, and the demise of Ziqing Jiedushi heralded that the Tang Dynasty was not far from reunification. However, Tang Xianzong began to be proud again. In 818, Tang Xianzong completely fell, and he issued an edict to the alchemists to obtain the elixir of immortality, so that his temperament changed greatly, and he often killed ministers and eunuchs indiscriminately. In 820, Tang Xianzong was killed by eunuchs, and the short period of "Yuan and Zhongxing" ended.
The so-called "Yuan and ZTE" actually did not appear in the situation of ZTE. During tang xianzong's reign, eunuchs were reused and failed to change the situation of eunuch dictatorship, and after Tang Xianzong was killed, eunuchs directly controlled the government. On the issue of fanzhen, Tang Xianzong eliminated several jiedushi envoys, but most of the jiedushi still existed, especially the Hebei fanzhen was still strong. For this reason, "Yuan and Zhongxing" are just a return to the light of the Tang Dynasty. Li Shangyin's poem is "The sunset is infinitely good, but it is near dusk".