Chapter 36 Li Chongfu Mutiny

AD 710 was undoubtedly an eventful year for the Li and Tang Dynasties.There are three reign titles in this year: Jinglong, Tanglong, and Jingyun.The first one was used for nearly half a year and was abolished by Empress Wei; the second one was used for more than 20 days and was terminated by a coup d'etat by Li Longji; In January, another unexpected mutiny broke out suddenly.The leader of this mutiny was the second son who had been exiled by Emperor Zhongzong for a long time - King Qiao Li Chongfu. Over the years, the political situation in the empire has been changing, Chang'an's Golden Luan Palace is full of noise, and the emperors of the Tang Dynasty are changing one by one like a revolving lantern, but all of these seem to have nothing to do with Li Chongfu.He is like a forgotten abandoned child, chewing the boundless loneliness and sorrow alone on the edge of the lively chess game.When Zhongzong collapsed suddenly, there was an extremely faint hope in his heart—hope that he could succeed the Datong as the second son.After all, among Zhongzong's only two surviving sons, he is almost twice as old as Li Chongmao, so he has reason to have this hope.

But in fact, he also knows that as long as Empress Wei is in power in the court, his expectation is an extravagant hope, a ridiculous and pitiful fantasy. Sure enough, not long after Zhongzong's sudden collapse, news came from the capital that Li Chongmao had ascended the throne and Empress Wei was in charge as regent. Almost at the same time when Li Chongfu heard the news, General Zhao Chengen of Zuo Tunwei was ordered by Empress Wei to bring 500 soldiers to Junzhou, sealed off his mansion layer by layer, and completely deprived him of his actions. free. Li Chongfu smiled wryly in his heart.

He knew that as long as Queen Wei was in power for one day, he would not be able to escape the fate of this prisoner.And Li Chongfu is also very clear that Empress Wei's ultimate goal is to usurp Tang and become emperor like Wu Zhao, so she will soon abolish the puppet emperor Li Chongmao.And once Empress Wei reaches this point, Li Chongfu's death will also come. As an aristocrat of the Li Tang royal family, as the elderly prince who is most qualified to inherit the throne of Emperor Zhongzong, Li Chongfu is really unwilling to accept the ruthless mercy of fate, let alone become a fish on Queen Wei's chopping board.

As a result, a cluster of flames gradually ignited in his heart. The cluster of flames was weak at first, but soon turned into a raging fire. Because, at this moment, two ambitious people came to Li Chongfu's side. If it is said that Li Chongfu's long-standing pain is a pile of firewood, and his hatred for Empress Wei is a kindling seed, then the arrival of these two careerists is undoubtedly the sudden pouring of two barrels of oil on these two things. . These two people, one is Zhang Lingjun, from Luoyang, he is a commoner, his occupation is untested, and he is probably a gangster. Minister of the Ministry - Zheng Yin.

Zheng Yin is a man who is a mother if he has a milk, and he is a typical political speculator.But this kind of person also has an advantage, that is, he is indomitable and never gives up. As long as there is a breath, the ambition of this kind of person will never die. At first, Zheng Yin was a subordinate of the cruel official Lai Junchen. After Lai Junchen was punished, he became a running dog of Erzhang, and then Erzhang was killed. He was demoted to a low-level local officer, and then he abandoned his official position because of embezzlement of military pay. He absconded and became a wanted fugitive.It stands to reason that if the average person has messed up to this point, they will be confessed in this life.But Zheng Yin is not an ordinary person, and his political ambitions never disappear because of his difficulties.When he was hiding in Tibet and had nowhere to go, he actually took a dangerous move and sneaked back to the eastern capital in a desperate way. He won the favor of Wu Sansi in an unexpected way, and thus transformed into the court's Zhongshu Sheren again.

When it comes to Zheng Yin, one cannot fail to mention Cui Shi.When Wu Sansi was in power, Zheng Yin and Cui Shi became the second generals of the Wu family, Hunha, and they worked closely together in the process of attacking the five ministers, especially contributing a lot.Later, Wu Sansi was killed, and Zheng and Cui joined forces to seek refuge with Empress Wei. They served as prime ministers together for a period of time, and jointly controlled the officials of the Tang Dynasty, selling officials and nobles wantonly, embezzling and accepting bribes.The two brothers earn money together and enjoy the blessings together. They are really nourishing and very proud.However, it didn't take long for their crimes of corruption and breaking the law to be revealed.

From this time on, the official careers and destinies of Zheng Yin and Cui Shi began to diverge. It's also ridiculous to say that the reason for their bifurcation of fate is actually because of their appearance. It is said that Cui Shi is a rare and beautiful man who is famous for his "beauty and appearance", so he can use his beauty to please Shangguan Wan'er, Princess Anle and other strong women. Come out and protect him.But Zheng Yin is "ugly and bearded", described as wretched, and he can't climb the crony of those strong women at all, so he is naturally more unlucky than Cui Shi.Although Cui Shi was convicted, he was only formally released for a few days, and he returned to the court to restore his prime minister in a short time; but he, Zheng Yin, could only get out of Chang'an in despair and was demoted to Emperor Shangao. The distant Jiangzhou (now Jiujiang City, Jiangxi Province) went to be Sima.

This relegation was not the worst in Zheng Yin's life, but it was the deepest decline in his official career curve.Because this time he fell directly from the high position of the prime minister to the bottom of the empire's political arena, the gap is too great, so it seems to be more painful than being a fugitive at the beginning. While walking on that pathetic road of relegation, Zheng Yin kept thinking repeatedly: Is this the end of this life?Could it be that after working so hard for a lifetime, he ended up not being able to do so because of his rough looks? No.Zheng Yin quickly told himself - I am ugly, but I am very ambitious!

Looking back on the first half of my life, I lost my backer time and time again and fell into a difficult situation, but ended up turning over again and again.Isn't it because of the undying ambition in your chest?It can be seen that men are not afraid of being ugly, but they are afraid of being unambitious. But having said that, it is useless to have ambition alone, you need to have backing.In other words, ambition is just a vine. If it cannot wrap itself around a big tree like Er Zhang, Wu Sansi, and Queen Wei, no matter how big the vine is, it will die. So, looking at the world today, which big tree can make itself entangled?

Zheng Yin sat in the swaying carriage and kept thinking hard, but in the end he found nothing.It wasn't until the carriage reached the boundary of Jingchu, not far from Junzhou, that a person's name suddenly jumped into Zheng Yin's mind. Li Chongfu... Qiao Wang Li Chongfu! Goodness, isn't this a ready-made shade tree? In an instant, Zheng Yin found that his gloomy life suddenly became brighter. He couldn't help laughing wildly. There is no unparalleled road in the sky, there is no unparalleled road in the sky! On the way to Jiangzhou, where he was demoted, Zheng Min deliberately made a detour to Junzhou, secretly met with Qiao Wang Li Chongfu, and directly expressed his loyalty and support.

Since Li Chongfu was exiled, almost no official dared to step into his mansion, let alone express his support to him, so Li Chongfu was both excited and moved, and immediately introduced Zheng Yin as his confidant. Soon, Emperor Zhongzong collapsed and Empress Wei came to court. Zheng Min felt that the time had come, and immediately went to Luoyang to find Zhang Lingjun, a black boss he had met when he was living in the rivers and lakes, and invited him to create a great cause together.Zhang Lingjun readily agreed, so he and Zheng Min both came to Junzhou and tried their best to encourage Li Chongfu to formally raise an army to crusade against Empress Wei. However, just as the three of them stepped up their conspiracy, Tang Long's coup broke out suddenly.Empress Wei's party was wiped out, young emperor Li Chongmao abdicated, Ruizong Li Dan ascended the throne, and the political situation of the empire changed beyond recognition overnight.Later, Zheng Yin was transferred back to the court to serve as the secretary and junior supervisor, but just halfway there, Yao Chong and Song Jing came to power, and he was immediately relegated to the governor of Yuanzhou (northwest of Hongjiang City, Hunan Province).At the same time, Qiao Wang Li Chongfu also received an imperial edict from Ruizong to transfer him to be the governor of Jizhou (now Nanjiang County, Sichuan). Just when Li Chongfu was hesitating whether to go to Jizhou to take up his post, Zheng Yin and Zhang Lingjun came again. Zheng Yin told him, my lord, don't leave, and I won't be a bird governor anymore, let's do it according to the original plan, and take back the country that originally belonged to you.Zhang Lingjun also said to Li Chongfu: "Your Majesty is the eldest son of the emperor, so you should be the Son of Heaven! Although the Prime Minister has meritorious service, he is not qualified to join the Datong. Now, the scholars and common people in the Eastern Capital are eagerly waiting for the arrival of the Majesty. If you can Enter the Eastern Capital secretly, mobilize the left and right camps on the two wings of the palace city, attack and kill the left guards, and occupy the Eastern Capital. The world can be settled in a moment!" Zhang Lingjun is worthy of being the boss of Jianghu, he speaks so arrogantly, as if the world is a pot of his family, and he can turn it upside down with just a lift of his hand.Li Chongfu was overwhelmed by what was said, his eyes lit up, and he slapped his thigh immediately - there is nothing to say, rise up! Without further ado, let's do it.Li Chongfu then dispatched his retainer Wang Dao to accompany Zheng Yin into Dongdu Daqian Station first.After arriving in Luoyang, Wang Dao was in charge of secretly recruiting the dead, and he gathered hundreds of people in a short period of time.Zheng Yin was in charge of establishing a stronghold. He secretly contacted Pei Xun, the son-in-law captain (who married Zhongzong's daughter, Princess Yicheng), and planned to use his home as Li Chongfu's foothold and operational headquarters.Afterwards, Zheng Yin drafted an edict to support Li Chongfu as emperor with confidence, and announced in the edict that the year name would be changed to "Zhongyuan Kefu", and then he respected Li Dan as "Uncle Huangji" and made Li Chongmao the emperor. Taidi; at the same time, Zheng Yin served as Prime Minister Zuo, who "knows internal and external literary affairs" and takes charge of administrative power, and Zhang Lingdu as Prime Minister You and General Tianzhu, who "knows military affairs" and is in charge of military and political affairs. After writing the imperial edict in one breath, Zheng Min picked it up and read it over and over a dozen times. He felt as if he was standing on the high golden temple, and together with Li Chongfu and Zhang Lingjun, he was looking down at the prostrate man at his feet. Civil and military officials and all living beings... This feeling is really cool! At the same time, Zhang Lingjun also summoned dozens of brothers, and then surrounded Li Chongfu, galloped towards Luoyang with high spirits and complacency. At this time, Li Chongfu didn't know that their change had been noticed by the Luoyang county magistrate.At the same time that they were rushing towards Dongdu, Luozhou Sima Cui Rizhi (Cui Riyong's cousin) also launched a search and arrest operation based on the received information.Li Chongfu's vassal Wang Dao recruited in Luoyang, and dozens of people have fallen into the French Open. On August 12th of the first year of Jingyun, the Luoyang county magistrate learned from the arrested criminals that Zheng Min, Wang Dao and others were hiding in the home of the son-in-law Pei Xun.The county magistrate did not dare to delay, and immediately brought his troops to Pei Xun's mansion, ready to conduct a search. However, the county magistrate never expected that on the same day, Li Chongfu and Zhang Lingjun also happened to arrive in Dongdu.The two parties met at the gate of Pei Xun's mansion.When the county magistrate saw how many people there were on the other side, his face turned pale with fright. He quickly turned his horse's head, galloped into Miyagi, and reported to Pei Tan, who stayed behind at Dongdu. Pei Tan was as timid as a mouse, as soon as he heard about the rebellion, he immediately put oil on the soles of his feet, and was the first to slip out of the palace and hide.When the other officials saw that the chief had run away, they rushed to hide one by one.As a result, the huge Dongdu stayed at the court, and only Cui Rizhi and a few officials were left to support the crisis. At this time, Li Chongfu, Zhang Lingjun, Zheng Min, and Wang Dao had already led hundreds of party members, with swords drawn and crossbows drawn, rushing towards Luoyang Gongcheng with a murderous look.When they approached Tianjin Bridge (Luoshui Bridge south of Miyagi), they happened to collide with Li Yong, the imperial servant who was about to escape.When Li Yong saw that the rebels had killed them right under his nose, he complained so much that he had no choice but to turn around and run into the palace.While running, he thought, now most of the officials in the palace have escaped, and the soldiers in the left and right camps have no leader. If Li Chongfu wins them over and turns back again, then Dongdu will be completely finished, and he must have only a dead end.Therefore, no matter what, the soldiers in the left and right camps should not fall into Li Chongfu's hands. Thinking of this, Li Yong no longer ran to the palace, but turned to the camp where the soldiers were stationed.He first ran into the Youtun camp, summoned the soldiers and shouted loudly, saying: "Li Chongfu is a sinner exiled by the late emperor. Now he has fled to Dongdu for no reason. Thieves, you don’t have to worry about not being rich!” Then, Li Yong found the Imperial City Envoy who was in charge of guarding the palace gates, and asked him to close all the palace gates quickly and lead his troops to resist. After this emergency mobilization, the soldiers guarding Miyagi had their knives out of their sheaths, their arrows on their strings, and entered a state of high alert.So when Li Chongfu and the others arrived at Youtunying, before they had time to speak out, what greeted him was a burst of arrows like locusts.Li Chongfu had no choice but to give up the idea of ​​instigating against the soldiers in the camp, and led his men to attack Zuoyemen, preparing to enter Miyagi directly from here.But at this time, the left door was already closed.Li Chongfu was frustrated again and again, and suddenly became furious, and ordered people to set fire to the palace gate. The guards on the gate tower panicked. They were worried that the palace gate would be burned, but they did not dare to go out to meet the enemy.At this critical moment, Cui Rizhi led the soldiers from the Zuotun battalion and suddenly rushed out from behind Li Chongfu.Li Chongfu immediately fell into the predicament of being attacked from both sides. Seeing that the situation was not going well, the mob under him immediately fled for their lives and scattered like birds and beasts. Realizing that the situation was over, Li Chongfu had no choice but to run wildly, escaped from the city through the upper east gate (the first gate in the northeast of Luoyang) all the way, and hid in the valley of Mangshan Mountain. The next day, when it was discovered that the rebellion had subsided, Pei Tancai, who stayed behind in Dongdu, rushed to claim credit and dispatched a large number of troops into Mangshan Mountain to carry out a blanket search. At the same time, all gates were blocked, checkpoints were set up at major intersections, and passers-by were closely checked. Li Chongfu wandered alone in the barren mountains for a day and a night.Tiredness, hunger, anger, frustration, remorse, and fear wrapped around him like cold poisonous snakes. Seeing that the search and arrest net of the Dongdu army is getting tighter and tighter, the despair in Li Chongfu's heart is getting deeper and deeper.With disheveled hair, he staggered to the edge of a cliff, glanced westward at the sky in the direction of Chang'an, finally smiled sadly, and jumped into the unfathomable abyss... Li Chongfu's body was finally picked up by the officers and soldiers, and then transported back to Dongdu, where he was hung in the downtown area for three days.His henchmen were also arrested on the same day.Among them, the "ugly and bearded" Zheng Yin disguised himself as a noble lady and hid in a carriage in an attempt to get away with it, but was finally spotted by the interrogating soldiers. When Zheng Yin and Zhang Lingjun were interrogated together, Zhang Lingjun held his head high with a calm expression, still acting like a boss in the world; but Zheng Yin's face was ashen, his body was sifted, and he couldn't even utter a complete sentence.Zhang Lingjun gave him a squinting look, shook his head and smiled wryly, "I deserved to fail when I started an incident with this kind of person!" However, Zhang Lingjun realized it was too late.On the day of his arrest, he and Zheng Yin were beheaded in downtown Luoyang. Until the moment before his execution, Zheng Yin was still thinking about a question that baffled him-why would he fall if he relied on whomever he depended on in this life?Whether it was Lai Junchen and Er Zhang at the beginning, later Wu Sansi, Wei Hou, or the current Li Chongfu, as long as he Zheng Yin leans on anyone, he will die ugly immediately.What exactly is this for? Are they too incompetent, or am I too unlucky? Zheng Yin will never get the answer, because the executioner's knife flashed, and his "ugly and bearded" head rolled to the ground. But even if he doesn't die, it is estimated that he still can't figure out this problem in the end.Because there is one of the simplest truths that he didn't understand, that is - a successful life depends on business, not speculation. People who are good at management focus more on their own practice, so no matter how much they sow, no matter what they gain, even if they encounter short-term setbacks, they will not be buried for a long time; while those who are accustomed to speculating always focus on Put it on the outside world and others, and neglect the cultivation of your own character and ability, so although you can succeed for a while, it will never be brilliant for a lifetime.In other words, although speculators have more opportunities to get rich overnight than others, they may go bankrupt at any time. It's a pity that people like Zheng Yin will never understand such a truth. After the mutiny subsided, the imperial court clearly defined rewards and punishments. Cui Rizhi, the Sima of Luozhou who had contributed to the suppression of the chaos, was promoted to stay in the Eastern Capital, and at the same time, Pei Tan, who was greedy for life and fear of death, was demoted to governor of Puzhou. Although Li Chongfu's mutiny turned up and down, it did not pose any threat to Ruizong Li Dan, but this does not mean that the world will be peaceful from now on.As the struggle between Prince Li Longji and Princess Taiping became increasingly fierce and open, Emperor Ruizong Li Dan found that the court hall in Chang'an was filled with an increasingly strong smell of gunpowder.There are indications that a political turmoil far larger in scale and more serious in nature than Li Chongfu's mutiny may break out at any time...