Chapter 18 Chapter 5 The Golden Armor Fades Fades

After Huang Chao established the Daqi regime, he was completely different from the prestige image of being invincible and invincible. He neither introduced any reform measures to stabilize people's hearts, nor sent troops in time to chase after the victory. The forbidden army near Guanzhong even gave the Tang court a rare respite. After Huang Chao himself became emperor, he started a life of pleasure and debauchery, plunged headlong into the gentle village of the harem, surrounded by court ladies and eunuchs competing for favor, and completely isolated from the world outside the palace gate.Up and down.After the generals of the peasant army got high officials and generous salaries, they also indulged in a life of luxury and money, and did not think about making progress.What is especially unbelievable is that Huang Chao also quickly learned the tricks of the emperor of the Tang Dynasty and began to send eunuchs to supervise the army.This is a new measure that chills the generals of the peasant army.These peasant army generals were stationed outside and worked hard to defend Chang'an. Not only could they not enjoy the luxurious life in the capital, but they also suffered from the suspicion of the Daqi Emperor, who was once called brother and brother and intimately dependent on each other. What a pain!To some extent, many generals of the peasant army surrendered to the Tang court, which was more or less related to the eunuchs supervising the army.

However, after Huang Chao entered Chang'an, he immediately spread his message to various ways and subdued the feudal town.Under the deterrence of the momentum of the peasant army, three to four out of ten Tang Fan towns surrendered to the Daqi regime.Huang Chao was even more complacent for a while.He didn't realize that these feudal towns had their own selfish motives and were unwilling to stand up for the Tang court. Nothing less.The first to attack was Wang Chongrong, the Queen of Hezhongliu who had surrendered to Huangchao. Wang Chongrong's three brothers were all registered in the army, and his father was a general of the Imperial Army.During the Qianfu period, Wang Chongrong served as Marquis of Yu in Hezhong.In November of the first year of Guangming (880), when Huang Chao crossed the Yangtze River and entered the Central Plains, the Tang court was too busy to deal with it.Wang Chongrong took the opportunity to incite the soldiers to riot and loot everywhere, and the city of Hezhongfang was robbed.He also led the army to surround the Jiedu envoy's mansion and demanded that Li Du, the Jiedu envoy in Hezhong, hand over the great seal.The Tang court could do nothing about this, so it had to follow the "public opinion" and appointed Wang Chongrong to stay in Hezhong, and recalled Li Du, the governor of Hezhong, to the capital.Since then, Wang Chongrong has completely controlled the military power in Hezhong.After Huang Chao led the army to conquer Tongguan, Wang Chongrong took the initiative to send someone to ask Huang Chao to surrender, so he was appointed by Huang Chao as the Jiedu envoy of Hezhong.

Although Huang Chao attacked Chang'an, the territory controlled by the Peasant Army was limited to around Chang'an.After Huang Chao entered Chang'an, the supply of grain and grass was the most urgent problem for the peasant army.The peasant army moved around to fight and could not control the water transportation. The status of Hezhong (now Yongji, Shanxi) became prominent at this time.In order to dispatch troops and rations, Huang Chao kept sending envoys to the river to supervise the transportation of rations, and there were hundreds of envoys before and after.The officials and people in the river were unbearable and miserable.Wang Chongrong couldn't bear it anymore, and said to his followers: "At first, I was a thief because I wanted to alleviate the emergency of the military government. Now Huang Chao has come to transfer money and recruit soldiers. We will die at his hands sooner or later. It is better to send troops to resist Huang Chao." Take it for granted."So all the envoys sent by Huang Chao were executed and returned to the Tang Dynasty.At this time, it was only fourteen days since Wang Chongrong voluntarily surrendered to Huang Chao.

Wang Chongrong expected that Huang Chao would attack in a big way, so while actively preparing for the battle, he took the initiative to contact Wang Chucun, the envoy of Yiwu Jiedu, and asked his company to fight against Qi. Wang Chucun's ancestors were officers of the Shence Army for several generations.His father was an official while doing business, which was a popular practice among Shence officers at that time.But the prince was good at management, and soon became a rich man in Chang'an.When Wang Chucun became an adult, he was able to inherit the family name and became the Jiedushi, the highest official in the family.When Wang Chucun heard that Chang'an had fallen, he wept bitterly for several days.Naturally, there is a factor of heartache about the huge wealth of the Wang family in Chang'an.Afterwards, Wang Chucun decided not to live with the peasant army. Therefore, he was particularly active in the action against Huang Chao, which was completely different from other feudal towns who either surrendered to Huang Chao or sat on the sidelines.At that time Xizong was still fleeing, Wang Chucun took the initiative to send troops to help without waiting for the edict, and dispatched 2,000 troops to Xingyuan to protect Xizong's car.

When Huang Chao heard the news that Wang Chongrong had killed his own envoy, he was furious. He sent his younger brother Huang Siye to send troops from Huazhou, and General Zhu Wen from Tongzhou to send troops from Tongzhou. After the two armies met, they attacked Hezhong together.However, Wang Chongrong had been prepared for a long time, sent troops to resist the battle, and defeated Huang Siye and Zhu Wen's army.Just at this time, Zhang Yan, Minister of the Ministry of Officials of Daqi and envoy of water and land transport, escorted more than 40 ships of food and soldiers, stopped at Fenglingdu, and was also intercepted by Wang Chongrong.Zhang Yan couldn't communicate with Huang Chao, so he had to flee downstream in a small boat alone.

After that, the supply of military supplies for the Chang'an Peasant Army became even more difficult.Fei Chuangu, Huang Chao's right-hand counselor, came up with an idea and asked Huang Chao to send Zhu Wen to open up a communication line in the south of Shanshan.Zhu Wen led thousands of elite soldiers, galloped thousands of miles, and took Dengzhou in one fell swoop.With Dengzhou as a barrier, the transportation route from Shang, Luo to Lantian Pass will be smooth.If Zhu Wen is given more troops, or if Zhu Wen develops on his own and gradually opens up the Xiang and Jing roads, the situation may change again, but at this time Huang Chao has no such long-term plans, and Zhu Wen himself may not have such ambitions.

After Wang Chongrong won the first battle, his momentum was greatly improved.Yiwu Jiedu envoy Wang Chucun personally led his troops to support.The Tang court, still in shock, also began to dispatch to counterattack.Xizong appointed Fengxiang Jiedu envoy Zheng Tian as the commander of the camps of the armies on all sides of the capital, which is equivalent to the commander-in-chief of the attack on Chang'an.After Zheng Tian took office, he immediately appointed Cheng Zongchu, the Jiedu envoy of Jingyuan, as the deputy capital commander, and Tang Hongfu, the former Jiedu envoy of Shuofang, as the marching commander.A large number of Tang troops began to mobilize and gather in Chang'an.

Huang Chao in Chang'an City began to worry.In March of the first year of Zhonghe (881), Huang Chao sent Shang Rang to attack Fengxiang with 50,000 people, intending to defeat Zheng Tian, ​​who commanded the Tang army in Fengxiang, to strengthen his reputation.Shang Rang believes that the peasant army has always been invincible, while his opponent Zheng Tian is just a scholar, and he must not be familiar with military affairs.However, being paralyzed and careless, Shang Rang's army ambushed in Longweipi, and was defeated by the Tang army, with more than half of the peasant army's loss.

Zheng Tian took advantage of the victory to call on all the feudal clans in the world to join forces to overthrow the Huangchao regime in Daqi.At that time, Emperor Xizong and Li Xuan fled to Chengdu, but the edict was blocked. The towns thought that the Tang court was over, so they mostly sat on the hills and waited and watched the development of the situation.Xia Sui Jiedu envoy Tuoba Sigong also entangled the soldiers of Yi and Xia, and joined Yanyan Jiedu envoy Li Xiaochang to form an alliance to crusade against the rebels.Chen Jingsi, the superintendent of the North, led Li Youjin, chief of Shatuo, and the tribes of Sage, Anqing, and Tuyuhun into the pass to help out.Qi Kejian, the envoy of Fengtian Town, took the initiative to send someone to contact Zheng Tian and ask for his help.Zhuge Shuang, the ex-Xiasui Jiedu envoy, had already surrendered to Daqi, but at this time he surrendered to Tang from Heyang.

In April of the first year of Zhonghe (881), the Tang army advanced to Chang'an.Zheng Yu was sitting in the town of Yu, and ordered Tang Hongfu to march into Weibei, Wang Chongrong to station in Shayuan, Wang Chucun to live in Weiqiao, and Tuoba Sigong to camp martial arts, forming a siege of Chang'an. Shortly after Shang Rang was defeated and returned to Chang'an, the event of Shangshu Province's inscribing a poem at the gate occurred.Shang Rang was furious and massacred in Chang'an.The whole of Chang'an was shrouded in an atmosphere of terror.Coupled with the pressure of the Tang army outside the city, even the peasant army itself felt tense and oppressive.

Under such circumstances, Huang Chao was very worried about changes in Chang'an City, and the peasant army was attacked by internal and external cooperation.Only now did he know that the emperor's throne was not so easy to sit on, and Chang'an's emperor was not so easy to be.The gorgeous palace he once longed for now seems to be just empty houses, which is scary and insecure. Obviously, under all kinds of inexplicable pressure, Huang Chao's life is very difficult.At dusk on the fifth day of April in the first year of Zhonghe (881), Huang Chao was full of melancholy and troubled.Suddenly a Tang army shouted loudly in Beiyuan. Huang Chao mistook the Tang army arriving and panicked. He hurriedly led the army out of the city from Chunming Gate and retreated eastward.When other peasant armies in the city learned that the emperor had escaped, they rushed out from all the nearby gates.Hundreds of thousands of peasant troops withdrew from Chang'an and scattered in Bashang and the mountains in the southern suburbs.Chang'an suddenly became an empty city. It is worth mentioning that the Peasant Army withdrew from Chang'an City out of fear without knowing the Tang Army completely. It was not because Huang Chao had a well-thought-out plan in advance and arranged a clever plan to "lure the official army into the city and wait for an opportunity to counterattack".However, shortly after Huang Chao left the city, it became dark. If he lit the fire and continued on his way, it would be easy for the Tang army to spot the target, so Huang Chao set up camp on the spot and planned to leave at dawn the next day.Unexpectedly, at this stop, the situation has completely changed, and people have to feel the magic of chance in the historical chess game. After Huang Chao retreated in a hurry, the Tang army outside the city couldn't figure out the situation in the city.Cheng Zongchu, the deputy commander of the camps and battalions of the surrounding forces in the Tang capital, led his troops to enter through Yanqiu Gate first, and Tang Hongfu, the marching commander, feared that he would be left behind, followed suit rashly.Subsequently, the Yiwu Jiedu envoy Wang Chucun led five thousand soldiers into the city. When the people in Chang'an heard that the Tang army had returned from fighting, they rushed to welcome and congratulate them.Some people even threw rubble at Huangchao's scattered army still in the city, and some people took the initiative to pack up arrows and supply them to Tang officials and troops.It can be seen that Huang Chao has always been unpopular in Chang'an. At this time, it was already dark, and Cheng Zongchu, Tang Hongfu, and Wang Chucun, who entered the city first, were eager to make money. After rushing into the city, no one thought of sending troops to defend the city, but they were afraid that all the generals behind would rush to the city. After taking the credit, he neither sent anyone to report to the commander-in-chief Zheng Tian, ​​nor contacted other people around Chang'an for reinforcements, nor did he plan to send troops to chase the peasant army, but frantically went to grab the spoils overnight.This robbing was a mess, not only the government offices were robbed, but even the homes of the common people were robbed. Because it was already night and it was hard to tell when it was dark, Wang Chucun ordered Tang officers and soldiers to wrap their heads in white cloth for easy identification.Many rogues in Chang'anfang City took advantage of the opportunity to fish in troubled waters, and also used the name of Baijin to confuse with Tang Jun and take advantage of the fire to rob.The city of Chang'an was extremely chaotic, and the people of Chang'an once again endured great suffering.This suffering is indescribable. They were happily looking forward to returning to the Tang army, but they didn't expect that the official army did all kinds of evil, and it was no different from the peasant army.That night, the Tang army looted money and raped women wantonly. At this time, Huang Chao was camping on the east bank of Chang'an City, and learned that the Tang army was looting the city.He concluded that the several groups of people who entered Chang'an did not have a unified command, and they fought on their own, so he decided to lead troops to counterattack immediately.At dawn the next day, Huang Chao's main force returned to Chang'an from various gates separately, and started street fighting.The Tang army had no precautions at first, and after a night of looting, every officer and army had a great harvest, and their backs were full of looted property. completely annihilated.Tang coaches Cheng Zongchu and Tang Hongfu were also killed by the peasant army successively.Only Wang Chucun reacted quickly, coupled with his familiarity with the terrain of Chang'an, he collected a few remnants and defeated generals, and escaped from Chang'an in embarrassment. The various Tang armies besieging Chang'an were defeated and had to withdraw from the siege.Huang Chao's army became more powerful.Afterwards, Huang Chao resented that the people of Chang'an had helped the Tang government army, and the soldiers carried out a retaliatory massacre, which was called "washing the city", and the blood of Chang'an city flowed into rivers. Less than a day after Tang Jun regained Chang'an, he suffered a major setback.However, the news of "recovering Chang'an" spread, and due to the time lag, a series of incidents were triggered. The Peasant Army Tongzhou Inspector Wang Pu, Huazhou Inspector Qiao Qian, and Shangzhou Inspector Song Yan heard that Huang Chao had withdrawn from Chang'an, so they all hurriedly abandoned the city and led their troops to Zhu Wen in Dengzhou.Zhu Wen was loyal to Huang Chao at this time, and was extremely annoyed by the three of them abandoning the city. He beheaded Wang Pu and Qiao Qian for public display, and incorporated their troops, while releasing Song Yan and letting him lead the army back to Shangzhou. At the slightest disturbance, from top to bottom, from Huangchao to the generals of the peasant army, they abandoned the city and fled.This can only show that the so-called Daqi regime is just a name, and it is quite unstable in terms of system. Also affected by the news of "recovering Chang'an" was Zhou Ji, the Jiedu envoy of the Zhongwu Army.Zhou Ji was originally appointed by the Tang court. When he first took office in Xuzhou, he met Huang Chao who conquered Chang'an.In a few days, Huang Chao spread his message to Xuzhou, and Zhou Ji did not dare to force himself, so he had to surrender to Huang Chao.After hearing the news that Tang Guanjun had returned to Chang'an, Zhou Ji immediately sent someone to invite the old supervisor Yang Fuguang (the supervisor who persuaded Wang Xianzhi to surrender and directly led to the death of Lord Shang).Yang Fuguang's heart was towards the Tang Dynasty, and he was always dissatisfied with Zhou Ji's surrender.Everyone advised him not to go: "Zhou Ji has surrendered to Huangchao, I'm afraid it will be bad for you, so don't go lightly." Yang Fuguang replied: "This is the case, and the justice is not complete." ("Zizhi Tongjian Volume 200") Fifty-four") and went to the banquet.It was only after I went there that I found out that Zhou Ji wanted to return to the Tang Dynasty.That night, Yang Fuguang sent his adopted son to kill Huang Chao's emissary at the posthouse. Later Zhou Ji learned that Huang Chao had reoccupied Chang'an, so he still decided to protect the Tang Dynasty.He discussed with Yang Fuguang and decided to act first and eradicate Zhu Wen in Dengzhou who was the greatest threat to Xuzhou.Therefore, Zhou Ji guarded Xuzhou, and Yang Fuguang led 3,000 loyal soldiers to Caizhou to persuade Qin Zongquan (later proclaimed emperor in Caizhou) who was dominant in Caizhou to attack Huangchao together.Qin Zongquan then sent his general Wang Shu to lead an army of 3,000 people to follow Yang Fuguang to attack Dengzhou. Wang Shu was quite selfish and deliberately stayed and refused to enter. As a result, she was beheaded by Yang Fuguang and the army was annexed.Yang Fuguang divided the 8,000 soldiers of the Zhongwu Army into eight capitals, and dispatched Yajiang Lu Yanhong, Jin Hui, Wang Jian, Han Jian, Zhang Zao, Li Shitai, and Pang Cong to command them respectively.Several of these people rose to fame and became important figures in the history of the Five Dynasties. Wang Jian was the former Shu Gaozu who later became emperor.Yang Fuguang led the Badu Army to fight against Zhu Wen. Zhu Wen was defeated and fled back to Guanzhong via Shangzhou.At this time, Tongzhou and Huazhou had been taken by Tang officials, so Huang Chao ordered Zhu Wen not to go to Beijing, but to go back to Tongzhou and serve as the governor of Tongzhou. Zhu Wen had no way out, and after a fierce fight, he finally regained Tongzhou.However, Shayuan within the prefecture was the base camp of Wang Chucun and Wang Chongrong, the two major governors of the Tang Dynasty. There were heavy troops stationed there, and Zhu and Wen were always under threat. After Huang Chao captured Chang'an again, he learned from the pain and tried his best to open up the situation.In June of the first year of Zhonghe (881), Huang Chao sent Wang Bo to besiege Xingping (now part of Shaanxi) and defeated Tang Binning Jiedu envoy Zhu Mei.In August, Huang Chao sent Li Xiang to defeat Tang Zhaoyi's Jiedu envoy Gao Xun, taking advantage of the victory to regain Huazhou.In November, generals Meng Kai and Zhu Wen of the Peasant Army marched into Fuping (northeast of today's Fuping, Shaanxi). However, it is easy to destroy the old forces, but it is difficult to establish a new order.Although Huang Chao's army fought around, winning or losing, they still failed to open up the situation.He didn't know how to establish a base area, so although the ranks of the peasant army grew and developed, it was difficult to provide them.When supplies are difficult, the peasant army can only plunder, and discipline is difficult to maintain.In this way, he still cannot win the hearts of the people, and the new order cannot be established.Although Huang Chao proclaimed himself emperor, he "does not follow Tong (now Dali, Shaanxi) or Hua (Hua County, Shaanxi)" and was basically confined to a corner of Chang'an.In fact, he, the Great Qi Emperor, was at best the lord of Chang'an City. This is not just a matter of Huang Chao's ideals, but is determined by the characteristics of the peasant army.The peasant army has long been accustomed to mobile warfare. This is a unique strategy and tactic in the peasant uprising in the late Tang Dynasty, which is conducive to preserving its strength.It was in the large-scale mobile battle that the Huangchao rebel army led the Tang army to exhaustion, neglected the other, and made the Tang Dynasty unable to take care of Luoyang, Huainan, and Jiangnan, so they won the victory in capturing Chang'an.However, mobile warfare is prone to rogue ideology, without establishing a solid base.Even when its momentum is very strong, it often captures a city and then abandons it soon. An important economic and military place like Luoyang, the eastern capital, does not leave a single soldier to garrison.This allowed the Tang army to reoccupy the areas affected by the peasant army and gradually shrink the encirclement.After the peasant army arrived in Chang'an, it still failed to consolidate.In this way, the peasant army could not get sufficient supplies, and the logistics were not guaranteed.Some gentry and wealthy people often went to the deep mountains, "built fences to protect themselves, and all farming was abandoned, and the rice in the city of Chang'an was straight to 30 mills."Later, the soldiers of the peasant army had to eat bark to satisfy their hunger, and there were even incidents of cannibalism.Under such circumstances, naturally there is no combat effectiveness.Therefore, when the Tang Zhulu army gathered in Chang'an and launched a general attack on the peasant army, the situation took a sharp turn for the worse, and the Daqi regime, which had lasted for three years, soon collapsed.