Chapter 42 3. Heroes Rise to Disrupt Kanto

At the end of 874 A.D., that is, the last few days of the first year of Emperor Xizong's Qianfu, the atmosphere in the Changyuan area in the northeast of Henan suddenly became tense. At the end of this year, Wang Xianzhi, Shang Junchang and others gathered more than 3,000 people to revolt in Puyang and Changyuan. "Dutong" - this name does not sound very ambitious, with Chai Cun, Bi Shiduo, Cao Shixiong, Liu Yanzhang, Liu Hanhong, Li Chongba and others as generals, and issued a call to action, complaining about officials' corruption and heavy taxes , Uneven rewards and punishments.At the beginning of the next year, Huang Chao also gathered thousands of people in Yuanju (now Heze, Shandong) to respond.

Due to the severe drought in the previous two years, the bureaucracy of the Tang Dynasty was inappropriate, and the famine in the Kanto region caused confusion among the people.In the summer of 1875, Wang Xianzhi's army captured Puzhou and Caozhou, defeated the troops of Xue Chong, the governor of Tianping, and grew from a few thousand to tens of thousands. important person. This year, the Tang Dynasty's luck was really bad. Not only were people making noise, but even locusts came to join in the fun. In the face of difficulties, the spirit of the ostrich was fully carried forward, and it was reported to the court, saying: "The locusts entered the capital and did not eat the crops. They all hugged the thorns and died." starving.The prime ministers were overjoyed, believing that the locust really had this consciousness, and gathered together to congratulate the little emperor.Regardless of whether the prime ministers are really stupid or fake, anyway, with such a group of stupid people, the common people are really unlucky.

At the end of the same year, Wang Xianzhi, who had plundered a circle of the 15 prefectures in Henan, marched eastward and attacked Yizhou. After pursuing the grass army under Wang Xianzhi's Huang Chao, he also strengthened him with 3,000 forbidden troops and 500 armored cavalry.The two sides held each other in Yizhou area for more than half a year. In July 1876, Song Wei defeated Wang Xianzhi at the foot of Yizhou city.Song Wei then reported to the imperial court that Wang Xianzhi was dead, and asked the imperial court to disband all the soldiers who came to support him, and he led the army back to the Qingzhou government.In the city of Chang'an, those bureaucrats who even believed the lie that locusts do not eat crops, of course had more reason to congratulate the emperor this time, so everyone had a vigorous carnival.But after only being happy for three days, I was dumbfounded.

Because some uninformed county officials reported to the imperial court that Wang Xianzhi was not only alive, but also seemed to be in high spirits—no, just after a few days of rest, he ran out to loot the city again.The imperial court had no choice but to mobilize all kinds of soldiers and horses again. The soldiers who were drunk were quite dissatisfied, isn't it? In the Battle of Yizhou, the biggest achievement of the Tang Dynasty was not to kill anyone, but to make Wang Xianzhi fearful of the veteran Song Wei from then on, flee when he saw it, and wait for the rescue with all his heart-planting the seeds of his later failure.

In August, Wang Xianzhi, who had suffered a lot in the east, came back alive again, crossed the encirclement line of the Tang army, turned to march west of Henan, captured Yangdi and Jiacheng, and broke through eight counties within ten days, with great potential to move eastward. The capital Luoyang is advancing.The officials in Chang'an City who had just finished the carnival were a little scared. After all, Luoyang, the eastern capital, is not a city that can be easily discarded.As a result, Chang'an City hurriedly dispatched troops and generals to arrange defense lines to strictly block the way of the grass army going west or south.Chang'an City is thinking about Wang Xianzhi: where does this guy want to go?Go west to Luoyang?Go south to Ru and Deng?Even bypassing Luoyang and directly attacking Tongguan, threatening Chang'an?Or, just want to make a fuss?

Wang Xianzhi is also pondering: Zhengzhou in the northeast?Ruzhou in the southwest?In which direction is the official army hole bigger? Chang'an overestimated Wang Xianzhi's ambitions a bit. The private salt dealer led the grass army around the Central Plains with their heads covered, just wanting to find supplies for the troops. Wherever the Tang army was weak and the area was rich, he would go there without a definite goal.If there were no gatekeepers in Luoyang City, he would probably consider going in for a walk, but since there are so many murderous looking guys waiting there, he would naturally not be so stupid as to make a loss-making business.

He led his army to the south of Luoyang, where the defense was relatively weak in Ruzhou. On Bingzi in September, Wang Xianzhi captured Ruzhou and captured the governor Wang Liao alive.There was a big earthquake in the eastern capital, and officials and civilians fled with their families.However, Wang Xianzhi's westward advance has also come to an end, and if he goes forward, he will face a fierce battle, and Wang Xianzhi has no idea of ​​a decisive battle at present-to be exact, he does not have the courage to replace the Great Tang Dynasty at all. Therefore, his path can only go here.

Next, he turned back to the northeast, trapped Yangwu, and attacked Zhengzhou, but was repelled by Lei Yinfu, the judge of Zhaoyi's supervising army.At this time, the Tang army was rushing from all around to the hinterland of the Central Plains, and the Cao army was in a bad situation.Wang Xianzhi decided to avoid the battle and retreated south along the Ru and Deng roads.Because the local troops in various prefectures and counties did not dare to take the initiative to go out of the city to attack the Cao army, in November, Wang Xianzhi "released troops in four strategies, remnant Ying, and the second prefecture, burned plagiarism, and killed almost all survivors."In December, the Cao army attacked Shen, Guang, Lu, Shou, Shu, Qi and other prefectures.

The mouse is having a mess, so what's the cat doing?Song Wei's troops followed Wang Xianzhi unhurriedly, stopping every 30 miles to recuperate, and took time to talk with his deputy Zeng Yuanyu about his outlook on life and methodology: "Xi Pangxun was destroyed, and Kang Chengxun was offended. Although my subordinates succeeded Is it better to keep the thieves, unfortunately, as the emperor, I will be a hero." Only by keeping these bandits, can we have a good life, once they are wiped out, we will soon be in trouble .Even if this group of people is lucky enough to become the emperor, we can still be the hero of life if we don't tear ourselves apart with them.

It has only been six years since Kang Chengxun was demoted, so it's no wonder that Song Wei, his former general, is very upset about it.To the mouse, it's life-saving, but to the cat, it's just lunch—and a lunch that may or may not come true.So along the way, the mouse and the cat have reached a tacit understanding of peaceful coexistence: either "the officers and soldiers rush after them, and they will leave money to pave the way, and the soldiers will fight for it, and the rate will not move forward", or "the thief will stay away, Complete the army and look forward to it."Everyone seems to be on good terms.

In December, the city of Chang'an, which had just been tossed by an earthquake, was very upset when he heard that his cats lived in peace with the mice, so he changed Chen Xu Jiedu envoy Cui Anqian as the commander of the camp. In place of Song Wei, General Zhang Zimian of You Weiwei replaced Zeng Yuanyu.Although this personnel change was unsuccessful, the military operation to hunt down Wang Xianzhi slowed down. Next, let's talk about the unlucky Ruzhou governor Wang Lian. This old man is not very capable, but has a bit of background. He is the brother of the prime minister Wang Duo.Wang Xianzhi took this high-ranking prisoner to attack Qizhou. It happened that Pei Wo, the governor of Qizhou, was Wang Duo's protégé, and he had a close relationship with Wang Shao.Mr. Wang Lie was so quiet that he wanted to move, so he recommended himself to discuss the terms of recruitment with Pei Wo.Pei Wo didn't have a lot of money in his hands, he didn't dare to fall out with Wang Xianzhi, and he had favors to do, so he naturally agreed - with the additional condition that the two sides truce first.Governor Pei also took the initiative to invite Wang Xianzhi, Huang Chao and others to visit the city. Everyone held a party and had a drink, which deepened their relationship. After Wang Duo in Chang'an City received letters from his disciples and brothers, he felt that the business was profitable and in line with the policy. If the ruler commits a crime, remove the official and issue an imperial edict."Isn't that what Wang Duo wants to do? But this time, more than half of the prime ministers opposed the recruitment.The reason on the table is high-sounding: "The first emperor did not pardon Pang Xun, and he was punished every year. Today, the little thief in Xianzhi is not comparable to Pang Xun. He pardons his crimes and removes officials, and he will benefit the traitor." The reason under the table is also simple-the credit should not be alone. From the hands of Wang Duo.Alas, the party struggle in the Tang Dynasty is really harmful! In the end, under Wang Duo's insistence, the imperial court only gave Wang Xianzhi himself the false title of "Zuo Shence Army Guard and Supervising Censor".As for this, Wang Xiangye was almost ashamed to show his hand. But Wang Xianzhi didn't dislike it, he was overjoyed.Private salt dealers have been circling the Central Plains in recent years, and they are getting a little bored.In addition, the murderous cat always followed behind. Although it didn't bite, it made people feel a little nervous. If it continued like this, it would cause a nervous breakdown.Wang Xianzhi felt that this kind of life should come to an end.The problem is that Wang Xianzhi is not the only one in Caojun who thinks this way. In the city of Qizhou, the father-in-law sent by the imperial court read the imperial decree in an official accent, and all the people below all pricked up their ears, for fear of missing their own part-this scene was a bit like announcing the results of the college entrance examination.The imperial decree was stinky and long, and most of the leaders of the grass army had never read the book and could not understand it.But I understand the most important point: only Boss Wang has an official position, and no one else, including Huang Laoer and Shang Laosan... When Wang Boss fell on the ground, holding the letter of appointment, tears filled his eyes , Everyone's eyes pointed at Huang Erge in unison. Huang Chao was still thinking about whether he had finished reading the imperial decree, and finally came to his senses, realizing that he had no part in it, so he rushed forward and grabbed Boss Wang by the collar and cursed: "You have no conscience, we swore in vain back then. I swear...you go to be an official, what are you going to do without us five thousand brothers?" The father-in-law sent by the imperial court to read the imperial edict watched the whole process with relish, and then escaped successfully.According to the report he submitted to the court afterwards, the two sides developed from quarrels to hands-on actions. Chief Wang received a heavy blow on the head, and there were hundreds of Shandong and Henan people fighting outside to help the situation. The scene was quite spectacular. In addition, after repeated consideration, the king decided to reject the imperial court's offer of security.This deal, which should have been a happy one, was aborted because the buyer's bid was too low.The unlucky ones were the two brokers: Wang Liao changed from a guest to a captive soldier, and his treatment was not as good as before; Pei Wo's city was looted, and he fled in a hurry. Chang'an City received reliable information: Wang Xianzhi and Huang Chao officially separated, and Huang led more than 2,000 people to start their own adventures in the world.