Chapter 45 6. From Chang'an City to Wolf and Tiger Valley

Tang Xizong fled to Luogu, Fengxiang Jiedu sent Zheng Tian to visit, begging him to stay in Fengxiang to inspire people, the little emperor refused, saying that he had to escape to Xingyuan at least to be able to work with peace of mind, and if the problem was serious, he might have to flee to Chengdu .Zheng Tian had no choice but to say that you ran so far and the roads were bad, so I can't report everything to you, you have to let me deal with it randomly.This, the little emperor agreed. Zheng Tian returned to Fengxiang, and immediately summoned his generals to swear an oath to punish the thieves, and the surrounding towns also responded.

Huang Chao sent Shang Rang to attack Fengxiang with 50,000 troops. Zheng Tian himself did not know how to fight, but he was able to use people. Cheng Zongchu, the Jiedu envoy of Jingyuan, was the deputy commander, and Tang Hongfu, the ex-Shuofang Jiedu envoy, was the marching commander. To ambush, he personally led thousands of people to lure the enemy in Gaogang.Shang Rang despised Zheng Tian as a scholar, and ordered the troops to charge with drums, and the troops were scattered (again, the same as in the Battle of Jingmen). Back in Chang'an City, someone wrote a poem at the gate of Shangshu Province to satirize Shang Rang's defeat. He became angry and gouged out the eyes of all the officials who were on duty that day and hung them upside down. All those who could read were handed over to lowly slaves, and it is said that more than 3,000 people were killed.

After Tang Xizong fled to a safe place, he finally fulfilled his duties and ordered all the feudal towns in the world to crusade against Huang Chao, so heroes in troubled times appeared one after another. Li Keyong, who was doing nothing in the Daibei Desert, was pardoned by the court, and took his Shatuo Army to Chang'an King Qin, always having friction with his own people along the way.When the Yiwu Festival envoy Wang Chucun heard that Chang'an had fallen, he wailed for days, led his army to help, and sent 2,000 people to Xingyuan to protect the emperor.Wang Chongrong, the Jiedu envoy in Hezhong, had already surrendered to Huang Chao, but Huang Chao's money and conscription were endless. Wang Chongrong couldn't bear it, killed Huang Chao's envoy, and raised troops to resist.

Even the eunuch Yang Fuguang, who was physically disabled and strong, gathered a team in Xuzhou to oppose Huang Chao and attack Dengzhou. The "thief eighth" who fooled around in Wuyang, Xuzhou, slaughtered cows, stole donkeys, and smuggled salt, is currently the One of his subordinates will be named "Wang Jian". This is the former Shu emperor of one of the ten kingdoms in the future. Yang Fuguang led troops to attack Zhu Wen, the defender of Dengzhou in Huangchao. The future Emperor of Shu and the Taizu of Later Liang fought hand in hand. Dengzhou ran to Lanqiaoyi, Shaanxi (now southwest of Lantian County, Shaanxi) before stopping.

There are also some characters who can only play tricks at present, but have far-reaching influence. Tuoba Sigong, the Xianbei barbarian from Quan Xiasui, also came to join in the fun, and joined forces with Li Xiaochang, the Yanjiedu envoy, to station the Dongwei Bridge, and confronted the Taizu of the Later Liang Dynasty who had just fled back to Chang'an—of course, since the two of them He couldn't even get into the Ten Kingdoms, so naturally he didn't have the means of the former Shu emperor, so he suffered a bit from the late Liang Taizu. However, Tuoba Sigong was one of the first five towns to help the capital. Although he had little credit, he still had some hard work. In order to commend his loyalty, the emperor gave him the surname Li.This is the origin of the surname of the future Xixia Emperor Li Yuanhao.If we take a long-term view, go down this line, and clear away the fog of history, we can still see a more influential figure in history, Li Zicheng, the famous King Chuang of the late Ming Dynasty.

Because Huang Chao did not have a Jinshi degree, Li Yuanhao and Li Zicheng appeared in history instead of Tuoba Yuanhao or Tuoba Zicheng. This is the "butterfly effect". A tiny butterfly flapped its wings, and the result was a hurricane in a distant place.Here we can see what kind of landslide and tsunami were caused by those accidental imperial examination results during the Xiantong period on the big stage of Chinese history! Hegel was right, reading history is like looking at a sunken ship with its mast broken after a storm. The Tang army's feudal towns were surrounded on all sides, and Huang Chao's army was trapped in the isolated city of Chang'an, with no food and wages.In the city of Chang'an, grain was once sold for 30,000 yuan a bucket of rice, but even so, there was a price but no market.In Chang'an City and its surrounding areas, tragedies of "human cannibalism" occurred one after another.

From the first year to the fourth year of Jintong, Chang'an and its surrounding areas were full of battlefields, and Guanzhong was reduced to Shura hell.Huang Chao was still able to support himself militarily, but he was powerless economically, and the Great Qi Dynasty had fallen into financial bankruptcy. In the third year of Jintong, Zhu Wen, Huang Chao's favorite general, was cut off due to repeated defeats in battles. During the ten-month period, he asked Huang Chao for help.Meng Kai, who was in charge of the military, was patching up holes everywhere, and he was annoyed to death by the always yelling Liang Taizu, and severely reprimanded him, accusing him of wanting soldiers to be more self-respecting, but unwilling to fight hard.To be honest, if Zhu Wen hadn't won several victories with all his might over the past few years, Meng Kai would have been kicked out of Chang'an City by the Tang army long ago. Meng Kai, who was stunned, said that Zhu Wen wanted to support his troops with self-respect, and he had two hearts. Loyal minister.

Upon hearing the news, Zhu Wen surrendered to Wang Chongrong, the governor of Tanghe in September of this year in a rage.Tang Xizong was overjoyed when he heard about it, and bestowed the name "Quanzhong" on Zhu Wen.After giving the name, someone helped the emperor explain the characters, saying that your name is very unlucky: "Quan" means the king of people, and the word "loyalty" means the center, which makes the king occupy the center. Where should you put it yourself? go? In the fourth year of Jintong, the third year of Tang Zhonghe, and the spring of 883 AD, as various Tang armies headed by Shatuo Li Keyong gathered at the city of Chang'an, even in terms of military affairs, Huang Chao could no longer sustain it.In the battle of Liangtianpo in Tongzhou, the Daqi army suffered a disastrous defeat. General Zhao Zhang, one of Huang Chao's right-hand men, died in battle. Tens of thousands of soldiers were captured, and their corpses were buried for thirty miles. The outer strongholds were lost.

Huang Chao, who had enjoyed two years of blessings in the palace of Chang'an City (although "Da Qi" has experienced four years, but the actual time is only a little more than two years), finally couldn't sit still. Next, they withdrew from Chang'an on the eighth day of April, entered Shangluo Mountain from Lantian Pass, and retreated to the Central Plains.At this time, he still has hundreds of thousands of troops, which is still worthy of a battle. This year, Li Keyong from Shatuo was only twenty-eight years old, the youngest among all the generals, the highest in meritorious service, and the strongest in soldiers.Decades later, his son posthumously named him Taizu of the Later Tang Dynasty.He is also one of the pioneers of the Five Dynasties.

This year, Huainan Yang Xingmi killed the general who had a grudge against him, scared away the governor of Luzhou, and took his first step to become the overlord of Jianghuai. After Huang Chao entered the Central Plains, he conquered Caizhou and made Qin Zongquan surrender with great momentum.Then Huang Chaojun pointed at Chenzhou again.Zhao, the governor of Chenzhou, had been prepared for a long time, fortified the wall and cleared the field, and resisted tenaciously.Huang Chao's general Meng Kai, who led more than ten thousand elites as a forward, was attacked by Zhao in Xiangcheng. Meng Kai was captured alive and beheaded.

Huang Chao was furious. In June, he joined forces with Qin Zongquan to surround Chenzhou City.If there is no food, they will loot everywhere and even eat people.According to historical records: "At that time, there was no accumulation among the people, and the thieves plundered people for food. They threw their lives into the pestle and fed them with bones. The place where the food was given was called 'Pound Mill Village'." The siege of Chenzhou lasted for three hundred days, and both sides fought extremely hard. During these three hundred days, the Tang Dynasty mobilized people from all walks of life to move closer to Chenzhou.The new Xuanwu Jiedu envoy Zhu Wen was particularly active. After receiving Chenzhou's request for help, he asked the Zhongwu Army Jiedu envoy Zhou Ji and the Probation Army Jiedu envoy Shi Pu to go to the rescue together, and at the same time summoned the town's troops to help Chenzhou.However, because Huang Chao's power is still very strong, the soldiers of the three towns can only harass the periphery and cannot break the siege of Chenzhou. In February of the following year, Li Keyong led 50,000 troops to the south for reinforcements, and the stalemate in the Central Plains was immediately broken.In March, Zhu Wen attacked Wazi Village in Huangchao, beheading tens of thousands of people.Li Keyong organized the Tang army in the Central Plains to jointly attack Shangrang's army in Taikang, and Shangrang fled north. It seems that the future Taizu of the Later Liang Dynasty and the Taizu of the Later Tang Dynasty cooperated quite tacitly. Seeing that the Tang army was powerful, Huang Chao withdrew the siege of Chenzhou and retreated.Threatening Zhu Wen's base camp Bianzhou to the northeast, Tu Wei's family and Shang Rang led 5,000 cavalry to attack Daliang.This time it was Zhu Wen's turn to ask Li Keyong for help.Li Keyong led the Shatuo cavalry in hot pursuit. Wang Mandu on the bank of the Yellow River caught up with Huang Chao's army. Taking advantage of the halfway crossing, he swung his troops and fought hard. They defeated Huang Chao's army and killed more than ten thousand people. Huang Chao's main force was completely defeated. This battle marked Huang Chao's complete military defeat.After this war, his generals deeply felt that the general situation was over, and the future famous generals of the Five Dynasties Li Di, Huo Cun, Ge Congzhou, Zhang Guiba, Zhang Guihou and others surrendered to their old acquaintance Zhu Wen.Huang Chao's most important assistant, Shang Rang, led the remnants to surrender to Shi Pu, the governor of the probation army. Huang Chao led the remnant troops to bypass Bianzhou and head north, and was defeated again by Li Keyong in Fengqiu, followed by Shatuo cavalry.Huang Chao collected more than a thousand remnants of soldiers and fled eastward to Yanzhou, throwing even his youngest son and emperor's outfit to Li Ke.Li Ke used a day and night to chase for 200 miles, until Huang Chao's hometown was wronged, and there were only about a hundred cavalry left to keep up with him. In addition, the food was exhausted. On May 11, Li Ke gave up the pursuit. Go back to Bianzhou to find Zhu Wen for supplies. Next, the task of chasing Huang Chao was handed over to Shi Pu, the Jiedu envoy of the Probation Army.On May 20, Shi Pu sent general Li Shiyue and surrendered general Shang Rang to lead tens of thousands of people to pursue Huang Chao. On June 15, they encountered Huang Chao again in Xiaqiu, Yanzhou. Emperor Huang Chao only has a thousand people in his hands. Naturally, it was another defeat.On June 17, Huang Chao fled into Langhu Valley in the southeast of Mount Tai with a small number of people. The finale has come. Regarding the final outcome of Huang Chao, there have always been different opinions. "New Book of Tang" records the most detailed. After Huang Chao fled into the Wolf and Tiger Valley, seeing that the general situation was over, he said to his nephew Lin Yan, "I wanted to seek traitors for the country and reform the government. Go and present it to the Son of Heaven, and you can get rich!" Lin Yan couldn't bear to do it, Huang Chao resolutely killed himself, but he couldn't die immediately, so Lin Yan had to cut off his head.Then, they killed Huang Chao's brothers, wife and others, and were about to surrender to the Tang army, but they met the barbaric Boye Shatuo army on the way, and they even killed Lin Yan, and gave his head to Shi Pu. Some people say that Huang Chao later became a monk and became the abbot of a famous monastery. When he was dying, he pointed at his feet to show others, which has the word Huang Chao. It is also said that Zen Master Cuiwei, the eminent monk of the Five Dynasties, is Huang Chao. Others said that General Zhang Quanyi of Luoyang had seen a monk who looked a lot like him.But General Zhang is a kind person, and he was an old subordinate of Huang Chao, so he would rather keep this secret - but no one knows whether it is true or not.