Chapter 16 Chapter 16 Rebuilding ZTE Tang Xuanzong

After the historical inflection point of the Anshi Rebellion, the name of the Tang Dynasty by later generations also changed.The Tang Dynasty before the Anshi Rebellion was often called the "Prosperous Tang" by later generations, which was the golden age of the Tang Dynasty, while the Tang Dynasty after the Anshi Rebellion was often called the "Middle and Late Tang" by later generations, which was the decline and demise of the Tang Dynasty. period.When it comes to the middle and late Tang Dynasty, it is almost difficult to find commendatory words. On the contrary, there are many derogatory words: the short life of the emperor, the invasion of foreign enemies, the separatism of feudal towns, endless civil wars, the monopoly of eunuchs, the corruption of the country, and peasant uprisings...

Of course, it would not be objective to beat Zhongwan Tang to death like this.In fact, there were still many "ZTE" eras in the middle and late Tang Dynasty. In these eras, all those who had feelings for the Tang Dynasty saw the hope of ZTE more than once.For example, during Tang Xianzong's reign, he quelled the Huaixi rebellion internally, suppressed feudal towns, and united with the Uighurs externally to suppress Tubo. His literary and military achievements are commendable.But it also left stains such as superstitious alchemists, favoring eunuchs, etc., and finally died of taking the elixir by mistake, which is really too late.In contrast, another Zhongxing era in the middle and late Tang Dynasty—the rule of Xiaozhenguan, has a higher evaluation in history. The person who created this Zhongxing was Tang Xuanzong Li Chen, known as the "Little Taizong". .

Li Chen, born in 810 AD, is the 13th son of Tang Xianzong who created "Yuanhe Zhongxing". People say that the tiger father has no dog son, but before Li Chen's middle age, he was a "dog son" recognized by the royal family of the Tang Dynasty , because he is stupid, so stupid that everyone on the earth knows it. Li Chen had a hard life when he was a child. Although he was the son of Emperor Xianzong and was named King of Light, his mother was just a lowly court lady, so for a long time, their mother and son were not treated well.Unfortunately, misfortunes never come singly. When Li Chen was a child, he went to the palace to meet Tang Dezong's mother, the Empress Dowager Yi'an, just in time for someone to assassinate him. In a panic, Li Chen was frightened into a fool. From then on, this taciturn child became His eyes became more dull and his speech was incoherent. The princes of the royal family later took pleasure in making fun of him in public.This condition lasted from his teenage years until he approached middle age.

But stupid people have stupid blessings. In the middle and late Tang Dynasty, the power of the country was manipulated by eunuchs, and the throne changed even more. The king's banner changed every time.Because of his stupidity, almost no one thought of Li Chen, a silly boy, every time he cleaned. The exception was Li Yan, Emperor Wuzong of the Tang Dynasty before Li Chen ascended the throne.In terms of seniority, Li Yan is Li Chen's nephew, but this nephew really doesn't regard Li Chen as an uncle. When he was young, he often took pleasure in bullying him in public, but after he ascended the throne, Li Yan suddenly became vigilant: Wan If this silly uncle is pretending to be stupid, then what a terrible opponent this will be.With this idea in mind, Li Yan also murdered Li Chen once, for example, he would often ask Li Chen to ride a horse, deliberately make Li Chen fall off the horse, or deliberately get Li Chen drunk, and then throw him into the ice and snow.After all, it's hard to find an excuse to kill a fool, and assassination is better than explicit killing.But what Li Yan didn't expect was that this stupid uncle couldn't be killed no matter what. For example, he fell off a horse, even if his bones were broken, but he would always recover miraculously. He couldn't die from the cold, and he was killed and killed. In the end, Li Chen didn't die, but because Li Yan was addicted to pleasure, he kicked his legs and died after only 6 years in office.It is worth mentioning that although the emperor was criticized a lot in his private life, he still did a lot, especially in terms of foreign wars. It was during this period that the Tang Dynasty completely wiped out the Uighurs who had been at war with the Tang Dynasty, and lifted the Northwest There is a big problem, his temple name is Wuzong, and it is also because of the illustrious martial arts that were rare in the Tang Dynasty during this period.

After Li Yan's death, the eunuch Ma Yuanzhu staged a coup and once took control of the state power.But it is unrealistic for an eunuch to be the emperor, so naturally he has to find a puppet from the royal family. If he is too smart, he may have his own life killed one day. It is better to change to a fool.Therefore, Ma Yuanzhu fell in love with Li Chen, who had been a fool for more than 30 years: it's you!In 847 AD, as the emperor's uncle, Li Chen officially ascended the throne and proclaimed himself emperor with the support of Ma Yuanzhu and other eunuchs.At this time, something unexpected happened. Li Chen, who had been a fool for 37 years, suddenly became a sensible person. He spoke with clear mind and orderliness. Came out: Oh my god, I was fooled.

An emperor who has endured for 37 years, with his great forbearance, has finally sat on the throne of the emperor after experiencing countless trials of death. Within a few days of taking office, Li Chen began to use thunderous tactics.First of all, Li Deyu, the prime minister who had been reused by Li Yan, was blown away, and Bai Minzhong, the leader of the "Niu Party" who had fought against Li Deyu's "Li Party" for decades, was appointed.As for the eunuchs who pretended to be a fool and tried to manipulate state affairs, Li Chen's method was very kind: Ma Yuanxuan was granted the title and promoted to "general", but all the military power in his hands was deprived, leaving only An idle job, in addition to promulgating a strict decree prohibiting communication between ministers and eunuchs, Prime Minister Ma Zhi only had a meal with Ma Yuanzhu once, and was sent home by Li Chen.Thunder means to tell the eunuchs: life or power?If you want power, die to me, if you want to die, just be my slave obediently.

Therefore, the horses and birds of prey can only be slaves. The foolishness is over, the former officials have been repaired, and the eunuchs are honest. Li Chen, who has been pretending to be a fool for 37 years, with his unfathomable scheming and courageous skills, got rid of the puppet role in just a few months.He has a calm temperament and belongs to the kind of person who is not angry and arrogant. He has a natural sense of oppression to outsiders, and he has lived in the folk (he once went to the folk to avoid disaster from Li Yan's persecution). None of the means can escape his discernment. Such a ruthless character can naturally seize power, but what about governing the country?

To say that Li Chen is the little Taizong is not only because he has the courage, calmness, and tenacity of Li Shimin, but also because he has the same ideal as Li Shimin: to establish a peaceful and prosperous world. Li Chen's main impression on officials is that he is self-disciplined, diligent, and eager to learn. For example, Li Chen couldn't put down the scroll every day, and the book he read the most was the record of the great achievements of Zhenguan. He read it wherever he went, not only reading it himself, but also mobilizing officials to read it, which set off a climax of learning Tang Taizong from top to bottom.

In addition to singing high-profile, Li Chen is even more diligent in doing practical things. For example, he asked the minister Linghu Xun to sort out the list of officials of the sixth rank and above in the country. When reporting his position, he can accurately tell the person's name, official history, ability and achievements.He also often used the name of safari to visit the people and investigate the specific achievements of local officials.When passing by Liquan in Shaanxi Province once, I saw local elders praying for Li Junshuang, the magistrate of the county. He can remember the achievements of Qipin county magistrate clearly.

Li Chen is a person who does everything by himself. It can be said that he is not confused about small things, but people often say that a person who is not confused about small things must be confused about big things. In fact, Li Chen is even less confused about big things. It is said that the Tang Dynasty under Li Chen was Xiaozhenguan, not only because Li Chen took care of small things, but also because he grasped the most important issue of the Tang Dynasty at this time-efficiency. From the Tang Dynasty to the middle and late Tang Dynasty, it can be said that social contradictions were complicated, such as eunuchs' monopoly and crony disputes, which resulted in political corruption and mutual rivalry.Since Li Chen ascended the throne, he has practiced himself and inspired to get rid of various ills in the officialdom.During his reign, he improved the official review system of the Tang Dynasty. The central government directly sent censors to conduct inspections on local officials, and the censors were only responsible to the emperor himself.In addition, spread cronies all over the country, collect all kinds of comments from local people about local officials, commend excellent ones, and investigate and punish those with bad deeds.During his reign, the promotion of officials can sometimes be described as a "miracle". For example, today you may still be a county magistrate, but tomorrow you may be an official to the governor. Today you may be a high-ranking Beijing official. , Tomorrow is likely to be rolled to the end.In an almost workaholic state, he reviewed reports submitted from all over the country every day, focusing on cracking down on corruption.At the same time, he was also very strict with himself. For example, a musician he admired killed someone, and he resolutely handed it over to the judiciary for strict punishment without showing any favor.Even with his own children, he is strict to the point of being almost unreasonable.Once his daughter wore a peacock costume, and wanted to show off in front of her father, but she was scolded by Li Chen, saying that I am practicing strict frugality, but you are so extravagant and wasteful, what do outsiders think of me?Before his youngest daughter got married, she lost her temper over trivial matters. When he found out about it, he resolutely canceled his youngest daughter's engagement, saying that you would marry me like this, wouldn't it be embarrassing for me?Because of his example, few of the dignitaries at that time dared to condone their subordinates' misbehavior. The style of government officials in the Tang Dynasty was very good for a while.

Another thing Li Chen did was to streamline the organization, especially the taxation organization.During his reign, large-scale adjustments were made to the country's taxation system. The power of local tax collection was directly delegated to the county magistrate, and officials were not allowed to be appointed to collect on their behalf. .As a result, during Li Chen's reign, the expenditure on official salaries was reduced by two-thirds, while tax revenue was nearly doubled. Of course, for Li Chen, what he most wanted to do was to end the situation in which the eunuchs dominated the government since the Anshi Rebellion. It can only be restricted in all aspects to reduce the chance of eunuchs interfering in government affairs.The 13 years of Li Chen's reign were the period when the power of eunuchs in the mid-to-late Tang Dynasty "disappeared". Although it was not as politically sound and harmonious as Emperor Taizong's Zhenguan period, it is not too much to say that the country is peaceful and the people are safe. Tang Wuzong before Li Chen was named "Wu" because of his illustrious achievements in foreign wars. Compared with his predecessor, although Li Chen did not have the title of "Wu Zong", he actually did what his predecessor did not. What has been done: regain the Hexi Corridor. The loss of the Hexi Corridor happened after the Anshi Rebellion in the Tang Dynasty. In order to quell the rebellion, the Tang Dynasty mobilized troops from Hexi and Anxi areas to participate in the anti-rebellion war. As a result, the neighboring Tubo took advantage of the situation and seized the Hexi Corridor.The consequences of the loss of the Hexi Corridor were serious for the Tang Dynasty. The Tang Dynasty lost the origin of war horses, and the Chang'an area also lost its barrier support. Therefore, the border defense situation was precarious. It was precisely because of this advantage that Tubo invaded Chang'an twice in the middle and late Tang Dynasty. But a huge pie fell on Li Chen's head in the fourth year after he took the throne: Zhang Yichao, a Han Chinese in the Shazhou area of ​​Hexi, launched an uprising and overthrew the local Tubo regime.Afterwards, Zhang Yichao took the initiative to send envoys to report victory to the Tang Dynasty.When the news came, the whole Tang Dynasty was ecstatic, and some ministers even demanded that when Tubo's power was weakened, they decisively launched an attack on Tubo and completely wiped out Tubo.At this time, the army of the Tang Dynasty was reorganized during the Tang Wuzong period, and it was a relatively strong period. With the independence of the Shazhou area, if the Tang Dynasty attacked at this time, it was very hopeful to win.But Li Chen rejected this request, because the Tang Dynasty and Tubo had just passed the alliance, and the two parties vowed to "commend each other in adversity, and refrain from tyranny."Li Chen adopted the most sensible method. On the one hand, he sent an envoy to canonize Zhang Yichao as the governor of Shazhou, and on the other hand, he explained the situation to Tubo.As a result, the Hexi issue, which had lasted for more than 100 years, was peacefully resolved in this way. The Tang Dynasty took back the territory of the Hexi Corridor, and the Silk Road, which had been closed for a hundred years, was opened again. The recovery of the Hexi area is of great significance to the history of the middle and late Tang Dynasty.The world regards the Anshi Rebellion as the beginning of the loss of the Western Regions by the Tang Dynasty. In fact, after the Anshi Rebellion, a large number of Tang Dynasty troops stranded in the Western Regions still stuck to their camps and survived tenaciously for 100 years. There were frictions in the dynasty from time to time, but the Uighurs never changed their relationship with the Tang Dynasty. From the beginning to the end, the Uighurs were the local government under the Tang Dynasty.But between the Western Regions and the Central Plains, due to the loss of the Hexi Corridor, the territory of the Tang Dynasty was split into two unconnected pieces. After the recovery of Hexi, the territory of the Tang Dynasty from the Hexi Corridor to the Western Regions was reconnected. It is no exaggeration to say that although the Tang Dynasty was not as powerful as it was in the heyday of the Tang Dynasty at this time, when Li Chen was in power, the Tang Dynasty at least recovered its territorial prototype in its heyday. Li Chen, who created ZTE, only reigned for 13 years, two years shorter than his father Tang Xianzong.The so-called Xiaozhenguan can only be short-lived. After talking about all the good things about Li Chen's administration, he couldn't get around the bad things.The first is his promotion of Buddha and destruction of Dao.When his predecessor Tang Wuzong was in power, he made great efforts to prosper Taoism and destroy Buddhism. However, Li Chen believed in Buddhism and hated Taoism. During his reign, thousands of Taoist temples were demolished and converted into Buddhist temples. Most of them were killed by him.It was a big mistake for Tang Wuzong to prosper Taoism and destroy Buddhism, but Li Chen overcorrected. Regarding the rectification of officials during Li Chen's reign, the great Confucian Wang Fuzhi held a negative opinion. He believed that Li Chen "was deaf when he was small, and the people were bullied by officials".And Li Chen's death is also a topic of much discussion among historians. Like his father, he died by mistakenly taking elixir.And behind him, the Tang Dynasty, after a short period of time, finally began to slide into the abyss of extinction.