Chapter 18 Chapter 18 Zhu Wen who Destroyed the Tang Dynasty

The reconciliation with Tubo ushered in a period of peace for the border residents of the two regimes of Tang and Tubo, but the demise of the Tang Dynasty was irreversible. After the Tang Dynasty passed through the "Xiaozhenguan Reign" after Tang Xuanzong's reign, it quickly entered a period of decline.After Tang Xuanzong's death, Tang Yizong and Tang Xizong who came to the throne successively were all incompetent masters.However, the crises covered up during Tang Xuanzong's revival period: land annexation, feudal separatism, eunuch monopoly, political corruption, etc., have rapidly expanded since then.When Tang Xizong was in power, the Tang Dynasty broke out the Huangchao Uprising that lasted 10 years, sounding the death knell of the Tang Dynasty's demise, and the person who really sent the Tang Dynasty to death was a traitor in this uprising—— — Zhu Wen.

Zhu Wen, a native of Shangqiu, Henan, was born in 852 A.D. His father was a private school teacher in the countryside, and he can be considered a scholarly family, but Zhu Wenzi is not like his father, he is not in the mood to learn moral articles, but he likes to be brave and ruthless in the village , causing trouble all day long.Moreover, unlike ordinary reckless men, Zhu Wen has been cunning since he was a child. When fighting, it is commonplace to shoot black bricks and make sneak attacks.Zhu Wen's mother doted on him very much. Every time Zhu Wen got into trouble, she stood up to protect him and kept telling others: My son will be able to do great things in the future, so don't underestimate him.The folks at that time, including Zhu Wen's father, thought that this woman was purely doting on children and talking nonsense. It was not until many years later, when Zhu Wen had become a generation of heroes, that they had to sigh: women judge people , sometimes really accurate.

Zhu Wen made his fortune when he was 25 years old.That year, the Huang Chao uprising hit his hometown, and the villagers fled for refuge one after another, but Zhu Wen didn't run away, and kept telling others: My chance to make a fortune has come.As a result, as soon as the peasant army arrived, he quickly signed up to join the army.Afterwards, he followed Huang Chao to fight in the north and south. He was just a pawn at first, but he learned how to fight without a teacher.He was appreciated by Huang Chao mainly because when the rebel army moved to the south, he was chased by the Tang army in Zhenjiang, Jiangsu. In a panic, Zhu Wen took the initiative to ask for the rear.He only brought more than 500 people, and waved banners in the mountains near Zhenjiang, making Tang Jun mistakenly believe that the peasant army had set up an ambush, and he was frightened away by the chasing peasant army.Tang Jun also lost the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to capture Huang Chao alive.This battle made Huang Chao look at him with admiration, and then he was promoted to a pro-military general. Later, when the peasant army occupied Chang'an, Zhu Wen was already a general of the vanguard battalion.In the battle to occupy Chang'an, Zhu Wen took the lead with the first 2,000 people, and continued to cheat when he reached the vicinity of Chang'an, making great fanfare all the way, claiming that he had brought hundreds of thousands of people, and he just frightened the Tang Dynasty's troops staying in Chang'an. Anointed and fled.As a result, the peasant army occupied Chang'an, the strong city that Huang Chao had dreamed of, without bloodshed.Then, Zhu Wen led his troops south without stopping, conquered the Shouzhou area of ​​the Tang Dynasty, and shattered the Tang Dynasty's plan to counterattack Chang'an via Henan.Later, Zhu Wen served as the "Shaanxi Defense Envoy" of the Daqi regime of the Huangchao Peasant Army, and became a frontier official in the power town. In just 5 years, Zhu Wen, who was only 30 years old, became the most powerful in the Huangchao Peasant Army Famous generals with combat effectiveness, and even many troops of the Tang Dynasty fled when they saw the "Zhu" battle flag.This little gangster from Shangqiu, Henan, experienced the feeling of being in full swing for the first time at this time.

Zhu Wen's crisis came for the first time after he became a "big border official".Zhu Wen, who was stationed in Tongzhou, Shaanxi, was soon attacked by Wang Chongrong, the Jiedu envoy of the Tang Dynasty.Wang Chongrong was a very powerful branch of the Tang Dynasty vassals at this time, and he had surrendered to the peasant army, and he was very familiar with the tactics of the peasant army. At this time, most of the main force of Zhu Wen was transferred by Huang Chao, and he only had more than 10,000 in his hands. How can soldiers and horses resist this division of tigers and wolves.The room was leaked by Lian Yeyu. In the early mobile battles, Zhu Wen offended Huang Chao’s adviser, Meng Kai, for robbing the loot. As a result, Meng Kai withheld all the documents that Zhu Wen asked Huang Chao for emergency. No, Zhu Wen, who was in the spotlight for a while, is now called Tiantian no longer.But Zhu Wen didn't accept his fate, because he couldn't beat him, and he just surrendered.

Compared with Zhang Xianzhong later, Zhu Wen's surrender can be said to be 100% sincere. Since he decided to surrender, he showed the appearance of surrender. Huang Chao's cronies in Zhu Wen's army were killed by Zhu Wen overnight. With a human head as a gift, Zhu Wen formally surrendered to the Tang Dynasty.Hearing that the strongest general of the Peasant Army had surrendered, Tang Xizong, who was far away in Sichuan, was overjoyed and shouted, "This is a sign of the revival of the Tang Dynasty."Then Zhu Wen changed and became the "official army" to encircle and suppress Huang Chao, and was named "Bianzhou Governor".But the Tang Dynasty was not stupid. I told him clearly that the official will do it for you, but he can't take office until he regains Chang'an. This aroused Zhu Wen's enthusiasm, and he immediately led his army to the front line to destroy Huang Chao.He also used the trick of the young cavalry to attack Chang'an by surprise, taking advantage of the opportunity of the Tang Dynasty's main force to besiege Chang'an, entered Chang'an from the side path, and defeated the peasant army in one fell swoop. Huang Chao, who could not gain a foothold, was forced to retreat. He pursued and killed him bravely, from Chang'an to Bianzhou, and then took office on the spot. The affluent Henan Province has since become Zhu Wen's sphere of influence.

During this period, Zhu Wen also forged a lifelong enemy - Li Keyong, the leader of Shatuo.In the same encirclement and suppression of Huang Chao, Zhu Wenwen and Li Keyong were close comrades-in-arms at first, but Li Keyong had a straightforward personality and spoke freely. When drinking with Zhu Wen, he drank too much, and then laughed at Zhu Wen as a "traitor", Zhu Wen was gloomy, On the surface, he happily agreed, and after drinking the wine, he waved his hand and sent his men to set fire to Li Keyong's residence. Fortunately, it rained heavily that day, and Li Keyong, who was drunk, was able to save his life. Old comrades who once fought side by side have become sworn enemies.

But Zhu Wen couldn't care about Li Keyong at this time.After the failure of the Huang Chao Uprising, Zhu Wen used Henan as his base and started his war of expansion everywhere, successively annexing many feudal towns in northern Jiangsu, Shandong, Hebei and other places.At this time, the Tang Dynasty was in the period of the separatist rule of feudal towns, and the central government became empty. Zhu Wen adopted a policy of fighting and pulling, disintegrating and disintegrating the surrounding feudal towns, step by step, and when he occupied Taiyuan at the age of 47, he already owned The land of the Central Plains south of the Yellow River and north of the Huaihe River has become the strongest branch of the Central Plains princes.

Zhu Wen started as a street rogue, and his dreams came step by step.When I was a scoundrel, I thought about being a general, and when I became a general, I wanted to be a high official. Once I became a high official, I wanted to be a vassal. After I became a vassal, I naturally wanted to be an emperor. At this time, the Tang Dynasty had come to the end of the age, and Tang Zhaozong was in power at this time, but he was just a puppet.In 900 AD, a coup took place in the royal family of the Tang Dynasty. The eunuch Liu Jishu rebelled and imprisoned Tang Zhaozong. This gave Zhu Wen the best chance to "enter the central government". In the name of killing Liu Jishu, Zhu Wen marched to Chang'an again. After a series of battles with Liu Jishu's forces, in 903 AD, Zhu Wen successfully recaptured Tang Zhaozong, and began his journey of holding the emperor to make the princes.In the same year, Zhu Wen was appointed Taiwei and took control of the power of the Tang Dynasty. Then he began to counterattack and killed more than 500 eunuchs in one go. He was mistakenly killed by a rebel soldier as an eunuch, but after this killing, the eunuch power that had dominated the power of the Tang Dynasty for more than 100 years was wiped out.

In the first month of the following year, Zhu Wen saw that the time to proclaim himself emperor was ripe, so he sent Tang Zhaozong to Luoyang and began preparations for a change of dynasty. Although the Tang Dynasty was innocent, the common people still had feelings for the Tang Dynasty. Many officials and people on the road saw Tang Zhaozong , still knelt down and shouted long live, scared Tang Zhaozong hurriedly corrected: "I am no longer the emperor." But the vicious Zhu Wen would not let him live, Zhu Wen treated Tang Zhaozong with courtesy, and ordered General Zhu Yougong went to Luoyang to kill Tang Zhaozong.In April, the poor puppet emperor was murdered in Luoyang. In order to deceive others, Zhu Wen first made Tang Zhaozong's son emperor, and this was Emperor Zhaoxuan, the last emperor of the Tang Dynasty.Then he killed Zhu Yougong to silence him, and wailed hypocritically about Tang Zhaozong's death.After making enough superficial articles, in February of the following year, Zhu Wen once again lit the butcher knife. Emperor Zhaoxuan and eight brothers were all killed, and more than 30 ministers loyal to the Tang Dynasty were killed. The Yellow River, the surging Yellow River was dyed red because of this.In April 907 AD, Zhu Wen officially proclaimed himself emperor, changed the name of the country to Daliang, and took Bianliang as the eastern capital. The remnants of the Tang Dynasty royal family who followed Zhu Wen to Luoyang were also killed thereafter.Stepping on countless human heads, Zhu Wen finally sat on the throne of the emperor he had dreamed of.From then on, the prosperous Tang Dynasty was completely destroyed, and a new chapter in Chinese history was opened-the period of Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms.

How about Zhu Wen as the emperor?I'm afraid there are only two words - licentiousness. Zhu Wen was notoriously lustful. When he was in the peasant army, he was punished by Huang Chao for raping civilian girls. Later, he rebelled. Until he became emperor, not only did he not change his bad habits, but intensified them.For example, wherever his army went, he would rape all his wives and daughters wherever he stayed in residential houses, even his own daughter-in-law. His sons were not ashamed of it, but rushed to rape themselves The wife of the old man gave his father "pick ashes" to win his favor.After the establishment of the Later Liang Dynasty, Li Keyong, Zhu Wen's lifelong enemy, also established the Later Tang regime, but after repeated battles with Zhu Wen, Li Keyong died of illness in 908. His son Li Cunxu, don't forget Zhu Wen's hatred.After that, it was Li Cunxu's life of hard work and bravery. Zhu Wen's battle with the deadly enemy came to an end for the time being. When the situation rises again, it will be the final demise of his family.

What Zhu Wen never expected was that he did not die at the hands of his mortal enemy, but at the hands of one of his closest relatives.He has an adopted son, Zhu Youwen, who often honors Zhu Wen with his wife. Zhu Wen is very satisfied and wants to make Zhu Youwen the prince. Naturally, his own sons will not do it, especially the second son Zhu Yougui who has been his assistant.In 912 AD, Zhu Wen fell ill on his way to the Tang Dynasty and returned to Luoyang to recuperate. In June, Zhu Yougui staged a coup and stabbed Zhu Wen to death.A generation of heroes died in this way.But when it comes to his death, it still echoes an old saying "there is a knife on Sezi's head". But this capricious hero who usurped the Tang Dynasty to stand on his own, and who has been scolded for thousands of years, has also done many good things that modern people don't understand. After Zhu Wen became emperor, the most important work he did was to reward farming and reduce taxes.The Central Plains experienced wars and serious damage to production. Zhu Wen made great efforts to reclaim wasteland in Henan, and encouraged the people to return to their hometowns to live. The state even allocated special grain and silver to subsidize the people who reclaimed wasteland.At the same time, he vigorously developed education, set up rural schools in the local area, recruited teachers, and reused literati.All of the above are beyond the reach of the contemporaries. But the licentious Zhu Wen has a rare and good wife—Ms. Zhang.Mrs. Zhang is Zhu Wen's married wife in his hometown. Her family is a wealthy local family. He resolutely married Zhu Wen in spite of his parents' opposition.Zhu Wen liked to kill indiscriminately during the war, and every time Zhang came forward to dissuade her, especially she was also very resourceful, and she was a good adviser to Zhu Wen in many key battles.Zhu Wen naturally cherishes such a good wife.On the eve of the founding of the Later Liang Dynasty, Mrs. Zhang was already terminally ill. Before she died, she said to Zhu Wen: "You are fine in everything, but there is one thing I can't rest assured about. You are too greedy for wine and sex, and this will kill you." Zhu Wen's final outcome , but really fulfilled his prophecy of getting a wife.