Chapter 204 Chapter 203 Dezong Li Shi

Tang Dezong (742-805 AD), named Shi, was the eldest son of Daizong.Daizong ascended the throne, Shi Shi Chaoyi occupied the eastern capital, and the aftermath of the Anshi Rebellion was not over, so he appointed Li Shi as the marshal of the world's soldiers and horses to fight against the rebels, and entered the titles of King Lu and King Yong.In the first year of Baoying (762 A.D.), he was also Minister of the Order because of his meritorious service to the rebels in the history of peace.In the second year of Guangde (764 AD), he was established as the prince.In the fourteenth year of Dali (779 A.D.), Daizong died, and Li Shi took the throne.At the age of 38, he was Emperor Dezong.

At the beginning of Dezong's ascension to the throne, many bad policies of the previous dynasty were reformed.He decreed that year-old tribute should be banned.In terms of life, they also paid attention to frugality. More than 100 court ladies left the court, and 300 Liyuan envoys and actresses stayed.Officials are prohibited from doing business.Strictly punish those who accept bribes. Dezong ascended the throne and appointed Cui Youfu and Yang Yan as ministers. Under the auspices of Yang Yan, he reformed the taxation system, abolished the regulation of rent and mediocrity, and implemented the "two tax laws."

In the early Tang Dynasty, there were three types of taxes: sub-rent, yong, and transfer. This was a method of collecting taxes by Ding on the basis of the land equalization system.With the disintegration of the land equalization system, although the population increased, the peasants fled one after another and became tenants of the landlords. The household registration was chaotic, and the officials were lawless. The main contents of the two tax laws are: the abolition of rent and adjustment of all miscellaneous taxes.Regardless of the main household (local aboriginal households) or customers (outside households), all household registration tax shall be based on the current place of residence.Abandon the method of levying tax by dime, and instead levy taxes according to assets and acres of land, that is, determine the amount of household tax payable according to assets, etc.; collect land tax according to the number of acres of fields.Businessmen who do not have a fixed residence also have to pay taxes.Taxes are collected in summer and autumn every year. The summer tax is only in June, and the autumn tax is only in November.This is where the name of the two taxes comes from.

The implementation of the two-tax law has expanded the scope of tax payment and is conducive to reducing the burden on the people.More people pay taxes, which also increases government revenue.The two tax laws are taxed according to assets and acres of land, which is more reasonable and progressive compared with the tax based on the tax adjustment method.But the ruler headed by Dezong did not implement it seriously.Exorbitant and miscellaneous taxes continued to increase, because the tax system was too simplified, and many taxes were collected repeatedly, resulting in an increasingly heavy burden on the people.

When Dezong came to the throne, the party struggle in the court was very fierce.The struggle between Yang Yan and Liu Yan is its outstanding performance.It turned out that Liu Yan, Minister of the Ministry of Officials, was also in charge of all matters of expenditure and payment, and Liu Yan was appointed as the left servant.Liu Yan is talented, witty, flexible, and subtle. He was the most famous financial manager in the Tang Dynasty.Yang Yan was the remnant party of Yuan Zai, the Prime Minister of Daizong, and Liu Yan participated in the plot to kill Yuan Zai.At that time, Yuan Zai was killed, and Yang Yan was demoted to Yuanzhou Sima.Later, Yang Yan won the trust of Emperor Dezong and assumed power alone, so he used his position to avenge Yuan Zai and himself, and murdered Liu Yan on false charges.

Liu Yan was killed innocently, and the ruling and opposition parties called for injustice for him.Li Zhengji, who ruled Ziqing Town (Governing Qingzhou, Qingzhou, Shandong), successively went to the table to ask the reason for killing Liu Yan. Dezong had nothing to say and fell into a dilemma.Regarding this, Yang Yan couldn't help feeling guilty, and secretly sent private individuals to various towns to defend himself, saying that Liu Yan's murder was decided by Dezong and had nothing to do with him.After Dezong learned of this situation, he hated Yang Yan very much, so he appointed Lu Qi as prime minister and planned to kill Yang Yan.

Lu Qi is very insidious and cunning. He is another famous traitor after Li Linfu and Yuan Zai.Harmful tricks are more insidious than Yang Yan.Yang Yan has always looked down on Lu Qi, and he doesn't even want to eat with him. Lu Qi has hated him for a long time. Knowing Dezong's thoughts, Lu Le had to throw stones into the well. Not long after he took office, he made Yang Yanluo a lot of crimes .As a result, Dezong demoted Yang Yan to Yazhou Sima, and before he reached the demotion office, he was killed by the people sent by Dezong on the way. In the second year of Jianzhong (AD 778), Li Baochen, the Jiedu envoy of Chengde Town (governing Hengzhou, now Zhengding, Hebei), died.Li Baochen once agreed with Li Zhengji, Tian Chengsi and others to establish a system of succession in this town.In the fourteenth year of Dali (779 A.D.), after Tian Chengsi died, Tian Yue succeeded to the throne. Li Baochen asked the court to appoint him, recognized Tian Yue's right of succession, and obtained Daizong's permission.Now Li Baochen's son, Li Weiyue, succeeds to the throne, and the court also asks for his approval.But Dezong wanted to get rid of the old evils, so he rejected Li Weiyue's request.Tian Yue asked for Li Weiyue, but he was not allowed.Therefore, Tian Yue, Li Zhengji, and Li Weiyue joined forces to fight for the succession system and sent troops to fight against the imperial court.Dezong dispatched 12,000 soldiers from the west of Beijing to guard the Guandong, and appointed Li Huaiguang as Shuofang Jiedu envoy to send troops from all walks of life to fight against the rebels.This was a decisive battle for the balance of power between the imperial court and the feudal towns. However, Dezong did not formulate a feasible plan for the use of troops, nor did he set up a marshal, and the generals were personally commanded by the imperial court.As a result, they failed one after another, and the scale of the war became larger and larger.

In the second year of Jianzhong, Tian Yue attacked Xingzhou (now Xingtai County, Hebei) and Linyi County (now west of Yongnian County, Hebei).Ma Sui, the governor of the Tang Dynasty, Li Baozhen, the governor of Zhaoyi, and Li Sheng, the general of Shence, defeated Tian Yue's army. West, end to end, echo each other.The generals of the Tang Dynasty defeated the Weibo and Ziqing armies in Xuzhou, and the river and Huaihe water transport was opened again.In the third year of Jianzhong, Ma Sui, the Jiedu envoy of Hedong, Li Baozhen, the envoy of Zhaoyi Jiedu, and Shence Pioneer all knew that Li Sheng, the envoy of soldiers and horses, defeated Tian Yue's army again. Save.Li Zhengji in Ziqing Town died, and his son Li Na succeeded to the throne and continued to be an enemy of the court. As a result, he was defeated by the Tang army and fled back to Puzhou (now Juancheng County, Shandong). Li Weiyue's army, Li Weiyue's army was defeated and fled back to Hengzhou.Li Weiyue's general Wang Wujun killed Li Weiyue and surrendered to the court.But this temporary failure cannot change the ambitions of the separatists, nor can it change the long-standing split.This war was not over yet, and another war broke out immediately.

Emperor Dezong appointed Zhang Xiaozhong, a Cheng Dejiang general, as the Jiedu envoy of Yi, Ding, and Cangzhou, Wang Wujun as the training envoy of Heng and Jizhou, and Kang Rizhi as the observation envoy of Shenzhao Dutuan.Distributed to Zhu Taode and Di (now southeast of Huimin, Shandong) two states.The purpose of this measure is to disperse the forces in Old Chengde Town.However, the reactions of all parties were not as expected by the court. Wang Wujun thought he had made the most contribution, but his status was lower than that of Zhang Xiaozhong, and he refused to accept the order of the court.Zhu Tao wanted Shenzhou but failed, and was dissatisfied, so he still stationed troops in Shenzhou and refused to hand Shenzhou over to Kang Rizhi.Wang Wujun and Zhu Tao rebelled and joined forces with Tian Yue and Li Na, and the rebels regained momentum.Zhu Tao sent someone to make a secret appointment with Zhu Sitong to rebel. Ma Sui reported this to Emperor Dezong after he knew about it.Zhu Xi was guarding Fengxiang at that time, and Emperor Dezong recalled him to Chang'an and sent eunuchs to monitor him.Ma Sui and others attacked Weizhou, Zhu Tao and Wang Wujun rescued Weizhou, and Emperor Dezong ordered Shuofang Jiedu envoy Li Huaiguang to help in the battle.Li Huaiguang defeated Zhu Tao's army, Wang Wujun defeated Li Huaiguang's army, and the Tang government army was forced to withdraw to Wei County (west of Weizhou City).There was a stalemate between the Tang army and the rebels.Soon, Zhu Tao was called King of Ji, Tian Yue was called King of Wei, Wang Wujun was called King of Zhao, Li Na was called King of Qi, and Zhu Tao was called the leader of the alliance.The kings agreed to support each other in order to keep the land they occupied forever.Zhu Tao and others persuaded Li Xilie, the Jiedu envoy of Huaixi (in Caizhou, today's Runan, Henan Province), to come in. Li Xilie accepted the recommendation and first called himself Marshal of the Capital of the World.Li Xilie's army plundered everywhere, and his small army fought all the way to the vicinity of Luoyang, and the war spread from Hebei to Henan.

In the fourth year of the founding of middle school, Li Xilie besieged Xiangcheng (now Xiangcheng, Henan).Emperor Dezong ordered Li Mian, the Jiedu envoy of the Xuanwu Army, to lead 10,000 soldiers to rescue Xiangcheng, and personally sent 3,000 people to help in the battle.Li Mian said in a memorial to Emperor Dezong that Li Xilie's elite soldiers were all in Xiangcheng, but his troops stationed in Xuzhou (now Xuchang, Henan) were empty, so the two rescuers attacked Xuzhou, and the siege of Xiangcheng was self-resolved. Li Mian made a statement based on this deployment of troops.After seeing the report, Emperor Dezong thought that he had violated the imperial edict, so he sent an eunuch to reprimand Li Mian.The two rescuers were dozens of miles away from Xuzhou, and were ordered to retreat in embarrassment.The Xuzhou defenders pursued, and the Tang army was defeated, with more than half of them killed or injured.Li Mian sent 4,000 troops to help defend Dongdu, but Li Xilie cut off his retreat and was not allowed to retreat.This is all the result of Dezong's command mistakes.The Xuanwu army was originally the main force of the Tang army against Li Xiyeol's rebels, and it has been sluggish ever since.As Xiangcheng became more and more critical, Emperor Dezong dispatched soldiers from various towns in the pass to rescue Xiangcheng, and as a result, the Jingyuan Incident broke out again.

In October of the fourth year of Jianzhong, Dezong sent troops from Jingyuan to rescue Xiangcheng in the east.5,000 Jingyuan soldiers were transferred to pass by the capital. The soldiers came in the rain, cold and hungry. When they arrived in the capital, they thought they would be rewarded generously and sent back to their families. Unexpectedly, they were only given rough rice soup and no reward at all.The soldiers mutinied and entered the capital.Dezong hurriedly led a small number of family members to leave in a hurry. Someone reminded Dezong: "Zhu Xi was once the commander of the Jingyuan army. He was called to the capital because of his younger brother Zhu Tao's rebellion. Now that the rebellious troops have entered the capital, if he is the master, it will be difficult to control. It is better to send the army to the capital. He summoned him to go together." Dezong only cared about fleeing for his life, not caring about the many.On the way, I met Sinon Qing Guo Shu and Youlong Wujun Linghu Jian, who led about 500 people from their troops to accompany them.Under the protection of these people, Tang Dezong fled to Fengtian County (now Qianxian County, Shaanxi).A few days later, Hun Yan, General Zuo Jinwu, came to Fengtian.Some officials of the Tang Dynasty also came one after another.Hun Yu is a general under Guo Ziyi's subordinates and has always had prestige.Because of His coming, the heart is settled.When reinforcements from nearby towns entered the city, Emperor Dezong ordered Hun Yu to lead them. At this time, Zhu Xi, who was in the capital, had been supported by the rebels as the master.Some of the soldiers who rescued Xiangcheng from various towns had not yet left Tongguan, but they also rebelled back to Xijing and surrendered to Zhu Xi.Soon, Zhu Xi claimed to be the Emperor of Qin, and most of the officials of the Tang Dynasty became Qin officials. Only a few officials, such as Secretary of Agriculture Duan Xiushi, were unwilling to join forces with Zhu Xi and planned to kill Zhu Xi.Zhu Xi made Zhu Tao the emperor's younger brother, echoing the rebel towns in Hebei. Dezong sent people to Wei County to camp in an emergency. Li Huaiguang led the Shuofang army back to rescue Fengtian, and Li Sheng also sent troops to rescue along the way. Ma Sui and others returned to the town, and Li Baozhen stayed in Hebei.Hun Yu sticks to the dangerous city, so that this turning point can be realized. Zhu Xi was determined to conquer Fengtian City, personally supervised the battle, and besieged it with all his strength for a month, but still could not conquer it.At this time, all the food in the city was eaten up, and Dezong himself could only eat some wild vegetables and coarse rice.Hun Yu weeps every day and tells the soldiers to show righteousness. Although the soldiers are suffering from hunger and cold, they have no change of will.Soon Li Huaiguang led 50,000 troops to the vicinity of Chang'an, Li Sheng led more than 10,000 troops to arrive, and the rest of the reinforcements also arrived separately.Zhu Si's siege was defeated, and Li Huaiguang defeated Zhu Si's other army, and Zhu Si led his troops to retreat to Chang'an. Li Huaiguang was violent, he came from Wei County, and along the way he said that Lu Qi and others were treacherous and should be killed.After Lu Qi knew about it, he spoke to Emperor Dezong and urgently ordered Li Huaiguang to recover Chang'an quickly.Li Huaiguang thought that he had made great achievements, but he couldn't even see the emperor. He felt resentful, so he went to the table one after another to expose the crimes of Lu Qi and others.The courtiers also talked about it and reprimanded Lu Qi.In the first year of Xingyuan (784 A.D.), Dezong was forced to demote Lu Qi to Sima in Yuanzhou in the south.After Li Huaiguang forced Lu Qi away, he felt uneasy about expelling the emperor's favored officials, and he had a discord with Li Sheng, another general who suppressed the rebellion. .After Dezong knew about it, he left Fengtian in a hurry and fled to Hanzhong.Li Huaiguang's rebellion further worsened the situation in the Tang Dynasty.Thanks to Li Sheng's correct command, the crisis was saved. At that time, Li Sheng led a lone army to guard the Dongwei Bridge (50 miles northeast of Chang'an), sandwiched between Zhu Xi and Li Huaiguang, two powerful enemies, and was in an extremely dangerous situation.He inspires soldiers with loyalty and maintains vigor in difficult situations.The Tang troops stationed in Pinning, Fengtian, Zhaoying (now Lintong County, Shaanxi Province), and Lantian were willing to accept his command, and their military power was greatly boosted.Li Huaiguang was forced to flee to the river, and his soldiers either surrendered to the Tang army or fled along the way, greatly weakening their power. When Li Huaiguang forced Lu Qi away and was about to rebel, Tang Dezong sent people to Tubo to ask for help, and agreed to cede Anxi and Beiting to Tubo.These two towns have been fighting against Tubo, but Dezong ceded them privately.He invited Tibetan soldiers to help counter the rebellion.It was because he was afraid that General Tang would be difficult to deal with after he made great achievements.He ordered Hun Yu to lead the army to attack from Hanzhong, and 20,000 Tubo soldiers came to the meeting.Hun Yu defeated Zhu Bing and entered Fengtian to correspond with Li Sheng.The Tubo soldiers plundered Wugong County and were bribed by Zhu Xi, so the whole army retreated.Tang Dezong wanted to use Tubo soldiers to take Chang'an. He was very sad when he heard that the Tubo soldiers retreated.Minister Lu Zhi persuaded him to trust the general, using Tubo would be harmful but not beneficial, and advised him not to interfere with the command of the frontline soldiers.In this way, Dezong reluctantly let Sheng and others have independent military power.That year, Li Sheng led his troops to attack Chang'an City, but Zhu Xi was defeated and stabbed to death by his subordinates.In July of that year, Dezong, who had been in exile for 10 months, returned to Chang'an. After Dezong returned to Chang'an, Tubo came to beg Anxi and Beiting towns.Emperor Dezong wanted to call back Guo Xin and Li Yuanzhong, who had stayed in the four towns of Anxi, and Li Yuanzhong, the governor of Beiting, and give the two towns to Tubo.The two towns were preserved because Li Mi and other ministers tried their best to dissuade them. Dezong was already jealous of heroes, and after returning to Chang'an, his suspicion was even more irresistible.Tubo invaded and was defeated by Li Sheng many times.Tubo believed that in order to obtain the Tang State, Tang Liang generals Li Sheng, Ma Sui, and Hun Yu must be eliminated.In the second year of Zhenyuan (AD 786), Tubo sent 20,000 troops to the city of Fengxiang, claiming that Li Sheng had asked us to come.For this very clumsy divorce plan, Dezong believed it to be true and suspected Li Sheng.Zhang Yanshang took the opportunity to slander Li Sheng.In the third year of Zhenyuan, Tubo sent people to ask Ma Sui for peace. Ma Sui had a grudge against Li Sheng, so he agreed with Zhang Yanshang and urged for peace.Dezong used the excuse of fighting with Tubo to cut off Li Sheng's military power.He also ordered Hun Yu to be the envoy of the Huimeng and go to the Huimeng.As soon as Hunyu arrived in Pingliang, the Tubo army ambushed everywhere, and Hunyu seized his horse and fled back.Although Ma Sui was not convicted, he was hated by Emperor Dezong and lost his positions as deputy marshal and Hedong Jiedushi. Li Sheng was suspected and dismissed from military authority. This incident dealt a great blow to the generals. Prime Minister Zhang Yanshang resigned and assumed the responsibility of negotiating peace with Tubo.After Dezong appointed Li Mi as prime minister, the situation was slightly stabilized. Li Mi has experienced the three dynasties of Xuan, Su, and Dai, and he has a clear understanding of the psychology of the Hunjun. He was also Dezong's teacher when he was young, so he was able to induce Dezong to do some good things and clear up some troubles. Li Mi After Mi took office, he made an agreement with Dezong to ask Dezong not to harm heroes. Because of Li Mi's thorough reasoning and gentle attitude, he also did many things beneficial to the country, which was highly valued by Dezong.On this basis, Li Mi proposed a plan to connect Huihe in the north, Yunnan (Nanzhao Kingdom) in the south, Dashi and Tianzhu in the west, and trap Tubo.In the fourth year of Zhenyuan, Huihe Khan got Tang Xu's marriage and was willing to contain Tubo for Tang.In the ninth year of Zhenyuan, Nanzhao Kingdom also broke away from Tubo and restored friendly relations with Tang Dynasty.Since then, the power of Tubo has been weakened, and it cannot harm the Tang Dynasty, and the political situation of the Tang Dynasty is slightly stable. In a relatively stable domestic political situation, Dezong not only failed to make any political achievements, but his evil governance was still developing. In the first year of Xingyuan (784 A.D.), Emperor Dezong sent eunuchs Dou Wenchang and Huo Xianming to supervise the left and right shence troops.In the seventh year of Zhenyuan (AD 791), Bai Liangqi, the general of Shence, recruited Jingzhuang to replace a merchant with a registered military registration. Dou Wenchang, the military supervisor, thought it was suspicious, so he reported it to Dezong, and Dezong dismissed Bai Liangqi from his post.In the twelfth year of Zhenyuan, Dezong appointed Dou Wenchang and Huo Xianming as lieutenants of the left and right shence guards.Since then, eunuchs have mastered the forbidden army, and it has become a custom for eunuchs to control the forbidden army, which has a great impact on the later political situation of Tang Dynasty. Dezong suffered from poverty, hunger and cold during the disaster of Fengtian, but he did not learn any useful lessons, only gained the experience of greed for money.After returning to Chang'an, he concentrated on searching for people's wealth.Dezong was greedy for money, so the local officials won his favor in the name of Jinfeng.Some are enshrined every month, called Yuejin; some are enshrined every day, called Rijin.Whoever enshrines more property will get a higher official position.This is actually encouraging local officials to step up their exploitation of the people.At the end of the Zhenyuan period, all the items needed in the palace were purchased directly from the Chang'an market by the eunuchs appointed by Dezong. These eunuchs were called palace envoys.Miyashi envoys have Baiwang hundreds of people, who specialize in looting goods in the market. In the twenty-first year of Zhenyuan, Dezong died.After his death, he was buried in Chongling Mausoleum (now Cuo'e Mountain, 40 miles northwest of Jingyang, Shaanxi), with the posthumous posthumous title of "Emperor Shenwu Xiaowen" and the temple name "Dezong".