Chapter 213 Chapter 212 Xizong Li Xuan

Li Xuan, whose real name is Li Yan, is the fifth son of Emperor Yizong of Tang Dynasty, and was first crowned King Pu.In July of the 14th year of Xiantong (873 A.D.), Yizong was seriously ill. The eunuchs Liu Xingshen, Lieutenant of Left Shence Army, and Han Wenyue, Lieutenant of Right Shence Army, killed Yizong's eldest son.It was the month when Emperor Yizong died, and Li Xuan came to the throne before his death. Tang Xizong Li Xuan was only 11 years old when he came to the throne, and he didn't understand political affairs.The prime minister, Wei Baoheng, was named Minister Tuogu, but he could not preside over political affairs. The actual power was in the hands of the two eunuchs Liu and Han who supported him.Less than two months after Emperor Xizong ascended the throne, Wei Baoheng was demoted as governor of Hezhou, expelled from the court, and soon ordered him to commit suicide.But Liu and Han's rule did not last long, and they were soon replaced by another eunuch Tian Lingzi.

Tian Lingzi's original surname was Chen. During the Yizong era, he followed his adoptive father Tian to work as an eunuch in the Ministry of Internal Affairs and changed his surname to Tian.Tian Lingzi is very smart, has read a lot of books, and is good at strategy. He soon climbed from an ordinary eunuch to the high position of the general of the left prison gate guard.When Xi Zong was King Pu, he knew Tian Lingzi very well and had a great affection for him.After Xizong became emperor, he called Tian Lingzi "Father" and entrusted him with all political affairs. Only Tian Lingzi could really influence him.From the day Xizong came to the throne, Tian Lingzi has been manipulating everything behind the scenes.Wei Baoheng was demoted to death, and Lu Yan, who succeeded him, also stepped down quickly. The court officials were frequently replaced, and even Liu Xingshen and Han Wenyue were forced to retire due to "illness". This was all related to Tian Lingzi's behind-the-scenes planning.In the first month of the second year of Qianfu (875 A.D.), Tian Lingzi succeeded Han Wenyue as the lieutenant of the Youshence Army, which marked that he had officially become the head of the eunuch, and could decide the rewards and punishments for the appointment and removal of important central and local officials, becoming a legitimate and actual ruling figure.You Buque Xiao Yu was soon demoted to Chenzhou Sima just because he touched the eunuch in the letter.The prominent power of Tian Lingzi made all the officials of the court, including the prime minister, look sideways.

Emperor Xizong was fond of arithmetic, music, and playing chess, all of which were of a high level; as for Cuju (a kind of ancient football game), which was quite popular at that time, he was also proficient in hitting balls on donkeys, cockfights, and geese; horseback riding and archery, He also knows a thing or two about dancing guns and sticks.One day, Emperor Xizong proudly said to someone: "If there is a Jinshi in the batting department in the current imperial examination, I will definitely be the number one." As a minister of the Ministry of Rites and responsible for admissions, His Majesty will definitely be eliminated." Xi Zong was indifferent to this and just laughed it off.

When Xizong was emperor without any worries, a large-scale peasant uprising had already broken out.Tian Lingzi realized that the capital Chang'an was in danger, and in order to seek a way out, he decided to let his brother Chen Jingxuan and his confidants Yang Shili, Niu Xu, Luo Yuangao, etc. to control Sichuan so that there would be places of refuge in the future.When distributing the areas to be ruled by the four, Emperor Xizong had an ingenious idea, letting them stand on the field, while he himself sat next to the goal to supervise, announcing that whoever shoots the ball first would be the governor of Xichuan.Chen Jingxuan was the first to break through and get this post, replacing Cui Anqian who had made quite a lot of political achievements in this area.Yang Shili was appointed as the governor of Dongchuan, and Niu Xu was appointed as the governor of Shannan West Road.

The eunuch's monopoly can only control the imperial court, but it has nothing to do with the local feudal towns.During Emperor Xizong's period, there were obvious changes in the separatism of the feudal towns, that is, the power of the military expanded. They were no longer satisfied with working for the feudal towns or supporting their descendants, but wanted to directly intervene in the feudal towns.Military riots occurred frequently, or some conditions were put forward, or the chief was expelled, or even blatantly replaced.Many local military governors were powerless to control the situation.Since the court presided over by Tian Lingzi could not control the feudal town, it was even more powerless against the military forces who dared to subvert the feudal town, so it could only admit the fait accompli afterwards.

In the second year of Qianfu, after the severe drought in Kanto, locust plagues occurred in many places. Wherever the migratory locusts passed, the crops and plants were wiped out.This is tantamount to making things worse for the common people who are already trapped in famine and live on leaves.In the winter of this year, Wang Xianzhi, a native of Puzhou (now Fanxian County, Henan Province), gathered thousands of people and first raised the flag of rebellion in Changyuan (now part of Henan Province).At the same time, Huang Chao, a native of Quju (now southwest of Heze, Shandong), also raised troops to respond.The two insurrectionary armies quickly united, and the rebellion was greatly shaken. They attacked prefectures and counties between Huanghuai and Huaihe Rivers, and ran rampant in Shandong.

In the autumn of the third year of Qianfu, the rebel army approached Luoyang, causing panic in the court.While dispatching troops and generals to chase and intercept the rebel army, they issued an imperial edict to pardon the generals of the rebel army in an attempt to disintegrate and disintegrate.Wang Xianzhi was shaken for a while, and cracks appeared in the rebel army.The following year, Wang Xianzhi was defeated and killed, and the rebel army was under the unified command of Huang Chao. He called himself "General Chongtian Taibao Junping", changed his name to "Wang Ba", and established a clear goal of overthrowing the Tang Dynasty.Huang Chao led his troops to fight in Huanghuai, Jianghuai and Jiangnan for several years, and went north again in the first year of Guangming (880 AD), targeting Chang'an.

Faced with this situation, out of personal considerations, Tian Lingzi urged Emperor Xizong to "fortune Shu" and go to his long-running territory.The prime ministers disagreed, and Emperor Xizong was unwilling to give up Chang'an.At this time, the rebel army had broken through Luoyang, and the imperial court hurriedly sent troops out of Tongguan to resist the enemy.The official army was composed of the Palace Guard Shence Army, but most of the soldiers were replaced by street beggars and vagrants.Tian Lingzi hastily protected Emperor Xizong from fleeing secretly from Ximen.When Xizong and his party fled to Fengxiang, Fengxiang Jiedu envoy Zheng Tian hoped that the emperor would use this place as a residence to organize the recovery of the capital.At this time, Emperor Xizong was like a frightened bird, and decided to follow Tian Lingzi to the south immediately to "Xingshu".

After a long and arduous journey, Emperor Xizong and his party arrived at Xingyuan (Zhengnanzheng, now East of Hanzhong City), and decided to take a rest here.This team fleeing in a hurry was short of food and clothing, and was destitute. Fortunately, Han Yin ordered Li Kang to organize mules to transport hundreds of grains, which really solved the stomach problem of Xi Zong and others.At this time, some civil and military officials who escaped from Chang'an also chased here one after another, and the fleeing court gradually regained some vitality.At this point, the imperial court thought that it should issue an imperial edict to the whole country, calling on the teachers of King Qin to work hard to recover Kyoto.After all, Xingyuan is a small place with no palaces, no luxurious construction equipment, and no bustling city. Emperor Xizong didn't want to live here for a long time. Dushi Niu Xu said that if Xingyuan could not persist, he was going to take refuge in Shu, and hoped that they would be ready to pick him up.Chen Jingxuan had already been prepared in thought and action, and when he got the news, he immediately sent 3,000 troops.In the first month of the first year of Zhonghe (881 A.D.), Emperor Xizong and his party arrived in Chengdu after more than a month of arduous trek. Chen Jingxuan's government office was temporarily used as a residence.However, the land of Shu is not peaceful.Guo Qi, the envoy of the Huangtou Army in Sichuan, was dissatisfied with the fact that the food and pay of the Shu army was too far from that of Emperor Xizong's subordinates. He complained a few words, but was given a glass of poisoned wine by Tian Lingzi. Qi knew she was in trouble, so she untied the sword and escaped.

When Li Xuan escaped from Chang'an, he did not tell all the officials that most of the officials below the prime minister were captured by the peasant army; Emperor Xizong ran to Dongcheng to avoid the Guo Qi rebellion, and no civil and military officials knew about it; since he entered Chengdu, any military affairs However, Tian Lingzi only convened cronies and eunuchs to discuss, and court officials had no right to participate.Xizong himself became Tian Lingzi's puppet completely.At this time, Xi Zong was nearly 20 years old, and he was increasingly dissatisfied with his situation and annoyed by Tian Lingzi's excessive power. They are at a loss as to how to change this situation and can only let the situation develop.

During Xizong's four years of avoiding the peasant army, the situation in the world has also undergone major changes.Before the Huangchao Uprising, the basic situation was still the long-standing separatism of the feudal towns. Although they did not obey the command of the central government, they could not openly contend with the imperial court. At least the emperor was still recognized as the co-lord, and they still needed to be recognized by the imperial court in name.During the Huangchao Uprising, Emperor Xizong fled, and the imperial court lost the last bit of prestige and appeal, and completely lost control of the local area.The leaders of feudal towns and military forces competed to expand their strength in the suppression of peasant uprisings, formed warlords, and started large-scale mergers.The feudal separatism in the late Tang Dynasty turned into a melee between warlords after the Huangchao uprising.The Li and Tang Dynasties have existed in name only, and their continuation in the future is just a transition into the period of Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms. Huang Chao withdrew from Chang'an in April 883.After many times of destruction by warlords from all walks of life, Chang'an was already dilapidated, so the small court of Emperor Xizong did not leave Chengdu immediately.Emperor Xizong appointed You Pushe and Wang Hui, who stayed behind in the Daming Palace, as Jing Zhaoyin, who was in charge of repairing the palace of the capital. At the same time, he recruited refugees to enrich the capital and prepare for the return of the imperial court.In the first month of the first year of Guangqi (885 A.D.), Emperor Xizong led the small court to leave Chengdu and returned to Chang'an in March, ending more than four years of exile.On the third day after returning to Beijing, Emperor Xizong announced that he would change the reign name to "Guangqi", hoping to restore the former Tang Empire and the former capital.However, the situation in the world has also changed greatly at this time. Except for Sichuan, Guangdong, Guangxi, and the Great Northwest, which have not yet formally formed a large-scale separatist regime, other areas have been divided up by warlords, or are still in endless competition. Chang'an, which can be controlled, is not peaceful. Due to the emptiness of the national treasury, only a few tenths of the country's tax tribute area, in order to maintain the expenditure of the imperial court and his own army, Tian Ziling wanted to take back the right to collect salt tax originally entrusted to Wang Chongrong, the governor of Hezhong.Wang Chongrong, who has been transformed into a warlord, started from his own interests and wrote many times to fight for the salt tax right.Tian Ziling appointed eunuchs to persuade Wang Chongrong repeatedly, but Wang Chongrong insisted on not giving in.Tian Lingzi used the name of the court to transfer Wang Chongrong to leave Hezhong. Wang Chongrong refused to accept it, and wrote a letter again, vigorously attacking Tian Lingzi's power and wronging the country, and pushing all the responsibility for the decline of the court since Emperor Xizong came to the throne to Tian Lingzi.Seeing that the edict could not play a role, Tian Lingzi decided to put all his eggs in one basket and use force to solve the problem. At that time, Li Keyong, the Jiedu envoy of Hedong, was competing with Zhu Quanzhong, the envoy of Xuanwu Jiedu.Zhu Mei and Li Changfu, the Jiedu envoys of Linning (Zhipingzhou, present-day Binxian County, Shaanxi Province) who were closer to Li Keyong, secretly attached themselves to Zhu Quanzhong.Taking advantage of this, Tian Lingzi wins over Zhu Mei and Li Changfu, asking them to deal with Wang Chongrong together, and promises to give benefits in the future.Zhu Mei and Li Changfu sent troops, and Tian Lingzi also sent some Shence troops to besiege Wang Chongrong together.Wang Chongrong asked Li Keyong for help. In order to relieve his worries, Li Keyong decided to help Wang Chongrong.The coalition forces besieged for more than a month, and Li Ke arrived with his troops.Tian Lingzi knew that he was invincible, so he took the initiative to make peace with Li Keyong.Li Keyong asked the court to kill Tian Lingzi as a condition for peace talks.The two sides fought, Zhu Mei and Li Changfu were defeated, and Li Ke used his troops to approach the city of Chang'an.On December 25th of the first year of Guangqi, Tian Lingzi once again protected Emperor Xizong and fled to Fengxiang.Li Keyong and Wang Chongrong sent people to invite Emperor Xizong to return to the palace, but they still demanded that Tian Lingzi be killed.Since Tian Lingzi was powerless to resist, he suggested that Emperor Xizong go to Xingyuan again and prepare to "lucky Shu" again.After more than ten years of being a puppet emperor, Emperor Xizong had long distrusted Tian Lingzi, and for the first time rejected Tian Lingzi's suggestion, saying that he would continue to stay in Fengxiang.Tian Lingzi was still unwilling to give up his control over Emperor Xizong. On the night of the eighth day of the first month of the second year of Guangqi, he led his troops to kidnap Li Xuan and forcibly left for Baoji.On March 17th, we arrived at Xingyuan again.During the period, Zhu Mei and others supported the establishment of a new court of imperial descent. Seeing that Xi Zong had little use value, and expressed his dissatisfaction with himself, accidents might happen at any time. Tian Lingzi wisely handed over the power of the court to Yang Fugong, and he turned to his elder brother Chen Jingxuan in Shu . In December of the second year of Guangqi, Zhu Mei was killed by the general Wang Xingyu, and the small court he supported died in eight months.The situation suddenly improved, and Emperor Xizong led his entourage to leave Xingyuan in March of the third year of Guangqi, preparing to return to the capital.After Tian Lingzi left, Yang Fugong took control of everything.The small imperial court in flight had no important political affairs, but as the situation improved, the intrigue and political competition intensified again.In order to consolidate his authoritarian position, Yang Fugong launched a large-scale campaign against dissidents. He killed or demoted Tian Lingzi's remaining party and officials who had expressed their support for Xiang Wang Li Rong, and all of them were eliminated, which made the political situation that had just eased tense again.Li Changfu, who was entrenched in Chang'an, was the first offender of King Yili Xiang. Although his fight with Zhu Mei was unsuccessful, he abandoned King Xiang in anger, rejoined Emperor Xizong, and made great contributions in the crusade against Zhu Mei, but he still couldn't help worrying about Yang Fugong's party and dissent. own future fate.Therefore, when the car arrived at Fengxiang, Li Changfu prevented Xizong and his party from entering Chang'an on the pretext that the capital was dilapidated and the palace still needed to be repaired. Although Yang Fugong was in power in the imperial court, he had no choice but to do anything about Li Changfu's behavior, so Emperor Xizong had to stay in Fengxiang temporarily.In June, Yang Shouli, godson of Yang Fugong and head of the Shence Army, had an argument with Li Changfu in the palace, causing soldiers from both sides to fight.Xizong mediated in his capacity as emperor, but both parties ignored it.Xi Zong was helpless, so he had to order the palace guards to strictly guard the gate, while he stayed in the palace and ignored it, allowing the situation to develop freely.The next day, Li Changfu's army set fire to Emperor Xizong's residence, and fought again with Yang Shouli's Shence Army.In the end Li Changfu failed, and Emperor Xizong settled down again.During the escape, the tablets of the ancestors of the Tang Dynasty were lost. Li Xuan felt that it was difficult to explain to his ancestors when he went back, so he decided to send people to Chang'an to restore the Taimiao and remake the tablets. The driver still stayed in Fengxiang temporarily. At the beginning of February in the first year of Wende (888 AD), Emperor Xizong fell ill.Because he was afraid of dying outside, he ordered the car to drive back to Chang'an quickly.Xizong's condition became more and more serious. Yang Fugong presided over and supported Xizong's seventh younger brother, Shouwang Li Ye, as the emperor's younger brother, temporarily ruling the court.On the sixth day of March, Li Xuan died at the age of 26 and was buried in Jingling in the same year.Li Xuan reigned for 15 years. His reign titles include Qianfu, Guangming, Zhonghe, Guangqi, and Wende. Xi Zong".