Chapter 14 Chaos in Chang'an——If I were Qing Emperor in other years, retribution and peach blossoms will bloom together

Frustration and Killing Like chrysanthemums, he turned his back on the Tang Empire, which admired peonies. He almost overthrew Datang and established an empire that admired chrysanthemums, although this empire was not as durable as chrysanthemums, but as short-lived as epiphyllum. The long river and the cold moon are like the old days.Turning over the page of the prosperity of the Tang Dynasty, looking back, there will be a sad feeling of the brocade turning to ashes. In 755 AD, the Anshi Rebellion broke out.The Tang dynasty was on the verge of decline.In April 762, Li Longji, Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty, died in solitude. One year later, the Anshi Rebellion, which lasted for eight years, also came to an end.

The prosperous age has passed away, and the whole empire is shrouded in bitter wind and bitter rain.The nightmare did not end there. Although An Lushan disappeared, the separatism of the feudal town intensified.In the later period of Tang Xuanzong's reign, the power of local Jiedushi became more and more powerful.After the Anshi Rebellion, the power of the vassals and towns not only did not disappear, but grew stronger day by day, and the self-respecting Jiedushi did not see the imperial court at all. The mountains and rivers are swaying in the wind and rain. In the era when Wei Zhuang lived, the prosperous Tang Dynasty was too prosperous and was about to perish.First, when he entered Beijing to take the exam, Huang Chao raised troops and invaded Chang'an.The already troubled city of Chang'an was ransacked again.Although military conflicts have become commonplace after the Anshi Rebellion, military conflicts have become commonplace, but Huang Chao's military rebellion is undoubtedly the most fatal blow.Once the capital is captured, it will be like a sharp knife piercing into the heart of the empire. From the emperor to the people, they will feel the fear of the sky falling and the earth falling.

The cause of this turmoil stretches far and wide, and since the Kaiyuan prosperity, it is really hard to describe it in one word.Pessimistically and short-sightedly, it stems from a failed imperial examination. Huang Chao wrote the last poem, which was arrogant: When autumn comes and September 8th, I will kill all the flowers after they bloom. The fragrance of the sky penetrates Chang'an, and the whole city is covered with golden armor. I was really angry at the crown, but it was not because of the beauty, but because the bird court was too disrespectful to me.The most common failures are those who feel sad about their bad luck, feel ashamed of their talents, and feel ashamed of seeing their relatives and elders. You can't see it at all in this song "Fu Ju after Bu Di Hou".There are only soaring arrogance, murderous aura rushing towards the face, and hostility that will never give up if you don't hold total power.

If it is said that poetry expresses ambition, Huang Chao's ambition is undoubtedly astonishingly lofty.This restlessness may be related to his family background of selling illegal salt.Many heroes in troubled times do not follow the right path in their backgrounds and experiences, and their swords are slanted. Huang Chao is not an ordinary low-ranking talented scholar, a frustrated scholar.Once this kind of ambitious person loses the enthusiasm for improvement and gentle healing of the existing country, he will choose to take risks and not be afraid of becoming a traitor or a traitor, unlike many pure and good literati who retreat or persevere and insist on being named in the gold list. I am more willing to take violent ways to overthrow and rebuild, and vent my inner disappointment and resentment with thorough resistance.He wasn't just curled up in a corner, licking his wounds and crying softly.

For an ambitious person, troubled times are the breeding ground for thriving.The serious social contradictions in the late Tang Dynasty provided Huang Chao with an opportunity to display his ambitions.Natural disasters and man-made disasters every year, land annexation and Nanzhao Kingdom's fifteen-year war accumulated public grievances, all of which gave people the courage and reasons to rise up. When people realize that the glorious era has passed, the darkness will inevitably come, and it will be a long time that cannot be waited for. , You can talk carefree, visit friends, and return home on the moon.

Although life is like an adversary, there are not many bright days, but when the days are getting worse day by day, people will miss the little details of past happiness more and more vigorously.Chewing the warmth of these tiny stamens, the sweet fragrance it emits can make people continue to live with melancholy. The past time has become enchanting and plump because of the distance. The distance will repair the details for us, and the time will heal our wounds mercifully. The best time will always stay in memory, not the present.But now it follows us like a shadow, everywhere, and it engulfs us.

Smoldering despair makes people agitated, longing for a hero.This person will be the first to shout out the backlog of dissatisfaction in his heart. He knows where the desires in everyone's hearts are hidden and ready to move. He knows what kind of power the seemingly weak desires will have when gathered together. He is good at luring them out to make trouble and call on everyone. Rebel together. The heart of a hero is like a colorful butterfly, wanting to take advantage of the east wind of the civil uprising to break out of its cocoon.Although that person's personal purpose may not be pure, there is only one public slogan for every uprising and riot, change the status quo!

Huang Chao is such a hero in troubled times.He is not lofty and unconventional like a chrysanthemum, and he doesn't have the slightest intention of recluse, but he can stand the frost and sharpen like a chrysanthemum.Huang Chao loved chrysanthemums all his life, and he wrote several popular poems about chrysanthemums.He complained about the chrysanthemums: the westerly wind is blowing and the yard is full of plants, but the stamens are cold and fragrant, and the butterflies are hard to come.If I were Qing Emperor in other years, the retribution and peach blossoms will bloom together. In his view, chrysanthemums are not only independent of the cold autumn, but should also take full advantage of spring.

Regardless of whether chrysanthemums are worthy of competing with peach blossoms, each flower is in everyone's eyes, and Huang Chao's argument has obvious personal preferences.His chrysanthemum poems provided creative inspiration for famous contemporary directors, although what he finally made was a court romance film with empty content and only color impact. Like chrysanthemums, he turned his back on the Tang Empire, which admired peonies. He almost overthrew the Tang Dynasty and established an empire that admired chrysanthemums.He was like a fire that soared into the sky, burning vigorously until he was turned into ashes.

After his curtain call and his departure, the bloody curtain of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms has slowly opened. There is such a famous poem: In the past, I used to travel to Wuling, and the midnight song was full of the moon. The front of the silver candle tree grows like daytime, and the dew peach blossoms do not know autumn. The son of Xiyuan is named Wuji, and the beauty of Nanguo is named Mochou. Today's chaos and separation are all dreams, and the setting sun can only see water flowing eastward! ——"Recalling the Past" Wei Zhuang During the turmoil when Huang Chao captured Chang'an, there was another scholar, Wei Zhuang, whose official career was affected and his fate was also changed by this twists and turns.In the face of the catastrophe, Emperor Xizong of Tang Dynasty, like Emperor Xuanzong of Tang Dynasty one hundred and twenty years ago, went all the way west and fled into exile in Shu.The emperor abandoned his capital to avoid disaster, and the city of Chang'an was in chaos. Naturally, the imperial examinations that he had prepared were impossible to talk about.Caught in the chaos of war, Wei Zhuang survived by luck.A few years later, he was able to escape and fled to Luoyang.

He can't resent the monarch's desertion and lose his reputation, just like a contestant who can't accuse the referee of leaving the field for some reason. What he has more reason to resent is the perpetrator who rushed in to make trouble and make the game impossible to proceed normally. Huang Chao is such a perpetrator.What's more, being trapped in an isolated city, what Wei Zhuang saw was the atrocities of these so-called rebels, even under the banner of "equalizing the rich and the poor, equaling the noble and the humble".The uprisings in the past dynasties in China were also less noble, more joined in the fun, and more passionate crimes, and they rose up out of a sense of loyalty for a while.There is spontaneity, but not much self-awareness. After several years of fighting, the time came to 881 A.D., and the scholar who had fallen in the past got his wish and seized the supreme power.Huang Chao proclaimed himself emperor in the Hanyuan Hall and pardoned the world.It is a pity that the new emperor's pardon cannot stop the rampant bloody storm. The situation has long been out of control, and the cruel, greedy, ignorant and short-sighted true colors exposed by the Peasant Army after their success are the same as those they tried to resist.Huang Chaojun is by no means a teacher of benevolence and righteousness who has committed no crimes.In the isolated city, these irrational people burned, killed, looted and committed all kinds of crimes.They are as bad as rogue robbers, murderers, rapists, or worse! Wei Zhuang couldn't believe their slogan of doing justice for the sky, it was used to fool the world.If these people gathered together to overthrow those who oppressed them, now they oppress the good and poison the innocent, just like those people.Justice has left them, and the souls of these people have been corrupted by the devil. Their arrival is not salvation, but destruction and destruction. The peaceful life that the miserable people had tried to maintain was cruelly broken, making them even more miserable and helpless.