Chapter 85 176 The end of the Tang Dynasty

After Huang Chao's uprising failed, Tang Xizong returned to Chang'an.At this time, the central government of the Tang Dynasty had existed in name only.In the process of suppressing the uprising, the vassals and towns in various places expanded their power and competed for territory, becoming large and small separatist forces.Among them, the most powerful were Li Keyong, the Jiedu envoy of Hedong, and Zhu Wen, the Jiedu envoy of Xuanwu (where the government is located in today's Kaifeng, Henan).Zhu Wen was born in a poor family and had been idle since he was a child. He had three brothers, and he was the most vicious and treacherous.After the Huang Chao uprising, he joined the uprising army and was reused by Huang Chao.

At the critical moment of the rebel army, he led the troops to rebel and defected to the Tang Dynasty, which was of great help to the Tang Dynasty.Emperor Xizong of Tang Dynasty gave him a high official salary, and also gave him the name "Quan Zhong", and sent him to suppress the rebel army. When Huang Chao retreated from Chang'an to Henan, his troops were still strong. Once, when Huang Chao's army attacked Bianzhou, Zhu Wen asked Li Keyong for help.Li Keyong defeated the rebel army and returned to Bianzhou.Zhu Wen pretended to be courteous and entertained, and held a big banquet. When Li Keyong was drunk, he sent troops to surround the post house, trying to kill Li Keyong.Li Ke used his own soldiers to rescue him desperately before he broke through and escaped.Since then, Li Keyong has had a feud with Zhu Wen.The two separatist forces have been attacking each other.Zhu Wen's power is growing, and Li Keyong can only keep the Hedong area.

After Tang Xizong died of illness, his younger brother Tang Zhaozong Li Ye (sound ye) tried to rely on courtiers to oppose eunuchs, but failed again and again.Later, the eunuch put Tang Zhaozong under house arrest and established a new emperor. This incident gave the ambitious Zhu Wen a good chance.Zhu Wen sent his cronies to sneak into Chang'an and plan secretly with Prime Minister Cui Yin.With Zhu Quanzhong as the background, Cui Yin became more courageous, so he sent troops to kill Liu Jishu, the head of the eunuch, to welcome Tang Zhaozong's restoration. Tang Zhaozong and Cui Yin also wanted to kill all the eunuchs, and some eunuchs took refuge in another feudal town, Fengxiang Jiedu Li Maozhen, and hijacked Tang Zhaozong to Fengxiang.

Cui Yin asked Zhu Wen for help, and Zhu Wen led troops to attack Fengxiang, demanding that Li Maozhen surrender Tang Zhaozong.Li Maozhen's troops were no match for Zhu Wen's, and he was defeated repeatedly.Zhu Wen's army surrounded Fengxiang City. In the end, the food in the city ran out, and it was snowing heavily. Soldiers and people starved to death and froze to death.Li Maozhen was besieged in an isolated city with no way out, so she had to surrender. Zhu Wen captured Fengxiang, snatched Tang Zhaozong, and brought him back to Chang'an.Since then, the power of the Tang Dynasty has been transferred from the hands of eunuchs to Zhu Wen, and Tang Zhaozong's life is even more difficult.

Zhu Wen took power, killed all the eunuchs, and hijacked Tang Zhaozong to move his capital to Luoyang.When leaving Chang'an, Zhu Wen sent people to demolish all the palaces, government offices and private houses in Chang'an, transport the materials to Luoyang, and forced the officials and people in Chang'an to move to Luoyang together.The people in Chang'an helped the elderly and dragged the children, and they were driven by soldiers.Along the way, everyone wept and scolded Zhu Wen, the traitor who brought disaster to the country and the people. When Tang Zhaozong arrived in Luoyang, he also wanted to secretly call various feudal towns to rescue him.But before he expected it, Zhu Wen had already killed Tang Zhaozong, and set up another thirteen-year-old child as a puppet, Emperor Zhaoxuan.

The eunuchs are gone, the emperor is also gone, and there are still a group of ministers from the Tang Dynasty left.Zhu Wen's advisers said to Zhu Wen: "If you want to do great things, this group of people is the most difficult to deal with. It is better to drive them all away." There was a counselor Li Zhen, nicknamed Owl, who hated courtiers even more because he failed the Jinshi examination.He told Zhu Wen: "This group of people usually pretends to be noble and calls themselves 'Qingliu'. They should be thrown into the turbid stream (referring to the Yellow River)." More than a dozen courtiers gathered and killed them and threw them into the Yellow River.

In 907 A.D., Zhu Wen abolished Emperor Zhaoxuan of Tang Dynasty, established himself as emperor, changed the name of the country to Liang, and established the capital in Bian (now Kaifeng, Henan).The traitor Zhu Wen became Liang Taizu.The Tang Dynasty, which had ruled for nearly three hundred years, came to an end.