Chapter 51 Everywhere

On March 12th, the second year after Huangchao was pacified, Xizong Li Xuan finally returned from Chengdu to Chang'an, where he had been away for more than four years. After several years of ruthless looting by swordsmen and wars, the Great Tang Imperial Capital has already become a dilapidated and desolate dead city, with weeds and thorns growing everywhere, and foxes and hares can be seen everywhere. Li Xuan, who survived the catastrophe, stood in the Daming Palace with a sad expression, feeling as if everything had passed away. On the 14th, Xizong changed the Yuan to "Guangqi".

From this reign title, it is not difficult to see that Emperor Xizong Li Xuan hoped that the empire could get rid of all darkness, humiliation and misfortune, and be able to reopen happiness and light. However, this is just his wishful thinking and beautiful fantasy after all. Because, at this time, the Great Tang Empire had already been disintegrated and completely changed beyond recognition. In the first year of Guangqi (885 A.D.), Zhu Quanzhong was in Xuanwu (Bian and Song states), Li Keyong was in Hedong (Taiyuan, Xin, and Dai states), Qin Zongquan was in Caizhou, and Wang Chongrong was in Hezhong (Pu and Jin states). ), Li Keju according to Lulong (you and Ji states), Wang Rong according to Chengde, Shi Pu according to Wuning (Xu and Si states), Gao Pian according to Huainan eight states, Liu Hanhong according to Zhedong (Yue prefectures); , Xing, Ming, Yun, Qi, Cao, Pu, Zi, Qing, Xuan, She and other prefectures also had large and small warlords supporting troops to separatist regimes.

In such a situation where there are heroes everywhere, only Hexi (west of the Yellow River, now northern Shaanxi), Shannan (south of the Qinling Mountains, now southern Shaanxi and northeastern Sichuan), and Jiannan (south of Jiange) are left as far as Li and Tang central government orders are concerned. , today's south-central Sichuan), Lingnan (today's Guangdong, Guangxi, Hainan and northern Vietnam), there are only dozens of states. The warlords of all parties ceded their territories and withheld wealth, which completely cut off the water transportation between the two rivers and the Jianghuai River, and the taxes and taxes from various places could not be delivered to the imperial court.Since the fall of Chang'an, the three financial divisions (Household Department, Duzhi, and Yantie) of the Li and Tang Central Committees have existed in name only. The treasury was drying up day by day, and even the imperial expenditure and the salaries of hundreds of officials could no longer be maintained, not to mention the soldiers' salaries and various rewards.

Such a bleak situation not only worried the emperor Li Xuan, but also worried the controller behind the scenes of Li Tang's court. This person is the great eunuch Tian Lingzi. Since Emperor Xizong ascended the throne, Tian Lingzi became a privy envoy from a small mafang envoy, and was immediately promoted to a lieutenant of the right army, and soon he was promoted to a lieutenant of the left army, completely controlling the imperial army, and squeezed out Liu Xingshen and Han Wenyue, the former lieutenants of the left and right. without a trace.After occupying the center, Tian Lingzi, who is extremely politically ambitious, did not stop there.Because he knew very well that without the backing and foundation of the vassal forces, his power in the court would always be unstable. Moreover, the Kanto rebellion was becoming more and more rampant, and the situation was getting more and more serious, so it was even more necessary to take precautions.Therefore, long before Huang Chao invaded Chang'an, Tian Lingzi had presciently appointed his three confidants as Sanchuan Jiedushi.Chen Jingxuan occupied Xichuan, Yang Shili occupied Dongchuan, and Niu Xu occupied Shannan West Road.And the leader, Chen Jingxuan, is Tian Lingzi's elder brother (Tian Lingzi's real name is Chen Zhongze, after entering the palace, he joined the eunuch named Tian and changed his surname to Tian).

After Emperor Xizong went into exile in Xichuan, Tian Lingzi held the emperor and the entire imperial court in exile tightly in his hands.Since the imperial army had already collapsed when Chang'an fell, Tian Lingzi recruited 54,000 people in Shu and reorganized the Left and Right Shence Army.This new forbidden army was nominally to protect the emperor and the court in exile, but in fact it was Tian Lingzi's guards.With this armed force, Tian Lingzi is even more confident. However, the salaries, food, weapons, armor, clothing and various materials needed by more than 50,000 people undoubtedly constituted a huge military expenditure.When Tian Lingzi brought this army back to Chang'an with Emperor Xizong, the cruel reality suddenly appeared in front of him-the central finance, which had already been depleted, could not support this army at all.

Soldiers who could not receive their military pay began to complain continuously.Tian Lingzi was very anxious.If there is no way to get money, mutiny may break out at any time. Finally, Tian Lingzi finally thought of a source of income, that is, the income from Yanchi in Anyi and Jie County. Anyi (now Anyi Town in the northeast of Yuncheng City, Shanxi Province) and Hejie County (now Xiezhou Town in the southwest of Yuncheng City) were the two largest salt-producing areas at that time, and they were always under the jurisdiction of the salt and iron envoys of the imperial court. The profits from their salt monopoly The income is directly handed over to the central treasury.But since the fall of Chang'an in the first year of Guangming and the exile of the emperor, these two big salt ponds fell into the hands of Wang Chongrong, the Jiedu envoy in Hezhong.Wang Chongrong only sent 3,000 carts of salt to the central government every year as a symbol, and most of the profits fell into his personal pocket.Tian Lingzi decided to take back these two golden mountains.

In April of this year, at the behest of Tian Lingzi, Emperor Xizong issued an edict to let him concurrently serve as the Envoy of Liangchiyan.Wang Chongrong was cut off from his source of income, so he immediately jumped up and kept protesting.In May, Tian Lingzi ordered Yizong to issue an edict to transfer Wang Chongrong to Taining (where the government is located in Yanzhou City, Shandong Province today).Of course, Wang Chongrong was furious, so he refused to obey the edict, and kept attacking Tian Lingzi in the memorial, and listed Tian Lingzi's ten crimes in the memorial. Seeing that the conflict was about to break out, Tian Lingzi hurriedly contacted Zhu Mei and Li Changfu, the Jiedu Envoy of Jingnan (Zhisuo Binzhou, now Binxian County, Shaanxi Province), and planned to join forces with them to deal with Wang Chongrong.Wang Chongrong immediately asked Li Keyong for help.Because Zhu Mei and Li Changfu were secretly attached to Zhu Quanzhong, they were naturally regarded as enemies by Li Keyong, so Li Keyong formed an alliance with Wang Chongrong.In November, Li Ke used the above table to ask Emperor Xizong to kill Tian Lingzi, Zhu Mei and Li Changfu.Of course Xi Zong would not agree, but ordered them to reconcile.But things have developed to this point, and the emperor's mud is useless.In December, the two sides fought in Tongzhou area. Li Changfu and Zhu Mei were defeated by Li Keyong and fled back to the town in a hurry.Li Ke led his troops straight to the capital.

In desperation, Tian Lingzi had no choice but to hold Xizong hostage, escaped from Chang'an through Kaiyuanmen, and fled to Fengxiang again. Less than a year after returning to Chang'an, Xizong Li Xuan was forced to start his second exile. In the first month of the second year of Guangqi (886 AD), Tian Lingzi wanted to force Xizong to go to Xingyuan again, but Xizong refused.That night, Tian Lingzi led the army into the Fengxiang Palace and forcibly took Emperor Xizong to Baoji (now Shaanxi). After the battle in Tongzhou, Zhu Mei and Li Changfu discovered that Li Keyong and Wang Chongrong were far more powerful than they had imagined, and Tian Lingzi had nothing in his hands except the bargaining chip of the emperor, so he turned to Wang Chongrong and fought with him. Please kill Tian Lingzi on the table together.

Tian Lingzi was worried that Zhu Mei and others would send troops to come, so he did not dare to stay longer in Baoji, so he hijacked Emperor Xizong and went to Xingyuan in late February, and his final destination was of course Xichuan, his old lair. Knowing that Tian Lingzi hijacked the emperor and ran away, Zhu Mei and Li Changfu immediately sent troops to pursue. The journey from Baoji to Xingyuan was extremely difficult for Xi Zong and his party.Not only is the road rough and difficult, but soldiers and horses are chasing and intercepting them at any time.In the middle of March, Emperor Xizong and his party finally arrived in Xingyuan after going through all kinds of difficulties and dangers.

Zhu Mei was very annoyed that she didn't rob Emperor Xizong, so she had a plan. His idea is very bold, but very simple, that is, to find a puppet and establish another court. On the third day of April of this year, Zhu Mei coerced hundreds of officials to support Suzong's great-great-grandson and Xiang Wang Li Wei to supervise the state affairs, and at the same time claimed to be the envoy of the Tenth Army of Left and Right Shence. Xi Zong was forced to go to Xingyuan, and he refused to follow Tian Lingzi into Shu.After thinking about it, Tian Lingzi decided to abandon Emperor Xizong in order to protect himself.Afterwards, he took the initiative to recommend Yang Fugong to Emperor Xizong to succeed him as the lieutenant of the Zuo Army, and at the same time he declared himself the supervisor of Xichuan Army, and fled to Xichuan immediately.

In May, Zhu Mei named herself a servant and an envoy for transporting salt and iron. At the same time, she ordered all officials to specialize in power. Li Changfu was very unbalanced, and he was resolutely unwilling to accept Zhu Mei's new official position, and submitted a letter to Xizong who was stationed in Xingyuan, intending to take over the card that Tian Lingzi had discarded, so as to compete with Zhu Mei. At the same time, Li Keyong and Wang Chongrong were also furious. They originally expelled Tian Lingzi, but now Zhu Mei not only stole the power of the court, but also became Tian Lingzi's second. This made them unacceptable anyway, so they made a petition to Emperor Xizong, determined to attack Zhu Mei. In October, Zhu Mei couldn't wait to support Li Yun as the emperor, changed the Yuan to "Jianzhen", and respected Emperor Xizong as the Supreme Emperor.When Xi Zong, who was far away in Xingyuan, got the news, he couldn't help being inexplicably sad and indignant, but he couldn't do anything, so he had to ask Yang Fugong for advice.Yang Fugong then issued an appeal to Guanzhong in the name of Emperor Xizong, declaring that anyone who could behead Zhu Mei would be rewarded with the title of envoy. It worked.Before Li Keyong and Wang Chongrong sent troops, Zhu Mei's general Wang Xingyu beheaded Zhu Mei. As soon as Zhu Mei died, more than 200 civil and military officials attached to him had no choice but to flee to Hezhong (now Yongji City, Shanxi) with the newly established emperor Li Wei.But this group of headless flies simply ran in the wrong direction.Because this is Wang Chongrong's territory, running here is like flying moths to a flame.Wang Chongrong welcomed them into the city with a smile on his face, and then he raised his knife and cut off Li Yun's head, killed more than a hundred ministers at the same time, and imprisoned all the rest. In the middle of March in the third year of Guangqi (887 A.D.), Emperor Xizong Li Xuan returned to Fengxiang from Xingyuan. Li Changfu, the envoy of Fengxiang Jiedu, originally wanted to follow Tian Lingzi and Zhu Mei's example of "holding the emperor to command the princes". Now that Emperor Xizong himself sent him to his door, he certainly would not let him slip away from his grasp. Later, Li Changfu forcibly detained Xi Zong in Fengxiang on the grounds that the Chang'an palace was deserted. This year, Emperor Xizong Li Xuan was only twenty-six years old.But when he looked back on his short twenty-odd years of life, he felt as if several lifetimes had passed. During his stay in Fengxiang, whenever Xi Zong recalled the absurd and extravagant youth, and thought of the past few years of life in exile, he could not help but shed tears... In the spring of the second year of staying in Fengxiang, Xizong Li Xuan, who was depressed all day long, finally fell ill. Li Changfu realized that it was not only meaningless to detain the sick emperor again, but it would also be an excuse for others to launch a crusade, so he released Emperor Xizong. On February 21, Xi Zong returned to Chang'an again with a heavy illness, and issued an edict the next day to change the name to "Wen De". On the second day of March, Xi Zong's illness broke out; on the fifth day, his condition worsened and he fell into a dying state.Yang Fugong, the lieutenant of Zuojun, immediately issued an edict in the name of the emperor, supporting the longevity king Li Jie (the seventh son of Yizong) as the emperor's younger brother to supervise the state affairs. On the sixth day of March in the first year of Wende (888 A.D.), Emperor Xizong Li Xuan died in the Hall of Spiritual Talismans.On the same day, Li Jie, the emperor's eldest brother, ascended the throne and changed his name to Li Min, and the next year he changed his name to Li Ye, which was Tang Zhaozong.