Chapter 56 There is no direction on the road of exile

In the first month of the first year of Tianfu (901 A.D.), Zhu Quanzhong burst out his army and captured Jiangzhou and Jinzhou in Hedong in one fell swoop, strangling the throats of Hedong and Hezhong, and then the army went straight to the river. Hezhong Jiedu made Wang Ke know that he was not Zhu Quanzhong's opponent at all, so he hurriedly sent an urgent letter of distress to Li Keyong. In the letter, his wife asked Li Keyong: "My daughter may be captured by the enemy at any time, why is my father sitting idly by? Li Keyong replied helplessly: "The enemy army is guarding Jin and Jiang, and our army is outnumbered. If I insist on sending troops, I will perish together with you. Tell Wang Lang, if you really can't stick to it, it is better for the whole family to submit to the court."

It was only at this point that the daughter and son-in-law were allowed to submit to the imperial court. Obviously, it was just an illusory comfort that was better than nothing. In February, Wang Ke, who was beaten helplessly, had to surrender to Zhu Quanzhong.Zhu Quanzhong then moved Wang Ke's family to Daliang, and soon killed him.In March, Zhu Quanzhong sent 50,000 troops led by his general Shi Shucong to leave the Taihang Mountains from Tianjingguan. From Xinkou (now west of Wu'an City, Hebei), Tumen (southwest of today's Luquan City, Hebei), Maling (northwest of Xingtai City, Hebei today), Feihu (now Laiyuan County, Hebei), Yindi (southwest of Lingshi County, Shanxi today) Waiting for the direction to set off, the troops were divided into six groups, and launched a general attack on Li Keyong.

Afterwards, Shi Shucong attacked the city all the way, forced many generals in Hedong to surrender with invincible force, and came to Taiyuan city at the end of March. So far, Li Keyong has no way out, and can only fight with his back.In the days that followed, Li Keyong resolutely left the commander's mansion and went to the city to organize the defense himself.At that time, it was raining heavily, which lasted for dozens of days, and the city wall collapsed after being soaked by rain.Li Keyong ordered the soldiers to follow the collapse and build. They were in a state of undress for many days, and they didn't even have time to eat and drink.

At the critical moment in Taiyuan, God saved Li Keyong's life. Because of Uncle Shi's eagerness to advance, his troops fought hard for many days, and his body was already extremely weak. In addition to the heavy rain for days, many soldiers were infected with malaria, and their combat effectiveness was greatly weakened.In addition, because the front was stretched too long and the supply line was blocked by heavy rain, food and grass were no longer available.Under such circumstances, Zhu Quanzhong had no choice but to issue an order to Shi Shucong to withdraw his troops. Li Keyong escaped unharmed.

However, after this severe injury, Li Keyong has been seriously injured.In the next few years, he could only shrink the battle line, recuperate, and no longer dared to confront Zhu Quanzhong directly, let alone compete with him in the world. After occupying Hezhong, Zhu Quanzhong restrained Hedong to the north and threatened Guanzhong to the south. His power was unprecedentedly strong, and no one in the world could match him. At this point, Zhu Quanzhong's ambition to win the world has been clearly revealed.Next, he naturally aimed his eyes at Guanzhong, Chang'an, and the emperor Li Ye who had melancholy eyes and a terrified expression in Daming Palace.At the same time, the struggle between Prime Minister Cui Yin and eunuch Han Quanhui has also entered a white-hot state.

Because of Cui Yin's power in the court, Han Quanhui and others worried that they would not be able to fight against him, so they secretly contacted Li Maozhen and planned to hijack Zhaozong to Fengxiang.But Cui Yin expected that the eunuchs must have this plan, and hurriedly wrote to Zhu Quanzhong, claiming that he had received a secret edict from the emperor and ordered him to send troops to Beijing to protect the emperor.Zhu Quanzhong originally wanted to rob Zhaozong to Luoyang and put it under his own control. After seeing the letter, he was in the middle of his heart, so he sent troops from Daliang in October of this year and drove directly to Chang'an.

On October 19th, Han Quanhui and others learned that Zhu Quanzhong had dispatched troops, and immediately led them into the palace, coercing Zhaozong to go west with them to Fengxiang.Emperor Zhaozong was inexplicably sad, and he secretly gave a letter to Cui Yin. The last sentence said: "I have a great plan for the clan, and I must go west. You are waiting for me, but I will go east. Melancholy! Melancholy!" (262) On the fourth day of November in the first year of Tianfu, Han Quanhui said to Emperor Zhaozong in front of Chen Bingdian: "Zhu Quanzhong's army is approaching the capital, intending to hijack your majesty to Luoyang in an attempt to usurp the throne. We invite your majesty to come to Fengxiang and gather Qin Wang's troops to resist together." Zhaozong said He refused to leave, so Han Quanhui ordered people to set fire to the palace.Zhaozong had no choice but to board the carriage leaving Beijing with the queen, concubines, and kings, a total of more than a hundred people.

On that day, the emperor burst into tears.All the people in the same company burst into tears. After walking far away from the palace gate, Emperor Li Ye couldn't help but look back again—the raging fire was burning crazily, reflecting the sky above Daming Palace red. At that moment, Li Ye felt that another fire was burning deep in his soul. Many things have been wiped out in this invisible fire.Such as courage, pride, dreams, such as confidence, hope, sense of mission...all of these are turned into wisps of smoke, drifting in the cold winter wind. After Zhu Quanzhong's army entered the pass from the middle of the river, they first forced Huazhou to land Han Jian, and then attacked Binzhou, forcing Li Jihui, the governor of Jingnan, to surrender, as if entering a land without people.

After receiving the news, Li Maozhen and Han Quanhui were terrified, and hurriedly passed on the emperor's edict to call Li Keyong to enter the pass.Li Ke immediately sent troops to attack Zhu Quanzhong's rear.Zhu Quanzhong hurried back to Zhenhezhong. In April of the second year of Tianfu (902 A.D.), Cui Yin went to Hezhong and begged Zhu Quanzhong to crusade against Li Maozhen and rescue the emperor.In May, Zhu Quanzhong dispatched 50,000 elite soldiers to enter the pass again and attack Fengxiang.On the tenth day of June, Li Maozhen sent troops to fight Zhu Quanzhong in the north of Guo County. As a result, Li Maozhen was defeated and more than 10,000 people were killed.On the thirteenth, Zhu Quanzhong entered Fengxiang.

From June to November of this year, other prefectures and counties under Li Maozhen's jurisdiction were successively occupied by Zhu Quanzhong, and Fengxiang became an isolated city.In those days, Zhu Quanzhong's soldiers beat drums and clamored every day under Fengxiang City, calling the defenders "robbers of the emperor", while the Fengxiang soldiers on the city called the attackers "robbers of the emperor". Fengxiang was trapped for a long time, the food was exhausted, and the weather was extremely cold this year, countless people in the city starved to death and froze.Often a person has just fallen to the ground, and before he dies, the flesh on his body is cut off.Human meat is sold openly in the market at a price of 100 renminbi per catty, while dog meat is priced at 500 renminbi.As the days went by, even Li Maozhen's own savings were exhausted.Li Ye, Emperor Zhaozong, could only take his and the little prince's clothes to the market and sell them in exchange for a little food.The princess and concubines drank porridge every day, not only did they have a last meal, but even the last bit of food was about to run out...

In the first month of the third year of Tianfu (903 A.D.), Li Maozhen could no longer support him, so he had to kill Han Quanhui, Zhang Yanhong and other eunuchs, surrender to Zhu Quanzhong, and release him to the emperor at the same time.After Zhu Quanzhong entered the city, he slaughtered all the eunuchs, a total of 72 people; in addition, he secretly sent people to hunt down all the eunuchs near Gyeonggi who had resigned and retired, and killed another 90 people. On the twenty-seventh day of the first lunar month, Emperor Zhaozong returned to Chang'an.This is his third return from exile.Zhaozong secretly prayed in his heart, hoping that this would be the last time. Sadly, however - it won't be the last time. A year later, Zhaozong will be forced to leave Chang'an for the fourth time and embark on the road of exile.And this time, he never came back. After Emperor Zhaozong returned to Beijing, Cui Yin immediately played, demanding that the eunuchs be killed.Zhaozong agreed.On the twenty-eighth day of the first lunar month, Zhu Quanzhong carried out a massacre in the Daming Palace. Hundreds of eunuchs were killed in one day, and the wailing of injustice resounded inside and outside the palace.Afterwards, those supervising troops who were ordered to go to the feudal towns were also arrested and killed on the spot. After the massacre, there were only thirty small yellow gates left in the palace for sweeping. Soon, the Left and Right Shence Army merged into the Sixth Army, all of which were under the command of Prime Minister Cui Yin. The era of eunuchs is over. After the Anshi Rebellion, the "eunuch chaos" that had plagued the empire for more than 150 years finally came to an end.In the Daming Palace, those white-faced and beardless people who hold the power of life, death, abolition and establishment are no longer seen.However, at this moment, the Tang Empire is not far from the end of its destruction... In February of the third year of Tianfu, Emperor Zhaozong issued an edict, bestowing on Zhu Quanzhong the title of "returning to the heavens and rebuilding to be a loyal and righteous hero". Zhu Quanzhong ordered his confidant generals Zhu Youlun and Zhu Youliang to stay in the capital with 10,000 cavalry, and then return to Daliang.In the following days, Zhu Quanzhong launched the final annexation war against the remnant forces in the east (Ziqing Town), successively conquering Bochang (now Boxing County, Shandong), Linzi, Dengzhou (now Penglai City, Shandong) and other places, Then enter Qingzhou. In September, Ziqing Jiedu envoy Wang Shifan surrendered. So far, all the north and south of Dahe River have been included in Zhu Quanzhong's bag. Next, should it be Zhu Quanzhong's turn to coerce the emperor to order the princes? Yes.But before that, Zhu Quanzhong had to get rid of one person first. This person is his most powerful ally over the years—Prime Minister Cui Yin. Since the eradication of the eunuch group, Cui Yin has mastered the military and political power of the imperial court, and has the power to overwhelm the sky. Not only the advancement and retreat of all officials depends on his likes and dislikes, but even the emperor's every move must be reported to him.In May of the third year of Tianfu, Cui Yin asked the emperor to recruit soldiers and expand the army on the grounds that the imperial army was seriously insufficient.The superficial reason for his doing this was of course to protect the court and the emperor, but in fact it was to cultivate and consolidate his personal power. All of this, of course, did not escape the eyes of Zhu Quanzhong who was far away in Bianzhou. Zhu Quanzhong realized that this guy who was getting bigger and bigger in the court was no longer his ally.In other words, he has lost his use value.The reason is very simple. At the beginning when Zhu Quanzhong made friends with Cui Yin, his purpose was to let him serve as an internal response in the court, and to spy on the emperor and the court at any time. But now, Chang'an has already stationed his own army, and the emperor is completely in his own hands. Under control, what's the use of keeping this Cui Yin? Keeping him is tantamount to keeping a stumbling block. In the first month of the fourth year of Tianfu (904 A.D.), Zhu Quanzhong secretly played the emperor, accusing Cui Yin of arrogating power and disorderly government, and alienating the monarch and ministers. Then he ordered his confidant general Zhu Youliang to kill Cui Yin. In the end, Zhu Quanzhong was about to "take the emperor to order the princes". On the 13th day of the first lunar month, Zhu Quanzhong stationed troops in Hezhong and forced Emperor Zhaozong to move his capital to Luoyang.On the 22nd, the move to move the capital began, and the Bianzhou army forcibly drove the civilians and officials in Chang'an City to the road, and they were not allowed to stay for a moment.Thousands of people helped the old and the young, wailing and crying all the way.On the 26th, Zhu Quanzhong ordered the army to demolish all the palaces, houses and all buildings in Chang'an City, and throw all the demolished wood into the Wei River. The peerless and prosperous imperial capital Chang'an has since been reduced to ruins. On the 28th, Emperor Zhaozong and his party arrived in Huazhou, and the local people lined the road to welcome them, shouting long live.Zhaozong couldn't help crying, saying: "Don't call me long live, I will no longer be your master!" (264) That night, Emperor Zhaozong stayed in the Huazhou Palace, and said sadly to his left and right: "There is a folk saying, 'The birds are frozen and killed on the top of Hegan Mountain, why don't you fly to the living place to be happy', I am now in exile, I don't know where I will end up. To where?" At the end of the speech, tears were already on the lap, and the left and right were crying together with the emperor. There is no direction on the road of exile.However, there will definitely be an end. Will Luoyang be the end of Emperor Zhaozong and Li Ye?