Chapter 29 Who has the last laugh?

Since receiving Tian Chengsi's application form at the beginning of August, Emperor Daizong Li Yu has been waiting eagerly for him to enter the court.But until the end of August, not only did Daizong not even see a ghost, he even waited for a new battle report. The battle report said that Tian Chengsi sent general Lu Ziqi to attack Cizhou again. Daizong was furious, and urgently ordered all the armies to continue to attack, and must beat Tian Chengsi to the ground. Lu Ziqi fought around Cizhou for two months. Just when he was about to break the city, Li Baochen and others rushed to defeat him in Qingshui (northwest of Ci County, Hebei today).Lu Ziqi was captured alive, and was immediately sent to the capital to beheaded.At about the same time, the southern army of the imperial court defeated Tian Yue, the nephew of Tian Chengsi, in Chenliu (southeast of today's Kaifeng, Henan).

When the news of the defeat spread to Weizhou, Tian Chengsi was a little panicked, but such panic was not enough to make him raise his hand and surrender. Because he has already thought of a way to deal with the imperial army. The imperial court's Nine-Towns Coalition seems to be powerful, but in fact the key is Li Baochen and Li Zhengji. As long as they are dealt with, the Nine-Towns Coalition will collapse without a fight. So, how to get these two guys? Tian Chengsi has his own clever plan. Before the war, Li Zhengji sent an envoy to Weizhou, but Tian Chengsi detained him later.Now, Tian Chengsi planned to send the emissary back, and also asked him to bring Li Zhengji a generous gift.

Tian Chengsi respectfully invited the envoy to his residence, and after a delicious meal, invited him to the lobby, where he sat facing south, while Tian Chengsi solemnly bowed to the north. , and very humbly presented a special gift to the messenger. The flattered emissary took the gift and saw that his heart almost jumped out of his chest. He could hardly believe his eyes. Because this gift is too heavy, far beyond his imagination! ——What Tian Chengsi handed over to the envoy was a "complete file" about Weibo, which included all confidential information such as household registration maps, army rosters, money and food accounts, etc. of Weibo's entire territory.

In other words, Tian Chengsi is bowing his head to Li Zhengji and giving up his territory! In order to fully demonstrate his sincerity, Tian Chengsi also asked someone to draw a portrait of Li Zhengji, hung it in the lobby, and burned incense every day (the ritual of serving the emperor in ancient times), as if he regarded Li Zhengji as the supreme the Son of Heaven. Finally, Tian Chengsi asked the envoy to send a letter to Li Zhengji, saying: "Chengsi is already eighty-six this year (in fact, he is only seventy-one years old, the reason why he said so old is nothing more than trying to paralyze him. Li Zhengji), may die at any time, none of the sons are promising, and my nephew Tian Yue is also weak and incompetent. Therefore, everything I have today is just for you to keep temporarily, so why bother you to mobilize everyone!"

The olive branch thrown by Tian Chengsi was indeed attractive, and Li Zhengji was deeply moved immediately. This old boy looked down on Li Zhengji the most in the past, but now he took the initiative to become a grandson, not only bowed his head to be a minister, but also expressed that he would give up his territory, which really made Li Zhengji very happy. Li Zhengji immediately ordered the army to stop the attack, set up camp on the spot, and did not advance half a step.Seeing that Li Zhengji refused to advance, the troops of the towns on the South Road also stopped. In this way, Tian Chengsi easily eliminated the threat from the south.Next, he can concentrate on dealing with Li Baochen in the north.

Since the war started in May of this year, Li Baochen has spared no effort in attacking Wei Bo. Emperor Daizong was very satisfied with this, so he sent an eunuch named Ma Chengqian to express condolences. However, Emperor Daizong did not expect that this announcement not only failed to achieve the purpose of encouragement, but seriously hit Li Baochen's enthusiasm. It was the eunuch Ma Chengqian who made things bad. According to the usual practice, eunuchs would charge a "labor fee" before leaving when they went to the local area to express their condolences. Of course, Li Baochen did not dare to neglect Ma Chengqian.Before this guy returned to court, Li Baochen took a hundred bolts of silk and satin, and personally delivered it to the posthouse where Ma Chengqian lived.Unexpectedly, instead of acknowledging Ma Chengqian's gratitude, she became furious, pointed at Li Baochen's nose and cursed, and finally had someone throw all the hundred pieces of silk and satin on the street.

Ma Chengqian is not honest and refuses bribes, but because she thinks there are too few things. He originally thought that Li Baochen, as a powerful feudal vassal, possesses troops and holds territory, is rich and powerful, so he must spend a lot of money, but unexpectedly he only gave away a mere hundred pieces of silk and satin. Isn't this just sending beggars away? In the end, Ma Chengqian didn't want any of them, and went back to Chang'an angrily. It was the first time that Li Baochen was humiliated in front of a large crowd after being out for so long, so he was naturally very upset.His confidant, Wang Wujun, Chengde's military envoy, said: "You have made great contributions to the court, and even if you are so humiliated by a bum, and you put down the rebellion in the future, I am afraid that an edict will remove your military power and call you back to the capital for house arrest." Wake up, according to what I see, it is better to let Tian Chengsi go, so that the imperial court will always reuse you."

Wang Wujun's intention is obvious, that is, he wants Li Baochen to support the bandits and respect himself.Li Baochen felt that it was very reasonable, so he stopped the pace of attack and stood still like Li Zhengji's southern army. After hearing the news that Li Baochen had offended the emperor's envoy, Tian Chengsi was overjoyed.In this way, the imperial army in both the north and the south ceased fire at the same time. Tian Chengsi was really grateful to Ma Chengqian from the bottom of his heart. However, letting the coalition forces of the nine towns cease fire is only the first step in Tian Chengsi's plan.

What he really wanted was for an infighting to break out between them.For this reason, Tian Chengsi had already set up an insidious situation between Chengde Li Baochen and Youzhou Zhu Tao. Tian Chengsi knew that Li Baochen was from Fan Yang (Youzhou Prefecture), and he had been thinking about Fan Yang for a long time, but he couldn't find a suitable opportunity, so he couldn't make up his mind.Now, Tian Chengsi intends to help him make up his mind. First of all, Tian Chengsi asked someone to engrave such a prophecy on a stone: "The two emperors have the same power, and Tian is married to Youyan." Then he ordered people to secretly bury the stone in Chengde.Then, Tian Chengsi hired another sorcerer to fool Li Baochen, saying that such and such a place had the air of an emperor.Li Baochen followed the magician's guidance to find it, dug into the ground, and dug out the stone with the prophecy written on it.

In the end, Tian Chengsi sent another articulate lobbyist to continue fooling around with Li Baochen, saying: "If you and Zhu Tao jointly take Cangzhou (Tian Chengsi's territory, located at the northernmost tip of Weibo, bordering on Li Baochen's jurisdiction), Even if it is defeated, Cangzhou is still owned by the imperial court, not yours. However, if you are willing to clear up the past with Tian Chengsi and cooperate sincerely, he will voluntarily donate Cangzhou and assign it to Chengde. Moreover, Tian Chengsi also said that if If you want to fight Fan Yang, he can do his best to help you fulfill your wish. As long as you lead the elite cavalry as the forward, he will lead the army to follow up, so there is no reason why Fan Yang can't."

Li Baochen was overjoyed when he heard this. Because these words completely corresponded to the prophecy on the stone, so Li Baochen believed that it must be God who wanted to give Fan Yang to him.That being the case, why is he hesitating? It is better to act than to be moved, just do what you say! Afterwards, Li Baochen couldn't wait to send people to conspire with Tian Chengsi, and made a plan to attack Fan Yang. Tian Chengsi was very trustworthy, and the plan was finalized. He immediately led his army to the north and stationed at the junction of Weibo and Chengde, ready to wait for Li Baochen's orders at any time. At that time, Zhu Tao was leading his troops to station at Waqiao (now Xiong County, Hebei). Li Baochen decided to capture the thief first and capture the king first. In order to ensure accurate strikes during the surprise attack, Li Baochen sent someone to tell Zhu Tao, "I heard that Zhu Gongyi is magnificent and majestic like a god. I would like to ask for a portrait so that I can pay my respects day and night." Zhu Tao was dizzy from being praised, and immediately took a portrait and sent it to Li Baochen.Afterwards, Li Baochen hung Zhu Tao's portrait on the Martial Arts Hall, and watched it with the soldiers every day, and kept admiring: "Sure enough, you are a god-man!" After the soldiers looked at Zhu Tao in turn, Li Baochen selected two thousand elites from among them, and then issued a battle order, saying, "Kill the man on the portrait in the Yanwu Hall!" The surprise attack troops set off immediately, galloping for three hundred miles day and night, and the front of the soldiers pointed directly at Waqiao.At that time, Youzhou and Chengde were allies, and Zhu Tao never dreamed that Li Baochen would come to sneak attack.Therefore, Zhu Tao didn't wake up from his dream until Chengde's sneak attack troops entered the camp.He hastily commanded all the troops to fight, but was killed and routed.Zhu Tao hurriedly changed into his soldier's clothes, managed to get out of danger, and fled back to Fan Yang in a panic. Tian Chengsi let out a hearty laugh when he heard the news that Li Baochen and Zhu Tao were fighting.Very good, this is what I want! Tian Chengsi immediately returned home, and sent someone to deliver a sentence to Li Baochen, saying: "There are policemen in Hanoi, and I have no time to follow the public. The prophecy on the stone is my ear!" (Volume 225) There is an emergency in my territory, so I can't attack Fan Yang with you. As for the prophecy on the stone, I was joking with you, so don't take it seriously! Li Baochen was dumbfounded, his face swollen like a pig's liver. He wished he could put on his wings immediately, fly into Weizhou, cut Tian Chengsi into pieces, peel his skin, constrict his tendons, and fry his heart and liver to eat! But Li Baochen knew that this was just his own obscenity. Because Chengde was sandwiched between Youzhou and Wei Bo, he was already at odds with Wei Bo, and now he has torn face with Youzhou, and he has fallen into the predicament of being enemies, why should he fight Tian Chengsi again?At this moment, not only could Li Baochen not go south to attack Tian Chengsi, but he had to divide his troops to resist Zhu Tao in the north to prevent him from sending troops to retaliate. Afterwards, Li Baochen withdrew to Hengzhou dejectedly, and at the same time ordered General Zhang Xiaozhong to lead 7,000 elite troops to garrison Yizhou (now Yixian County, Hebei) to guard against Zhu Tao. So far, this massive military campaign against Tian Chengsi ended without a fight and without results. During the reign of Emperor Daizong Li Yu, the only result of fighting with the feudal town was the loss of wealth, loss of soldiers and land, and in exchange for a full stomach of anger, helplessness and frustration. At the end of December in the tenth year of the Dali calendar, Tian Chengsi pretended to represent the Daizong and asked to join the court; at the same time, Li Zhengji of Ziqing also frequently appeared to speak for him, hoping that the emperor would give Tian Chengsi a chance to reform. In February of the eleventh year of the Dali calendar (AD 776), Emperor Daizong Li Yu had to issue an edict after a painful ideological struggle, pardoning all crimes of Tian Chengsi, and restoring his official title, allowing him to or Family members entered the court; in addition, those under his command who had resisted the court's orders were also pardoned, and the past was never blamed. Who has the last laugh? Of course it was Tian Chengsi. Tian Chengsi said time and time again that he would go to court to apologize, but in fact he was just farting. Not only did he not enter the court, but he never gave up his expansion ambitions. In May of the eleventh year of the Dali calendar, Tian Shenyu died of illness in Bian Song (where the government is located in Bianzhou, today's Kaifeng City, Henan). Li Lingyao, the Marquis of Duyu, took the opportunity to launch a mutiny, killed several military and political leaders of the town, and then established himself as Liu Hou. Later, Tian Chengsi was joined to the north as a aid.In order to expand his sphere of influence, Tian Chengsi openly acted as Li Lingyao's backer. In order to appease Li Lingyao, Daizong appointed him as the governor of Puzhou (now Juancheng County, Shandong).But Li Lingyao thought the official was too small and refused to take up the post.Daizong had no choice but to admit that he was the queen of Bian Song Dynasty. After Li Lingyao succeeded, he ignored the imperial court even more, and imitated the towns in Hebei, appointing all the governors and county magistrates of the eight prefectures in one go, causing all the officials appointed by the imperial court to be laid off overnight.Daizong couldn't bear it anymore, so he mobilized five soldiers and horses to attack Li Lingyao.Tian Chengsi sent troops to rescue, Daizong once again cut off Tian Chengsi's official title, and announced a crusade against Tian and Li.Later, Tian Chengsi and Li Lingyao were defeated by the imperial army respectively.Li Lingyao fled, was captured, escorted to the capital and beheaded.Tian Chengsi was terrified, and hurriedly went to the table to plead guilty, and Li Zhengji spoke for him again, so Daizong had no choice but to get off the donkey again, and issued an imperial edict to restore his official title... During the more than ten years of Li Yu's reign in the Tang Dynasty, the farce of the rebellion of the feudal towns continued one after another, and the Li Tang court had no ability to completely solve the feudal town problem, so they had to see each other and take one step at a time.In addition to using the contradictions between the feudal towns to check and balance each other, Daizong Li Yu really has no good strategy. The result of the imperial court's compromises and repeated concessions to the various vassals is to make them more arrogant and arrogant! Regarding the political situation in the last years of Zongdali in the Tang Dynasty, Sima Guang has an accurate overview and comment in the book: "Pinglu Jiedu made Li Zhengji first have the lands of Zi, Qing, Qi, Hai, Deng, Lai, Yi, Mi, De, and Di, and the chaos of Li Lingyao. Each is his own, and Zhengji has the five prefectures of Cao, Pu, Xu, Yan, and Yun... with one hundred thousand soldiers, the male dominates the east, and the neighbors fear it. At that time, Tian Chengsi ruled Wei, Bo, Xiang, Wei, Ming, Bei, and Chan prefectures, Li Baochen occupied the seven prefectures of Heng, Yi, Zhao, Ding, Shen, Ji, and Cang, each with 50,000 people; According to the six prefectures of Xiang, Deng, Jun, Fang, Fu, and Ying, there are 20,000 people; (Dai Zong Li Yu) Kuan Ren (actually powerless, helpless), once he heard what he did...so although he is famous as a vassal in China, he is really like a barbarian in a foreign land." The name is a vassal, but it is like a foreign land! This is the historical dilemma that the Tang Empire faced after the Anshi Rebellion. In the spring of the fourteenth year of the Dali calendar (AD 779), when the exhausted Emperor Li Yu of the Tang Dynasty accompanied the Tang Empire with internal and external troubles and staggered through the seventeenth spring and autumn, everything obviously showed no sign of improvement.Although in February of this year, Tian Chengsi, the confidant of the court, finally died, Daizong did not dare to take any measures. He could only allow his nephew Tian Yue to stand on his own as the empress, and then appointed Tian Yue as Jiedushi.In March, Li Xilie, Marquis of Yu, the capital of Huaixi, launched another mutiny, expelled Li Zhongchen, the Jiedu envoy, and forced Li Zhongchen to flee to the capital alone.Daizong had no choice but to take Li Xilie as his empress, and soon appointed him as Jiedushi. This summer, the fifty-four-year-old Emperor Li Yu of the Tang Dynasty finally fell ill amid endless worries and depression. On May 21st of the fourteenth year of the Dali calendar.sunset. The Zichen Inner Hall of Daming Palace in Chang'an. Emperor Li Yu of the Tang Dynasty lay dying on the sickbed, seeing the afterglow of the setting sun fading away from his eyes bit by bit, and at the same time seeing an unknown dark world approaching him step by step. This morning, Li Yu, who knew that his time had come, issued the last imperial edict in his life—ordering Prince Li Shi to supervise the country. Li Yu knew that this thirty-eight-year-old eldest son was fully qualified to inherit the country of the Li Tang Dynasty, but what he always had a secret worry about was that Li Shi had the ability to deal with those "vassals who are called vassals, but they are like foreign lands" Domineering feudal town?Is Li Shi capable of driving this dangerous and uncertain imperial carriage? Night fell slowly, and the inner hall was quiet.Several eunuchs carefully lit the candles in the hall.Their faces float and flicker in the half-light.It seemed that for a moment, Li Yu suddenly saw several familiar faces. Those were Li Fuguo's face, Cheng Yuanzhen's face, Yu Chaoen's face... Are they here? Have they gone and come again? Li Yu closed his eyes in pain. Then his eyes never opened again. Li Yu left. The world in the distance is still noisy, and the crowds in the world are still noisy. Li Yu left, leaving behind the turbulent world, the messy world, endless bloodshed, killings, plots, lies, betrayals, disputes, all behind him... …