Late Tang

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In October of the fourth year of Qianfu, Li Jing made a thunderous attack and wiped out the troops of Wang Jingwu, the deputy envoy of Ziqing Jiedu, in one fell swoop, captured the whole territory of Ziqing, and completely controlled Ziqing town.After Li Jing defeated Wang Jingwu, he immediately found some of the most famous pens in Dengzhou, and wrote an article enumerating the numerous crimes committed by Wang Jingwu after he became the deputy ambassador of Ziqing, and cited the criminal evidence one by one.Li Jing said that as the Jiedu envoy of Ziqing Town, it is his bounden duty to maintain the peace of the people of Ziqing, but Wang Jingwu, a traitor who surrendered and rebelled again, has the obligation and responsibility to eradicate such rebellious ministers for the court.

Li Jing announced the letter to the world, and at the same time sent envoys to Chang'an to report to the emperor.

The world was shocked for a moment, and many people praised Li Jing's actions.It is said that Wang Jingwu is a traitor, and he should not be appointed after the last capture.He was in Ziqing town where there was no one inhabited for hundreds of miles. The sky was angry and people complained. It was just right for Li Jing to send troops to wipe him out.There are many people who hold this attitude, especially after people from all over the country publicized the numerous crimes committed by Wang Jingwu and the comparison of half of Ziqing governed by Li Jing, more people supported Li Jing.

Of course, some people immediately used this to attack Li Jing, saying that Li Jing was domineering and domineering, and attacked the imperial army and officials, which was an act of treason.The imperial court is required to crusade against Li Jing, a rebel general who supports himself and separates one side.

In the court, Lu Xie and Tian Lingzi agreed that Li Jing's actions were improper and he wanted to impeach Li Jing.However, there were many people in the court to protect Li Jing, such as Xiangguo Yu Cong, Zheng Tian, ​​Wang Duo, Li Wei, etc., all stood on Li Jing's side.Even Cui Anqian, the Minister of the Ministry of Officials who had just entered Beijing, also supported Li Jing in the court, and in turn impeached Tian Lingzi and Lu Xie for improperly disposing of Wang Jingwu last time, which caused Ziqing to suffer such a heavy blow.

Song Wei, who was recuperating in Beijing, also contacted many local commanders-in-chief, such as Zheng Congyu, the Jiedu envoy of Hedong, Yu Juan, the deputy envoy of Zhenwu Jiedu, Xin Xing, the deputy envoy of Jiedu of Datong, and Du Wei, the defense envoy of Dongdu Jidu. Li Zhuo, the Jiedu Envoy of Heyang, Cui Yunqing, the Jiedu Envoy of the Zhennan Army, and Kang Chenghui, the Jiedu Envoy of Lingnan West Road, all joined in solidarity with Li Jing.

There was a lot of discussion and quarrels between the DPRK and China.

However, before they could come to a conclusion, Huainan Jiedu's deputy ambassador and Zhijiedushi Gao Pian made another presentation, claiming that Li Jing sent troops pretending to be pirates to attack coastal states and counties, plundering people and property.Said that Li Jing was rebellious, and asked the court to convict Li Jing of rebellion, and allow him and the towns to send troops to crusade against Li Jing.

However, Li Jing also immediately complained to Chang'an, claiming that Gao Pian and others robbed the goods of the common people's merchants in Zhen [***], Ziqing Town, and Andong Dadufu, and asked the court to uphold justice.

The local grievances between Li Jing and Gao Pian, two famous court generals, triggered a fight between Tian Lingzi and Zhang Tai, Ximen Sigong, Yang Fugong and other eunuchs in Chang'an.At the same time, Lu Xie, Zheng Tian and other political ministers also took advantage of this incident to fight for the party with gangs in the court and palace, which was very enjoyable.

For a while, there was a smog, because Li Jing and Gao Pian were in a detached position, one was the first county king with a different surname since the three dynasties, and with a heavy army in his hand, he had just captured the Liaodong Peninsula and destroyed Wang Jingwu.And the other is also a famous general for many years, the grandson of the county king, and the descendant of a famous family in Bohai.Just carrying the credit of defeating the Nanzhao invasion, after returning to the Central Plains, he was re-elected Jingnan Jiedu envoy, Zhenhai Jiedu envoy and Huainan Jiedu deputy ambassador in a short period of time, and defeated the grass bandits.Now it holds the land of wealth in the southeast, with both military power and financial power, which should not be underestimated either.

The two famous generals each have a strong alliance in the court, and for a while, neither of them can deal with the other.

However, when the DPRK and China were arguing with each other, Huang Chao, who had entered Lingnan from Fujian, was unwilling to be lonely, and made another big commotion.

After Huang Chao's soldiers besieged Guangzhou, they did not attack the city immediately. Instead, they asked the captured former Zhedong observation envoy Cui Qi to write to Li Tiao, the newly appointed Lingnan Dongdao envoy who was trapped in the isolated city of Guangzhou. Li Tiao wrote a letter to the imperial court through various channels, claiming that as long as the imperial court actually grants him the Tianping Jiedu envoy, and allows him to retain the army and return to his hometown in good clothes.Then he gave up attacking Guangzhou and reconciled with the court.

Huang Chao asked the court to surrender, but also felt confused about his future.It has been almost four years since the army was raised, and it has moved thousands of miles back and forth, but in the end there is not even a place to stay.Wang Xianzhi, Shang Junchang, Wang Chongyin, Tang Ju, Cao Shixiong and other grassroots leaders were wiped out one after another.

First they rushed from the Central Plains to Jianghuai, from Jianghuai to Shannan, from Shannan to Jiangdong, and recently to the poor mountains and rivers of Lingnan.What made him feel particularly stressed was that Li Jing, the god of death, made him dare not stand in the Central Plains, and now Gao Pian, the god of death, was sitting in the southeast as the governor.Whether it is Li Jing or Gao Pian, he and Cao Jun are not rivals at all.Every time they were defeated, especially the last time they fought against Gao Pian, more than a dozen generals from the Cao army surrendered to Gao Pian after several battles.

From Fujian to Lingnan, although Huang Chao gathered hundreds of thousands of soldiers and horses, he had no confidence in his heart.Taking advantage of some capital in hand now, Huang Chao finally wanted to recruit to the imperial court.If the imperial court allows him to return to his hometown as a Jiedu envoy and keep the soldiers and horses, it will be better than fleeing around like this.

After all, after Wang Jingwu was captured, he became the deputy ambassador and kept his troops.He thought, now that he has [-] soldiers and horses in his hands, and he is threatening the emperor's pocket, the emperor should have a talk with him.

When this petition arrived in Chang'an, the Zhengshitang, which was already lively because of Li Jing and Gao Pian, now caused an unprecedentedly fierce quarrel.The two leaders in the quarrel are of course Lu Xie and Zheng Tian's two cousins.

Everyone simply put aside the fruitless quarrel between Li Jing and Gao Pian, and started arguing about this matter again.

Zheng Tian agreed to recruit Huang Chao. He said: "The root cause of Huang Chao's rebellion is that the country suffered a famine, and a large number of hungry people could not make a living. However, the country has not used soldiers for a long time, and the soldiers have forgotten how to fight. Contribute to suppress thieves, only sweep the snow in front of your own house, and don't care about the frost on others. Under the current situation, it is better to temporarily tolerate Huang Chao, perfunctorily satisfy his request, let him be restrained, and don't attack the city. Once the harvest comes , the gang of hungry people under him will naturally fall apart and go home separately, and then, they will be defeated without fighting!" His words intentionally or unintentionally implied that after Gao Pian was promoted to the capital, he did not intend to suppress the bandits, but went to The matter of grabbing Li Jing's goods.

In this regard, Lu Xie's reaction was the same as before, and he opposed everything that Zheng Tian supported.

In particular, Zheng Tian's words pointed directly at Gao Pian's dereliction of duty, and Gao Pian was fully supported by him.If he accepted the recruitment at this time, wouldn't he be admitting Gao Pian's dereliction of duty, and his faction would naturally be hit.Therefore, Lu Xie was firmly opposed to Zhao'an. "There is a high-ranking general Lue Wushuang, and the elite soldiers under his command. What's the difficulty in dealing with Huang Chao, a mere bandit? How can he show weakness by himself and discourage the enthusiasm of the soldiers from all over the world?"

Zheng Tian didn't take it seriously, thinking that Gao Pian was just a reckless man who only knew how to fight for power and profit, like a three-legged chair, unreliable.

The two of them talked more and more stiffly, and Lu Xie was at a disadvantage. Lu Xie, who was so angry that his face was swollen, flicked his sleeves violently. As a result, an inkstone on the case was blown to the ground, and it broke into several pieces, and the ink even splashed the two relatives. Country covered.

The two prime ministers fought so fiercely that Wang Duo, the third prime minister, took the opportunity to meet the 16-year-old emperor, and explained the matter emphatically.

Of course Li Yan is aware of the current quarrel in the court. Before Gao Pian and Li Jing went to each other, not only the ministers of the political affairs hall were involved in it, but even the eunuchs in the harem were involved.As a result, he, the emperor, was also forced to get involved, making it very annoying.

Before that, Tian Lingzi and Lu Xie visited Li Jing in front of him, saying what happened to Li Jing, and they wanted to make an order to convict Li Jing and send troops to attack Li Jing.This made the emperor a little dissatisfied. He didn't care about the fights between Li Jing and Gao Pian, but Li Jing's annual tribute was never a lot.From this point alone, he is more inclined to Li Jing's side.

Now Huang Chao has surrounded Guangzhou, the only place where more money came from after the emperor's already dwindling income.A large amount of his internal treasury is about to disappear, and the two prime ministers are still arguing and splashing ink on each other, which really disappoints him.

Li Xuan, who was depressed, said angrily: "How can a dignified prime minister be an example to all officials when he scolds the streets in the political affairs hall?" At the same time, he will be a guest of the prince.Then he asked Zhang Tai who was beside him, "Who can be the prime minister in the court?"

Zhang Tai immediately named the ministers who had a good relationship with him. The emperor was already a little impatient after hearing the names, so he immediately promoted Dou Luzhen and Cui Hang, who he remembered, to the same level. The absence of Dinglu and Zheng.

Originally, the quarrel between the two sides was evenly matched, but no one expected that the young emperor stepped in and directly dismissed the two prime ministers.Even Tian Lingzi and Ximen Sigong, the two prime ministers, did not expect this result. When they heard the news, it was already irreversible.

On the contrary, Doulu Xiangguo and Cui Xiangguo were unexpectedly promoted to prime minister and entered the political affairs hall.

Huang Chao still didn't know that the imperial court had laid off the two prime ministers because of his affairs. Seeing that he couldn't wait for a reply, he couldn't sit still and lowered the price himself. It's okay to make it too fast.

After discussing with Cui Xiangguo and several other ministers, the newly appointed Doulu Xiangguo finally offered Huang Chao the position of leader of the fourth rank, and asked to disband the army and take office in Chang'an.

Huang Chao looked forward to the stars and the moon, but in the end, when a leader who had no sense of presence came to tell him, he was finally as angry as when Chang'an was defeated.In a rage, Huang Chao ordered to attack Guangzhou. The fierce fighting lasted only one day, and Huang Chao broke Guangzhou and captured Jiedu envoy Li Tiao alive.Afterwards, Huang Chao ordered the looting of the whole city. After the 20 grass army robbed Guangzhou, they massacred 12 people, of whom [-] were Fans alone.

The whole of Guangzhou was bleeding because of Huang Chao's anger!

The news was sent back to Chang'an, causing quite a shock.Wang Duo, who had made Lu Xie and Zheng Tian laid off by speaking to the emperor before, was not able to become prime minister afterwards, and he was extremely disappointed.Seeing the fall of Guangzhou this time, he immediately ran to find the emperor again, and said a lot of bad things about Gao Pian to the emperor, saying that he was dereliction of duty and so on.

The emperor was heartbroken because he had lost a large sum of money, and when he heard this, he immediately ordered the dismissal of Gao Pian Zhudao's battalion soldier Ma Dutong from his official position.Wang Duo then recommended himself to the emperor, asking for the position of commander of the army and horses.Li Xuan originally wanted Li Jing to take up this position, but Wang Duo said that the king of Andong County was using troops in western Liaoning and he could not spare himself, so he was willing to share the emperor's worries.

Li Xuan was a little moved by what he heard, and ordered Wang Duo to replace Gao Pian as the commander of all Taoist camps.

When the news came back to Yangzhou, he was so angry that he almost vomited blood, and sighed, "Write to Li Jing, I'm willing to talk to him!"

When the generals under Gao Pian heard it, they couldn't help being stunned for a moment, thinking that they had heard it wrong.When will a person like Gao Dashuai actually give in?

However, there were a few generals in the hall who had been following Gao Pian in his conquests, looking at Gao Pian's gloomy face, they suddenly remembered how he used to deal with the sudden generals when he was guarding Xichuan.Thinking of that incident at the beginning, several generals couldn't help but feel their hearts thump, and took a deep breath of air. (To be continued.)