History of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms

Chapter 143 Three Towns Violate the Law
Li Maozhen of Fengxiang and Xingyu, the Prince of Jingnan, jointly submitted a memorial, pointing out that Li Xi was a treacherous villain who was not fit to be prime minister. They also criticized Wei Zhaodu for being incompetent and having no achievements in his high position as prime minister, and demanded that Emperor Zhaozong dismiss the two men.

How could the local vassal states interfere with the central government? Zhaozong absolutely could not tolerate this, so he replied, "I can consult with the vassal states on military issues; as for the appointment of prime ministers by the court, I have the final say in my territory."

Zhaozong was tough for a few days but then he became timid. He dismissed Li Xi for the second time and demoted him to the position of Prince's Junior Tutor, where he retired from his idle position.

Zhaozong promoted the knowledgeable Lu Xisheng to be prime minister, but after only three months, he was demoted to the position of Prince's Tutor.

Wei Zhaodu, who had always been regarded as a thorn in Cui Zhaowei's side, was finally squeezed out of the political arena and forced to retire as a Taibao.

At this point, Emperor Zhaozong's painstaking plan to train civil servants basically failed. In the inherent political struggle among civil servant forces, the treacherous minister Cui Zhaowei and others won a complete victory by relying on powerful vassals. Zhaozong played with fire and got burned, and was almost sidelined by the civil servant group.

Zhaozong had another lifeline: armed force.

As early as the beginning of his accession to the throne, Prime Minister Kong Wei pointed out that armed forces were the root of the consolidation of imperial power. Therefore, Zhaozong spent a huge amount of money to recruit soldiers and finally built a new army composed of local ruffians and street scoundrels who were fed and fed without care and were easily defeated. In the battle against the Guanxi Group, they were invincible and escaped without firing a single shot or a single soldier.

Starting from scratch was a very low point, and Zhaozong clearly realized that starting anew was more difficult than climbing to the sky.

Since he couldn't start a new business, he could only occupy the old one and lay eggs by borrowing someone else's chicken. So, Zhaozong thought of using the imperial guards.

The Central Imperial Guards were supposed to be the emperor's imperial guards, and were infinitely loyal to the royal family. However, after the An-Shi Rebellion, the ruling power of the Imperial Guards gradually fell into the hands of eunuchs, which also became the capital for the eunuchs to monopolize power and interfere in government affairs, and even depose and enthrone emperors.

Seizing the imperial army's power from the eunuchs was also one of the main motivations for the "anti-Tian movement" and "anti-Yang movement" after Emperor Zhaozong ascended the throne, and it achieved initial results.

Now, Zhaozong wants to expand the results of his struggle and take another step towards the ultimate goal of fully controlling the imperial guards.

Due to years of war, bandits were rampant near the capital Chang'an. Some robbers even dared to climb over the palace walls and enter the palace to steal. Some even dared to dig up the imperial tombs to play tricks.

Zhaozong used this as an excuse to order the prince to lead the military and police on patrol.

The prince commanding the troops was an important step for Emperor Zhaozong to seek qualitative change from quantitative change, but also a very dangerous step, because the prince commanding the troops would greatly stimulate the eunuch group and the civil official group, and the result would inevitably be a joint boycott by both the Southern Court and the Northern Court.

Zhaozong was madly testing the brink of death.

In order to minimize this stimulation, Zhaozong found a suitable opportunity (protecting the imperial palace and the imperial mausoleum) and sent people to various towns and provinces across the country to express condolences and explanations in order to dispel their doubts.

Despite this, it still aroused strong dissatisfaction among the civil service and eunuch groups, who put pressure on Zhaozong and forced him to abandon this bold attempt.

Zhaozong's plan to regain control of the imperial guards and the armed forces failed.

Zhaozong's pursuit of military power also greatly stimulated all reactionary elements who attempted to control the court, such as the treacherous prime minister Cui Zhaowei and the Guanxi Group.

He asked to be appointed Shangshu Ling, but failed; he asked to swallow up the imperial guards, but failed; he let people who hated him be prime ministers; he let the princes command the troops, eroding the control of the imperial guards; he strongly supported Wang Gong and Wang Yao, but failed...

Five incidents broke out in a short period of time, and with Cui Zhaowei fanning the flames, the bigwigs of the Guanxi Group finally had to come forward to ask Zhaozong for an explanation.

The "Hezhong inheritance dispute case" was brought to Emperor Zhaozong at this critical juncture.

Cui Zhaowei also wanted to use the Guanxi Group to further eliminate dissidents in the court, which coincided with Zhu Wen's plan. With the support of Zhu Wen, a powerful vassal in the Central Plains, Cui Zhaowei became more unscrupulous and actively instigated the Guanxi Group to send troops to interfere in Hezhong affairs by force and put pressure on Zhaozong.

The Guanxi Group was feeling angry about the five embarrassing things and also wanted to find a reason to "teach a lesson" to the disobedient Emperor Zhaozong and ask for an explanation from the Guanxi Group. They hit it off with Cui Zhaowei.

The strong intervention of the Guanxi Group made Li Keyong of Hedong feel a little cold, and he was also dragged into this dispute.

This is the basic logic of the “chaos in the river”.

As for the fuse - who was right and who was wrong among the Wang brothers, no one cared, not even the bigwigs who were deeply involved in it. This was a political game between the central court and the local vassal states.

We can use their WeChat Fanzhen group and private chat to briefly summarize:

Cui Zhaowei whispered to the Guanxi Group: Damn the emperor!

The Kansai Group whispered to Choi So-wei: What’s the excuse?

Cui Zhaowei whispered to the Guanxi Group: Bully you, bully Wang Gong and Wang Yao.

The Kansai Group whispered to Choi So-wei: Got it.

Kansai Group: We want an explanation for Wang Gong and Wang Yao.

Zhaozong: It has nothing to do with me, right, Li Keyong? Li Keyong: ...

Wang Ke whispered to Li Keyong: When the lips and teeth are separated, you will be the next one!

Li Keyong: …

Zhu Wen: You guys chat first, I'm leaving the group (laughing)
The Guanxi Group had no connection with Zhu Wen, but had a grudge against Li Keyong of Hedong. The two sides had a head-on conflict when Li Xun usurped the throne, which ended in the defeat of the Guanxi Group.

Therefore, Cui Zhaowei used Li Keyong to stimulate the Guanxi Group again, saying that the imperial court, Wang Ke of Hezhong and Li Keyong of Hedong were united, which would definitely be disadvantageous to you in the future. You should make a decisive move and strike first to gain the upper hand!

In May of the second year of Qianning in the Tang Dynasty (895), under the constant instigation of the treacherous prime minister Cui Zhaowei, Li Maozhen of Fengxiang, Xingyu, the King of Jingnan, and Han Jian, the three towns, led tens of thousands of elite troops to march towards the imperial palace to defend their rights by force.

At the same time, Wang Xingyue (Wang Xingyu's younger brother), the governor of Kuangguo, launched a military attack on Wang Ke in Hezhong.

Chang'an was shrouded in the dark cloud of war, and its residents fled and hid.

Faced with the threat of war, Emperor Zhaozong did not back down. He personally went up to Anfu Gate and shouted to the three commanders of Guanxi, "What do you want to do by entering the capital without permission?"

The three men appeared at the foot of the city surrounded by a grand and majestic guard of honor, and performed the great ceremony of kneeling three times and kowtow nine times to Emperor Zhaozong on the city gate tower.

Emperor Zhaozong personally questioned: "You have neither a petition to enter the capital nor an imperial edict from me, yet you have led your troops here without authorization. Are you planning a rebellion? If so, I will abdicate today!"

After all, a thief is guilty of his crime and cannot speak properly. Li Maozhen and Wang Xingyu were so scared that they were sweating and speechless. Only Han Jian could give a simple answer.

Emperor Zhaozong ordered a banquet to entertain the three commanders. Come, eat first.

Han Jian stated his purpose, saying that the Southern Court and the Northern Court were all forming cliques for personal gain and undermining the country's legal system. Among them, Wei Zhaodu's expedition against Xichuan was a misstep, and Li Xi's appointment as prime minister went against public opinion. Both of them should be executed to set things right.

"The prime minister of the country and an important minister of the emperor, how can you kill him at will? Moreover, there is no legitimate reason and no sufficient evidence. It is unreasonable to kill the prime minister indiscriminately!" Zhaozong refused.

When a scholar meets a soldier, he cannot explain his reason clearly. When an emperor meets a soldier, he cannot explain his reason clearly either.

The three men were speechless, so they executed Wei Zhaodu and Li Xi on the same day, and also killed several eunuchs they disliked, and their tyranny was feared by the Southern Court and the Northern Court.

In fact, Wei Zhaodu and Li Xi had both been dismissed from their posts, one as Grand Tutor and the other as Junior Tutor to the Crown Prince, both of which were in name only and idle positions. The three commanders wanted to use them as an example to warn the others, with the main purpose of demonstrating to Emperor Zhaozong and the entire court.

Afterwards, the three commanders made a request, "Wang Ke, Wang Gong, and Wang Yao should be divided into legitimate sons and illegitimate sons. We require the legitimate son Wang Gong to inherit the Hezhong National Defense Army, let Wang Ke go to the Tongzhou Kuangguo Army, and let Kuang Wang Xingyue go to the Shanzhou Baoyi Army."

Under the threat of force, Emperor Zhaozong had no choice but to agree to everything and issued an edict to transfer the three towns to each other.

Afterwards, the three bosses demoted the Minister of Revenue Yang Kan to the position of Governor of Yazhou (now Ya'an City, Sichuan Province) because Yang Kan was Wei Zhaodu's uncle.

Zhaozong accepted.

The three bosses demoted Liu Chongwang to the position of Sima of Zhaozhou (now Pingle County, Guangxi), because when Cui Yin was appointed as the Jiedushi of the National Protection Army, Xue Zhiqin, a confidant of Hedong Li Keyong, once said, "Although Cui Yin is highly respected, my commander-in-chief (Li Keyong) respects Mr. Liu Chongwang more." If he was chosen by Hedong Li Keyong, he must be the enemy of the Guanxi Group. You can travel to Guangdong and Guangxi at public expense.

Zhaozong accepted.

The unreasonable demands of the three bosses were met one by one, and the wonderful feeling of being in power was hard to extricate themselves from. Gradually, the thoughts hidden in their hearts began to bubble up and bloom into colorful flowers: to depose and establish!
The three of them are going to be Dong Zhuo.

The original motive of the three men's attack on the palace was to depose Emperor Zhaozong and establish a new emperor. Although Emperor Zhaozong was already their puppet, this puppet was not a good boy and always made small moves in private. The candidate for the new emperor had also been decided, and it was Prince Ji Li Bao.

As early as when Xizong was seriously ill, Prince Ji Li Bao had won widespread support from civil and military officials. However, he was outnumbered by Yang Fugong, who forcibly deposed the eldest son and enthroned the youngest, Emperor Zhaozong.

Since Prince Ji Li Bao has an absolute mass base, the resistance to his dethronement will be relatively small, and he can also gain a reputation for complying with public opinion. At that time, he only needs to describe Zhaozong as "the ugly legacy of Yang the Eunuch", and public opinion will be controlled by them.

Therefore, when they were outside the city and Emperor Zhaozong asked them sternly whether they were planning a rebellion and whether they were going to depose the emperor, they became terrified and sweated profusely.

Of course they could not admit it, because they had not yet entered the city and did not actually control Chang'an. So they could only use "petitioning for the people" and "armed petitioning and rights protection" as excuses.

It was different now. Zhaozong was in their hands, and the imperial court was under the threat of their military force and only followed Guanxi's lead. They didn't need to pretend anymore.

Just as they were preparing to depose and enthronize the emperor, an unread message in the group scared the three of them -

Li Keyong will arrive at the battlefield in five seconds, please be prepared.

(End of this chapter)