History of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms

Chapter 169 Chaos in Chang'an

After Zhu Wen annexed Hezhong, Li Keyong was surrounded on three sides by the forces of Bianzhou and was in a very critical situation. So he sent envoys with heavy gifts to meet Zhu Wen and express his willingness to reconcile.

At that time, Zhu Wen's wife Zhang Hui was seriously ill, so Zhu Wen had to return to Bianzhou from Hezhong. He also sent envoys to visit Hedong and expressed his intention to resolve the past grievances with Li Keyong.

Zhang Hui was a famous virtuous wife and loving mother during the late Tang and Five Dynasties period. She was highly praised in history, saying that she could "control the hearts of jackals and tigers with her gentle virtue" and "was wise and capable, always polite and law-abiding. Even Taizu (Zhu Wen), who was tough and violent, was afraid of him."

Zhu Wen obeyed her and treated her with great respect. He almost killed his eldest son Zhu Youyu, but was stopped by Zhang Hui. Later, he captured Zhu Jin's wife and wanted to take her for himself, but it was Zhang Hui who sent her to a nunnery. During his military campaign, Zhu Wen had an illegitimate child, but he was afraid of Zhang Hui and did not dare to bring him back. It was not until Zhang Hui's death that he dared to take the illegitimate child to his side. Friendly reminder: this illegitimate child will do something big in the future.

Zhang Hui's influence on Zhu Wen was not limited to household affairs, but also permeated into Zhu Wen's military command. According to records, when Zhu Wen led his troops to set out, if Zhang Hui felt that the trip was inappropriate, he would send someone to report to Zhu Wen, "Your wife doesn't agree." Zhu Wen immediately turned the troops around and returned to report.

Everything your wife says must be firmly upheld; everything your wife's instructions must be followed unswervingly.

Zhu Wen, the ruthless and cruel warlord, was also a henpecked man who was afraid of his wife. This was quite adorable. In this regard, his old enemy Li Keyong was also the same.

Fortunately, Zhang Hui's illness was relieved and he was fine. Zhu Wen was relieved. So the plan to eliminate Li Keyong was put on the agenda again.

In March of the fourth year of the Guanghua reign of the Tang Dynasty (901), Zhu Wen, citing Li Keyong's arrogant words in his letter as an excuse, mobilized six armies from the northeast to the southwest and launched a fierce attack on Hedong at the same time:

Wang Chuzhi of the Yiwu Army of Dingzhou came out of Feihukou at the northern end of Taihang Mountain;

Ge Congzhou led the Taining Army of Yanzhou and the Tianping Army of Yunzhou, and joined forces with the Chengde Army of Zhenzhou to march out of Jingxing in Taihang Mountain.
Zhang Guihou led the Dongzhao righteous army and marched out of Maling Pass in Taihang Mountains;

Zhang Wengong, the general of Weizhou Wei Bo Army, came out of Xinkou of Taihang Mountain;
Shi Shucong led the main force of Bianzhou and went out of Tianjing Pass in Taihang Mountain;

Hou Yan led the newly surrendered Hezhong National Defense Army out of Yindi Pass.

A great country does not value political intrigue. Different from the maneuvers of the Dashun years, this time, Zhu Wen single-handedly formed a more deterrent military force, encircled and suppressed the enemy from six directions, and pushed forward to Taiyuan Prefecture.

In just ten days, the defenders of Hedong either abandoned the city and fled, or surrendered. In early April, the six armies met outside Taiyuan City with overwhelming force, and the beacons of the various armies echoed each other from afar.

The Bian army repeatedly challenged, and the Taiyuan army and civilians were in great panic. Li Keyong personally went to the city to resist, and was so busy that he didn't even have time to eat.

It is said that spring rain is as precious as oil. But that year, in order to thank new and old customers for their support, God specially cleared out the stock and sold out the spring rain for dozens of days. Many parts of the city wall collapsed. The Hedong soldiers were busy repairing it to keep it intact.

The Hedong generals Li Sizhao and Li Siyuan dug many "secret doors" on the city wall, that is, they dug from the inside but did not dig through it, leaving only a thin layer of bricks and stones on the outside. People outside the city could not detect it at all. They would wait until night and then secretly dig through it, and then send death squads to sneak out from the secret doors and surprise attack the Bian army. This method was very effective.

Another Hedong general, Li Cunjin, also defeated Zhu Wen's vanguard at Dongwoyi outside the city, boosting morale.

At the same time, the heavy rains for several days also made the Bian army suffer enough. The Bian army gathered outside the city in large numbers, and the supply of food and grass was a big problem in itself. The heavy rain made the roads muddy, making logistics even more difficult. Malaria, dysentery and other epidemics broke out in the Bian army.

Out of desperation, Zhu Wen ordered the troops to withdraw.

In May, the six armies broke camp and returned to their respective towns.

Taiyuan Prefecture is not a public toilet, you can come and go as you please. Hedong generals Zhou Dewei and Li Sizhao led 5,000 elite cavalry to pursue and kill tens of thousands.

The governor of Fenzhou, who had previously surrendered to the Bian Army, was captured alive by Li Sizhao and Li Cunshen and beheaded in public; Meng Qian, the governor of the Xizhao Righteous Army, who surrendered to the Bian Army, took the initiative to take his entire family to Bianzhou to hide.

Li Keyong sent Li Sizhao and Zhou Dewei to launch a counterattack, going out of Yindi Pass, attacking the Hezhong area, and capturing Cizhou and Xizhou under the jurisdiction of the Hezhong National Protection Army.

The two sides fought back and forth with punches and kicks and ended the first round.

Intermission.

In the first half of the confrontation, Zhu Wen gained an indisputable advantage. Although he lost the two states of Ci and Xi after withdrawing his troops, the overall advantage still existed.

Li Keyong did not dare to take it lightly. When Ci and Xi states surrendered, Li Keyong did not dare to send people to take over as a conqueror. Instead, he gave generous gifts to the two surrendered generals and wrote letters to comfort them in a humble manner, explaining the pros and cons and asking them to restore the old relationship. He was afraid of irritating Zhu Wen or causing resistance from the surrendered soldiers and generals. From this point, it can be seen that Li Keyong recognized Zhu Wen's superiority from the bottom of his heart.

Both sides actively recovered, waited for cooldowns, replenished buffs, and prepared for the team battle in the second half.

At this time, Zhu Wen received a secret decree from the emperor, asking him to immediately lead his troops west to Chang'an to protect the emperor.

That’s right, there is trouble in Chang’an again.

[Chang'an Chaos]

In the process of Emperor Zhaozong's restoration of order, Cui Yin became a great contributor, especially his resignation from the post of Minister of Education, which won Emperor Zhaozong's favor, and he was considered a model of not resting on his laurels. Cui Yin was cunning and treacherous, and of course he would not covet a title of honor without substance. What he wanted was real power that could be seen and touched. With power, fame and wealth would naturally follow.

He served as prime minister and was also in charge of Duzhi, Yantie, Sansi, etc., which was equivalent to the empire's minister of finance and director general of salt and iron monopoly and transportation, which was the most lucrative position in the Tang Empire.

The prime minister is the head of all officials, the top civil servant, and also controls the empire's purse. What else does he want?

However, these still could not satisfy Cui Yin's insatiable ambition, and he was almost frantically fighting for power and profit.

The first is the struggle for power.

One is to eliminate dissidents and political enemies.

For example, Lu Jian, the second seed chosen by Emperor Zhaozong, succeeded Cui Yin as prime minister when Cui Yin was dismissed from his post, and was therefore resented by Cui Yin. However, he was chosen by Emperor Zhaozong and was deeply trusted by him, so Cui Yin regarded him as a stumbling block in his official career and had to get rid of him as soon as possible.

Cui Yin had a handle on Lu Jian, which was Lu Jian's behavior when Emperor Zhaozong returned to the throne. On the morning of the first day of the first lunar month, Sun Dezhao and others ambushed Wang Zhongxian. When Lu Jian heard the news, he changed into civilian clothes, rode a pony, and fled from the southeast gate of Chang'an City in a panic to avoid the chaos. So Cui Yin took advantage of the issue to create public opinion, saying that Lu Jian opposed Emperor Zhaozong's return to the throne.

For Lu Jian, this was a fatal slander.

As expected, Emperor Zhaozong had some doubts about Lu Jian, so he asked Han Wei for his opinion.

Han Yu was a deputy promoted by Cui Yin, and was also one of the participants in the conspiracy to restore order, so he was trusted by Emperor Zhaozong. Han Yu was upright and loyal, and did not become Cui Yin's accomplice, but instead excused Lu Yan, "Your Majesty's conspiracy to return to the throne was only known by Cui Yin and a few others like me, Lu Yan didn't know anything at all. It's understandable that he suddenly heard about the change in the palace and panicked, and it's human nature to disguise and escape. If Your Majesty must investigate his faults, you can only blame him for being a prime minister who was unwilling to die for the country. How can you say that he opposed Your Majesty's return to the throne? I'm afraid someone has ulterior motives and deliberately instigated discord. Please Your Majesty, please understand!"

Although Zhaozong did not immediately make things difficult for Lu Jian, the grudge still took root in his heart. Even if, as Han Wei said, we should not take Lu Jian too far and label him a "counter-revolutionary", Lu Jian was not a qualified prime minister after all. He could not sacrifice his life for the sake of justice, and he fled when disaster struck. He really failed to live up to my expectations.

As Cui Yin wished, Lu Jian was dismissed from his position as prime minister.

The second is to promote trusted people and cultivate party members, such as recommending Wang Pu as prime minister.

Wang Pu was a descendant of a famous family. His ancestors had served in the court for generations and were well-known for their integrity, prudence and filial piety. His great-uncle was not afraid of power and insisted on seeking justice for Song Shenxi in the famous "Song Shenxi Rebellion Case" during the reign of Emperor Wenzong.

The reason why Cui Yin recommended Wang Pu was not because Wang Pu was a good person, but because Wang Pu was Cui Yin's staff member and a follower. He also participated in the conspiracy to welcome Emperor Zhaozong back to the throne, which was an important political asset.

The third is to make a show of force to scare the enemy.

Whether it was attacking political enemies or promoting confidants, it was all done within the civil service. Cui Yin knew that if he wanted to dominate the government, he had to fight the eunuch group.

In April of the fourth year of Guanghua in the Tang Dynasty (901), three months after returning to the throne, Emperor Zhaozong visited the royal ancestral temple, issued a general amnesty and changed the reign title from the fourth year of Guanghua to the first year of Tianfu. At the same time, he announced that Wang Ya and other families had been vindicated.

Wang Ya and 835 other families were victims of the "Ganlu Incident". The "Ganlu Incident" occurred during the reign of Emperor Wenzong (November 11) and was a bloody confrontation between the civil service group and the eunuch group. At first, the civil service conspired to kill the eunuchs, but they were killed by the eunuchs in the end. Many civil service officials, including Wang Ya, were killed, and more than a thousand people were killed by the eunuchs.

The impact of the "Ganlu Incident" was extremely far-reaching. The most obvious one was that for more than half a century afterwards, the eunuchs had always been in an absolute dominant position in the struggle with the civil officials.

Nearly seventy years after the "Ganlu Incident", an imperial edict was suddenly issued to clear the name of Wang Ya and others. This had far-reaching political significance and was a signal to take action against the eunuchs.

In addition to fighting for power, we must also fight for profit.

After beating the eunuchs, Cui Yin could not wait to reach into their purses and first took back one of their privileges - the monopoly on wine yeast.

Don't underestimate this privilege; it can be compared to the salt and iron monopoly, or today's oil and natural gas, and it is extremely rich.

In fact, this privilege has no explicit regulations and no official documents to support it. It is just an "unwritten rule" and falls into the category of "you know what I mean".

This story starts with the former powerful eunuch Yang Fugong. At that time, Yang Fugong borrowed the privilege of monopolizing liquor koji for one year from the Ministry of Finance on the pretext of supplying the military pay for the imperial guards, and used the profits of that year to subsidize the imperial guards, which was equivalent to the policy allocation of the imperial court to the imperial guards. However, Yang Fugong was Liu Bei borrowing Jingzhou, and the "one year" in "borrowing for one year" became "every year", and he never returned it from then on. Over time, the privilege of monopolizing liquor koji for eunuchs became an unspoken rule.

The monopoly privilege on liquor koji nominally belonged to the Ministry of Finance, but in reality it was controlled by eunuchs. If Cui Yin wanted to take it back directly to the Ministry of Finance, it would not be an easy task.

Don't underestimate Cui Yin's political tactics. He did not directly take back the monopoly privilege of koji. Instead, he first announced the abolition of the monopoly privilege of koji, allowing merchants who sell wine to make koji themselves, and then the tax department collected taxes from them. In disguise, the monopoly privilege of koji was taken back, and the eunuchs had no power to fight back.

In order to ease the conflict, Cui Yin gave the eunuchs and the imperial guards a three-month buffer period to dump their inventory and reduce their losses.

It was really a gentle blow, which not only struck a blow to the eunuchs, but also increased fiscal revenue, won the support of Emperor Zhaozong, and also won the support of private merchants, and of course enriched his own pockets. He achieved multiple goals at one stroke, and only the eunuchs and the imperial guards were dumb and could not speak out their grievances.

Thanks to my old friend “纯正lsp” for his recommendation and support!
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(End of this chapter)