History of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms

Chapter 170 Visiting Fengxiang
[Plotting to Execute the Eunuchs]

Cui Yin helped Emperor Zhaozong to return to the throne, suppressed the power of the eunuchs, and in disguised form recovered the privilege of selling liquor and increased the empire's financial revenue, which won the trust of Emperor Zhaozong. Emperor Zhaozong entrusted all military and national affairs to Cui Yin, and the two of them talked about everything, often from day to late at night, and continued to talk by candlelight.

What Cui Yin talked about most was killing the eunuchs. Not just one or two, but all of them!
Han Wei was opposed to this and repeatedly advised Cui Yin not to act too extreme. If he was not thoughtful enough, it would definitely provoke a backlash from the eunuchs. They would die anyway, so they would definitely take the risk.

Cui Yin disagreed and still insisted on his proposal of "killing all eunuchs".

Emperor Zhaozong summoned Han Wei alone to sound him out, "There are too many evil people among the eunuchs. What do you think we should do?"

Han Wei replied: "You just realized it? We should have killed all of Liu Jishu when we killed him. Now the opportunity has been lost."

Zhaozong was anxious and angry, "Why didn't you tell Cui Yin about this at the time?"

Han Wei's best skill, besides talking after the fact, was to pass the buck. "I saw in your majesty's edict that 'only the main culprit will be executed, and the rest will not be questioned', and that only Liu Jishu, Wang Zhongxian and other 'core four eunuchs' will be held accountable. Your majesty, your words are golden, how can you break your promise to the world?"

Zhaozong was choked and speechless.

Han Wei continued, "In my opinion, we should catch a few typical examples, pick a few notorious people with irrefutable evidence, make their crimes public, and either kill them or send them to other places, then appease the others, and then select a few loyal people from among them and promote them to be their leaders. Now, all the eunuchs add up to tens of thousands, how can we kill them all?"

However, Cui Yin insisted on killing all the eunuchs.

The eunuchs had many eyes and ears, and they heard a little bit of the news. Han Quanhui, the commander-in-chief of the Left Shence Army, and others ran to Zhaozong, crying and pretending to be pitiful, begging desperately.

On the surface, Zhaozong tried to appease Han Quanhui and the others, but turned around and warned Cui Yin, "If you have any problems in the future, pass me a note, don't report it verbally, the walls have ears!"

From then on, Cui Yin was in charge of reporting matters.

Is that all that is going to happen?
The eunuchs had many eyes and ears, not only ears, but also eyes. The eunuchs carefully selected eleven literate beauties such as Song Rou and sent them to the palace as internal agents, waiting for an opportunity to secretly read Cui Yin's notes, so Cui Yin's every word and every strategy was under the control of the eunuchs.

The eunuchs are going to fight back.

Han Quanhui instigated the imperial guards to riot, saying that military supplies were in short supply (because the exclusive privilege of selling liquor and koji was withdrawn), and accused Cui Yin of withholding winter clothes. The eunuchs fanned the flames behind the scenes and encouraged them secretly. Seeing that the collective incident was getting bigger and bigger, there was a risk of getting out of control.

Earlier, in order to prevent any unexpected events, capable vassal states stationed auxiliary defense troops in Chang'an to protect the emperor's safety. Now, the "capable" ones are Fengxiang Li Maozhen and Bianzhou Zhu Wen, who defend their own interests in the name of protecting the capital. When the imperial guards demanded pay, the auxiliary defense troops should have stepped in to suppress it. However, the leader of the Fengxiang garrison, Li Jiyun (Li Maozhen's adopted son), was in cahoots with Han Quanhui. Instead of maintaining order, they joined the protesting crowd.

Under pressure, Zhaozong once again compromised with the eunuchs and local military governors and dismissed Cui Yin from his lucrative positions such as the salt and iron monopoly.

In order to protect themselves, Han Quanhui and other eunuchs not only colluded with Li Jiyun, the commander of the Fengxiang Defense Army, but also secretly colluded with the "Three Envoys" to use force to force Emperor Zhaozong to move the capital to Fengxiang. Among the "Three Envoys", only Sun Dezhao was unwilling to participate.

Likewise, their movements were too loud and the news leaked out. When Emperor Zhaozong heard about it, he was very worried and asked Han Wei for information.

Han Wei admitted that he had heard some rumors, but he was not sure of their authenticity.

Zhaozong was very confident. "No doubt about it! In recent days, Dong Yanbi, Zhou Chenghui and others have become more and more arrogant. Linghu Huan (son of former Prime Minister Linghu Tao) suggested that I set up a peace ceremony and invite Cui Yin and Han Quanhui to the inner hall to drink and shake hands to make peace. What do you think?"

Han Wei objected, saying that this order would encourage the eunuchs' arrogance.

"Then what do you think we should do?"

Han Wei's suggestions are still the same old ones: identify typical cases, comfort the people, and promote good people.

Zhaozong did as he said, but found that the eunuchs had become more and more powerful and would not listen to the emperor's orders at all. No matter whether they were demoted to guard the imperial tombs or sent to local areas as military supervisors, they remained unmoved and refused to leave the palace, and Zhaozong had no way to deal with it.

Cui Yin knew that the conspiracy to kill the eunuchs had been leaked, and the attitude and strength of the eunuch Han Quanhui's backlash also gave Cui Yin an unprecedented sense of urgency.

Cui Yin would not sit idly by and wait for death. He wrote a secret letter to Zhu Wen, claiming that he had received an imperial edict from Emperor Zhaozong, ordering Zhu Wen to rush to Chang'an in the west, purge the emperor's side, and protect the emperor in order to prevent the "Shaoyangyuan Coup" from happening again.

This connects to the previous point. During the halftime break, Zhu Wen received a secret letter from Cui Yin, saying that Chang'an was in chaos and he had the obligation to "obey the imperial edict" and purge the court.

【Visiting Fengxiang】

As early as when Emperor Zhaozong visited Huazhou, Cui Yin instructed Zhu Wen to build the eastern capital Luoyang and make preparations for moving the capital to Luoyang. Zhu Wen handed the restoration work over to the healing master Zhang Quanyi. Now, the eastern capital Luoyang is basically ready to welcome the emperor.

Zhu Wen also had the intention of taking the emperor to Luoyang, but at that time he did not have the strength to challenge Chang'an. Now, after conquering Heshuo, controlling Hezhong, and crippling Hedong, under Cui Yin's instigation, Zhu Wen finally "began to aspire to the throne."

Zhu Wen immediately adjusted his strategic focus, returned to Bianzhou, and issued a large-scale emergency mobilization order to concentrate the main forces to fight for Chang'an. The news soon spread to Chang'an, and the capital was shocked.

Zhaozong urgently summoned Han Wei to inquire about the reliability of the news and made his intention clear, that is, Zhu Wen must communicate with Li Maozhen in advance and reach a consensus before he can come to "clear the court" and must prevent the two feudatories from clashing in Chang'an.

A few days later, Zhaozong summoned Han Wei again with great concern and said, "Dong Yanbi, Zhou Chenghui and his gang are becoming more and more arrogant day by day. They go in and out of the palace with Li Jiyun, the commander of the Fengxiang garrison. They shout and yell in the hall and call on palace maids and eunuchs to drink with them. It's simply outrageous!"

Han Wei spoke up again, "I knew this would happen. This was wrong from the beginning. When they (the "three envoys") performed meritorious services in the first month of the year, Your Majesty should have only rewarded them with official titles, land, houses, gold, silver and silk, and should not have allowed them to enter and leave the palace at will. People like them are uneducated, uneducated, ignorant of etiquette, and know no limits. Moreover, they are profit-seeking and arrogant. It is obvious that they were used by the eunuchs and were deliberately taught to be like this."

Hindsight makes sense.

He was right. Han Quanhui and other eunuchs were shrewd and cunning. They deliberately let the "three envoys" (except Sun Dezhao) bully the emperor and disrupt the palace. They cooperated with Li Jiyun to make chaos inside and outside the palace in order to create public opinion basis for his visit to Fengxiang.

"Should have done it back then" means the same as "there is nothing we can do now." Zhaozong was left with only regret and melancholy.

In October, Zhu Wen completed the assembly and led his army from Bianzhou.

After receiving the news, Han Quanhui immediately ordered Li Jiyun, Dong Yanbi, Zhou Chenghui and others to kidnap Zhaozong and go to Fengxiang.

Without further ado, the operation to hijack the emperor was immediately launched. Troops were first sent to control all palace gates, and a comprehensive body search was conducted on all people entering and leaving. The communication between the emperor and his ministers was blocked, and special attention was paid to searching the "Secret Edict in the Belt".

Han Quanhui cut off the connection between Zhaozong and his ministers. Zhaozong was unable to meet with Han Wei and others, and was under house arrest. He could only cry in front of Empress He.

Afterwards, Han Quanhui ordered Zhaozong to summon civil and military officials to the inner hall (yes, it was the eunuchs who ordered the emperor) and announced the revocation of the imperial edict prohibiting eunuchs from entering the palace at the same time as the prime minister. From now on, Han Quanhui and others appeared in Yanying Hall at the same time as the prime minister to discuss state affairs with Zhaozong. The government was once again controlled by eunuchs.

Li Jiyun sent his troops to loot the gold, silver, jewelry and other property in the imperial palace treasury; Han Quanhui sent people to send the princes and palace maids to Fengxiang first.

At the end of the month, Zhu Wen personally led 70,000 elite troops from the four towns to assemble in Hezhong, and petitioned Emperor Zhaozong to move his emperor to Luoyang, the eastern capital. The capital was horrified, and officials and civilians fled and hid in the mountains and valleys. On that day, no civil or military officials entered the palace to attend court, and the palace was deserted inside and outside. Li Jiyun led his troops to surround the palace, strictly prohibiting anyone from entering or leaving, and then allowed his troops to loot. The residents of Chang'an could only wear paper clothes to keep warm, and everywhere they looked was a scene of desolation and devastation.

Sun Dezhao, one of the "three envoys", was unwilling to participate in the hijacking of the emperor. He was isolated and excluded by Han Quanhui and others. He had no choice but to lead his 6,000-strong army to join the garrisons in Beijing from various towns in Guandong, and retreated to Kaihuafang in Chang'an City to guard it and get closer to Cui Yin (Cui Yin lived in Kaihuafang). So this place became a refuge, and civil and military officials and the people of Chang'an fled to Kaihuafang to seek refuge.

Zhaozong's personal eunuch came to summon Cui Yin, saying that he was ordered by the emperor to ask all civil and military officials to come to the court. Cui Yin and others all declined the invitation.

It was obvious that Han Quanhui and his group had forged the imperial edict, intending to kidnap all civil and military officials and take them to Fengxiang in order to declare the legitimacy of the "Fengxiang government in exile." His trick was crushed by Sun Dezhao and Cui Yin.

Time was running out for Han Quanhui, so he led his army into the inner hall and told Emperor Zhaozong that Zhu Wen was approaching the capital and was going to kidnap the emperor to Luoyang in an attempt to usurp the throne. He asked His Majesty to follow them and seek refuge in Fengxiang.

Zhaozong flatly refused, "I'm not going anywhere, I'm staying here!" Then he took his sword in his hand, climbed up to the Qiqiao Tower, and showed a firm attitude.

Han Quanhui glared at him. You won't listen to my good talk, right? He showed a fierce look on his face and forced Zhaozong to submit.

"No!" Zhaozong held the sword tightly, sacred and inviolable.

Dong Yanbi set a big fire downstairs and said, "You can leave if you want."

That day was the "Winter Solstice". Zhaozong was sitting alone, leaning against the railing with his legs crossed and one foot on the railing, tapping away at the clock out of boredom. There was no civil or military official, no attendant or palace maid around him. The courtyard was completely silent, with only the crackling sound of burning wood. There was only infinite sadness in his heart.

Perhaps, he was stepping on the rhythm of Beijing opera drum at this moment, "Sigh, the king, ten thousand kinds of desolation, a thousand kinds of loneliness, the heart seems to be drunk, and the tears are flowing."

After holding on for a while, Emperor Zhaozong sighed helplessly, gave up his last stubbornness, turned around and went downstairs, and went to Fengxiang with Empress He, concubines, princes and about a hundred people under the coercion of Han Quanhui and others. The sound of wailing was endless.

Zhaozong had just walked out of the palace gate and couldn't help but look back at the palace. He knew in his heart that it would take him a long time to come back, and he didn't know if he could come back. Oh - the palace was gone. The entire palace had been engulfed in flames, and thick smoke enveloped the entire Chang'an City.

Stop thinking about it and go on your journey with peace of mind.

Outside Fengxiang, Li Maozhen went out to greet Emperor Zhaozong, who abandoned his dignity as an emperor and dismounted to offer condolences. After that, the emperor of the Tang Dynasty officially became a prisoner in Fengxiang.

Thanks to my old friends "Bedroom King" and "Pure lsp" for their recommendation votes and support, thank you!

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(End of this chapter)