History of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms

Chapter 60: Disharmony between the Prime Minister and the Chancellor
[The Prime Minister is at odds]

The war in Chang'an was at a stalemate. Although many vassal states were stationed around Chang'an, there was little substantive progress. Most of them looked at Chang'an with affection rather than greed.

At that time, the most popular activity among the people was civil uprising, and the most popular activity in the army was military mutiny.

The Zhaoyi army stationed in Hezhong with Wang Chongrong suddenly mutinied, killed the Jiedushi Gao Xun, and then withdrew back to their town. Gao Xun, who had just recovered Huazhou for the empire, did not die at the gunpoint of the enemy, but at the butcher's knife of his own people.

The Zhaoyi mutiny weakened the power of the Eastern Army.

The Fengxiang Corps stationed in Xingping also mutinied. Li Changyan, the military commander, led his troops to abandon Xingping and turn back to besiege the Fengxiang headquarters. Zheng Ting, the commander-in-chief of the coalition forces and the Fengxiang Jiedushi, personally went up to the city to talk with them.

Li Changyan's rebels forced Zheng Ting to surrender his military power.

Zheng Ting was filled with grief and indignation, and lamented, "Well. As long as you can eliminate the rebel Huang Chao for the country, it can be regarded as a great achievement." So he handed over power to Li Changyan, and fled to Chengdu.

The Fengxiang Rebellion was the mildest of all the rebellions in the late Tang Dynasty. There was no bloodshed and no military governor was executed. However, its impact was the worst and most shameful. This was because Zheng Ting was not only the military governor of Fengxiang, but also the commander-in-chief of the coalition forces that recaptured the capital.

Li Changyan's Fengxiang mutiny not only weakened the power of the Western Route Army, but also drove away the commander-in-chief and announced the substantive dissolution of the coalition forces.

Emperor Xizong of Tang Dynasty was always thinking about the fresh troops in Huainan. He firmly believed that as long as Gao Pian of Huainan took action, the Cao army would be crushed to pieces immediately.

Before Huang Chao captured Guangzhou, Gao Pian had drawn up an ambitious encirclement and suppression plan, but it was rejected by the court. In anger, he wrote a memorial to the emperor, cursing the court for its corruption.

Although Gao Pian was extremely angry and disregarded the relationship between the emperor and his subjects, his insults were not groundless.

There was indeed a phenomenon of power struggle among the core decision-making level of the imperial court, and the reason why Huang Chao was able to grow step by step was largely due to the infighting within the imperial court.

When the Cao army rose up, Prime Minister Lu Xie recommended Song Wei. However, Song Wei's repeated victories aroused the dissatisfaction of Prime Minister Wang Duo. Because Wang Liao was captured, the "war faction" Lu Xie and the "peace faction" Wang Duo fought openly and secretly, and the "Dengzhou surrender case" became a small climax of the struggle.

As detailed in the previous article, the first round of the competition ended temporarily with Wang Duo's victory. Wang Duo personally took charge, Song Wei and others were dismissed, and Lu Xie was also left out.

When Huang Chao was entrenched in Guangzhou and asked for amnesty, Lu Xie saw an opportunity to turn the tables and launched a second round of competition.

At that time, Prime Minister Zheng Ting advocated accepting Huang Chao's conditions, arguing that the country was weak and could not suppress the bandits for the time being. At the same time, Zheng Ting pointed out that the bandits were so powerful because of the successive disasters and the people were suffering from famine. When the weather was good and the hungry people were naturally gone, the bandits would disintegrate on their own. That would be the best time to conquer them. This was called conquering the enemy without fighting.

Zheng Ting's proposal was exactly the same as the one he used to put down the "Qiu Fu Rebellion" and "Pang Xun Rebellion" back then, which was to remove the firewood from under the cauldron.

Most people in the court supported Zheng Ting.

This would lead to a rather bizarre ending: the "war faction" Prime Minister Wang Duo won, and the "peace faction" Prime Minister Zheng Ting also won. However, Lu Xie was in the most embarrassing situation, becoming the most frustrated person, and his status in the court would plummet.

Lu Xie came up with a brilliant plan to kill two birds with one stone, which was to disintegrate the peace faction and suppress the war faction. So he first won over the former prime minister and son-in-law Yu Cong, and said that Guangzhou was prosperous and wealthy, supporting half of the country's fiscal revenue, and should not fall into the hands of thieves.

Afterwards, Lu Xie actively flattered Kikuta Lingzi, seeking support from the court, and at the same time strongly recommended Gao Pian.

With Tian Lingzi's support, the final result was achieved. Although the vast majority of court officials supported Zheng Ting's proposal, the court still adopted Lu Xie's proposal.

The final decision was to grant Huang Chao the position of security captain, just like the one given to the Monkey King Bi Ma Wen.

Zheng Ting was helpless and said to Lu Xie: "The fate of the country is actually in the hands of three or four of us. The bandits have hundreds of thousands of people and are rampant all over the world, and Gao Pian is playing the bandit and not moving forward. You are betting the fate of the empire on Gao Pian. If Gao Pian does not do what you want, I really don't know where the emperor will escape to!"

Lu Xie was very unhappy and started arguing with him, "Are you kidding me? Gao Pian can't defeat Huang Chao?"

Speak of the devil, and he will appear. It happened that Gao Pian had a memorial delivered, which said that in order to deal with internal problems, we must first stabilize the external situation, and suggested stabilizing Nanzhao first and fulfilling the previous promise of marriage. Lu Xie, of course, had to endorse Gao Pian, and strongly suggested that the court should stop procrastinating, and since the marriage was agreed, a princess should be married in time to prevent Nanzhao from fighting again, so that we can focus on dealing with the bandits.

The marriage with Nanzhao is a historical issue. At the beginning, Gao Pian repelled Nanzhao in Xichuan, built the outer city of Chengdu, and sent the great monk Jingxian to visit Nanzhao and promised to marry a princess in exchange for peace between the two countries. As a result, Nanzhao stopped harassing the border of the Tang Dynasty, but the marriage was shelved.

During this period, the ruler of Nanzhao, Shilong, died and his son, Longshun, ascended the throne. Longshun never forgot the promise of marriage and repeatedly sent people to urge the marriage.

There were many people in the court who held opposing views, such as Cui Anqian and Zheng Ting. Cui Anqian even called the ruler of Nanzhao "a lowly slave".

Their reasons are very valid and they undermine the national prestige.

First of all, Nanzhao was just a small barbarian country with a territory of just Yunnan County. Marrying a Tang princess was simply a toad wanting to eat swan meat.

Secondly, strictly speaking, this marriage was not authorized by the imperial court. It was a local governor who acted on his own initiative and sent a monk, which was simply nonsense.

Of course there were also supporters, such as Gao Pian, because he was the initiator, and Lu Xie, because he and Gao Pian were comrades in the same trench and shared a common political interest.

Relying on the support of Youtian Lingzi, Lu Xie tried his best to promote the marriage with Nanzhao, and quoted Gao Pian's memorials to coax and intimidate.

"How can we start a war with Nanzhao when we haven't dealt with Huang Chao yet?"

Zheng Ting disagreed and said, "Even if a war breaks out, what will happen?"

"Humph!" Lu Xie curled his lips. "Although the Southern Barbarians are not as wealthy as the Celestial Empire, they should not be underestimated. In the past twenty years, they have conquered Annan and Yongguan twice, penetrated into Qianzhong once, and invaded Xichuan twice, causing our Tang Dynasty to suffer from war. Don't you know that?"

Zheng Ting nodded, "That's why. You only know one side of the story, but not the other. As the saying goes, if you injure one thousand enemies, you will injure eight hundred of your own. The Nanman have been militaristic for more than a decade, and they are also deeply mired in the quagmire of war, and their national strength has been hollowed out. Conscription has been reduced to those under 15 years old, and women have to farm to serve in the military. Nanzhao can't even protect itself, so how can it have the ability to attack our Tang Dynasty?"

Lu Xie said again: "No, no. You are too naive. The reason why Nanzhao has not launched an attack is because they still have a glimmer of hope in the Tang Dynasty. Now, if all hope is shattered, can you guarantee that they will not do something desperate?"

Zheng Ting still disagreed. "A local vassal, the governor of Xichuan, sent a monk to marry off a Tang princess. Isn't this a joke? Gao Pian is selling out his master for fame! A subject actually sold his master's daughter. This is treasonous in itself!"

Lu Xie was anxious, "What do you know? This is called a stopgap measure!"

"A stopgap measure? Why don't you just give your daughter over as a temporary solution?"

"I'll take your uncle over as a temporary measure."

"Your uncle."

"Your uncle!"

Lu Xie and Zheng Ting are cousins, so you can scold your uncle but not your mother or grandmother.

The two prime ministers argued until their faces turned red, and the argument turned into a quarrel. Finally, Lu Xie stormed out in anger.

Lu Xie was really angry and too excited. He swung his sleeves too hard and threw an inkstone on the table to the ground, breaking it. There is also a saying that Lu Xie picked up the inkstone and threw it at Zheng Ting but missed.

When the news came, Emperor Xizong of Tang was very angry. The prime ministers argued, their faces turned red, they cursed at each other, and they even threw bricks at each other? How shameful! So he dismissed both of them and demoted them to guests of the crown prince and sent them to the Eastern Capital.

Of course, dismissal was just a gesture by the emperor to show all officials that they should be civilized and polite in the future and build a harmonious society. Half a year later, Lu Xie was promoted to prime minister again for his flattery of Tian Lingzi, while Zheng Ting was sent to Fengxiang and became the governor of Fengxiang.

(End of this chapter)