History of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms

Chapter 76: The Post-Huang Chao Era

As the saying goes, there are no unsolved cases in the world, only cases that people dare not solve. The real culprit behind the "Shangyuanyi Incident" was not Zhu Wen, but the central government!

This central court was not the court of Emperor Xizong of Tang, but the court of Tian Lingzi. In other words, the mastermind behind the scenes was the powerful eunuch Tian Lingzi.

As analyzed above, getting rid of Li Keyong would do Zhu Wen no good but only harm. Zhu Wen had no motive to commit the crime.

If we look at it from the perspective of "who benefits and who is suspected", the biggest beneficiary of getting rid of Li Keyong was Tian Lingzi.

Although Tian Lingzi was far away in Chengdu, away from the Huang Chao rebellion, he did not stay out of it. On the contrary, during the entire "Huang Chao Rebellion", especially during the period when Huang Chao withdrew from Chang'an, Eunuch Tian was very busy running around.

Among the heroes who suppressed Huang Chao, the main ones were the "Two Zhengs", Commander-in-Chief Wang Duo, Deputy Commander-in-Chief Cui Anqian, and the eunuch Yang Fuguang, the chief military commander. The rest were outstanding generals such as Wang Chongrong, Li Keyong, and Zhu Wen.

Therefore, in order to usurp the credit and steal the fruits of victory, Tian Lingzi had to get rid of them.

As mentioned above, Tian Lingzi first removed the "two Zhengs" through conspiracy and then removed Wang Duo and Cui Anqian on the pretext of "failure to fight against the enemy". In order to be popular and also forced by the objective situation, Tian Lingzi had to support his political enemy, the "Yang faction" eunuchs, and attributed the credit for the recovery of Chang'an to Yang Fuguang, Li Keyong and others.

When Tian Lingzi was racking his brains to think of how to overthrow Yang Fuguang, Yang Fuguang suddenly died of illness. According to historical records, the whole army cried and the whole country was saddened, but Tian Lingzi was "very happy".

Afterwards, Tian Lingzi had no more worries and could not wait to wield the butcher knife against the "Yang faction". First, he excluded and suppressed Yang Fugong; he dismissed and absorbed the "Eight Zhongwu Commanders" of the "Yang faction" and reorganized them into the "Five Suijia Commanders" for his own use; he also competed with Wang Chongrong for salt profits and even went to war with him...

These are all later stories, and we will expand on them one by one in the following text. Here, we only need to understand one thing: Tian Lingzi declared a full-scale war on the heroes who fought against the bandits. Of course, this declaration of war was carried out quietly behind the scenes, and it was all a conspiracy that could not be seen in the light.

As Yang Fuguang said, he and Li Keyong were old friends, and Li Keyong should call Yang Fuguang "uncle". Li Keyong's meritorious service in suppressing the bandits and his transformation from a Class A wanted criminal of the imperial court to an imperial vassal was also due to Yang Fuguang's strong recommendation. Li Keyong and Yang Fuguang have formed a strategic partnership, and they will prosper together and suffer together.

Therefore, Li Keyong was also a thorn in Tian Lingzi's side.

Li Keyong and Wang Chongrong had a close relationship. Li Keyong and Wang Chongrong's son Wang Ke were also in-laws, but that's another story. In short, both Li Keyong and Wang Chongrong made contributions under Yang Fuguang and were comrades in the trenches.

The two of them were stationed in Hedong and Hezhong respectively, entrenched in the east of Chang'an with a covetous eye.

To the southeast of Chang'an is Zhu Wen of Bianzhou. Zhu Wen was recruited by Yang Fuguang and Wang Chongrong, and they had a natural political alliance. Zhu Wen also recognized Wang Chongrong as his uncle, adding another layer of uncle-nephew relationship to the comradeship.

Zhu Wen and Li Keyong were also good friends who fought side by side and called each other brothers.

In this way, a loose political and military alliance with Yang Fuguang as the core was formed in the Kanto region. Although Yang Fuguang was dead, the various vassal states still maintained a generally friendly attitude in order to safeguard their own interests.

This is what Tian Lingzi is most worried about, that government orders cannot leave Tongguan!

Finally, Tian Lingzi smelled this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity!

Li Keyong pursued Huang Chao and returned with a full load, passing through Bianzhou. If Zhu Wen could get rid of Li Keyong, wouldn't it be killing two birds with one stone?
"Zhu Wen, think of a way to kill him. All the spoils he captures will be yours as a reward for your hard work. I only want his head."

Was Zhu Wen so obedient? Was he greedy for Li Keyong's property, or would he obey Tian Lingzi's instructions? Or did Zhu Wen also want to cling to Tian Lingzi's thigh and take the initiative to offer his loyalty?
No matter what, Zhu Wen must be very conflicted. From the bottom of his heart, Zhu Wen really didn't want to kill him. But if he didn't listen to Tian Lingzi, would Tian Lingzi's next target be him?

Even Wang Duo, Cui Anqian, Zheng Ting and Zheng Congdang, who were of noble descent, could not escape the clutches of Tian Lingzi. Could it be that Zhu Wen, a "three-no" product who was short, poor and ugly, would be okay?

In a letter Zhu Wen sent to Li Keyong afterwards, he also clearly pointed out that the assassination was not authorized by him, but was done by Yang Yanhong, a general under his command, and the eunuchs sent by the imperial court. This was equivalent to revealing to Li Keyong the real culprit behind the scenes: Tian Lingzi wanted to get rid of you!
This can explain our initial doubt, that is, the preparations for this assassination were very hasty.

After the incident, Li Keyong hurried back to Hedong, which seemed to reflect that he also knew who the real culprit behind the incident was, but the person's background was too deep and he did not dare to say it.

The "Shangyuanyi Incident" was a tacit agreement between Li Keyong and the imperial court (Tian Lingzi). They knew each other tacitly, and everyone could only speak in unison that Zhu Wen was the mastermind. Don't investigate this case any further, and close it when you find Zhu Wen. Strangely, Zhu Wen, the "culprit" who "plotted to murder the meritorious service of suppressing the bandits", did not receive any punishment. There was also a tacit agreement between Zhu Wen and the imperial court.

The "Shangyuanyi Incident" became a handle for Li Keyong to blackmail the imperial court and he continued to make false accusations.

Of course, the court under Tian Lingzi's control would not pity Zhu Wen out of guilt. The reason why they withstood Li Keyong's pressure and saved Zhu Wen was that there were other more important considerations. This will also be gradually expanded in the following text.

The above is the most reasonable inference about the "Shangyuanyi Incident".

The real murderer: Tian Lingzi.

Although Huang Chao was dead, the chaos in the country did not end. On the contrary, it became even more chaotic. The majesty of the central government was gone, and the emperor's orders became almost empty words.

Faced with the annexation of the feudal lords and the separatist rule of warlords, the central court was no longer able to stop it and could only compromise and pursue a policy of appeasement while seeking a balance of power among the feudal lords and even instigating fights between them in order to reap the benefits.

After Huang Chao's death, history entered the "post-Huang Chao era".

【Li Keyong's Expansion】

After escaping from Shangyuanyi, Li Keyong actively expanded the army and prepared for war, while at the same time sending people to the court to accuse Zhu Wen of his evil plot and issued military threats.

Upon receiving the indictment, all the civil and military officials in the court were horrified and unanimously stated that Huang Chao had just been defeated and it was not appropriate to cause further trouble, and that the two towns should be allowed to reconcile.

The best candidate to act as a peacemaker in the court was the eunuch Yang Fugong. Yang Fugong was Yang Fuguang's cousin. Since Yang Fuguang was dead, the person who had the most face in Li Keyong's court was of course Yang Fugong.

Face is only a prerequisite for the smooth implementation of reconciliation work, while the substance is the decisive factor for the success of reconciliation work.

The superficial thing was Yang Fugong, but the real thing was to confer the title of Prince of Longxi on Li Keyong, and to assign Linzhou, Yunzhou and Weizhou to Hedong, and to assign Zezhou and Luzhou of Zhaoyi Army to Li Keyong's younger brother Li Kexiu (from then on, Zhaoyi Army was divided into two, the area west of Taihang Mountain became "Western Zhaoyi Army", and the Jiedushi was Li Kexiu).

This was the solution that Madam Liu gave to Li Keyong, to blackmail the imperial court and make the imperial court controlled by Tian Lingzi suffer in silence. Li Keyong's power was greatly enhanced as a result.

Li Keyong's growth and development aroused the vigilance of neighboring vassals, especially the division of Zhaoyi Army, which caused great panic to Li Keju, the governor of Lulong Army in Youzhou (now Beijing).

Li Keyong's power continued to penetrate eastwards, and it was obvious that his next target would be Youzhou. Wang Chucun of Dingzhou (now Dingzhou City, Hebei Province) and Li Keyong were in-laws, and would definitely become Li Keyong's accomplice.

Li Keju of Youzhou decided to take the initiative.

So, Li Keju deceived Wang Rong, the governor of Chengde Army in Zhenzhou (now Zhengding County, Hebei Province), saying that Yizhou and Dingzhou have been the inherent territories of Lulong and Chengde since ancient times, and now they have been divided by them. In the next step, both of us will be in danger.

You are lying with your eyes wide open. The two states were separated from the Chengde Army more than a hundred years ago and have nothing to do with the Lulong Army.

Wang Rong was only 13 years old at the time. He inherited his father's position and became the Jiedushi of the Chengde Army. He was only 10 years old when he inherited the throne. Therefore, he was successfully deceived by Li Keju and formed a military alliance, agreeing to attack the Dingzhou Yiwu Army and divide the Yiwu Army.

To be on the safe side, Li Keju secretly colluded with Li Keyong's old enemy, Helian Duo, the defense commander of Datong, and asked Helian Duo to attack Li Keyong's back in order to contain Li Keyong in the west.

Helian Duo was also coveting the northern territory of Hedong, so the two hit it off. Then, Li Keju and Wang Rong each sent out a large army to launch a surprise attack on Wang Chucun of the Yiwu Army.

Wang Chucun urgently asked Li Keyong for help.

(End of this chapter)