History of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms

Chapter 79 Second Lucky Destination
With heavy steps, the road home is so long. When the breeze blows gently around me, it brings the fragrance of the soil of my hometown...

This is not a freehand painting, but a realistic one. What Emperor Xizong of Tang smelled was indeed the fragrance of the earth. Chang'an, which had been ravaged by war, was full of broken walls, thorns and weeds, a desolate scene, and even foxes and rabbits running and playing... This was the result of Comrade Wang Zheng's careful renovation for nearly half a year.

Emperor Xizong of the Tang Dynasty issued an edict to grant amnesty and change the reign title to get a good start. The fifth year of Zhonghe was changed to the first year of Guangqi. This is a good change of reign title, Guangqi Guangqi, burn everything and restart.

After returning to Chang'an, Tian Lingzi faced another thorny problem: fiscal deficit.

At that time, the court's expenditures were mainly in the following areas:
1. Military Expenditure

Not to mention the existing Left and Right Shen Ce Armies, there were 54,000 new recruits from Tian Lingzi alone, and the newly reorganized "Five Imperial Guards". Tens of thousands of mouths waiting to eat, tens of thousands of hands waiting for money... The huge army was an absolute money-eating beast.

2. Official Salaries

Although Xizong's Chengdu exile government was only a remote exile government, it was also the only legitimate central government of the empire and still had to maintain a complete administrative management system and organizational personnel structure. According to incomplete statistics, the total number of officials in the Southern Court and the Northern Court was more than 10,000.

3. Infrastructure

The city of Chang'an had been reduced to a scorched earth, and rebuilding the imperial capital was undoubtedly a huge real estate development project.

4. Others

Emperor Xizong was always generous in his personal expenses for games and entertainment. Growing up in the inner court of the imperial palace and ascending the throne at the age of 11, Emperor Xizong really had no concept of money, and he probably didn't know the true value of a coin. Coupled with Tian Lingzi's instigation with ulterior motives, Emperor Xizong's personal entertainment expenses were also considerable.

According to records, the expenses for Emperor Yizong's outings were as follows: "One hundred thousand cash, five carts of gold and silk, five hundred musicians from ten groups, one hundred calf-drawn carts, red-net and vermilion-net painted carriages, and three thousand guards." Emperor Xizong should have continued to use the same expenses, and Emperor Xizong was far more idle than his father Emperor Yizong.

Tian Lingzi's top-level plan was to let the young emperor indulge in a life of luxury and debauchery. Therefore, Emperor Xizong's personal expenses were a bottomless pit.

Let’s look at the court’s income.

The vast majority of regions stopped paying tribute to the central government on the grounds of serious banditry and blocked tribute routes. The central government's fiscal revenue only came from rent and taxes in the capital area, Tongzhou, Huazhou, Fengxiang and other neighboring counties.

As a history book, it should be objective, but the editors of the History Museum often reveal their romanticism between the lines. For example, the history book says that only Tong, Hua, Fengxiang and other places near Chang'an paid tribute to the central government at that time, but in the biographies of some people, there is a sentence that "at that time, only so-and-so paid tribute to the central government."

We can't take it too seriously. We can only say that this is an exaggerated rhetoric device used to highlight someone's loyalty to the emperor and patriotism, rather than objective realism. If you take it seriously, you will lose.

In short, in times of peace and prosperity, all the feudal lords in the world had to pay tribute to Chang'an to maintain the normal operation of the state machinery. Nowadays, most of the feudal lords have stopped transfusing blood to Chang'an.

Fiscal revenue has fallen precipitously, while expenditure has risen sharply, which naturally results in a serious fiscal deficit.

Tian Lingzi thought hard and finally thought of a way to make money.

In addition to taxation, another major source of income for the imperial court was the profits from the salt and iron monopoly.

Previously, Anyi and Jiexian (both in Yuncheng, Shanxi Province) had salt ponds, which were under the jurisdiction of the Central Salt and Iron Commissioner, and the salt and iron monopoly had always been an important source of income for the court. Now, the salt ponds in these two places are controlled by Wang Chongrong, the governor of Hezhong, and only pay 3,000 carts of salt to the central government every year.

Therefore, Tian Lingzi ordered the restoration of the original organization and personally contracted the salt and iron monopoly business (Liangchi Quyanshi). In this way, there were no middlemen to make a profit from the price difference, and the huge profits from the salt and iron monopoly flowed into Tian Lingzi's pocket.

Wang Chongrong would certainly not sit idly by and watch Cheese become passive, so he kept submitting petitions to protest, and the court sent special envoys and eunuchs to mediate.

No fruit.

[Turn left and march in unison]

Trying to get the skin of a tiger is, of course, fruitless.

Tian Lingzi would not place his hopes on "mediation". His solution was to move the towns and he issued an edict to move the three towns to each other:

Wang Chongrong, the governor of Hezhong, was transferred to garrison Taining;

Qi Kerang, the governor of Taining, was transferred to garrison Yiwu Army; Wang Chucun, the governor of Yiwu, was transferred to garrison Hezhong.

At the same time, an imperial edict was issued to Li Keyong of Hedong, ordering Li Keyong to escort Wang Chucun to the town.

Prince Chucun of Yiwu submitted a memorial to the court, saying that Yizhou had just suffered an invasion by the Lulong Army and the Chengde Army, and the situation was not optimistic, so he dared not leave easily. Moreover, Wang Zhongrong had made great contributions in recovering the capital and had no faults, so it was not appropriate to move the town easily, otherwise it would shake the hearts of the people.

Wang Chongrong listed ten major crimes of Tian Lingzi, including abusing power and bringing disaster to the country and the people, and reported them to the court. In fact, this was equivalent to a "proclamation to punish Tian Yan", and the cloud of war once again loomed over Chang'an.

Tian Lingzi ignored the two towns' soft or hard resistance and issued another edict, ordering Wang Chucun to set off immediately. Stop talking nonsense, do you want to disobey the order?

Wang Chucun had no choice but to obey the imperial edict and set off. When he arrived at the city of Jinzhou, the governor of Jinzhou closed the city gates and refused to let Wang Chucun in. Wang Chucun had no choice but to return the same way.

Tian Lingzi secretly allied with Zhu Mei, the governor of Jingnan (Bining Army was renamed Jingnan Army), and Li Changfu, the governor of Fengxiang (Li Changyan's brother, Li Changyan had died), to form the "Central Guanxi Army" and prepare for the upcoming war.

Since Wang Chongrong refuses to obey the imperial edict, the "Central Guanxi Army" has a legitimate reason to attack you for disobeying the imperial order.

Wang Chongrong asked Li Keyong for help.

At this time, Li Keyong was actively recruiting soldiers and expanding his military strength. He replied to Wang Chongrong that he planned to gather the barbarian tribes in the north, first go south to kill Zhu Wen in Bianzhou and avenge the loss of Shangyuanyi, and then march westward to wipe out the Guanxi Army like autumn wind sweeping away fallen leaves.

Wang Chongrong analyzed the current situation for him and said that by the time you destroy Zhu Wen, I would also be a prisoner of Tian Yan. We have to prioritize things, so why don’t we clear out the emperor’s entourage first and then deal with Zhu Wen.

Zhu Wen and Wang Chongrong had just formed a nephew-uncle relationship, but now Wang Chongrong betrayed Zhu Wen.

The friend of my enemy is my enemy, and the enemy of my enemy is my friend. The Guanxi Army immediately contacted Zhu Wen secretly to express their support for him and to kill Li Keyong.

Li Keyong issued a military threat to the court, pointing out that Zhu Mei and Li Changfu were secretly colluding with Zhu Wen and wanted to kill me. I could only gather an army of 150,000 for self-defense. I was going to lead my troops across the river, kill Zhu Mei and Li Changfu, and then turn back to kill Zhu Wen to avenge my hatred. Your Majesty, please rest assured that I will never approach Chang'an and will not disturb your majesty.

Faced with Li Keyong's intimidation, Zhu Mei took advantage of the situation and secretly sent her men to Chang'an to carry out terrorist attacks, either setting fire to public supplies or assassinating the emperor's attendants. She claimed to the outside world that she was instructed by Li Keyong and spread rumors that Li Keyong was going to come to Beijing to hijack the emperor's carriage.

Tian Lingzi ordered Zhu Mei and Li Changfu to lead their respective armies, together with the Baoda Army, Shuofang Army, Dingnan Army and other towns, totaling 30,000 troops, to attack Wang Chongrong.

Wang Chongrong led his troops to resist and urgently asked Li Keyong for help. Li Keyong led his troops south.

Before Li Keyong arrived, Wang Chongrong had fought a draw with the Guanxi Army on his own and had been in a standoff in Tongzhou for more than a month. After Li Keyong joined the battle, the balance of war immediately tilted towards the Hezhong coalition.

Tian Lingzi hurriedly issued an edict in the name of the emperor, ordering the warring parties to immediately cease fire and calling on both sides to remain calm and restrained...

Li Keyong and Wang Chongrong gave the conditions for a ceasefire: Please ask Your Majesty to kill Tian Lingzi, Zhu Mei and Li Changfu.

If the talks fail, just keep doing it.

The Guanxi Army suffered a great defeat, and Zhu Mei and Li Changfu fled back to their town. Wherever the defeated army passed, they raped and looted, committing all kinds of atrocities, never letting down their reputation of "having no skills in defending against the enemy, but knowing how to disturb the people".

Li Keyong took advantage of the victory to approach the capital.

Tian Lingzi took Emperor Xizong of Tang hostage and fled to Fengxiang overnight.

Less than a year after Emperor Xizong of Tang returned to Chang'an, he embarked on the road of escape again.

In order to ease the situation, Tian Lingzi ordered the change of "Hezhong Army" into "National Protection Army".

Hearing that Tian Lingzi had taken the emperor hostage and fled westward, Li Keyong hurried back to his army and retreated to the river to avoid falling into Tian Lingzi's trap. He could not bear the blame for leading troops to force the emperor to come.

Thanks to old friends "feitian", "Feitian Shenlongzhan", "151023051918540", and "Zui Ai Yi Xiao" for their recommendation votes and support!
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(End of this chapter)