At this time, it rained heavily, thunder and lightning, and the rain was pouring down, and he was not close to people a few steps away. Li Keyong and others took advantage of the heavy rain to escape from the clutches, returned to the camp, counted the personnel, and found that two generals Chen Jingsi and Shi Jingsi had died. Li Keyong scolded Zhu Wen villain, and wanted to lead the army to find Zhu Wen for revenge. Mrs. Liu persuaded him: "Zhu Wen is not a thing, we should go to the emperor to reason, the matter is not straight, and we have our own judgment." If we respond to violence with violence, we will become unreasonable. ”

Li Keyong felt justified and said hatefully: "Zhu Wen is so shameless, sooner or later he will not die well!" He withdrew his troops and returned to Jinyang, and reported the incident to the imperial court. The Tang Dynasty was in a dilemma at this time, and they didn't dare to offend, so they comforted Li Keyong and named Li Keyong as the king of Tongping Zhangshi and Longxi County. Li Keyong's strategic goal at this time is to clear the Hebei area, and he can't hit Henan for the time being, so he will swallow this evil breath first and talk about it later.

Zhu Wen is really a "scoundrel" character, Li Keyong has no grudges and hatreds with him, and there is no reason to calculate Li Keyong. Zhu Wen did too much decisiveness, obviously unreasonable, but there is no need to blame Zhu Wen too much, in troubled times, it is about the result, not the process, the winner is the prince and the loser is the thief, who cares about you. Xiang Yu is known as a hero, didn't he also set up a Hongmen banquet to calculate Liu Bang? still has to cook Liu Bang's father, but the descendants don't think anything, so why bother to compare Zhu Wen's baht.

After Li Keyong escaped, he went to the court and asked Zhu Wen to be punished. Li Yi knew that Li Keyong and Zhu Wen had a grudge, but Zhu Wen's contribution to restoring the Tang Dynasty was not inferior to Li Keyong, and both parties did not dare to offend. I'll settle accounts with Zhu Wen in the future.

At this time, Zhu Wen didn't have time to pay attention to Li Keyong, and the gang around him who was in the way was more threatening than Li Keyong. All of them must be unplugged. Zhu Wen felt that the Yicheng Army Festival made Wang Duo's strength weaker, but he was looking for Wang Duo's bad luck every once in a while. Wang Duo is a slippery head. knew that Zhu Wen was unreliable, for fear that he would be eaten by Zhu Wen one day. In October of the fourth year of Tang Zhonghe (884 AD), Wang Duo went to the court and asked Emperor Xizong to move a place for him. Li Yi didn't bother to care about these bad things in the town, and transferred Wang Duo to be the envoy of the Yichang Army Festival (now Cangzhou, Hebei).

Yichang Junjiedu made Yang Quanmei's small life in Cangzhou very moist, where was he willing to let Wang Duo replace him, and thought of a wonderful method, Yang Quanmei knew that Wei Bojun Jiedu made Le Yanzhen's son Le Congxun "fierce and ineffective", so he instigated Le Congxun to kill Wang Duo. Le Congxun was greedy for Wang Duo's wealth, wife and concubine. He took hundreds of strongmen from the rivers and lakes to rob and kill Wang Duo in Gaojibo, Zhangnan, and took all his belongings.

At this time, Li Yi, who had already spent enough time in Chengdu, was preparing to return to Beijing, knowing that Wang Duo was helpless after being killed, and he didn't know how long he would live. In the first month of the fifth year of Tang Zhonghe (885 AD), Li Yi left Chengdu and returned to Chang'an in the north. Although Chengdu is good, "although Liangyuan is good, it is not a place to stay for a long time". Although Chang'an has been in tatters after more than five years of war, this is Li Yi's home after all. The fox is still dead, and the situation is not good!

When Li Yi saw that Chang'an City was "full of thorns, foxes and rabbits", he was poured a basin of cold water on his head. Depressed. Of course, these are not the most important things, what makes Li Yi most heartwarming is that although Huangchao has been exterminated. However, after the Anshi Rebellion, the situation of the division of Guanzhong Domain did not disappear, but intensified.

The central government of the Tang Dynasty controlled only dozens of prefectures in Hexi, Shannan, Jiannan, and Lingnan. Moreover, the prestige of the imperial court among the feudal domains was completely lost, and the ability to control them was completely lost. The Guanzhong feudal domains are dedicated to their own affairs. However, Li Yi was offered as a mud bodhisattva, and two small coins were symbolically given to the imperial court every year, which was regarded as giving the emperor three points of thin noodles.

The situation in the Tang Dynasty at this time was very similar to the warlord melee after the Yellow Turban Uprising in the late Eastern Han Dynasty, Tang Xizong and Emperor Han Xian were no different, the slight difference was that Emperor Han Xian was the king of the dead country, and there were two emperors behind Li Yu, which was his great luck.

As for Wang Duo's tragic death, Wang Duo's "protégé" Zhu Wen has to "bear" part of the responsibility, of course, even if Wang Duo stays in Huazhou, if he is captured alive by Zhu Wen in the future, Zhu Wen may not let him go? In troubled times, people come out to mingle with the rivers and lakes, when don't they dance on the tip of the knife with their heads? Life and death, honor and disgrace, are all left to fate.

Zhu Wen had no interest in paying attention to Wang Duo's idle articles, and for Zhu Wen, the biggest threat was Qin Zongquan, the former Caizhou assassin who had surrendered to Huangchao. Since the defeat of Huangchao, Qin Zongquan did not surrender to the Tang Dynasty, but led the rest of Huangchao back to Caizhou and continued to fight against the Tang Dynasty. If Huangchao could be regarded as a peasant uprising at the beginning, then Qin Zongquan was purely a warlord rebellion, and the means and harmfulness were even much greater than those in the Huangchao period. Qin Zongquan sent four generals, attacking the city and plundering the land, attacking Jianghuai with his younger brother Qin Yan, Qin Xian attacking Jiangnan, Qin He attacking Xiangyang, the big leader Sun Ru attacking the northern part of Henan, and Zhang Wei attacking Ru and Zheng. Everywhere the Qin army went, they killed people without counting, slaughtered and burned the city, and were extremely cruel, and history called Qin Zongquan "more brutal than Huangchao".

Qin Zongquan made such a big fuss, military food became the primary problem, but Qin Zongquan was very smart, and if he didn't have food to eat, then he would eat people. The Qin army hollowed out the dead corpses, salted them well, drove them on, and ate the dried corpses when they were hungry, "west to Guannei, east to Jiqing and Qi, south out of Jianghuai, north to Weihua, fish rotten birds scattered, people cut off, thorns and hazelnuts cover the wilderness." ”

Qin Zongquan was driving around in Henan, and the first one who couldn't sit still was Zhu Wen, how could he sit idly by. In the first month of the fifth year of Tang Zhonghe (885 AD), Lu Tang, the leader of the Qin Zongquan faction, attacked Bianzhou, and Zhu Wen led his army to fight in the south, and defeated Lu Tang in Jiaoyi (now south of Boxian County, Anhui), beheading thousands of people.

Although he was deflated, Cai Jun's strength is still there, and the death game with Zhu Wen has just begun, and it is not certain who will live and who will die. Qin Zongquan is also a person with an "emperor addiction", Huang Chao had already withdrawn from Chang'an when he surrendered, but Qin Zongquan should be able to experience the taste of Huang Chao when he was the emperor in Chang'an, and that feeling of supremacy is different.

In March of the fifth year of Tang Zhonghe (885 AD), Li Yi issued an edict to change Yuan Guangqi. At the same time, Qin Zongquan learned from the Yellow Nest according to the cat and the tiger, proclaimed himself emperor in Caizhou, placed hundreds of officials, and became a "lonely man". Cai Zongquan actually dared to do such a rebellious thing, and Li Yi naturally would not let him go. Because among the towns in the eastern part of the Kanto, the closest to Qin Zongquan were Shi Pu of Xuzhou's Wuning Army and Zhu Wen, the Xuanwu Army of Bianzhou, so Xi Zong took Shi Pu as the commander of the camp in Caizhou on all sides, and Zhu Wen as the commander of the camp in the northwest of Caizhou. and Zhu Wen as the king of Peijun.

Qin Zongquan did not ignore Zhu Wen as a character, and continued to attack and plunder. Qin Zongquan's top brand Sun Ru was ordered to attack the eastern capital of Luoyang City, and Tang Dongdu stayed behind Li Hanzhi to barely support it for more than a month. Because the soldiers were short and exhausted, they couldn't hold on, so they had to retreat west to Mianchi (now Mianchi, Henan), and Sun Ru attacked Luoyang.

Sun Ru is a devil who is even more cruel and ferocious than Qin Zongquan, because there is nothing valuable in Luoyang, and he can only drink the northwest wind if he stays. Sun Ru began to scrape the ground in Luoyang, "there are no chickens and dogs in the city", and then set fire to Luoyang and returned with goods. And after Li Hanzhi learned that Sun Ru had withdrawn. returned to Luoyang, because the city was burned, so he had to stay in the western suburbs.

The main reason for the failure of Huangchao is that he does not have his own strategic base, although Qin Zongquan has Caizhou as a base, but Qin Zongquan actually implements Huangchao's rogue strategy, which only focuses on immediate interests and does not have a long-term perspective. Luoyang is the pivot of Zhongzhou and has great strategic value. Get Luoyang, the west can resist the Tang Central Army, and the east can resist the soldiers of the towns in the eastern part of the country, and Wang Shichong at the end of the Sui Dynasty knew the importance of Luoyang. Qin Zongquan is greedy for money, how can he be so short-sighted!

In the face of such chaos. Li Yi had no way out, so he had to get by. And Tian Lingzi, the chief eunuch in charge of the court, had to worry about the emperor. Tian Lingzi was the number one giant beetle in the late Tang Dynasty, in order to protect himself. Tian Lingzi firmly grasped the military power. When he avoided Shu the last time, Tian Daren recruited more than 50,000 recruits and divided them into fifty-four capitals.

At the end of the Tang Dynasty, there were constant wars, and many towns did not pay their financial contributions, so Tian Lingzi was also very tight, and those who were soldiers could not get military salaries, who was willing to give Tian Lingzi his life? Tian Lingzi was anxious, the thief's eyes were looking around, looking around, Tian Lingzi aimed at Wang Chongrong in the river. Because Wang Chongrong has two major salt ponds in Anyi and Xie County, the official salt is profiteering, and these two salt ponds were originally subordinate to the salt and iron envoys before the Zhonghe period, and were under the exclusive management of the central government.

After the Anshi Rebellion, the imperial court was embarrassed, and raising the price of salt became the bulk of the imperial court's wealth, and the price of salt soared all the way, from the initial ten wen per bucket to a terrifying three hundred and seventy wen per bucket. The history is called "the endowment of the world, the salt is half, the palace is served, the military is fed, and the officials are all dependent on Yan." It can be seen that salt profit is extremely important to the imperial court economy. The rise in salt prices also means an unprecedented expansion of interests, which also gives space for the sale of illicit salt. However, the imperial court still controls the salt pond in the river, and can still maintain daily consumption.

Since Wang Chongrong took charge of Hezhong, he has relied on the salt pond, but only symbolically handed over 3,000 carts of salt to the imperial court every year. Tian Lingzi asked Wang Chongrong to hand over the salt pool, which was still subordinate to the salt and iron envoys, and controlled the two pools of salt, so Tian Lingzi did not worry about having no money to spend.

Tian Lingzi is very smart, Wang Chongrong is not stupid, he has no money to pay the army, and he can't survive, so he swept the face of Eunuch Tian at that time: You are the emperor's godfather, not my godfather, why should you give it to you? Tian Lingzi was annoyed and ashamed, and decided to get rid of Wang Chongrong and regain Yanli. Tian Lingzi manipulated the puppet emperor and issued an edict to transfer personnel: Wang Chongrong was transferred to the Taining Army Jiedu envoy, Yuan Jiedu made Qi Kerang transferred to the Yiwu Army, and the Yiwu Army Jiedu made Wang Chucun go to the river, and ordered Hedong Jiedu to make Li Ke send troops to "escort" Wang Chucun to his post.

The abacus cracks, but who listens? These warlords have managed to run their own businesses in the region, and none of them are willing to tear them down and start over. Wang Chucun said: "Wang Chongrong has made great contributions to the world and is not guilty, why is it light? Please retract your order, otherwise, the princes of all towns will be afraid, and I am afraid that it will not be conducive to the world. ”

Wang Chongrong didn't take Tian Lingzi as a person, and scolded Tian Lingzi for being treacherous and misleading the country. Tian Lingzi was furious, in August of the first year of Tang Guangqi (885 AD), Tian Lingzi transferred the forbidden army, took Zhu Mei as the commander of the Suining Festival, and led more than 100,000 soldiers and horses from Yanzhou (now Fuxian County, Shaanxi), Yanzhou (now Yan'an, Shaanxi), Lingzhou (now Lingwu, Ningxia), and Xiazhou (now Baichengzi, Wushen Banner, Inner Mongolia) to fight against Wang Chongrong.

Wang Chongrong saw that the comer was not good, and hurriedly asked Li Keyong for help. Li Keyong hated that the court did not punish Zhu Wen, and he didn't want to care about Wang Chongrong's idle articles, so he pushed Wang Chongrong: "I'll wait until Zhu San is killed, and then I'll help you teach that old eunuch a lesson." Wang Chongrong almost fainted, and wrote to urge Li Keyong: "Boss, when you take Zhu San, my brother and I are gone, don't talk nonsense, come over quickly." "The relationship between Wang Chongrong and Li Keyong is not bad, and Li Keyong decided to send troops.

Li Keyong knew that Zhu Mei often looked at Zhu Wenmei, and scolded Zhu Mei first, saying that Zhu Mei and Zhu Wen were embarrassed and cheating with each other, and they were the giant beetles of the country, and they had to get rid of Yunyun. Zhu Mei was furious: "Sha Tuo'er! Today, I will give you some color to see. Zhu Mei snare some outlaws sneaked to Chang'an, set fire to kill people, and then spread rumors: "We are the men and horses of Li Jiedu's envoy in Hedong!" "The people of Jingshi resented Li Keyong. Li Ke vomited blood angrily: "The forest is big, and there are all kinds of birds." Li Keyong led his troops to the river to save Wang Chongrong.

Zhu Mei led the army to attack Puzhou (Hezhong Jiedu station, now Yongji West, Shanxi), Wang Chongrong fortified the city and defended it, Zhu Mei did not succeed for a while, and Tunjun Shayuan (now Dalinan, Shaanxi). In November, Li Ke rushed to the river with a large army and joined forces with Wang Chongrong. Later, Li Ke used the court to ask Zhu Tian Lingzi, Zhu Mei and others to thank the world. How dare Li Yi be disrespectful to Tian Lingzi, and send the envoy to mediate, Li Keyong saw that the emperor did not give face, so there was nothing to say.

In December of the first year of Tang Guangqi (885 AD), Li Keyong and Wang Chongrong led their troops to cross the Luohe River, attack Shayuan, and have a decisive battle with the main force of the Central Army. The Hedong cavalry was tough and combative, broke the central army, and almost captured Zhu Mei alive. The remnants of the Central Army rushed back to their town screaming, and Zhu Mei also fled back to Bizhou (now Bin County, Shaanxi), Chang'an was horrified, and the Hedong Army then forced into Chang'an. Tian Lingzi originally hoped that Zhu Mei would be able to destroy Wang Chongrong, but the whole army was wiped out, and he was busy rushing west with the frightened Li Yi to Fengxiang.

After the Hedong army entered the city, they began to scrape the ground, burn, kill and loot, and do bad things. Last time, the "official army" made a fortune in Chang'an, burned down most of the houses, and after several years of repair, it was only less than half restored, and after the second time the city was washed, Chang'an was completely dilapidated.

In the first month of the second year of Tang Guangqi (886 AD), Li Keyong was almost finished, returned to the Shihe River to repair, and then shared the name with Wang Chongrong, please punish the giant eunuch Tian Lingzi. Li Yi's life is in the hands of Tian Lingzi, what do you use to kill Eunuch Tian? Don't listen, and certainly don't dare. (To be continued......)