Mo Xiao, the emperor is a heavy servant, and the ancient kings are also infatuated

Just for the shadow of the neon clothes and feathers, a long song that has been left for eternity

"Emperor Youling"

Author: Jiang Junshan

Chapter 1: Troubled Times

In the late Tang Dynasty, when Tang Yizong was seriously ill, the eunuchs Liu Xingshen and Han Wenyu forged an edict to establish Li Yu, who was only 12 years old, as the crown prince in order to facilitate the control of the government. Yizong died of illness in July 874 A.D., and was succeeded by Li Yu as Emperor Xizong of the Tang Dynasty. After Emperor Xizong succeeded to the throne, he specialized in games, and the government affairs of the court were controlled by eunuchs.

At this time, the Tang Emperor had a serious land annexation, more than half of the peasants in the country were exiled because of landlessness, heavy taxes and miscellaneous taxes, corruption in the government, extravagance and extravagance of the ruling class, coupled with frequent natural disasters, the common people struggled on the death line, forcing the people to rise up one after another, which finally led to the peasant uprising at the end of the Tang Dynasty.

Huangchao Shandong Heze people, born in a salt merchant family, good at riding and shooting, through pen and ink, few poets, five years old on the poetry chrysanthemum: "can be a hundred flowers for the head, natural God He yellow clothes." "And" The sassy west wind is planted all over the yard, and it is difficult for the cold fragrance and cold butterflies to come. If I am the Green Emperor in his year, I will report that the peach blossoms will bloom together. ”

After Huang Chao became an adult, he tried and failed, and wrote "Fu Ju after the first one": "When autumn comes on September 8, I will kill a hundred flowers after the flowers bloom." The heavenly incense array penetrates Chang'an, and the city is full of golden armor." Later, he inherited his ancestral business and became the leader of the Salt Gang. In this year, there was a great drought in the eastern part of the country, and the government forced the people to pay rent and taxes, and they served on errands, and the people were desperate. In the second year (875), Wang Xianzhi, Shang Rang and others raised troops in Changyuan, Henan. Huang Chao raised troops with his nephews Huang Kuo and Huang Enye in Heze, Shandong, and gathered thousands of people to respond to Wang Xianzhi. The peasant army captured more than ten prefectures and counties, pointing directly at the eastern capital Luoyang, the imperial court was afraid, and sent troops to attack Wang Xianzhi at the same time, deceived Wang Xianzhi to surrender to the imperial court and accept Zhao'an.

Wang Xianzhi planned to accept Zhao'an, but Huang Chao scolded: "Shiwu and you made a big oath together, and they ran rampant in the world." Now you have taken the official position alone, and what will the more than 5,000 people behold?" The rod hit Wang Xianzhi, broke his head, and divided his troops with Wang Xianzhi. Later, Wang Xianzhi was defeated in Huangmei, Hubei, and was killed by Zeng Yuanyubu, and the rest of the troops went to Bozhou, Anhui Province to take refuge in Huangchao, and pushed Huangchao as the Yellow King, called "the great general of the sky", and moved to the Huanghuai River Basin, and then marched into the lower reaches of the Yangtze River.

Later, Huangchao returned to the north and captured Chang'an. After entering the city, the military discipline was strict and orderly, the rebels distributed money to the poor, the people attended to welcome them, and Huangchao established the Great Qi regime. But soon, his subordinates began to slaughter in Chang'an City, the Tang clan left almost no trace of Chang'an, the Tang officials were panicked, and confiscated the property of the rich family, the palace was barefoot, and Chang'an City "the inner library was burned into splendid ashes, and the heavenly street stepped on the bones of the ministers".

Li Keyong was born in the new city of Shenwuchuan (now north of Yanmen, Shanxi). Born in the Western Turkic Shatuo Department, his surname is Zhu Xie, and he is the chief of Shatuo. His father, Zhu Xie Chixin, was given the surname Li by the emperor of the Tang Dynasty for his meritorious service in suppressing the Pang Xun mutiny, and was compiled into the clan genealogy. Li Keyong led the Shatuo army south to suppress Huangchao, and in 882, Li Keyong was twice honored by King Qin. In the second year, Huang Chao withdrew from Chang'an, and the Tang army conquered Chang'an. In 884, Li Keyong defeated the Qi army from the southeast of the river, and finally caused Huang Chao to commit suicide in the Tiger and Wolf Valley in Tai'an, Shandong.

It is also rumored that Huang Chao was not dead, disguised as a monk, evaded the pursuit of the official army, and wrote the poem "Self-titled Portrait": "I remember that when the grass flew, the iron clothes were all dressed in monk's clothes. No one knows on the Tianjin Bridge, leaning on the railing alone to watch the sunset. ”

In 884, after Li Keyong defeated Huangchao, he returned to the army and passed through Bianzhou, and took a break from the army in Fengchan Temple for rectification. Bianzhou was Zhu Wen's territory, and Zhu Wen was originally a subordinate of Huang Chao, and later descended to the Tang Dynasty. In order to convince Li Ke to use such a military power, Zhu Wen invited Li Ke to a banquet at the Shangyuan Post House.

Zhu Wen found a few singers and accompanied Li Keyong and his generals to drink. Li Keyong looks down on Zhu Wen's personality very much. During the banquet, Li Ke said to Zhu Wen with drunkenness: "General Zhu has surrendered to the imperial court this time, and he easily became the envoy of the festival without making an inch, and he also occupied such a good place in Bianzhou, which is really envious of us." Zhu Wen's face was a little unbearable, but fortunately, after drinking, his face was already a little red, so he couldn't see it. Zhu Wen replied; "The general conquest of the yellow thief is a great achievement. The last general also inherited the emperor's grace, so he got such a place to live, how can he be compared with the general. Li Keyong took advantage of the strength of the wine and said: "I sent troops back and forth for 600 miles this time, and the loss of war horses, grain and grass, and weapons is not small, can you ask the general to borrow some military pay and replenish it." Zhu Wen was displeased: "The general laughed, the last general is also very poor now, where is there any money and food for the general." Li Ke stared at Zhu Wen viciously: "You don't know when I do?" When you defected from the Yellow Thieves' army, you stole more than half of the Yellow Thieves' money, which was a few thousand taels of gold and hundreds of thousands of taels of silver. I don't want much, just lend me two thousand taels of gold and fifty thousand taels of silver. Zhu Wen said angrily: "The general is laughing, isn't this a robbery?" In the next really no! Li Ke said angrily: "I don't know how to lift, I will look up to you, so I opened my mouth to you." After saying that, he pushed away the small table in front of him, stood up and walked out.

Zhu Wen waited for Li Keyong and the others to leave the banquet and returned to the room of the post house to rest. He ordered his subordinates to bring in a group of soldiers, and while Li Keyong was drunk and asleep, he set fire to the house.

Seeing that the situation was not good, Li Keyong's servant Guo Jingbai hurriedly extinguished the candle, hid Li Keyong under the bed, and splashed water on Li Keyong to wake him up: "General, it's not good, Zhu Wen led the army to set fire, and we want to burn the general, we have to find a way to escape." "Rick woke up with a drunken drink, and saw that the fire was getting more and more intense. was anxious to think of a way to get out, but fortunately it was raining heavily at this time, and Li Ke laughed loudly: "God really helps me!" "The rain put out the fire. Li Keyong took the opportunity to take his entourage, and by the light of lightning on a rainy night, he escaped from the Weishi Gate with a rope and ran back to his troop station. After Li Keyong returned to Jinyang (present-day Taiyuan, Shanxi), he reported the matter to Tang Xizong, requesting that troops be sent to Bianzhou, and sent his brother Li Kexiu to lead 10,000 troops to be stationed in the Hezhong area. Tang Xizong persuaded: "You and Zhu Wen are both capable generals of our dynasty, and you must not cause a battle because of these misunderstandings." This will shake the foundation of the imperial court, please put the general on the overall situation. In order to further appease Li Keyong, and because of his meritorious service in breaking the Yellow Nest, Tang Xizong crowned Li Keyong as the "King of Longxi County". Although Tang Xizong temporarily pressed the dispute, Li Keyong and Zhu Wen began a twenty-year struggle.

In 885, Wang Chongrong, the envoy of Hezhong Jiedu, had a holiday with the eunuch Tian Lingzi, and Tian Lingzi, who was in charge of the court, made a proposal to Tang Xizong, sent Wang Chongrong to Yanzhou, appointed Wang Chucun of Dingzhou as the envoy of Hezhong Jiedu, and issued an edict to Li Ke to send troops to protect Wang Chucun's territory. Wang Chongrong ordered someone to tell Li Keyong: "The Son of Heaven issued a secret edict to me, let me kill you Li Keyong with Wang Chucun." Wang Chongrong knew that Li Keyong and Zhu Wen were at odds, so he forged an edict to Li Keyong and said: "This is Zhu Wen's conspiracy." Li Keyong believed that it was true, and asked for a crusade against Zhu Wen eight times, but Tang Xizong did not agree, and Li Keyong was very angry.

A few years later, Tang Xizong Li Yiyu, and his younger brother Li Ye succeeded to the throne as Tang Zhaozong. In 890, Li Keyong captured the three prefectures of Xing, Huan, and Ci, and ordered his general An Jinjun to attack Helianduo in Yunzhou. Youzhou Li Congwei sent troops to rescue Helian Duo, Li Congwei and Ahn Jinjun fought in Ulju, and Ahn Jinjun was defeated. So Li Congwei, Helian Duo and Zhu Wen wrote to take advantage of Li Ke's defeat to crusade against him. Tang Zhaozong thought that Li Ke had a high skill in breaking the Yellow Nest and should not go to crusade against him, so he issued an edict to inform Zhu Wen and others. Zhu Wen secretly bribed Prime Minister Zhang Jun to make Zhang Jun insist on crusading against Li Keyong. Tang Zhaozong had no choice but to appoint Zhang Jun as the commander of the troops and horses in Jinyang (now Taiyuan, Shanxi) on all sides, and Han Jian as the deputy envoy to go to crusade against Li Keyong. The Tang court appointed Jingzhao Yin Sun Kui as the envoy of the Zhaoyi Army, and Li Keyong sent Li Cunxiao to capture Sun Kui in Changzhi, and sent Kang Junli to seize Luzhou. In November, Zhang Jun and Li Keyong fought in Yin Di (present-day Shang County, Shaanxi), and Zhang Jun's army was defeated in three battles, and Zhang Jun and Han Jian fled back. Lick used the above table to tell the story, and his words were arrogant. Tang Zhaozong admitted his mistake to him for this reason, and replied to him with kind words and good words. Tang Zhaozong once again appointed Li Keyong as the envoy of the Hedong Festival, crowned the king of Longxi County, and appointed Li Keyong as the inspector and the secretary of the Zhongshu Order.

In the first month of 896, when Tang Zhaozong was preparing to appoint Zhang Jun as prime minister again, Li Keyong said: "This is Zhu Wen's conspiracy. So he said, "If Your Majesty appoints Zhang Jun as prime minister in the morning, then I will bring troops to the court in the evening!" Tang Zhaozong had no choice but to terminate the appointment of Zhang Jun.

Zhu Wen attacked Yan and Yun, and Li Keyong sent Li Cunxin to rescue him through Weizhou (now Handan, Hebei). Li Cunxin was stationed in Xin County, the army harassed the people and plundered in Weizhou, Wei Bojiedu made Luo Hongxin ambush the troops to attack Li Cunxin, and Li Cunxin was defeated and retreated to Yuzhou (now Yongnian County, Hebei). Li Keyong personally led his troops to attack Weizhou and engaged Luo Hongxin at Huanshui, during which Li Keyong's son Li Luoluo was killed. In June, Li Ke used more than ten cities such as Weizhou, Cheng'an, Huanshui, and Linzhang. In October, he defeated Wei Bo's army at Bailongtan and attacked Guanyinmen, and Zhu Wen's rescue troops arrived to relieve Wei Bo's danger.

In 901, Zhu Wen was crowned King of Liang by Tang Zhaozong. Zhu Wen sent troops to attack Li Keyong, the Liang army captured Jinzhou, Jiangzhou, and Hezhong, Li Keyong asked Zhu Wen for peace, Zhu Wen thought that Li Keyong had little strength in Jindi, and could directly capture it. At this time, it rained heavily, and many of the soldiers of the Liang army were sick, so the Liang army had to retreat, and the Jin army took advantage of the situation to regain the lost territory.

The following year, Li Keyong's Jin army attacked and was defeated by Zhu Wen's Liang army, which besieged Jinyang (present-day Taiyuan, Shanxi). Li Keyong panicked and was about to flee, when a large-scale epidemic broke out in the Liang army, and the Liang army was forced to withdraw its troops.

In 904, Zhu Wen, the king of Liang, forced Tang Zhaozong to move the capital to Luoyang and changed the era name to Tianyu. Li Keyong believed that the move of the Tang Emperor to Luoyang was a move under the hostage of Zhu Wen, the king of Liang, not the Son of Heaven's will, and Tianyou could not be counted as an orthodox Tang Dynasty era name, so he refused to use it. So the day after year is still used.

Li Cunmiao was born to Li Keyong and his side concubine Cao, who was good at riding and shooting since he was a child, was brave and open-minded, and was deeply favored by his father. He loves to read "Spring and Autumn", has a little understanding of general speech, and is good at music and rhythm, which can be described as both civil and military. In 895, Wang Xingyu, the envoy of the Suining Jiedu, together with Li Maozhen, the envoy of the Fengxiang Jiedu, and Han Jian, the envoy of the Zhenguo Jiedu, invaded Chang'an and attempted to abolish Tang Zhaozong. Li Keyong led the army to Qin Wang to quell the rebellion of the three towns. Li Cunmiao was eleven years old at the time, and he also fought with the army, and joined the court to offer victory, and was praised and rewarded by Tang Zhaozong. Soon, Li Cunqiao was awarded the title of inspector of the school, and he led the history of Xizhou from afar, and later changed to Fenzhou and Jinzhou.

Li Cunmiao was young and fun, and when he had nothing to do on weekdays, he liked to play around the city, especially watching plays. Tang Xuanzong Li Longji once built a pear orchard in the imperial garden of the imperial palace, which was specially used to train the disciples of singing, dancing and opera. Li Cunmiao likes "Lanling King's Entrance Song" the most, and often lingers in the theater.