Daming Super Dimension Company, President Zhu Yuanzhang!

Xiao Ran and Li Lizhi went to Empress Changsun's palace.

Upon learning that Xiao Ran was coming, Li Shimin asked the eunuch to prepare the best food.

Li Shimin smiled and asked, "Are you really here to see the wolf cubs?"

"I haven't been here for a long time." Xiao Ran said helplessly.

Li Shimin glanced at Li Lizhi who was standing quietly beside Xiao Ran, snorted lightly, and said nothing more.

"I haven't received many orders from Datang recently. Come with me to pick some."

Xiao Ran nodded, "Okay."

The workaholic in the company is Zhu Yuanzhang, so Xiao Ran doesn’t have to worry about the Ming Dynasty’s orders at all.

Li Shimin had already spoken, so how could Xiao Ran refuse if it was just an order?

After dinner, Xiao Ran and Li Shimin returned to the afterlife.

The list of applications from the Tang Dynasty appeared one after another, and Li Shimin selected them with a frown.

Xiao Ran saw a list and his eyes lit up. He clicked it and said, "How about this list?"

【Client: Emperor Ai of Tang, Li Yu】

[Time: 908 AD, the beginning of the fifth year of Tianyou]

[Customer demand: I don’t want to be a king who loses his country. I would like to have help to regain my Tang Dynasty. ]

[Reward: Ten thousand taels of gold! ]

That's a ton of gold!
But this period.

Xiao Ran couldn't laugh. During the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period, it was really hard to get ten thousand taels of gold.

The word "destroyed country" made Li Shimin look unhappy. "Is this the last emperor of the Tang Dynasty?"

"The Tang Dynasty did indeed perish during his reign." Xiao Ran sighed.

"Emperor Ai of Tang, Li Yu, was the ninth son of Emperor Zhaozong of Tang. In the fourth year of Qianning, he was granted the title of Prince Hui. A few years later, he was appointed as the Grand Master of the Imperial Court and the Marshal of the Armies of All Provinces. In August of the first year of Tianyou, Zhu Quanzhong sent people to murder Emperor Zhaozong of Tang and his concubines. The next day, he falsely passed on the imperial decree and appointed Li Zuo as the crown prince, changing his name to Li Yu. He then ordered the crown prince to ascend the throne in front of Emperor Zhaozong's coffin. Li Yu, who was only 13 years old, was frightened by Zhu Quanzhong and did not dare to set a reign title, so he continued to use Emperor Zhaozong's reign title, Tianyou."

"Immediately afterwards, Zhu Quanzhong, who was already the King of Liang, was given the title of Prime Minister. His treatment basically exceeded that of Cao Cao during the Three Kingdoms period, and his status was only one step away from becoming the emperor."

"The rebels coveted our Tang Dynasty, they deserve to die!" Li Shimin said coldly.

Xiao Ran said slowly, "He later ascended the throne and established the Later Liang Dynasty."

"Did Emperor Tang Ai do nothing?"

"Emperor Ai of Tang had no real power, and the government affairs were decided by Zhu Quanzhong. During his reign, all the imperial edicts issued in his name were in accordance with Zhu Quanzhong's orders."

"There were only two things he advocated doing, but they were unsuccessful."

Xiao Ran's words made Li Shimin extremely disappointed, but he still asked, "Which two things?"

"One thing was that his wet nurse was given a title under the name of an imperial decree from the palace, but the ministers in the court pointed out that no wet nurse had ever been given a title from ancient times to the present." Xiao Ran summarized the matter in one sentence.

Li Shimin was speechless.

"Another incident was that Emperor Ai of the Tang Dynasty, Li Yu, was going to offer sacrifices to the heaven himself. At that time, all government offices had already made preparations, but Zhu Quanzhong was unhappy when he heard about it, so the officials in charge used the excuse of rescheduling to let the event go."

"After all, he ascended the throne and served as a general, yet he is so unmotivated." Li Shimin wanted to curse him, but he felt that since Emperor Ai of Tang, Li Yu, was no longer in front of him, he could not hear his curses, and he became very annoyed.

"There's nothing we can do. He's been scared out of his wits." Xiao Ran spread his hands.

As for the process of Emperor Ai of Tang, Li Yu, ascending to the throne, Dan Zi Xiaoran was very surprised to see it.

He thought that Li Yu had already accepted his fate and waited for death.

Li Shimin frowned and said unhappily, "Go on, tell me how the Tang Dynasty was destroyed."

"In June of the second year of Tianyou, Zhu Quanzhong, under the instigation of his cronies, gathered Pei Shu and other court officials at the Baima Posthouse by the Yellow River and killed them all, then threw their bodies into the river. This is known as the Baima Incident."

Xiao Ran sighed, "Those who died were all clean people."

"They had been at odds with Zhu Quanzhong for a long time, but this cruel act was perpetrated by Li Zhen, a counselor under Zhu Quanzhong. He had failed the imperial examinations many times in the 20 years of the Tang Dynasty, so he took his anger out on the officials from the well-dressed families and the court officials who had passed the imperial examinations. He said that these officials claimed to be the clean stream, and he killed them and threw them into the Yellow River to make them muddy streams forever."

In a court filled with muddy currents, even clean currents become a sin.

Emperor Ai of Tang, Li Yu, did not even have a chance to speak about the death of his ministers.

Li Shimin felt very sorry, "It's a pity that they were murdered by treacherous officials."

"After killing the ministers in the court, Zhu Quanzhong turned around and attacked the prince who was crowned as a king."

"In February of the second year of Tianyou, Annan Jiedushi Zhu Quanyu was promoted to Grand Tutor. He was Zhu Quanzhong's elder brother, so Zhu Quanzhong personally requested his dismissal in order to show off. At the same time, Zhu Quanzhong instructed Jiang Xuanhui to hold a banquet at Jiuqu Pond and invite Tang Zhaozong's sons to attend. When they got drunk, he took the opportunity to strangle them all and threw them into the corpse pool."

Zhu Quanzhong was ruthless and decisive in his actions.

If he had not yet planned to take action, Emperor Ai of Tang, Li Yu, would probably have been killed as well.

Xiao Ran continued, "In December of the same year, the deputy envoys of Xuanhui, Jiang Yin and Zhao Yinheng, falsely accused Jiang Xuanhui of entering the Queen Mother's palace without permission, and of making an alliance with Liu Can and others to help Li Yu seize power. Zhu Quanzhong executed Jiang Xuanhui, secretly ordered the execution of Queen Mother He in Jishan Palace, and forced Li Yu to declare that Queen Mother He committed suicide to apologize for her crimes of desecrating the palace, and demoted her to a commoner. For this reason, the New Year's suburban rituals were abolished, and Liu Can and his brothers were demoted and executed, and the Minister of Rites Zhang Tingfan was torn into pieces by five horses, and several others were removed from office and executed."

"In March of the fourth year of Tianyou, Li Yu was forced to abdicate the throne to Zhu Quanzhong, and the Later Liang Dynasty was established. After that, Li Yu was demoted to the King of Jiyin and was placed in the residence of Zhu Quanzhong's confidant Shi Shucong in Caozhou. However, because Taiyuan Li Keyong, Fengxiang Li Maozhen, Xichuan Wang Jian and others still respected Li Yu as the common ruler of the world, Zhu Quanzhong was uneasy. In the fifth year of Tianyou, which was also the second year of Kaiping in the Later Liang Dynasty, Zhu Quanzhong sent someone to poison Li Yu."

"This is the last record of the Tang Dynasty. After that, there were the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms."

Li Shimin looked at Xiao Ran, "Please briefly talk about the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms."

The Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms was a period of great division in history. This term originated from the "New History of the Five Dynasties" and is a general term for the chaotic period from the establishment of the Later Liang Dynasty to the founding of the Song Dynasty.

"When Zhu Quanzhong established the Later Liang Dynasty, there were other small regimes in the world. After years of struggle and development, they eventually formed the Ten Kingdoms."

"The nine southern kingdoms are Southern Wu, Southern Tang, Wuyue, Southern Chu, Former Shu, Later Shu, Southern Han, Nanping, and Min. There is only Northern Han in the north. The Five Dynasties refers to the five dynasties that emerged during this period, namely Later Liang, Later Tang, Later Jin, Later Han, and Later Zhou, which were relatively stable regimes in the Central Plains."

"But at that time, there was no such thing as Hou. It was added to make it easier to distinguish history."

Xiao Ran explained the meaning of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms in detail.

"Later Tang? Is it my Li family?" Li Shimin asked.

"In terms of blood relationship, he is not a member of the Li family."

"How do you say that?"

Xiao Ran smiled and explained, "The founding emperor of the Later Tang Dynasty, Li Cunxu, was the son of Li Keyong, the Prince of Jin."

"As for Li Keyong, he should have mentioned it when he made the list for Huang Chao." (End of this chapter)