A thousand-year-old family that began with the Battle of Makino

Chapter 965: A lonely man dies in Luoyang, and the aristocratic family ends their Tang Dynasty

February of the fourth year of Tianfu
Bianzhou changed its owner, and Zhu Wen in Chang'an also realized that the situation in the world had changed slightly, so he stopped dealing with the court officials.

February th
Zhu Wen, who was far away in Luoyang, ordered his adopted son Zhu Youliang, who was guarding Chang'an, to forge an imperial edict from Li Ye to execute several important officials of the third rank and above who disagreed with the relocation of the capital, including Prime Minister Cui Yin and Jingzhao Yin Zheng Yuangui.

The next day, Zhu Wen once again submitted a memorial firmly requesting to move the capital to Luoyang, and Li Ye had no choice but to obey.

With the emperor's authorization, Zhu Wen immediately ordered the people of Chang'an to relocate according to their registered residence, demolished the palaces and houses in Chang'an, floated the wood down the Wei River, and built palaces in Luoyang.

February 18

Because the Luoyang Palace had not yet been completed, Li Ye stayed in Shanzhou.

April 5th
Zhu Wen reported that the Luoyang Palace was completed and requested to move the capital immediately. Li Ye refused on the grounds that the empress had just given birth to a prince and the journey was not suitable.

He also secretly ordered Wang Chi, the Astronomical Observatory, to report to the emperor that "the stars and the aura are changing, which will occur this autumn, and it is not favorable to travel eastward," in support of the plan, and demanded that the eastward migration be carried out in October.

Zhu Wen was impatient and thought Li Ye was dragging his feet and waiting for changes.

He sent his general Kou Yanqing to Shanzhou to abduct Li Ye and move eastward, and killed the medical officer Yan Youzhi, the astronomer Wang Chi, the internal governor Wei Zhou, and the lady of Jin State Ke Zheng.

They also strangled to death more than 200 people including Li Ye's left and right eunuchs, the ball-playing attendants, and the children in the inner garden.

Replace with your own people.

At this time, Li Ye had completely become a loner in the true sense of the word and a tool for stamping.

April
Under the escort of Liang soldiers, Li Ye arrived in Luoyang and issued an edict to change the reign title to "Tianyou".

June of the first year of Tianyou
Upon hearing that Li Ye was forced by Zhu Wen to move the capital to Luoyang, the warlords all over the country were shocked and angry. They wrote to the emperor one after another, calling him a "treasonous usurper" and asking him to execute Zhu, just like Cao Cao.

June th

The five local vassal states closest to Zhu Wen, namely Baijian in Kaifeng, Li Keyong in Hedong, Li Maozhen in Fengxiang, Wang Jian in Xichuan, and Zhao Kuangning in Xiangyang, formed an "anti-Zhu alliance".

The anti-Zhu alliance advocated that the whole country should attack Zhu Wen in the name of restoring the Tang Dynasty, serving the king and eliminating bandits.

Seeing that he was about to face a situation where the whole world would rebel, Li Zhen, the strategist, offered him a plan:
"Rather than letting the princes of the world use Li Ye's name to cling to justice, it is better to strike first."

"What do you mean?" Zhu Wen widened his eyes, swallowed, and asked in disbelief.

"Your Excellency, there is no need to hesitate. The world is now divided among various states. The Tang court exists in name only. The emperor is just a makeshift emperor. This reputation is no longer popular."

"Besides, you are a general under the command of King Huang, not a minister of the Tang Dynasty. You will not be able to change your allegiance at any time. You can also confer titles on Liu Rengong, Wang Rong, Yang Xingmi and others and win them over to serve you."

Zhu Wen stood up and paced back and forth three times. Suddenly he stopped, turned around and walked to Li Zhen. He grabbed his arms with his big hands and said excitedly:

"Please give it your all, sir. If it can lead to great success, I will approve it."

Li Zhen smiled happily, broke free, bent over, saluted, and said, "Yes."

August
Since the Five Garrisons proposed the "Anti-Zhu Alliance", messengers from all parties have been traveling frequently on official roads and by land and water to coordinate the attack.

Even Wang Rong, Liu Rengong, Yang Xingmi and others who were originally allies of Zhu Wen came into contact with envoys sent by the "Anti-Zhu Alliance".

Just when Wang Rong and others were about to agree and rise up together to rebel against King Zhu Qin.

August th
Zhu Wen hinted and instructed Zhu Yougong, the commander of the Left Dragon Army, Shi Shucong, the commander of the Right Dragon Army, and others to break into the palace at night and lead troops to murder Emperor Li Ye, Lady Hedong Pei Zhenyi, Zhaoyi Li Jianrong, and others.

Li Ye's second legitimate son, Li Yu, who was also the ninth son, was made emperor.

At the same time, Li Zhen hated these aristocratic families and imperial examination officials very much because he failed the examinations many times in his early years.

He strongly advocated killing all court officials who were loyal to the Tang Dynasty.

August 8
Zhu Wen ordered Li Zhen to supervise the execution of more than 30 court officials headed by Pei Shu at Heyang Posthouse, including both the so-called Confucian school and the so-called Neo-Confucian school.

Li Zhen felt extremely satisfied as he watched and listened to the wealthy and powerful people who were constantly insulting him under the butcher's knife.

Pointing at them, he said to those around him with a smile: "These people always call themselves the clean stream. In my opinion, they should be thrown into the Yellow River to make it become muddy!"

Then he ordered all the bodies to be thrown into the Yellow River.

Originally, Zhu Wen and Li Zhen wanted to force Li Yu to abdicate. However, his confidants Jiang Xuanhui, Liu Can, and Zhang Tingfan, the Minister of Rites, believed that the world was not yet at peace and that they should not be too hasty. Zhu Wen was unhappy, but seeing that there were too many people persuading him, he reluctantly agreed.

August

The court appointed Zhu Wen as prime minister and chief minister of all officials, and promoted him to King of Liang, and named the 17 regions of Zhongwu, Huguo, Tianxiong, Wushun, Youguo, Heyang, Yiwu, and Jingnan as the State of Liang.

Jiabai's posts as Marshal of the Armies, Grand Commandant, and Minister of the Central Secretariat remained unchanged.

He was still granted the Nine Gifts, and was granted the privilege of "not walking forward when entering the court, wearing a sword and shoes when entering the palace, and not naming when praising or bowing."

November

Zhu Wen, who still had his heart set on the throne, executed Jiang Xuanhui, strangled Empress Dowager He, used Li Zhu to execute Liu Can, and had Taichang Qing Zhang Tingfan torn into pieces by five horses.

When everyone saw that Zhu Wen could so cruelly kill even his own close confidants, they stopped trying to stop him from ascending the throne.

November 11

Zhu Wen accepted the "abdication of the throne" from the 13-year-old Li Zhu on the abdication platform in the southern suburbs of Luoyang, changed his name to Zhu Huang, changed the era name to "Kaiping", and the country name to "Daliang".

Luoyang was designated as the national capital, and several surrounding states were incorporated into the Jingji Prefecture, with Tang Chang'an as the western capital.

The seventeen-year-old Li Zhu was deposed as King of Heyin and moved to Heyin as a prisoner.

In order to win over all parties, Zhu Wen, as the emperor, issued an edict to confer titles on Li Keyong the title of King of Jin, Bai Jian the title of King of Song, Liu Rengong the title of King of Yan, Wang Rong the title of King of Zhao, Li Maozhen the title of King of Qi, Wang Jian the title of King of Shu, Yang Xingmi the title of King of Wu, Qian Liu the title of King of Yue, Zhao Kuang the title of King of Xiang...
All the vassal states that occupied several states were conferred the title of king.

He openly told everyone that anyone who was willing to accept his title of king was an ally of Zhu Wen.

The first day of the first month of the first year of Liang Kaiping

Zhu Wen sent people to Heyin to poison Li Zhu.

"Zhu Wen is nothing but a traitor. He turned righteousness upside down, rebelled against the emperor and killed him. How could he not be a virtuous ruler and be crowned emperor?"

"I am the important minister entrusted by the late emperor. I was fortunate enough to be named the King of Shu. Chengdu is a place of loyal ministers. If I cannot defeat the enemy and restore the country, I will be ashamed of being a real man and ashamed of the Marquis of Wu."

In the Shu King's Palace in Chengdu, Wang Jian was shouting and screaming in the hall, as if Zhu Wen had destroyed the Tang Dynasty and killed his relatives.

"Prime Minister Liu."

"I am here." Liu Guanglu, the prime minister of Shu, stepped out and made a reply.

"This king will spread the message widely, inviting heroes from all over the world to fight against the false emperor together."

On that day, Wang Jian asked Liu Guanglu to write a manifesto and send it to the whole country, calling for an alliance between the various vassal states to attack Zhu Wen.

However, what no one knew was that that night, he secretly wrote two letters, one to Hedong and one to Bianzhou.

Except for Zhu Wen and his allies, the other vassal states did not recognize the legitimacy of the Liang Dynasty, and therefore continued to use the Tang Dynasty's reign title "Tianyou".

Among them, several of the more important princes, including Li Keyong, Liu Rengong, Yang Xingmi, Wang Jian, and Li Maozhen, were all conferred the title of king when Li Ye was alive, and did not accept Zhu Wen's rewards.

There were also Bai clan vassal states such as Baijian and Baiyu, who even still called themselves Duke of Song and Duke of Qian, and used the title of duke to confer the title of king.

However, their duke is stronger than an ordinary king.

Bai Yu, Bai Jian's brother who was originally in Bianzhou and served as his right-hand man, appeared in Qian State.

This was because the previous Duke of Qian died of illness, the old duke had no son, and the southwestern Bais did not approve of each other's candidates.

After a long period of wrangling and buck-passing, King Jian of Xichuan was seen moving south to station troops.

All parties were afraid that any further confrontation would allow outsiders to take advantage, so the Southwest Sect's leader, Bai Yuanwen, made the final decision.

I request the main clan to send the direct descendant of the Bai family to the southwest to serve as the king. After all, they all have the surname Bai, so it will not let my family suffer any loss.

Request to report to Bai Yuan after discussion between Bai Rui and Bai Yi, father and son.

It was decided to send the experienced Bai Yu to Qian State to serve as the military governor of Qiannan, Southern Sichuan, Western Yunnan, and Western Lingnan, and the Duke of Qian State.

(End of this chapter)