Late Tang

Changan.

On the flying pavilion of the Daming Palace, with a crown on his head and wearing a dragon robe, Huang Chao looked a little tired, and did not have the joy that he should have after becoming a Daqi emperor.Leaning on the railing and looking into the distance, Huang Chao's brows were tightly furrowed, and there was deep sadness in his eyes.

"When the autumn comes on September [-]th, I will kill a hundred flowers after the flowers bloom. The fragrance of the sky spreads through Chang'an, and the city is full of golden armor."

Slowly reciting this poem when Budi left Chang'an, at that time, he was very angry.Unexpectedly, after so many years, he actually returned to Chang'an, and he brought hundreds of thousands of troops with him.Up to now, he can still remember the excitement in his heart when he returned to Chang'an.

It's just that a few months have passed, and now Huang Chao's heart is no longer happy at the beginning.

Chang'an, this bustling capital city, is more like a heavy shackle, a huge cage, locking him and his Qi army soldiers here.This is a huge quagmire, and his soldiers are all stuck in it.

When Huang Chao first entered Chang'an, apart from being happy, what Huang Chao wanted was to take good care of his family with the talent in his heart.Chang'an will become the capital of Da Qi, and he will treat the gentry people here kindly and let them all follow him to build an eternal empire.But this lofty ambition ended in just three days.

Chang'an turned out to be an empty city with no food.

He brought 30 troops and nearly 20 family members of the soldiers accompanying the army, but he only brought the army's food and grass for less than a month.But there were still nearly 50 people left in the city. When he took over Chang'an, he also took over 50 big mouths waiting to eat.

Chang'an lived in Guanzhong, originally known for its abundance of products, but due to Guanzhong's status as the center of the world, the population continued to grow. There are a large number of cities in Guanzhong with a large population. Guanzhong has long been unable to support itself in food. The splendor and prosperity of this country must be built on the continuous blood transfusion of the Southeast Fanzhen.From the mid-Tang Dynasty, on average, about 250 million shi of grain had to be transported from the Jianghuai River to Chang'an every year to meet the needs of the Central Forbidden Army, officials and civilians stationed in the capital.

After the Anshi Rebellion, the grain produced in the two major grain-producing areas of Henan and Hedong was almost used by the feudal towns in the Central Plains to support the towns that contained the Hebei feudal towns.Chang'an lacks food, so it needs to rely on the farther southeast of the Jianghuai region, relying on the food source here to supply Chang'an.Under normal circumstances, Chang'an can also make up for the lack of local food production by relying on its developed water transportation and commercial system.But what matters is that this is an extremely fragile balance.Once an accident occurs and the water transportation is not smooth, Chang'an will soon have a food shortage.

During the reign of Dezong Zhenyuan, due to the rebellion of the Four Kings and Two Emperors, all the granaries in Guanzhong were exhausted, and the imperial army was in a state of turmoil.Dezong looked eastward at the grain ship every day, feeling anxious.Later, when he finally learned that the grain from the Jianghuai River had been transported to Shanzhou, Tang Dezong Li Shi cried to the prince Li Song with great joy: "Our father and son say that we can live again!"

Even Dezong and his son were in such a predicament back then, it can be seen that Huang Chao's situation is even more difficult now.

On the surface, Huang Chao went to Luoyang first, and then to Chang'an. His appearance was extremely brilliant, and his momentum moved the world.But if you look at it fundamentally, behind its hundreds of thousands of troops, it is a hundred times worse economic and people's livelihood than Dezong's back then.Although Huang Chao now occupies dozens of prefectures, and several vassal towns have expressed their surrender to Huang Chao, the key point is that these places where Huang Chao is located are all post-war places after repeated seesaws. Save less food.But after entering Chang'an, it was an empty city.

The 30 troops in Guanzhong, together with the nearly 20 Tang troops who surrendered, and the 60 troops left behind in Henan, together, Huang Chao now has [-] troops supported by the army alone, even if only one-third of them can really fight One quarter, but it is impossible for these people to eat only one third and one quarter.

After Huang Chao entered Chang'an, Li Jing took control of Huaisi in a blink of an eye, captured the states of Xu Hao and Shou Chu, and compressed the remaining troops in Henan near Luoyang.And the feudal towns in the southeast have already cut off the supply to Guanzhong.

The southeast feudal towns that the central government of the Tang Dynasty relied on had already cut off the supply, and most of the food from Henan was brought to Guanzhong.

The attached towns are still only attached in name, and they are self-sufficient in money and food, even if they hand in the confession, it is just a drop in the bucket.

In such a situation, what else could he do besides robbing?

Faced with the plundering of Chang'an by the troops of the Qi army, Huang Chao could only acquiesce.Because if it is not allowed, he will not be able to provide food to appease the morale of the army.

At the beginning, Huang Chao acquiesced to the Qi army's looting of Chang'an because he had to.Originally, Huang Chao's Minister of the Ministry of Officials, Zhang Yan, once played a memorial, which also mentioned the plight of the Qi army after entering Chang'an at this time.But Zhang Yan pointed out that the sergeants should not indulge in looting.Even if it is necessary, the Daqi court should come forward to organize a formal action, and the court should confiscate the property, money and food of the original Li and Tang royal family, relatives of the emperor, and high-ranking officials and nobles for confiscation, and the soldiers should not plunder privately.Because allowing the soldiers to plunder in private would not only worsen the weak military discipline of the Qi army, but also most of the stolen money and food would be privately hidden by some soldiers, which could not be better used by the court.

But at that time, Huang Chao refused after thinking for a while. He didn't give a reason, but Zhang Yan guessed that Huang Chao didn't want to take the robbery as his own idea, and he didn't want to bear this bad name and leave it in the history books.

The result of saving face is that three days after the Qi army entered Chang'an, they started from seizing the house, and finally went up to the general and down to the soldiers, robbing everywhere, and finally completely lost the restraint of military discipline, murdered and set fire, robbed and wiped out silver, and even Qi There were also constant brawls between the armies, and the huge city of Chang'an was completely in shambles.When Huang Chao finally felt something was wrong and wanted to restrain military discipline, it was too late.

A round of looting by the Qi army destroyed one-tenth of the city of Chang'an in ashes, and more than [-] people were killed in the war.

To make matters worse, when Huang Chao issued a decree to declare that the officials of Li Tang in Chang'an City should be dismissed at both the third rank and the fourth rank and below, all of them would stay in their posts and immediately continue to work in the Yamen. There are dozens of kittens and puppies in Zhifang.

Datang officials, the first and second ranks are basically false titles, and most of the real work is counted from the third rank.Huang Chao's decree originally intended to retire those honorable senior ministers Li Tang, and the rest of the officials actually retained their original posts.Moreover, if the performance is good, even if it is above the third rank, such as Zhang Zhifang, he will stay and be promoted.

When Huang Chao made this imperial decree, he was still thinking in his heart that he was so generous and gracious, wouldn't those officials all rush to vote.

"Heroes in the world, come into my nest." Huang Chao thought happily.

But the result is that, except for the dozens of kittens and puppies, the officials in Chang'an City either fled with the emperor long ago, or they ran away later, they didn't run away, or they were picked up by the agents sent by Li Jing , or they hid themselves.

These officials who stayed behind originally thought that even if the dynasty changed, they could continue to be officials.But after seeing the atrocities of the Qi army, who would dare to come out?All their mansions and manors have been occupied by the generals of the Qi army, and those who ran slowly were even killed by the rebel army long ago.

Therefore, when Huang Chao looked back and realized that his hundreds of thousands of soldiers who fought, killed, robbed and killed could not rule the world, when he wanted to use Tang Dynasty officials, there were very few followers.Not only those officials are like this, even those scholars without official status are not interested in his recruitment list at all.

The burning, killing, and looting of the Qi army into Chang'an City completely made those famous and noble families, rich noble families, and even local tyrants and landlords all look at Huang Chao with cold eyes and hate them endlessly.For them, such a Qi army, such a Huang Chao, even if they occupy the eastern capital Xijing, even if Huang Chao wears a royal robe, he is nothing more than a clown crowned by a monkey.

No one is willing to be an official for Huang Chao, but the new Daqi Empire cannot be governed by a group of soldiers who only know how to fight and kill.So, not long after, Huang Chao issued a new imperial decree, all the former officials of the Tang Dynasty, regardless of their grades, as long as they bring a post and report to the mansion of Zhao Zhang, Daqi's servant and Tongping Zhangshi, their status will be restored. official position.

It's just Huang Chao's further concession, still putting on a hot face and a cold butt.At this time, the officials of the original Tang Dynasty were afraid of the yellow nest like a tiger, who would dare to accompany the tiger with their bodies.

The edict was posted on the list for several days, but few people came.

What made Huang Chao angry the most was that after the former general supervisor Zheng Zhengqi and the two ministers of the Kubu Langzhong Zheng family were discovered by the Qi army, these two officials, a third-rank senior official and a fifth-rank official, refused to be Huang Chao's courtiers. , Not only that, the two even committed suicide directly.

This incident deeply hurt Huang Chao's self-esteem. Back then, he entered the Chang'an imperial examination many times. As a result, the nobles in Chang'an looked down on him as a country candidate.But now that he is the emperor, these people still despise him so much.

After the two surnamed Zheng were searched out, Huang Chao personally bestowed many rewards, but in the end they would rather commit suicide than be his courtiers.

Finally, out of anger, Huang Chao issued the third imperial decree, all ministers and ministers who dared to hide and flee should be killed immediately upon discovery.All the Li Tang clans who have been captured, kill!All scholars who look down on Huang Chao and Da Qi and refuse to serve in the new dynasty will be killed!

Last time, the Qi army plundered Chang'an, mainly robbing houses, money and women. For those officials and big families, if they cooperate with handing over their property or fleeing, they will not be held accountable.But this time, the entire Chang'an City launched a large-scale arrest operation. The wolf-like Qi army broke into every square, lane, and every street in Chang'an City, showing their brutality and brutality.

A large number of officials, such as the prince's young teacher Pei Xuan, the censor Zhongcheng Zhao Meng, the servant of the Ministry of Justice Li Pu, Jing Zhaoyin Li Tang, and the relatives of Li Tang's clan who failed to escape from the city, were searched and arrested by the people in batches, and then one by one died. The head is different, the bones are scattered in the city, and the streets are blood-stained.Even the body of the former Prime Minister Lu Xie who committed suicide before the fall of Chang'an was dragged out of the coffin and displayed in the market!

The military intelligence department sent by Li Jing actively robbed the Qi army and searched and rescued those officials and scholars as much as possible.

In Chang'an City, besides the prime minister Yu Cong and Princess Guangde hidden in the underground palace of Da Ci'en Temple, there are also prominent prime ministers such as Dou Luzhen and Cui Hang.In and outside Chang'an City, the Qin Army's Military Intelligence Department has more than a dozen secret strongholds. There are thousands of people who have taken refuge in these places, almost all of them are famous families, court officials, and relatives of the emperor.

In addition to the secret strongholds of the Qin Army's Secret Service Division, many officials and nobles also had their own secret hiding places, but many of these strongholds were discovered, and all those who hid were executed by the angry Huang Chao.

The former Huainan Jiedu envoy Liu Ye was found out, and Huang Chao promised that as long as Liu Ye surrendered, he would be allowed to do the same things.As a result, Liu Ye, who had been a prime minister and served as the commander-in-chief of too many feudal towns, had a reputation for greed, but refused without hesitation. An angry Huang Chao drew his sword and beheaded Liu Ye himself.

"Those who obey me will prosper, those who oppose me will perish, and those who dare to resist and disobey will be killed!" Huang Chao roared, holding his blood-dripping sword, gnashing his teeth. (To be continued.)