Late Tang

Guangming's year name was only used for one year, and the emperor Li Xuan couldn't wait to change another year name. In 881 AD, Li Xuan changed his year name to the first year of Zhonghe. At this time, the war in the late Tang Dynasty also entered a new stage.

In the first month of the lunar year, Huangchao, which has lost the Guanzhong area except for all the territory around Chang'an, is still fighting with trapped beasts.After half a year of rest, Huang Chao's army and the towns in Guanzhong that were defeated in Chang'an last time also recovered some vitality.In the last battle of Chang'an, Huang Chao successfully beheaded the two town commanders including the deputy commander of the coalition army, severely injured the first commander, and repelled the second commander.In that battle, Zhu Mei, the vice-commander of the Binning Army, who was stabbed through the throat but survived, was defeated and returned to Xingping. Handsome Cheng Zongchu's remnant of the Jingyuan Army took the opportunity to gather his troops and built a strong camp here, known as "Dingguo Village". Huang Chao's back.

Like awn stabbing, rubbing sand in the eyes, Huang Chao has trouble sleeping and eating.After regaining some strength and stabilizing his position, he finally decided to pull him out.

On the sixteenth day of the first lunar month of the first year of Zhonghe, just after the Lantern Festival, Huang Chao immediately appointed Wang Fan as the commander-in-chief, with Lin Yan as his deputy, and led the Qi army to besiege Xingping Dingguozhai. Unable to withstand the fierce offensive of the Qi army, they were defeated again, so they had to lead the Binning army to retreat all the way to Fengtian, and the Fengxiang army followed closely to retreat to Longweipo.

Huang Chao wanted to take advantage of the victory and attack Zhu Mei in one fell swoop, but at this time, Wang Chucun, the Jiedu envoy of the Yiwu Army who fled from Chang'an last time, just arrived with [-] reinforcements from Xichuan.Under the command of Li Ting and Gong Xian, envoys of the Yellow-headed Army, and Gao Renhou, the envoy of the Shenji Battalion, the [-] Yellow-headed troops captured Xingping again, forcing the Qi army to retreat and fight against it.

Wang Fan, Lin Yan, Gao Renhou and other Xichuan generals fought fiercely for many times, but they were unable to squeeze the Xichuan army from afar from Xingping.

At this time, Zheng Tian, ​​Marshal of the Guanzhong Allied Forces and Jiedu Envoy of the Fengxiang Army, also saw the opportunity, and sent General Li Changyan to lead the main force of the Fengxiang Army to support Wang Chucun and others in Xingping. So far, it is difficult for both sides to make a breakthrough, and the Western Front has once again fallen into a protracted war deadlock.

In March, taking advantage of the opportunity of the Xingping battle, Li Xiaochang, the Jiedu envoy of Tang Dynasty, and Li Sigong, the envoy of Xia Huan, the two party officials, once again formed a coalition of two towns. The big bend leads straight to the Dongwei Bridge outside Chang'an, cooperating with Li Quanzhong's town [***] who has already occupied Tong, Hua, and Tongguan, directly threatening the east of Chang'an.

Seeing that the situation on the western front could not be opened, and the eastern front was in a hurry, Huang Chao quickly called Zhang Juyan, Minister of the Ministry of officials, and asked him to lead the army to the Dongwei Bridge to block the two armies of Fufang and Xia Huan on the north bank of the Weishui River. At the same time, he concentrated his troops to counterattack Washington State.

In May, Tang Zhaoyi Jiedu envoy Gao Xun and the governor of Huazhou who fled in a panic last time were lucky enough to be saved from death. Sheng Jin marched and fought in Huazhou with Li Quanzhong's son Li Kuangchou, the governor of Huazhou.Huang Chao was overjoyed and decreed that Li Xiang should resume his original post and be promoted to the first rank of title.

After the Guiyi Jiedu envoy Gao Xun was defeated and fled, his prestige was swept away, and he was soon killed by his subordinate Cheng Lin. As a result, another Zhaoyi general, Meng Lifang, killed Cheng Lin in the name of suppressing the rebellion, and appointed himself as the remaining back.Zhaoyi Town, second only to Lulong Town in the number of mutinies in history, has since completely fallen into the hands of the local military group.Zhaoyi suddenly had such a huge change, as his neighbor Wang Chongrong of Hezhong Township was very sensitive and reacted quickly.Just like Qi Kerang who learned of Xuzhou's mutiny back then, he also quickly withdrew his troops from Luoyang, the eastern capital, and retreated to the river just in case.

The retreat of Zhaoyi, Zhenguo, and Hezhong's soldiers and horses temporarily relieved the threat of the Qi army in Huazhou to the east, and Huang Chao was able to draw out troops led by Shang Rang to support Zhang Juyan and counterattack the Dongwei Bridge.

It was another big battle. The two party towns, Fufang and Xia Suan, were determined to preserve their strength, but they lost to the Qi army, which was fighting a trapped beast, and were defeated.Li Xiaochang and Li Sigong, two cousins ​​of the party, saw that the situation was not going well, and immediately withdrew their troops and retreated to Fuping.Taking advantage of the victory, Zhang Juyan went to Gaoling and Liyang in succession.But in the end, because the Tang army on the western front was near Xingping and kept a strong pressure on Chang'an, Huang Chao didn't dare to keep the main force led by Shang Rang and Zhang Juyan away from Chang'an, so the Qi army's counterattack was temporarily terminated.

Unexpectedly, in October, something happened that surprised Huang Chao. The marshal of the Guanzhong Allied Forces of the Tang Dynasty and the commander of the camps of all the roads in the west of Beijing, Zheng Tian, ​​the most vocal envoy of the Fengxiang Festival in the anti-Qi Dynasty, was actually taken by someone. Dismounted.

At the beginning, due to Zheng Tian's unremitting efforts, the Fengxiang Army once expanded to tens of thousands of horses, and the Fengxiang Army became a leader in the towns in Guanzhong.However, while the number of soldiers and horses increased greatly, it also brought huge logistical pressure to Fengxiang Town.Fighting wars, increasing troops and horses, and spending have also greatly increased.The people in Fengxiang Town are small and poor, and their background is weak. They have always relied on subsidies from the imperial court, but now that the imperial court has been exiled in Chengdu, naturally no one in the towns is willing to contribute money or food to help.Although Zheng Tian is loyal to the country and can be regarded as a capable official, it is difficult for a clever woman to cook without rice, and she can support it for a while, but as time goes by, problems gradually arise.In particular, he refused to indulge the soldiers and let them use looting to solve the problem of supplies.By the time the first snow fell in the winter of the first year of Zhonghe, Fengxiang's warehouses were almost as bare as a monk's head.

Without money, it would be difficult to distribute food and salaries to the soldiers. In the late Tang Dynasty, these soldiers from various towns were the most arrogant group of people. Without money, they were absolutely unwilling to fight with their lives.At this time, the main force of the Fengxiang Army was stationed in Xingping, led by Li Changyan, the marching commander. Zheng Tian himself had returned to Fengxiang Town to raise the army's salary, and there were only a few handsome soldiers around him.

One night, Yang Shouliang, Yang Fugong's adopted son, dressed up as a businessman and visited Li Changyan. They discussed secretly in the tent all night.

The next day, rumors that Zheng Tian deliberately withheld the soldiers' salaries quickly spread throughout the army like the wind. Li Changyan, as the leader of the whole army, left the front line of Xingping without authorization with the enraged Fengxiang. , Kill Fengxiang back, and go to Zheng Tian for an explanation.

Feng Xiang, just heard the news and climbed up the tower in shock, looking at the tens of thousands of soldiers of the Feng Xiang Army who he had pulled up with great difficulty, he suddenly felt that a basin of ice water had been poured from head to toe in a snowy October day.Are these the loyal and brave soldiers that he desperately recruited back then and fought side by side with him in defeating Shangrang's bandit army at Longweipi?

I was sincere, worked hard, shared joys and sorrows with the soldiers, and fought bloody battles with the yellow thieves. Is it for today's ending?

Will the tragic stories of Duan Wenchu, Zhi Xiang, and Xue Neng repeat themselves?

Duan Wenchu ​​was originally Datong's defense envoy, but in the end he fell under his own Li Keyong's sword.Zhi Xiang, formerly the Jiedu envoy of the Reform Army, was expelled by his general Shi Pu in the end, and his whole family was wiped out on the way.Xue Neng, the envoy of Zhongwu Jiedu, was beheaded by his general Zhou Ji.

In addition, in the past few years, there have been many incidents of rebellion. Qin Zongquan, Zhu Wen, Wang Chongrong, these people came to power like this.

Zheng Tian is very clear that in today's chaotic era of feudal separatism, it is very difficult for a literati to be a good official, whether you are kind to the people, or even if you are kind to the generals, those generals in the feudal town are all A group of uncooked white-eyed wolves.Once the melon teeth are abundant, they will immediately bite back.

The soldiers are arrogant and chase the generals, and the generals rebel against the strong!This has become the brand of this era!

Zheng Tian never deducted a Kaiyuan Tongbao's military salary, and even he has been using his family property to subsidize military use in recent years.But what about these facts, he knew very well that his subordinates' rebellion was not just due to the instigation of someone with a heart.He is very clear that his consistent principles of conduct have long displeased these warriors. After all, he is a literati and is out of tune with them.Today they want to expel themselves because of food and pay, even if they make it clear, tomorrow they will expel themselves because of other things.

With a long sigh, Zheng Tian called Li Changyan.He knew very well that all of today's events must have been instigated by the marching Sima.Last time, he led people to surrender Huang Chao and put him under house arrest in disguise.

"In the future, as long as the general restrains the soldiers, loves the people, fights against the rebels for the country, and acts in the right way, he will always be able to make meritorious deeds, and it is indispensable to be named a duke and a king." , Zheng Tian took the initiative to hand over the seal and affairs of Fengxiang Jiedu envoy to Li Changyan, and then set off for Chengdu that day.

As soon as Fengxiang left here, and only reached Xingyuan Town, the emperor of Chengdu, Li Yan, immediately dismissed him from the positions of Fengxiang Jiedushi and the commander of all roads and camps in the west of Beijing. At the same time, Li Xuan decreed to officially appoint Li Changyan as Fengxiang Army Jiedu envoy.

Huang Chao was very pleasantly surprised when he heard the news.The Fengxiang Army withdrew from Xingping to Fengxiang, which immediately reduced the threat to the west of Chang'an.Huang Chao immediately seized this opportunity and drew out a quick-response force composed of veterans, led by two generals of the Qi army, Meng Kai and Zhang Juyan, to strike hard at the Eastern Front. The two party commanders who have been defeated and fought repeatedly.

In November, the Qi army attacked Fuping, and the coalition forces of Fufang and Xia Huan faced the battle. This time, the two towns did not blindly preserve their strength and fought with all their strength. In the end, they were defeated by Meng Kai and Zhang Juyan. Li Xiaochang and Li Sigong this time Seeing that the situation was not good, they finally stopped insisting on staying near Chang'an, and each led the remnants of the defeated soldiers to flee back to the town.

The two towns of Fufang and Xiasui were the towns that sent troops to serve the king earlier. Although they lost more than they won, they were in good spirits after all, and the court was also worried that they would never leave after the defeat, which would affect the morale of the army, so they decided to reward them.It's just that the current imperial court is too poor, so it had to give two cheap spiritual rewards: changing the name of Fufang to "Bao Da" and changing Xia Sui to "Ding Nan" in recognition of Li Xiaochang and Li Sigong, two great guards. Tang, the loyalty to quell disasters.

However, although the Qi army won the battle, there was a by-product that Huang Chao did not expect: the cooperation between his two favorite generals, Meng Kai and Zhang Juyan, was not pleasant, and the veteran Meng Kai could not understand the fact that he always only Knowing that Zhang Juyan, who was planning behind the scenes, has made many meritorious deeds recently and has been frequently used, he is jealous and hates him; but Zhang Juyan thinks that Meng Kai is just a brave man, and scoffs at the gap between his high position and his actual ability.

As a result of the encounter between the needle tip and the wheat mang, the two fell out. Meng Kai led the main force back to Chang'an, while Zhang Juyan led 3000 people to the north and continued to beat Li Xiaochang severely.Zhang Juyan first captured Meiyuan and Fengxian, then crossed Luoshui in the north, went down to Danzhou, and advanced all the way to Yanzhou.After repeated defeats, the Bao army became frightened and retreated to Fuzhou, allowing Zhang Juyan, a small Qi army, to clash vertically and horizontally, as if entering an uninhabited land.

At the end of the first year of Zhonghe, Huang Chao assigned Zhang Juyan, Minister of the Ministry of Officials, a new post as Jiedu Envoy of Zhen [***] and Governor of Tongzhou.I don't know if there is any influence exerted by Meng Kai behind this personnel order. This order means that Zhang Juyan can't return to Chang'an for a long time, and if he wants to take office, he must use the mere [-] soldiers to come from Li Quanzhong, the Jiedu envoy of another town [***], snatched Tongzhou back from his hands.Everyone knows that Li Quanzhong was the hero of Hebei who retreated from Li Jing's hands, and he was much more difficult to deal with than Baoda Li Xiaochang

Zhang Juyan was not afraid, and brazenly led 3000 troops to march towards Tongzhou, and started the battle for Tongzhou with Li Quanzhong's eldest son, Li Kuangwei, the governor of Tongzhou.

At the same time, Tian Lingzi, who felt the danger was approaching in Chengdu, finally couldn't hold back anymore and started to act first.

In December of the first year of Zhonghe, Tian Lingzi directly held the jade seal of the emperor Li Xuan and issued an edict in the name of the emperor, dismissing Yang Fuguang from the post of military supervisor in the world, and changing him to the imperial flying dragon envoy, that is, the eunuch in charge of raising horses , and Yang Fugong was reassigned as the envoy of Xuanhui Yuan, Xuanwei Yuan, who was completely the eunuch who managed the sundries in the palace, and his important positions such as the lieutenant of the Shence Army were dismissed.

On the same day, in the name of the emperor, he appointed his godson Tian Kuangyou to take over Yang Fuguang's position as the military envoy of the All Under Heaven Supervisor.

Tian Lingzi's actions were not finished yet, he drafted an imperial edict again,

Wang Duo, the prime minister, served as the Jiedu envoy of Hedong, stayed behind in the northern capital, and Yin of Taiyuan.

Zheng Tian was transferred to serve as the defense envoy of Jidu, the eastern capital, while Henan Yin and Dongdu stayed behind.

Tune Zheng Congyu to serve as the envoy of Fengxiang Army, stay behind in Xijing, and Fengxiang Yin.

Tiao Wang Chongrong served as the Jiedu envoy of Zhen [***], the governor of Tongzhou and the defense envoy of Tongguan.

Zhu Quanzhong was transferred to serve as the envoy of Zhaoyi Jiedu and the governor of Luzhou.

He transferred Qin Zongquan to serve as the envoy of the Jinshang Festival and the governor of Jinzhou.

Tune Li Quanzhong to serve as Hezhong Jiedu envoy and Puzhou governor.

Tune Li Changyan to serve as the governor of Shaanxi Province and governor of Shaanxi Province.

Tiaomeng Lifang served as the Zhongwu Jiedu envoy and the governor of Xuzhou.

Tiao Zhouji was appointed as the Zhong[***] Jiedu envoy and the governor of Chenzhou.

Diaolu Yanhong served as the Jiedu envoy of the Xuanwu Army and the governor of Bianzhou.

Tiaowang Chucun was appointed as the Jiedu envoy of [***], and the governor of Caizhou.

This is a major transfer of the Twelve Towns of Hedong in Guanzhong, Henan Province, and it is almost a rotation, and these transfers have a characteristic, the eight adopted sons of Yang Fuguang and Yang Fugong's adopted sons are included, and the remaining Wang Duo, Zheng Tian, ​​and Zheng Congxuan are all prime ministers, and the prime ministers are not too close to the Yang Fuguang brothers when they leave the town. They were sent to the three important towns of Hedong, Dongdu, and Fengxiang just to occupy key positions and deal with Yang Fuguang. brother's.

Of course, Tian Lingzi may not be able to fight wars, but he still has a way of conspiring.His series of false edicts are nothing more than a blindfold.The real trump card is to prepare otherwise.

On the day of Laba in the first year of Yuanhe, Tian Lingzi sent the inspector under his command to set fire and kill people in Chengdu, and deliberately left all kinds of clues pointing to Yang Fugong's brother. To murder the emperor.

At the same time, Tian Lingzi broke into the palace of the emperor Li Xuan with his armored soldiers, and directly pulled the emperor Li Xuan from the arms of a concubine from the dragon bed, "Your Majesty, Yang Fugong rebelled, we can no longer stay in Chengdu, please hurry up!" Move quickly to Guangdu."

Li Xuan was very dissatisfied when he saw Tian Lingzi rushing straight into the harem with fully armed armored soldiers. At this time, he heard that Yang Fugong was rebellious and asked him to move to the south of Guangdu City.I still don't understand what Tian Lingzi is planning.Although Chengdu is where the feudal town of Dongchuan Town is located, Yang Fugong has penetrated into Chengdu very well.Tian Lingzi was most worried about Yang Fugong using the name of the emperor to deal with them.Therefore, his idea was to take the emperor directly to Guangdu, which was not far from Chengdu, and was still under the rule of Xichuan Jiedushi, but it did not have Yang Fugong's influence at all.Bring the emperor there, and you can completely control the emperor in your hands.

Li Xuan's domineering treatment of Tian Lingzi in the past few years finally reached the limit, and for the first time, he yelled loudly to the eunuch who he once recognized as his father: "No, I'm not going anywhere, I'm here."

Tian Lingzi was stunned for a moment, and finally realized that the current emperor was already 20 years old, and he was no longer the kid he used to coax around with a few words.But now, how could Tian Lingzi really care about his words?If it wasn't for the moment of life and death, he still wanted to maintain a certain friendship with the emperor.But now, at the critical moment of life and death, there is no turning back when you open the bow, how can you hesitate?What he said was an order, not a request. With a wave of his hand, dozens of warriors from the Shence Army rushed in, grabbed the emperor, who was only wearing a single jacket, and dragged him away from the beautiful concubine who was trembling in fright. .

The Son of Heaven is the biggest trump card, and it is a talisman with him.How could Tian Lingzi be willing to throw away this trump card?Yang Fugong wants to snatch the emperor from him, how is this possible?

Li Xuan yelled and felt extremely humiliated. He was the emperor of the empire, the lord of hundreds of millions of people, and was forced to take him by a eunuch today. Damn eunuch, he should have taken the lead and killed this man old dog.

Chengdu is already in chaos, with flames everywhere. Tian Lingzi's Shence Army and Chen Jingxuan's Xichuan Army are raiding Yang Fugong's men in the city.Tian Lingzi took the little emperor to the city gate, looked back at the burning Chengdu, sneered, and bowed to the frightened and ashamed emperor Li Yan in the night wind, bowing and making a gesture of invitation: "Old minister, serve Your Majesty to get on the bus!" , Move to Guangdu!"

Despite his extreme reluctance, Li Xuan was finally invited into the carriage and headed for Guangdu under the "guard" of a group of wolf-like Shence soldiers. (To be continued.)