Fengxiang Li Maozhen and Jingnan Wang Xingyu jointly submitted a petition, pointing out that Li Xi was a treacherous villain and should not be prime minister. At the same time, they criticized Wei Zhaodu for being incompetent, inactive in his high position as prime minister, and having no political achievements. They asked Zhaozong to remove these two people.
How can local vassal towns point fingers at the central court? Zhaozong absolutely couldn't tolerate it, so he replied, "I can discuss military issues with the feudal town; I am the one who decides on the appointment of the prime minister by the imperial court."
Zhaozong gave up within a few days of being stubborn. He dismissed Li Xi for the second time and demoted him to the rank of Prince's Young Master. He retired from work to support his retirement.
Zhaozong also promoted the knowledgeable Lu Xisheng to the position of prime minister. After only three months, he was demoted to the title of Prince's Young Master.
Wei Zhaodu, who had always been regarded as a thorn in Cui Zhaowei's side, was finally kicked out of the political arena and forced to retire because of Taibao's official career.
At this point, Emperor Zhaozong's painstaking plan to cultivate civil servants basically failed. In the political struggle inherent in the power of civil servants, the treacherous official Cui Zhaowei and others won an overall victory by relying on powerful vassals. Zhaozong played with fire and burned himself, and was almost ignored by the civil service group.
Zhaozong had another lifeline: armed force.
As early as the beginning of his accession to the throne, Prime Minister Kong Wei pointedly pointed out that armed force is the root of the consolidation of imperial power. As a result, Zhaozong spent huge sums of money to recruit troops, and finally built a new army composed of local ruffians and street scoundrels who lived in chaos and collapsed at a moment's notice. In the battle against the Kansai Group, they were invincible, without firing a shot. Bullets, one soldier and one soldier, fled without bloodshed.
Starting from scratch, the starting point is too low, Zhaozong clearly realized that starting from scratch would be a great success.
If we can’t start anew, we can only occupy the magpie’s nest and borrow the chickens to lay eggs. Therefore, Zhaozong had the idea of forbidding an army.
The Central Forbidden Army is supposed to be the Emperor's Forbidden Army and is infinitely loyal to the royal family. However, since the "An-Shi Rebellion", the control of the imperial army gradually fell into the hands of eunuchs, which also became the capital for eunuchs to intervene in politics exclusively and even dethrone the emperor.
Seizing the power of the imperial army from the eunuchs was also one of the main motivations for the "Opposition Movement" and "Operation Yang Movement" after Zhaozong ascended the throne. And achieved initial results.
Now, Zhaozong wants to expand the results of the struggle and take another step towards the ultimate goal of fully controlling the Forbidden Army.
Near the capital Chang'an, there have been many bandits due to years of war. Some bandits even dared to climb over the palace walls and enter the palace to steal. Some even dared to dig up the imperial tombs to play with ghosts and blow out lanterns.
Zhaozong took this as an excuse and ordered the prince to lead military and police patrols.
Prince Dianbing was an important step in Zhaozong's pursuit of qualitative change from quantitative change, and it was also a very dangerous step. Because the prince's demonstration of troops would greatly stimulate the eunuch group and the civil servant group, the result would inevitably be a joint boycott from the Nanya and the Northern Division at the same time.
Zhaozong was on the verge of committing suicide and tried desperately.
In order to reduce this stimulation as much as possible, Zhaozong found a suitable opportunity (protecting the imperial palace and imperial mausoleum), and sent people to various towns and villages in the world to offer condolences and explanations to dispel their doubts.
Despite this, it still aroused strong dissatisfaction among the civil servants and eunuchs, who put pressure on Zhaozong, forcing Zhaozong to give up this bold attempt.
Zhaozong's plan to regain control of the Forbidden Army and control the armed forces failed.
Zhaozong's pursuit of military power also greatly stimulated all reactionaries who tried to control the court, such as the traitor Cui Zhaowei and the Kansai Group.
He sought the title of Minister, but failed; he sought to annex the imperial army, but failed; he made someone who hated him the prime minister; he asked the prince to command troops and eroded the control of the imperial army; he tried to support Wang Gong and Wang Yao, but failed...
Five incidents broke out in a short period of time, and Cui Zhaowei fanned the flames. The bosses of the Kansai Group finally came forward to ask Zhaozong for an explanation.
The "Hezhong Heritage Contest Case" reached Zhaozong at this critical juncture.
Cui Zhaowei also wanted to use the help of the Kansai Group to further eradicate dissidents in the court, and coincided with Zhu Wen. Now that he had the support of Zhu Wen, a powerful vassal in the Central Plains, Cui Zhaowei became even more unscrupulous, actively inciting the Kansai Group to send troops, intervene in Hezhong affairs by force, and put pressure on Zhaozong.
The Kansai Group was feeling angry about those five shameless things, and wanted to find a reason to "teach" the disobedient Emperor Zhaozong, and to give the Kansai Group an explanation, and they hit it off with Cui Zhaowei.
The strong intervention of the Kansai Group made Hedong Li Keyong feel a little chill, and he was also involved in this dispute.
This is the basic logic of "Chaos in the River".
As for the trigger - who is the Wang brothers and who is right and wrong, no one cares, even the big bosses who are deeply involved in it don't care at all. This is a political game between the central court and local vassals.
We can use their WeChat feudal town group and private chat to briefly summarize:
Cui Zhaowei quietly told the Kansai Group: I will kill the emperor!
Guanxi Group quietly said to Cui Zhaowei: What’s the excuse?
Cui Zhaowei quietly told the Guanxi Group: bully you, bully Wang Gong and Wang Yao.
The Kansai Group quietly said to Cui Zhaowei: Got it.
Kansai Group: We want to find an explanation for Wang Gong and Wang Yao.
Zhaozong: It has nothing to do with me, right, Li Keyong?
Li Keyong:......
Wang Ke quietly said to Li Keyong: If your lips are dead and your teeth are cold, you will be next!
Li Keyong:......
Zhu Wen: You guys chat first, I’m leaving the group (laughing)
The Kansai Group had nothing to do with Zhu Wen, but had a grudge against Li Keyong in Hedong. The two sides had a head-on conflict when Li Yuan usurped the throne, and it ended with the failure of the Kansai Group.
Therefore, Cui Zhaowei used Li Ke to stimulate the Guanxi Group again, saying that the imperial court's alliance with Wang Ke in Hezhong and Li Keyong in Hedong will definitely be detrimental to you in the future. If you cut it off, you will be cut off. Strike first to be stronger!
In May of the second year of Qianning in the Tang Dynasty (895), under the constant instigation of the traitor Cui Zhaowei, Fengxiang Li Maozhen, Jingnan Wang Xingyu, and Zhenguo Han Jian led tens of thousands of elite troops to defend their rights by force.
At the same time, Wang Xingyue (Wang Xingyu's younger brother), the governor of Kuangguo, launched a military attack on Wang Ke in the river.
Chang'an was shrouded in dark clouds of war, and residents fled into hiding.
Faced with the threat of war, Emperor Zhaozong did not flinch. He personally went to Anfu Gate and shouted to the three commanders of Guanxi, "You are wearing strong armor and entering the capital without permission. What do you want?"
Surrounded by a grand and majestic guard of honor, the three people appeared at the gate of the city and knelt three times and kowtowed nine times to Zhaozong on the city gate.
Zhaozong personally questioned: "You did not request a memorial to enter the capital, nor did you have a summons edict from me. You led the troops here without permission. Is it to rebel? If so, I will abdicate today and give way to others!"
After all, being a thief has a guilty conscience and his reputation is not justified. Li Maozhen and Wang Xingyu were so frightened that they were sweating profusely and speechless. Only Han Jianshang could give a simple answer.
Zhaozong ordered a banquet to be held in honor of the three commanders. Come, let’s eat first.
Han Jiandao made his intention clear, saying that the Northern and Southern Divisions were forming cliques for personal gain and undermining the country's legal system. Among them, Wei Zhaodu made a mistake in his crusade against Xichuan, and Li Xi violated public opinion when he became prime minister. They should be executed to set the record straight.
"How can we kill the prime minister and ministers of the country and the emperor's important ministers at will? What's more, there is no legitimate reason and no sufficient evidence to kill the prime minister indiscriminately. How can it be justified!" Zhaozong refused.
When a scholar encounters a soldier, he cannot explain why. The emperor still couldn't explain clearly when he encountered soldiers.
The three of them had no words to explain, so they killed Wei Zhaodu and Li Xi on the same day, and also killed several eunuchs who were displeased with them. Their lustful power shocked the Nanyabei Division.
In fact, both Wei Zhaodu and Li Xi have been dismissed as prime ministers. One is a Taibao official, and the other is a Prince's Young Master. Both of them are pensioners in name only. The three town marshals wanted to use them to scare the monkeys, and their main purpose was to use this to demonstrate against Zhaozong and the civil and military forces of the Manchu Dynasty.
Subsequently, the three town marshals made a request, "Wang Ke, Wang Gong, and Wang Yao should be divided into legitimate sons and common sons. We ask that the legitimate son Wang Gong inherits the Hezhong National Guard Army, let Wang Ke go to Tongzhou Kuang Guojun, and let King Kuang Make an appointment to go to Shaanzhou to protect the Yijun."
Under the coercion of force, Emperor Zhaozong had no choice but to fully agree and issued an edict to move the three towns to each other.
Later, the three bosses demoted Yang Kan, the Minister of Household Affairs, to the governor of Yazhou (now Ya'an City, Sichuan Province) because Yang Kan was Wei Zhaodu's uncle.
Zhaozong accepted.
The three bosses demoted Liu Chongwang to the post of Sima of Zhaozhou (now Pingle County, Guangxi) because when Cui Yin was appointed as the military governor of the National Protective Army, Xue Zhiqin, Li Keyong's confidant in Hedong, once said, "Although Cui Yin is highly virtuous and respected, But my commander-in-chief (Li Keyong) respects Mr. Liu Chongwang more." Being favored by Li Keyong from Hedong is the enemy of the Guanxi Group. You can travel to Guangdong and Guangxi at public expense, so you can leave.
Zhaozong accepted.
The unreasonable demands of the three bosses were met one by one, and the wonderful feeling of being in power was hard to extricate themselves from. Gradually, the thoughts they had hidden in their hearts began to bubble up, blooming into colorful flowers: the things that should be done and abolished!
The three of them are going to be Dong Zhuo.
The original motive of the three soldiers to invade Que was to abolish Zhaozong and establish a new king. Although Zhaozong is already their puppet, this puppet is not a good boy and always makes small moves in private. The candidate for the new king has also been decided, and he is King Ji Li Bao.
As early as when Xizong was seriously ill, Ji Wang Li Bao won widespread support from civil and military ministers, but Yang Fugong took the lead and forcibly abolished the elders and established younger ones in favor of Zhaozong.
Since Ji Wang Li Bao has an absolute mass base, the resistance to abolishing Li Bao will be relatively small, and he can also gain a reputation that conforms to public opinion. At that time, all he needs to do is describe Zhaozong as "Yang Eunuch's ugly legacy", and public opinion will still be there. Isn't it in their hands?
Therefore, when they were outside the city, Zhaozong sternly questioned them whether they wanted to rebel and depose the emperor, they were frightened and sweating profusely.
Of course they cannot admit it because they have not yet entered the city and have no actual control of Chang'an. Therefore, we can only use the excuse of "petition for the people" and "armed petitioning and defense of rights".
It was different now. Zhaozong was already in their hands, and the imperial court was only following Guanxi's lead under their threat of force. They don't need to pretend anymore.
Just as they were preparing to abolish Li Li, an unread message in the group frightened the three of them——
Li Keyong has five seconds to reach the battlefield, please be ready.
