【Plan to kill the eunuch】
Cui Yin helped Zhaozong return to Luan anyway, suppressed the power of the eunuchs, took back the exclusive privilege of selling distilled yeast in disguise, increased the empire's fiscal revenue, and won Zhaozong's trust. Zhaozong left all military and state affairs to Cui Yin, and the monarch and his ministers talked about everything. They often talked from day to night, lighting candles and continuing to talk.
What Cui Yin talked about the most was killing the eunuchs. Instead of killing one or two, kill them all!
Han Xie was opposed to this and repeatedly advised Cui Yin not to go too extreme in doing things. If he did not consider things carefully, it would definitely arouse the eunuchs' backlash, which would lead to death anyway, and they would definitely take risks.
Cui Yin disagreed and still insisted on his idea of "killing all eunuchs".
Zhaozong summoned Han Xi alone and asked him, "There are too many evil people among the eunuchs. What do you think we should do?"
Han Xi replied: "You just know? When we killed Liu Jishu, we should have killed them all. Now we have lost the opportunity."
Zhaozong was anxious and angry, "Then why didn't you tell Cui Yin this then?"
Han Xi's best skill, apart from making excuses after the fact, is to blame others. "I saw that His Majesty's edict said, 'Only punish the first culprits and leave the rest alone.' It said that only the 'core four eunuchs' such as Liu Jishu, Wang Zhongxian, etc. will be pursued. Your Majesty, you have such eloquent words, how can you not do that?" Broke your trust in the world?"
Zhaozong was choked and speechless.
Han Xie continued: "In my opinion, we should arrest a few typical people now, select a few people with notorious reputations and irrefutable evidence, make their crimes public, either kill them or release them, and then appease the others, and then A few loyal people were selected and promoted to their leaders. Now, all the eunuchs add up to tens of thousands. How can it be possible to kill them all?"
However, Cui Yin insisted on killing all the eunuchs.
The eunuch had many eyes and ears and heard some rumors. Han Quanhui, the commander-in-chief of the Zuo Shence Army, and others ran to Zhaozong and cried bitterly, pretending to be pitiful and begging bitterly.
On the surface, Zhaozong comforted Han Quanhui and others, but turned around and warned Cui Yin, "If you have anything to do in the future, just pass me a small note and don't report it verbally. Walls have ears!"
From then on, Cui Yin "enclosed the matter".
Is everything going to be fine now?
Eunuchs have many ears and eyes. They not only have ears, but also eyes. The eunuchs carefully selected 11 literate beauties including Song Rou and sent them to the palace to serve as internal agents, waiting for opportunities to secretly read Cui Yin's notes. As a result, Cui Yin's every word and policy were under the control of the eunuchs.
The eunuchs were about to fight back.
Han Quanjiao instigated the soldiers of the Forbidden Army to cause trouble, saying that military supplies were lacking (because the privilege of selling distilled yeast was revoked), and accused Cui Yin of withholding winter clothes. The eunuchs were fanning the flames and secretly encouraging the group incidents behind the scenes. Seeing that the mass incidents were getting bigger and bigger, there was a risk of getting out of control.
Earlier, in order to prevent unexpected events, capable vassal towns stationed assisting defense troops in Chang'an to protect the emperor's safety. Now, the "capable" ones are Li Maozhen in Fengxiang and Zhu Wen in Bianzhou, defending their own interests in the name of defending the capital. When the Forbidden Army was making trouble, the Assistance Defense Force should step in to suppress it. However, the leader of the Fengxiang garrison, Li Jiyun (adopted son of Li Maozhen) and Han Quanhui, who wore the same pants, instead of maintaining order, joined the protestors.
Under pressure, Zhaozong once again compromised with the eunuch forces and local vassals, and dismissed Cui Yin's salt and iron franchise and other fat employees.
In order to protect themselves, Han Quanjie and other eunuchs not only colluded with Li Jiyun, the Fengxiang assisting defense army, but also secretly colluded with the "three envoys", planning to use force to force Zhaozong to move the capital to Fengxiang. Among the "three envoys", only Sun Dezhao was unwilling to participate.
Likewise, their movements were too loud and the news leaked out. Zhaozong was very worried when he heard about it, so he asked Han Xie about it.
Han Xi admitted that he had heard some rumors, but was not sure of their authenticity.
Zhaozong was quite confident, "You can't be wrong! In recent days, people like Dong Yanbi and Zhou Chenghui have become more and more unruly. Linghu Huan (son of former Prime Minister Linghu Gui) suggested that I make a show to relieve the hangover and invite Cui Yin and Han Quanhui. What do you think when we drink in the inner hall and shake hands to make peace?"
Han Wei objected, saying that this command encouraged the eunuch's arrogance.
"Then what do you think we should do?"
Han Xi's advice is still the same as before, which is to focus on role models, care for all living beings, and promote good people.
Zhaozong did what he wanted, but found that the eunuchs had become more and more powerful and did not listen to the emperor's orders at all. Whether they were demoted to take care of the imperial mausoleum or sent to other places to serve as supervisors, they remained unmoved and stayed in the palace. He couldn't escape, and Zhaozong had nothing to do about it.
Cui Yin knew that the plot to kill the eunuch had been leaked, and the attitude and intensity of the eunuch Han Quanhui's backlash also gave Cui Yin an unprecedented sense of urgency.
Cui Yin also would not sit still and wait for death. He wrote a secret letter to Zhu Wen, claiming that he had obtained Emperor Zhaozong's robe edict and ordered Zhu Wen to quickly go west to Chang'an to protect the emperor and protect the emperor in order to prevent the "Shaoyang Court Coup" from happening again. staged.
This connects to the previous point. During the intermission, Zhu Wen received a secret letter from Cui Yin. Chang'an was in chaos, and he was obliged to "obey the imperial edict" to clear the emperor's side.
【Driving Xingfengxiang】
As early as when Zhaozong visited Huazhou, Cui Yin instructed Zhu Wen to build the eastern capital Luoyang and prepare to move the capital to Luoyang. Zhu Wen handed over the repair work to the healing master Zhang Quanyi. Now, the eastern capital Luoyang is basically ready to welcome the emperor. Preparation for driving.
Zhu Wen also had plans to take the emperor to Luoyang, but at that time he did not have the strength to conquer Chang'an. Now, having conquered Heshuo, controlled Hezhong, and crippled Hedong, under Cui Yin's instigation, Zhu Wen finally "began to aspire to aspire to the throne."
Zhu Wen immediately adjusted his strategic focus, returned to Bianzhou, and made a large-scale emergency mobilization order to concentrate the main force to compete in Chang'an.
The news soon spread to Chang'an, and the capital was shocked.
Zhaozong summoned Han Xi urgently, asked about the reliability of the news, and made it clear what he meant, that is, Zhu Wen must communicate with Li Maozhen in advance and reach a consensus before he can come to the "Qingjun side" to prevent conflicts between the two vassals in Chang'an. .
A few days later, Zhaozong summoned Han Xie worriedly and said: "Dong Yanbi and Zhou Chenghui are becoming more and more arrogant and arrogant every day. They enter and exit the palace together with Li Jijun, the commander of the Fengxiang garrison, shouting in the hall, calling the palace maids and It is simply unseemly for a young eunuch to accompany you with wine!"
Han Xie said in hindsight, "I knew it would be like this. This was wrong from the beginning. When they (the "Three Envoys") performed meritorious service in the first month, Your Majesty should only reward them with official positions, titles, fields, houses, gold and silver. Instead of allowing them to enter and exit the palace at will, they should not be allowed to enter and leave the palace at will. People like them are uneducated, uneducated, ignorant of etiquette, and ignorant of propriety. They are also mercenary and arrogant. It is obvious that they were used by the eunuchs and deliberately taught them to be like this. "
Hindsight makes sense.
He was right. Han Quanjie and other eunuchs were scheming and deliberately allowed the "three envoys" (except Sun Dezhao) to bully the emperor and disrupt the palace. They cooperated with Li Jiyun to stir up chaos inside and outside the palace and create public opinion for Jiaxing Fengxiang. Base.
“It should have been” means the same thing as “there is no way now”. Zhaozong was left with only regret and melancholy.
In October, Zhu Wen completed the assembly and led his army to set off from Bianzhou.
After Han Quanhui got the news, he immediately ordered Li Jiyun, Dong Yanbi, Zhou Chenghui and others to kidnap Zhaozong and go to Fengxiang.
Without further ado, the robbery operation was launched immediately. Troops were first sent to control all palace gates, conduct comprehensive body searches on all persons entering and exiting, block the news of the emperor and ministers, and pay special attention to the inspection of "clothing and belt edicts".
Han Quanjie cut off the contact between Zhaozong and his ministers. Zhaozong was unable to meet Han Xie and others. He was under house arrest and could only cry opposite Queen He.
Later, Han Quanjie ordered Zhaozong to summon the civil and military officials in the inner hall (yes, it was the eunuch who ordered the emperor), and announced the revocation of the edict prohibiting eunuchs and prime ministers from ascending to the palace at the same time. From now on, Han Quanjie and others will appear in the palace at the same time as the prime minister. Yanying Hall, discussing state affairs with Zhaozong. The government was once again controlled by eunuchs.
Li Jijun sent his men to loot the gold, silver, jewelry and other properties in the palace treasury; Han Quanhui sent people to send the princes and maids to Fengxiang first.
At the end of the month, Zhu Wen personally led 70,000 elite troops from four towns to assemble in the river, and Shangshu asked Zhaozong to move to Luoyang, the eastern capital. The capital was horrified, and the officials and people fled one after another, hiding in the mountains and deep valleys. On that day, none of the civil and military officials entered the palace to attend court, and everything inside and outside the palace was deserted. Li Jijun led his troops to surround the palace, strictly prohibiting anyone from entering or exiting, and then launched troops to plunder it. The residents of Chang'an City could only wear paper clothes to keep out the cold. Everywhere they looked, there was desolation and devastation.
Sun Dezhao, one of the "Three Envoys", was unwilling to participate in the robbery and was isolated and ostracized by Han Quanjie and others. In desperation, he led more than 6,000 people under his command, together with the troops garrisoned in various towns in Guandong, and retreated into Kaihuafang of Chang'an City to guard, and asked Cui Yin moved closer (Cui Yin's family lived in Kaihuafang). So this place became a refuge, and civil and military officials and the people of Chang'an fled into Kaihuafang to seek shelter.
Zhaozong's personal eunuch came to summon Cui Yin, saying that he was ordered by the emperor to require all civil and military officials to enter the court. Cui Yin and others all went to Shu to refuse.
Obviously, this was a false edict from Han Quanjie and his party, who planned to kidnap hundreds of civil and military officials and go to Fengxiang together in order to declare the legitimacy of the "Fengxiang government in exile." His trick was shattered by Sun Dezhao and Cui Yin.
There was not much time left for Han Quanjie. He led his army into the inner palace and told Zhaozong that Zhu Wen had approached the capital and wanted to kidnap the emperor and go to Luoyang in an attempt to usurp the throne. Please follow us to Fengxiang for refuge.
Zhaozong flatly refused, "I'm not going anywhere, I'm just here!" Then he held his sword and climbed up to the Qiqiao Tower, assuming a firm posture.
Han Quanjie glared, saying that he didn't want to listen to what he said or discussed, right? With a fierce look on his face, he forced Zhaozong to submit.
"No!" Zhaozong held the sword tightly, sacred and inviolable.
Dong Yanbi lit a fire downstairs and said, "You can leave or not."
That day was the "Winter Solstice". Zhaozong was sitting alone on the railing with his legs crossed and one foot on the railing. He was bored and enjoying himself. There was no civil or military official or maid around him. The courtyard was silent and there was only burning wood. The sound of "crackling, peeling, peeling" left only infinite sadness in my heart.
Perhaps, what he was playing at this moment was the rhythm of Beijing-style drums, "Sighing on the king, all kinds of desolation, all kinds of loneliness, one heart seems to be drunk, two tears are like pouring down."
After holding on like this for a while, Zhaozong sighed helplessly, gave up his last stubbornness, turned and went downstairs, and about a hundred people including Queen He, concubines, princes, etc., drove Xingfengxiang under the coercion of Han Quanhui and others. The sound of crying is endless.
Zhaozong had just walked out of the palace gate and couldn't help but look back at the palace. He knew in his heart that after leaving, he didn't know how long it would take to come back, let alone whether he could come back. Yo—the palace is gone. The entire palace has been swallowed up by blazing flames, and thick smoke has enveloped the entire city of Chang'an.
Stop thinking about it and go on your way with peace of mind.
Outside Fengxiang City, Li Maozhen went out of the city to greet Zhaozong. Zhaozong abandoned his imperial dignity and even dismounted his horse to offer condolences. After that, the Emperor of the Tang Dynasty officially became a prisoner of Fengxiang.
