Chapter 5 Waves and Clouds

It is said that Kang Chuangui abused torture in Jinyang, killed innocent soldiers and civilians in vain, and aroused public anger. The soldiers and civilians of Jinyang rose up and killed Kang Chuangui, and the Li Tang court was shocked. Li Yan sent an edict to comfort him, and the situation in Jinyang gradually eased.

The court appointed Zheng Cong, a servant of Tongping and Zhangshi, to serve as the governor of Hedong. Since Kang Chuangui was dead, Hedong's soldiers were even more arrogant, so he appointed a prime minister to sit in Hedong and asked Zheng Cong to choose his assistant. Zheng Congqi asked the court to appoint Wang as the deputy envoy of the jiedushi, Wailang, a former member of the military department, Liu Chonggui, who wrote the history museum, as the judge, Zhao Chong, the former secretary, and Zhao Chong, the historian of the history museum, as the judge, and Liu Chonglu, who has not yet been appointed as the judge. At that time, people called Zheng Congqi's team the small court, which means that there were many famous people in this team.

The Jinyang army rippled, and there were killing and looting every day. Zheng Cong was gentle on the surface, but in fact, he was cruel. Zheng Congqi always noticed that there were soldiers who tried to make trouble and killed him first. Zheng Cong is good at attracting people's hearts and taking a soothing approach to obedient officers and soldiers. Zhang Yanqiu was both wise and brave. Zheng Congqi summoned Zhang Yanqiu to express his condolences and handed over all the military power committees to him, and the army gradually became stable.

Cui Anqian left Xuzhou with Wang Jian, Jin Hui, Wang Zongshou and other beloved generals, transferred to Xichuan jiedushi, and came to Chengdu. After taking office, the Shu people were surprised that they did not pursue the thieves. Cui Anqian said to his entourage, "Thieves are not because they are incapacitated by the appearance of thieves. Now I'm afraid that many people will be investigated, and it can only be in vain to carry out a big search."

Soon, Cui Anqian allocated 1,500 yuan, which was placed in Chengdu Silkworm City, Medicine City, Qibao City and other three cities. He made a list in the city, saying: "There is a reward of 500 yuan for someone who can report and arrest a thief. Thieves can't steal alone. There must be an accomplice. If the accomplice denounces, he can be acquitted and receive rewards like ordinary people.

Soon, someone captured the thief and came to the government. The thief was not convinced and said, "You and my accomplice have been a thief for 17 years, and the stolen goods are divided equally. How dare you arrest me?! Even if you go to the government, you will be executed like me. Cui Anqian said to the thief, "Since you know that I have a list, why don't you arrest your accomplices and send them to the government? If you do this, he should be executed and you deserve a reward. Now that you have been reported by him, what else can I say?"

Cui Anqian immediately rewarded the thief, let the thief see it, and then took the thief to the market to kill him and killed his family. Therefore, the thieves and their accomplices suspected each other. In Chengdu, the thieves fled at night, and the number of thieves in Xichuan decreased sharply.

Cui Anqian thought that the soldiers in Shu were cowardly and timid, so he submitted an ultimatum to Chenzhou and Xuzhou to recruit strong men and mix and arrange them with the Shu people. After training, as an army, a total of 50,000 soldiers were divided into three armies, each wearing a yellow hat, known as the Yellow Head Army. He also submitted a request from the imperial court to send a crossbowman in Hongzhou to teach the Shu people the technique of using bow and crossbow shooting pills, and selected 5,000 crossbowmen, known as the magic machine crossbow camp, and strictly trained the Shu soldiers gradually became stronger.

Lu, the minister of the Ministry of War, once recommended Gao Yuke to serve as the capital, and Zhang Yu, the general of Gao Yu, led his troops to occupy Fujian. Li Yan was very happy to hear the news. Gao Qian took the opportunity to write to Li Yong, demanding the restoration of the position of prime minister with Lu. Li Yan believed that Lu was meritorious in recommending Gao Wei, so he issued an edict to appoint Lu Yi as a servant and Ping Zhang.

Lu returned to Chang'an from Luoyang and regained power. Once the power is in hand, the order will be carried out. Lu and the public avenged privately. As long as they were appointed by Zheng Yi, most of the jied envoys of the towns in Kanto were dismissed and reastted by Lu. For a while, the only remaining sages in the Li Tang court abandoned their officials one after another, and some went to Daqi. The Li Tang Dynasty showed that the building was about to collapse.

Hou Changye thought that the thieves were all over the east of Tongguan, but Li Yan did not personally deal with political affairs, concentrate on playing various games, and had no time to reward his ministers. The eunuch Tian Lingzi had the exclusive power, ignored the emperor, caused the mutation of the celestial phenomena, and the society would be in danger, so he gave a very good admonition to Li Jun. Li Yan looked at it and became angry. He summoned Hou Changye to the Ministry of Internal Affairs and gave Hou Changye to suicide.

Yang Yan, the judge, asked to borrow the property and goods of the rich and Hu merchants because the treasury was empty. Li Yong issued an edict, ordering rich people and Hu merchants to lend half of their wealth to the state. Gao Yu wrote to the court: "Now that there are a lot of thieves in the world, the cause is due to hunger and cold. Only the rich and Hu merchants have not rebelled." Li Yong then revoked the edict to borrow half of the property of the rich and Hu merchants.

Li Yan deals with political affairs, operates based on his interests, lacks the overall concept, and the reward and punishment is unfair. In addition, being instigated by Tian Lingzi and others, it is even more chaotic and really regards state affairs as a child's play.

One evening, Tian Lingzi finished dinner in his house and lay in the sandalwood chair in the living room humming a little tune. The two maids gently pounded Tian Lingzi's left and right thighs respectively. Tian Lingzi was enjoying it. An attendants came in and reported, "Lord Tian, your eldest brother Chen Jingxuan came to you and is waiting outside the house."

Hearing this, Tian Lingzi immediately cheered up and said, "Please invite my eldest brother to come in!"

After a while, Chen Jingxuan walked into the living room and said anxiously, "Brother, I'm looking for you today. I have a big deal to tell you!"

"Brother, what's so panicked about? Say it slowly!" Tian Ling said with a blank face.

Tian Lingzi and Chen Jingxuan are indeed brothers. Tian Lingzi is from Xuzhou. During the reign of Xiantong, Tian Lingzi followed his adoptive father to the province as eunuchs. At first, Tian Lingzi's status was very low, and later he served as the envoy of Xiaomafang, responsible for managing the good horses offered to the emperor by state and county officials. However, Tian Lingzi has read a lot of books and is very resourceful. When Li Yan was the king of Pu, he was very close to Tian Lingzi. The two often played together, and Tian Lingzi often slept with Li Yan.

As soon as Li Yan ascended the throne, he promoted Tian Lingzi as a Privy Envoy, and Tian Lingzi jumped from a small eunuch to one of the four nobles. "Four nobles" refers to the two secret envoys and the lieutenants of the two divine armies. Soon, Tian Lingzi was promoted to be a lieutenant of the Shence Army, that is, the commander of the Forbidden Army. Tang Xizong, who was only 12 years old, entrusted political affairs to Tian Lingzhi and called Tian Lingzi "father", that is, his adoptive father. With his relationship with the new emperor, Tian Lingzi became the central figure of the ruling group at that time.

Tian Lingzi is in power. If anyone wants to be an official, he has to go through his back door and give him gifts and bribes. Tian Lingzi appointed officials or granted titles without reporting to the emperor, and he could make his own decision.

Li Yan used the gold coins of Chang'an Zuozang and Qitian Zhuku to reward musicians and tricks, which cost tens of thousands of yuan, resulting in the exhaustion of the national treasury. Tian Lingzi conspired for Tang Xizong to register the treasures of Chinese and foreign merchants in Chang'an, all of which were sent to the inner treasury for the emperor to profess. If the merchant was dissatisfied and complained to the government, he was sent to Jing Zhaoyin to death with a stick. No government officials below the prime minister dare to talk about this matter.

Chen Jingxuan was very humble at first and once worked as a chef selling pancakes. When Cui Anqian guarded Xu Chang, Tian Lingzi greeted Cui Anqian in order to make Chen Jingxuan an envoy. The soldier and horse envoy was the position before the governor of the Tang Dynasty. He held the military power and was very powerful. Cui Anqian did not agree, and Tian Lingzi held a grudge, so he arranged Chen Jingxuan to serve in the Zuo Shence Army. In a few years, Chen Jingxuan was promoted to the position of general.

Chen Jingxuan sat down close to Tian Lingzi and said, "Brother, recently, Huang Chao thieves have been killed on the edge of the Yangtze River, and the Tang army has been defeated and retreated. Gao Yu hid in Yangzhou and didn't seem to want to go to war. The order of the Tang Dynasty was disintegrating. However, the real sign that shows the collapse of the order of the Tang Dynasty is not that the yellow nest thieves move forward so hard, but that the Qinwang troops of all towns do not obey the orders of the court! All parties compete with each other for power and profit and develop their own local forces. The failure of Wang Duo and Li in the battle, Liu Jurong's public infidelity and Gao Yu's preservation of his position marked that there was no hope for the revitalization of the power of the Tang Dynasty. After thinking about it, I must find a large area and cultivate my own power in case of accidents!"

"Yes, I also feel that the yellow nest thief is getting closer and closer to Beijing! Gao Qian didn't want to lead the elite soldiers and horses to resist Huang Chao, so the Tang Dynasty had no hope! Sooner or later, the Huangchao thief will enter Dongdu and hit the capital!" Tian Lingzi sighed.

If you want to know what's going on, let's take a look at the next chapter.