Tang Dynasty Since the Anshi Rebellion , it is like sunset over the Western Mountains, and the situation is getting worse day by day. Even if a few emperors tried to turn the tide, they struggled in vain. Tang Zhaozong is a typical tragedy emperor, whose heart is higher than the sky and his life is thinner than paper.
Emperor Zhaozong of the Tang Dynasty ascended the throne at the age of twenty-two. He was at his best when he was young. He was full of passion and wanted to deal with the authoritarian eunuchs and separatist vassal towns. He carefully organized an army of 100,000 men and already anticipated victory before the battle began.
The confident Tang Zhaozong chose to start a war with the most powerful warlord Li Keyong. The result was a tragic defeat. The imperial army was vulnerable to the warlord Li Keyong and was beaten back steadily.
Warlords from all over the world knew that Tang Zhaozong was a paper tiger, and they were no longer afraid of him.
Fengxiang JiedushiLi Maozhen openly laughed at Tang Zhaozong: "You are the emperor, but unfortunately you can't even protect your own uncle. You are the co-lord of Kyushu, but you don't even dare to kill a boy from Yang Fugong's family. It's really It's so pathetic!",
Tang Zhaozong's temper was greater than his ability. He ignored Prime Minister Du Rang Neng's advice and sent troops to deal with Li Maozhen. The result was no suspense, but he was dealt with by Li Maozhen. In the end, Du Rang Neng had to be used as a scapegoat and he was allowed to commit suicide to calm Li Maozhen's anger.
When the emperor reached this point, Tang Zhaozong felt only full of despair, like sitting on a leaky boat, seeing that the boat was about to capsize, but there was nothing he could do and he could only resign himself to his fate.
The warlords all wanted to hijack Tang Zhaozong into their own territory. For this reason, Tang Zhaozong escaped from Chang'an twice, but was still caught. He was imprisoned by Han Jian, the governor of Huazhou, for 2 years.
Returning to Chang'an again, Tang Zhaozong became very depressed, his past ambitions were gone, and reality gave him the cruelest blow.
In order to numb himself, Tang Zhaozong drank and had fun all day long. He was so drunk that he beat and scolded the servants around him. Many people lost their lives and the eunuchs were all in danger.
Unwilling to sit back and wait for death, the eunuchs headed by Liu Jishu decided to depose Tang Zhaozong and make Tang Zhaozong's son the emperor.
In the middle and late Tang Dynasty, the power of the eunuchs had reached the point where they could dominate the sky with one hand. Many emperors of the Tang Dynasty were puppets supported by the eunuchs.
Tang Zhaozong did not notice the danger approaching, and still indulged in drinking day after day.
Tired of killing, Tang Zhaozong fell asleep directly.
He lived like what he hated the most.
The next morning, the ministers of the court waited for a long time but did not wait for Tang Zhaozong to come to the morning court. Everyone was talking about it. The eunuch Liu Jishu realized that there was a situation in the palace, so he called Prime Minister Cui Yin and led thousands of soldiers straight to Tang Zhaozong's palace.
Everyone was shocked when they saw that Tang Zhaozong was sleeping soundly and snoring happily, and that there were many corpses of palace maids and eunuchs lying on the ground. There were blood stains on the ground, on the walls, and on Tang Zhaozong's bed. The dazzling red color made everyone feel sad. Who knew if he would be killed next?
In the era of imperial power, if the king wants his ministers to die, they must die.
Liu Jishu sneered and said: "Everyone has seen what our emperor has done. How can such a person govern the world? It has been the case since ancient times to abolish the faint to establish the bright! It cannot be considered disloyal to depose such a foolish emperor."
Prime Minister Cui Yin fell into silence. He had no soldiers and could not defeat the eunuchs who controlled the imperial army.
Until Liu Jishu and others left, Tang Zhaozong was still dreaming, completely unaware of what happened.
Two days later, Tang Zhaozong was about to go to the morning court when he suddenly heard the sound of fighting and killing outside. Tang Zhaozong was so frightened that he wanted to run away, but had nowhere to hide. He saw Liu Jishu leading the imperial army and swaggering towards him.
Liu Jishu handed Tang Zhaozong a memorial. Tang Zhaozong's face changed drastically after reading it. On it were the signatures of all the civil and military officials of the imperial court, asking Tang Zhaozong to give up the throne to the prince.
Liu Jishu said with a smile: "Considering that Your Majesty is tired of being the emperor, and now the prince is enthroned in both the court and the public, please move to Shaoyang Courtyard and have a good rest."
Tang Zhaozong knew that it must be Liu Jishu who forced the ministers to sign. He was not willing to be ousted like this, so he pretended to be relaxed and said: " I just had a few too many drinks a few days ago, why is this happening?"
Liu Jishu didn't want to give up to Tang Zhaozong at all. He only said that this was what the ministers wanted, and said hypocritically: "When the situation stabilizes, we will definitely bring the emperor back, and your majesty will stay in Shaoyang Court temporarily."
Tang Zhaozong wanted to say something more, but Liu Jishu had already turned his head and didn't want to listen to him anymore. Under constant urging, Tang Zhaozong was forced to hand over Jade Seal and moved to Shaoyangyuan with his wife and children.
The more cowardly Tang Zhaozong became, the more Liu Jishu looked down on him and wanted to humiliate him. In front of everyone, Liu Jishu asked Tang Zhaozong to stand in front of him, and then said loudly: "Your Majesty brought all this on himself. Who told Your Majesty not to listen to me? On such and such a month and year, you did not listen to me. This is the first crime. On such and such a month and day, you did not listen to me. This is This is the second crime. On a certain day of a certain year and a certain month, you did not listen to me. This is the third crime..."
Liu Jishu patiently stated one sin after another of Tang Zhaozong. Tang Zhaozong was ashamed and angry, but unable to resist. He was not even a puppet emperor now.
Tang Zhaozong's son, Crown Prince Li Yu, changed his name to Li Zhen and became emperor with the support of Liu Jishu.
The imprisoned Tang Zhaozong lived a very miserable life. The weather was very cold and there were not enough clothes and quilts in Shaoyang Court. He, his wife and children were shivering from the cold, but no one paid attention to him. No one answered even if he screamed.
In order to cut off the connection between Tang Zhaozong and the outside world, Liu Jishu ordered people to dig a small hole in the wall and let people pass food in through this small hole.
The news that the emperor was imprisoned by the eunuchs quickly spread throughout the world, and everyone was shocked. For the common people, it was just a topic of conversation after dinner, no matter who was the emperor. For the ministers in the DPRK, it was like sitting on pins and needles.
Tang Zhaozong was imprisoned for a full month. No one in the court dared to stand up for Tang Zhaozong. Everyone dared to be angry but dare not speak out against Liu Jishu and others.
Prime Minister Cui Yin was moved by the Forbidden Army general Sun Dezhao and others, hoping that they could save Tang Zhaozong. However, Sun Dezhao and others were afraid of Liu Jishu and never dared to act rashly.
Cui Yin said that as long as he could rescue Tang Zhaozong, he would be rewarded heavily.
With the temptation of high-ranking officials and generous salaries, Sun Dezhao and other talents were willing to give it a try, and finally launched a mutiny, arrested Liu Jishu and other eunuch leaders, and rescued Tang Zhaozong.
For Tang Zhaozong, this was another disaster, but his ordeal was far from over.
Soon after, Tang Zhaozong was kidnapped to Fengxiang by Fengxiang Jiedushi Li Maozhen and eunuch Han Quanhui.
Warlord Zhu Wen heard the news and led his troops to besiege Fengxiang. Fengxiang was besieged for more than a year and became a hell on earth. Human flesh was sold openly in the market, with a price of 100 yuan per catty, and dog meat with a price of 500 yuan.
Although Tang Zhaozong was still alive, he was so hungry that he had only one breath left.
Li Maozhen finally had to surrender to Zhu Wen due to food shortage, and Tang Zhaozong became Zhu Wen's hostage again. Although he returned to Chang'an, he had to obey Zhu Wen's arrangements in everything.
Although warlords such as Li Maozhen were busy fighting for territory all day long, they were at least willing to respect the Tang Dynasty as orthodox, but what Zhu Wen wanted was to replace it.
fell into the hands of Zhu Wen, and the end of Tang Zhaozong came.
In 904 AD, Tang Zhaozong was forced to move his capital to Luoyang . People along the road shouted long live. Tang Zhaozong cried: "Don't shout long live, I am no longer your lord!"He couldn't help but sigh to the people around him: "I am wandering now, I don't know where I am!"
Late at night on August 11, 904 AD, Tang Zhaozong was drunk again and was sleeping soundly when he suddenly heard Li Zhaoyi shouting: " It would be better to kill us than hurt the emperor!" He was startled and knew something was wrong. He quickly jumped out of bed. Before he could escape, Zhu Wen's subordinates Jiang Xuanhui and others rushed in with swords in hand. Tang Zhaozong shouted "Help" while running around the pillar, but no one could save him, and he was eventually killed at the age of 38.
Although Tang Zhaozong had great ambitions, he had no extraordinary talents. If he could be a conservative leader in good times, but in troubled times, he would be trapped by the times and end up in a miserable state.
