Why did such a tragedy happen?
1, The Charm of the White Horse is a link of Zhu Wen's usurpation of power.
The "White Horse Disaster" seems to be Zhu Wen's revenge at the instigation of his subordinates, but in fact it is Zhu Wen's elaborate plot to remove obstacles and achieve self-reliance in usurping the Tang Dynasty.
Why do you say that?
At the end of the Tang Dynasty, the political situation was turbulent and there were many external separatist forces. Internally, eunuchs, emperors and courtiers fought for power and power. Zhu Wen, the military envoy of Xuanwu, defeated Li Keyong, king of Jin, and became the most powerful separatist region.
With the growth of power, Zhu Wen was not satisfied with the separatist regime, and his ambition gradually expanded.
In order to gain control of the imperial court, Zhu Wen faced three obstacles: official power, monarchical power and relative power.
In order to realize his political ambition, Zhu Wen must get ahead and get rid of these three obstacles. To this end, a plan to seize power was carefully designed and implemented steadily.
Before the "White Horse Disaster", Zhu Wen had carried out two massacres, removed the eunuch's authoritarian power and controlled the monarchy:
One is the slaughter of eunuchs in 903 AD. Eunuchs were autocratic in the Tang Dynasty, so they got rid of eunuchs and solved the disadvantages of eunuchs manipulating the emperor and monopolizing state affairs.
The second is to slaughter the royal family and help the young emperor. Send someone to kill Tang Zhaozong and make his 13-year-old son Zuo Li emperor of Tang Aidi. Later, Zhao Zong's nine sons were all killed by a banquet. In this way, we firmly control the monarchy in our own hands.
Through these two massacres, there was only one biggest obstacle left for Zhu Wen to leave the upper position-an old court official.
2. The old minister is the last obstacle for Zhu Wen to usurp power.
Why do you have to kill these old ministers? Because these old ministers are against Zhu Wen's autocracy.
The "dispute between scholars and civilians" in the Tang Dynasty lasted for decades. After the suppression of the early imperial court, although it was alleviated, the old habits were hard to change and sometimes revived.
Zhu Wen was born in a peasant family and has always been despised by the imperial court's bureaucratic group. Most of his cronies and generals are Shu Ren.
Although Zhu Wen has developed and occupied a high position since he took office, some old officials of the imperial court, such as Pei Shu, Cui Yuan and Du Gu, all came from noble families. Since the Eastern Han Dynasty, they have always regarded themselves as "clean stream", advocating the integrity of literati, and regarded Shu Ren officials who came from civilians as "turbid stream". Scholars and ordinary factions became independent, hated each other and fought constantly.
Zhu Wen once suggested to Pei Shu, the prime minister from the cremation background, to appoint his general Zhang as Taichangqing. However, Pei Shu thought that Zhang was a "small official", that is, he was not born in the imperial examination, so he refused, and Zhu Wen was even more disgusted with the cremation bureaucrats.
3. It is the need for Zhu Wen to woo the Buyi Group to recall the old minister.
Zhu Wen's power is growing step by step, and it can't be separated from the help of a group of generals and counselors who came from civilians. He also knows that if we want to develop further, we must win over these civilian heroes around us.
And these ordinary people have always been despised by the old ministers of the cremation. Suppressing the old ministers of the gentry can not only clear the way for them to usurp the throne, but also win the support of heroes around Buyi, which can be described as a win-win situation.
Zhu Wen's favourite, Li Zhen, failed to take the imperial examinations many times in his early years, and he was very jealous of courtier officials who were promoted by the imperial examinations and claimed to be incorruptible. Although Mrs. Liu, the prime minister, was born in a famous family, her family was poor and she was only a scholar later. She was promoted to prime minister in less than four years, because she is clever and good at job hunting. After taking office, Zhu Wen tried to please Zhu Wen and his men, so she was despised by the gentry bureaucrats in the DPRK.
Mrs. Liu and Li Zhen saw through Zhu Wen's mind and spoke ill of them in front of Zhu Wen many times, encouraging Zhu Wen to get rid of the old minister.
In 905, Zhu Wen first asked Tang Aidi to expel Pei Shu, Cui Yuan, Du Gu, wang pu and other officials of the old dynasty from Beijing. Other rich people, or those who were famous in the imperial examinations and the three provinces, were all considered frivolous and shallow, and were demoted one by one. "Those who are self-sufficient or self-motivated, or who live in Taiwan Pavilion in three provinces, look themselves up by name and write a little, all think they are frivolous, think they have no empty days and think they are empty." (Zi Tongzhi Jian) Soon, the demoted official was ordered to commit suicide in his place in the name of the imperial court.
In order to solve the hatred in his heart, Li Zhen went on to say: "These people always feel that they are virtuous and clean people, and they should all be thrown into the Yellow River and become turbid." -"At the beginning, Li Zhen recommended Jinshi many times, but he didn't win the first place. Therefore, the seriously ill gentleman said to Quan Zhong,' This is very self-righteous. It is also appropriate to throw it into the Yellow River, it will be turbid!' All loyalty and righteousness laugh and follow it "("Zi Tongzhi Jian ")
In June of that year, Zhu Wen gathered more than 30 relegated officials, including Pei Shu, Cui Yuan and Du Gu, to Baimagang, killed them all and dumped them in the Yellow River, creating a shocking "Baimagang disaster".
Later, in order to crack down on the remnants, Zhu Wen exiled the descendants and companions of Pei Shu, Cui Yuan, Du Gu and others, and executed his mother He Taihou and his confidant, minion Liu Can and his brothers Tang, Tai Changqing and Zhang on charges of rebellion.
The "White Horse Post Disaster" completely eliminated the old courtiers of the imperial court, put an end to the stubborn disease of the Tang government-"the dispute between scholars and civilians", and also marked that all obstacles on Zhu Wen's usurpation of the throne were cleared, and the Li and Tang dynasties had existed in name only.
Two years later, in 907, Zhu Wen abolished Tang Aidi, became emperor on his own, and established the back beam. The Tang Dynasty, which lasted nearly 300 years, officially perished, and a more chaotic Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms began.