Changan.

Above the Flying Pavilion of Daming Palace, Huang Chao, who was wearing a crown on his head and wearing a dragon robe, looked a little tired, and did not have the joy he deserved after becoming the emperor of Daqi. Looking from afar by the railing, Huang Chao's eyebrows were furrowed, and his eyes were full of deep sorrow.

"When autumn comes, September 8, I will kill a hundred flowers after the flowers bloom. The heavenly incense array penetrates Chang'an, and the city is full of golden armor. ”

Slowly recited this poem when he left Chang'an, at that time, he was very angry in his heart. Unexpectedly, after so many years, he really returned to Chang'an, and he took hundreds of thousands of troops to Chang'an, and the city was full of golden armor. To this day, he can still remember the excitement in his heart when he returned to Chang'an.

It's only been a few months, and now Huang Chao no longer has the slightest joy in his heart.

Chang'an, the bustling capital, is more like a heavy shackle, a huge cage, locking him and the Qi soldiers under his command here. It was a huge quagmire, and his soldiers had fallen into it.

When he first entered Chang'an, Huang Chao was happy in his heart, and he wanted to take care of his Daqi with the talent in his heart. Chang'an will become the capital of Daqi, and he will treat the people here well, so that they will all follow him and build an empire that will last forever. But this lofty ambition came to an end in just three days.

Chang'an is actually an empty city with no food.

He brought with him an army of 300,000 and nearly 200,000 soldiers and dependents, but he only brought less than a month's worth of grain and grass with the army. But there are still nearly 500,000 people left in the city, and he took over Chang'an, and he also received 500,000 mouths waiting for dinner at once.

Chang'an lives in Guanzhong. Originally, it was known for its abundant products. can be due to the status of the center of the world in Guanzhong. The population is growing continuously, there are a large number of populous cities in Guanzhong, Guanzhong has long been unable to self-sufficiency, and it is no longer the big granary of the Qin and Han dynasties. Since the middle of the Tang Dynasty, an average of about 2.5 million stone of grain needs to be transported from Jianghuai to Chang'an every year to meet the needs of the central forbidden army, hundreds of officials and civilians stationed in the capital.

After the Anshi Rebellion. The grain produced by the two major grain-producing areas of Henan and Hedong was almost used in the Central Plains feudal towns to feed and contain the towns of the Hebei feudal towns. Chang'an needs to lack food, so it needs to rely on the Jianghuai region in the southeast, and rely on the food supply of the wealth-based feudal towns here to supply Chang'an. Under normal circumstances, Chang'an would have been able to make up for the lack of local grain production by relying on a well-developed transportation and trade system. But the key thing is that this is an extremely crisp balance. Once an accident occurs, resulting in poor transportation, then Chang'an will soon have a food shortage.

In the first year of Dejong Zhen. Due to the rebellion of the four kings and two emperors, the granaries in Guanzhong were exhausted. The Praetorian Army was in turmoil. Dezong looked east at the grain ship every day, and his heart was anxious. Later, when he finally learned that Jianghuai's grain was transported to Shaanzhou, Tang Dezong Li Shi actually cried with joy at the crown prince Li Yu: "Our father and son can live again!" ”

Even Dezong's father and son were in such a predicament back then, and it can be seen that Huang Chao's situation is even more difficult now.

On the surface, Huang Chao first went to Luoyang, and then went to Chang'an, with a brilliant appearance and a momentum that moved the world. But if you look at it fundamentally, under the background of its hundreds of thousands of troops, the economic and people's livelihood situation is a hundred times worse than that of Dezong back then. Although Huangchao now occupies dozens of states, and several feudal towns have expressed their submission to Huangchao, the key thing is that these places where Huangchao is located are all post-war places after repeated tug-of-war, and when they were originally in Luoyang, they also got a lot of grain reserves. But after entering Chang'an, it was an empty city.

The 300,000 troops in Guanzhong, plus the surrendered Tang army with nearly 100,000 troops, and the 200,000 horses left behind in Henan, add up, Huangchao now has 600,000 people just from the army, even if the real fight may only be one-third and a quarter, but it is impossible for these people to eat only one-third and one-quarter.

After Huangchao entered Chang'an, Li Jing took control of Huaisi in a blink of an eye, seized Xu Haosu, Haoshou and Chu Prefectures, and compressed the troops left behind in Henan near Luoyang. The feudal towns in the southeast have already cut off the supply to Guanzhong.

The supply of the southeastern feudal towns, which the central Tang court relied on, had been interrupted, and most of Henan's grain had been brought to Guanzhong, and the remaining Qi army, which barely maintained Henan, could no longer supply Guanzhong.

The annexed towns are still only nominally annexed, and they are self-sufficient in money and grain, even if they are handed in, it is only a drop in the bucket.

In such a situation, what else can he do except rob?

In the face of the plundering of Chang'an by all units of the Qi army, Huang Chao could only acquiesce. Because if he is not allowed, he will not be able to provide food to appease the army.

At the beginning, Huang Chao acquiesced to the Qi army's plundering of Chang'an, because he had to. Originally, Zhang Yan, the official of Huangchao, once played a concerto, and also mentioned the predicament of the Qi army after entering Chang'an at this time. But Zhang Yan proposed that the sergeants should not be indulged in looting. Even if it is a last resort, it should be the Daqi court that comes forward to organize a formal action, and the court should come forward to confiscate the property and grain of the original Li Tang royal family and the emperor's relatives and high-ranking officials and nobles to confiscate it, and it cannot be plundered privately by the soldiers. Because letting the soldiers loot in private will not only worsen the military discipline of the already weak Qi army, but even if it is the money and food that is robbed, most of it is hidden by some soldiers privately, and it is impossible to better use it for the imperial court.

However, Huang Chao refused after thinking for a while, he didn't say the reason, but Zhang Yan guessed that Huang Chao was unwilling to take the robbery as his own idea, and was unwilling to bear this notoriety and leave it in the history books.

The result of cherishing face is that three days after the Qi army entered Chang'an, it started from seizing the house, to the most rear, to the general, to the non-commissioned officers, robbing everywhere, and after the most rear, they completely lost the restraint of military discipline, murder and arson, robbery and adultery, and even the Qi army was fighting and continual, and the huge Chang'an City was completely bad. By the time Huang Chao finally felt that something was wrong and wanted to restrain military discipline, it was too late.

In a round of robbery by the Qi army, one-tenth of Chang'an City was destroyed to ashes, and more than 100,000 people were killed in the rebellion.

What's worse is that when Huang Chao issued an edict to announce the Li Tang officials in the original Chang'an City, the third rank and the two were dismissed, and the fourth rank and below. All remain in office. And immediately continue to the time of the office. As a result, there were only dozens of kittens and puppies from Zhang Zhifang, who went to Bashang to greet him.

Datang officials, the first and second rank official positions are basically fictitious titles, and most of the real things are counted from the third grade. Huang Chao's original intention was to keep the rest of the officials in their original positions, except for those honorable Li Tang's old and retired ministers. Moreover, if the performance is good, even if it is above the third grade, such as Zhang Zhifang, he will stay in office and increase his office.

When Huang Chao gave this holy decree. I still thought in my heart that he was so generous and magnificent, wouldn't those officials still compete to vote.

"The heroes of the world, enter my world." Huang Chao thought beautifully in his heart.

But the result was that except for the dozens of kittens and dogs, the officials in Chang'an City either fled with the Son of Heaven a long time ago, or ran away later, or they didn't run away. Either they were picked up by agents sent by Li Jing, or they went into hiding.

These officials who were originally left behind. I also thought that even if the dynasty changed, they could continue to be officials. But after seeing the atrocities of the Qi army, who dared to come out? Their mansions, mansions, and manors have all been occupied by the generals of the Qi army, and those who run slower have even been killed by the rebels.

Therefore, when Huang Chao looked back and realized that he could not rule the world by relying on his hundreds of thousands of soldiers who fought and killed, robbed and killed, and wanted to use Tang Dynasty officials, there were few followers. Not only those officials are like this, but even those who have no official status are not interested in his recruitment list at all.

The Qi army entered Chang'an City to burn, kill and loot, which completely made those famous families, scholars, and even local tyrants and landlords all look at Huang Chao coldly and hate. For them, such a Qi army, such a Huang Chao, even if they occupy the eastern capital of Xijing, even if Huang Chao wears the imperial robe, they are just a clown crowned by a monkey.

No one wants to be an official for Huang Chao, but the newly established Great Qi Empire cannot be governed by a group of soldiers who can only fight and kill. So, not long after, Huang Chao issued a new decree, all the former Tang Dynasty officials, regardless of rank, as long as they brought a post to report to the palace of Zhao Zhang, who was also the same as the Ping Zhang, in the Great Qi Servant, they would all be restored to their official positions.

It's just that Huang Chao's further concession is still hot and cold. At this time, the former Tang Dynasty officials were afraid of the yellow nest like a tiger, which dared to accompany the tiger with his body.

The edict was posted for several days, but few people came.

What made Huang Chao angry the most was that after the two ministers of Zheng Zhengqi, who was the former general and Zheng Zhengqi, and Zheng Zheng, the treasury department, were discovered by the Qi army, these two senior officials of the third rank and a senior official of the fifth rank resolutely refused to be the courtiers of Huang Chao, not only that, but the two even committed suicide directly with their families.

This incident deeply hurt Huang Chao's self-esteem, and he repeatedly entered the Chang'an imperial examination back then, but the nobles and celebrities in Chang'an looked down on him as a countryman. And now that he is the Son of Heaven, these people still despise him so much.

After the two surnamed Zheng were found out, Huang Chao personally gave many rewards, but in the end, he actually got a result that he would rather commit suicide with the whole family than be his courtier.

Finally, in anger, Huang Chao issued the third holy decree, all the ministers who dared to hide and flee, once discovered, immediately killed on the spot. All the Li Tang clans that have been captured, kill! All the scholars who looked down on him Huangchao and Daqi and refused to go out of the new dynasty were all killed!

Last time, the Qi army plundered Chang'an, mainly to rob the house money and women, and for those officials and clans, if they cooperated with the handover of property, or fled, they did not pursue it. But this time, the whole Chang'an City launched a large-scale arrest operation, and the wolf-like Qi army broke into every square and lane of Chang'an City, and rushed into every street, showing their barbarism and brutality.

A large number of officials such as the young master of the crown prince, Pei Tan, Zhao Meng, the prince of the imperial history, Li Pu, the servant of the criminal department, and Li Tang of Jingzhao, as well as the Li Tang clan relatives who failed to escape from the city, were arrested from the people in batches, and then their heads were in different places, and the corpses and bones were in the city, and the streets were stained with blood. Even the body of the former prime minister Lu Xian, who committed suicide before the fall of Chang'an, was dragged out of the coffin and displayed in the market!

The Military Intelligence Department sent by Li Jing actively fought with the Qi army to grab people, and tried their best to search for and rescue those officials and soldiers.

In Chang'an City, in addition to the hidden Xiangguo Yu Cong and Princess Guangde in the underground palace of the Great Ci'en Temple, there are also prominent prime ministers Dou Lu Yao and Cui Xin. In and outside the city of Chang'an, the Qin Army's Military Intelligence Department had more than a dozen secret strongholds, and the people who took refuge in these places were thousands of people, almost all of whom were famous families, court officials, and relatives of the emperor.

In addition to the secret strongholds of the Qin Army's secret service division, there were also many officials and nobles who also had their own secret hiding places, but many of these strongholds were discovered, and all those who hid were executed by the angry Huang Chao.

The former Huainan Jiedu made Liu Ye be searched, and Huang Chao promised that as long as Liu Ye returned to obedience, he would let him do Tongping Zhang. As a result, he once served as the prime minister and served as the marshal of many feudal towns, but Liu Ye, who had a reputation for greed, refused without hesitation, and the angry Huang Chao personally drew his sword and killed Liu Ye.

"Those who follow me prosper, those who oppose me die, and those who dare to resist and disobey will be killed!" Huang Chao carried the blood-dripping sword, gritted his teeth and roared. (To be continued......)