78 Facts About Zhu Wen

Emperor Taizu of Later Liang, personal name Zhu Quanzhong, ne Zhu Wen, name later changed to Zhu Huang, nickname Zhu San, was a Chinese military general, monarch, and politician.

Zhu Wen was a Jiedushi and warlord who in 907 overthrew the Tang dynasty and established the Later Liang dynasty, ruling as its first emperor, ushering in the era of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms.

Zhu Wen initially served as a general under the rebel Huang Chao, but defected to the weakened Tang dynasty in 882.

Zhu Wen used a combination of strict enforcement, ruthless violence and solicitation to ensure his officers stayed loyal to him.

Zhu Wen's reign came to an end in 912 when he was murdered in his palace by his son Zhu Yougui, whom he had begotten with a prostitute.

Zhu Wen was born the youngest of three sons, Quanyu, Cun and Wen.

Zhu Wen's father, Zhu Cheng was an instructor in the Five Classics in Dangshan County, which at that time belonged to Songzhou.

Zhu Wen's widow brought her three sons to live in the household of Liu Chong of Xiao County, Xuzhou.

Zhu Wen was brought up to be a family retainer or manor steward, but it is said that the people in the Liu household did not view him highly, except Liu Chong's mother, who in fact had to intercede whenever Liu Chong, displeased with Zhu Wen, caned him.

When he surrendered, Zhu Wen brought with him an army of several thousand men, but by the time he left for Bianzhou this army must have been largely dispersed or absorbed into the imperial armies, for he brought with him to Bian only a few hundred men including a core of at least eighty military retainers.

Zhu Wen appointed several of his military retainers as guards officers, such as Ding Hui who was made administrator, and Hu Zhen who was made a commander.

Zhu Wen Quanzhong did retain the hereditary officers in the guards and main army, but the reorganizations and preparations for war against Huang Chao had been entrusted to his own men.

Later as new units were formed, officers were both selected from men who had come with Zhu Wen or recruited locally.

Zhu Wen soon had the opportunity to test the mettle of his new army.

Zhu Wen was hunted down and killed later that summer.

The final defeat of Huang Chao brought about the surrender of several rebel commanders to Zhu Wen, strengthening his forces and providing him with a second group of officers who would serve him loyally in the years to come.

In 885 Zhu Wen married his daughter, the future Princess Changle, to Zhao Yan, son of Zhao Chou, who was already indebted to Zhu Wen for breaking the siege of Huang Chao.

An suppressed the mutiny, but Zhu Wen then attacked, and easily captured Hua, killing An and commissioning Hu Zhen as An's replacement.

Large parts of the Yicheng army had to be left at Hua to guard the Yellow River, but Zhu Wen Quanzhong had gained a strategic reserve.

The attack failed however and late 886 Qin began a campaign against Zhu Wen, heading toward Bian and intending to capture it.

Zhu Wen sent Zhu Wen Zhen to the east to recruit additional troops outside his own territory.

Zhu Wen called in the Yicheng army, and asked for, and received, aid from his two neighbouring "brother" governors, Zhu Xuan and Zhu Xuan's cousin, Zhu Jin of Taining Circuit.

Zhu Wen Quanzhong sent a deputy, Li Fan, to take control of the circuit, but on arrival Li Fan found Yang Xingmi, one of Guo Pian's generals, in control of the provincial capital Yang Prefecture.

Meanwhile, following the defection of one of Qin Zongquan's generals, Zhao Deyin of Shannan East Circuit, to the Tang cause, Zhu Wen's armies laid siege to Cai.

However, this mission coincided with a mutiny of the Le's guard during which Zhu Wen's emissary was killed and the money and any grain he had purchased presumably confiscated.

In retaliation Zhu Wen dispatched Zhu Wen Zhen with an army who successfully plundered across Wei territory before returning home.

Zhu Wen responded by sending an army under Ding Hui and Niu Cunjie.

Thereafter, in Zhang, Zhu Wen gained a loyal ally under whose administration Luoyang was to recover after years of ruinous warfare and whom he could thereafter rely upon for money and food supplies.

Zhu Wen Zhen was however victorious in a battle against Shi and proceeded to capture Su Prefecture to the south.

Zhu Wen then reported that he had executed Tangbin for sedition.

Disaster averted, Zhu Wen Quanzhong proceeded to reorganize his army to ensure a similar situation could not arise again.

Zhu Wen Quanzhong had previously created several special regiments under selected officers, and some of these would now accompany the chief commander to battle and share the field commands.

At court, the chancellor Zhang Jun, said to have been secretly bribed by Zhu Wen Quanzhong, supported the measure, but the majority of the bureaucracy were against.

The leader of the mutiny, Feng Ba, now invited Zhu Wen to take over the prefecture.

Zhu Wen sent an army under Ge Congzhou to occupy Lu and the court appointed the bureaucrat Sun Kui as the new Zhaoyi military governor.

Zhu Wen attacked Zhu Xuan himself in 894, defeating Zhu Xuan and Zhu Jin's joint forces and killing more than 10,000 men from Tianping and Taining.

However, the siege lost its force when Zhu Wen Jin pretended to surrender, but instead used the opportunity to capture a cousin who had surrendered previously and execute Zhu Wen Qiong.

Zhu Wen Jin abandoned Yan and fled to Huainan with Shi and Li Chengsi, leaving Zhu Wen in control of all of the lands directly east of his own Xuanwu Circuit, all the way to the East China Sea.

Li Keyong supported Wang Ke, while Zhu Wen supported Wang Gong.

In spring 897, Zhu Wen sent Zhang Cunjing and Yang Shihou to put Huguo under siege, but Li Keyong sent his nephew Li Sizhao to defeat Wang Gong's forces and forcing the Xuanwu forces to lift the siege.

Zhu Wen gathered his available forces and sent Pang with 70,000 soldiers from Xuanwu and Wuning Circuits to Qingkou, posturing to head to Huainan's capital Yang Prefecture ; Ge Congzhou with the forces from Tianping and Taining Circuits to Anfeng, posturing to head to Shou Prefecture ; and Zhu Quanzhong himself with his main forces to Su Prefecture.

Yang Xingmi had Zhu Wen Jin serve as his advance commander, and Zhu Wen constructed a dam on the Huai River.

When Yang Xingmi attacked Pang, Zhu Wen released the waters to flood Pang's army, and then attacked Pang with Yang.

Zhu Wen sent Shi Shucong and Kang Huaizhen to attack Zhongyi.

Li Keyong was receptive, but Zhu Wen's refusal ended hopes of peace.

Zhu Wen then discovered that another vassal, Cui Hong the military governor of Fengguo, was communicating with Yang.

Cui, in fear, sent his brother Cui Xian as a hostage to Zhu Wen and offered to send troops to supplement Xuanwu forces.

When Zhu Wen then sent Cui Xian back to Fengguo to express Zhu Wen's order that Fengguo forces be sent to supplement Xuanwu forces, the Fengguo forces mutinied, killed Cui Xian, and forced Cui Hong to flee to Huainan.

Yang's attack appeared to have soon dissipated while Zhu Wen's forces were successful on both the Zhaoyi and Weibo fronts, crushing Liu's forces and forcing him to stop his attack on Weibo, and stopping Li Keyong's attack on the Zhaoyi front and retaining the control of Zhaoyi.

Meanwhile, Cui was secretly exchanging letters with Zhu Wen, planning to counteract against the eunuchs, and Zhu Wen sent his key advisor Li Zhen to Chang'an to discuss the matter with Cui.

Zhu Wen put Hedong's capital Taiyuan under siege, but with inclement weather hindering the siege, he was forced to give up the siege on Taiyuan.

Cui, in fear, wrote to Zhu Wen, claiming that the eunuchs were planning to attack Zhu Wen in alliance with Li Maozhen.

Li Maozhen sought aid from Wang Jian the military governor of Xichuan Circuit, a major warlord to Li Maozhen's southwest, but while Wang outwardly supported Li Maozhen and rebuked Zhu Wen, he was in secret contact with Zhu Wen and instead used this opportunity to seize Li Maozhen's possessions south of the Qinling Mountains one by one.

The parties soon began negotiating in earnest, and Zhu Wen sent supplies inside the city for Emperor Zhaozong, with the intent of causing Li Maozhen and Emperor Zhaozong to be suspicious of each other.

Li Maozhen, thereafter, started direct negotiations with Zhu Wen and considered slaughtering the eunuchs to preserve himself.

Zhu Wen had to react by sending Zhu Wen Youning and Ge to the east, to face Wang.

Zhu Wen personally escorted the emperor's train back to the capital.

Once Zhu Wen returned to Xuanwu, he gathered his army to get ready to capture the two Wang Shifan-held circuits, Pinglu and Taining.

Meanwhile, Cui had begun to see the army that Zhu Wen left at Chang'an to be a threat to the security of the imperial government and of himself, and therefore had been trying to recruit a new army to replace the decimated imperial guards and Shence Armies.

Zhu Wen realized this and began to suspect Cui of getting ready to turn against him.

Zhu Wen sent another nephew, Zhu Youliang, to Chang'an to take over Zhu Youlun's post, and he sent his soldiers to pretend to be recruits to infiltrate the new army that Cui was building.

Zhu Wen therefore resolved to forcibly move the emperor to Luoyang, closer to his base at Bian.

Zhu Wen thereafter had Emperor Zhaozong, the imperial household, and the populace of Chang'an forcibly escorted to Luoyang.

Zhu Wen came to the belief that he should remove the adult emperor and replace the emperor with a more-easily controlled child.

Shortly after Emperor Zhaozong's death, Zhu Wen had nine elder of the deceased emperor's sons killed, sparing Emperor Ai and his mother Empress Dowager He.

Zhu Wen was said to be a moderating influence and a wise advisor to Zhu, and it was said that after her death, his violent and licentious tendencies became out of control.

In fall 905, Zhu Wen carried out against the Zhao brothers, quickly defeating them and forcing them to flee, allowing him to absorb the Zhaos' territory.

Zhu Wen was originally planning to returning to his own territory after this, but then changed his mind and decided to attack Yang.

Zhu Wen had by this point decided to take over the Tang throne.

Zhu Wen thus became incensed at Liu and Jiang, and not even a subsequent edict in Emperor Ai's name creating him the Prince of Wei and giving him the Nine Bestowments placated him.

Zhu Wen put Liu's son Liu Shouwen under siege at Yichang's capital Cang Prefecture.

Zhu Wen was forced to give up his campaign against Liu and withdraw.

Zhu Wen made Jing Xiang his chief advisor, making decisions in conjunction with Jing before having Jing announce them to the chancellors.

Zhu Wen continued to be nominally submissive to Emperor Taizu, and Emperor Taizu made him the military governor of both Lulong and Yichang.

Zhu Wen sent the officers Du Tingyin and Ding Yanhui north with 3,000 men to Wushun's Shen and Ji, claiming to be helping Wushun to defend potential Liu Shouguang incursions.

Zhu Wen thought he got the chance in 912 when Jin, with assistance from Zhao and Yiwu, launched an attack on Liu Shouguang, seeking to destroy Yan.

Further, although Zhu Youwen was not a biological son, he was the oldest among his surviving sons, and he was seriously contemplating passing the throne to Zhu Youwen.

Zhu Wen assassinated Emperor Taizu with the assistance of his servant Feng Ting'e, and then issued order in Emperor Taizu's name to his brother Zhu Youzhen the Prince of Jun, who was at Daliang, to execute Zhu Youwen.