Cronies' quarrel

examination examinations. Two ministers had asked the examiner privately because they were acquaintances, but the examiner Qian Hui did not sell their faces. It happened that Li Zongmin had a relative who took the exam and was selected. These ministers denounced Qian Hui to Tang Mu Zong. When Tang Mu Zong asked the Hanlin bachelor, Li Deyu said that there was such a thing. Li Deyu said it was true, so Emperor Mu Zong demoted Qian Hui, and Li Zongmin was also implicated and relegated to a foreign country.

Li Zongmin thought that Li Deyu was trying to exclude him and hated Li Deyu so much. Of course, Niu Sinru sympathized with Li Zongmin. After this, Li Zongmin and Niu Sinru formed a faction with some officials from the imperial examinations, and Li Deyu also formed a faction with officials from the scholarly family, and the two fought each other.

After the reign of Emperor Wen Zong of the Tang Dynasty, Li Zong Min became the chancellor through the door of eunuchs. Li Zongmin recommended Niu Sinru to Emperor Wen Zong and made him the chancellor as well. As soon as these two men took power, they joined forces against Li Deyu and transferred him out of the capital to become the minister of Xichuan (now Chengdu, Sichuan).

During that period, a Tubo general surrendered near Xichuan. Li Deyu took advantage of the opportunity to recover a major town, Wenzhou (the capital was located in Lixian, Sichuan). This was a great achievement for Li Deyu. However, Chancellor Niu Sinru said to Tang Emperor Wenzong, "It is nothing to recover a single Wizhou, but it is not worthwhile to make bad relations with the Tubo." He asked Tang Emperor Wenzong to order Li Deyu to return Wizhou to Tubo, which made Li Deyu very angry.

Later, someone told Tang Emperor Wenzong that it was a mistake to withdraw from Vizhang, and said that the incident was a means to marginalize Li Deyu by Niu Shenru. Tang Emperor Wenzong was quite remorseful and distanced himself from Niu Shenru.

Tang Wenzong himself was also controlled by eunuchs and did not have certain opinions. At one time he used Li Deyu, at another time he used Niu Sin. When one faction was in power, the other faction did not have a good time. The two factions were moving around like a horse lamp, making the imperial government very confusing. Tang Emperor Wenzong was also confused about who was right and who was wrong, and sighed when he thought about it, saying, "It's easy to pacify Hebei, but it's really hard to get rid of the cronies of the court!"The two factions, Niu and Li, were competing for power and profit, and they both wanted to please the eunuchs. When Li Deyu was the governor of Huainan, the eunuch Yang Qingyi was recalled to the capital, and it was said that Yang Qingyi would take power when he returned. When he was leaving, Li Deyu invited Yang Qingyi to a banquet and gave him a generous gift. After Yang Qingyi returned, he recommended Li Deyu in front of Emperor Wu Zong of Tang.

When Emperor Wu of the Tang Dynasty came to the throne, Li Deyu became the prime minister. He tried his best to reject Niu Sinru and Li Zongmin and sent them both to the south.

Li Deyu was trusted by Emperor Wu Zong and became the prime minister for a few years, but he was resented by many courtiers for his arbitrariness. In 846 A.D., when Emperor Wu became ill and died, the eunuchs installed Li Chen, the uncle of Emperor Wu, on the throne, which was Emperor Xuanzong of Tang. The Tang Emperor Xuanzong rejected all the ministers of Wuzong's reign and removed Li Deyu from the post of chancellor on the first day of his reign. After a year, he relegated Li Deyu to Yazhou (now Hainan Island, Guangdong).

The cronyism that had been going on for forty years finally came to an end, but the chaotic Tang dynasty had become even more unmanageable.