Emperor Xianzong of Tang - As Emperor - Middle Reign

Middle Reign

After the end of the Chengde campaign, Zhang Maozhao (張茂昭) the military governor of Chengde's neighboring Yiwu Circuit (義武, headquartered in modern Baoding, Hebei), who had inherited his position from his father Zhang Xiaozhong, offered to yield the circuit to imperial control, and Emperor Xianzong agreed, sending the official Ren Dijian (任迪簡) to replace Zhang Maozhao. (After Zhang's departure from Yiwu, however, the Yiwu soldiers mutinied against Ren and put him under house arrest, although eventually another group of soldiers then countered their mutiny and restored Ren, allowing Yiwu to be in imperial hands from this point on.) Also in the aftermaths of the Chengde campaign, Tutu Chengcui was demoted and, later, after he was involved in a corruption scandal, sent out of the capital to serve as the eunuch monitor for Huainan Circuit (淮南, headquartered in modern Yangzhou, Jiangsu).

In 811, at Li Jifu's suggestion, Emperor Xianzong appointed several officials — Duan Pingzhong (段平仲), Wei Guanzhi, Xu Mengrong (許孟容), and Li Jiang — to review the governmental structure, to streamline it, reduce the number of officials who were not carrying out any crucial tasks, and revise the officials' wage scale. Later in the year, with Emperor Xianzong believing that Li Jifu had often used his own personal likes and dislikes to decide on his policies, he promoted Li Jiang to be a chancellor as well, to counterbalance Li Jifu.

Around the new year 812, Li Ning died. In fall 812, Emperor Xianzong created another son Li You the Prince of Sui, born of his wife, Consort Guo (formerly the Princess of Guangling), crown prince and changed Li You's name to Li Heng, even though he had an older son, Li Kuan (李寬) the Prince of Li, as it was viewed by officials such as Cui Qun that Li Heng, born of a wife rather than a concubine, was the proper heir. Still, despite repeated petitions by the officials to create Consort Guo empress, Emperor Xianzong was apprehensive that, because of the prominent bloodlines that Consort Guo represented (being the granddaughter of the great general Guo Ziyi and the daughter of a princess), if she were created empress, other consorts would not dare to have sexual relations with him, and therefore repeatedly formed excuses with regard to not being able to find the right date to do so. He would eventually never create her (or any other consort) empress.

Later in 812, the warlord Tian Ji'an the military governor of Weibo Circuit died. With Tian Ji'an's son and designated successor Tian Huaijian being young, soon thereafter, the soldiers mutinied and supported Tian Ji'an's relative Tian Xing. Tian Xing offered to subject Weibo to imperial commands, and soon thereafter, Emperor Xianzong made Tian Xing the military governor of Weibo and changed his name to Tian Hongzheng. With Tian Hongzheng as Weibo's military governor, for the rest of Emperor Xianzong's reign, Weibo became obedient to the imperial government.

In 814, Wu Shaoyang died. Emperor Xianzong did not confirm Wu Shaoyang's son Wu Yuanji as his successor. In response, Wu Yuanji began attacking the nearby circuits to create pressure on the imperial government. Emperor Xianzong declared a general campaign against Wu Yuanji. Wu sought aid from Li Shidao and Wang Chengzong, who repeatedly petitioned Emperor Xianzong to pardon Wu Yuanji, to no avail. Li Shidao thereafter retained a group of assassins to carry out guerilla warfare tactics around the eastern capital Luoyang, to try to disrupt the campaign against Zhangyi and to create a sense of terror among the officials and the people. When the imperial pressure on Zhangyi still being unrelenting, with the imperial generals Wu Chongyin and Li Guangyan frequently dealing Zhangyi troops defeats (although imperial troops were unable to decisively defeat Zhangyi), Li Shidao decided to assassinate the chancellor Wu Yuanheng, whom Emperor Xianzong had put in charge of the campaign against Zhangyi, as well as the official Pei Du, a major proponent of the campaign. In summer 814, assassins that Li Shidao sent killed Wu Yuanheng and wounded Pei, terrifying the officials and the people at Chang'an. Emperor Xianzong's resolve against Zhangyi did not change, however, and when he came to believe that Wang was responsible for the assassination, he declared a general campaign against Wang as well. He also promoted Pei to be a chancellor. (Later, after investigations by Lü Yuanying (呂元膺) the defender of Luoyang after a plot by Li Shidao's subordinates to riot at Luoyang was foiled, Emperor Xianzong found out that Li Shidao was responsible for Wu Yuanheng's assassination, but by that point, as he was already waging campaigns against Wu Yuanji and Wang, he could not, and did not, declare yet another campaign against Li Shidao as well at that point.)