Tang dynasty
Zhu Wen, originally a salt smuggler who had served under the rebel Huang Chao, surrendered to Tang forces. By helping to defeat Huang, he was granted a series of rapid military promotions. In 907 the Tang dynasty was ended when Zhu Wen, now a military governor, deposed the last emperor of Tang, Emperor Ai of Tang, and took the throne for himself (known posthumously as Emperor Taizu of Later Liang). He established the Later Liang, which inaugurated the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period. A year later Zhu Wen had the deposed Emperor Ai poisoned to death.
Military history of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms
The Later Liang dynasty was founded by Zhu Wen. Zhu Wen was originally a rebel during the Huang Chao rebellion but later surrendered to the Tang dynasty and served under the military commander Li Keyong. In 904, Zhu Wen kidnapped Emperor Zhaozong of Tang, took him to Luoyang, and killed him. Three years later he also disposed of Emperor Ai of Tang, ending the Tang dynasty, and proclaimed his own dynasty of Liang. Zhu Wen undertook several military campaigns and failed in all of them. Despite lowering taxes to win support of the common folk, he is remembered in history as a brutal and ruthless tyrant. Zhu Wen was killed by his own son in 912, who was in turn killed by his brother a year later. The last ruler of Later Liang, Zhu Youzhen, ruled until 923 when Li Keyong's son Li Cunxu conquered the Liang capital Kaifeng.