Emperor Ai of Tang
Emperor Ai of Tang (27 October 89226 March 908), also known as Emperor Zhaoxuan (), born Li Zuo, later known as Li Chu (), was the last emperor of the Tang dynasty of China. He reigned—as but a puppet ruler—from 904 to 907. Emperor Ai was the son of Emperor Zhaozong.
Military history of the Sui–Tang dynasties
The Tang Empire collapsed into numerous rival warlord states, ushering in the period of Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms. In the south emerged the kingdoms of Wuyue, Min, and Southern Han. In the north, Li Keyong of Hedong and Zhu Quanzhong of Bianzhou vied for supremacy. Zhu held the last two Tang emperors as captives and controlled the North China Plain. He made an unsuccessful attempt to murder Li in 884 and proclaimed himself Emperor of Later Liang in 907. Zhu's Liang dynasty survived for only 11 years after his death in 912, and it was conquered in 923 by Li Keyong's successor Li Cunxu, founder of Later Tang. In 937, the Later Tang gave way to a number of short lived military regimes from which the Song dynasty eventually emerged, reuniting most of China by 979. However the Song never quite achieved the hegemonic status of the early Tang. It was, militarily speaking, at best only equal and at worst completely inferior to its northern neighbor, the Khitan Liao dynasty, followed by the Jurchen Jin dynasty.