Zheng Zhu's commission as the military governor of Fengxiang, unknown to the others, was part of his plot with Li Xun and Emperor Wenzong—with the plan being that Zheng would be able to gather troops at Fengxiang and use it in an eventual confrontation with the eunuchs. However, at this point, unknown to Zheng and Emperor Wenzong, Li Xun himself had become suspicious and jealous of Zheng, and therefore, when Li Xun was selecting a staff for Zheng, he chose those who were moderate in their behavior for Zheng. Meanwhile, at the suggestion of Li Xun and Zheng, Emperor Wenzong gave Wang Shoucheng the highly honored title of monitor of the Shence Armies, in order to actually strip him of the power of commanding the Shence Armies. Soon thereafter, Shu Yuanyu and Li Xun were both made chancellors. Meanwhile, Zheng's predecessor Li Ting (), who was a son of the famed general
Li Sheng (and a brother of Li Su's) and who looked down at Zheng, was disrespectful to him. After Zheng arrived at Fengxiang, he submitted a report that accused Li Ting of being cruel and corrupt. As a result, Li Ting was stripped of his post as the military governor of Zhongwu Circuit (忠武, headquartered in modern
Xuchang,
Henan). Zheng also suggested that the way to make the state and the people wealthy was to collect tea taxes. Emperor Wenzong thus made Wang Ya assume the additional post as the collector of tea taxes, and while Wang Ya knew that tea taxes would create problems for the people, he nevertheless collected the taxes. Also, at Li Xun's and Zheng's suggestion, Emperor Wenzong had poison wine sent to Wang Shoucheng to poison him to death. Wang Shoucheng's death was a part of further planning by Emperor Wenzong, Li Xun, and Zheng—the plan was that when Wang was set to be buried on December 20, 835, Zheng, who claimed that he was grateful to Wang, would take his personal guards, who were armed with sharp axes, with him to attend the funeral. At the funeral, the guards would then surround the eunuchs and slaughter them. However, Li Xun discussed the plan with his associates, and he concluded that if that were to happen, Zheng would receive all of the credit, and therefore he resolved to act before Zheng would, planning to kill Zheng as well after he succeeded. On December 14, Li Xun acted. He had the imperial guard general Han Yue () claim that sweet dews (甘露,
ganlu in
Chinese) had formed on trees on a
pomegranate tree outside his headquarters. Then, he had Emperor Wenzong order the eunuchs to examine the sweet dews. When the eunuchs, led by Qiu Shiliang and fellow Shence Army commander Yu Hongzhi (), arrived at the scene, Han's anxiety, as well as sounds of arms clanging, gave away the fact that the soldiers under Han, Wang Fan, and another associate of Li Xun's, Guo Xingyu (), were about to act against the eunuchs. Qiu and the other eunuchs immediately returned to
Hanyuan Hall (), where Emperor Wenzong was at the time, and seized Emperor Wenzong, taking him back to the palace. They then mobilized the Shence Armies, and the Shence Armies slaughtered the troops aligned with Li Xun, and then killed a large number of governmental officials, including Li Xun, Wang Ya, Shu Yuanyu, and
Jia Su, under the claimed crime that they were planning to overthrow Emperor Wenzong and support Zheng as the new emperor. Meanwhile, Zheng had already departed from Fengxiang, heading toward Chang'an, and was at Fufeng (扶風, in modern Baoji). The magistrate of
Fufeng County, Han Liao (), became aware of Zheng's plan, and therefore refused to supply him and fled to Wugong (武功, in modern Xianyang). When Zheng received news that Li Xun had failed, he returned to Fengxiang. His subordinate Wei Hongjie () suggested to him that he kill the eunuch monitor of Fengxiang, Zhang Zhongqing (), as well as a number of officers, but Zheng, terrified, did not know what to do. At the same time, Qiu had an edict in Emperor Wenzong's name delivered to Zhang ordering Zhang to act against Zheng. Zhang initially also was not sure how to act, but under suggestion from the officer Li Shuhe (), Zhang invited Zheng to a feast. LI Shuhe gave Zheng's guards food and drink, and then, at the feast, while Zheng was not paying attention, killed and decapitated him. He then had Zheng's guards, Zheng's household, as well as a large number of Zheng's staff members, slaughtered. Zhang had Li Shuhe deliver Zheng's head to Chang'an—where the eunuchs had readied the troops in case of an attack by Zheng, causing much panic in the people of Chang'an. Only after Zheng's head was hung on Xing'an Gate () was it said that the people were calmed somewhat. It was said that very few of Zheng's relatives survived the incident. == Notes and references ==