History of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms

Chapter 167 Zhu Wen Kills the Snake
[Has it calmed down? ]

After Zhaozong returned to the throne, he struck while the iron was hot and suppressed the power of the eunuchs.

Before, when the prime minister reported to the emperor in the Yanying Hall, the eunuchs (privy councilors) would also be in attendance and often quarrel with the prime minister. When the prime minister announced the emperor's will to all officials, the eunuchs would accuse the prime minister of "falsifying the imperial edict" and obstructing the issuance of government orders.

Therefore, Zhaozong ordered that from now on, the Privy Councilor should not be on the same level as the Prime Minister, but should wait until the Prime Minister has finished his individual report before entering the palace to listen to work instructions.

Subsequently, Prime Minister Cui Yin and Prime Minister Lu Qian jointly submitted a memorial, pointing out that the eunuchs' control of military power was the root cause of successive disasters, and suggested that Cui Yin be in charge of the Left Shence Army and Lu Qian be in charge of the Right Shence Army. This would deter local warlords and defend the emperor's majesty.

Civil officials commanding the military was the industrial layout of Emperor Zhaozong ten years ago. However, this is a different time. As time goes by, the external environment has undergone earth-shaking changes, and there are also subtle changes within the court.

Today, the eunuchs have not been completely eradicated and still have power that cannot be underestimated. They are now frightened birds, and excessive suppression in a short period of time may only cause them to rebound more strongly. Zhaozong considered for two days and did not dare to make this move rashly.

Now Zhaozong was more mature and no longer so reckless. He summoned the "three envoys" who held military power and asked about their attitudes.

Sun Dezhao, Dong Yanbi, and Zhou Chenghui said in unison: "We have served in the army for generations, and we have never heard of a civilian being the commander-in-chief. If we insist on handing it over to a civilian, I am afraid the army will change. It is better to be quiet than to move, and it is better to hand it over to the eunuchs."

Among the three political forces in the court (civil officials, eunuchs, and imperial guards), the eunuchs and imperial guards are inextricably linked, and their interests are intertwined and intricate. For a long time, the two have been interdependent and coexisting harmoniously.

There has been a long-term confrontation and mutual infighting between civil officials and eunuchs, and countless conflicts have broken out over the struggle for power and profit.

The imperial guards were the core and the eunuchs were the medium.

The palace coup launched by the "core four eunuchs" was essentially a political struggle between the civil service group (Cui Yin) and the eunuch group, except that this time the struggle used Emperor Zhaozong as a bargaining chip. The eunuchs won first and then lost, and the civil service group planned to take advantage of the situation and seize the military power of the imperial guards in one fell swoop to expand the results of the war.

The struggle experience in recent years has taught Zhaozong that he should not expect to exchange peace for a letter of appointment. He knows the value of the imperial edict. No matter who is appointed to lead the imperial guards, they must first obtain their consent.

Today, the "Three Envoys" headed by Sun Dezhao are the spokespersons for the Imperial Guards, and the attitudes of these three people are particularly important.

Sun Dezhao hated Wang Zhongxian, not the eunuchs as a group, let alone the mature system of the imperial guards led by eunuchs. As for the imperial guards, they preferred eunuchs because they had too much in common and were more likely to go along with the flow and seek benefits; the civil officials were the exact opposite, they often came from prominent families, were well-read, had a high degree of education (Jinshi Jidi), were arrogant and noble, they called themselves "clear streams", derogatory eunuchs as "muddy streams", and looked down on the strong limbs and simple minds of the warriors (generals of the imperial guards).

Previously, Emperor Zhaozong personally promoted a general of the imperial guards, Yang Shouli, in the "anti-Yang struggle", but the civil official group (Kong Wei) treated Yang Shouli coldly and looked down on him. This is enough to show that the civil official group looked down on the generals of the imperial guards, and the generals of the imperial guards were very aware of this.

The civil service group prides themselves on being noble and talk about morality, but they are difficult to work with.

Therefore, the "Three Prime Ministers" unanimously resisted the civil officials leading the imperial guards and insisted on accepting the leadership of the eunuchs.

After tossing and turning and hesitating for two days, Zhaozong finally rejected the proposal of Cui Yin and Lu Yan and appointed eunuchs Han Quanhui and Zhang Yanhong as the commander-in-chief of the Left and Right Shence Army respectively.

In this way, we are back to square one. The imperial guards are still controlled by the eunuch group.

Cui Yin was so desperate after losing that he teamed up with the mayor of the capital (Jingzhao Yin) to hire someone to kill someone, hoping to get rid of his political enemy through improper means. However, his plan was not well thought out and failed.

However, eunuch Han Quanhui and others were frightened by Cui Yin's crazy behavior, and at the same time they also realized Cui Yin's terrible belief in getting rid of the eunuchs. At that moment, the voices and smiles of their predecessors such as Jing Wuxiu, Song Daobing, Liu Jishou, and Wang Zhongxian appeared in their minds like a revolving lantern, and could not be dispersed for a long time.

The frightened eunuchs had to turn to their backers for help - the Guanxi Group. Han Quanhui and Zhang Yanhong had served as military supervisors in Fengxiang and had close relations with Li Maozhen, so they secretly contacted them and informed the court of the situation.

Li Maozhen of Fengxiang knew very well that Cui Yin had great ambitions and would not stop at eliminating the eunuchs. After he gained military power and eliminated the eunuchs, his next step would be to attack the local vassal states, and the Guanxi Group would be the first target.

Li Maozhen of Fengxiang and the eunuch forces are closely related and have forged a deep revolutionary friendship with them in the long-term struggle. We must not sit idly by at this time.

Therefore, Li Maozhen of Fengxiang led his troops into the court in the name of maintaining order in the capital and suppressing rebellion.

Zhaozong promoted Li Maozhen to the title of "King of Qi". Li Maozhen left 4,000 Fengxiang soldiers to guard the capital, and then returned to Fengxiang.

In order to protect himself, Cui Yin also secretly advised Zhu Wen to send 3,000 Bian soldiers to guard the capital.

The Fengxiang and Bianzhou troops were supposed to protect the capital, but in reality they were monitoring the court and defending their own rights. As a result, the garrisons of both sides frequently fought, and the atmosphere in the capital was quite tense.

Cui Yin's recruitment of vassal states into the capital is very similar to He Jin and Yuan Shao's recruitment of Dong Zhuo into the capital!

Han Wei, who conspired with Cui Yin to rebel, was very opposed to Cui Yin's seduction of vassal states to the capital to guard the palace, saying that this was inviting a wolf into the house. Although Cui Yin was at a loss for words, he remained unmoved.

Although the number of thousands of vassal soldiers is not large, it is a dangerous signal that local forces are interfering in the central government. It is also the political extension of local vassal forces in the central government. Behind the small-scale conflict, there is a game between two powerful vassal forces. Any seemingly insignificant small move may cause an uproar. Cui Yin ignored the opinions of many people and insisted on his own way, going further and further on the wrong path. He thought he was a trend-setter in the stormy waves, but he didn't know that he would burn himself by playing with fire.

【Left hook】

Although Zhu Wen dominated the Central Plains and became the undisputed most powerful vassal in Guandong, he was still wary of Li Keyong in Hedong and did not dare to take it lightly. He "had not yet developed the ambition to challenge the throne." However, with the instigation and help of Cui Yin, Zhu Wen finally "began to plan to move the country" and thought about replacing the Tang Dynasty with an independent regime.

Just before Liu Jishou deposed and enthroned the emperor, the appearance of a man gave Zhu Wen hope of eliminating Li Keyong.

Wang Gong, the governor of Baoyi, Shanzhou, was handsome, talented in both civil and military affairs, but he was cruel, extravagant, greedy, suspicious, cruel, murderous, and unkind.

Wang Yu, the former governor of Changzhou, came from a prominent family (descendant of Wang Dao, prime minister of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, and fifth-generation grandson of Wang Fangqing, prime minister during the Wu Zetian period). He had a strong and upright character, which met Zhaozong's standards for employing people. Zhaozong, who was eager to employ people, issued an edict to let Wang Yu come to the capital. At that time, people unanimously believed that Wang Yu would definitely become prime minister.

When Wang Yu passed through Shanzhou, Wang Gong treated him with great respect and offered him meticulous care. He expressed his willingness to pay homage to Wang Yu as an uncle and nephew, and expressed his desire to establish a common clan with Wang Yu and to recognize Wang Yu as his uncle.

In fact, the two were not from the same clan. Wang Gong was from Qi County, Taiyuan, while Wang Yu was a descendant of the famous Wang family of Langya. Wang Yu looked down on Wang Gong and rejected his request.

Wang Gong was furious and sent assassins to ambush Wang Yu's team on the road, killing Wang Yu's entire family, looting their property, and throwing all the bodies into the Yellow River. Later, he reported to the court that the ship capsized accidentally due to strong winds and high waves, and no one survived.

Zhaozong was unable to investigate.

Wang Gong was merciless not only to "outsiders" like Wang Yu, but also to his own people. From his wife and children to his staff and officers, he would torture them if they disagreed with him. Wang Gong must have personality defects, a typical psychopath, who tortured and abused people around him every day for various reasons.

As a result, the tribesmen were in panic and finally started a mutiny, in which they were killed by their generals Li Fan and Zhu Jian.

Li Fan took the lead in paying tribute to Zhu Wen and submitting to him, for which he was recommended by Zhu Wen to be the regent of Baoyi.

Zhu Jian was extremely upset, so he turned against his own family and attacked Li Fan. Li Fan escaped and fled to Bianzhou. Zhu Jian then also paid tribute to Zhu Wen, who recommended Zhu Jian as the heir of Baoyi. Later, Zhu Jian took the initiative to marry Zhu Wen because they had the same surname, and was adopted by Zhu Wen as his son, changing his name to Zhu Youqian. Zhu Youqian is used in the following text.

When Zhu Wen formulated the battle plan for Hedong, the joining of the Shanzhou Baoyi Army provided Zhu Wen with a possibility of a left hook.

Judging from the map, the east and south of Hedong Li Keyong were controlled by Zhu Wen, and the two forces were perfectly separated by the "丿"-shaped Taihang Mountains. If Zhu Wen could control the Hezhong area in the west, he could give Hedong Li Keyong a left hook. While the main force was pushing forward, he could also send surprise troops out of the "Eight Passes of Taihang" to harass and attack Li Keyong from the heart, and even unite with the Heshuo vassal state to detour to the northern part of Taihang Mountains and deliver a big right swing punch.

After occupying Hezhong, it would be convenient to eliminate Li Keyong and extend the sphere of influence to the city of Chang'an. Therefore, controlling Hezhong was the focus of Zhu Wen's next work.

After the "Hezhong inheritance dispute case", the political structure of the Hezhong region was divided. Wang Gong and Wang Yao were actually attached to the Guanxi Group, while Wang Ke was attached to Li Keyong in Hedong. Wang Ke not only got the support of Li Keyong, but also got Li Keyong's daughter. Li Keyong married his daughter to Wang Ke to win over Wang Ke. It can be seen that Li Keyong also understood the importance of the Hezhong region to Hedong.

As mentioned above, behind this family affair of fighting for inheritance was the game of multiple political forces. In the end, Li Keyong of Hedong won, so Wang Ke was able to take charge of Hezhong Prefecture.

Now, the Baoyi Army in Shanzhou was in rebellion. Zhu Jian recognized the situation clearly and knew that the Guanxi Group was strong on the outside but weak on the inside. So he decided to pay tribute to Zhu Wen, the powerful vassal of Guandong, and submit to him, providing Zhu Wen with convenience to attack Hezhong from the east and west.

Therefore, after Zhu Wen conquered the Heshuo area, he turned his attention to Wang Ke, the leader of the Hezhong National Defense Army.

During the Lantern Festival in the fourth year of the Guanghua reign of the Tang Dynasty (901), Zhu Wen and his generals drank wine, watched lanterns, and guessed lantern riddles, creating a festive and harmonious atmosphere.

This year is the Year of the Rooster (Xinyou), but the theme of Bianzhou lanterns is the snake, and snake elements are everywhere. Everyone is used to this, because Zhu Wen has been calling himself the "reincarnation of the Red Emperor" since his debut. Anyone who wants to flatter him must compare him to Liu Bang, the first emperor of the Han Dynasty. Even the emperor used this to please Zhu Wen (Emperor Xizong successively conferred Zhu Wen the title of Marquis of Pei County and Prince of Pei County; Emperor Zhaozong renamed Zhu Wen's hometown Wugouli to Peiwangli). "Snake Slaying Uprising" is Zhu Wen's favorite song. No matter what year it is, Bianzhou is always the Year of the Snake.

Flowers are the same every year, but people are different every year. This year's snake has a special meaning.

Zhu Wen explained to the generals, "Hezhong is connected to Hedong. Hezhong is the only way for Li Keyong of Hedong to go south. Wang Ke of Hezhong is Li Keyong's son-in-law. With the support of Hezhong, the Shatuo cavalry of Hedong is as powerful as a long snake and difficult to stop. Occupying Hezhong is equivalent to cutting this long snake in half! Generals, please take a rope and help me bring Wang Ke here."

The generals take orders.

The next day, General Zhang Cunjing, who had just made a name for himself in Hebei, led 30,000 elite troops as the vanguard to launch a surprise attack on Jinzhou and Jiangzhou. Zhu Wen followed with the main force.

Thanks to my old friend "Pure lsp" for the recommendation support, thank you, and happy Labor Day!

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(End of this chapter)