History of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms

Chapter 198 Huainan Zhu San
【Huainan Zhusan】

Zhu Yanshou was not only Yang Xingmi's loyal follower, but also Yang Xingmi's brother-in-law and the younger brother of Yang Xingmi's wife, Madam Zhu. Zhu Yanshou was brave and fierce, cruel and tyrannical, and liked killing. In the early days of Yang Xingmi's leadership, he wanted to create a generous and kind personality. Whenever he captured bandits, he would persuade them to mend their ways. Not only would he not punish them, but he would give them travel expenses so that they would turn over a new leaf and become a new person. However, Zhu Yanshou's attitude towards them was to kill them without mercy. So when Yang Xingmi sent them back, he would always warn them: "Don't let Zhu Yanshou catch you!"

Later, when Yang Xingmi also wanted to kill someone, he would deliberately leak the news to Zhu Yanshou and let Zhu Yanshou clear his name.

Zhu Yanshou's cruelty was not only reflected in the face of unarmed prisoners, but also in the battlefield. There was a legendary story that a few hundred people repelled Zhu Wen's tens of thousands of troops.

He was extremely strict with his troops, requiring them to be like him, fighting one against a hundred and never flinching. He often sent his troops to fight a large force with a small force, and if they were defeated, he would kill them all. Under this ruthless military law, Zhu Yanshou's troops were extremely tough and their combat effectiveness was off the charts.

In the previous confrontation with Zhu Wen's troops, whenever the Bian Army attacked, Zhu Yanshou would order the city gates to be opened, the defenses to be lowered, and the Bian Army to come in and fight, but the Bian Army never dared to move forward.

Confidence is the first fighting power. Even the powerful Bian army was quite afraid of the three words "Zhu Yanshou" and did not dare to act rashly.

Later, Yang Xingmi arranged Zhu Yanshou in the strategic location - Sizhou, and appointed him as the defense envoy of Sizhou. Sizhou originally belonged to the Xuzhou Ganhua Army, located north of the Huai River and south of Suzhou, and was the bridgehead for Zhu Wen's southward march and Yang Xingmi's northern expedition.

After Zhu Yanshou took office, Yang Xingmi regretted his decision to the core.

Zhu Yanshou was proud of his achievements, and now that he had a base and a strong army, he refused to listen to Yang Xingmi's orders and had the intention of establishing his own kingdom. Yang Xingmi had let the tiger go back to the mountains and was unable to control him. He could only tolerate and tolerate it, wait and see, hoping that his brother-in-law would change his mind.

When thieves meet, they nod. As the saying goes, traitors can smell each other's likeness even if they are thousands of miles apart. Tian Yu and Zhu Yanshou are separated by two places, but they have a strong telepathy.

Before Tian Yu openly rebelled, Zhu Yanshou wrote a letter to Tian Yu, in which he said sourly: "If you do something big, I am willing to hold your horse and whip you (I am willing to whip you if you do something)." Tian Yu was overjoyed, "That's exactly what I want!" So the two of them conspired to rebel at the same time and divide the land of Huainan.

Like Tian Yu, Zhu Yanshou also secretly contacted Zhu Wen and tried to get close to him. Zhu Wen was the third child in his family, nicknamed "Zhu San", and Zhu Yanshou was also the third child in his family, nicknamed "Zhu San". So Zhu Yanshou climbed up to Zhu Wen and called him brother. We were a family five hundred years ago, and we are a family, one family, Zhu, you are Zhu San, I am Zhu San, I am Huainan Fen San.

Later, some of Zhu Yanshou's subordinates fled to Yangzhou and informed Yang Xingmi of Zhu Yanshou's rebellion.

As mentioned above, even Qian Liu of Hangzhou had already known the intelligence that Tian Yu and An Renyi were planning a rebellion. Could Yang Xingmi have been completely in the dark? Of course not. In Yang Xingmi's own words, he hoped that they would be inspired by him and stop before it was too late. Secondly, he did not have any solid evidence and "the situation of rebellion was not clear". Thirdly, he was worried that killing meritorious officials for no reason would cause a chain reaction.

In fact, Yang Xingmi had started planning to prevent and eliminate Zhu Yanshou three years ago.

At that time, news about Tian Yu, An Renyi and Zhu Yanshou's intention to rebel continued to reach Yang Xingmi's ears through various channels. Yang Xingmi became so worried and angry that he became ill.

Yang Xingmi, who was lying on his sickbed, suddenly had an idea and took advantage of the situation to pretend that he had an eye disease and was blind. Yang Xingmi's insight into people's hearts was very detailed. Strictly speaking, he was not pretending to be blind, but pretending to be a blind man pretending not to be blind.

Whenever he met with guests or subordinates, he would sit in the hall as usual, looking dignified, but he often misjudged people and things. Whenever someone kindly helped him correct them, he would become extremely angry. He was very shy about his vision problem and would not tolerate others questioning him, fearing that it would affect his ruling power. Yang Xingmi's efforts to "cover up" his vision problem further strengthened others' suspicion of his vision problem.

In terms of acting, Yang Xingmi is impeccable. For example, he bumped into a pillar while walking, causing him to bleed and faint, and he woke up after a long time; servants dared to do some dirty things in front of Yang Xingmi, especially his wife, Mrs. Zhu, who had an affair with a servant in front of Yang Xingmi. The most outrageous thing was that Mrs. Zhu avoided everyone except Yang Xingmi and insisted on experiencing the excitement of having an affair in front of him, but Yang Xingmi turned a blind eye.

This went on for three years and Yang Xingmi deceived everyone.

On this day, Yang Xingmi was knocked unconscious again. He called his wife, Madam Zhu, and cried, "I am so miserable! I was blind before I died, and my sons are all incompetent. I am afraid that soon, the foundation we have worked so hard for will be taken away by others. After thinking hard day and night, I think it is better to let my brother-in-law Zhu Yanshou inherit the business. In this way, I will die without regrets."

Yang Xingmi was sincere and reasonable. Mrs. Zhu had no doubts and immediately sent someone to deliver a secret letter to her brother Zhu Yanshou, revealing that Yang Xingmi was seriously ill and had been blind for three years, and now decided to abdicate.

Afterwards, Yang Xingmi sent an envoy to Sizhou to summon Zhu Yanshou to Yangzhou, saying that he had important matters to attend to and asked him to come quickly!

Zhu Yanshou had already learned about Yang Xingmi's illness through various channels, and had received the news from his sister. When he received Yang Xingmi's call, he had no doubts at all, was overjoyed, and could not wait to rush to Yangzhou.

At a post station thirty miles outside Yangzhou City, Zhu Yanshou was ambushed and killed.

There are also disputes about Zhu Yanshou's death. One is that the above scene is said to be an ambush arranged by Xu Wen, who successfully killed Zhu Yanshou; another is that when Zhu Yanshou arrived in Yangzhou, Yang Xingmi met him at home with family etiquette, and while he was kneeling, he hit Zhu Yanshou's head with a hammer hidden in his sleeve. After Zhu Yanshou was shot in the head, he did not die immediately, but struggled in pain on the ground, screaming and wailing, "and died after a long time"; there is another saying that Zhu Yanshou went to the back hall alone to meet the "blind" Yang Xingmi, and Yang Xingmi suddenly opened his eyes with a fierce look in his eyes. Zhu Yanshou was shocked and collapsed on the spot. Yang Xingmi smiled coldly and said, "Brother-in-law, long time no see, I missed you, and today I finally see you!" Then the axeman flashed out and killed him.

In short, Zhu Yanshou, a brave general who frightened the enemy and even the Bian army, was killed by Yang Xingmi with a clever trick before he could start a rebellion.

After Zhu Yanshou died, Yang Xingmi immediately took the seat in the hall and called his subordinates to an emergency meeting. Everyone was surprised to find that their lord's eyesight was intact! Yang Xingmi announced: "The reason why I was blind was all because of Zhu Yanshou. Now that the thief is dead, my eye disease is also healed. Do you understand?"

Everyone finally woke up from their dream. All the servants and concubines who had been disrespectful to Yang Xingmi committed suicide out of fear of punishment. As for Mrs. Zhu, Yang Xingmi helped her find a replacement and married her off.

Before Zhu Yanshou came to Yangzhou, his wife Wang had a vague sense of foreboding. In fact, this was not superstition, but a materialistic dialectical suspicion of the pie-in-the-sky event. Wang agreed with him that no matter what the situation was, he would send an envoy back to Sizhou every day to report safety.

On the day Zhu Yanshou was killed, Wang did not wait for the messenger to report his safety. Wang shook her head and sighed, "I understand." Then she summoned all the servants and yard workers, distributed weapons, closed the door, and prepared for battle. Soon, a team of cavalry came to search and arrest, and Wang commanded everyone to violently resist the law.

Wang knew that she could only hold out for a while, but not for a lifetime, so she took advantage of the opportunity to gather together her gold and silver treasures, lit more than a hundred torches, and burned the gold, silver and treasures along with the house. She said that she would rather die than suffer humiliation, and then jumped into the fire and burned herself to death.

Zhu Yanshou's other brothers were also implicated and killed together.

(End of this chapter)