History of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms

Chapter 212: Later Liang replaced Tang
【Later Liang replaced Tang】

In April of the fourth year of Tianyou in the Tang Dynasty (907), the six ministers who carried the coffin led the civil and military officials and the emperor's special "imperial carriage" and set off on the journey. After a short rest at Shangyuanyi, they arrived in Bianzhou.

This is the second major event that occurred in Shangyuanyi.

After a series of tedious and complicated procedures, Liang Wang Zhu Wen officially faced south and backed north, claimed to be alone and helpless, changed the country's name to "Daliang" (known in history as "Later Liang"); changed the fourth year of Tianyou to the first year of Kaiping; demoted Emperor Ai of Tang to "King of Jiyin", moved him to Jiyin County, Caozhou, and placed him under house arrest, and poisoned him to death in February of the following year; promoted Bianzhou to Kaifeng Prefecture, named it Dongdu, the original Dongdu Luoyang was renamed Xidu, and the original Xidu (Chang'an) was abolished, hence the name "Dongjing Bianliang Kaifeng Prefecture"...

Following the convention, Zhu Wen changed his name to Zhu Huang, and from then on he was reborn, becoming the Son of Heaven, and ascending to the throne. According to the convention of this book, he is still referred to as "Zhu Wen".

Zhu Wen traced his ancestry back to ancient times, claiming that his ancestor was Zhu Hu, a subordinate of Emperor Shun, and that he was the 46th generation grandson of Zhu Hu. At the same time, he posthumously honored his direct blood relatives below his great-grandparents as "emperors" and female members as "empresses."

He conferred the title of Prince of Guang on his elder brother Zhu Quanyu, and also conferred titles of prince on his sons and nephews.

In short, it is the general routine of changing dynasties.

After the coronation ceremony, Zhu Wen held a state banquet in Xuande Hall to entertain the "Six Ministers Carrying the Coffin" and other founding heroes. Zhu Wen picked up the wine glass and said to them: "I have not been assisting the country for a long time, and my merits are still few. I can be where I am today, all thanks to your strong support!"

Swearing without using any dirty words. Throwing the blame of plotting to usurp the throne on them.

Zhang Wenwei, Yang She and others were ashamed and afraid, bowing their heads in silence, ashamed. They were ashamed that they had betrayed their master for fame and fortune, had received many favors from the Tang Dynasty but helped the Tang thieves, and had helped the tyrants in the face of national crisis; they were afraid that they would repeat the mistakes of Zhu Yougong, Shi Shucong, Jiang Xuanhui and Liu Can, and be abandoned by Zhu Wen and ruined.

Only the shameless Su Xun and Xue Yiju did not feel ashamed but proud of it. They praised Zhu Wen's merits and licked his ass to the utmost.

Throughout history, traitors, collaborators, traitors, and other people who betray their country and sell out their masters for personal gain will never have a good end. Regardless of race, belief, or ideology, traitors will always be the public enemy.

Taking the "Six Ministers Carrying the Coffin" as an example, people like Su Xun tried their best to please Zhu Wen and become his lickspittles. What they hoped for was nothing more than to be able to occupy a high position with the halo of "founding hero" of Liang Dynasty. Su Xun's biggest dream was to become the prime minister. He believed that his outstanding performance in forcing Tang to surrender to Liang Dynasty was enough to be the prime minister of Daliang.

However, the facts are very disappointing.

Zhu Wen despised Su Xun and his sons' behavior in his heart, especially after "Su Kai's refusal to posthumously honor them". Zhu Wen's core power circle represented by Jing Xiang and Li Zhen also despised Su Xun and his sons' shameless behavior. Jing Xiang once clearly warned Zhu Wen, "Su Xun is the owl of the Tang Dynasty. Such a person must not be employed!"

After ascending the throne, Zhu Wen quickly announced the personnel appointments and dismissals of the new court: Zhang Wenwei, Yang She, and Xue Yiju were appointed as prime ministers; Su Xun and 15 others were ordered to retire, and Su Xun's son Su Kai was dismissed and exiled back to his hometown.

As for the chief strategist Jing Xiang, his position was "Zhi Chong Zheng Yuan", which was the greatest power in the early period of the Later Liang Dynasty. Zhu Wen's instructions and orders were conveyed by Jing Xiang to the prime minister, who then implemented them step by step. The memorials of civil and military officials, including the prime minister's opinions, had to be reported to Jing Xiang first, and then Jing Xiang would inform Zhu Wen as appropriate.

A month later, Zhu Wen issued another decree to abolish the Privy Council and transferred all the affairs of the Privy Council to the Chongzheng Yuan. He also made Jing Xiang a regular official and officially the envoy of the Chongzheng Yuan.

In other words, Jing Xiang's power was far greater than that of the previous "Privy Envoy". We have previously spent a lot of space to talk about the powerful eunuchs in the Tang Dynasty. The reason why the eunuchs could override the emperor and dominate the court was largely because the position of "Privy Envoy" was held by eunuchs, which shows how powerful the "Privy Envoy" was. Jing Xiang's current power has surpassed that of the Privy Envoy, which shows Zhu Wen's trust and respect for him.

Su Xun and his son were still daydreaming about their meteoric rise to the top, but they didn't expect that the emperor who was as virtuous as the Three Sovereigns, as meritorious as the Five Emperors, and as the one chosen by heaven could actually see through everything and see at a glance that they were not good people, and was so heartless that he forced one to retire and the other to be dismissed, and even issued an imperial decree for them to pack up and leave. It was so disheartening.

The father and son were dejected, but the cruel reality did not extinguish the restless flames in their hearts. They fled to Hezhong Prefecture and attached themselves to Zhu Youqian (Zhu Wen's adopted son), the governor of the Hezhong National Defense Army. Their story has not ended yet, it is just paused.

During Zhu Wen's usurpation of the Tang Dynasty, no one dared to say anything, except his elder brother Zhu Quanyu, an uneducated, simple farmer whose greatest virtue was that he loved to tell the truth and was a straight man. When Zhu Wen was about to become emperor, Zhu Quanyu shouted his nickname and cursed him, "Zhu San, you are worthy of being the emperor!"

Zhu Wen was the third child in his family. Now, the only person who dared to call him "Zhu San" was his elder brother Zhu Quanyu. Others dared not even say "Zhu San". Even when gambling, "three" was a taboo word. Sanwan, Santong, Santiao, Hongtao San... were all forbidden to be said. Other words were used instead. The word "three" was taboo in the palace.

"Zhu San" is only a written term. According to common sense, in daily spoken language, Zhu Quanyu should call him "San'er" with an erhua sound.

After Zhu Wen officially became emperor and held the coronation ceremony, he and his clansmen held a family banquet in the palace, drinking and having fun, and gambling to liven up the mood. Although the "Yiwo Zhu" were already royal relatives, they could not change their peasant origins, let alone their low tastes, and they used gambling to liven up their moods instead of reciting poems and composing essays.

When it was Zhu Quanyu's turn to throw the dice, Zhu Quanyu stood up, swung his arm and slammed it hard. The gambling bowl was immediately overturned, and the dice scattered. Everyone was shocked, but saw Zhu Quanyu pointing at Zhu Wen's nose and cursing loudly: "San'er! You are a farmer from Dangshan, and you followed Huang Chao to be a bandit. Not only did the emperor not punish you, but he made you the governor of four towns. This is the wealth and glory we dare not even dream of! The Li emperor treated you with great kindness, but you cut off his three hundred years of foundation and became the emperor yourself? You just wait, our Zhu family will soon be executed! And you still want to gamble!" Zhu Quanyu became more and more angry as he cursed, and overturned the table.

Zhu Wen's face turned pale and blue, and he was extremely unhappy. The elder brother is like a father. Facing his brother's scolding, Zhu Wen could not lose his temper no matter how angry he was. He could only let it go. Everyone was inconvenient to comfort him, and they were stunned and silent. The scene was very awkward for a while. The family dinner ended unhappily.

Zhu Quanyu's words foreshadowed the future of Zhu Wen's family, and he also received corresponding blessings for this conscientious word, which will be mentioned later.

Since Zhu Wen came to power, when has he ever been bullied like this? Who dares to talk to him like this? Zhu Wen did not dare to disobey his brother, but he could use his brother's son as a punching bag. A younger brother cannot talk back to his older brother, but an uncle can educate his nephew.

In the general process of changing dynasties, the localities would present auspicious signs to the central government, such as rare animals and birds, or auspicious crops and wheat.

When Zhu Wen proclaimed himself emperor, the governor of Suzhou presented him with a white rabbit;
Gao Jichang of Jingnan presented ten oranges as tribute. Oranges are supposed to mature in winter, but Gao Jichang's grandson's oranges were harvested in midsummer and were extremely sweet. They were several times more delicious than the tribute oranges in normal times (times better than ordinary tribute oranges), so they were called "auspicious oranges";
Guangzhou presented rare and precious medicines;

The "healing master" Zhang Quanyi couldn't produce a decent auspicious sign, so he was very pragmatic and gave money directly, 100,000 strings of money, 6,000 rolls of silk, 300,000 taels of cotton, and asked for an annual tribute of 30,000 rolls of silk in the future...

Among those who presented auspicious signs was Zhu Youliang (son of Zhu Quanyu) from Songzhou, who presented auspicious wheat with three ears on one stalk.

In agricultural society, many ears of wheat are auspicious objects that are often seen in history books, symbolizing a good harvest and a prosperous and peaceful era. Whenever local officials find such objects, they must present them to the court. All the ministers must come to the court to congratulate them, and the emperor will be very pleased. The growers and presenters will also be rewarded by the court.

But this time, Zhu Youliang ate the leftovers of his father's melon and hit the horse's hoof.

Zhu Wen said to the people around him, "A year of good weather and a bumper harvest is the real auspicious sign. I heard that Songzhou suffered a flood last year and the harvest was poor. You actually showed me this thing. Isn't this deceiving yourself and falsifying? Do you care about the suffering of the people?" So he sent an imperial envoy to Songzhou to investigate, and the feedback he got was, of course, that the harvest was poor and the people were suffering.

Zhu Wen then issued an order to dismiss Zhu Youliang from his post as the governor of Xuanwu Army and recalled him to Kaifeng Prefecture in Bianzhou, where he was severely reprimanded. Also dismissed were the governor of Songzhou and the magistrate of the county where Ruimai was located. Zhu Wen also issued an edict that in the future, if there were any so-called auspicious objects, they should be presented with drawings instead of real objects.

The next year, someone presented a picture of two forked ears of wheat.

The most bizarre thing was another picture presented to the emperor. It was said that a white deer was captured in a certain place in the south, and two of its ears were missing. According to the Fu Rui Tu, deer turn white after a thousand years of life, and one of its ears is missing. So this is a two thousand year old deer spirit... The ministers came to the court to congratulate him, and Zhu Wen was very pleased. The historian recorded this incident seriously in the history books, which can be found in the Old Five Dynasties History, Liang Shu, Taizu Benji.

When studying history, we cannot take things out of context, but must restore the background of historical events. Zhu Wen "sacrificed his own relatives for the greater good" this time, dismissing his nephew for a sprig of wheat, and thoroughly investigating fraud and false reporting of political achievements. As a result, he was praised by many as a "wise and holy ruler" who cared about the suffering of the people.

Maybe, and of course this is what everyone wants to see. However, if we restore the historical background, we will know that Zhu Wen's actions are suspected of personal revenge.

(End of this chapter)