History of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms

Chapter 243 The Last Emperor Ascends the Throne
【The last emperor ascended the throne】

Zhu Yougui, who killed his father to seize power, knew that he had no reputation and that his throne was not obtained in a legitimate way. In order to consolidate the throne, Zhu Yougui's thinking was simple and clear: give bribes widely; promote confidants and cultivate cliques; and suppress potential threats.

The first path yielded little, as everyone took the benefits, ostensibly bowed their heads and pledged allegiance, but in reality they were just waiting and watching;
The second path starts to offend people. To promote your confidants, you must exclude dissidents.
The third path is even more dangerous, because those who qualify as "potential threats" all possess a certain amount of energy (even far exceeding Zhu Yougui's).

Therefore, Zhu Wen's adopted son Zhu Youqian and Grand Marshal Yang Shihou belong to the first route and should be won over; Jing Xiang will not threaten the throne, but will not be loyal to Zhu Yougui, so he is the target of the second route and needs to be excluded; Zhu Youwen is said to be Zhu Wen's preferred successor, and there is no doubt that he must be the target of the third route.

In addition, there are also some "marginal people" who always waver between these three routes in terms of their positioning, and Zhu Yougui's attitude towards them is also very conflicted, such as the son-in-law Zhao Yan (the second son of Zhao Dun, originally named Zhao Lin, who married Zhu Wen's daughter) and Zhu Wen's nephew Yuan Xiangxian (the son of Yuan Jingchu, whose mother is Zhu Wen's sister).

When you stare into the abyss, the abyss stares into you.

Zhu Yougui looked at them in confusion, and they looked at him in even greater confusion, "Brother, what do you mean?"

In the first month of the third year of Qianhua (913), Zhu Yougui "had something to do in the southern suburbs", so he changed the name of the year and issued a general amnesty, changing the third year of Qianhua to "the first year of Fengli".

In February, Zhao Yan was ordered to go to Dongdu to meet with Zhu Youzhen, the governor of Dongdu. After completing his official duties during the day, Zhao Yan attended a private banquet hosted by Zhu Youzhen in the evening. During the banquet, Zhu Youzhen talked about state affairs intentionally or unintentionally.

After several attempts, Zhao Yan understood what Zhu Youzhen meant: Zhu Youzhen planned to kill Zhu Yougui and seize the throne.

Zhao Yan pointed out a clear path for Zhu Youzhen: If you want to succeed, you must get the support of Yang Shihou!
Therefore, Zhu Youzhen immediately sent his confidant Ma Shenjiao to Weizhou secretly to lobby Yang Shihou.

Ma Shenjiao was eloquent, and he used both emotion and reason to persuade Yang Shihou to support Zhu Youzhen. He pointed out that Zhu Yougui's murder of his father to seize power was against the will of heaven, and that Zhu Youzhen was the popular choice. The commander-in-chief only needed to go with the flow and make a gesture, and great things would be accomplished. He also promised that after the success, he would immediately offer a reward of 500,000 strings of cash.

Yang Shihou was hesitant and he had his concerns.

First of all, Zhu Yougui and Zhu Youzhen were both descendants of the previous emperor. No matter who became emperor, they would not interfere with Yang Shihou. There was no need for him to risk the huge sacrifice of "rebellion" to fish in troubled waters;

Secondly, when Zhu Yougui killed his father and seized power, he did not raise an army immediately, but waited half a year before raising an army, which was a bit unjustified and unreasonable.

Furthermore, he had led his troops to the imperial court, met with Zhu Yougui, acknowledged Zhu Yougui's throne, and established the distinction between the monarch and his subjects. In principle, he supported Zhu Yougui.

Ma Shenjiao knew both himself and his enemy, and knew Yang Shihou's thoughts and concerns, so he repeatedly emphasized that Zhu Yougui's patricide and seizure of power was illegal in itself, while Zhu Youzhen's actions to avenge the late emperor and eliminate evil were just. There was only a distinction between good and evil here, so where did the distinction between the monarch and his subjects come from?
While firmly occupying the moral high ground, Ma Shenjiao also threatened and intimidated: "If you don't express your position now, then once Zhu Youzhen succeeds, how will you deal with it, Marshal?"

This is the essence of negotiation or lobbying, which requires both good and bad words. Morally invincible, if you obey me, you will get benefits, but if you don't obey me, you will suffer a catastrophe. You decide whether to obey me or not.

Yang Shihou immediately realized and slapped his thigh, "If it weren't for your advice, I would have almost made a big mistake!" He immediately expressed his support for Zhu Youzhen. He then sent his trusted general Wang Shunxian to Luoyang to discuss with Yuan Xiangxian, and sent his confidant Zhu Hanbin to lead troops to Huazhou as an external support.

Zhao Yan returned to Luoyang and discussed the next plan with Yuan Xiangxian.

Yuan Xiangxian was the commander of the Left Dragon and Tiger Army and the commander-in-chief of the Imperial Guards (the commander of the Imperial Guards), and he controlled a part of the Central Imperial Guards, so he was an important insider for the subsequent coup; Yang Shihou controlled a large number of troops in Weizhou, Hebei, and was an important outsider. With the cooperation of these two people, the coup could basically be declared a success.

It happened that Zhu Yougui mobilized the Longxiang Army back to Luoyang.

The Longxiang Army had previously mutinied, and Zhu Yougui was suspicious of them, and then they were bloodily purged. Now part of the Longxiang Army was stationed in Dongdu, under Zhu Youzhen's nose. Perhaps because he was worried that Zhu Youzhen would collude with them, Zhu Yougui ordered the Longxiang Army to be requisitioned back to Luoyang. Zhu Youzhen immediately spread rumors that Zhu Yougui intended to completely purge the Longxiang Army, and this time he wanted to trick the Longxiang Army into Luoyang and then kill them all.

The soldiers of the Longxiang Army were terrified, so they ran to Zhu Youzhen and begged for mercy.

Zhu Youzhen forged an imperial edict in advance, which roughly meant that Zhu Yougui said that the Longxiang Army was a rebel army and could not be trusted, and asked him to help him deal with them in the Eastern Capital. If he couldn't bear to do it, send them to Luoyang and he would kill them.

When the Longxiang Army saw the "imperial edict", they wailed in despair and begged Zhu Youzhen to "point out a clear way forward."

Zhu Youzhen's acting skills were superb. He was extremely sad, with tears in his eyes, and said: "You followed the late emperor in his battles for more than 30 years and established the foundation of the empire. However, even the late emperor himself was killed. How could you escape this disaster?"

First, destroy the psychological defenses of the Longxiong Army and make them fall into despair. Once people are desperate, they will no longer have any concerns and will be able to do anything.

Everyone burst into tears. Zhu Youzhen saw that the time had come, so he took out Zhu Wen's portrait, placed the late emperor's portrait in the center of the hall, and led everyone to kneel down in unison. Afterwards, Zhu Youzhen pointed out a clear way forward for the Longxiang Army: charge into Luoyang, avenge the late emperor, and kill the traitor; this is your only way to survive!
Everyone was very excited and shouted "Long live the emperor".

Zhu Youzhen opened the armory and distributed weapons and ammunition to them, "Luoyang, go!"

The Longxiang Army rushed towards Luoyang with murderous intent, and Zhu Youzhen quickly informed Zhao Yan, Yuan Xiangxian and others in Luoyang of the good news and asked them to cooperate.

In the early morning of February 913, 2, the Longxiang Army arrived in Luoyang and immediately launched a mutiny, burning, killing and looting in the city. Yuan Xiangxian and others immediately led thousands of imperial guards to "quell the rebellion". Under the leadership of Yuan Xiangxian and others, this peacekeeping force directly rushed into the palace.

Zhu Yougui was horrified and immediately fled and hid with his queen and confidant Feng Tingye. They fled to the bottom of the North Palace Tower and planned to escape over the wall. However, the palace was full of "rebels" inside and outside, and they had no way to escape.

In desperation, Zhu Yougui ordered Feng Tingye to kill the queen first and then himself. Zhu Yougui was emperor for 7 months and died at the age of 30.

Feng Tingye also went down in history for personally killing two emperors (Zhu Wen and Zhu Yougui), which should be unprecedented and unparalleled. However, since Zhu Yougui was deposed as a commoner and not a real "emperor", Feng Tingye's deeds were also discounted.

After killing Zhu Yougui, the legendary killer Feng Tingye committed suicide.

Afterwards, the capital Luoyang fell into chaos, and the imperial guards looted the city. There are also historical records that the Longxiang Army was still on its way to Luoyang at this time, and the "mutiny" was actually staged by Yuan Xiangxian's imperial guards.

In any case, under the command and instigation of Zhao Yan and Yuan Xiangxian, Zhu Yougui was killed. The two of them carried the imperial seal and went to the Eastern Capital to invite Zhu Youzhen.

Zhu Youzhen knew that Luoyang was dangerous and did not dare to leave his revolutionary base, Kaifeng Prefecture (Bianzhou), so he said: "Bianzhou is the birthplace of the Daliang Empire. The capital does not have to be in Luoyang."

Then, Zhu Youzhen officially ascended the throne in Kaifeng Prefecture and proclaimed himself emperor. He announced the cancellation of the "Fengli" era name (which existed for less than a month), restored the "third year of Qianhua", demoted Zhu Yougui to a commoner, and restored all official titles of Prince Bo Zhu Youwen.

According to convention, Zhu Youzhen changed his name to Zhu Yu after ascending the throne, and later changed his name to Zhu Zhen. We will continue to use "Zhu Youzhen". Zhu Youzhen is also the last emperor of the Later Liang Dynasty.

After Zhu Youzhen ascended the throne, he conferred the title of Zhongshu Ling on Yang Shihou, and his title was promoted from Prince of Hongnong to Prince of Ye; Yuan Xiangxian and other meritorious officials were also rewarded, which need not be listed in detail.

I wish all the candidates to pass the exams! Then read more books during the summer vacation to improve your historical knowledge, such as this one (#^.^#)
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(End of this chapter)