History of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms

Chapter 291 Small Goal: Rent and Labor Service

[Small goal: rent and labor service]

Su Xun will not go into details. He was born in a wretched way and died in a strange way. He ate a bowl of ice cream in the spring, and died after a cold burp on the top and a cold fart on the bottom. (He died of typhoid fever after eating honey snow)

Lu Ruobi was born in the Fanyang Lu family. His father, Lu Jianqiu, was a Jinshi in the reign of Emperor Muzong, served as Yuan Zhen's secretary (chief secretary), served as the Jiedushi of the border four times, repelled foreign invasion forces many times, and once served as the Jiedushi of Hedong; his grandfather, Lu Lun, was a famous poet in the Tang Dynasty, one of the "Ten Talents of the Dali Period", and five volumes of his poems were included in the "Complete Tang Poems".

Lu Ruobi was also well-educated, and passed the imperial examination during the reign of Emperor Zhaozong. Eight of his poems were collected in the Complete Tang Poems. When Emperor Zhaozong moved the capital to Luoyang, he witnessed Liu Can's cruel treatment of well-educated people from prominent families (such as Pei Shu), and fled in fear to Luzhou. When Ding Hui surrendered to Jin, he came to Taiyuan with Ding Hui. Li Keyong respected him very much and recommended him as the deputy envoy of Hedong Jiedushi.

There is a Longquan Pavilion in the Taiyuan government office. On its west wall, there is a poem written by the former governor Lu Jianqiu. Whenever Lu Rubu attended a banquet in the Longquan Pavilion, he would bow respectfully towards the west wall before taking his seat. People praised him for this.

In fact, Lu Rubi was somewhat showing off on purpose, reminding everyone not to forget that his father once ruled Hedong and was on par with the current Prince of Jin Li Keyong.

Lu Rubi also had some minor flaws, such as corruption and bribery. In fact, this was not a big deal in the political arena of the Later Tang Dynasty. There were very few people around Li Cunxu who were not corrupt. For example, he was good at flattery. Knowing that Li Cunxu intended to ascend the throne and become emperor, he repeatedly stated the will of heaven in front of Li Cunxu, either saying that he observed the celestial phenomena at night or he calculated with his fingers. In short, it was heaven's will that you, Li Cunxu, become emperor.

In short, Su Xun and Lu Ruobi were the candidates for prime minister that Li Cunxu had long considered. Unfortunately, both of them died before he became emperor.

Therefore, Li Cunxu gave the nomination committee a work instruction: the candidate for the prime minister must come from four towns, namely Hedong, Weizhou, Zhenzhou, and Dingzhou. Needless to say, Hedong was a revolutionary base; the remaining three towns were Heshuo, which showed Li Cunxu's importance to the Heshuo region.

After the organization's research, the top candidate was Lu Zhi, the judge of Hedong Jiedushi. It turned out that this man loved drinking and liked to act crazy after drinking. He had no interest in fame and fortune. He approached the organization many times, first expressing his gratitude for the organization's love, and then asking for forgiveness for his unruly and free-spirited life. He took the initiative to resign as a candidate for prime minister.

As Lu Zhi repeatedly declined, the candidates for prime minister were postponed one after another. The next two candidates were Dou Luge, the judge of Yiwu Jiedushi, and Lu Cheng, the judge of Hedong Guanchao.

Lu Cheng was born into a prominent family and passed the imperial examination during the reign of Emperor Zhaozong. Although he had the academic qualifications of a jinshi, he was "narrow-minded and had no other talents", a failure of the exam-oriented education, with high scores but low abilities. Not only that, Lu Cheng always regarded himself as a "descendant of a prominent family" and loved to gossip, which made him deeply despised by upright people.

Dou Luge was appointed as a staff member by Wang Chuzhi of Dingzhou in his early years, and later became the judge of Dingzhou Jiedu. Although his writings were very elegant and were deeply appreciated by Wang Chuzhi, his governing ability was quite mediocre and he made many mistakes in his work.

Lu Cheng and Dou Lu Ge did not have outstanding talents and prudent character, and were not prime ministers at all. It was just that they met a good opportunity and were chosen as political vases based on their family background and work experience. Perhaps even they themselves would not have thought that one day they would become prime ministers of the empire.

If one's virtue does not match his position, he will fail.

Lu Cheng and Dou Lu Ge became political upstarts, demonstrating the "small man's success" vividly. Historical records record that "they were not important people at first, but suddenly rose to prominent positions and behaved inconsistently."

On the day they were ordered, the two men rode on sedan chairs and paraded through the streets, and ordered a large number of guards to clear the way in front of them. They shouted and scolded rudely, making a huge noise. Even Li Cunxu in the deep palace could hear the noise and scolding on the street.

"Get out of the way! You have no eyes! Make way!"

Li Cunxu was extremely surprised and asked his attendants, "Who is making so much noise outside? I am not that arrogant."

The people around him reported back: "The prime minister has entered the door with his burden." This sentence also shows the attitude of the people around him towards the two men, which was very disdainful and contemptuous.

Li Cunxu was extremely shocked and could not believe it, so he went up to the tower to observe in person. After witnessing what Lu Cheng and Dou Luge did with his own eyes, he sneered and said contemptuously: "This is what is called specious." He said it very elegantly and implicitly, meaning that the two were incompetent and looked like dogs in disguise!

Later, Li Cunxu sent Lu Cheng to Taiyuan to present the title to the Empress Dowager. On the way, they had to cross the Taihang Mountains, and the mountain road was rugged and dangerous. Lu Cheng always sat upright on the sedan chair and let the sedan bearers carry him all the way. Every time he passed a prefecture or county, Lu Cheng would drive the bearers like slaves, and the local officials would kneel on both sides of the road to greet him. If they were not satisfied with him, they would be whipped.

Dou Luge was even more ridiculous. Due to his low ability and limited skills, Dou Luge basically did not perform his duties as prime minister. He only did one thing every day - practicing elixirs in order to achieve immortality. Once, he excitedly tasted the freshly baked cinnabar, but he was almost poisoned to death and vomited blood for several days in a row (vomiting blood for several days and dying before recovering).

These were the two prime ministers appointed by Li Cunxu when he became emperor. They really just served as political figurines to balance the various factions (especially Heshuo). The real power was not in the hands of the prime ministers, but in the hands of the privy councilor Guo Chongtao and other close confidants. Therefore, even if Lu Cheng and Dou Lugede were unworthy of their positions, behaved frivolously, and were not talented or learned, they would not bring any substantial damage to the Later Tang Empire.

Now, Dou Luge's crime of embezzling public funds was exposed and he was given a warning by the organization. He was very frightened and quickly said that he had let down the organization's trust. He took the initiative to resign and submitted a petition requesting that Comrade Guo Chongtao be concurrently the head of the Rent and Labor Commissioner.

"You misunderstood!"

Guo Chongtao had understood Kong Qian's intentions. He only wanted to remind Douluge to be more careful in the future and not to be caught by others, not to rob him of his rent and labor service. Faced with Douluge's transfer, Guo Chongtao refused to accept it.

Li Cunxu then asked Guo Chongtao to recommend a new candidate for the Rent and Labor Commissioner. Guo Chongtao recommended the former Rent and Labor Commissioner Zhang Xian without hesitation, and suggested that Comrade Zhang Xian should be in charge of the rent and labor work again.

So, after a short absence, Zhang Xian was reappointed as the Rent and Labor Collector.

Kong Qian was extremely disappointed. The revolution had not yet succeeded, and comrades still needed to work hard.

Zhang Xian, a native of Taiyuan, loved reading poetry and books since childhood. He was quite fond of Confucianism. He often read books all night long. When he was 20 years old, he was already a mobile bookcase. He was well-versed in classics, especially Zuo Zhuan. He once brought his works to visit Li Xiji (Li Keyong's secretary, who worked for Li Keyong for 15 years). Li Xiji was "delighted" at the sight of Zhang Xian. When they parted, Li Xiji said to Zhang Xian: "Young man, you will definitely become a great man in the future!"

Li Cunxu had heard of Zhang Xian and appointed him as his staff. Zhang Xian then became the recorder of Taiyuan Prefecture, in charge of supervision, which was equivalent to the local censor. Because Zhang Xian was not only outstanding in literary talent, but also known for his iron face and strict law enforcement.

During the Battle of Huliupi, Zhang Xian and Wang Yan and other members of the "Heshuo Gang" were all in Zhou Dewei's army. The battle was unfavorable, the army was defeated, and Zhou Dewei was killed. Zhang Xian and his adopted son Zhang Lang fled north with the defeated army. They crossed the river on ice at night. When they were about to land, the ice broke and Zhang Xian unfortunately fell into the water. His adopted son Zhang Lang, who landed first, was quick to whip out his horse whip and let Zhang Xian catch it.

That scene paid tribute to "Titanic".

Zhang Xian said to Zhang Lang, "My son, run for your life. Don't sacrifice yourself to save me."

Zhang Lang cried, "How can a son abandon his father and live his life? Even if I die with you, I will die with no regrets!" So he lay prone on the bank, pulling with the horsewhip hard.

Finally, Zhang Xian was pulled out and the father and son survived.

That night, Li Cunxu counted the number of people and ordered the entire army to search for Zhang Xian. After a while, someone reported that Zhang Xian and Wang Yan had both died in the chaos. Li Cunxu was extremely sad and cried non-stop. He offered a high reward for finding Zhang Xian's body. A few days later, news came from the rear that Zhang Xian was not dead and had been safely transferred to the rear.

Li Cunxu was overjoyed and immediately promoted him to be his secretary and Wei Bo Observation Judge. When he attacked Zhang Wenli of Zhenzhou, he was appointed Observation Judge of Ten Counties in Heshuo and concurrently Chief Censor (still working in the Commission for Discipline Inspection) to take charge of Zhenzhou affairs. After Li Cunxu became emperor, he appointed Zhang Xian as the Vice Minister of the Ministry of Justice.

Keyword: supervision.

Zhang Xian not only has solid knowledge, but also has been working in the Discipline Inspection Commission for a long time. He is known for his impartiality and everyone in the Hedong Group is afraid of him.

This became Kong Qian's new breakthrough. He wanted to use his colleagues' fear to get rid of Zhang Xian.

Kong Qian also learned his lesson. He did not dare to go directly to Guo Chongtao, but went through Dou Luge to persuade him. He said to Dou Luge, "It is a small matter to manage money and grain and calculate accounts. A small official can be sent to do it. How can Yedu, an important city, not pay attention to it?"

Dou Luge thought it made sense, so he asked Zhang Xian to continue to stay in Weizhou to take charge of military and political affairs, and appointed Comrade Lu Zhi as the rent and labor envoy.

"Lu Zhi...come on!" Kong Qian continued.

(End of this chapter)