History of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms

Chapter 305: Second Generation Governing the Country
【The second generation governs the country】

The big bosses who were once powerful and influential passed away one after another, and the foundation they worked so hard to build was handed over to their sons. To borrow Wang Jian's words, these second-generation lambs are all "born with wealth". They were born with a silver spoon in their mouths, and just because they had a good father, they easily obtained resource advantages that others could not achieve.

Zhu Youzhen, Li Cunxu, Yang Wo, and Wang Zongyan, the four of them have many similarities:

All of them became the top leaders of the group when they were around 42 years old; all of them squandered their father's legacy in different ways; all of them died an unnatural death; and all of them had short lives: Li Cunxu lived to be 36, Zhu Youzhen lived to be 27, Wang Zongyan lived to be 23, and Yang Wo lived to be , none of them lived as long as their father.

Among them, Zhu Youzhen deserves sympathy because he has a fighting spirit, but he lacks the ability to do what he wants, which leads to his failure.

Li Cunxu is a pity because he is the only one among the four "second generations" who expanded the scale of the group through his own hard work and surpassed his father at the peak, but later he became corrupt and lost himself;

Yang Wo and Wang Zongyan were extremely hateful. Historians could not find any merits in them. They were totally worthless. They were both typical examples of "No Zuo No Die".

Especially Wang Zongyan, he has both Yang Wo's "disco on the grave" and Li Cunxu's "continuous music and continuous dancing", a double champion. So it is no surprise that his end is the most miserable among the four, and his historical evaluation is the lowest.

Wang Zongyan turned his life into a vulgar novel, with luxury and enjoyment as the core and sex as the main form of expression. It was so absurd, dirty and unsightly that it was written about in great detail.

At the beginning, after Wang Jian appointed Wang Zongyan as the crown prince, he specially cast a large bronze bell and hung it in the Buddhist temple. The sound was loud and far-reaching. Wang Jian said to those around him: "I set up this bell for no other reason than for the crown prince. The sound is loud and far-reaching, which means that my son's national fortune will be prosperous and his country will enjoy endless prosperity."

Wang Jian, why did you give a clock to your son?

The bronze bell fell to the ground and was damaged only eight days after it was hung up, and the dragon head on the bell was broken. Wang Jian hated it very much and thought it was very unlucky. Later, Wang Zongyan's dynasty was destroyed in the eighth year.

The historian is also very interesting. It is very likely that he deliberately teased him. In Wang Zongyan's "The Book of the Later Lord", the aura at the beginning is very bluffing, and Wang Zongyan is first praised to a very high position:

"Square chin and big mouth, hands hanging down to knees, eyes looking through ears", this is a description of his appearance, which can be regarded as a replica of Liu Bei;
"He was well-educated, could write since childhood and was very talented", a gifted child prodigy.

Then the style of painting reversed:
"He was particularly fond of gorgeous words, so he collected 200 erotic poems and named it 'Fireworks Collection'." It turned out that his quick wit was reflected in erotic lyrics and songs, which were all vulgar.

From this sentence on, there are no more positive words in the whole story, and it begins to tell his dissolute, dirty and short life.

This is the humor of the historians, which adds a touch of lightness and humor to the boring, serious and restrained history books. Who stipulates that history must be rigid and monotonous? The historians sitting upright can turn into joke tellers in a minute, winking, sticking out their tongues, and making scissor hands. Oh yeah.

Wang Zongyan's biological mother was Concubine Xu and his grandfather was Xu Geng.

Xu Geng had appeared in the film during the period of Tian Lingzi. At that time, Wang Jian frantically attacked Chengdu, which was defended by Tian Lingzi and Chen Jingxuan. The battle was so fierce that cannibalism took place in the city of Chengdu. Under the huge military pressure of Wang Jian, the Tianyan group was in danger, so a large number of soldiers and civilians defected and surrendered. For this reason, Tianyan used various tortures to intimidate them.

At that time, Xu Geng, the governor of Meizhou, was appointed as the "Commander-in-Chief of Internal and External Affairs", which was equivalent to the commander-in-chief of the city defense. He was the highest executor of the execution of traitors, but he withstood the pressure from above and did not kill anyone. It is estimated that he saved at least thousands of people (often thousands of people were saved), the Chengdu version of "Schindler's List". Tian Lingzi was very angry and threatened him: "You are responsible for killing traitors, but you refuse to kill anyone. Do you want to be a traitor too? (If you have the power of life and death but do not punish one person, do you have other intentions?)" Xu Geng had no choice but to execute several death row prisoners to deal with Tian Lingzi.

The soldiers and civilians of Chengdu were very grateful for Xu Geng's kindness and generosity. Xu Geng's actions also moved his enemy, Wang Jian. When Wang Jian entered Chengdu, he treated Xu Geng with special courtesy. In addition to various rewards, Wang Jian also proposed to further sublimate their close relationship, "I will worship you as my father-in-law."

Chengdu has been a city of beauties since ancient times. Xu Geng had two daughters, both of whom were stunningly beautiful.

Wang Jian: “I want them all!”

The elder sister of this pair of sisters was Concubine Xu Xian, also known as the elder Concubine Xu, who gave birth to Wang Zongyan; the younger sister was Concubine Xu Shu, also known as the younger Concubine Xu. According to records, the younger Concubine Xu was particularly beautiful and was given the elegant name "Lady Huarui". Both sisters were very educated and good at poetry. A total of 16 poems by the sisters have been passed down to later generations. The younger Concubine Xu compiled "Palace Poems of Lady Huarui" and was one of the "Four Talented Women in Shu".

Coincidentally, the Later Shu (also one of the "Ten Kingdoms") that replaced the Former Shu also had a "Lady Huarui". People in later generations mistakenly believed that "Lady Huarui Palace Poems" was written by Lady Huarui of the Later Shu. This erroneous view lasted for more than a thousand years until the 20s, before the founding of New China, when the famous classical literature research expert Mr. Pu Jiangqing (together with Zhu Ziqing, known as the "Tsinghua Shuangqing") verified that the copyright of "Lady Huarui Palace Poems" should belong to Concubine Xiao Xu of the Former Shu.

Here are some excerpts from the sisters' poems:
"My tears wet my silk sleeves, and the red clouds brushed my embroidered clothes.

Jiuyi Mountain is far away, there is no way to follow Xiang Fei." - "Visiting Zhangren to See the Portrait of the Former Emperor" (excerpt) by Xiao Xu Fei

"The rain cleans the mountains ahead, the wind blows away the road ahead.

Green screens and flowing water, why envy Penglai." - "Another Poem on Jinhua Palace" (excerpt) by Concubine Daxu

"I suddenly felt beyond the three realms, and all my doubts and suspicions were revealed.

May the country be protected and prosperous." - "Watching the Holy Lanterns at Sanxue Mountain in Hanzhou at Night" (excerpt) by Concubine Daxu

"My son is the emperor and will inherit the kingdom. By accumulating good deeds, the whole world will finally be blessed." - Little Concubine Xu
"I always fear that my previous life was in this place, so the Jade Emperor wants me to be born in Jincheng." - Little Concubine Xu
"I've been out lately looking at the mountains and rivers, and they've all shown me my journey." - Little Concubine Xu
The last sentence has the artistic conception of "When you stare into the abyss, the abyss is also staring into you."

It can be seen that most of the sisters' poems are travel poems. Compared with the superficial "I have been here", the two goddesses with both talent and beauty drink and compose poems in tourist attractions, and then carve them on jade as a souvenir, which is quite elegant.

After Wang Zongyan ascended the throne, he honored his mother, Concubine Xu Xian, as the Empress Dowager and his aunt, Concubine Xu Shu, as the Concubine Dowager. We will continue to use the titles of Concubine Xu Da and Concubine Xu Xiao in the following text. His grandfather, Xu Geng, rose to the rank of General of the Cavalry.

Xu Geng was kindhearted and compassionate, and his name will go down in history. But his two daughters were completely different. The virtuous concubine was not virtuous, and the virtuous concubine was not virtuous, and they made the Former Shu Dynasty a mess.

The sisters of Concubine Xu, in their capacity as the Empress Dowager and Concubine Dowager, personally sold official positions and titles. Official posts below the level of Governor were clearly priced, but due to the booming business, they were auctioned off to the highest bidder. They also opened shops and hostels in major business districts, used their power to enter the real estate industry, and competed with the people for profits.

(End of this chapter)