History of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms

Chapter 351: "Reed Harvest" Movement

7. Kill the Prime Minister
7.1 “Reed Harvest” Movement

The kind-hearted eunuch Zhang Juhan knew when to advance and when to retreat, and he withdrew from officialdom in time. However, not everyone can retreat while one is ahead. Most people, such as the prime ministers in the era of Li Cunxu, die on the road of reckless pursuit of fame and fortune.

Perhaps in the eyes of Dou Luge, Wei Shuo and others, political struggle is not that terrible. They can even call themselves evergreens in the political arena and trendsetters in the stormy waves. Fame and fortune can be easily obtained by them.

During the reign of Li Cunxu, they were promoted to prime ministers and became puppets of Guo Chongtao, but they did not mind at all and were even secretly delighted by it. Because in peacetime, they only needed to flatter and do things according to Guo Chongtao's instructions to enjoy wealth and glory, and the one who was attacked was often the big tree behind them, so Guo Chongtao would die, but they would live forever.

In addition to Guo Chongtao, the two also worked as lickers for the eunuch Zhang Juhan. Although Zhang Juhan did not really hold real power, and his situation was the same as Dou Luge and Wei Shuo, Zhang Juhan was a eunuch after all, and in the era of Li Cunxu, the status of eunuch was very popular.

Do you know which cloud will bring rain? You should worship any god.

After visiting various destinations, the two of them huddled together for warmth. Douluge promoted Wei Shuo's son Wei Tao to be a scholar of Hongwenguan, and Wei Shuo promoted Douluge's son Doulusheng to be a scholar of Jixiandian.

This is the way of survival and experience of being an official as taught by Dou Luge and Wei Shuo.

Their second experience is to know the current situation. Being a bootlicker is also a science, small licking of powerful officials, big licking of the king.

On the day Li Siyuan entered Luoyang, Prime Minister Dou Luge and Wei Shuo led the civil and military officials to present a petition to persuade Li Siyuan to take up the post of emperor. Persuading him to take up the post showed loyalty and supported Li Siyuan.

The two took the lead in singing praises to Li Siyuan every day, praising his merits and virtues, claiming that it was the will of heaven, the will of the people, and the expectation of the masses. They repeatedly requested Comrade Li Siyuan to follow the will of heaven and the people and take charge of state affairs as soon as possible.

In less than half a month, Li Siyuan, with the strong support of Douluge, Wei Shuo and other ministers, accepted the advice and ascended the throne to become emperor.

At the beginning of his reign, Li Siyuan also needed people like Dou Luge and Wei Shuo, so he actively responded to his licking behavior. After killing Kong Qian, the rent and labor commissioner, Li Siyuan abolished the "Neigousi" controlled by the eunuchs, restored the "Three Departments", and appointed a prime minister, who was Dou Luge.

After Li Siyuan proclaimed himself emperor, in May, he promoted Douluge to the position of Zuo Pushe; and promoted Wei Shuo to the position of Menxia Shilang and concurrently Minister of Revenue, and Supervisor of National History.

In July, Li Cunxu's funeral procession was held and he was buried in Yongling (now in Xin'an County, Henan Province). He was posthumously named Emperor Guangshengshenminxiao and his temple name was Zhuangzong.

Appoint Douluge as the director of the funeral committee (Shanlingshi). Shanlingshi is a temporary official position in charge of the emperor's funeral affairs, usually held by the prime minister of the previous dynasty. Being able to serve as Shanlingshi is also the supreme honor of the prime minister.

Generally speaking, after the previous emperor was buried, the mausoleum envoy would be promoted again by the new emperor as a way to recognize his past work and thank him for all he had done for the empire.

After pretending to cry at the funeral, Douluge could no longer hide his happy smile. He returned home and never went out again, because he was afraid of missing the imperial edict to welcome his promotion, just like a candidate waiting for his admission letter at home. One day passed, two days passed, three days passed... The court seemed to have forgotten him. Douluge opened the door wide, dressed in his best clothes, and walked around in the courtyard.

Before this, Douluge had already spread the good news of his promotion to his relatives and friends in advance, inviting them to come and see him off. Now, relatives and friends gathered in the courtyard with gifts, and in addition to appreciating his fashion show, they were also whispering and discussing.

"Sir, you have been promoted, what is your current position?"

"Yeah, where's the high position?"

The question made Dou Luge upset, "Wait a little longer, wait a little longer."

Later, his relatives and friends advised him to go to the court to inquire about the news.

So, Dou Luge shamelessly found An Zhonghui, a popular figure around Li Siyuan, and said, "Look, the late emperor has been buried, the paper money has been burned, and the monks who chanted sutras have left... Shouldn't I also go back to the court and help everyone?"

An Zhonghui was a straight-forward and resolute person, very much like Guo Chongtao. To be honest, when I first read this period of history, I confused Guo Chongtao and An Zhonghui as one person. The two have many similarities. We will elaborate on An Zhonghui's character analysis and political struggle in the following text, so I will just briefly mention it here.

He was upright, so he hated people like Douluge and Wei Shuo very much. He was strong-willed, so he would not show any mercy to Douluge and would not miss any opportunity to humiliate him.

An Zhonghui pulled his face and said to Dou Luge in public: "Aren't you the official in charge of the tomb? Instead of taking care of the tomb properly, you came to the central government without the emperor's edict. Don't you respect the emperor? Do you think we Shatuo people are easy to bully?"

This one sentence frightened Dou Luge half to death. He quickly admitted his mistake, apologized, and ran away in a hurry with his tail between his legs.

An Zhonghui's words were not just a vent of personal emotions, but a clear political signal. The civil and military officials in the court immediately got the latest direction of the court, and An Zhonghui and Li Siyuan didn't have to worry about what happened next, as their subordinates were very smart.

Simply singing praises and shouting "Long live the leader" is just the lowest level of flattery; while guessing the leader's thoughts and taking the initiative to do things that the leader wants to do but is not convenient to do is the advanced version. For example, An Zhonghui and Huo Yanwei were good at killing princes.

When Li Siyuan, who was in a weak position, first came to power in Luoyang, he could not do without the support of "traitors" and "guides" such as Dou Luge and Wei Shuo. As various tasks were put on track, some old legacy had to be eradicated in due course. So getting rid of Dou Luge and Wei Shuo was only a matter of time and method.

An Zhonghui had a clear understanding of this, and now he clearly sent out this signal, launching the first political struggle of the Li Siyuan era - the "Harvesting Reeds" movement.

The one who stepped forward and bravely took the lead in this movement was the Imperial Counselor Xiao Xifu (pronounced similar to "little daughter-in-law").

The "young wife" is a very interesting person. Some historical records say that she "had the hope of making honest and upright remarks", so she was rejected by Dou Luge. At first glance, Dou Luge is a treacherous official and a bad guy, while the "young wife" is an honest gentleman who dares to speak out and make honest remarks. However, the historical truth can never be accurately summarized in this sentence. If you look at it in detail, the "young wife" is not really a gentleman, and can even be said to be morally corrupt, unfaithful, unfilial, and heartless!
(End of this chapter)