History of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms

Chapter 352: Vanguard Officer "Young Wife"

The "young wife" was from Songzhou and was a fellow villager of Zhu Wen. She passed the imperial examination when she was young and was quite talented. She was originally the secretary of Yuan Xiangxian, the mayor of the capital (the secretary of the prefect of Kaifeng). The "young wife" was very ambitious and always thought that she was talented but not appreciated. She dreamed of becoming successful and making a name for herself.

After Yuan Xiangxian was promoted from the prefect of Kaifeng to the governor of Pinglu Army in Qingzhou, he was promoted to the position of inspector. The inspector was the staff of the governor, but his position was lower than that of the judge and the prosecutor. The reaction of the "young wife" to this was "unhappy".

He believed that Yuan Xiang was a waste of talent and that there was no future for him, so he abandoned his mother and wife, changed his name and surname, fled to Zhenzhou, and took refuge with Wang Rong. He took advantage of Wang Rong's young age and ignorance, and claimed to be the secretary of the Qingzhou Jiedushi, seeking an official position in Zhenzhou to serve the people of Zhenzhou.

Wang Rong believed it and immediately appointed him as a military officer of Zhenzhou, which was equivalent to the military advisor of the Jiedushi. The reaction of the "young wife" was "especially unhappy".

Thinking that Wang Rong still could not recognize the talent, he stayed in Zhenzhou for more than a year and then fled to Dingzhou.

Wang Chuzhi of Dingzhou is no naive person. He has fought his way through mountains of corpses and seas of blood. He is knowledgeable and experienced. Unlike little Wang Rong who is silly and naive, Wang Chuzhi is vulgar and violent, and almost killed this big liar.

The "young wife" was forced to shave her head and become a monk, hiding in Baizhang Mountain. The name of this place is unknown, but as the name suggests, it is a remote place.

It was not until Li Cunxu took control of Hebei and planned to establish a new country that the "young wife" finally had her spring. She was recommended by the eunuch Li Shaohong as the Weizhou Tuiguan, which was slightly higher than the previous Qingzhou Xunguan. Afterwards, she was promoted to the central government and was to be appointed as the Zhizhigao, but was excluded by Dou Luge (to be expanded later), so she was demoted to the Jiabu Langzhong. The "young wife"'s reaction to this was "especially unhappy".

After Li Cunxu conquered Liang, he specially sent his "young wife" to comfort Qingzhou and Qi because she had work experience in Qingzhou and her family was in Qingzhou. While completing the stabilization of Shandong, he could also return home in glory and satisfy his vanity.

When the "young wife" arrived in Qingzhou, she learned that her mother had died long ago and her wife had remarried. Her career was not going well, and her family was even worse. Her mother died and her wife ran away. The "young wife" was hit hard, so she wore heavy mourning and cried loudly, crying out the grievances she had felt for many years in the name of mourning for her mother.

Even so, some people rubbed salt into his wounds and ridiculed him by quoting the famous line from "Reply to Su Wu" written by Li Ling of the Western Han Dynasty (grandson of "Flying General" Li Guang), "My old mother has passed away in the hall, and my young wife has left the curtain."

Later, Li Cunxu planned to promote him to be the Imperial Counselor, but failed due to the strong obstruction from Dou Luge and Wei Shuo.

For a man who was willing to abandon his mother and wife for promotion, anyone who stood in his way was his greatest enemy. If he could not achieve his goals for a long time, he would feel like he was in purgatory, living a life worse than death, and suffering unspeakably. He was full of hatred for Dou Luge and Wei Shuo.

The question is, why did Dou Luge and Wei Shuo have to make things difficult for the "young wives" and exclude and suppress them in every possible way? Coincidentally, the reason why Dou Luge and Wei Shuo excluded the "young wives" is the same as the reason why the "young wives" exclude Dou Luge and Wei Shuo today. In the final analysis, they are all flattering the leaders.

At that time, the "young wife" was the magistrate of Weizhou. Li Cunxu had not yet overthrown the Later Liang Dynasty. Weizhou was the temporary office of the central court of the Later Tang Dynasty, which can be simply understood as the "capital". Therefore, the "young wife" had the opportunity to participate in many discussions on central affairs. One day, Li Cunxu ordered his ministers to discuss the etiquette of state banquets. One of the topics was whether the Privy Councilor could attend the state banquet. The state banquet here refers to the internal banquet in the palace where the emperor invites close ministers, excluding international occasions. The "young wife" answered without hesitation, "Of course not!"

The Privy Councilor at that time was the eunuch Zhang Juhan. Zhang Juhan got anxious when he heard this, and called the "young wife" to his office, and scolded her: "I have served three emperors and attended hundreds of imperial banquets. You are a country bumpkin, a farmer, what do you know?"

The "young wife" was scolded so much that she was speechless and didn't even dare to fart.

Dou Luge and Wei Shuo flattered Guo Chongtao externally and Zhang Juhan internally. Seeing this, they actively excluded the "young wife" to please Zhang Juhan.

After Li Siyuan entered Luoyang, "first use and then abandon" was the established policy for Douluge, Wei Shuo and others, so he promoted the "young wife" who was suppressed by the two to the position of Counselor at the first opportunity, planting a time bomb for the two.

Promoting the target person's enemies is a common tactic in political struggles.

In addition, please pay attention to the official position of the "little wife", the Imperial Counselor, which is usually called the censor, the main job is to find faults and faults. The "little wife" herself has a lot of resentment, and has deep hostility towards the civil and military officials in the court, especially towards Dou Lu Ge and Wei Shuo. It can be said that she is a vicious dog with bared teeth, biting whoever she catches. It is very appropriate to use her as the vanguard of political struggle.

As expected, after An Zhonghui humiliated Douluge in public, the "young wife" immediately jumped out and wrote a petition to impeach Douluge and Wei Shuo, accusing them of "being complacent and bringing disgrace to the emperor." What she meant was that they had seriously neglected their duties and neglected their responsibilities during the period of Li Cunxu, were morally corrupt, and should be held primarily responsible for the political darkness of Li Cunxu's era. Moreover, the two of them were not very respectful to Li Siyuan, and sometimes they even submitted memorials with a frivolous smile. They did not act like the prime ministers of the empire at all, but rather a pair of street hooligans and hooligans. How could they be like this!
Since the time of Li Cunxu, there has been an unspoken rule that salaries are discounted. Li Cunxu, who was driven crazy by poverty, did everything he could to amass wealth, plundering the people's money and the salaries of civil and military officials. After Li Siyuan entered Luoyang, he continued this unspoken rule. However, Dou Luge, who was in charge of the national finances (Judge Sansi), and his son received full salaries, which caused dissatisfaction among the civil and military officials.

In addition, Li Siyuan ascended the throne in April and announced that the salaries of civil and military officials would be calculated from May, while the salaries of Douluge and his son would be calculated from the first month of the year, which also caused dissatisfaction among the civil and military officials in the court.

Wei Shuo used his grandson to impersonate his son in order to obtain an official position in the court; he also embezzled and accepted bribes.

Under the charge of the "young wife", civil and military officials criticized and strongly condemned Dou Luge and Wei Shuo.

These charges are very broad, but the strikes are not precise enough and the intensity is also lacking. Li Siyuan hopes that the verdict will be "demoted again and again, and then ordered to commit suicide", rather than criticism and education, and not to make this an example.

So, the "young wife" helped add a bit of explosive material: Dou Luge instigated murder; Wei Shuo seized people's property (occupied neighbors' houses and occupied the shared well). Different historical records describe this incident in the same way - false accusation.

(End of this chapter)