History of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms

Chapter 355 Kong Xun and Zheng Jue

Just over two months later, An Zhonghui took advantage of Zhu Shouyin's rebellion to hint to Li Siyuan that during the chaos, a frustrated senior politician should not be allowed to wander around, otherwise he would be in danger of joining the enemy and rebelling. Under An Zhonghui's instigation, Li Siyuan finally issued an edict that shocked China and the world:

"...Ren Yuan...did not follow etiquette and secretly joined the defense of Yin,...and was granted the right to commit suicide." Without any evidence, the emperor spoke with all his might and said that Ren Yuan colluded with the rebel general.

Ren Yuan knelt down to receive the imperial edict, smiled slightly, did not beg for mercy or cry out for injustice, gathered the whole family, set a table of sumptuous wine and wine, and bid farewell to himself. During this last dinner, the whole family cried, only Ren Yuan ate and drank freely, and finally went to his death with a calm expression.

Zhao Feng, a scholar from the Duanming Palace, ran to An Zhonghui and cried bitterly, accusing him: "Ren Yuan is a loyal and righteous man. Why did you want to frame him and put him to death? How can you make the empire rich and strong by abusing your power and killing people indiscriminately? Aren't you afraid of retribution?"

An Zhonghui's retribution will come soon.

孔循
This person has been introduced in the previous article, so I will just briefly mention him here: he is the adopted son of Zhu Yourang, the adopted son of Zhu Wen, along with Gao Jichang and Dong Zhang. He is a cunning and scheming boy, otherwise he would not have won Zhu Wen's favor. Before the advent of the Li Siyuan era, he wisely bet on the eunuch Li Shaohong, and entered the core power circle through the strong recommendation of the eunuch Li Shaohong.

After the Li Siyuan era came, Kong Xun very accurately clung to An Zhonghui's thigh.

An Zhonghui believed that Kong Xun had been active in the core power circle (Later Liang) for a long time, had been in the court for a long time, had a full and profound understanding of the central affairs, and was more familiar with the character and conduct of the civil and military officials of the Later Liang, who could make up for his own shortcomings. Therefore, he regarded Kong Xun as his right-hand man, and almost obeyed Kong Xun's opinions (especially the issue of Later Liang politicians).

As a high-ranking official parachuted into Luoyang, it was necessary for An Zhonghui to find a personnel consultant, spy, and informant, but the positioning of this person, Kong Xun, should be a consultant rather than a strategic decision-maker. However, Kong Xun's hard work finally deceived An Zhonghui's trust, and in the subsequent struggle, An Zhonghui was used by Kong Xun.

For example, when discussing the candidate for prime minister, Kong Xun, who was from the "Hou Liang Gang", strongly recommended members of the "Hou Liang Gang", such as Zheng Jue and Cui Xie, while Ren Yuan from the "Heshuo Gang" recommended Li Qi, and a fierce struggle broke out between the two groups.

The parting of ways between Kong Xun and An Zhonghui is also very dramatic. In short, it is a "friendship between Pan and Ga":
Li Siyuan planned to marry An Zhonghui's daughter to his son Li Conghou. When Kong Xun heard about it, he immediately warned An Zhonghui that you are in a high position and have great achievements. You should take the initiative to avoid suspicion and not marry into the royal family, otherwise you will be in great trouble! An Zhonghui listened to Kong Xun's advice and agreed with it, so he politely declined Li Siyuan's marriage proposal.

However, the next moment, Kong Xun ran to Li Siyuan's favorite concubine, Concubine Wang De, and used sweet words to beg her to let the prince Li Conghou marry his daughter.

Consort Wang De was born in a humble family. She was originally the daughter of a cake seller in Bingzhou. She was born beautiful and was nicknamed "Hua Jianxiu". When she was young, she was sold to Liu Xun, a general of the Later Liang Dynasty, as a maid. After Liu Xun was forced to commit suicide, Wang was taken as a concubine by Li Siyuan under the help of An Zhonghui.

Wang distributed all the money she brought with her to the servants and other concubines around Li Siyuan, so everyone around him spoke well of her and she became Li Siyuan's favorite.

From this point of view, An Zhonghui should be Wang's nobleman, but once Wang became "Wang Defei" and "Wang Shufei", the change of status and position meant a change in interest orientation, which also meant that the definition of "friend" and "enemy" might change significantly. In the end, Wang was deeply involved in An Zhonghui's death. We will talk about this Wang Defei in detail later. Kong Xun used her connections to finally facilitate the marriage of his daughter and the prince Li Conghou.

After An Zhonghui got the news, he suddenly realized that he had been betrayed by his most trusted "good brother" and was furious. Mr. Kong, you deceived my feelings!
Within three days, Kong Xun was appointed as the military governor of Xuzhou Zhongwu Army and expelled from the court. Soon after, he moved to Cangzhou, where he eventually died at the age of 48.

As the saying goes, man proposes, God disposes. Kong Xun was willing to marry his daughter to the prince Li Conghou, even at the cost of offending the ruler An Zhonghui. A few years later, Li Conghou succeeded Li Siyuan and became the third emperor of the Later Tang Dynasty. His daughter also became Li Conghou's empress. However, Li Conghou was killed in a coup after only five months in office. Kong and her four sons were also killed.

郑珏
The grandson of "Xiehou Zheng Wu" had a special connection with "Nineteen". When the Later Liang Dynasty was about to perish, he offered a plan, saying that we could take the imperial seal to the enemy camp and pretend to surrender. When everyone asked him what he was pretending to surrender, he answered very seriously, "I don't know either." At that time, all the civil and military officials in the court were crying with Zhu Youzhen, and they were amused by Mr. Zheng Jue's words.

After Li Siyuan appointed Ren Huan as prime minister, An Zhonghui wanted to find another prime minister to share Ren Huan's power, so he asked Kong Xun for advice. Kong Xun immediately recommended the humorous and old waste Zheng Jue. The reason for the recommendation was that Zheng Jue had served as prime minister during the Later Liang Dynasty, had rich work experience, and had a good family background. He was the grandson of Zheng Heng, the prime minister of the Tang Dynasty. He was cautious and prudent, and had the demeanor of an elder. It would be right to use him.

An Zhonghui agreed with this and therefore requested that Zheng Jue be appointed as prime minister.

Powerful officials always like to recommend useless people to high positions, because they can be easily controlled by their power. This way, they can transcend their authority and take charge of the government. This is why Kong Xun recommended Zheng Jue.

After becoming prime minister, Zheng Jue continued his work style, which was "doing nothing". He did nothing. To be more precise, he did nothing good, but did two bad things:
One is to cling to Kong Xun's thigh and follow him closely. An Zhonghui, Kong Xun and Ren Yuan were competing for power and profit. Ren Yuan recommended Li Qi, while An Zhonghui and Kong Xun recommended Cui Xie. Therefore, Zheng Jue also actively excluded Li Qi and praised Cui Xie.

Second, it continued the absurd and shameless funny style. Not long after Li Siyuan proclaimed himself emperor, he went east to Bianzhou. The soldiers of the six armies moved from Luoyang to Bianzhou with their families. Before they could settle down, Li Siyuan suddenly had the urge to go to Weizhou. When the news came out, the soldiers complained and there was a danger of mutiny, but Li Siyuan did not care.

Zheng Jue guessed the emperor's intention and praised the greatness, glory and correctness of the trip to Weizhou. Zhao Feng, a scholar of the Duanming Palace, went to An Zhonghui to analyze the pros and cons and said that the trip to Weizhou must not be allowed. An Zhonghui realized it in time and quickly advised Li Siyuan to give up this dangerous idea. Later scholars believed that if Li Siyuan insisted on going to Weizhou, his era would probably end there.

Regarding the cancellation of the Northern Expedition to Weizhou, Comrade Zheng Jue, who had previously expressed his firm support for it, “also praised it and thought it should be cancelled.” Shameless.

Later, Kong Xun lost power and was dismissed from the post of Privy Councilor. Zheng Jue was horrified and resolutely resigned on the grounds of old age and illness. Li Siyuan sincerely tried to retain him and rejected his retirement request three times. Finally, Zheng Jue submitted a petition for the fourth time to beg for his remains and finally retired as Zuo Pushe and was granted a manor in Zhengzhou. He was posthumously awarded the title of Sikong.

The reason why he was able to have a good ending was not because he retired at the height of his career, but because he was really useless. Even when he was in the phase, he was a puppet of others, a funny person in the core power layer, and a harmless product. As mentioned earlier, only those who do not hold real power and know when to advance and retreat can truly protect themselves and have a good ending.

(End of this chapter)