History of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms

Chapter 361 Inside and Outside 2
2.1.2 Qian Liu, Hangzhou
Compared with Qian Liu, Wang Yanhan was just a younger brother. Qian Liu could say with great pride: "No one knows political blackmail better than me."

At the end of the Tang Dynasty, Qian Liu of Hangzhou, Yang Xingmi of Huainan, Wang Jian of Xichuan, Li Maozhen of Fengxiang, Li Keyong of Hedong, and Zhu Wen of Bianzhou were all in the first echelon of the vassal states. Although there were differences in strength, they were all equal bosses on the surface. But when Zhu Wen usurped the Tang Dynasty and established himself, except for Qian Liu of Hangzhou, those bosses expressed that they were irreconcilable with Zhu Wen's Later Liang and chose to fight against him, while Qian Liu of Hangzhou chose to bow down to Zhu Wen and was willing to be Zhu Wen's younger brother, taking the initiative to downgrade himself politically.

As a result, those bigwigs gained a strong enemy - the Later Liang Dynasty. Only Qian Liu was given the title of "King of Wuyue". Later, the Later Liang Dynasty continued to confer titles such as "Shangshu Ling", "Shangfu", "Generalissimo of the Army of the World", and allowed the establishment of a government and appointment of officials, and issued imperial edicts without naming...

When the Later Liang Dynasty was about to fall, he was given the title of "King of Wuyue" and was allowed to establish a country. Note that most of the "Ten Kingdoms" were established independently, and legally speaking, they were all illegal separatist regimes. Only Qian Liu's "Wuyue Kingdom" was established by the central dynasty and was a legal country. This is a political asset that is priceless.

After Li Cunxu destroyed the Later Liang Dynasty, Qian Liu extorted the Jade Book of Heaven and the Golden Seal, which were specifications that only the emperor could use. This marked that Qian Liu's political status was further enhanced, so much so that foreign countries such as Silla and Bohai also requested Qian Liu to confer titles on him. Qian Liu had an international status almost equal to that of the central court.

After Li Siyuan overthrew Li Cunxu, Qian Liu continued to blackmail him. However, Qian Liu could no longer be enfeoffed unless he "abdicated", so Li Siyuan could only enfeoff Qian Liu's sons, giving Qian Yuanguan more fiefs and Qian Yuanluo more fiefs and a government office.

Qian Liu keenly captured the several upheavals in the central dynasty since the end of the Tang Dynasty, and he was able to successfully extort money every time and made a lot of money. In a few decades, he went from an ordinary soldier to a king who dominated one side. The counterattack process was a miracle.

After squeezing the last drop of oil out of the Central Dynasty (Li Siyuan), Qian Liu finally showed his true colors and established a new era, changing the first year of Tiancheng to the first year of Baozheng. Establishing his own era name marked Qian Liu's official departure from the Central Dynasty.

However, before the Wuyue Kingdom surrendered to the central dynasty, it systematically destroyed evidence of the change of reign titles, such as inscriptions, official documents, etc., in order to cover up the fact of its independence and division.

Moreover, Qian Liu first used his own reign title in the early period of Later Liang, establishing the reign title "Tianbao" in 908 and the reign title "Baoda" in 924.

Some historical records say that Qian Liu never changed the reign title, but that was because no evidence had been found when the record was written. It was not until the end of the Southern Song Dynasty and the Yuan Dynasty that relevant inscriptions were unearthed in present-day Zhejiang, revealing the truth.

Comrade Sima Guang, who wrote "Zizhi Tongjian", was a person from the Northern Song Dynasty. At that time, cultural relics engraved with the era names of "Tianbao" and "Baoda" had not yet been unearthed, so his authoritative history book is not authoritative enough in terms of Qian Liu's change of era name. It is not his fault.

This is also the fun of history. Many of today's conclusions are often overturned by cultural relics and documents that are suddenly unearthed tomorrow, presenting us with a truth that is completely opposite to our previous cognition and subverting our cognition. For example, Wang Xizhi's original "Beijing Welcomes You", or the Ultraman Tiga figurines in the Qin Shihuang Mausoleum, and the Qinglong Yanyue AK-47 used by Guan Erye.
2.1.3 Ma Yinjia of Tanzhou was appointed as the acting Grand Tutor and Minister of the Secretariat.

Li Cunxu's destruction of Former Shu greatly frightened Ma Yin, who, fearing that he would become the next target, submitted a petition to retire, but Li Cunxu issued an edict to deny his request.

After Li Siyuan ascended the throne, he promoted Ma Yin to a higher position to win him over. Ma Yin also repaid Li Siyuan with practical actions. In the subsequent war against Jingnan, Ma Yin was ordered to send troops to cooperate with the Later Tang army to attack Jingnan. Of course, Ma Yin was mainly able to gain benefits from the war against Jingnan.

In order to commend Ma Yin for his contribution in conquering Jingnan, Li Siyuan conferred the title of "King of Chu" on Ma Yin.

From then on, Ma Yin officially established the country, built palaces, and appointed civil and military officials. Everything was the same as the emperor's etiquette, except that the names of some official positions were changed, which need not be listed in detail.

2.2 Huainan
As early as April 919, 4, Huainan Yang Wei (the second son of Yang Xingmi) established a country and changed the era name under the support of the powerful official Xu Wen. However, Yang Wei did not proclaim himself emperor, but called himself the King of Wu, and established the era name Wuyi. It was historically known as "Southern Wu" (one of the "Ten Kingdoms"). Since then, both the Later Liang and the Later Tang called the Huainan forces "Huaiyi" or "Pseudo-Wu" and did not recognize their legitimate political status.

Therefore, in official documents, for example, when Li Siyuan announced to the world, he used the phrase "all the roads in the world and Huainan". The word "and Huainan" explains the difference between the Huainan Yang family and other forces such as Ma Yin of Tanzhou and Qian Liu of Hangzhou. It was an unrecognized and illegal local separatist regime.

The relationship between Huainan and the central government has always been hostile and mutually non-recognizing, so there was no need for Li Siyuan to go to great lengths to win it over, and there was also no need for Huainan to give Li Siyuan face.

After Li Siyuan ascended the throne, Yang Pu, the king of Southern Wu, took a further step politically and directly proclaimed himself emperor, challenging the bottom line of the central Li Siyuan court.

2.3 Khitan
Li Siyuan sent his personal eunuch Yao Kun to visit Khitan and inform them of the situation in Luoyang.

When Yelu Abaoji heard the news of Li Cunxu's death, he burst into tears and said, "Li Keyong and I are brothers. We have a very close relationship. His son is like my own son. I heard that his son was in trouble in his country and was about to go to help him. How come he became like this?" He stamped his feet and beat his chest, wailing loudly, in great grief.

Yelu Abaoji and Li Keyong became sworn brothers twice, so this theory came into being. Of course, there is no family affection or friendship in the political arena, only interests. There are many stories of fathers and sons killing each other and brothers killing each other for the sake of interests. The "brotherhood" between Abaoji and Li Keyong is even more of a plastic brotherhood. In the year when the two became sworn brothers, Abaoji betrayed Li Keyong for the sake of interests and turned to support Zhu Wen, and he also repeatedly sent troops to plunder the border of the Later Tang Dynasty.

However, Abaoji's words were not just politeness, but also a deeper conspiracy. After pretending to be sad, Abaoji suddenly changed his face, turning from sadness to anger, and angrily scolded Yao Kun: "My son has met with misfortune in Luoyang, why didn't Li Siyuan, as a minister, go to rescue him?"

Yao Kun replied: "The distance was too far and the situation was too urgent. By the time we got the news, it was already too late."

A Baoji was furious, slamming the table and shouting, "Then he will have time to declare himself emperor!"

Yao Kun calmly and patiently explained the reasons and consequences of Li Siyuan's enthronement. It was nothing more than the hijacking of Weizhou, the fact that he had no choice, the expediency, and the support of the ministers...

A Baoji didn't listen to his explanation at all. He interrupted him directly, looking angry and puzzled, and said, "You Han people just like to talk nonsense. You can make mean and shameless things sound justified. What are you talking about?"

Abaoji's eldest son Yelu Bei also chimed in and questioned Yao Kun: "If someone tramples on someone else's crops with a cow in his hand, then others will take his cow away. Is this reasonable?"

Although Yao Kun was a eunuch, he was knowledgeable, well-educated, and flexible in his work. That was why he was entrusted with the important task of going to such a dangerous place. Facing the aggressive attitude of Abaoji and his son, Yao Kun knew that passive defense was not a solution. He had to fight back strongly and seize the initiative. So he retorted, using his own spear to attack his own shield. He said:
"At that time, the Central Plains had no ruler, and the country could not be without a ruler for a day, so my king was forced to ascend the throne and preside over state affairs, just like the reason why your majesty (referring to Abaoji) ascended the throne in the first place. Could this be a usurpation of power?"

Abaoji certainly couldn't bury himself in this hole, so he immediately changed his attitude and softened his tone, saying, "That makes sense... Hey, I heard that my son (Li Cunxu) was addicted to wine, sex, music, and hunting, and didn't care about the lives of the people. No wonder he ended up like this. After hearing the bad news, my whole family stopped drinking, dismissed the actors, and released the hunting hawks and dogs. Otherwise, I would have ended up like him."

A Baoji kept calling him "my son" in a very intimate way, setting the stage for his subsequent rude request:

"Although my son and I have been friends for two generations, he is not very respectful to his elders and often fights with me. Your current emperor and I have no grudges in the past or today, so we should take this opportunity to enhance the friendship between our two countries. Let him cede the land north of the Yellow River to me, and I will no longer go south."

Just one mouth, and you want half of China.

Yao Kun said firmly: "I'm sorry, I'm just a messenger of condolences, I can't make this decision!"

Abaoji was furious, "Who are you with? I'm giving you face, right?" He immediately ordered Yao Kun to be imprisoned and forced to reflect on his mistakes facing the wall.

Ten days later, Yao Kun was released and told, "I have also thought about it. All the land north of the Yellow River is indeed a bit too much. How about this? I will make a concession and only give me the land of the three towns of Youzhou Lulong Army, Dingzhou Yiwu Army, and Zhenzhou Chengde Army. How about that? Full of sincerity, right?"

Yao Kun was so angry that he laughed out loud.

"Someone, give him paper, pen, ink and inkstone, and ask him to write me the entire land cession agreement on the spot. We are reasonable."

Yao Kun flatly refused.

Abaoji was furious and ordered the beheading of Yao Kun, who was ungrateful, "Behead him!"

Han Yanhui, Abaoji's chief adviser and prime minister of the Liao Dynasty, hurriedly dissuaded him and spared Yao Kun's life. He then put him in prison again to reflect on his actions.

Thanks to the eunuch Yao Kun who fulfilled his mission, the Khitan became the only force that could not be successfully blackmailed when Li Siyuan became emperor.

Know yourself and know your enemy, and you will never be defeated in a hundred battles. Although Li Siyuan pretended to be a grandson everywhere, he stood up straight in front of the powerful Khitan. Li Siyuan was not an angry young man. The reason why he dared to take a tough stance against the powerful Khitan was because he had important intelligence and knew that the Khitan was also constrained by internal problems and was currently just a ferocious paper tiger.

The Khitan would not give up and covet Youzhou and other lands. The internal problems of the Khitan and its seizure of Youzhou will be described in detail later.

(End of this chapter)