History of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms

Chapter 383 Economic Genius - Gao Yu

Afterwards, Ma Yin went to war with Huainan. On the surface, he was making amends to Zhu Wen's group and submitting to the war against Huainan, but in reality, he was trying to seize the strategic location - Yuezhou - from Huainan.

At the same time, Ma Yin actively wrote letters to persuade Zhu Wen to ascend the throne, and as soon as Zhu Wen usurped the Tang Dynasty, he became a vassal and paid tribute. He was then canonized as the King of Chu by Zhu Wen.

In order to further curb the threat from Huainan, in the sixth year of Zhenming (920), Qian Liu of Hangzhou took the initiative to propose a marriage. Ma Yin readily agreed and married his daughter to Qian Liu's son Qian Chuanjin the following year.

After Li Cunxu destroyed the Later Liang Dynasty, Ma Yin sent his son Ma Xifan to pay homage to the emperor and handed over the seal of "Hong'e Camp Commander-in-Chief" bestowed by the Later Liang court, indicating that he wanted to draw a clear line between himself and the Later Liang Dynasty; he also handed over the roster of officials and household registers in the territory, indicating that he was submitting to and paying tribute to the Later Tang Dynasty.

Ma Yin was by no means a die-hard fan of the Zhu family of Later Liang, nor was he a crazy fan of the Li family of Later Tang. It cannot be said that Ma Yin was an erratic villain. The policy of Tanzhou was very simple: to pay tribute to the Central Plains dynasty.

In order to show goodwill to the Later Tang court, he took the initiative to change the name of Changjiang County of Yuezhou under his jurisdiction to Pingjiang County to avoid the taboo of the Later Tang Dynasty.

In the second year of Tongguang (924), the Later Tang court conferred the title of Shangshu Ling on Ma Yin.

In the third year of Tongguang (925), the Later Tang conquered the Former Shu. Ma Yin was terrified and hurriedly submitted a petition, saying that he was old and wanted to retire and return home. He was willing to give up his land to the court, just to save his remaining life. He spoke pitifully.

Li Cunxu "refused to grant a favorable decree" and tried to comfort him with kind words.

In the fourth year of Tongguang (926), Li Siyuan was enthroned. Ma Yin sent envoys to pay tribute and congratulate him on his accession to the throne. Li Siyuan conferred Ma Yin the title of Shangshu Ling, and in the following year (927), he conferred Ma Yin the title of King of Chu, and issued a red imperial edict, allowing Ma Yin to establish a country, set up civil and military officials, set up an institution representing the central court - Xingtai, and set the ceremonial guard specifications to be "half of that of the emperor".

Thus, Ma Yin formally established the State of Chu, which was historically known as "Southern Chu" and ranked among the "Ten Kingdoms". Tanzhou was the Changsha Prefecture, and the cultural relics and systems were all like the emperor's system. According to convention, Ma Yin was no longer a carpenter from Xuzhou, Henan, but a descendant of the famous Han Fubo General Ma Yuan and "a descendant of Liu Sheng, King Jing of Zhongshan".

The subsequent story has been mentioned in "1, Jingnan". It can be seen that Ma Yin's "loyalty" to the Later Tang court is exactly the same as that to the Later Liang court. He is by no means blindly loyal, and is still guided solely by practical interests.

In November of the first year of Changxing (930), Ma Yin died of illness at the age of 11.

Historically, Ma Yin has been highly praised, especially for the entrepreneurial heroes of Nanchu, who are full of talents:
Longxiang Pioneer - Founder Liu Jianfeng;
Sima Pushes the Wheel——Zhang Ji abdicates and gives way to a wise man;
Li Qiong's bravery, Gao Yu's planning, Xu Dexun's decisiveness, Qin Yanhui's resoluteness, Wang Huan's wisdom and courage, Yuan Heng's generosity and straightforwardness...

Some of these people's deeds have been mentioned in the previous text, while others are omitted because they are not closely related to the main plot. For example, Gao Yu, we need to focus on in the following text; in addition, Qin Yanhui is Qin Zongquan's cousin; the most interesting one is Yuan Heng, who changed his surname to "Tuoba" to avoid taboos (Ma Yin's father's name was Ma Yuanfeng). At first glance, you might think he was a Xianbei. Why did he change from "Yuan" to "Tuoba"? Because the Tuoba clan of the Northern Wei royal family later changed their surname to Yuan, and the great-grandson of Tuoba Tao, the founder of the Northern Wei Dynasty, was called "Yuan Heng", so Yuan Heng changed his name to "Tuoba Heng", not deliberately playing alternative or non-mainstream.

The Ma Yin Group was originally derived from Sun Ru, so after occupying Hunan, Ma Yin built an ancestral hall for Sun Ru, a thief who killed people without blinking an eye and massacred cities like a child's play, and sang praises for Sun Ru. If you tear down a thatched house to build a building, it will stink from the root. Later, they began to pay tribute to the Central Plains Dynasty, and the political foundation gradually changed from Sun Ru to the appointment of the Central Plains Dynasty. As a result, Sun Ru's influence was gradually weakened, and he was replaced by Ma Yuan, the general of Han Fu Bo. Under the governance of the Ma Yin Group, Hunan's economy was able to develop rapidly and became a national logistics distribution center. The people were happy and healthy, and the people lived and worked in peace and contentment, becoming a desirable paradise on earth. Among them, Gao Yu, Ma Yin's number one counselor and a well-known economist in the Five Dynasties period, was indispensable.

Gao Yu, whose native place was Yangzhou, Huainan, probably fled to Hunan to avoid the war in Huainan (Lü Yongzhi harmed Huainan, Bi Shiduo and Qin Yan rebelled and imprisoned and killed Gao Pian, and then Yang Xingmi and Sun Ru fought for Huainan). After Ma Yin occupied Tanzhou, the two got along very well and felt that they had met too late. Ma Yin then used Gao Yu as his number one strategist, like Liu Bei meeting Kong Ming.

At that time, Ma Yin had just gained a foothold in Tanzhou and was surrounded by powerful enemies who were eyeing him covetously. Ma Yin planned to bribe his neighbors with large sums of money in exchange for peace.

Gao Yu shouted that it was impossible, and analyzed it: Jingnan is narrow and weak, so it is not a threat; Liu Yan in Guangzhou is a frog in the well, who only wants to retreat to Lingnan and has no ambition to expand northward, so he is not a threat; Yang Xingmi has a deep hatred for us (Sun Ru), and it is useless to give him any money. Therefore, it is better to serve the emperor and comfort the soldiers, so as to achieve hegemony.

Gao Yu's views coincided with those of Xu Dexun and others, all of whom wanted to respect the emperor on the surface and strengthen their power in private.

The reason why Gao Yu is famous in history is because of his other secret identity - economist. Through trade wars and currency wars, he made Hunan stand out from the cracks surrounded by powerful enemies and quickly rose to become the only powerful vassal in southern China that dared to compete with the power of Huainan.

Gao Yu methodically opened up a battlefield without the smoke of gunpowder:

The first step is to act as a middleman and make a profit from the difference.

As early as the Tang Dynasty, tea was already an important daily necessity for the Chinese. The Tang Hui Yao recorded that "tea is food, no different from rice and salt."

At that time, the main producing area of ​​tea was the Jianghuai region. Tea went north through the Grand Canal, entered the Yellow River basin from the Jianghuai River basin, and then reached Luoyang, Chang'an and surrounding areas through the Yellow River's water transportation, thus forming a huge tea trade network, and tea tax became one of the government's important sources of tax revenue.

However, due to the hostility between Yang Xingmi of Huainan and Zhu Wen of Bianzhou, this trade network was artificially cut off, and tea from the Jianghuai region could not be directly transported to the Yellow River basin.

Therefore, under the guidance of Gao Yu, Ma Yin, who was attached to Zhu Wen, flirted with Yang Xingmi. From then on, tea from the Jianghuai region was first sent to Hunan for "laundering" and then delivered to the Central Plains in an open and aboveboard manner. This was a method that benefited all three parties, as it was neither embarrassing nor costly, so Zhu Wen tacitly approved of this "smuggling" behavior.

As a result, Hunan instantly became a tea trade distribution center. In order to facilitate the "tea smuggling" business, Gao Yu suggested that Ma Yin report to Zhu Wen and request "opening ports for trade" to open tea stores in Bianzhou, Xiangzhou, Tangzhou, Yingzhou, Fuzhou, etc. Through the "tea smuggling" business, Ma Yin made a profit of dozens of times (dozens of times the profit from selling tea)!

While the snipe and the clam quarrel, the fisherman benefits. The political game and military confrontation between Bianzhou and Huainan have contributed to the economic prosperity of Hunan.

(End of this chapter)