History of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms

Chapter 386: Horses Fighting for the Stable
[Horses fighting for the stable]

A year later, Ma Yin submitted a memorial to the central court, saying that he was seriously ill and requesting to pass the throne to his son Ma Xisheng.

Not long after, Ma Yin died of illness. His political will was very strange. It is said that he asked his sons to pass on the throne from brother to brother, and hung a sword in the ancestral hall, saying that anyone who dared to disobey this order would be killed without mercy.

The central court of the Later Tang Dynasty appointed Ma Xisheng as the military governor of Wu'an Army and concurrently the minister of the imperial court, but did not clarify the issue of the succession of the "King of Chu". It also issued an edict saying that Comrade Ma Yin's official position and title had reached the peak and could not be posthumously awarded. It only gave him the posthumous title of "Wu Mu" and suspended court for three days as a token of its intention.

After succeeding to the throne, Ma Xisheng also made a puzzling decision: he submitted a memorial stating that he was following his father's will to abolish the "Chu State" and restore the old system of the Later Tang Dynasty's vassal states.

Therefore, the central court of the Later Tang Dynasty readily accepted it and appointed Ma Xisheng as the military governor of Wu'an, Jingjiang and other military regions, and concurrently as the minister of the Central Secretariat.

Obviously, there is a political game between Ma Xisheng and the central government of the Later Tang Dynasty hidden in this. We have every reason to believe that the so-called "Ma Yin's will" was completely fabricated by Ma Xisheng.

If it was really Ma Yin's intention to abolish the kingdom and restore the title of vassal, then he could have stated it directly in the memorial requesting to give way to Ma Xisheng. Why did he ask Ma Xisheng to convey it? Was it necessary to do so in such a short time?

The court of the Later Tang Dynasty said that Ma Yin's official title was too high to be awarded posthumously, which was a far-fetched reason. After Ma Yin's death, the court only recognized Ma Xisheng's title of "Jiedushi" and deliberately ignored the succession of "King of Chu". Could it be an oversight?
Connecting the previous and subsequent events, a political game of reducing the power of the vassal states in the Later Tang Dynasty emerges before our eyes:

Ma Yin favored his concubine and abolished the legitimate heir and established the illegitimate heir, abolished the eldest heir and established the youngest heir, which laid the seeds of disaster for his descendants, causing more than 30 foals to be eager to move, all coveting the family property. Ma Xisheng also felt threatened by his brothers, so he forced his father to submit a petition to the court during his serious illness, and clarified his legitimate rule over Southern Chu through the central court of the Later Tang Dynasty.

When Gao Yu was killed, Ma Yin's behavior seemed to indicate the fact that he was being sidelined.

After receiving Ma Yin's memorial, the Later Tang court saw through Ma Xisheng's little plan at a glance, and even suspected that Ma Yin had been murdered by Ma Xisheng.

According to the records in Zizhi Tongjian, after receiving this memorial, the central government of the Later Tang Dynasty actually issued an edict ordering Ma Xisheng to stop mourning and return to work. It seemed that they were sincerely deceiving Ma Xisheng.

In fact, Ma Yin was not dead at that time.

The Later Tang Dynasty appointed Ma Xisheng as the military governor of Wu'an Army, but did not confer him the title of King of Chu. The intention was to leave ample room for imagination for the other thirty or so foals and to send them a clear signal from the central court: Fight!

This is a strategy similar to "two peaches to kill three warriors", which is a common tactic used by the central government to instigate internal strife and fighting among localities.

Ma Xisheng responded by saying, "If the title of "King of Chu" is not given to me, then no one else wants it, and no one else wants to compete for it." So he pretended to be his father's last will, and took the initiative to abolish the "Chu State" and restore the old system of vassal states. Since the vassal states were restored, Ma Xisheng, the governor of Wu'an Army in Tanzhou, was still the legitimate ruler in Southern Chu.

This was Ma Xisheng's strategy of retreating to advance, which successfully resolved the central government's vicious plan of "killing three men with two peaches".

Another puzzling "last will" of Ma Yin was to order his sons to succeed each other. Isn't this obviously an instigation for his sons to kill each other and fight with each other?

After Ma Yin's death, the political power of Southern Chu had been fought over and passed down among his sons. This "last will" was most likely fabricated by these sons to justify their seizure of power.

Ma Yin's sons killed each other for twenty years until 951 AD, when Southern Tang sent troops to destroy Southern Chu and end Ma's rule over Hunan.

In 928, the Southern Chu general Xu Dexun told the Huainan generals Miao Lin and Wang Yanzhang that if you want to take over Southern Chu, you must wait patiently until all of us old comrades are dead and the young horses are fighting over the trough. His prediction came true.

Ma Xisheng, who inherited Southern Chu, was a son of a noble mother because his mother, Concubine Yuan De, was favored by the emperor. He himself had no outstanding talents or praiseworthy character.

Ma Xisheng was in office for three years, leaving only three short stories in history:

Chicken Master
Ma Xisheng particularly admired Zhu Wen, the founder of the Later Liang Dynasty. However, what he admired was different. It was not Zhu Wen's courage or his strategy, but Zhu Wen's eating habits. It was said that Zhu Wen loved to eat chicken, and Ma Xisheng admired him so much that he decided to emulate him.

Ma Xisheng eats fifty chickens a day. Obviously, he doesn't eat the whole chicken.

For example, Cai Jing, a famous treacherous minister in the Northern Song Dynasty, lived an extremely luxurious life. He loved to eat crab roe buns. It is said that the roe of thirty large crabs can only make four buns. The cost of Cai Jing's meal of crab roe buns was the annual living expenses of 50 households in the capital of the Song Dynasty at that time!
Ma Xisheng's eating habits must be quite picky, as he consumes 50 chickens every day.

During the mourning period, Ma Xisheng's face was free of sorrow, and he indulged in eating chicken every day. On the day of Ma Yin's funeral, Ma Xisheng had no time to see him off, but was busy enjoying the delicious food - chicken soup. After the civil and military officials persuaded him for a long time, Ma Xisheng drank several bowls of chicken soup in one breath, and then reluctantly put down his bowl and chopsticks and walked with his father for two steps.

An official named Pan Qi was so angry that he sarcastically said, "Ruan Ji of the Jin Dynasty ate steamed pork when he was in mourning, and Ma Xisheng of this dynasty ate chicken when he was in mourning. Every dynasty has talented people!"

Ruan Ji was one of the "Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove", so Pan Qi said that Ma Xisheng was also a talent.

murder

A wealthy merchant who had traveled across the ocean came to Hunan to sell a rare treasure: a rhino horn belt. The belt was unique in that it could glow, just like a night-shining pearl. The light it emitted could illuminate a large room. The merchant offered a price of several million.

Ma Xisheng, the king of Southern Chu, wanted money but was unwilling to kill the merchant. He killed the merchant and took the precious rhino horn belt for himself. It is said that after one month, the rhino horn belt no longer glowed.

Praying for rain failed
Since Ma Xisheng took over the throne, there has been a severe drought in the country, and Ma Xisheng ordered the closure of all temples in the country. This record is very vague, and it is not known whether Ma Xisheng hated the gods for not bringing rain and broke the feudal superstition, or closed the temples of other sects and only used one sect. In short, Ma Xisheng wanted to pray for rain by closing the temples.

In July of the third year of Changxing (932), the rain never fell. Ma Xisheng also died of a sudden illness at the age of 7, leaving us too early. Ma Xisheng was never crowned a king in his lifetime, but was posthumously crowned the King of Hengyang.

Of course, we can also speculate that Ma Xisheng may not have died of natural causes.

After Ma Xisheng's death, generals led by Yuan Quan supported Ma Xifan as the new generation of leaders. Ma Xifan had been fooled by Li Cunxu before, and later he and Ma Xisheng framed and killed Gao Yu.

Ma Xifan was narrow-minded and could not wait to exclude his brothers when he first came to power. Among all the Ma Ju, Ma Xifan had the longest reign, and it was he who exhausted the national strength of Southern Chu.

The story of "horses fighting for the trough" will be described in detail later. Here we still focus on the "reduction of vassal states" of the Li Siyuan government of the Later Tang Dynasty: Li Siyuan took advantage of the opportunity of Ma Yin's death to stir up a dispute over succession within Southern Chu, which achieved certain results. Although Southern Chu was not completely dismembered, it also became a vassal of the Central Plains dynasty for a long time.

(End of this chapter)