History of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms

Chapter 397 Assassination of Xu Zhixun 2
【Assassination of Xu Zhixun 2】

Zhu Jin tricked Xu Zhixun into the inner room and asked his wife, Tao (daughter of Tao Ya), to come out and pay respect to Xu Zhixun. Tao knelt down and kowtowed to Xu Zhixun, and Xu Zhixun also kowtowed in return.

Just as Xu Zhixun knelt down and kowtowed, Zhu Jin suddenly raised the tablet in his hand and hit Xu Zhixun on the head, knocking him to the ground. Then the ambushers in the inner room rushed out and chopped off Xu Zhixun's head with a knife.

Zhu Jin had tied two untamed wild horses in the courtyard in advance. After he tricked Xu Zhixun in, he ordered someone to secretly untie the ropes. Then the two wild horses started biting and fighting each other, neighing and screaming, with a shrill and loud sound. So when Zhu Jin killed Xu Zhixun in the inner room, the guards Xu Zhixun brought outside could not hear anything unusual inside.

Zhu Jin came out with Xu Zhixun's head in his hand. Xu Zhixun's hundreds of guards fled when they saw this. Zhu Jin then rode his horse as fast as he could to the palace and showed the head to Yang Wei, "Your Majesty, I have eliminated this great evil for Huainan!"

Yang Wei took a closer look and was instantly frightened out of his wits. He quickly covered his face with his sleeves and fled back to the bedroom, shaking like a sieve.

Zhu Jin chased to the bedroom door with the head in his hand and saluted, "Your Majesty, the traitor has been eliminated. The generals are willing to support Your Majesty in presiding over the military and government affairs. Please go out and take charge of the overall situation!"

Yang Wei was so frightened that his face turned pale, and he said tremblingly: "Uncle, you did this alone, I don't know anything, please don't hurt me!"

Yang Xingmi's original wife's surname was Zhu (Zhu Yanshou's younger sister). In order to win over their relationship, Yang Xingmi asked his sons to call Zhu Jin "uncle".

Seeing Yang Wei's cowardly look, Zhu Jin was so angry that he smashed the head in his hand against the doorpost, pointing at Yang Wei and cursing, "You are a useless piece of shit, not worth your attention!" Then he drew his sword and walked out of the palace, only to find that the city gate had been closed long ago and the relevant departments were searching the whole city for Zhu Jin.

Zhu Jin knew that the situation was hopeless, so he ran to the backyard and climbed over the wall to escape, but he sprained his ankle when he fell, and there was no hope of escape. When the pursuers surrounded him, Zhu Jin said to them: "I have eliminated a scourge for thousands of Huainan people, and I have no regrets in my death. Everyone has his own actions!" After that, he drew his sword and committed suicide.

When the news of Xu Zhixun's murder spread, Ma Renyu, the commander of Sushan Ferry on the other side of the river, immediately rushed to inform Xu Zhigao.

It was exactly the same as the scenario deduced by Song Qiqiu! Runzhou and Yangzhou were separated by a river, and the one who was close to the water got the moon first. Xu Zhigao crossed the river into Yangzhou that day, quickly stabilized the order in Yangzhou, and gained actual control of the city.

Ma Renyu, the young general who tipped off the enemy in time, rose rapidly in career. Xu Zhigao rewarded him generously, first promoting him to be the governor of Chuzhou and the general of Jinwuwei (the central imperial guards), and later to be the governor. Xu Zhigao also married his daughter (the future Princess Xingguo) to him.

After Xu Zhigao entered Yangzhou, on the one hand he took over Xu Zhixun's power, and on the other hand he executed Zhu Jin's entire family.

It is said that Zhu Jin's wife, Tao, cried before leaving. One of his concubines said, "Why are you crying? We will be reunited there soon. (Why are you crying? I will see you now.)" After hearing this, Tao also wiped away her tears and went to die happily. The onlookers were quite moved and felt deeply sorry.

Later, Xu Wen ordered people to drag Zhu Jin's body to the streets of the downtown area and expose it to the public. As a result, a strange scene occurred: it was midsummer, but Zhu Jin's body did not rot, and did not attract flies and maggots.

When Zhu Jin was alive, he was well-known in Jianghuai and people feared him. After his death, his body did not decay, which made people believe that Zhu Jin was extraordinary. People spread the story from mouth to mouth, and the more they spread, the more miraculous it became. As the story spread, Yangzhou had a prescription that could cure all diseases - Zhu Jin's corpse exposed in the soil.

It is said that no matter what disease you have, as long as you take the soil from the place where Zhu Jin's body was exposed and drink it with water, the disease will be cured instantly. After you recover, you will have to send some new soil to fill the gap. It is said that anyone who takes this prescription will see immediate results and be cured. So not long after, Zhu Jin's body was buried like this, and gradually became a high tomb.

Xu Wen was very angry and ordered Zhu Jin's body to be dug out and sunk into Leigongtang. Later, Xu Wen fell ill and dreamed that Zhu Jin shot him with a bow and arrow. After waking up from the nightmare, he ordered people to use fishing nets to fish out Zhu Jin's body and rebury it by the Leigongtang. He also built a ancestral hall for the people to worship and commemorate him.

There is also a saying that Xu Wen later learned of Xu Zhixun's actions and eliminated his hatred for Zhu Jin, so he salvaged his body and buried it with great ceremony.

When Zhu Jin was in rebellion, veteran general Mi Zhicheng rode a horse with a dozen personal cavalrymen to inquire about Zhu Jin's whereabouts. He returned home only after learning that Zhu Jin had committed suicide. Xu Wen suspected that he was also involved in Zhu Jin's conspiracy and wanted to get rid of him as well.

Mi Zhicheng and Zhu Jin were known as the "two best in Huainan". Historical records say "Zhu Jin was good at lance, Zhicheng was good at archery, both were the best." An Renyi was quite dissatisfied with this and left a famous comment, "Zhicheng's ten crossbows are not as good as Jin's lances; Jin's ten lances are not as good as my bows."

Mi Zhicheng was asking about Zhu Jin's whereabouts, so it is very likely that he was assisting the public security organs in hunting down the murderer. How did he become an accomplice of the suspect?
The pain of losing his son made Xu Wen prefer to kill 3,000 people by mistake rather than let one escape. Who knows if this was not Xu Wen's use of Xu Zhixun's murder to carry out a cleansing?

How could they successfully capture and kill Mi Zhicheng, one of the "two best warriors of Huainan"? The wise counselor Yan Keqiu offered a plan: announce to the public that they had defeated the Chu army in Yuanzhou, and ask all the civil and military officials to come to the palace to congratulate, and then ambush the swordsmen in advance. In this way, Mi Zhicheng was arrested without knowing why.

In addition, Xu Wen also believed that the "mascot" Li Yan was also involved. The reason was that Li Yan had long been neglected because he had lost his usefulness, and now he lives in poverty, so he has a bad motive of revenge on society... If you want to accuse someone of a crime, you can always find a pretext.

As a result, Mi Zhicheng and Li Yan were accused of being "accomplices of Zhu Jin" and their entire families were killed.

In addition to these two people, Xu Wen also had a long death list. He wanted to take this opportunity to eliminate dissidents. All those he considered to be dissidents were on the list, and without exception, they were all charged with the crime of being "Zhu Jin's accomplice."

Think tank members such as Yan Keqiu earnestly advised him to stop and not to expand the situation blindly to avoid causing greater panic.

Xu Zhigao, Diao Yanneng and others also exposed Xu Zhixun's various illegal behaviors.

According to historical records, Xu Wen was unaware of his son's rebellious and illegal behavior. Suddenly, he heard everyone pointing the finger at Xu Zhixun, and Xu Wen was somewhat puzzled. It was not until he visited Xu Zhixun's office that he discovered a secret room in the office. In the room, there was a mural: Xu Wen was tied up with five wooden sticks (the highest level of restraints), and all his sons except Xu Zhixun were tied up and tortured, while Xu Zhixun was wearing the emperor's clothes and sitting in the middle. The names of each person were clearly marked in words...

Xu Wen was furious and cursed on the spot: "My son, you should have died long ago! (It's too late for the dog to die)"

Afterwards, the purge and massacre of "Zhu Jin's accomplices" was stopped, and Zhu Jin's body was reburied. Xu Wen announced that the case of Xu Zhixun's murder was closed.

(End of this chapter)