History of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms

Chapter 401 Huainan Cao Cao
【Huainan Cao Cao】

Yang Wei was supported by Xu Wen to ascend the throne, but he became Xu Wen's puppet and a prisoner in the palace. Yang Wei's mood can be imagined. He lived in depression and fear all day long. His spiritual world had collapsed long ago. He drank every day to relieve his sorrow and numb himself with alcohol. After the founding of the country, he never smiled.

In the sixth year of Zhenming (920), Yang Wei, who had founded the country for a whole year, fell seriously ill. Xu Wen rushed from Shengzhou to Yangzhou to help deal with the funeral and discuss the issue of the successor of the Huainan Group.

Someone guessed Xu Wen's inner thoughts and said, "I remember when Liu Bei entrusted his son to Zhuge Liang in Baidi City, he told Zhuge Liang that if the young master was not virtuous, you could take his place. Now, the Yang family's luck has run out..."

Unexpectedly, Xu Wen's face changed drastically, and he shouted angrily: "Nonsense! If I wanted to usurp power, I would have seized power twelve years ago when I killed Zhang Hao. Why would I wait until today? So what if the Yang family's descendants are young? Even if the Yang family has no sons, I will support her to ascend the throne as king even if she has a daughter! Anyone who dares to talk nonsense again will be killed without mercy!"

What a loyal minister's face. Frightened the civil and military officials, no one dared to persuade him to ascend the throne.

Therefore, Xu Wen, in the name of Yang Wei, welcomed Yang Pu, the Duke of Danyang, to serve as regent.

The trick is hidden here. Yang Pu is the fourth son of Yang Xingmi. Between him and Yang Wei (the second son), there is the third son Yang Meng. After Yang Xingmi's death, the eldest son Yang Wo and the second son Yang Wei were successively supported. Now that Yang Wei is critically ill, Yang Meng should take over. However, Xu Wen bypassed Yang Meng, deposed the eldest son and supported the youngest son, and welcomed Yang Pu.

Why did they abandon Yang Meng? Because Yang Meng is very talented, knowledgeable, and cultured, and more importantly, she has ideals and ambitions.

When Yang Wei ascended the throne, he appointed Xu Wen as the Prime Minister. At that time, Yang Meng was in charge of escorting the imperial edict. When Xu Wen saw Yang Meng, he couldn't help but gasp. Afterwards, he said to his attendants: "I think he has extraordinary bones. He is not the kind of person who is inferior to others. He is difficult to control. (This Zizhan is so special that I am afraid he will be difficult to control)"

Coincidentally, Yang Meng also had something to say about Xu Wen. He often stamped his feet and beat his chest, saying, "How could our Yang family's foundation be controlled by others?"

This was heard by Xu Wen, who was very unhappy and sent Yang Meng to Chuzhou to be a militia commander.

Now that Yang Wei was seriously ill, Xu Wen deposed the eldest and enthroned the youngest, welcoming Yang Pu, and then transferred Yang Meng to be the commander of the Shuzhou militia.

The following month, Yang Wei passed away due to illness and ineffective treatment. He was 24 years old and left us prematurely.

Subsequently, with the support of Xu Wen, the 21-year-old Yang Pu ascended the throne and became king.

After Yang Pu ascended the throne, he upgraded Shengzhou Grand Marshal's Office to Jinling Prefecture, and Xu Wen was appointed as the prefect of Jinling Prefecture.

The following year, a general amnesty was declared, and the "third year of Wuyi" was changed to the "first year of Shunyi". Xu Wen kept writing letters to Li Cunxu in the name of Yang Pu, urging him to ascend the throne and become emperor.

There are two main purposes for doing this: if Li Cunxu proclaims himself emperor and establishes a country, it will share the political costs of Huainan; regardless of whether Li Cunxu proclaims himself emperor or not, Huainan's persuasion will win Li Cunxu's favor, enhance political mutual trust between the two sides, and maintain a good strategic alliance partnership. In short, it is to create a relatively peaceful external environment for the Huainan Group.

In addition, Huainan returned an important captive to Qian Liu: Qian Yi. Qian Yi was Qian Liu's cousin. Sixteen years ago, Chen Xun of Muzhou betrayed Qian Liu and paid tribute to Huainan. Qian Liu sent Qian Yi, Gu Quanwu and others to suppress the rebellion. Yang Xingmi sent Tao Ya to help. Tao Ya defeated the Hangzhou soldiers and captured Qian Yi alive. Sixteen years later, Xu Wen sent Qian Yili back to Hangzhou to show goodwill to Qian Liu of Hangzhou; Qian Liu also returned Huainan captives Li Tao and others (eight years ago, Li Tao led his army out of Qianqiu Ridge to attack Hangzhou, but was defeated and captured).

After stabilizing the external situation, Xu Wen could focus on domestic affairs.

Xu Wen advised Yang Pu to "do something in the southern suburbs", but the competent unit said that there was insufficient funding. Xu Wen was furious and said, "I heard that when the Tang Dynasty offered sacrifices to the gods in the southern suburbs, it would cost a hundred hu just to pour grease on the door locks and door hinges. This was a practice of extravagance at the end of the dynasty. How can we follow suit?" When offering sacrifices to the gods of heaven and earth, sincerity is the key to success.

In October, Yang Pu "had something to do in the southern suburbs", so he appointed Xu Wen as the Grand Tutor, Yan Keqiu as the Right Prime Minister, and Xu Zhigao as the Co-Prime Minister to lead the Jiangzhou Surveillance Commissioner. He then summoned Cui Taichu, the Tuanlian Envoy of Shouzhou, as the Right Xiongwu General.

Cui Taichu was seven feet tall, brave and good at using a broadsword and a long spear. During the Huang Chao Rebellion, he volunteered to join the army and was spotted by Yang Xingmi at first sight. He was recruited as a subordinate and later became the deputy commander of the Shouzhou Ya Army and a general under Zhu Yanshou, the Shouzhou Tuanlianshi. Cui Taichu saw through Zhu Yanshou's rebellious heart, so he secretly reported to Yang Xingmi and became an important informant of Yang Xingmi, which later made great contributions to Yang Xingmi's pretending to be blind for three years and deceiving Zhu Yanshou into death.

Later, Cui Taichu followed Xu Wen to defeat Wang Maozhang, and was promoted to Shouzhou Acting Tuanlianshi (Quanzhi Tuanlianshi) for his meritorious service. Soon after, he was officially promoted. At that time, many people were eyeing this position and tried all kinds of ways to fight for it. When Cui Taichu was in charge of Shouzhou, these people kept slandering him and falsely accused him of intending to split up and rebel.

Just as Xu Wen sent Xu Zhixun to the north to attack Yingzhou, before departure, Xu Wen gave Xu Zhixun a secret mission: to investigate Cui Taichu.

When the army passed through Shouzhou, Cui Taichu wore a straw hat and straw sandals, personally led the horse and whipped Master Xu, and walked more than ten miles along the mountain road in one breath, behaving extremely respectfully.

Seeing how obedient he was, Xu Zhixun put aside all his doubts and secretly reported to Xu Wen that Cui Taichu was loyal and had no intention of rebelling.

Xu Wen sighed in disappointment. The child is still too young! He was tricked by Cui Taichu, the thief. It is because Cui Taichu behaved too well and pretended to be a grandson that it shows that he has something to hide. Loyalty and innocence do not need to be pretended. Those who deliberately pretend to be grandsons must have big secrets in their hearts.

Cui Taichu, who was born in the military, hated Confucian scholars and was suspicious by nature. He was a big eavesdropper. He set up secret rooms in all restaurants, teahouses, hotels and other places with a lot of traffic in the territory, and sent people to eavesdrop on the discussions of merchants and travelers. As the saying goes, walls have ears. Cui Taichu once proudly said to his attendants that there are ears in every wall of Shouzhou. As a result, all travelers became dumb and no one dared to speak nonsense.

Can the inner world of a person who is servile and fawning to his superiors, doing his best to act like a grandson and licking his ass, and building an airtight and powerful intelligence agency within his jurisdiction be clean and honest?

As expected, Cui Taichu was tyrannical and demanding in Shouzhou, and the people lived in misery.

So, Xu Wen was promoted in name only but demoted in reality, and he was summoned from the local area to the central government.

In response, Xu Zhigao raised objections, saying that Shouzhou was an important border town with huge implications and might cause major incidents.

Xu Wen was furious and said, "If I can't even deal with a little Cui Taichu, what should others do?" A transfer order was issued, Cui Taichu, come here!
Cui Taichu happily handed over his power and retired with peace of mind.

(End of this chapter)