History of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms

Chapter 412 Jiangdong Luo Yin
These three things are very representative. Although Qian Liu pledged allegiance to the Central Plains dynasty, he would never blindly execute the imperial edicts of the Central Plains court. Instead, he would act according to the actual needs of his own development. If his own demands were consistent with the central edict, then of course he would obey the edict; if not, then he would express his powerlessness depending on the actual situation. Anyway, he would always find an excuse to express his deep regret.

Internal Affairs of Liangzhe:

Although Qian Liu dominated one side and was in charge of Liangzhe, his actual sphere of influence was very limited. At its peak, it only covered thirteen states.

Monk Guanxiu wrote a poem for Qian Liu's birthday, which reads "Flowers all over the hall intoxicate three thousand guests, a sword chills fourteen states", which already gave Qian Liu one state, but Qian Liu was not satisfied and insisted that he change "fourteen states" to "forty states". Monk Guanxiu was very angry, "four is four, ten is ten, fourteen is fourteen, forty is forty..."

At that time, Qian Liu only occupied western Zhejiang and was about to send troops to attack his old superior Dong Chang, so Monk Guanxiu's "fourteen states" was meant to wish Qian Liu a successful start.

Due to the small territory and the harsh environment surrounded by powerful enemies, Qian Liu had to strengthen internal construction, and he did an excellent job in this regard.

In 890 AD, Qian Liu was still in a miserable situation of being ravaged by Sun Ru and Yang Xingmi, so in August he carried out a large-scale expansion project for Hangzhou City, building a "double city" from Baoshi Mountain to Qinwang Mountain, "all through the forest and dangerous places, and built with planks", with a length of 8 miles. When the construction started, Qian Liu personally carried a basket of soil, and the laborers were all brave and took the lead, "all the laborers worked hard".

In July 893, Qian Liu mobilized soldiers from the "Thirteen Cities" and more than 7 civilians to continue expanding the outer city of Hangzhou. This time the outer city wall was seventy miles long, and even Qiantang Lake was fully utilized.

It was due to Qian Liu's repeated construction that Hangzhou City took on the shape of a "waist drum city", thick at both ends and narrow in the middle, laying the foundation for the later Hangzhou City. Therefore, Qian Liu was also called the "Father of Hangzhou City" by later generations.

In addition to building the city of Hangzhou, Qian Liu also accomplished another feat during his administration of Hangzhou that was praised by people: "King Qian Shooting the Tide."

Hangzhou is located in the north of Qiantang River and suffers from tidal disasters. The earth-building method used before had little effect. In 910 AD, Qian Liu began to build the "Hanghai Dike" and used bamboo cages to load huge stones as the foundation.

At the beginning of the construction, the river waves washed away the project day and night, seriously hindering the progress of the project. Qian Liu built a "Xushan Temple" by the river and wrote a poem, which included the lines "In order to repay the Dragon God and the Water Palace, Qiantang borrowed water to build Qiancheng". However, the river waves did not buy it and continued to wash away the project.

"I'm giving you face, right?"

Qian Liu was furious, and on August 8, he ordered 18 strong crossbowmen to stand on the shore. When the Qiantang River tide came, Qian Liu ordered them to aim at the tide and shoot hard.

Why choose August 8? Generally speaking, the Qiantang River tide is the most violent on this day. Even today, August 18 in the lunar calendar is the best time to watch the tide. Legend has it that this day is the birthday of the God of Tide, who rides a white horse on the crest of the tide, so the tide is the largest and most violent.

Qian Liu chose this day to personally shoot at the tide with a crossbow, intending to confront the "Tide God" head-on.

A miraculous scene occurred. After Qian Liu's several rounds of salvos, the Qiantang River tide suddenly receded as if it was frightened. The workers used this precious time to complete the emergency repairs of the project.

Qian Liu managed the Qiantang River and built the seawall, which became one of his greatest achievements that was most admired by later generations and benefited future generations. After 800 years of erosion, it was still in effect during the Yongzheng period of the Qing Dynasty.

In 1983, a section of the ruins was discovered during the construction of a bus project on Jiangcheng Road in Hangzhou. In the second half of 2014, relevant units conducted archaeological excavations and discovered a more complete Qian Liu Seawall ruins.

Qian Liu Seawall Site is the earliest seawall discovered and preserved in my country so far. Its engineering quality is evident. In 2008, a giant sculpture "King Qian Shooting the Tide" with a total weight of more than 300 tons was erected on the bank of Qiantang River in Hangzhou Binjiang Park as a spiritual landmark of Hangzhou. It is majestic and spectacular.

Various historical books clearly state that the emperor shot the tide with a strong crossbow, so why did the sculpture show King Qian using a bow? Perhaps it was for aesthetic reasons, but I have reservations about this.

Qian Liu was good at using spears and crossbows, especially crossbows. When 20 people ambushed Cao troops, Qian Liu killed the Cao army's vanguard with a crossbow; during the "Xu Xu Rebellion", Qian Liu also climbed the city wall and personally "shot with a crossbow"; when he managed the Qiantang River, he also used " strong crossbows to shoot at the tide"...

Corporal:

When evaluating historical figures, especially those who hold leadership positions, one important topic that cannot be avoided is their attitude toward scholars, because after all, it is the "scholars" who make the evaluation.

Therefore, those who are open-minded and respectful to others will often receive a lot of praise. Qian Liu is no exception.

The most representative of these was that Qian Liu took in the great talent Luo Yin.

Luo Yin's original name was Luo Heng. He took the imperial examination ten times but failed each time. Although he failed many times, his reputation as a "great talent" could not be changed. After failing ten times, he changed his name to "Luo Yin" and tried to promote himself everywhere, including Hunan, Huainan, Runzhou, etc., but he was rejected everywhere.

Later, he heard that Qian Liu was recruiting talents, so he came to join him. Because of the psychological trauma caused by repeated setbacks before, he first submitted a poem to show off his talent. One of the lines in his poem was "I can't even tolerate Ni Heng, so I think of Huang Zu as a hero." He compared himself to Ni Heng and asked Qian Liu if he wanted to be Huang Zu.

During the Three Kingdoms period, Ni Heng, who was arrogant because of his talent, beat drums naked, and staged an extremely large-scale "beating drums and cursing Cao". Cao Cao "borrowed a knife to kill someone" and gave him to Liu Biao of Jingzhou. Liu Biao was meticulous and gave Ni Heng to Huang Zu in turn. Huang Zu foolishly became the knife and killed Ni Heng.

Qian Liu laughed after reading the poem and replied, "Zhongxuan entrusted Liu Jingzhou to a distant place because of the chaotic times; Confucius was appointed as the Chief of Police of Lu just for his hometown." He also answered with a historical allusion.

Luo Yin compared himself to Ni Heng, which shows that he had a clear understanding of himself. He had some knowledge, but he also had more passionate words in his heart.

Luo Yin's bumpy career path had a lot to do with his unruly character, and was also closely related to his extremely ugly appearance.

His appearance is really terrible, which is comparable to Ni Heng, Zhang Song and Pang Tong.

At that time, Zheng Ting, the prime minister of the Tang Dynasty, admired Luo Yin's talent very much and became friends with him. Zheng Ting's eldest daughter, the young girl of the prime minister's family, and the rich and beautiful girl were also fans of Luo Yin. They read Luo Yin's poems every day and couldn't put them down. They very consciously "recited the full text" and regarded Luo Yin as their destined prince charming and loved him very much.

One day, Zheng Ting's daughter said something from the bottom of her heart to her father: "I really want to meet Luo Yin!"

(End of this chapter)