History of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms

Chapter 462: The Ferocious Revealed
[Ferocious appearance]

In the first year of Changxing (930), Li Siyuan appointed Li Congrong as the King of Qin and Li Conghou as the King of Song.
In the fourth year of Changxing (933), Li Congrong, Prince of Qin, was appointed as the Minister of the Chancellery and concurrently the Palace Attendant.

Li Congrong was approaching the throne of the emperor in an orderly manner, and his behavior became more arrogant and domineering.

According to the convention, the princes should be given a private tutor (wangfu). The prime ministers were all afraid of Li Congrong and hid away, not daring to make any comments, and asked him to choose his own and be happy.

Li Congrong's staff recommended Liu Zan, the Minister of War, to him, so Li Congrong specifically asked for Liu Zan.

Li Siyuan appointed Liu Zan as the tutor of the King of Qin, and also sent an "assistant" to Li Congrong, Yu Chongyuan. In the Tang Dynasty, "King's tutor" was equivalent to demotion, which was basically forced retirement. For example, Prime Minister Yu Cong was squeezed out by the "Baoyan Party" and was demoted to the tutor of the King of Pu and assigned to the Eastern Capital.

So after receiving the appointment letter, Liu Zan ran to Li Siyuan and cried, firmly demanding to resign the honor of "Qin Wang's Tutor".

Li Siyuan tried to persuade him with kind words, but he rejected the suggestion in order to appease Li Congrong. Liu Zan had no choice but to serve Li Congrong.

Through Li Congrong's attitude towards Liu Zan, we can intuitively see the collapse of Li Congrong's personality. He did not respect Confucianism from the bottom of his heart. The so-called respect for the wise and humble, and open-mindedness to accept advice were all the crown prince personality carefully created for him by his team.

Li Congrong was surrounded by so-called "Confucian scholars". The reason these people supported Li Congrong was just to reap the benefits from the tradition of "a new emperor, new ministers". They were basically unknown young men, just like retail investors who had just entered the stock market. They succeeded in "buying new shares" and successfully subscribed before the IPO of Li Congrong Group. As long as Li Congrong Group was successfully listed, they could overtake others and become emerging giants in the financial world.

These political speculators surrounded Li Congrong every day, and they only knew how to curry favor and flatter him in order to gain Li Congrong's favor and obtain a larger share of the original shares.

Only Liu Zan, a gentleman, although extremely reluctant to be the "Tutor of the King of Qin", performed his duties conscientiously after taking office, and often advised Li Congrong and taught him to walk the right path.

Good medicine tastes bitter, and honest advice is unpleasant to the ear. Li Congrong hated Liu Zan very much, and his attitude towards Liu Zan was extremely cold. He did not have the minimum respect that a student should have for his teacher. Instead, he treated Liu Zan like a slave and bossed him around.

Li Congrong simply gave an order to the old guard: Liu Zan can only come to the palace once a month, and is not allowed to enter at other times! I don't like to see him, I get annoyed just by looking at him!
Even during the monthly meetings, Li Congrong would do his utmost to humiliate Liu Zan. For example, when Liu Zan entered the palace, he would not allow any notification or introduction.

Generally speaking, out of basic courtesy, especially for a prominent and prestigious host, when a guest comes to see them, there will be a special staff at the door to inform them first. This is common in film and television dramas, where the visitor announces his name at the door, and then a servant goes into the back hall and says, "The Crown Prince's Grand Tutor, Prince Jin so-and-so, requests to see you."

In this way, visitors will feel respected.

If the host hears about it and personally runs to the door to greet the visitor, then the visitor will have gained enough face; if the host does not even have time to put on clothes, shoes and socks, and runs out to greet the visitor with loose hair and barefoot, then the guest's face will be as big as the city gate, such as when Cao Cao welcomed Xu You at the Battle of Guandu.

If the doorman refuses to announce you, "You're here? Go in on your own." That means the host doesn't like you at all and you're not welcome. If you don't announce or let the doorman know, it's very embarrassing for the visitor and you'll be laughed at and ridiculed by other guests in the hall.

Liu Zan finally walked into the palace hall with a red face and head down, only to find that the hall was empty. This was because Li Congrong was gathering with those flatterers in the back palace or the back garden, deliberately leaving Liu Zan alone in the hall. What was even worse was that when it was time for lunch, there was no work meal for Liu Zan at all.

As Li Congrong's teacher, Liu Zan's job was to go hungry for one day every month at the palace. This was how Li Congrong treated his teacher, which shows his true face of "respecting the wise and humble".

In May of the same year (933), Li Siyuan named his adopted son Li Congke the Prince of Lu.

The civil and military officials and upright people in the court were increasingly dissatisfied with Li Congrong's behavior, while the frustrated political opportunists kept moving closer to Li Congrong, fearing that they would not be able to get a share of the spoils. Among them was a frustrated politician, He Ze.

He Ze was a good friend of Prime Minister Zhao Feng, and he often dressed himself up as a scholar who dared to speak out and make remonstrances. After Zhao Feng was promoted, He Ze repeatedly approached Zhao Feng to smooth things over and use his connections to get in through the back door. Gradually, Zhao Feng saw through He Ze's true colors, and began to dislike him and distance himself from him.

Later, He Ze was appointed as the Junior Minister of Rites. However, at that time, this appointment was only the preliminary result of internal discussions, and the appointment letter had not been officially issued. However, He Ze, who had received the "rumor" in advance, could not contain his joy, so he wrote a memorial in advance to express his gratitude and used this official title in his signature.

You have already self-proclaimed the title before the organization has announced it, which is a serious violation of the rules. Therefore, Li Siyuan ordered the relevant department (Zhongshu) to investigate the matter, and the result was that he was ordered to retire in the name of "Taichang Shaoqing".

He Ze was in tears and had waited for a long time. Finally, he got a high position with a good salary, but he retired gloriously without even working a single day.

Now, seeing that Li Congrong was gaining momentum, He Ze was certain that he would inherit the throne, so he took the initiative to flatter Li Congrong and directly wrote a memorial to Li Siyuan, requesting that Li Congrong be made the crown prince as soon as possible to clarify the heir to the throne.

When Li Siyuan saw this memorial, he could not help crying, because he had gone to Jiuquchi to escape the summer heat a few days ago, and suddenly "the wind and poison came violently", and then "the holy body was not well".

Jiuqu Pond is a cursed royal garden. Zhu Wen massacred a large number of Tang Dynasty royal family members here and dumped their bodies into Jiuqu Pond. Later, Zhu Wen was boating on Jiuqu Pond for fun. The royal boat capsized without any warning and Zhu Wen fell into the water. Then he became "ill". Now Li Siyuan has become "ill" here again.

The old emperor was seriously ill, and the ministers petitioned to establish a crown prince, which was very unlucky. Especially in the last years of Li Siyuan's reign, when undercurrents were surging, for Li Siyuan, who was in a precarious situation, this was "forcing the emperor to abdicate."

Li Siyuan was overwhelmed with emotions. Anger, fear, helplessness, and sadness all turned into tears and burst out. "The civil and military officials forced me to appoint a crown prince. It seems that I have to return to my hometown to retire!"

He Ze is a retired man, a complete nobody, but his memorial contains enormous power. Obviously, there is a mastermind behind this memorial, and He Ze is just a pawn used by a big shot.

Under pressure from the mastermind behind the scenes, Li Siyuan had to summon the prime minister, privy councilor and other senior officials to seriously study and discuss the issue of establishing a crown prince.

When Li Congrong learned that the court was discussing making him the crown prince, a strange scene occurred: Li Congrong found Li Siyuan and firmly opposed making himself the crown prince.

What kind of cool operation is this?

(End of this chapter)