History of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms

Chapter 474 Li Congke ascends the throne 1
Li Conghou fled in such a hurry that he did not bring any imperial seals with him, nor did he inform the civil and military officials. Firstly, he did not have much experience in escaping, and secondly, he was worried that the officials who got the news would immediately betray him and give him to Li Congke.

After daybreak, Prime Minister Feng Dao and others punched in for work as usual. When they walked in groups across Tianjin Bridge and arrived at Duanmen, they heard two shocking news: Zhu Hongzhao and Feng Yun were dead; and Emperor Li Conghou had escaped.

The boss is absent from work, so let's go home and have a rest. Feng Dao and Liu Xu turned around and were about to go home, but were stopped by another prime minister, Li Yu.

Li Yu said: "Although the emperor is gone, the empress dowager is still in the palace. We should go to the prime minister's office as usual, send someone to ask the empress dowager for instructions, and then go back to our homes. This is the duty of a minister!"

Feng Dao said: "The emperor has already left the palace. If we enter the palace now, I am afraid it will cause unnecessary misunderstandings and trouble. Li Congke has already posted notices to pacify the people everywhere. Why don't we go home and wait quietly for the situation to change."

Everyone thought it made sense, so they turned around and walked back. When they were near Tiangong Temple, An Congjin, who was acting as an insider for Li Congke, sent someone to inform them: "Li Congke will soon enter the city, and all the prime ministers should lead the civil and military officials to welcome him."

So Feng Dao and others stayed at Tiangong Temple and notified all civil and military officials to meet up at Tiangong Temple.

When Lu Dao, the secretary of the Central Secretariat, arrived, Feng Dao said to him, "I'm glad to have you here. The most urgent matter at the moment is to write a petition to persuade the emperor to ascend the throne. Please start drafting it immediately."

Director Lu refused immediately. "It is in accordance with etiquette for Li Congke to come to the capital to meet the emperor, and for all the civil and military officials to go out of the city to welcome him. How can we act rashly in the matter of deposing and enthroning? Besides, Li Congke and Li Conghou are both sons of the empress dowager. The matter of deposing and enthroning should be arranged by the old empress dowager. How can we bypass her and depose her without authorization?"

Feng Dao was so anxious that he stamped his feet. "We should consider the actual situation when doing things!"

Director Lu refused to give in. "Since ancient times, how could the ministers hastily persuade others to sit on the throne when the emperor just left the house? If Li Congke pretends to be a loyal minister and rebukes us with great righteousness, how should we respond?"

"Then what do you think we should do?"

Director Lu said, "You should lead all the civil and military officials to the gate of the imperial palace, pay your respects to the Empress Dowager, and ask for her instructions. All your actions will be subject to her arrangements."

Li Yu and Director Lu both suggested asking the Empress Dowager for instructions first. This was the correct procedure and also their way of shirking responsibility. If something went wrong, they would be responsible if they followed the Empress Dowager's instructions.

Feng Dao and Lu Dao argued endlessly, and An Congjin sent people to urge them many times, "Li Congke has arrived, the Empress Dowager and the Dowager Consort (Consort Wang De) have sent eunuchs to greet him, but there is no civil or military official. What are you thinking? What do you want to do? Go quickly!"

In a word, Tiangong Temple became the starting point of the city marathon. Civil and military officials turned into marathon runners, swarming out of the city and lining up outside the west gate. After catching their breath, Feng Dao again asked Lu Dao to draft a letter of persuasion, but Lu Dao was as stubborn as before. Li Yu also clearly expressed his support for Lu Dao, pointing to his head and saying to Feng Dao: "Lu Dao is right, we are all sinners, and our sins are more than our hairs! (It is difficult to count the hairs)"

This Li Yu had appeared on screen a long time ago. The first time was when Emperor Zhaozong of Tang encountered the "Shaoyangyuan Coup" and was imprisoned by eunuch Liu Jishu and others. At that time, Li Yu wrote a letter to Han Jian, asking him to raise an army to defend the king. Later, he served in the court of Zhu Youzhen of the Later Liang Dynasty. Because he refused to curry favor with the powerful and refused to kneel down to Zhu Youliang, he was banished from the court.

When Emperor Zhuangzong entered Luoyang, he heard of his name and went to fight him. He was promoted to Hanlin scholar, and later followed Li Jiji and Guo Chongtao to attack Shu. At that time, many people advocated to advance step by step and slowly. Guo Chongtao asked Li Yu for advice, and Li Yu suggested to launch a blitzkrieg against Shu, which would surely win. Guo Chongtao accepted Li Yu's suggestion, and the facts were exactly the same as his deduction. When the army was about to enter Shu, the judge Chen Yi claimed to be ill and retreated. Li Yu immediately ordered him to be beheaded. After that, no one dared to delay and stay. After Shu was pacified, Li Yu was promoted to Zhongshu Sheren.
When Mingzong came to the throne, he appointed Ren Huan, who had pacified Shu, as prime minister. Ren Huan was on good terms with Li Yu and recommended Li Yu to An Zhonghui many times, saying that Li Yu was a man of both virtue and ability and a talent. However, Kong Xun did not want to see the power of the old heroes who had conquered Shu in the previous dynasty grow stronger, so he persuaded An Zhonghui to promote Cui Xie.

A few years later, Li Yu was finally promoted to prime minister.

Li Yu was known as a child prodigy since he was young. He was extremely talented, had an upright and strong character, was an honest official, did not understand the ways of the world, was not good at dealing with people in a tactful way, and was ashamed to curry favor with the powerful. He was a typical Confucian scholar and was often ostracized because of this.

At the end of the Tang Dynasty, he did not bow to the eunuch group and the vassal state (Zhu Wen); in the Later Liang Dynasty, he did not bow to Zhu Youzhen and the "foreign relatives gang"; in the Later Tang Dynasty, he did not bow to An Zhonghui and Kong Xun.

The reason why he was able to become the prime minister was entirely because of his real talent, solid knowledge and noble character. He had been a "drifter in Beijing" for half his life, and even after becoming the prime minister, he still rented a house, and it was the cheapest and most rudimentary guesthouse.

When he was seriously ill, Li Siyuan sent a eunuch to visit him at home, but the eunuch went back crying.

Poor, too poor! I have never seen such a poor official! According to the eunuchs' report, Li Yu's residence was really "barely furnished": in the empty room, there was only a broken bed, on the bed there was only a tattered felt, in the tattered felt there was only a sick old man, and next to the sick old man stood a stunned eunuch... Apart from that, there was no other object in the room. And the house was rented...

No one would believe that this is the home of the imperial prime minister!
Li Siyuan sighed for a long time, and then issued an imperial decree to grant Li Yu one hundred pieces of silk, one hundred strings of money, and thirteen pieces of furniture.

Li Yu looked down upon Feng Dao's character, especially his proposal to persuade him to ascend the throne, so he responded sharply and refuted it on the spot. This was Li Yu's character.

Because of Li Yu's contempt for Feng Dao, a term has been passed down to this day, which is "亲家". The term "亲家" first appeared in the Tang Dynasty, and at that time it was limited to marriages between royal relatives. Feng Dao and Liu Xu were in-laws. Whenever Li Yu found Feng Dao's mistakes at work, he would show them to Liu Xu and say to him, "Look at what your father-in-law has done!"

"亲家" is a term used exclusively by the royal family, just like "朕". However, Li Yu deliberately used it on Feng Dao to disgust him. Unexpectedly, after he used it, the term gradually became popular among the people. Until today, the term "亲家" is widely used among the people. This can be regarded as Li Yu's contribution to traditional Chinese culture.

(End of this chapter)