History of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms

Chapter 557 "Big Eyes Cute" Succession 4
As for Feng Dao, a slick and worldly-wise man, he knew when to advance and when to retreat. He did not dare to take credit for his role in supporting the emperor, and he did not dare to compete with powerful figures like Jing Yanguang who held military power. Feng Dao not only did not ask Shi Chonggui for official titles and rewards, but he took the initiative to step back and submitted petitions to resign from his post as Privy Councilor. Shi Chonggui rejected his request three times in a row.

Shi Chonggui tried to comfort Feng Dao, saying that he was young, incompetent and immature, and could not do without you. He asked Feng Dao to work for him for a few more days. Feng Dao's birthday was coming up, so Shi Chonggui sent someone to give him a generous birthday gift. Feng Dao refused the gift firmly, saying that his parents died early and he did not celebrate his birthday.

Feng Dao's secret to self-preservation was his courage to retreat at the right time. As a result, he was not murdered by Jing Yanguang or suspected by Shi Chonggui.

2.3 Rain and dew are evenly distributed
After the "three giants" and the "two meritorious officials", other old ministers of the previous dynasty also received different degrees of rewards. For example, military generals such as An Yanwei, Gao Xingzhou, Pan Huan, Zhang Yanze, and Huangfu Yu, civil officials such as Zhao Ying, Li Song, and He Ning, separatist leaders such as Gao Conghui in Jingnan, Ma Xifan in Hunan, Qian Hongzuo in Wuyue, and Wang Yanxi in Fujian, and veteran leaders such as Li Jizun in Fengxiang.

There is no need to go into detail about the specific rewards.

2.4 A new emperor chooses his own ministers
2.4.1 Suppressing old officials
The old ministers of the previous dynasty need to be appeased, but they will often be suspected by the new emperor. On the surface, the new emperor will thank them for their contributions to the country and promote them to higher positions and confer titles on them, but in reality he will try his best to take back their real power and weaken their influence.

In fact, Liu Zhiyuan was a well-deserved "veteran of the previous dynasty". He was the person who posed the greatest threat to Shi Chonggui's throne and the one whom Shi Chonggui needed to suppress especially.

It is said that when Shi Jingtang was seriously ill, he sent people to Hedong to summon Liu Zhiyuan, meaning to let him and Feng Dao, one civil and one military, assist his own son Shi Chongrui to ascend the throne. Shi Chonggui, who was living in the capital at the time, secretly withheld the edict, so Feng Dao had to find the imperial guard general Jing Yanguang and support Shi Chonggui.

Therefore, Liu Zhiyuan and Shi Chonggui had a grudge against each other, and this grudge also played a certain role in the demise of the Later Jin Dynasty.

But Liu Zhiyuan was a powerful figure. He was stationed in Taiyuan Prefecture in Hedong and had a large army under his command. He was also an excellent commander who could stand on his own. Shi Chonggui did not dare to touch him for the time being.

Civil servants who do not have real power are of course a vulnerable group. Shi Chonggui will not be polite to them, and sometimes even his excuses are not thoughtful enough, such as Cui Zhuo (pronounced the same as "zhuo").

Cui Fen, a native of Boling, is the famous Boling Cui family in Chinese history. This book has already introduced this family in detail, so I will not expand on the "Boling Cui family" here.

Cui Fen was very filial (a very good person). When his father Cui Zhuo fell ill, he refused to seek medical treatment. The old man often told people that life and death are determined by fate, wealth and honor are determined by heaven, and birth, aging, illness and death are common to all people. He refused to seek medical treatment! Cui Fen stayed by his bedside 24 hours a day without taking off his clothes.

Whenever friends and relatives came to visit, Cui Fen would go outside to greet them, then kneel down before them, crying and begging them to persuade the stubborn old man. Friends and relatives also advised Mr. Cui to think more positively and take medicine.

However, no matter how much people tried to persuade him, Mr. Cui refused to accept treatment. Not long after, Mr. Cui successfully passed away.

During the period of mourning for his father, Cui Fen was extremely grief-stricken and mourned to the extreme, which was praised by the world. However, his father's anti-scientific stubborn thinking deeply influenced Cui Fen, or caused him a great psychological shadow.

It is said that Cui Fen once had a strange dream. He dreamed that two people were leading him on a journey for an inexplicable reason. After walking for a while, one of them said, "We have walked thirty miles, let's stop." The other said, "This person should walk another thirty-eight miles." So Cui Fen continued to follow the two people on the journey. After walking another thirty-eight miles, the two people stopped and said, "Okay, let's stop here." Then Cui Fen suddenly woke up.

This strange dream troubled Cui Fen for many years. Later, he suddenly realized that it represented the end of his life. It seemed that his life span was 68 years. Later, when he was 67 years old, he resolutely resigned and retired, begging for his bones. He also used this dream to ask the emperor to show mercy and allow him to go home and die. The next year, Comrade Cui Fen died on time, and died of old age, shocking his relatives and friends.

Cui Fen was born into a prominent family and received a good family education since childhood. He was extremely talented. He passed the imperial examination and became a Jinshi in the reign of Zhu Youzhen of the Later Liang Dynasty (917); he was promoted to Hanlin Bachelor in the Later Tang Dynasty; and he was Hanlin Chengzhi and Zhizhigao in the reign of Shi Jingtang of the Later Jin Dynasty.

His articles were so eloquent that they were very popular. People tried every possible means to find his manuscripts, copy them down, and take them home to study. Cui Fen always advised everyone that there were ancient sages before him and there would be talented people after him, so why did it come to this? From then on, he developed the habit of burning his manuscripts and not keeping any copies to prevent them from being copied.

At the beginning of Shi Jingtang's founding of the country, he, who was in charge of drafting imperial edicts, drafted an imperial edict. The then prime minister Sang Weihan slightly changed his draft. According to the old system of the Tang Dynasty, any Hanlin academician whose imperial edict was changed would be dismissed from his position. Sang Weihan did not understand this, but Cui Fen, who was born in the "Bo Ling Cui family", was very taboo about this. Although no one in the court knew this unspoken rule, let alone slightly changing one or two words, even if his draft was completely rejected, no one would blame him or dismiss him, but Cui Fen just wanted to argue for this, so he quoted classics and cited extensive evidence to prove that he was right and did not need to change it. Sang Weihan was confused and didn't know why he had such a violent reaction.

Afterwards, Cui Fen became the chief examiner of the imperial examination the following year. There was a candidate named Kong Ying, who was said to have bad character and was despised by the world. This man was worldly-wise and went to visit the prime minister Sang Weihan privately.

At that time, Sang Weihan was chatting with Choi Yeon about work, and he said to Choi Yeon meaninglessly, "Oh, Kong Ying is here (Kong Ying is here)."

It is said that the speaker is unintentional, but the listener is intentional. Listen to the sound of gongs and drums, listen to the tone of words, what does the leader mean by this sentence, what is the hidden meaning? After Cui Fen returned home, he repeatedly pondered these four words, "Kong Ying is coming, Kong Ying is coming." After a night of careful consideration and repeated arguments, Cui Fen finally got it. Sang Weihan was clearly hinting to himself that he wanted to promote Kong Ying!

Yes, Kong Ying was either a relative of Sang Weihan’s family, or he had paid a huge bribe in advance.

Low EQ: Kong Ying is my nephew... Kong Ying gave me half a truckload of gold...

High emotional intelligence: Kong Ying is here!

Cui Fen solved the riddle, so he used his position to allow Kong Ying to pass the imperial examination without any further examination. When the news came, the whole court was shocked, and people in and out of the court were talking about it, "How could he pass the imperial examination when he is so incompetent? Is he the only candidate in the country this year?"

(End of this chapter)