History of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms

Chapter 562 Control Your Emotions

5.2.3 “Not suitable for big celebrations”

Shi Jingtang loved his younger brother deeply. Due to the large age difference, Shi Jingtang treated his younger brother as his own son, so he named him "Shi Chongyin". When Shi Jingtang was the governor of Weizhou, Feng Meng, the deputy governor of Weizhou, had a daughter who was beautiful and charming. Shi Jingtang helped Shi Chongyin marry Feng.

Not long after the wedding, the unlucky Shi Chongyin unfortunately passed away due to illness, and the beautiful Feng became a widow.

Shi Chonggui was completely fascinated by his young aunt. Although she was his aunt in terms of seniority, the two were almost the same age. After Shi Chonggui ascended the throne, he could not wait to have sex with Feng.

Before Shi Jingtang's body was cold and still lying in the mourning hall, the two men had already met with an unspeakable tragedy.

Feng Dao and others led the civil and military officials to come and congratulate him. They probably wanted to disgust him sincerely, or remind him that your father just died, and the coffin was still being carried out for the funeral. How can you do this?
Shi Chonggui understood the good intentions of the ministers, so he said: "I am following the order of the Queen Mother to get married. That... during the period of mourning, you should control your emotions and not be too happy (the Queen Mother's order is that you and others should not celebrate)."

My mother asked me to get married, so I just listened to her.

After the ministers left, Shi Chonggui continued to drink and have fun with Feng. After drinking, he and Feng walked out from the back of the hall. When passing by Shi Jingtang's coffin, Shi Chonggui suddenly stopped his lewd smile, picked up the wine glass, and toasted his father's coffin seriously, and then said: "According to the order of the Empress Dowager, I have brought you a daughter-in-law. During the period of mourning, please control your emotions and don't be too happy (the Empress Dowager's order and the late emperor are not allowed to celebrate)."

The attendants on both sides burst into laughter. Look at our wise and holy ruler, how humorous he is.

Shi Chonggui was also amused by his own prank. "Everyone around him laughed, and the emperor also laughed." The emperor laughed, and the attendants laughed even more confidently.

The solemn and dignified mourning hall was filled with singing and laughter, but perhaps only Shi Jingtang in the coffin could not laugh.

After laughing, Shi Chonggui, who was in high spirits, returned to the stage and said to his attendants: "It is better to choose a day than to choose one. I think today is a good day. Why don't I be the bridegroom today? What do you think?"

The background music is "Today is a Good Day", the mourning hall serves as the wedding room, the filial son serves as the groom, the aunt serves as the bride, the funeral is treated as a wedding, and the master of ceremonies Shi Jingtang lies in the coffin.

Shi Chonggui led the way in laughing, Feng laughed so hard that she fell backwards, and the attendants on both sides laughed wildly without any scruples.

Those who know think that it is a filial son keeping vigil, while those who don’t know think that he has entered the Deyun Club.

When Empress Dowager Li (daughter of Li Keyong) heard about it, she was so angry that she trembled all over, but there was nothing she could do.

In the feudal period, emperors were not allowed to be lustful for many reasons, such as it would harm the dragon's body, etc. However, the most fatal one was "the emperor's family interfering in politics."

When one person succeeds, his family members will also benefit. If the emperor favors a concubine, he will promote her family members, such as her brothers and nephews. These people often rely on their favor to become arrogant and domineering, levying heavy taxes on the people, and "mostly doing illegal things."

Even if these uncles-in-law only stop at amassing wealth and breaking laws, the harm would be slightly less. The most fatal thing is that they interfere in state affairs, make decisions, and lead the country into an abyss of no return, or even directly lead to the country's demise.

Therefore, once the emperor becomes addicted to women, the consequence is often that the harem interferes in government affairs, making politics a mess.

Shi Chonggui could not escape this rule. He doted on Feng Shi, who began to interfere in state affairs after entering the palace. His brother Feng Yu was also able to enter the central government and became Shi Chonggui's confidant. The reason why Shi Chonggui's kingdom fell in less than five years was closely related to Feng Yu.

6. Line Struggle

This was the main factor that troubled the Later Jin Dynasty and ultimately led it to eternal damnation. If Shi Chonggui wanted to consolidate his political power and keep his throne, he had to implement the principle of "a new emperor appoints new ministers" by manipulating personnel, suppressing dissidents and promoting his own people.

In order to consolidate his regime, Shi Chonggui made many efforts, such as emphasizing the legitimacy of his accession to the throne and proving through a series of measures that he had inherited Shi Jingtang's legacy. One of these measures was to avoid taboos for the previous emperor.

Shi Chonggui announced that all names of prefectures, counties, officials, prefectures, and people that were homophonic with the previous emperor's taboos would be changed. For example, the Mingtang Hall in Luoyang was changed to the Xuande Hall, the Zhongshu Zhengshi Hall was changed to the Zhengshi Hall, the Gantang Posthouse was changed to the Tongjin Posthouse, and an official named Tang Gu also changed his surname to Tao. This Tao Gu served as an official until the Northern Song Dynasty, and once left a joke during his visit to the Southern Tang Dynasty, which will be mentioned later.

In addition to changing his name, Shi Chonggui deliberately used the term "imperial uncle" when posthumously honoring his biological father Shi Jingru, calling his biological father "uncle", deliberately blurring the fact that he was not Shi Jingtang's biological son.

Big-eyed Meng is no longer the same Big-eyed Meng. Your uncle will always be your real father.

In addition, there are layers of control and surveillance on Shi Chongrui.

In February of the eighth year of Tianfu (943), Shi Chongrui was appointed as the prefect of Kaifeng and stationed in Bianzhou. Then, on the grounds that he was still young, he was assigned an assistant.

This assistant was Shi Chonggui's "Weizhou direct descendant" Bian Wei. Bian Wei was appointed as the "prefectural governor", which means that little Shi Chongrui was placed under house arrest in Bianzhou by Shi Chonggui. In name, he was the prefect of Kaifeng and the mayor of Bianzhou, but in reality, Bian Wei was in charge of the whole thing.

Shi Chonggui had relatively successfully achieved his first goal and completed the power consolidation in a very short period of time, but unexpected events also followed.

The reason why Shi Chonggui was able to quickly complete the power consolidation was largely due to the support of the imperial guards (Jing Yanguang). Jing Yanguang, the important minister entrusted with the care of the young emperor, was ambitious. In order to dominate the government and the country, he started a round of struggle for the line.

For Jing Yanguan, he gained Shi Chonggui's gratitude and was regarded as Shi Chonggui's confidant.

There were two major obstacles standing in Jing Yanguang's way: at the local level, there was the "meritorious old generals" represented by Liu Zhiyuan and others; at the central level, there was the civil service group headed by Sang Weihan.

After careful consideration, Jing Yanguang soon found a strategy that killed two birds with one stone: rebel against Liao!
The civil service group during Shi Jingtang's period, including Sang Weihan, took a pro-Liao line, which was also the basic national policy during Shi Jingtang's period. If Shi Chonggui continued along this path, then Sang Weihan, the soul figure of the "pro-Liao faction", would undoubtedly have absolute voice and would still be the leader of the central government.

Therefore, Jing Yanguang had to do the opposite and become the leader of the "anti-Liao faction", holding high the banners of nationalism and patriotism. This path was left by An Zhongrong.

Once Shi Chonggui adopted his line, Sang Weihan would have to stand aside, and Jing Yanguang, the chief architect of the anti-Liao movement, would naturally have absolute say in the court.

If friction or confrontation occurs between the two countries, Jing Yanguang can use this opportunity to extend his influence to the military. Although he cannot get rid of the powerful "Big Three" such as Liu Zhiyuan, he can cultivate his own military strength and weaken the influence of the "Big Three".

(End of this chapter)