History of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms

Chapter 584 Du Chongwei

Of course, if we have to be pretentious along this line of thought, then I really have to change the wording of the above question: If Shi Chonggui had higher virtues than the Three Sovereigns, and greater achievements than the Five Emperors, and if the government was stable and the people were harmonious, and the weather was good, then the Later Jin Dynasty might really be able to avoid the fate of national destruction, but... the initiative was still not in the hands of the Later Jin Dynasty.

The fantasy is as follows: Shi Chonggui worked hard to become a powerful country, comparable to Yao, Shun, Yu, Tang, Wen and Wu, and the Later Jin Dynasty became rich and powerful. Although Yelu Deguang was determined to invade the Central Plains from the south, he was fruitless after a long attack. Therefore, the Khitan was the first to be dragged down by the war, the tribes fell apart, and they were alienated from the Yelu clan. Perhaps they would elect a new Khan or emperor; or, if Empress Dowager Shulü passed away, Yelu Deguang would naturally take the throne of the Khitan and no longer be anxious to go south to destroy the Jin Dynasty...

As long as the Later Jin Dynasty was strong enough, it could have outlasted the Khitan. The Later Jin Dynasty would have covered the Later Han and Later Zhou. Then "Emperor Min of Later Jin" or "Emperor Ai of Later Jin" would have been seized by Zhao Kuangyin through a military coup and ushered in the Northern Song Dynasty.

But no matter what, the initiative of this war was always in the hands of Yelu Deguang. In other words, the fate of the Later Jin Dynasty was in the hands of Yelu Deguang. This is the "fate of national destruction" mentioned above.

The responsibility for the fall of the Later Jin Dynasty cannot be entirely attributed to Shi Chonggui, but Shi Chonggui also bears an unshirkable responsibility. As a king who lost his country, Shi Chonggui not only did not have all the shortcomings that a king who lost his country should have, but also successfully avoided all the advantages of a wise and holy ruler.

The internal cause of Shi Chonggui's country's fall can be summed up in one sentence: the person you love hurts you the most.

Although he was arrogant, extravagant, and greedy for pleasure, he was very restrained by the standards of a king who lost his country. Wang Zongyan was far better than him in lust; he also gave up the C position to Li Cunxu in extravagance. His most fatal mistake was employing the wrong people.

At the beginning of his ascension to the throne, he favored Jing Yanguang. Because Jing Yanguang had the merit of supporting him and had the power of the imperial army, Shi Chonggui's favor to him was more out of fear than gratitude. He had no choice but to do so, and he also took advantage of his anti-Liao speech to carry out the struggle for the line, so as to recover power and gain the right to speak in the court.

As the imperial power was consolidated, Shi Chonggui began to lay out his own power. It was during this period that he made his fatal mistake.

Shi Chonggui, like most of the "second-generation emperors" during the Five Dynasties period, lacked a long military career and prestige in both the administrative and military systems. His direct confidants were basically staff members when they stayed behind, and they were few in number and low in quality. Therefore, the old officials of the previous dynasty who held heavy troops and were located in important towns were both a threat and a resource, and the choice of such resources depended on blood ties, which was the unanimous choice of the "second-generation emperors".

Shi Chonggui used this method to select the two most trustworthy comrades: Du Chongwei and Feng Yu.

Du Chongwei was Shi Jingtang's brother-in-law and Shi Chonggui's uncle, and they were close friends. Shi Jingtang himself took good care of Du Chongwei and often gave him opportunities to gain experience and improve his reputation.

For example, during the early period of Fan Yanguang's rebellion against Shi Jingtang, Du Chongwei rose rapidly from a small general of the imperial guards to become a military governor, co-prime minister, and commander of the imperial guards, and later the prime minister and the commander of the imperial guards.

Later, when An Zhongrong of Zhenzhou rebelled, Shi Jingtang arranged for Du Chongwei to improve his qualifications and appointed him as the Jiedushi of Chengde Army in Zhenzhou for his merits.

Du Chongwei may not be very good at fighting, but he is very capable and ruthless in oppressing the people. After taking office in Zhenzhou, Du Chongwei first took all of An Zhongrong's property for himself. This money should have been regarded as spoils of war and turned over to the national treasury according to law. Du Chongwei not only embezzled this money, but also embezzled all the treasury of Zhenzhou.

This wave of operations caused a great deal of controversy in the court, and ministers impeached Du Chongwei for his illegal behavior of embezzling public funds. However, Shi Jingtang turned a blind eye and ignored it.

After eating up An Zhongrong's private property and Zhenzhou's public funds, Du Chongwei reached his greedy hands into the pockets of the people of Zhenzhou, levying heavy taxes and levies.

Even in the face of a major disaster, the government showed no mercy. According to Du Chongwei's logic, after a disaster, the people should pay double the tax to help the government with disaster relief.

In the eighth year of Tianfu (943), Shi Chonggui had just ascended the throne. There was drought in the first half of the year, flood in the second half of the year, and locust plagues all over the country. People fled one after another, and even some county magistrates were forced to go into exile. In order to maintain the operation of the state machinery and support the army, Shi Chonggui ordered the forced collection of food from the people, resulting in the starvation of hundreds of thousands of people.

In fact, in the order at that time, the so-called "national grain collection list" did not include Zhenzhou and Dingzhou. Because these were the hardest hit areas in this round of disasters and were the targets of relief, Shi Chonggui granted special amnesty and exempted the two towns from the task of grain collection.

After all, Shi Chonggui was the supreme ruler of the empire. He had scientific considerations for exploiting the people, and he required long-term and sustainable exploitation. When forcibly collecting money and grain from the people, he did not impose a one-size-fits-all policy across the country, but instead allocated different amounts based on the actual differences in different regions.

For example, this time, the Zhenzhou Chengde Army and Dingzhou Yiwu Army were specially exempted from their tasks; even for the targets of expedition and suppression on the list, there were relatively reasonable number limits.

Just when the miserable people of Zhenzhou had just breathed a sigh of relief and wanted to call out to the emperor for his wisdom, their father and mother official Du Chongwei, with patriotic sentiments, angrily submitted a petition, saying that the whole country is a chessboard, and when the country is in trouble, all sides will support it. Why can't we in Zhenzhou lend a hand? Du Chongwei strongly demanded that Shi Chonggui treat everyone equally and insisted that Zhenzhou should also collect grain from the people like other places.

With the help of his staff member Wang Xu, Du Chongwei and the Zhenzhou grain collection team worked overtime and selflessly with great efficiency, and soon collected one million hu of grain. However, the imperial court's target was only 300,000 hu.

Therefore, Du Chongwei handed over 300,000 hu of grain according to the law, and the remaining 700,000 hu went into his own pocket. However, Du Chongwei's appetite was not satisfied yet, so he sent another aide, Li Zhao, to continue collecting grain and obtained another 1 million hu.

The emperor wanted sustainable exploitation, but officials like Du Chongwei were draining the pond to catch fish, killing the goose that lays the golden eggs, and squeezing the people dry. Unfortunately, Du Chongwei's practice was not an isolated case, but a common phenomenon. The court only asked the people of Zhenzhou to donate 300,000 yuan, but Du Chongwei extorted 2 million yuan.

The next year, Du Chongwei sold the grain to the people of Zhenzhou at a high price and made a lot of money. The people of Chengde Army in Zhenzhou were living in poverty, but Du Chongwei was getting fatter and fatter.

After learning about this, officials in Dingzhou asked the governor Ma Quanjie if they should follow Du Chongwei's example and make a fortune. Ma Quanjie angrily rebuked his staff, saying that if an official did not serve the people, he might as well go home and grow sweet potatoes. Why did he have to learn from that beast named Du Chongwei?
(End of this chapter)