History of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms

Chapter 637 Group Portrait
Release the original historical text of Comrade Hou Zan, and experience for yourself Comrade Hou Zan's legendary yet indescribable, shocking yet popular family profile:
"Zan's mother was from a prostitute family, and lived in the same county as my father. She visited his home and gave birth to Zan. ... When Zan grew up, people were suspicious of his birth."

Hou Zan's mother was a woman who worked in a special job. Hou Zan's father, Hou Laoji, often took care of her business. As a result, Hou Zan was born. When he grew up, he didn't know whether it was because of the huge difference in appearance or the occupational discrimination of Hou Laoji, the more he looked at this kid, the less he looked like his own son.

After growing up, Hou Zan looked for a job to make a living and got a job under Liu Zhiyuan, helping Liu Zhiyuan raise horses. After Liu Zhiyuan became emperor, Hou Zan also rose to prominence and became the "Flying Dragon Envoy" of the Han Empire, responsible for the breeding and management of the royal horses. In short, he still had an inextricable bond with the thing between his legs and could not escape the family's fate of being ridden.

Whether it was raising horses, raising pigs or planting flowers, he was an official civil servant and his work place was in the palace. When his father heard about it, he insisted that the child was his own and wanted to come to the capital to join him.

Obviously, the father and son have never had a harmonious relationship. When he heard that the old man was coming to be a "parasite", Hou Zan hurriedly wrote a letter, giving a lot of reasons, trying to persuade the old man with both reason and emotion. In a word, he said: Don't come!

The old man didn't care about that. "My father came from the county to the capital and went straight to his house." After all, he was an old driver. Even if he was new to the place, he was familiar with it and moved directly into Hou Zan's house. My little boy, your mother blackmailed me back then, and now I'm blackmailing you too. We are even now.

So the queen praised it, saying "I had to follow it as a last resort."

Bimawen, who came from a special family background, had also "not been promoted for a long time" and was "quite resentful". He was very hostile to the "veteran gang" such as Yang Bin and Shi Hongzhao who held power.

Guo Yunming, a native of Taiyuan, Hedong, was born in poverty. When he was very young, he was sold to the home of Fan Huirou, the governor of Hedong, as a slave. Later, Master Fan was convicted and killed. Guo Yunming lost his support and became a beggar on the streets of Taiyuan. At this time, he met the first noble man in his life, Liu Zhiyuan. Liu Zhiyuan saw that he was pitiful but smart, so he took him in.

Guo Yunming had been a servant since he was young, and had developed a keen eye for observing people's words and expressions. Moreover, he worked as a servant in the home of the deputy secretary of the provincial party committee, so he was even more proficient in the reception and seeing off of officials. Therefore, he pleased Liu Zhiyuan very much. When Liu Zhiyuan was in charge of Hedong, he promoted him. After he became emperor, he promoted him to be the "Hanlin Tea and Wine Envoy and Saddle and Bridle Warehouse Envoy." As the name suggests, he was mainly responsible for the warehouse management of tea, wine, beverages, saddles, bridles and other items in the palace. In short, it was related to official reception, and it could be said that people were put to the right use and specific people were assigned specific tasks.

Guo Yunming was smooth and tactful, and he secretly made friends with high-ranking officials. At that time, the governor of Xiangzhou was Guo Jin, whose hometown was also Taiyuan in Hedong. Guo Yunming claimed to be a relative of Guo Jin, and took advantage of his position to steal the imperial wine and give it to Guo Jin as a gift. Therefore, Guo Jin was very grateful to him.

Regarding this Guo Yunming, he will do something earth-shattering later, which will be described in detail later.

The above-mentioned people are the new leadership team with Liu Chengyou as the core. They want to challenge Yang Bin, Shi Hongzhao and others and redistribute the power pie of the Later Han Empire.

Liu Chengyou needed to quickly adapt to his new role, and founding heroes such as Yang Bin and Shi Hongzhao also needed to quickly adapt to their new roles.

In fact, there were many problems within the "Veterans Gang", which was by no means a monolithic group. For example, military generals such as Yang Bin and Shi Hongzhao looked down on civil officials such as Su Fengji and Su Yugui, and the contradictions between the generals and ministers had escalated to the point where they were irreconcilable.

Interestingly, even Wang Zhang, the “Three-Commissioner” in charge of finance, looked down on civil servants such as Su Fengji and Su Yugui.

Among these founding fathers, those who held guns and those who held money joined forces to squeeze out those who held pens. The civil and military officials were not on good terms, and the generals had rifts with each other, which made the pillars of the Later Han group riddled with holes and weak, which was one of the important reasons why the Later Han regime quickly went to its demise.

The political cornerstone issue was the internal cancer that Liu Zhiyuan left to Liu Chengyou, and the rebellion in the west was the external ulcer.

Zhao Kuangzan of Chang'an and Hou Yi of Fengxiang surrendered to Hou Shu one after another, and acted as guides for Hou Shu, shouting the slogan of "going east through Tongguan and pacifying the Central Plains", which was a major concern for the Later Han regime.

However, their positions were not firm and they wavered between the Later Han and the Later Shu.

Li Shu, Zhao Kuangzan's chief of staff, was once an aide to his father Zhao Yanshou, who sent him to assist Zhao Kuangzan. When Zhao Kuangzan planned to defect to Hou Shu, Li Shu firmly opposed it, saying: "Your father, how could you be willing to serve the northern barbarians? The Hou Han regime has just been established and is showing off to the world. They will definitely use you as an example and comfort you generously. The ancients said, 'A puddle the size of a horse's hoof cannot support a big fish', which means that a puddle the size of a horse's hoof cannot support a big fish. You will definitely not be able to display your talents in Hou Shu, and you will regret it sooner or later!"

After much thought, Zhao Kuangzan felt that he should not break away from the Central Plains and ally with the barbarians, so he sent Li Shu to Bianzhou with a letter of repentance to present it, and also stated that he would go to Bianzhou in person to apologize.

Liu Zhiyuan met with Li Shu and asked him why Zhao Kuangzan suddenly defected to Hou Shu.

Li Shu replied: "Zhao Kuangzan believed that he accepted the appointment of the Barbarians (Khitan) and was a 'fake governor'. His father was a high official in the Barbarians, so he was afraid of being blamed by Your Majesty, so he sought political asylum in Hou Shu, just to escape death temporarily. I believe that Your Majesty will understand and forgive him, so I advised him to correct his mistakes and return to the right path. That's why he sent me to beg Your Majesty for forgiveness."

Liu Zhiyuan nodded repeatedly and immediately stated: "The father and son of the Zhao family were originally our own people, but unfortunately they were trapped by the barbarians. Zhao Yanshou has been killed by the barbarians, how can I bear to kill Zhao Kuangzan!" He readily approved Zhao Kuangzan's request to come to Bianzhou for an audience. In fact, Zhao Yanshou was only imprisoned by Yelu Ruan at this time and died about two years later, but Liu Zhiyuan's group had to insist on the rumor that Zhao Yanshou had been killed.

At the same time, Fengxiang Hou Yi also sent an envoy to express his remorse and request to come to Bianzhou to celebrate Liu Zhiyuan's birthday (February 2).

Liu Zhiyuan was jubilant on the surface about the recovery of the Guanxi region, but he was full of contradictions in his heart. Liu Zhiyuan did not trust Zhao Kuangzan and Hou Yi, and his decision to leave or stay was just a passing remark. Who knows, they might change their stance again one day.

Moreover, they all expressed their desire to come to Bianzhou in person to meet the emperor in order to demonstrate their unlimited obedience to the Later Han Dynasty.

Rule without military presence is like a monkey trying to catch the moon. But if Liu Zhiyuan directly sent armed forces, it would inevitably cause panic among the two and force them to rebel.

(End of this chapter)