History of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms

Chapter 650: Guo Wei Returns
When Guo Wei passed by Luoyang, Wang Shouen suddenly remembered his extremely noble status as a general and a prime minister, so he "went out to greet him in a sedan chair." This was an extremely impolite behavior.

When Guo Wei heard about it, he was very angry, thinking that Wang Shouen was deliberately putting on airs and neglecting him, so he sent someone to convey the message: "Brother is very busy and taking a shower, so it is not convenient to meet you." Then he picked up a pen and wrote a small note, appointing his right-hand man, Bai Wenke, to replace Wang Shouen as the governor of Luoyang in the name of the Central Prime Minister's Office (Zhongshu).

When the note was handed over, Bai Wen Ke was terrified. He thought to himself, "You two big guys are fighting like gods, don't hurt innocent people. I dare not offend either side!" He dared not accept it.

At the same time, Wang Shouen had returned to the office building and was waiting in the living room for Guo Wei to come and see him. Suddenly, his subordinate ran in in a panic, "Report, sir, the new chief who stayed behind has taken office!"

"what?"

Wang Shouen was confused. Where did this new leader come from? He quickly went out to take a look and found that the office was undergoing a property handover, and all the guards on duty were replaced by Guo Wei's men.

"broken!"

Wang Shouen turned and ran to the backyard, and found that his family of several hundred people had been driven out of the governor's house, and were standing in the street in a panic, like refugees. When they saw Wang Shouen appear, they burst into tears and cried to him.

"Are you still crying? Run away quickly, or you'll be dead if you keep playing around!"

Wang Shouen became the leader of the refugee group and came to Bianzhou from Luoyang in a miserable state with his family.

At this time, Liu Chengyou no longer dared to offend Guo Wei. He turned a blind eye to Guo Wei's presumptuous behavior of expelling court officials and arbitrarily appointing and dismissing provincial governors in the name of the central court. He compromised and gave in, and even issued a formal appointment letter, appointing Comrade Bai Wenke as the governor of Xijing and concurrently the minister of the court.

After Wang Shouen arrived in Beijing, in order to prevent further persecution by Guo Wei, he bribed people everywhere and took out a lot of gold and silver to bribe those in power. Therefore, under the strong words of many senior officials, Liu Chengyou finally pardoned him for his contribution to the uprising and only executed a few of Wang Shouen's subordinates and followers.

When Liu Zhiyuan proclaimed himself emperor in Taiyuan, Wang Shouen surrendered Luzhou and opened the way for Liu Zhiyuan to march south. This was his first achievement.

But what crime did Wang Shouen commit? Just because he neglected Guo Wei, he not only lost his official position, but also had to give away all his wealth before he could be "pardoned", "but only a few of his subordinates were executed", and "only"!
Guo Wei was only a privy councilor at the time, but he could appoint and dismiss the prime minister-level provincial governors and mayors of municipalities with a casual piece of paper. Even Ouyang Xiu, when commenting on this matter, said that this was a very dangerous sign. What sign? Haha, you know.

On August 8, Guo Wei finally returned to Bianzhou.

Liu Chengyou did not dare to neglect him, and quickly "promoted him to a higher position and rewarded him with imperial wine, gold, silver and treasures. The next day, Liu Chengyou convened a central meeting to discuss the issue of rewarding Guo Wei, and initially reached an agreement that he should be given a Jiedushi. Afterwards, the court revealed the news to Guo Wei to see his opinion. If he was not satisfied, he could raise the price. Everything was negotiable.

As expected, Guo Wei refused the reward from the court and said that he would suppress the rebellion for the country and serve the emperor without asking for any reward...

Is it really "anything in return"? Of course not, Guo Wei's asking price is very high.

Guo Wei said: "Since I received the mission to quell the rebellion, I have fought for more than a year and barely conquered a city. How can I have the face to ask for a reward? The emperor has been very tolerant and compassionate by not blaming me for my incompetence. Besides, did I quell the rebellion alone? I led a large army stationed outside, and the maintenance of public security in the capital, the supply and transportation of food and fodder, etc., were not all the work of the joint efforts of everyone? How dare I take all the credit for myself?"

It was a plausible and irrefutable argument. So the court reconsidered and drew up a list of candidates, and almost all the local military governors were on the list.

However, Guo Wei was still not satisfied. In the end, it was nothing more than this: I nominate a few people and you arrange them.

Chaoting: Okay, it would have been nice if you had said this earlier. It would have taken so much effort.

Guo Wei then presented a list of 73 people, all of whom were his direct subordinates.

Finally, after some extortion by Guo Wei, the court of the Later Han Dynasty finally drew up a shocking list of rewards, which included almost everyone:

Three Prime Ministers: Dou Zhengu, Su Fengji, and Su Yugui
Two Privy Councilors: Yang Bin and Guo Wei

Two Xuanhui Envoys: Wang Jun and Wu Qianyu
One of the Three Officials: Wang Zhang
One guard: Shi Hongzhao

At the center were these nine people, who respectively controlled administrative power, military power, and financial power, and controlled the civil service group, the affairs inside and outside the palace, and the imperial guard group. The amount of their rewards was exactly the same as Guo Wei's.

In addition, there were countless local governors who were commended, such as Gao Xingzhou of Weizhou, An Shenqi of Xiangzhou, Fu Yanqing of Yanzhou, Feng Hui of Lingzhou, Li Yiyin of Xiazhou, etc.
The royal family members also had to see it, such as Liu Xin of Xuzhou, Murong Yanchao of Yunzhou, Liu Zhu of Qingzhou, Liu Chong of Hedong, Liu Yun of Xuzhou, Li Hongxin of Shanzhou, Li Hongyi of Chanzhou...

Even including Qian Hongchu of Wuyue, Ma Xiguang of Nanchu, and Gao Baorong of Jingnan. In a word, there are rewards all over the country.

At that time, some people pointed out that this was Guo Wei using the court's money to earn his own favors. Moreover, this was similar to "Zi Gong redeeming people", a kind of moral kidnapping. From now on, if anyone who has made contributions is not rewarded nationwide like this, the court will be accused of being a tyrant and a treacherous minister. If a nationwide reward is given, the national treasury will soon be empty, which will cause great harm!
Especially the list of 73 people proposed by Guo Wei, they will not be grateful for the court's kindness, but for Guo Wei's kindness.

The whole country was celebrating. Officials at all levels, both central and local, were promoted and given titles. Just as everyone was immersed in joy, an urgent military intelligence report came from Hebei: Khitan invaded! Khitan cavalry had already penetrated into Beizhou and Weizhou.

As early as when Yelu Ruan led his army back north and passed through Dingzhou, he promoted Yelu Langwu, the deputy governor of Dingzhou Yiwu Army, to the governor, and transferred the governor Sun Fangjian to Yunzhou to serve as the governor of Datong.

Sun Fangjian was a former hero of Langshan who used the cult as the soul of his team. He jumped back and forth between the Central Plains and the Khitan, and finally surrendered to the Khitan and was appointed as the Jiedushi of Dingzhou Yiwu Army.

Yelu Ruan was very suspicious of the Han people and only trusted the Khitans. Now that the Khitans were returning north, the strategic positions of Zhenzhou and Dingzhou became even more important. Therefore, they could not be occupied by Han surrendered generals and had to be replaced by Khitans.

Although Sun Fangjian was transferred from Dingzhou to Yunzhou, according to convention, he had to go to the Khitan capital Linhuangfu to thank the emperor. Sun Fangjian was very afraid of this and was worried that he would never come back, so he used various reasons to postpone his trip north and eventually led 3,000 troops back to the Langshan revolutionary base.

(End of this chapter)