History of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms

Chapter 658: Yang Bin, the Founding Hero
This great leader was Kong Qian, the rent and labor official. At that time, Li Cunxu had been fighting for years and was in urgent need of logistical supplies. As long as he could raise money and food, it would be fine, no matter what methods the officials used. Kong Qian was his capable steward, who completed the tasks assigned by the organization excellently. Yang Bin, who also used all means to complete the tasks on time and in excess, was naturally Kong Qian's capable assistant.

Relying on his outstanding work ability and nepotism, Yang Bin's career was prosperous and he was promoted step by step. However, after Kong Qian was dismissed, Yang Bin also entered the trough of his life and disappeared from the spotlight.

When he returned to the martial arts world, he had already hooked up with Liu Zhiyuan. When Liu Zhiyuan was in Weizhou, he appointed him as the chief guard and became Liu Zhiyuan's guard officer.

After Liu Zhiyuan became emperor, he directly appointed him as Privy Councilor, which brought him to the peak of his life.

2.2 Grudges with the Civil Service Group

"Bin was born as a minor official, disliked scholars, and was hostile to Su Fengji and other ministers."

As mentioned earlier, Su Fengji took bribes and sold official positions, which made the officialdom of the Later Han Dynasty a mess. Yang Bin hated this and often complained to people around him, saying, "What's the use of these civil servants? The country relies on strong armies and full treasuries. These people who claim to be civil servants are nothing but parasites of the country!"
In his daily work, Yang Bin always targeted Su Fengji. Whenever Su Fengji's memorials came to him, Yang Bin would refute them or delay them as much as possible, especially in personnel appointments and dismissals.

Obviously, Yang Bin blocked Su Fengji's way to wealth. Su Fengji held a grudge, so he wanted to squeeze Yang Bin out of the central government. He was more insidious and did not choose to confront him head-on, but found a stupid shotgun as his pawn.

The man he found was called Li Tao, the upright censor who had once confronted Shi Jingtang and insisted on the execution of Zhang Yanze. Under Su Fengji's instigation, Li Tao submitted a memorial to the emperor, saying that the war in the western part of the empire was tight and that capable and trustworthy generals must be sent to guard the area, such as Comrade Yang Bin and Comrade Guo Wei, who were both founding heroes and whose abilities were obvious to all; the trivial affairs of the central government could be handed over to Prime Minister Su Fengji and Su Yugui.

It was March of the first year of Qianyou (948), and Yang Bin and Guo Wei were both Privy Councilors. At that time, there was no precedent for local vassal states to serve as Privy Councilors concurrently, so Li Tao's intention was to dismiss Yang Bin and Guo Wei from their posts as Privy Councilors and send them to the northwest; and Prime Ministers Su Fengji and Su Yugui would serve concurrently as Privy Councilors.

After hearing this, Yang Bin ran to the Queen Mother and cried, "We have followed the late emperor for many years, risking our lives and finally establishing the Han Dynasty. But now, the Emperor has listened to the slander of treacherous people and wants to send us to the northwest border. Even if the Emperor thinks we are not capable of our current positions, please, Queen Mother, for the sake of the late emperor, let us bury him first before going to the border."

The grown man cried so hard in front of the empress dowager that she was moved.

The Queen Mother called Liu Chengyou over and angrily scolded him, "They are ministers who have made contributions to the empire. How can you expel them from the central government at will? Why did you listen to slander!"

Liu Chengyou was so frightened that his legs trembled, and he hurriedly explained, "This... this is the opinion of the prime ministers... it's not my idea."

The Queen Mother was still furious, "Which Prime Minister? Let him get in here!"

Li Tao, the Minister of Revenue and the Prime Minister, was still the same young man as before. He not only dared to speak against the heavens, the earth and the air, but was also very righteous. He took the initiative to help Su Fengji take the blame and took all the blame. "This is my personal opinion and has nothing to do with other prime ministers."

Therefore, Liu Chengyou issued an edict to dismiss Li Tao from all his official positions and sent him home to reflect on his mistakes.

It was not until Guo Wei established the Later Zhou Dynasty that the brave and upright Li Tao was revived and promoted to the position of Minister of Revenue. After the establishment of the Northern Song Dynasty, he was appointed Minister of War. He died of illness in the second year of Jianlong (961) of the Northern Song Dynasty at the age of 64. He was posthumously awarded the title of You Pushe.

Everyone knows that the innocent Li Tao was used by certain people. Who were they? For example, Su Fengji, who did not want to reveal his name. Obviously, simply removing Li Tao was not enough to calm Yang Bin's anger. Yang Bin and others immediately launched a counterattack.

In April, Liu Chengyou discussed with his attendants that it was not his original intention to send Yang Bin and Guo Wei out of the palace, but he was not careful enough in his actions and angered the empress dowager. No matter what, he had to come out and help clean up the mess. How to clean up the mess? He promoted Yang Bin, Guo Wei and others to show that he really had no intention of suppressing or ostracizing them, and to appease the empress dowager.

The attendants on both sides were also very disgusted with the autocratic and tyrannical behavior and selling of official positions and titles by civil servants such as Su Fengji, so they unanimously praised Emperor Liu Chengyou for his wisdom.

Therefore, Liu Chengyou issued an edict: Comrade Yang Bin would not only retain the position of Privy Councilor, but also serve as the Secretary of the Central Secretariat and the Minister of Personnel; Comrade Guo Wei would be promoted from Deputy Privy Councilor to Privy Councilor; Comrade Wang Zhang would be given the title of Prime Minister.

Pay attention to the blackboard and emphasize this: Yang Bin also served as the Minister of Personnel.

The Ministry of Personnel is responsible for the appointment and removal, assessment, promotion, demotion, honors and transfer of officials. It is the head of the Six Ministries, commonly known as the "Tianguan", who is specifically in charge of officials.

If Yang Bin was just a stumbling block on Su Fengji's path to bribery before, now he is a roadblock and a wall, completely cutting off Su Fengji's path to wealth.

Liu Chengyou clearly instructed that in the future any personnel orders issued by the Central Prime Minister's Office (Zhongshu) and all memorials from various ministries must be approved by Comrade Yang Bin.

The effect of this sentence is not a wall, but a coffin. From then on, the three prime ministers Dou Zhengu, Su Fengji and Su Yugui became decorations, and Yang Bin had absolute say. As long as Yang Bin did not nod, the three prime ministers could not carry out any work.

Under Yang Bin's strong interference, even temporary workers in the county government (county clerks) or auxiliary police officers in the county police station had to get Yang Bin's approval.

Yang Bin had limited time and energy. He could not handle the work of the three prime ministers. Moreover, he was very opposed to the personnel work of Su Fengji and others. Therefore, Yang Bin simply rejected the work at hand with one click and refused to handle it. The work of the court came to a standstill.

Yang Bin not only put a stop to the evil practice of selling official positions and titles, but also investigated Su Fengji's previous abuse of power. He also wanted to assess the officials who had been appointed, and those who failed to meet the standards would be removed from office.

However, because Yang Bin closed the path for scholars to enter officialdom, many scholars in the Central Plains were forced to go to places such as Hou Shu and Huainan, leading to a serious talent drain problem in the Central Plains.

Yang Bin not only closed the upward channel for scholars, but also closed the privileges of "children of martyrs" (Menyin). The Tang Dynasty also had the Menyin system, which was a green channel for civil servants to become officials based on the merits of their ancestors. The original intention of this system was good, but later, the supervision and implementation system was imperfect, and impersonation and other phenomena were common. As early as the beginning of the Five Dynasties, it had been banned many times. However, the founding monarchs of the Five Dynasties, especially since Li Siyuan, mostly made weak claims, and in order to gain broad support, they had to restore it again and again.

Yang Bin of the Later Han Dynasty abolished it again.

(End of this chapter)