History of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms

Chapter 663 Things are changing

In the morning, the whole city of Bianzhou was in turmoil, and everyone knew that something big had happened in the palace. When it was almost noon, the henchmen who had been dispatched to various places came back one after another to report the successful completion of the second step of the plan.

Liu Chengyou secretly breathed a sigh of relief and ordered all officials to leave the palace.

Strangely enough, it was a sunny day with no clouds, but the sky always gave people a foggy feeling, as if it was drizzling. The people of Bianzhou were terrified and thought that it was the heavens that sensed the great injustice in the world.
Just after noon, Liu Chengyou ordered the bodies of more than a dozen core members of the "rebels" to be pulled out and exposed for public display in the north and south cities.

The people of Bianzhou did not dance for joy, nor did they utter bad words to each other; they remained silent, but it was not a calloused calmness that expressed doubt and fear.

At the same time, Liu Chengyou confidently took the third step of his plan: he sent his confidant Meng Ye to Chanzhou and Weizhou with a secret edict, ordering Li Hongyi, the governor of Chanzhou Zhenning Army, to kill Wang Yin, and ordering Guo Chongwei, the commander-in-chief of the cavalry on the front line of Weizhou, and Cao Wei, the commander-in-chief of the infantry, to kill Guo Wei and Wang Jun, the general commander and envoy of Xuanhui.

Wang Yin was born into a military family. He had been serving in Hebei since his great-grandfather. During the period of Li Cunxu, he was promoted to deputy commander-in-chief of Huazhou for his merits. During the period of Li Siyuan, he was promoted to commander-in-chief of Lingwu. During the period of Li Congke, he followed Fan Yanguang to attack Zhang Lingzhao, a rebel in Weizhou, and made "the first to climb the hill". He was appointed governor of Qizhou for his merits.

Note: Wang Yin was known for his filial piety towards his mother. This is an old cliché, and Wang Yin is a good person.

According to records, although Wang Yin came from a military family, he had a narrow circle of friends, and he would ask his mother for permission before making friends or attending any dinner parties. If his mother disagreed, he would not go. When he was a governor, he took the initiative to "rule the government behind the scenes" and if there were any omissions in his work, his mother would point them out, and he would kneel in fear and order his servants to beat him with sticks.

After his mother passed away, Wang Yin resigned from his post to mourn for his mother. The then emperor Shi Jingtang ordered him to be reinstated and appointed him as the governor of Xianzhou. In the Tang Dynasty, mourning for parents was quite strict, but since the late Tang Dynasty and the Five Dynasties, many powerful officials only mourned for the sake of formality. Generally, the emperor would "instate him" by order, meaning that the country cannot do without you. Although you are very sad, please put the country first, mourn with patience, and return to work.

Wang Yin then submitted a petition, saying that he had no talent or virtue, and that it was all thanks to his mother's good teaching. Now that she had just passed away, he could not bear to abandon her in the wilderness to become an isolated grave. He asked for permission to strictly observe the mourning period. His words were sincere and touching, so Shi Jingtang "appreciated and approved it."

When the mourning period was over, the emperor was replaced by Shi Chonggui, who recruited him into the imperial guards and made him the commander of the right wing of Fengguo.

Later, Wang Yin was ordered to lead the Fengguo Army to follow Liu Zhiyuan to attack Du Chongwei. In this battle, Wang Yin fought side by side with Liu Ci, leading the way and striving to be the first to ascend the battlefield.

In the fierce battle, Wang Yin was unfortunately shot in the head by an enemy arrow. "The arrow hit his brain, and the arrowhead came out of his mouth, but he did not die." Wang Yin opened his mouth, broke the arrow, and continued to fight.

Liu Zhiyuan, who was supervising the battle in the rear, was deeply impressed by this scene. In the Han Dynasty, Xiahou Dun pulled out the arrow and ate his eye. Now Wang Yin broke the arrowhead in his mouth. How magnificent! He immediately became a fan of the general. After the battle, he reported his merits and asked for rewards. Wang Yin was promoted to the commander-in-chief of the infantry of the imperial army and the governor of Ningjiang Army in Kuizhou.

Khitan attacked Hebei again, Guo Wei patrolled the border and recruited elite soldiers to help defend Hebei, so Wang Yin was ordered to lead the imperial army to station in Chanzhou. It can be seen that the fierce general Wang Yin can be regarded as half of Liu Zhiyuan's direct lineage, that is, he had a pleasant intersection with Liu Zhiyuan when he was in hiding, and he had fought as Liu Zhiyuan's subordinate and made meritorious contributions, and left a good impression on Liu Zhiyuan.

Obviously, at least Liu Chengyou and his "uncle clan" classified Wang Yin into the group of military generals and pushed him to the opposite side.

Let's take a look at Wang Jun, the military supervisor of Weizhou. Before introducing Wang Jun, we all know at a glance that Wang Jun must belong to the military general group, because in addition to his title as the general military supervisor of the front line of Weizhou, he also has a particularly eye-catching official position - Xuanhui Envoy. Li Ye and Yan Jinqing were eager to get the Xuanhui Envoy.

At first glance at Comrade Wang Jun's life, especially the first half of his life, it is easy to mistake him for a member of the "little group." This is because he was neither a scholar nor a warrior, but a performer.

Wang Jun was from Xiangzhou, Hebei. He was smart and clever, had a good voice and was good at singing. During the Later Liang Dynasty, Zhang Yun was stationed in Xiangzhou and was moved by Wang Jun's beautiful singing, so he raised him in the Marshal's Mansion. When "Zhuangzong entered Wei", Zhang Yun abandoned the city and fled, and Wang Jun also fled back to Bianzhou.

One day, Zhao Yan, a core figure of the "foreign relatives gang" who could change the situation, went to visit Zhang Yun's house. Wang Jun sang a song to cheer up the guests, which pleased Zhao Yan. Zhang Yun, who was good at dealing with people, immediately struck while the iron was hot and reluctantly gave Wang Jun to Zhao Yan.

The good times did not last long. The Later Liang Dynasty fell, Zhao Yan and his entire family were executed, and Wang Jun became a wandering artist on the streets. He was taken in by a landlord named Chen in Fuli County. This huge gap made Wang Jun very depressed. He looked for an opportunity to turn things around and took the initiative to surrender to Zhang Yanlang, the then Sansi Envoy.

Although Zhang Yanlang held a high position of power, he did not appreciate Wang Jun's artistic style and was very cold to him. His salary was also very meager.

Not long after, the Later Tang Dynasty fell, and Zhang Yanlang's family was also exterminated. Shi Jingtang awarded all of Zhang Yanlang's property to his favorite general, Liu Zhiyuan. Wang Jun was also transferred to Liu Zhiyuan as part of Zhang Yanlang's personal property.

Liu Zhiyuan discovered that this singer was not only good at singing, but also very smart and clever, so he began to assign him some welcoming and seeing off tasks, which Wang Jun was able to complete very well, and as a result, he became more and more liked by Liu Zhiyuan.

When Liu Zhiyuan proclaimed himself emperor, he appointed Wang Jun as the guest envoy, making him the "diplomat" of the Later Han Empire. He was also ordered to visit Jingnan, using the bait of ceding territory to trick Gao Conghui of Jingnan into supporting the founding of the Later Han. On his way back, he was ordered to serve as the military supervisor of Xiangzhou and inspected the military and political affairs in Hubei.

Generally speaking, positions such as the guest envoy and the tribute officer were all held by the emperor's confidants, because these positions required not only absolute loyalty to the emperor, but also a certain tacit understanding with the emperor, a deep and thorough understanding of the emperor's true intentions, and the ability to speak well and strive for the greatest benefits for the emperor.

Therefore, guest envoys and tribute officials would also play the role of military supervisors, serve as the emperor's spies in the local area, help the emperor send back first-hand information, and analyze and judge the ideological trends of local vassal states.

(End of this chapter)