History of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms

Chapter 692: Wang Jun, the Second Minister of the Imperial Court
Later, Zheng Renhui lived in seclusion in his hometown of Taiyuan. When Liu Zhiyuan was in charge of Hedong, Guo Wei often visited Zheng Renhui's home. The two often talked all night long. Whenever Guo Wei asked him questions, he could always answer them fluently and logically. Guo Wei admired him very much and thought he had great talent.

After Liu Zhiyuan became emperor, he appointed Guo Wei as the Privy Councilor, and Guo Wei immediately summoned Zheng Renhui as his advisor. Including when Guo Wei pacified Hezhong, many strategies came from Zheng Renhui's planning.

After Guo Wei became emperor, he promoted Zheng Renhui repeatedly, first as the guest minister and then as the deputy envoy of the Privy Council. Zheng Renhui continued to be promoted in the future, but by this time, we have already seen the clues, "Deputy Envoy of the Privy Council", Guo Wei used his own direct military advisor to check and balance Wang Jun.

Li Chongjin

Guo Wei's nephew, the end of the play.

Xiang Xun
I once dreamed of traveling the world with a sword and seeing the prosperity of the world. In his teenage years, Xiang Xun was elegantly described as "dandy and reckless", and liked to do things for the benefit of the people. In today's popular terms, he was idle and often got into fights. At the age of 20, he made a major decision in his life: find a big brother and follow him.

At that time, Liu Zhiyuan was stationed in Hedong and was recruiting soldiers and buying horses, gathering grass and storing grain. So Xiang Xun happily packed his bags and went to Liu Zhiyuan's kiln.

Xiang Xun knew the basic etiquette of an interview very well. In order to leave a good impression on his boss, Xiang Xun dressed up carefully, took a bath and changed his clothes. He was tall, strong and handsome. After being dressed up from head to toe, inside and out, he looked like a handsome young man. So, he was spotted by a group of gangsters...

The criminals didn't want to rape him, they wanted to rob him of his money, because they determined that the handsome man in front of them must be a rich man. The criminals followed him all the way, hoping to find a remote and deserted mountain, the kind of place with beautiful scenery and singing folk songs, to get his money and kill him.

Xiang Xun sensed something was wrong, so he sold his only donkey halfway (at Shihui Pass) and bought good wine and meat to honor the local leaders and ask them to escort him.

The local leader agreed to his request and sent several of his men to accompany Xiang Xun, and they finally arrived in Taiyuan safely.

When Xiang Xun passionately promoted his talents to Liu Zhiyuan, he was turned down. It was not known whether it was because of his deviation in political stance or because his vertical depth was not fully recognized. In short, according to "History of Song Dynasty", "He tried to persuade Emperor Han to accept his strategy, but Emperor Han did not accept it." However, God will never let a blind sparrow starve to death. Although Xiang Xun did not receive Liu Zhiyuan's favor, he unexpectedly attracted the attention of Guo Wei. So Guo Wei kept him by his side, and often expressed his deep feelings to him and had long talks with him.

"He became a guest of Zhou Zu" and from then on became Guo Wei's confidant.

After Guo Wei became emperor, he promoted Xiang Xun to the position of Palace Garden Envoy. On paper, the position of Palace Garden Envoy was to manage the back garden of the imperial palace. In reality, it was a typical "special seat for the direct line of descent", just like the "Proclamation Envoy" and "Imperial City Envoy". It was of low rank, low salary and unimportant job responsibilities, but it controlled the imperial palace to a certain extent, so it had to be held by a comrade who was trustworthy, usually the emperor's "prime followers" and direct line of descent.

Xiang Xun was first appointed as the Palace Garden Envoy and later as the Imperial City Envoy. When Liu Chong of Hedong invaded the south, Xiang Xun defeated the larger force with a smaller one, annihilated more than 300 people, captured 100 alive, and dealt a heavy blow to the morale of the Hedong army. Later, as the chief military commander, Xiang Xun participated in the battle to pacify Murong Yanchao of Yanzhou.

After pacifying Yanzhou, Xiang Xun was transferred to Shanzhou to assist Guo Wei in controlling the western hub. Among Guo Wei's direct team, the one who was most promoted and reused was his adopted son Chai Rong.

To be precise, we should still call him "Guo Rong". In the late Five Dynasties, many people had more than two names due to various reasons such as taboos. For example, Xiang Xun was later changed to "Xiang Gong" to avoid the taboo of Chai Zongxun; Li Yun (Li Rong) to avoid the taboo of Chai Rong; Guo Chong (Guo Chongwei) and Cao Ying (Cao Wei) to avoid the taboo of Guo Wei; Zhao Shangjiao (Zhao Yuan) and Zhe Congruan (Zhe Congyuan) to avoid the taboo of Liu Zhiyuan; Du Wei (Du Chongwei) to avoid the taboo of Shi Chonggui...

In addition, the popular custom of adopting sons during the Five Dynasties also made many people become "slaves of three surnames". Chai Rong was one of them. He was the nephew of Guo Wei's wife, Empress Chai. He was adopted by Guo Wei in his early years, so he took the surname "Guo". When he became emperor in the future, he changed his surname back to "Chai".

The principle of this book is to follow the crowd and sit on the same bench with the masses. That is, to call him by his most widely known name.
Since all of Guo Wei's descendants were unfortunately killed in the Xiao Qiang Incident, Chai Rong, his adopted son and nephew, gradually gained Guo Wei's favor. When Guo Wei went south to "clean up the imperial court", it was Chai Rong who took on the important task of guarding Weizhou. Generally speaking, guarding the capital or the revolutionary base camp is a position exclusive to the heir to the throne.

After Guo Wei entered Bian, he immediately promoted Chai Rong to the position of Jiedushi of Chanzhou. Today, Chanzhou has become one of the important cities in relations with Liao. Until the Northern Song Dynasty, the frontier positions between the Central Plains and the Khitan had long been advanced southward from Dingzhou and Zhenzhou to Chanzhou. Therefore, there was a famous "Chanyuan Alliance" in the Northern Song Dynasty, instead of the "Zhending Alliance" or "Youyun Alliance".

Guo Wei's promotion of his direct lineage caused a strong backlash from Wang Jun.

Wang Jun's counterattack was rather violent. He directly nominated two people - Yan Xin, a scholar of the Duanming Palace, and Chen Guan, a scholar of the Privy Council, to replace Prime Ministers Li Gu and Fan Zhi.

As the name suggests, "Direct Academician of the Privy Council" is an organization of the Privy Council, under the management of the Privy Councilor. The "Academician of the Duanming Palace" was set up during the reign of Emperor Mingzong of the Later Tang Dynasty, and was responsible for translating memorials for the emperor. The person who applied for the establishment of the Academician of the Duanming Palace was the powerful minister An Zhonghui, and his position at the time was the Privy Councilor.

Now, Wang Jun, the Privy Councilor and the Prime Minister, nominated the Academician of the Duanming Palace and the Privy Councilor as the Prime Minister to replace Li Gu and Fan Zhi, who were promoted by Guo Wei. It is obvious that he is replacing the emperor's cronies with his own cronies. This operation has no technical content.

Guo Wei was very unhappy, so he said to him: "The prime minister is the highest-level official in the central government. How can you change him just like that? Let me think about it."

This sentence was already very respectful to Wang Jun, but Wang Jun refused to give up and insisted that Guo Wei order a replacement on the spot. From morning to noon, Wang Jun's words became more and more intense, and his tone became more and more arrogant. He was not begging the emperor, nor was he discussing with the emperor, but ordering the emperor and informing the emperor. You have to agree today, whether you agree or not!
It happened to be the Cold Food Festival that day, so Guo Wei used this as an excuse, saying that he had not eaten yet and let's discuss it after the Cold Food Festival holiday.

Only then did Wang Jun retreat in anger.

(End of this chapter)