History of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms

Chapter 696: Chai Rong succeeds to the throne
Guo Wei was angry.

To prepare for a rainy day, to protect against the unexpected. What are you going to do? What unexpected event do you want to protect against?
In fact, there was indeed an "unexpected event" at that time - Guo Wei was seriously ill and even missed the morning court (he had difficulty walking and often did not attend the court). Under such circumstances, Wang Yin was in a position to shock the emperor. In fact, Guo Wei had less than a month left before his death.

Guo Wei does not have much time left. He must eliminate the hidden dangers as soon as possible and leave a peaceful world for his successor.

On the 26th day of the twelfth lunar month, Guo Wei, despite his sick body, gritted his teeth and insisted on visiting Zide Hall.

The emperor sat up! All officials came to the court to congratulate him, and Wang Yin also came to the palace to pay his respects. Just after Wang Yin entered the palace, an ambush suddenly appeared and arrested him on the spot. Later, Guo Wei announced that Wang Yin had conspired to use the suburban ceremony to launch a mutiny, stripped Wang Yin of all his official positions and titles, and exiled him to Dengzhou.

Exile? How could Guo Wei allow this cancer to reach Dengzhou alive? Wang Yin was killed as soon as he left the city gate.

Afterwards, Guo Wei ordered Zheng Renhui, the governor of Chanzhou, to go to Weizhou to appease Wang Yin's family. How to "appease"? Answer: Kill. With one cut, it was all over, and from then on, there would be no more worries in the world.

Liu Chengyou slaughtered meritorious officials, which was a sign of his tyranny, stupidity, meanness and dirtiness; Guo Wei slaughtered meritorious officials with reason, evidence and justice.

According to historical records, Guo Wei issued an edict to pardon Wang Yin's family members, but Zheng Renhui killed Wang Yin's son and exiled the rest of the family members to Dengzhou. There are two theories about why Zheng Renhui killed Wang Yin's son. One theory is that Zheng Renhui killed Wang Yin because he coveted Wang Yin's property; the other theory is that when Zheng Renhui came to comfort Wang Yin, Wang Yin's son did not come out to wait for him.

Perhaps there is a third statement, which is closer to the truth: Guo Wei secretly ordered Zheng Renhui to kill him.

Zheng Renhui was introduced in the previous article. He was one of Guo Wei's few direct confidants and one of Guo Wei's think tanks. When Guo Wei was in hiding, the two often talked all night long. After Guo Wei became emperor, he promoted Zheng Renhui to Deputy Privy Envoy and Envoy of the Northern Courtyard of Xuanhui. "Deputy Privy Envoy" obviously divided the power of Privy Envoy Wang Jun, so Wang Jun was always dissatisfied; and then he was sent to govern Chanzhou, which was the southern neighbor of Weizhou, and it was obviously targeting Wang Yin again.

When Zheng Renhui killed Wang Yin's son without authorization, Guo Wei not only did not hold him accountable, but promoted him to Privy Councilor and Tongpingzhangshi. This is very telling.

Guo Wei was a man of foresight. Before his death, he eliminated the two time bombs, Wang Jun and Wang Yin, for his successor, ensuring a smooth transition of supreme power.

On the 29th day of the twelfth lunar month, the third day after Wang Yin was eliminated, Guo Wei, wearing a dragon robe and a crown with tassels on his head, went to the royal ancestral temple to offer sacrifices in a very solemn manner.

At this time, Guo Wei had to be supported by his attendants to walk. He barely climbed the steps and poured wine to offer sacrifices. According to the procedure, Guo Wei had to kneel down and offer wine, but when he bent down, he fainted and was unable to complete the worship. The attendants hurriedly took him away to rescue him, and the sacrificial ceremony had to be completed by Chai Rong instead.

That night, Guo Wei's condition worsened and he was on the verge of death. The imperial doctors continued to rescue him until midnight, and he finally got slightly better and returned from the brink of death.

Another day passed, and it was the first day of the New Year (954), the day when Guo Wei "had something to do in the southern suburbs". Guo Wei dragged his sick body to the southern suburbs of Bianzhou. At this time, he was almost paralyzed, and only his head could move slightly, and it was just a slight nod. All the worship procedures were replaced by the responsible officials.

Guo Wei issued an edict, changing the reign title and granting amnesty.

The fourth year of Guangshun was changed to the first year of Xiande; a general amnesty was issued, and even the "ten unforgivable crimes" were pardoned; all the generals, civil and military officials inside and outside the country were rewarded, and the whole country celebrated; the reputation of Later Liang and Li Congke was restored, and "from now on, the Liang Dynasty and Qingtai Dynasty may not be regarded as false dynasties and false rulers."

Afterwards, Guo Wei came to Chongyuan Hall to receive the title. Feng Dao led all the officials and presented Guo Wei with the title of "Holy, Mighty, Civilized, Military, Benevolent and Virtuous Emperor", and all the officials congratulated him. The ceremony of heavenly worship in the southern suburbs of Bianzhou and the ceremony of receiving the title in Chongyuan Hall were kept simple and abbreviated, "because the emperor was not well".

The process is simple and the rewards are also simple.

This is easy to understand, because the Later Zhou Dynasty wanted to eradicate the Later Han Dynasty's malpractice of extortion and drastically cut rents and taxes, which alleviated the burden on the people, but also significantly reduced the country's fiscal revenue.

When the "Yingtianwu" was abolished, some people proposed to sell the state-owned assets (farmland) of Yingtianwu to farmers, which was the most primitive privatization of state-owned assets. However, Guo Wei directly gave it to the people for free. The relevant departments reminded Guo Wei that the government would lose hundreds of thousands of strings of money! Guo Wei said: "The benefit is for the people, as well as for the country. What should I do with this money!"

In a word, keep the wealth among the people.

The Later Zhou Dynasty was under tremendous financial pressure. On the one hand, its revenue decreased, and on the other hand, years of war and natural disasters led to an increase in fiscal expenditure.

Under such circumstances, Guo Wei's "occurrence in the southern suburbs" could not be compared with Li Siyuan's "Mingzong's prosperous era". Therefore, some soldiers in the imperial army complained privately and resented Guo Wei's stinginess.

Guo Wei was very unhappy when he heard this. He called several key generals to his bedroom and said, "Since I ascended the throne, although I am the emperor, I have always lived a simple life and dressed in a simple and frugal manner. I have used the money I saved to subsidize the imperial guards and have been wholeheartedly improving your quality of life. You are not unaware that the treasury is tight, but now you are actually condoning such a deceitful behavior. What is your intention? You don't care how frugal the emperor is, how poor and weak the country is, or what contributions you have made, but you only want endless rewards. Do you have a clear conscience?"

All the generals knelt in fear and made self-criticisms. After they withdrew, they actively investigated and found out several leaders of the riots and executed them immediately, which calmed the army's complaints.

After eliminating Wang Jun, Guo Wei recalled Chai Rong to the capital and appointed him as the mayor of the capital (Kaifeng Prefecture Yin), and conferred him the title of King of Jin, and began to prepare for succession. After the day of the festival, Chai Rong was appointed as the Minister of the Imperial Court, the Inspector of the Three Departments, and the Minister of the Court, and was responsible for judging the military affairs inside and outside the country. Chai Rong had mastered the military power and was ready to take over.

When Guo Wei was in charge of Weizhou, he admired a junior clerk named Cao Han very much. Cao Han was smart and capable, so Guo Wei arranged him to be Chai Rong's aide and followed Chai Rong to govern Chanzhou.

When Guo Wei transferred Chai Rong to be the prefect of Kaifeng, Cao Han fled from Chanzhou to Bianzhou without receiving any orders.

Chai Rong was surprised, "Why are you here?"

Cao Han said: "You shouldn't ask me why I came, but I should ask why you don't leave."

Chai Rong was even more surprised and hurried to ask him for advice.

Cao Han dismissed the idlers and said to Chai Rong: "Your Majesty, you are the crown prince of the empire. Now the emperor is seriously ill and bedridden, but you don't go to the palace to serve medicine and wait on the sickbed, but instead you are outside dealing with trivial matters!"

(End of this chapter)