History of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms

Chapter 709: A Leaf Falls into the Imperial Ditch with the Wind 4
Wang Yanxi sent his nephew Wang Jiye to lead the crowd in pursuit, and they chased him all the way to Wang Jipeng's hiding place.

According to records, Wang Jipeng bent his bow and put arrows on the ground, resisted stubbornly, and shot several people to death. It seems that after shooting himself with the shaluo, he practiced archery hard. Later, the pursuers gradually gathered. Wang Jipeng knew that the situation was hopeless, so he threw his bow to the ground, pointed at Wang Jiye, and angrily shouted: "Where is your integrity as a subject? (Where is your integrity as a subject?)"

Wang Jiye's words left Wang Jipeng speechless, "If a ruler does not have the virtues of a ruler, how can a subject have loyalty?"

When the ruler is incompetent, the ministers are treacherous; when the ruler is wise, the ministers are upright. What kind of emperor are you? Don't you know what's going on? You are a tyrant ruler, and I am a treacherous minister. We are both eating meat with our mouths full - don't even say we are fat.

Wang Jiye's next words instantly broke Wang Jipeng's defense, "The new emperor is my uncle, and the old emperor is my cousin. Of course, an uncle is closer than a cousin. Don't say anything, just follow me."

Wang Jipeng sighed and surrendered.

When they reached Tuozhuang (north of Fuzhou), the team stopped to rest. Wang Jiye treated Wang Jipeng to good wine and food, saying, "After you have eaten your fill, you can set off on your journey." After getting Wang Jipeng drunk, Wang Jiye strangled him with a rope, and then killed Li Chunyan, the princes, his younger brother Wang Jigong and others.

The remaining troops of Chenwei fled to the Wuyue Kingdom.

The "expert" Chen Shouyuan attempted to escape but failed and was killed; Lin Xing's deceptive tricks were exposed and he was exiled to Quanzhou, and Wang Yanxi sent people to kill him.

Lian Chongyu arrested Cai Shoumeng, the Minister of Personnel and Judge of the Three Departments, and executed him on charges of selling official positions and titles. Cai Shoumeng was corrupt under orders, so his death was a little unfair.

Wang Yanxi proclaimed himself the governor of Fuzhou and the king of Min, issued a general amnesty and changed the reign title from "Tongwen Year 4" to "Yonglong Year 1", announced that the imperial guards were the culprits of the mutiny and regicide, and gave Wang Jipeng the posthumous title of "Holy, Divine, Blessed, Wise, Civilized, Guangwu, Yingdao, Dahongxiao Emperor" and the temple name Kangzong. He sent envoys to the neighbors to express his condolences, and at the same time sent merchants to take a shortcut to present to the Later Jin, expressing his willingness to pay tribute to the Later Jin and become a vassal of the Later Jin.

The Kingdom of Min officially entered the period of Wang Yanxi.

Wang Jipeng is the upgraded version of Wang Yanjun, while Wang Yanxi is the ultimate upgraded version of Wang Jipeng. The weasel and the mouse are rubbing shoulders, and each wave is worse than the last. When Wang Yanxi first came to power, he underwent a transformation.

【The Emperor Behind Closed Doors】

To be honest, in terms of diplomacy, Wang Yanxi is slightly better than Wang Jipeng. Unlike Wang Jipeng who is fickle, Wang Yanxi is hypocritical.

At the beginning of his reign, Wang Yanxi took the initiative to dissolve the Central Plains Dynasty (Later Jin), requested to restore relations, and expressed his willingness to be a vassal. In fact, Wang Yanxi was a closed-door emperor who set up hundreds of officials in Fujian and all cultural relics and systems were the same as those of the emperor.

But this is his cleverness. Big countries need face, small countries need substance. As long as he submits to the Central Plains on the surface, he will gain the recognition and support of the Central Plains dynasty. Although this support is only on the surface, the recognition of the Central Plains dynasty is an incomparable political wealth for the Min Kingdom and the foundation of Wang Yanxi's legal system.

Prior to this, Wang Jipeng sent Zheng Yuanbi to accompany Lu Sun back to the Central Plains. He mocked Shi Jingtang and damaged the relationship between the two countries. Shanxi and Fujian broke off diplomatic relations and Zheng Yuanbi was also detained.

Precisely because the two countries had lost their regular diplomatic channels, Wang Yanxi could only send merchants to take a shortcut to secretly contact the Later Jin officials, admit their mistakes, and take the initiative to show goodwill.

Zheng Yuanbi also cleverly shifted the blame for the severance of diplomatic relations onto Wang Jipeng. Well, since Wang Jipeng had been overthrown and the new ruler of Fujian was willing to improve relations, why not just take advantage of the situation?

Shi Jingtang gave Zheng Yuanbi a lot of gifts and sent him back to the country, which was a positive response to Wang Yanxi. So Wang Yanxi sent people to contact the Later Jin Dynasty again, denying that he had proclaimed himself emperor, saying that it was done by Wang Jipeng, who was ignorant of the world. I am different from him. I am very obedient.

The Later Jin Dynasty appointed Wang Yanxi as the military governor of Fuzhou, concurrently the minister of state and the king of Min. From then on, the diplomatic relations between the two countries were normalized (940).

In October of the following year (941), Wang Yanxi presented the Later Jin Dynasty with 10 taels of platinum, ivory tusks, and other gifts such as agarwood and tortoise shells as a thank-you gift to express his gratitude for the Later Jin Dynasty's reward; he also presented taels of platinum, ingots of fine gauze, and other items as tribute for the Double Ninth Festival; he also presented ingots of gauze as "duzhi tax", which was the "national tax" that local vassal states should pay to the central government.

When it comes to pretending to be good, if Wang Yanxi is second to none, no one dares to claim to be first.

But before that, Wang Yanxi proclaimed himself the Emperor of Min, and in the same month when he paid tribute to the Later Jin, Wang Yanxi announced that he would take the throne. The Later Jin could only turn a blind eye.

A year later (942), Shi Jingtang of the Later Jin Dynasty passed away and Shi Chonggui ascended the throne. Wang Yanxi presented two thousand taels of silver ingots, six flower drums, ten ivory tusks, two hundred pieces of cicada yarn, agarwood, pepper and cardamom, and four thousand taels of platinum and ten catties of sea clams as tribute for the Dragon Boat Festival...

Wang Yanxi spent a lot of money to maintain the relationship between Shanxi and Fujian.

Of course, Wang Yanxi's cleverness also lies in the fact that he is not a devoted lover, but a philanderer. Not only did he pay tribute to the Later Jin Dynasty, he also flirted with Huainan. However, the relationship between Min, Huainan and Wuyue was a little more complicated, which will be mentioned later.

In general, in terms of diplomacy, Wang Yanxi still behaved like a small country should, with the purpose of being two-faced, a slave to three surnames, and obeying whoever feeds you.

Financial fraud

The maintenance of diplomatic relations requires real money. As listed above, platinum and silver are often measured in thousands of taels. Later, Wang Yanxi's personal extravagance will be mentioned. In short, whether it is external public relations or personal expenses, it is a bottomless pit. Therefore, the financial problems faced by Wang Yanxi during his reign were only more prominent than those during the reigns of Wang Yanjun and Wang Jipeng, and Wang Yanxi's solution was also to shift the oppression and plunder the people.

Wang Yanxi asked the Minister of Finance (National Planning Commissioner) Chen Kuangfan if he had any solution to the fiscal deficit. Chen Kuangfan set a goal on the spot: to make a daily income of 10,000 yuan.

Wang Yanxi was very happy and immediately conferred on him the title of Minister of Rites.

Chen Kuangfan did not produce wealth, but was only a carrier of wealth. In fact, he did not have any very clever economic means, but simply raised taxes in a crude way, raising commercial taxes several times, making the people miserable.

Once, Wang Yanxi held a banquet for all his ministers. During the banquet, Wang Yanxi personally toasted Chen Kuangfan and praised him, saying: "Pearls and jades can be obtained by seeking. But people like Chen Kuangfan are simply living treasures among people, and they are hard to find!"

Not long after, Chen Kuangfan checked his abacus and broke out in a cold sweat, because even if the commercial tax was increased several times, it was still impossible to achieve the goal of "making tens of thousands of dollars a day".

Then, Chen Kuangfan came up with another bad idea: embezzling public funds. He embezzled funds from various government departments and covered up the truth by falsifying accounts.

(End of this chapter)