History of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms

Chapter 715 Zhu Lian's Second Coup 2
The recent experience also made Zhu and Lian believe in what Queen Li said, "Please show us a way forward, Queen!"

"You know."

A few days later, the opportunity came. Queen Li's father Li Zhen fell ill, and Wang Yanxi went to visit him.

Zhu Wenjin and Lian Chongyu had secretly arranged for the soldiers of Konghe Army to ambush. When Wang Yanxi appeared, the ambushers set out and assassinated Wang Yanxi.

Some say that Wang Yanxi was assassinated when he was visiting his father-in-law who was ill, while other historical records say that he was assassinated while he was traveling. In short, he was "pulled off the horse and killed" and was stabbed to death on horseback before he had time to dismount.

Zhu and Lian summoned all the civil and military officials in the Jinluan Palace and announced: "The sages of the Three Kings of Fujian worked hard to establish the foundation of the Fujian Kingdom. Unexpectedly, their descendants were dissolute and immoral, and ruined their ancestors' foundation. Now, the Wang family has been abandoned by God. We should support someone with good character to inherit the throne."

All the civil and military officials bowed their heads and remained silent. The scene was very awkward for a while.

Lian Chongyu, the leader of the atmosphere group, took the lead and raised his arms to recommend Zhu Wenjin as the emperor. Under the thunderous applause of Lian Chongyu alone, Zhu Wenjin ascended the throne, changed into the emperor's crown, and faced south and back to north. Lian Chongyu led the civil and military officials to bow to the north again and after a simple coronation ceremony, Zhu Wenjin announced that he would take over the Min Kingdom and called himself "King of Min".

Afterwards, Zhu Wenjin ordered the massacre of all the royal family members, including Wang Yanxi and more than 50 others. Interestingly, the mastermind behind the scenes, Queen Li and the prince Wang Yacheng, were also killed. Playing with fire only to get burned.

From then on, except for King Yanzheng of Jianzhou, the descendants of the "Three Kings of Fujian" were almost all slaughtered.

Zhu Wenjin appointed Lian Chongyu to take charge of the imperial guards (the total six armies). Zheng Yuanbi, the Minister of Rites and the Judge of the Three Departments, refused to submit to Zhu Wenjin and planned to flee to Jianzhou and seek refuge with Wang Yanzheng, but was killed by Zhu Wenjin.

As soon as Zhu Wenjin took office, he carried out a comprehensive reform, such as releasing palace maids, stopping most civil engineering projects, etc. In short, everything was the opposite of the Wang Yanxi period. Objectively speaking, Zhu Wenjin did change the various malpractices that had existed since Wang Jipeng and Wang Yanxi.

After Zhu Wenjin came to power, he had to consolidate his rule both domestically and abroad. Domestically, there were two directions: central and local.

Fortunately, the Min Kingdom was not large. In their own words, the so-called "central court" had no more than a hundred people, and as for the local governments, there were currently only Quanzhou, Zhangzhou, and Tingzhou.

Zhu Wenjin sent envoys to Huainan to inform them of the domestic situation and request to establish friendly diplomatic relations with Huainan. Huainan imprisoned his envoys and seriously considered sending troops to attack.

Zhu Wenjin sent another envoy to the Later Jin Dynasty, claiming to be the governor of the Weiwu Army and paying tribute to the Later Jin Dynasty. The Later Jin Dynasty was in the middle of the first and second battles of the "Jin-Liao War" with the Khitan. Faced with the Min Kingdom's vassalage, Shi Chonggui readily agreed and appointed Zhu Wenjin as the governor of the Weiwu Army in Fuzhou and the governor of the Min Kingdom. Soon after, he was also appointed as the co-prime minister and the king of the Min Kingdom.

Although facing the military threat from the powerful neighbor Huainan, Zhu Wenjin received strong support from the great power in the Central Plains, the Later Jin. This was both a victory and a sorrow for Zhu Wenjin. Because in the eyes of the Later Jin, he was just a tool to contain Huainan to prevent Huainan and Khitan from attacking the Central Plains from the north and south. Later facts also proved this point. Huainan was too mired in the war with the Min Kingdom to look north.

In the central court, Zhu Wenjin vigorously promoted his own confidants and won over officials with real power and prestige. He gave the Privy Councilor Bao Sirun the title of Tongpingzhangshi, appointed the imperial guards general Huang Shaopo as the governor of Quanzhou, and appointed the imperial guards general Cheng Wenwei as the governor of Zhangzhou. The governor of Tingzhou, Xu Wenzhen, took the initiative to surrender the city.

At this point, Quanzhou, Zhangzhou and Tingzhou were also controlled by Zhu Wenjin.

Only Zheng Yuanbi, the Minister of Rites and Judge of the Three Departments, refused to submit to Zhu Wenjin. He planned to flee to Jianzhou and seek refuge with Wang Yanzheng, but was mercilessly killed by Zhu Wenjin.

Although Zhu Wenjin's coup was rather hasty, overall, the situation was stabilized in a very short period of time. After all, it was only a four-state area, and at most it was just a vassal state.

According to historical records, on the eve of Wang Shenzhi's entry into Fuzhou, a supernatural event occurred in Taolin Village of Fuzhou: an earthquake occurred in the middle of the night, accompanied by a sound like hundreds of drums beating at the same time. After dawn the next day, people were surprised to find that all the rice in the fields were stuck upside down in the soil.

After this incident, Wang Shenzhi first entered Fuzhou and then pacified the entire Fujian region.

A few months before Zhu Wenjin and Lian Chongyu launched the coup, the same supernatural event happened again in Taolin Village. People were quite surprised and said that the signs of the rise and fall of the Wang family were exactly the same.

The saying that "the fate of a country rises and falls like a seedling" is not quite accurate, because although Wang Yanxi was destroyed, there was still a Wang Yanzheng in Jianzhou. This supernatural event may be a good omen for Wang Yanzheng's rise.

Wang Yanzheng established the Yin Kingdom, continuing the Wang family's political power, but also continuing the Wang family's various shortcomings.

Since the so-called "Great Yin Kingdom" was just a tiny country in Jianzhou, its people were poor and its overall strength was relatively weak. It had been at war with Fuzhou for a long time. It had fought three major battles so far (the Battle of Jianzhou, the Battle of Tingzhou, and the Battle of Fuzhou). Small-scale border conflicts and frictions had never stopped. The huge war consumption made the finances of the Yin Kingdom even more difficult.

Historical records state that "Although Yin was established as a country, it was actually a state. The land was small and the people were poor, and the army was constantly on the move."

The hostility with its two major neighboring countries (Wuyue and Huainan) made it even more difficult for the Yin State to move forward.

As a result, Wang Yanzheng began to impose heavy taxes and extort money, and to squeeze the people dry.

First, Wang Yanzheng also adopted the method of "casting big coins" to shamelessly and covertly grab wealth. According to the records of Quan Pu, Wang Yanzheng cast two kinds of large iron coins at that time, one is "Tian De Tong Bao" and the other is "Tian De Chong Bao". The difference between the two is that there is a "Yin" character on the north side of "Chong Bao".

Secondly, they appoint officials who are good at making money and drain the pond to catch fish.

His direct general Yang Sigong was deeply favored because Yang Sigong was not only good at fighting, but also good at extorting money.

Yang Sigong's method of amassing wealth was simple and crude, so plain and unpretentious, in one word: tax increase! Perhaps inspired by Wang Jipeng, Yang Sigong also set tax items for all resources in the territory, farmland, mountains, forests, lakes, rivers, etc., all of which were taxed, and all commodities such as fish, shrimp, fruits, vegetables, etc. were also taxed.

In a nutshell, items that were not subject to tax before are now subject to tax; items that were previously subject to tax have now doubled.

The people of Jianzhou gave him a nickname: Yang Bo Pi.

Pan Chengyou almost lost his life for advising Wang Yanzheng. After Wang Yanzheng founded the country, he promoted Pan Chengyou to prime minister. Facing Wang Yanzheng's various tyrannies, Pan Chengyou once again made a memorial to advise him.
(End of this chapter)