History of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms

Chapter 744: Southern Tang Dynasty
【Southern Tang Dynasty Wu】

After arriving in Shengzhou, Xu Zhigao built a "Lixianyuan" in his official residence to gather books and attract talents from all walks of life. During this period, he found two important advisers - Sun Sheng and Chen Jue.

Sun Sheng's life was full of legends and bitterness. He passed the imperial examination in the Later Liang Dynasty and was an excellent writer and poet. However, he was born with a stutter and was unkempt, so he was discriminated against and excluded by his colleagues. His career was bumpy, so he became a monk in anger.

Sun Sheng particularly admired the Tang Dynasty poet Jia Dao, who was also a monk. He hung a portrait of Jia Dao on the wall of his bedroom. Every day he would report his thoughts to his idol and communicate with the ancients. However, people mistakenly thought that he was practicing some unorthodox practices, so they drove him out of the Taoist temple.

In anger, Mr. Sun took off his Taoist robe and returned to secular life. He came to Zhenzhou and surrendered to Li Cunxu. Not long after, Li Cunxu established the Later Tang Dynasty. Sun Sheng was selected by Prime Minister Dou Luge and became Dou Luge's staff.

Just when Sun Sheng was about to reach the peak of his life, "Emperor Mingzong entered Wei" and Li Cunxu's group fell.

Gold shines wherever it goes. Sun Sheng's knowledge was recognized by the emerging power group and he was selected by the Jiedushi of Xuanwu Army in Bianzhou to become the chief staff of Bianzhou. The Jiedushi of Bianzhou was named Zhu Shouyin.

Soon, Zhu Shouyin plotted a rebellion, which was quickly suppressed. As the chief strategist of Zhu Shouyin's rebellion group, Sun Sheng was listed as a Class A wanted criminal, with his portrait drawn and posted nationwide, and a reward offered for his arrest.

Sun Sheng abandoned his wife and children and fled south alone, eventually escaping across the Huai River and arriving in Huainan, where his wife and children were all killed.

Lu You's "History of Southern Tang" records that Sun Sheng was Li Congrong's staff member, and was involved in the "Li Congrong rebellion case" and exiled to Huainan. "Ten Kingdoms Spring and Autumn" and "New History of the Five Dynasties" say that he was involved in the "Zhu Shouyin rebellion case." In short, he was exiled to Huainan for political asylum.

When crossing the Huai River, there was a small episode: before the boat set sail, a patrolman came to search, took a look at the portrait on the wanted poster in his hand, then looked at Sun Sheng in the crowd, and then slowly approached him. Sun Sheng was strong inside, pretending to be calm, and took care of himself to open his rags, rubbed mud with his hands skillfully, and then concentrated on catching lice with his fingernails and eating them, and also showed a relaxed and happy look. Seeing this, the patrolman stopped, shook his head, and left. Sun Sheng finally arrived in Huainan without any danger.

Sun Sheng's first stop after escaping to Huainan was Shouzhou. Liu Jin, the governor of Shouzhou, saw that he was well-dressed and had a scholarly air, so he personally interviewed him. Although Sun Sheng had fallen to this point, he was still proud and unwilling to serve a small governor, so he pretended to be dumb.

Liu Jin was also very smart. He did not embarrass him, but secretly sent someone to hide in the base of the statue in the temple. Sun Sheng really ran into the temple to pray, and Liu Jin got hold of what he said. Liu Jin thought this man was extraordinary, so he recommended him to Xu Zhigao.

In Shengzhou, Xu Zhigao recruited talented people on the one hand, and on the other hand, he expanded the city wall and built an outer wall with a circumference of 20 miles to strengthen the city defense system.

After some operations in Shengzhou, Xu Zhigao took the second step on the road to usurping power - moving the capital.

Under the advice of his great adviser Song Qiuqiu, Xu Zhigao began to build a palace in Shengzhou, and then forced Yang Pu to move the capital to Shengzhou in order to achieve absolute control over the Southern Wu regime.

After half a year of intensive construction, the Shengzhou Palace was completed.

During this period, Jiang Yanhui sent troops to Jianzhou without authorization. At that time, King Yanjun of Min State favored the treacherous minister Xue Wenjie, who forced the local tyrant Wu Guang to leave. Wu Guang asked for help from Huainan. Jiang Yanhui, the governor of Xinzhou, sent troops to support him without authorization and, together with Wu Guang, surrounded Jianzhou. The Min State army suffered repeated defeats and was about to be conquered by Jiang Yanhui. The previous article "Stories of the Min State" has a detailed introduction.

The reinforcements from the Min Kingdom also used this as an excuse to kill Xue Wenjie. However, at the critical moment when Jianzhou was about to be conquered, Huainan urgently ordered Jiang Yanhui to withdraw his troops. The cooked duck flew away. Not only did they fail to obtain Jianzhou, but they were pursued by the reinforcements from the Min Kingdom. Huainan suffered extremely heavy losses and was extremely passive in diplomacy. They had to apologize to the Min Kingdom.

Why did Huainan suddenly withdraw its troops?
The reason is very simple. Jiang Yanhui is Yang Xingmi's son-in-law, and has a very close personal relationship with Linchuan Prince Yang Meng.

Yang Meng, the third son of Yang Xingmi, was a man of both civil and military talents, with a noble bearing and the charm of Yang Xingmi when he was young, which made Xu Wen quite afraid of him. At that time, facing Xu Wen's dictatorship, Yang Meng was deeply distressed and publicly lamented that his father and brother's foundation had been usurped by treacherous officials.

After hearing this, Xu Wen sent Yang Meng away.

After Yang Wei passed away, according to the order of succession, the third son Yang Meng should have succeeded to the throne. However, Xu Wen forcibly deposed the eldest son and enthroned the youngest son, supporting the fourth son Yang Pu.

From Xu Wen to Xu Zhigao, they had always suppressed Yang Meng, fearing that he would revive the Yang family.

Now, Jiang Yanhui is showing signs of annexing Jianzhou. Xu Zhigao is worried that after Jiang Yanhui takes Jianzhou, he will use Jianzhou as a revolutionary base and support Yang Meng in seizing power. Therefore, he urgently orders the withdrawal of troops, trying to prevent Jiang Yanhui from seizing Jianzhou at all costs.

In Yangzhou, Xu Zhigao had already spread rumors of moving the capital to test the attitudes of the officials. As expected, all civil and military officials were unanimously opposed.

Zhou Zong, who had always supported Xu Zhigao, also advised him not to do so, because moving the capital would not solve Xu Zhigao's fundamental problem. His fundamental problem lay in the "two cores", namely, Yangzhou and Shengzhou were equally important. After moving the capital to Shengzhou, Yangzhou would also require Xu Zhigao to distract his attention.

How can this problem be solved once and for all? The answer is to usurp power, replace the Yang family's legal status, and legitimately merge the two.

The Yang family had deep roots in Huainan and had no major faults, but Xu Zhigao's rise was too rapid, and his foundation was weak and poor, so it was not advisable to take him down quickly. Even Xu Wen, who was one of the "Thirty-Six Heroes", had to wait patiently, let alone Xu Zhigao who had an even shallower foundation.

Therefore, Zhou Zong, Song Qiuqiu and other direct advisers of Xu Zhigao all suggested that Xu Zhigao should be patient and wait until the next Yang ruler came to power after Yang Pu left.

Xu Zhigao accepted this suggestion. However, he couldn't wait any longer.

(End of this chapter)