History of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms

Chapter 78: A Few Things About “Half-Day Prime Minister”
【Two or Three Things about “Half-Day Prime Minister”】

Huang Chao led his army across most of China, causing irreparable damage to the Tang Dynasty.

At the local level, the Huang Chao Uprising led to a reshuffle of local warlords, pushing the situation of warlord separatism to a climax and laying a solid geopolitical foundation for the subsequent chaos of the "Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms"; at the central level, the "Huang Chao Uprising" became the material for the game between major political forces.

Political struggle made Huang Chao famous, making him more famous than Qiu Fu and Pang Xun; Huang Chao's uprising also fueled the political struggle in the palace. Huang Chao would never have thought that after all his struggles for so many years, the biggest beneficiary was actually a eunuch - Tian Lingzi.

Tian Lingzi first joined forces with Yang Fuguang, another leader of the eunuch group, to attack the civil servant group and drove Zheng Ting, Zheng Congdang, Wang Duo, Cui Anqian and others out of the historical stage.

Later, when the "Tian faction" and the "Yang faction" were about to face the test of internal circulation such as unequal distribution of spoils, Yang Fuguang died in time. So Tian Lingzi launched an offensive against the "Yang faction" eunuch forces without scruples, first squeezing out Yang Fugong in the court, and then disintegrating the "Eight Zhongwu Clan" outside the court, and cleanly won the final victory of the "Tian-Yang struggle".

At this point, no one in the court, whether it was the civil service group or the eunuch group, could compete with Tian Lingzi. Tian Lingzi almost completely controlled the central court. It was not until this time that Tian Lingzi felt relieved to put the "return of the emperor to Chang'an" on the agenda.

First, he appointed "half-day prime minister" Wang Hui as the governor of the Daming Palace and the envoy of the capital's pacification and repair... In short, he was the contractor of the royal decoration team, responsible for rebuilding the Chang'an Palace.

Comrade Wang Hui's deeds are very inspiring. The old man passed the imperial examination and became a Jinshi in the reign of Emperor Xuanzong. He worked as a secretary to the then Prime Minister Xu Shang. Later, an opportunity that could change his destiny appeared before him: Emperor Xuanzong wanted to recognize him as his son-in-law.

At that time, the literati and scholars despised the prince consort the most and looked down on those who relied on nepotism to get promoted. The prince consort was the number one gigolo in the world, and marrying a princess was an insult to the ancestors. Wang Hui declined politely. So, Xuanzong found Yu Cong through various channels and asked for the relationship of Hanlin scholar Zheng Hao to finally let Yu Cong take on the important task.

This is an interesting thing about Wang Hui, which makes countless single people envious and jealous.

The second incident also happened during the reign of Emperor Xuanzong. Prime Minister Xu Shang was dismissed and demoted to the post of Jiedushi of Jingnan. Xu Shang admired his secretary very much and relied on him at work. He wanted to take Wang Hui with him and continue to let him serve as his staff.

However, Xu Shang was demoted and sent away on this trip. He was embarrassed to ask Wang Hui for this and did not want to hinder his future.

Unexpectedly, Wang Hui came to visit at this time and offered to accompany his old leader to Jingnan. Xu Shang was delighted and moved. He shook Wang Hui's hand excitedly and trembled for a long time, "You will have a bright future!"

Xu Shang was right. Wang Hui later became the prime minister. However, he only served as prime minister for half a day, setting a world record. This is the third thing Comrade Wang Hui did - "half-day prime minister".

Wang Hui's initiative to accompany his old superior in being demoted and sent to a remote post won him a good reputation in the court. He survived the entire reign of Emperor Yizong, gradually became a Hanlin scholar, and finally made it in the reign of Emperor Xizong and became the prime minister.

The day Wang Hui was appointed as prime minister was the day Huang Chao invaded Chang'an. So Wang Hui was unfortunately only prime minister for half a day. On the same day, Huang Chao entered Chang'an.

Wang Hui and other senior officials such as Yu Cong failed to escape and were captured by the Cao army, who then forced them to serve as prime ministers of the Huang Qi regime.

So Wang Hui pretended to be seriously ill and played deaf and dumb.
When Wang Hui refused to marry the princess, he was already over 12 years old and weak and sickly. This was his excuse for refusing to be a royal consort. It was the end of the first year of Emperor Xizong's Guangming reign (December), and 21 years had passed since Emperor Xuanzong's death! In other words, when Wang Hui was caught by Huang Chao, he was definitely over 60. So as long as his acting skills were good, he could have gotten away with it.

The Huang Chao gang really believed it, but with the attitude that "he could still be saved", they specially invited an old Chinese doctor for Wang Hui, hoping that his physical health could be adjusted to the level where he could serve as an official.

Wang Huize took advantage of the lack of strict supervision and escaped, ran into the river, and then sent a memorial to the Chengdu exile government to report on its work.

Chengdu was very moved. They appointed Wang Hui as the Minister of War and the Envoy of the Four Regions of the Capital, but these were just empty titles. Moreover, the most important "Tong Ping Zhang Shi" disappeared. He was not dismissed, but he did not appear again. In this way, Wang Hui's "Prime Minister" was lost without any reason.

Now, Tian Lingzi was preparing for Emperor Xizong's return to Beijing, and he remembered the experienced comrade Wang Hui, so he gave him the task of repairing Chang'an.

Chang'an, which had been ravaged by war, was almost in ruins. Under the careful and responsible work of Comrade Wang Hui, one-tenth of Chang'an City was finally restored, making the imperial palace habitable. He then reported the progress of the work to the emperor and respectfully invited him to return to the palace.

Tian Lingzi posted an emoji of the boss of the Crocodile Gang in Kung Fu to the eunuch group, "Who else?"

The group should have been silent, but a new eunuch named Cao Zhique (pronounced the same as "que") raised his hand at an inappropriate time, trying to challenge the authority of the old senior Tian Lingzi.

Cao Zhique was originally a rich and courageous young man from Huayuan (now Tongchuan City, Shaanxi Province, north of Chang'an). When Huang Chao captured Chang'an, Cao Zhique fled back to his hometown, gathered local young warriors, and built a fortress camp in the south of the Chuange Mountain to resist the bandits and preserve the land and people.

After gaining a foothold, Cao Zhiqun selected a suicide squad, asked them to practice "reversing the tongue" first, and obtain the Level 4 and Level 6 certificates in Henan and Shandong dialects. Then they changed their clothes and blended into the Cao army, carrying out terrorist attacks under the cover of night.

This "central blossom" terrorist attack achieved amazing results. The grass army was horrified. At first, they thought they had offended the gods and suffered divine punishment. Then they began to suspect each other and randomly arrested "traitors". In short, the grass bandits were unstable and their morale was low.

When the news reached Chengdu, the court praised Cao Zhiqu's heroic behavior and promoted him to the position of Chief Eunuch (the Eunuch of the Ministry of Internal Affairs), and gave him a goldfish bag and a purple robe (a rare skin for officials of the third rank and above). In the eunuch circle, Cao Zhiqu was equivalent to being promoted from a street office to the State Council.

Cao Zhique's courage and strategy were only reflected in military affairs. He knew nothing about politics and had no idea of ​​the power embodied in Tian Lingzi.

First of all, Cao Zhixu believed that he was the first hero in recovering the capital and driving away Huang Chao. What about the two Zhengs, Wang Duo, Yang Fuguang... Don't get me wrong, I'm not targeting anyone, I'm saying that everyone here is garbage.

Secondly, he made no secret of his arrogance and ambition, and he made a lot of irresponsible remarks. Cao Zhiqu publicly claimed that he would conduct a "Doomsday Judgment" on the imperial entourage at Dasan Pass, and would only release those who he liked and looked like decent people, and those treacherous and treacherous people he didn't like would be "purged from the court."

In his words, he was hinting that he was going to use his geographical advantages to launch a coup or a political purge. As for the title of "the treacherous scoundrel around the emperor", Tian Lingzi was naturally worthy of the title.

Cao Zhique openly challenged Tian Lingzi.

A newborn calf is not afraid of a tiger. It’s not that it is not afraid of a tiger, but that it does not know what a tiger is.

Tian Lingzi only handed over a two-inch long piece of paper with Cao Zhiqu's name written on it. This was the summons from the underworld.

Zhu Mei, the governor of Bining, received the note and immediately sent troops to sneak into the Cu'e Mountain to launch a surprise attack on Cao Zhique. Cao Zhique was completely unprepared and was instantly wiped out.

"Who else?"

Everyone was silent, and only followed Tian Lingzi's lead.

In the first month of the fifth year of the Zhonghe reign of the Tang Dynasty (885), the exiled government of Emperor Xizong, escorted by Chen Jingxuan, left Chengdu and headed back to Beijing, arriving at the capital Chang'an on March 3.

Thanks to the book friend "Shang Jianxiu" for the reward and support!



(End of this chapter)