History of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms

Chapter 803: Lambs to be slaughtered (Part )

4. Caoze Stone Figurines

4.1 Caoze Shangshu
In the first month of the intercalary year of 953, an ordinary citizen named Shao Tang submitted a memorial to Li Jing, saying that "the Northern Dynasty is respectful, frugal and virtuous, and we are afraid that they may march south, so we should prepare for it."

Chai Rong of the Later Zhou Dynasty was gentle, respectful, frugal and modest, and he cultivated himself and brought peace to the country. What about Li Jing? Although Li Jing's rule could not be said to be politically enlightened, it was not hopeless because he still allowed "people from the grass and marshes to speak out."

Commoners who have not received imperial orders are called grass marshes. Comrade Shao Tang, just an ordinary commoner in Southern Tang, could actually send a private message to the emperor of Southern Tang, which was extremely rare in the feudal period.

Since the Southern Tang lost the Southern Chu, rumors that the Later Zhou was going to invade the south were circulated among the people in Huainan. As mentioned above, a large part of these rumors were spread by Liu Yanzhen, the governor of the Qinghuai Army in Shouzhou, Southern Tang.

Liu Yanzhen levied heavy taxes, abused his power for personal gain, and bent the law in Shouzhou. In order to prevent the court from relocating the garrison and recruiting troops, he deliberately spread rumors that "Later Zhou would soon invade Southern Tang from Shouzhou", creating tension on the border out of thin air. At the same time, he bribed the "Four Evils and Five Demons" with large sums of money to consolidate his rights and interests in Shouzhou.

Historical records do not record information such as Comrade Shao Tang's native place, and we have no way of knowing whether Shao Tang was instructed by Liu Yanzhen.

4.2 Words from the Stone Figurines
At almost the same time, people dug out a stone man in the Huai River. It is said that one day, the stone man suddenly spoke and said that the Zhou people were about to invade the Huai River.

The news spread quickly, and soon reached Li Jing, who "heard it and hated it, and ordered the stone man to be beheaded".

The book hidden in the belly of a fish, the fox howling by the campfire, and later the "one-eyed stone man stirs up the Yellow River and the world rebels", including the "stone figurine speaks", are all deliberately made mysterious. Is the trick of the stone man speaking also more or less involved by director Liu Yanzhen? We also don't know.

Liu Yanzhen had been domineering in Shouzhou for many years until April 955, when he was finally summoned to the court. He was promoted in name only and demoted in reality, and placed in the ranks of the imperial guards, while Liu Renzhan was ordered to succeed him as the governor of Shouzhou.

Why did Li Jing finally make up his mind to get rid of Liu Yanzhen? This has something to do with an imperial physician.

5. A Good Doctor Breaks the Great Wall
Wu Tingshao, also known as Wu Tingyu, was originally an unknown imperial physician who served Xu Zhigao.

Once, Xu Zhigao ate too much soft candy and accidentally choked (because of eating candy, choking in the throat), and all the imperial doctors regretfully said that the treatment was ineffective... At this time, the young intern Wu Tingshao calmly said: "You should use Chushi Decoction."

With the attitude of giving it a try, everyone gave Xu Zhigao a dose of Chushi Decoction, and the medicine really cured his illness, and Xu Zhigao was resurrected with full health and full buffs. From then on, Wu Tingshao became famous overnight.

Later, Xu Zhigao became critically ill due to taking health supplements and was about to leave us prematurely. Wu Tingshao, who was able to bring him back to health, did something that laid the foundation for his lifelong glory. Wu Tingshao sent his confidant to secretly summon Li Jing to the palace to sleep with him. The historical records record: "On Gengwu, the disease was serious. Imperial physician Wu Tingshao sent a letter to summon Qi Wang Jing, who rushed to the palace to serve him... He died that evening..."

As we have introduced in detail in the previous article, Li Jing's road to the throne was full of ups and downs and there were too many uncertainties. Xu Zhigao was really unwilling to pass the throne to him. Although the second son Jingqian had died at that time, the third son Jingsui and the fourth son Jingda were both alive, so it was still unknown who would succeed him.

The old emperor was dying, which was the most critical moment. As the saying goes, it is better to arrive at the right time than to arrive early. First of all, it would not work if you arrive late, because your competitors would arrive first and get the first chance. If you arrive too early, like Li Congrong, he came impatiently before Li Siyuan died, which would not work either.

So at this time, the old emperor's personal eunuchs, maids, imperial doctors and others will become the objects of competition among various forces, in order to obtain the most timely and accurate internal information from them so as to control the situation as soon as possible after the old emperor's death.

Wu Tingshao was indeed a famous doctor. He did not summon him early or late, but on the day when Xu Zhigao died, he urgently notified Li Jing and asked him to "rush in". It was with Wu Tingshao's help that Li Jing was able to ascend the throne smoothly. Therefore, after Li Jing became emperor, he regarded Wu Tingshao as his confidant and trusted him quite a lot.

Later, the powerful official Feng Yanshi suffered from headaches for several days in a row. The doctors were helpless and could only wait for the official announcement that the treatment was ineffective. At this time, Wu Tingshao privately asked the chef about Feng Yanshi's recent diet. The chef told him truthfully that he had eaten a lot of pheasants and partridges recently. Wu Tingshao smiled and said, "Okay, give him two bowls of sweet bean soup."

After drinking a bowl of soup, the effect will be immediate and the disease will be cured.

Everyone was impressed, and colleagues secretly wrote down the two prescriptions to learn from them. When they encountered patients with headaches, they used these prescriptions, but they did not see any effect at all. So they could only humbly ask Wu Tingshao for advice. They had the same symptoms and the same prescriptions, but how come you cured the disease and we cured the disease?
Wu Tingshao explained: "Stomach choking is caused by sweet food, so it is treated with Chushi Decoction; pheasants and partridges both eat Wutou Banxia, ​​so Gandou Decoction is used to remove the poison."

I am not familiar with medicine, so I dare not translate the above sentence randomly, let alone make fun of it. I can only copy the original record of "Spring and Autumn Annals of the Ten Kingdoms".

Not only do I not dare to translate it rashly, but the Ming Dynasty's "Medical Prescriptions" included "Chushi Decoction" in it, quoted this record, and clearly pointed out that "the recipe cannot be verified now", but "Medical Prescriptions" quoted "Huangdi Neijing" and gave its own reasonable speculation: "Neijing said: Sweet things make people full, so their qi overflows, why not make the throat? It also said: Sour is better than sweet, so the treatment method is more than half thought out."

This means that eating too much sweet things can easily cause the qi in the middle to rise, which in turn causes symptoms such as chest tightness and choking. According to the theory of "Five Flavors and Five Elements" in "Huangdi Neijing", "sour overcomes sweet". Sour taste can suppress sweetness, so it can treat choking symptoms caused by excessive consumption of sweet food.

To this day, the medical community is still studying the methods of "sour overcomes sweet" and "bitter creates sweet" to treat diabetes.

Pinellia is a plant, a Chinese herbal medicine. Modern medical research shows that Pinellia is neurotoxic and can cause poisoning even if taken raw. Wild pheasants and partridges eat Pinellia seedlings in the wild. Feng Yansi, a man at the top of the food chain, naturally took all the Pinellia toxins. It is understandable that the neurotoxins cause headaches.

In the Qing Dynasty's "Compendium of Materia Medica", it is recorded that partridge "is slightly poisonous. Those who eat it must be careful about swelling and pain in the throat and head. If this occurs, ginger and licorice should be used to relieve it."

Here, I also advise you not to eat game. We don't know what they eat in the wild. If they eat something poisonous, then according to the bioaccumulation effect, these difficult-to-decompose toxins will accumulate in their bodies, and then the receivers at the top of the food chain will take them all and accumulate in their bodies, eventually causing poisoning symptoms, such as Comrade Feng Yansi. Moreover, they may also receive a variety of parasites. In short, refuse game.

Wu Tingshao helped Li Jing complete an important part of the process of ascending the throne, and was therefore deeply grateful and trusted by Li Jing. He also cured Feng Yansi, a backbone of the "Four Evils and Five Ghosts" with his outstanding medical skills. In addition, he already had the blessing of being a "royal physician", so Wu Tingshao quickly became a close confidant of Li Jing.

As the emperor's confidant, he was usually appointed as a sacrificial official when in the court and as a local military supervisor when out. Wu Tingshao was appointed by Li Jing as the military supervisor of the Qinghuai Army in Shouzhou.

After Wu Tingshao arrived in Shouzhou, he exposed Liu Yanzhen's trick of "crying wolf", which led to the story of Liu Yanzhen being recalled to the court. However, Wu Tingshao went too far and even requested to abolish the "Yan Huai Ba Qian soldiers".

The Huai River is a major natural barrier for the Huainan forces, but it is not a recognized "natural barrier" because during the dry season, the water level of the Huai River drops significantly, and people can even wade through the shallow water areas; and in winter, the river is frozen and the northern army can walk on the ice.

Therefore, every winter and during severe droughts, the people of Huainan would deploy heavy troops in areas where the river water was shallow to guard against sneak attacks from the north, euphemistically calling it "Baqian".

Wu Tingshao had seriously misjudged the current situation. He believed that Later Zhou had just fought the "Battle of Gaoping" with Northern Han and Khitan, and had worries about the north, and had recently used troops against Later Shu in the "Battle of Qin and Feng". Although Later Zhou had won both wars, it had not completely eliminated any enemy. Northern Han, Khitan, and Later Shu still existed, and had reached a consensus on how to deal with Later Zhou, forming a loose "anti-Zhou alliance". Under such circumstances, Later Zhou should not rashly offend the great power in Huainan - Southern Tang.

Since there was no military threat, the "Yuan Huai Ba Qian Bing" lost its meaning. At that time, the Southern Tang Dynasty suffered from famine for many years, and the "Ba Qian" did bring great pressure to the Southern Tang's finances, making the situation even worse. Therefore, Wu Tingshao requested to dismiss them.

Wu Tingshao was indeed a famous doctor who could bring people back to health, but he knew nothing about politics and military affairs. Objectively speaking, Wu Tingshao should bear some responsibility for the strategic misjudgment of the high-level officials of the Southern Tang Dynasty, which directly led to the Southern Tang Dynasty falling into a very passive position at the beginning of the war.

(End of this chapter)