History of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms

Chapter 878 Zhou Xingfeng's Governance of Chu (Part )
"The He Jingshan Case"

He Jingshan, a Jinshi in the late Tang Dynasty, was previously used by Wang Kui as an aide and chief think tank (secretary). He Jingshan despised Zhou Xingfeng very much, and Zhou Xingfeng was quite resentful of this. After Zhou Xingfeng replaced Wang Kui, he "sent" He Jingshan to be the magistrate of Yiyang County. Soon, with the hard work of the intelligence department, he caught a small mistake of He Jingshan. Zhou Xingfeng immediately tied him up and took him to the riverside, saying to him, "You used to serve Wang Kui, and now Wang Kui is dead. You report to Lord Dragon for me, and you don't have to come back after the report (and report to Lord Dragon for me, don't come back)."

Then they threw He Jingshan into the river and drowned him.

"Deng Xunmei Case"

During the reign of Shi Jingtang of the Later Jin Dynasty, Li Ruoxu, the Minister of Works, came to Southern Chu on a business trip and discovered two Hunan talents, one of whom was Meng Binyu and the other was Deng Xunmei. Meng Binyu was a self-recommended person who submitted his poetry collection to Li Ruoxu; Deng Xunmei was "more famous than Zhu Wanjuan". At that time, there was a great scholar in Hunan named Zhu Ang, who was nicknamed "Zhu Wanjuan". After reading Deng Xunmei's articles, Zhu Wanjuan felt ashamed of himself, and Deng Xunmei got his name from this. According to the "History of the Song Dynasty", "Zhu Wanjuan" refers to Zhu Zundu, a great bibliophile at the time, and Zhu Ang's nickname was "Xiao Wanjuan", which was as famous as "Zhu Wanjuan". None of this is important. In short, Deng Xunmei's knowledge has been fully and widely recognized.

Li Ruoxu recommended the two to go to Beijing to take the imperial examination, and as a result, both of them passed the examination and became Jinshi. It is said that Deng Xunmei was the third place winner that year.

However, Deng Xunmei had two minor flaws. The first was that he was eccentric and "not liked by his colleagues". He had flaws in his interpersonal relationships and was not popular. The second was that he was ugly and had a hunchback. People nicknamed him "Deng Tuo", which was a fatal flaw in the officialdom at that time.

Because of these two shortcomings, Deng Xunmei was never reused by the court. Not long after, Deng Xunmei left Luoyang in disappointment and returned to his hometown in Hunan. Later, he was finally employed by Zhou Xingfeng as a post inspector.

What is this position? In the Tang Dynasty, a post station was set up every thirty miles. The main roads were called post stations, and the small roads were called guan. The general post station was called guanyi. At first, there was a "post commander" as the person in charge of the post station. Later, it was changed to a post station envoy. Under the post station envoy, there was a post station patrol officer. The patrol officer was also an assistant to the Jiedushi, Guanchashi, Fangyushi, and Tuanlianshi, and was below the judge and the magistrate.

In short, Deng Xunmei's job is equivalent to today's highway service area security captain.

Deng Xunmei had two classmates (who passed the imperial examination together) who had already become high-ranking officials in the Central Plains dynasty, Wang Pu and Li Fang.

There is no need to introduce Wang Pu much. He was the prime minister of the Later Zhou Dynasty. He compiled "Tang Huiyao" and "Five Dynasties Huiyao" and created the "Huiyao" style. Li Fang was a Hanlin scholar in the Later Zhou Dynasty, a secretary in the reign of Emperor Taizu of Song Dynasty, and the prime minister in the reign of Emperor Taizong of Song Dynasty. He participated in the compilation of "Taiping Yulan", "Wenyuan Yinghua" and "Taiping Guangji".

When they heard about the unfortunate situation of their schoolmate, the Hunan talent and top student Deng Xunmei, they both sighed. Wang Pu wrote a poem "To Deng Xunmei" which said:

"The returning geese from Hengyang bid farewell to Chonghu, carrying a letter from a friend.

Suddenly seeing his name, tears welled up in my eyes. I hadn’t heard from him for more than ten years.

I have ascended the Yellow Pavilion in colorful clothes, while Mr. Baishe is still repairing his old residence.

Looking southwards to Jingmen, thousands of miles away, the evening clouds overlap and fill the clear sky. "

Only then did Zhou Xingfeng realize that his security captain was actually a classmate and good friend of Wang Pu and Li Fang, so he slightly increased his salary to show his respect for the literati.

In the early years of the Northern Song Dynasty, Li Fang was demoted for some reason and came to Hunan to reminisce with his old classmate Deng Xunmei.

Old classmates who had not seen each other for many years, with completely different life situations, had wine, tears and stories in the pot. The two of them wrote poems and drank wine, and sang and cried from morning to night. Later, Li Fang proposed to Zhou Xingfeng to recommend Deng Xunmei to be an official in the Song Dynasty. Zhou Xingfeng agreed on the surface, but poisoned Deng Xunmei to death during a farewell party.

Another version is that Zhou Xingfeng sent people to disguise as bandits and break into the house to kill people in order to silence Deng Xunmei.

In short, Zhou Xingfeng killed Deng Xunmei because he suspected that Deng Xunmei was secretly in contact with the Song Dynasty, colluding with foreign countries, selling out his master for fame, and working as a "Chu traitor". Even if this was not the case, Deng Xunmei had never been successful under his command, and if he became successful in the Song Dynasty, he would definitely take revenge on him, which was Zhou Xingfeng's motive for killing him.

When the people of Chu heard this, they all felt sad.

Kill those who threaten him, kill corrupt officials, kill those who offend him, kill ordinary people... To put it nicely, Zhou Xingfeng "is too strict in his use of the law."

According to records, his wife, Mrs. Deng, was ugly but virtuous. She always advised him that if he continued like this, he would be deserted by his friends and relatives and become a lonely man.

Zhou Xingfeng was furious and said, "What do you, a woman, know?"
The wife got angry and went back to her parents' home. Zhou Xingfeng sent people to invite her back many times, but Deng refused to come back.

One day, Deng suddenly wore the blue cloth skirt that ordinary peasant women wore, and led a few tenants to the general's mansion to pay taxes.

After hearing this, Zhou Xingfeng hurried out of the house and said, "My aunt, you have brought shame to my old age!"

Deng spoke righteously, saying that one thing should be treated separately and that it is the law to pay rent for farming. Just because you are a military governor, you cannot give your family the privilege of rent exemption. Everyone is equal before the law.

Zhou Xingfeng's face turned red and white, feeling very embarrassed.

The next day, Zhou Xingfeng went to the fields and apologized to his wife, saying, "We are rich now, why do you have to suffer so much? Come back to the city with me and ride on the people's heads and do whatever you want."

Deng replied, "Just because you are rich and powerful, do you mean you have to be detached from the masses? Whenever farmers fail to pay rent, they are whipped. Now that you are rich and powerful, have you forgotten the hard times? Have you forgotten the sufferings of the people?"

Zhou Xingfeng knew that he was in the wrong, so he signaled to his concubines. The concubines and maids immediately lifted Deng onto the sedan chair, held her down, and said, "Let's go."

Deng shouted, "You are too strict in your law. People are not loyal to you. There will be disasters in the future. The reason why I want to stay in the countryside is so that I can escape easily!"

Zhou Xingfeng suddenly realized what was going on and was grateful for Deng's good intentions. He then restrained himself a little.

The father of this Deng was named "Guangyuan". When Ma ruled Chu, he was a judge (a minor official of the eighth or ninth rank) and married his daughter to Zhou Xingfeng. In the "Zizhi Tongjian", it is "Deng", while in the "Song History" and "Sanchu Xinlu", it is "Pan", and in "Jiuguo Zhi" and "Shiguo Chunqiu", it is "Yan". We have already said a lot of negative information about Zhou Xingfeng, and below we will count down more of his negative information.

Among Zhou Xingfeng’s many dark histories, the records about how he came to power are the most sinister and sensational.

Let's first look at "Zizhi Tongjian Kaoyi", which is a byproduct of Sima Guang's compilation of "Zizhi Tongjian". It can be regarded as a supplement and expansion of "Zizhi Tongjian". In "Kaoyi", Sima Guang quoted "Huxiang Ma's Story":
When Wang Kui was ordered by Chai Rong to attack Ezhou, suddenly tens of thousands of bees gathered on Wang Kui's umbrella. Zhou Xingfeng was delighted to see this, and then he secretly conspired with Pan Shusi, Zhang Wenbiao and others, saying: "I think the monster has entered the umbrella, which is an ominous sign. I am afraid that this trip will be dangerous. If this is true, we will die without a burial place. If the three of us work together to protect the Ma family's foundation (occupy Southern Chu) and conspire for wealth and honor, wouldn't it be wonderful?"

Pan Shusi and Zhang Wenbiao immediately understood Zhou Xingfeng's intention, so the three of them secretly formed an alliance and conspired to achieve great things together.

Afterwards, Wang Kui ordered his trusted confidant, the deputy envoy of the camp, Mao Li, to be the commander of the army, with Pan Shusi and Zhang Wenbiao as the vanguard, to attack Huainan in accordance with the imperial edict. The officials of the counties along the way prepared good wine and meat to reward the soldiers as usual, but the commander Mao Li was in a hurry to march and did not allow them to stop, which made the soldiers quite complained.

Pan Shusi and Zhang Wenbiao took the opportunity to incite the soldiers to mutiny, tied Mao Li and took him to Zhou Xingfeng, and then reported to Wang Kui that there was a mutiny. Wang Kui was very frightened, so he hurried back to Langzhou, but unexpectedly Pan Shusi chased him to Langzhou and killed him.

Pay attention, here are the key points: Zhou Xingfeng had long ago colluded with Pan Shusi, plotting to assassinate Wang Kui and usurp power.

Let’s look at the records in “Sanchu Xinlu”:

As early as the second stage of the "Restoration Movement", when the "Ten Brothers" expelled the Southern Tang garrison and occupied Tanzhou and Langzhou, Wang Kui led 50,000 troops to attack Chenzhou in the south to expel the Southern Han invaders. Zhou Xingfeng said to his confidants: "Wang Kui will definitely go there and never come back, and since he has asked me to stay in Tanzhou, I will achieve my hegemony."

Soon, Wang Kui was defeated and killed, and Zhou Xingfeng replaced Wang Kui.

Both "The Stories of the Hunan-Xiang Ma Family" and "New Records of the Three Chus" have many contradictions in their records about Zhou Xingfeng's "conspiracy theory" in terms of time, place, and events. They basically fall into the category of "false at first glance" and cannot stand up to scrutiny.

However, although the specific contents of these records are not exactly the same, the core ideas are highly similar, that is, Zhou Xingfeng was a sinister and cunning villain who had long had rebellious intentions. He first used Wang Kui's hand to kill the "Ten Brothers of Brotherhood", and then teamed up with Pan Shusi and Zhang Wenbiao to fight Wang Kui, and then silenced Pan Shusi.

Do you feel that Zhou Xingfeng’s image has plummeted in an instant?

Why is there such a record? We have to mention a man named Cao Yan.

After Zhou Xingfeng took charge of Hunan, Cao Yan offered his works many times in order to seek an official position. We already know that Zhou Xingfeng's "respecting the wise and humble" was just a political gesture. Exiling Xu Zhongya, drowning He Jingshan, killing Deng Xunmei... are enough to show Zhou Xingfeng's true attitude towards literati and scholars. Moreover, the above three people are all top students with real talents and knowledge, while Cao Yan is only half-baked and his level is worrying, so he has never been appreciated by Zhou Xingfeng.

After many unsuccessful submissions, Cao Yan, who had nowhere else to turn, had to return to his hometown to make a living and became a rural teacher in the village. To put it nicely, he was a teacher. In fact, at the beginning of the book, Zhu Wen's father "Zhu Wujing" popularized the income level and social status of rural teachers, so Cao Yan's current situation is struggling on the survival line, with no food to eat and no clothes to cover his body.

After Zhou Xingfeng's death, Zhang Wenbiao rebelled. Zhang Wenbiao promoted Cao Yan to be his aide, and Cao Yan finally got his chance to shine. But soon, Zhang Wenbiao was killed, and the two lakes region was annexed by the Song Dynasty. As the chief military advisor of the "Zhang Wenbiao traitor group", Cao Yan had no choice but to flee.

Not until there was a general amnesty did he dare to return to civilized human society.

Cao Yan experienced the turmoil and demise of the separatist regimes in Hubei and Hunan, and was acquainted with many "shocking secrets". The titles of these posts were either "If you don't forward this, you are not a Hunanese", "The Later Zhou will be silent when they read it, and the Song Dynasty will cry when they read it", or "The Song Dynasty was finally shocked. It turned out that Zhou Xingfeng did this"... Combined with his own painful experience of wandering for most of his life, Cao Yan had a lot of thoughts, one after another, so he came up with an idea that he wanted to write a book.

Forget it, he can’t even finish the book, what is he going to write?

He actually wrote a book called "Stories of the Ma Family in Hunan and Xiang", which consisted of 20 volumes. How was the quality of this book? Comrade Sima Guang gave his evaluation:
"Yan Ben is a mean man, his words are vulgar, he did not intend to write a book, so the narrative is upside down, contradictory, and he uses nothing as something, which is countless."

Suspicious motives, rubbish writing, disordered structure, self-contradiction, numerous loopholes, distorted values...

What historians hate and despise the most is that Cao Yan deliberately distorted the facts and discredited Zhou Xingfeng. Looking back on his miserable life, Cao Yan put the blame on Zhou Xingfeng. If Zhou Xingfeng could give him a position, how could he endure the hardship of being a rural teacher? And how could he mistakenly board Zhang Wenbiao's pirate ship and then become a national A-level wanted criminal? He was poor all his life because of Zhou Xingfeng!
So Sima Guang continued, "I have always resented Zhou Xingfeng, and I have slandered him a lot... All the serious crimes of Xingfeng were attributed to Yan Yun."

Sima Guang believed that the "fight with Wang Kui" incident was an independent accident, and the reason was simple: Pan Shusi was blackmailed by Wang Kui's minions, and he was afraid and rebelled to save his life, and Zhou Xingfeng was unaware of this. However, Cao Yan forcibly tied Zhou Xingfeng into the conspiracy theory and fabricated it out of thin air.

When Cao Yan finished writing, it was already the reign of Emperor Taizong, and Cao Yan presented this "masterpiece" to Emperor Taizong. Emperor Taizong glanced through it and sighed, "Apart from the content, this old man is quite pitiful."

"Taizong took pity on him because he was poor and old, and appointed him as the Chief of the Ministry of Works." The Chief of the Ministry of Works, also known as the "Secretary of the Ministry of Works", was a minor official of the sixth or seventh rank, and in the early Northern Song Dynasty it was a sinecure for the elderly, with only a salary but no actual work. From this, it can be seen that Zhao Guangyi was completely sympathetic, not appreciating his talent, let alone affirming his academic work.

Cao Yan left a poem called "Poor Girl" to future generations. I personally think it was written at this time. Let's appreciate its literary talent together:

"I regret that I got married late because I had no matchmaker. I finally met the right time when I was old.

A bride with a head full of white hair, she makes the young men of the wealthy family laugh to death. "

Since ancient times, the cost of spreading rumors is low while the benefits are extremely high. Cao Yan's slanderous interpretation did have a certain impact. Ding Yan's "Ma Shi Xing Ji" was influenced by Cao Yan, which caused Zhou Xingfeng's "conspiracy theory" to spread by word of mouth.

Sima Guang compared and verified a large amount of information, eliminated the false and retained the true, and finally accepted the statement in "Annals of the Ten Kingdoms" and included it in "Zizhi Tongjian", which is the statement adopted in the previous article of this book: Pan Shusi's fight with Wang Kui was an accidental incident, and Zhou Xingfeng was not involved.

Although the "fight with Wang Kui" was not Zhou Xingfeng's masterpiece, He Jingzhen, Zhu Quanxiu and Zhang Xie among the "Ten Brothers Oath of Wisdom" did die indirectly at the hands of Zhou Xingfeng, especially Zhang Xie, who died entirely at the hands of Zhou Xingfeng's slander; Pan Shusi also died at the hands of Zhou Xingfeng, while the deaths of Pu Gongyi, Yuwen Qiong and Peng Wanhe were unclear and not recorded in history. It is unknown whether they died at the hands of Wang Kui or Zhou Xingfeng.

(End of this chapter)