History of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms

Chapter 951: Helpless and Unrestrained (Part )
When drafting a temple name for Xu Zhigao, most people believed that since we insisted that he was the remnant of the Tang Dynasty, he should be ranked in sequence after Zhaozong and Aidi, also known as "Zong". However, Han Xizai, Xiao Yan, Jiang Wenwei and others believed that Xu Zhigao was the leader of the revival, with great achievements in reviving the dynasty and continuing the extinct, and he was worthy of being called "Zu". Finally, at the insistence of Han Xizai and others, Xu Zhigao's temple name was decided as "Liezu".

Li Jing was very satisfied with this.

Han Xizai sincerely believed that Xu Zhigao was a man of higher virtue than the Three Sovereigns and more accomplished than the Five Emperors, and he was not deliberately trying to curry favor with Li Jing to please him. So, not surprisingly, Han Xizai immediately did something that was principled and in accordance with etiquette but offended Li Jing.

After Li Jing ascended the throne, he immediately wanted to change the era name and issue a general amnesty. However, what he could not have imagined was that the first person who jumped out to oppose it was Han Xizai, his own man whom he had painstakingly cultivated.

Han Xizai said that under normal circumstances, the new monarch should continue to use the reign title of the previous emperor in the year he ascends the throne, and then change the reign title in the first month of the following year.

Li Jing looked at the ministers who were laughing secretly, and then looked at Han Xizai who looked silly, naive and serious. He was silent for a moment and said, "But the edict has been issued and cannot be modified. So let it be."

Li Jing was somewhat disappointed. It seemed that all his years of training and experience had been wasted. Political struggle is not a black-and-white academic debate, but an organic integration and brutal game of a series of abstract concepts such as sociology, organizational behavior, and psychology. Sometimes, the question itself is not important, and the answer to the question is not important either. The most important thing is the position from which one looks at the problem. "Calling a deer a horse" has never been a biological debate.

It doesn't matter whether it's this year or next year. I just want you to express your opinions and stand in line to see who supports me and who... Damn, Old Han, why is it you? !
After seven years of interaction, Li Jing had a good understanding of Han Xizai. He knew that Han Xizai was a proud and innocent person in terms of social skills. Especially when it came to academic issues, this old scholar would only stand on the side of the so-called truth. Li Jing did not blame him, but still chose to trust and use him.

Soon, Li Jing gave Han Xizai the title of "Zhi Gao" (the Imperial Edict Drafter), asking him to help the emperor draft imperial edicts. This was a typical example of "low position but great power", marking Han Xizai's entry into the core power circle. Of course, it was no surprise that he also received special "care" from Song Qiuqiu.

The "Four Evils and Five Ghosts" group, with Song Qiqiu as its soul, launched a frenzied attack on Han Xizai and others, and Han Xizai was therefore classified as a "clean stream party" by us. In fact, Han Xizai was upright and upright, hated forming cliques and factions, and even disdained party struggles in the court. However, the tree wanted to be quiet but the wind did not stop. Born in the dark, he yearned for light, looked up at the bright moon and starry sky, and was willing to burn himself in exchange for the lights of thousands of families, but the lamp ran out of oil before dawn.

There is a question that we have to ponder: A naive person like Han Xizai would never survive more than three episodes under the cunning and treacherous "Four Evils and Five Ghosts" group, but why can he fight with them for years and even fight back? After we open the God's perspective, this question is not difficult to understand, because GM (Li Jing) takes sides and the system helps you to fix bugs, it is difficult not to win.

If the "Four Evils and Five Ghosts" group is the vicious dog raised by Li Jing, then Han Xizai is the collar and rope whip that Li Jing used to restrain the vicious dog. Li Jing is the top-level designer of the chess game. Through the routine of fighting left and right, he can do what he wants and pass the buck at any time.

The contest between the two sides reached a small climax in 946: Chen Jue, the core figure of the "Four Evils and Five Demons" group, arbitrarily mobilized troops to attack Fuzhou, dragging the Southern Tang into a wrong war that it was unwilling to fight and could not fight, which ultimately caused heavy losses to the Southern Tang and greatly damaged the national strength. Afterwards, Li Jing issued an edict to execute Chen Jue and Feng Yanlu, but at the request of Song Qiuqiu and Feng Yansi, the death penalty was finally commuted to exile.

The "Qingliu Party" took the opportunity to launch a counterattack, and Jiang Wenwei impeached Feng Yansi and Wei Cen. Li Jing demoted Jiang Wenwei and sent him out of the capital. Regardless of the specific process, smart people should be able to perceive Li Jing's attitude from it, but Han Xizai was a fool who made Li Jing confused.

Han Xizai and Xu Xuan went against the trend and jointly submitted a petition to impeach Song Qiuqiu, bluntly stating that Song Qiuqiu was the godfather behind the "Four Evils and Five Ghosts" group. They demanded that Li Jing completely eradicate this counter-revolutionary group that had harmed the country and the emperor, and insisted on killing Chen Jue, Feng Yanlu and others.

In order to appease the public anger, Li Jing demoted Wei Cen and others, but these people were quickly reinstated (in less than half a year). If I kill the vicious dog, who will bite people for me?
After this incident, the "Four Evils and Five Demons" group and Han Xizai formed a deep hatred. Just a few days later, the vengeful Song Qiuqiu launched a revenge attack, falsely accusing Han Xizai of being a heavy drinker. Li Jing was forced to exile Han Xizai under pressure. In fact, Han Xizai did not like to drink at all, and his alcohol tolerance was very small. Historical records say that "Xizai's alcohol tolerance is only a trickle." What kind of alcohol could a person who gets drunk easily after just one touch of alcohol drink?

At first glance, it seems that this is the victory of Song Qiuqiu's party, but in fact, it is still the same thing. This is the ultimate BOSS Li Jing's retreat to advance, and it is a compulsory protection mechanism of the system for novices.

Just like Xu Zhigao's idea, Li Jing protected Han Xizai to preserve his revolutionary spark and make strategic reserves for overthrowing the "Four Evils and Five Demons" in the future. A few years later, Han Xizai was transferred back to the central government and was still a Yubu Yuanwailang, returning to the starting point of his life. Then, just like the script a few years ago, Li Jing promoted Han Xizai out of the ordinary and showed him great favor. He soon promoted him to Yubu Langzhong and gave him purple.

Purple court dress is the exclusive skin for officials of the third rank and above. Only Han Xizai, who was of the fifth rank, was granted purple. It was the same formula as the red dress he was granted before, and it was still a familiar taste.

Soon after, Han Xizai was promoted to Zhongshu Sheren, Hubu Shilang, and was appointed as the coin minter. Zhongshu Sheren was a close minister of the emperor, and was also a lowly but powerful official.

At that time, the Central Plains had already been ruled by the Later Zhou Dynasty. Li Jing launched several exploratory attacks on the Central Plains, all of which ended in failure. He began to fear the strength of the Central Plains. Guo Wei of the Later Zhou Dynasty focused his main energy on stabilizing the internal situation and appeasing the north and west. As a result, peace became a consensus between the two sides, and relations between the two countries began to show signs of easing.

The "Four Evils and Five Ghosts" group is still the war faction, clamoring to take advantage of Guo Wei's unstable foothold to march north to the Central Plains. Usually, the war faction will put on the glorious cloak of patriotism and nationalism to morally blackmail the people. The scary thing is that they are usually very popular, and all opponents will be labeled as "traitors" and "traitors".

This time, it was Li Jing who was morally kidnapped. We are all willing to fight to the death, so does Your Majesty want to surrender first?
At this critical moment, Han Xizai firmly raised the banner of the "peace faction", saying that although Guo Wei was newly established, he was deeply loved by the military and civilians in the Central Plains. If we adopt a hostile attitude at this time, it would be tantamount to hitting a rock with an egg.

As with the dispute over the temple name, Han Xizai was pragmatic and did not deliberately sing a different tune because of his disgust for the "Four Evils and Five Ghosts", nor did he force himself to take the blame for his master. Reconciliation with the Central Plains was indeed in the interests of the Southern Tang at this stage.

Just like the discussion on Xu Zhigao's temple name and the discussion on changing the reign title, after helping Li Jing to take the blame, Han Xizai offended Li Jing again because of his loyalty and outspokenness. This was the "Three Expeditions to Huainan" a few years later. Li Jing sent his younger brother Li Jingda to lead the army to resist the enemy and let Chen Jue be the military supervisor. As mentioned earlier, Li Jing was very afraid of his younger brothers Li Jingda and Li Jingsui, so he deliberately let Chen Jue, the core figure of the "Four Evils and Five Ghosts" and the vicious dog he raised, serve as Li Jingda's military supervisor.

All the civil and military officials in the court were well aware of the unspoken rules and kept silent. Only one person jumped out and objected loudly, "Why does the emperor need a military supervisor?"

That’s right, this person is the outspoken and straightforward guy - Han Xizai.

Li Jing was disgusted again and rolled his eyes at him, thinking that this boy was unteachable!

During the war, the pro-war group of "Four Evils and Five Ghosts" dominated the situation, while Han Xizai and other pro-peace factions became the non-mainstream. Because they refused to cater to Li Jing, they were once again excluded from the core power circle.

After the war, Li Jing died of depression, and then the reign of the last emperor Li Yu began.

Li Yu respected Han Xizai, a veteran of three dynasties, very much, so he promoted him to the position of Minister of Personnel and Supervisor of National History. This appointment also contained political considerations, because the Ministry of Personnel is equivalent to today's Organization Department, responsible for the assessment and promotion of officials, and leading the operation of the bureaucratic system. Li Yu wanted to liquidate the "Four Evils and Five Demons" group, and put Han Xizai in this key position to decide the promotion, demotion, and stay of officials. The political intention is self-evident.

It takes a thousand days to raise an army and only one day to deploy it. Why did Xu Zhigao and Li Jing go to great lengths to protect Han Xizai? Li Yu: Close the gate and release Han Xizai!

Han Xizai let Xu Zhigao take the first place, and then let Li Jing take the first place. How could he spare Li Yu? No one of the three generations of grandfather and grandson could escape.

As mentioned earlier, after Li Yu came to power, he promoted economic reforms, such as minting large coins and iron coins and other monetary measures. Han Xizai and Prime Minister Yan Xu had a fierce quarrel over this issue. Han Xizai was so emotional that he even shouted loudly in front of Li Yu, which was quite rude.

Li Yu was very angry. He said, "It's not the loudness that matters. You two are both high-ranking officials and intellectuals, not hooligans!" Han Xizai was demoted to the position of Secretary General as a punishment for his impoliteness.

Li Yu also inherited the political wisdom of his father and grandfather. He soon promoted Han Xizai again and made him the Minister of War and the Academician of the Qinzheng Palace. He was still the emperor's close confidant, but... Han Xizai was still the same Han Xizai.

When Li Yu married his rumored girlfriend, Empress Xiao Zhou, Han Xizai took the lead in "writing poems to satirize her", which offended Li Yu.
After returning from a hunting trip, Li Yu suddenly became interested and inspected the state prison (Dali Temple) and personally reviewed the prisoners in custody to see if there were any wrongful convictions. All the ministers praised Li Yu and said that he had promoted the legal process. Only Han Xizai submitted several memorials in succession, citing classics and saying that the emperor should not set foot in a place like a prison. He severely criticized Li Yu and insisted on fining Li Yu and confiscating his private money of 3 million yuan.

In the early Song Dynasty, Han Xizai wrote five volumes of "Maxims" and presented them to Li Yu, who "wrote a letter of consolation" and then appointed him as the Secretary of the Central Secretariat and the Academician of Guangzheng Palace.

This was the highest official position held by Han Xizai during his lifetime, but many people focus on the title of "Zhongshu Shilang" because it has a popular name - Prime Minister. As the saying goes, laymen watch the excitement while experts watch the doorway. We should focus on the seemingly insignificant "Guangzhengdian Xueshi Chengzhi", which is the finishing touch.

"Scholars of the So-and-so Palace" is a typical example of a lowly official with great power, that is, a small official in charge of a big official, and a close minister to the emperor. Li Yu especially regarded the scholars of the Guangzheng Palace as his confidants. Li Yu stipulated that the scholars of the Guangzheng Palace should take turns to work the night shift in the palace, and then he would often "check on the post" in the middle of the night and have secret talks with the scholars on duty all night.

Small matters were handled by big meetings, and big matters were handled by small meetings. Many of the state affairs of the Southern Tang were actually discussed secretly when Li Yu was on night duty. The "prime minister" was often just an empty title, and only the "scholar of the so-and-so palace" was the real power figure, the one who could influence the national policy. Now, Han Xizai is the one.

So can Han Xizai realize his ambitions? Haha, I'm overthinking it.

In the second year of Kaibao (969), Han Xizai was ill and wrote a memorial to Li Yu saying that he had "no merits of conquering the world, but had committed heinous crimes." He said, "I am about to be freed. Goodbye."

The following year (970), Han Xizai died of illness at the age of 69.

Thanks to my old friend "Yang Kui" for the monthly ticket support!

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(End of this chapter)