History of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms

Chapter 980: Fire in Lichun Courtyard

[The Lichunyuan Fire]

Qian Yuanguan's death was quite bizarre.

According to records, one day in July 941, a fire broke out in the Lichun Courtyard of the Wu Yue Palace. The fire was so fierce that it soon spread to the entire palace. The palace and the treasury were almost razed to the ground. Qian Yuanguan, who witnessed it all, was frightened and went crazy. Just one month later, this tough guy passed away at the age of 7, leaving us prematurely.

Many people who don't know much about the history of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms regard Qian Yuanguan as a joke, saying that he was a coward and a loser, saying that he was in office for ten years, doing nothing and being mediocre, and then was scared to death by a fire...

Could Qian Yuanguan be scared to death by a fire? He had seen many storms and waves, and he was the one who used a kerosene machine to wipe out the Huainan Navy. Would he be afraid of a fire? The eunuchs and palace maids were not afraid, and the civil and military officials were not afraid, but he was the one who was scared to death?
"Spring and Autumn Annals of the Ten Kingdoms" gave a strange answer, saying that Qian Yuanguan was hiding from the fire at that time, but the flames seemed to have eyes, and they followed him wherever he hid, so Qian Yuanguan was greatly frightened.

This explanation is also far-fetched. After all, Qian Yuanguan was born out of a life of swords and guns. He was not afraid of the enemies chasing him with real swords and guns on the battlefield. Instead, he was afraid of flames chasing him, and the flames did not really hurt him in the end.

Generally speaking, fires in the palace are fundamentally different from fires in the civilian world. Fires in the civilian world are mostly accidents, while fires in the palace are mostly man-made. In many cases, fires in the palace often mean a palace coup.

Not to mention the heavily guarded imperial palace, even military camps, government offices, city gates and other government agencies, the first step of a mutiny is to "set fire to cause chaos." We can boldly guess that the fire in Lichunyuan was actually an attempted palace coup. Qian Yuanguan was not afraid of the ruthless fire, but of flesh-and-blood people.

Qian Yuanguan had more than 30 brothers. After he succeeded to the throne, he executed Qian Yuanluo and Qian Yuan on the charge of "rebellion", depriving Qian Yuanluo of his real power. Can this eliminate the hidden dangers? Obviously not.

For example, in the "Qian Yuan Rebellion Case", historical records clearly record that many dignitaries at the time had secret contacts with him. Qian Yuanguan wanted to follow the clues and catch all the dissidents, but was dissuaded by his nephew Qian Renjun. In the end, he publicly burned the letters of secret communication and let bygones be bygones.

Why can't we cut the grass and root it out? Is it just to pay tribute to Cao Cao in the Battle of Guandu?

The choice of politicians has always been the best choice in the cruel game, based on the comprehensive strength of all parties and balancing the interests of all parties. As for broad-mindedness, benevolence, justice and morality, they are just a modification of the results, not a guide to the process.

The reason why Cao Cao burned Yuan Shao's letters and Qian Yuanguan burned Qian Yuan's letters was that they did not have enough strength to face the consequences of digging into the matter, so they could only choose to turn a blind eye.

The tree wants to be still but the wind does not stop. If Qian Yuanguan does not pursue them, will they be quiet? Will they be wholeheartedly and closely surrounding the power system with Comrade Qian Yuanguan as the core?
Qian Yuanguan was in office for ten years but did nothing. One can imagine that this might be because Qian Yuanguan was unable to deal with the vested interest groups. Everyone was unwilling to cooperate and the resistance was too great, so the reform was delayed.

For example, the intervention in the civil unrest in Fujian in 940. Qian Yuanguan's decision was widely questioned and opposed, and even his closest confidant, Prime Minister Lin Ding, tried his best to persuade him against sending troops to intervene.

So why did Qian Yuanguan insist on doing it? Because this was his only chance to turn things around. As mentioned earlier, Chai Rong and Zhao Kuangyin also faced similar problems. They seemed to have made the same choice, but they differed greatly in one key detail: leading the army in person.

For example, the "Battle of Gaoping" produced by Chai Rong and the "Battle of Ze and Lu" contributed by Zhao Kuangyin. The ministers were not supportive and waited and watched. If there was no blessing from the emperor himself, it would be hard to say what the outcome would be.

Intervening in the civil unrest in Fujian was a political gamble that Qian Yuanguan could not afford to lose. However, Qian Yuanguan did not personally lead the army, but instead put the blame on his trusted confidant Yang Renquan. This is a taboo in team management and corporate construction! Don't hand over a project that concerns your life to others and let others decide your life or death.

Regardless of the project, the executor must have the decision-making power to match it and be able to bear the corresponding consequences. Yang Renquan obviously cannot bear the consequences and does not have enough decision-making power. He only has the execution power and rigidly implements the original plan, lacking flexibility.

Yang Renquan failed, and Qian Yuanguan's prestige plummeted and he would never be able to recover. Yang Renquan was so ashamed that he died in depression.

The voices of opposition in the court were getting louder and louder. Before, they were all done secretly, at best "non-violent non-cooperation", but now the opposition dared to openly question and challenge Qian Yuanguan's authority.

Qian Yuanguan was exhausted from dealing with the situation, but the situation did not improve at all. Finally, a year later in July 941, the opposition suddenly set fire to the palace and a coup began. The coup almost succeeded. Although Qian Yuanguan survived the disaster, he was frightened and perhaps... seriously injured, so he died a month later. Later people deliberately concealed this history and blamed all the dirty deeds on the fire.

Let's look at some indirect evidence to support the above view:

First of all, there are not many details about Qian Liu’s sons.

We have said that Comrade Qian Liu had a strong reproductive capacity and had a total of 38 sons, 35 of whom were recorded in historical records, and most of them were only recorded in a few sentences. Of course, many emperors' sons were also treated in this way, so-and-so, the nth son of a certain emperor, his mother was a certain concubine, he was initially granted a certain title, served as a certain official, died at a certain time, was posthumously awarded the title of so-and-so, and was posthumously awarded the title of so-and-so.

However, in general, such princes have basically no achievements. They are just raised in the palace in a dull manner, quietly being a handsome man, and living a dull life. However, this is obviously not the case for many of Qian Liu's sons.

Take Qian Yuan for example. In fact, Qian Yuan had made many military achievements in his early years and was highly valued by Qian Liu. He was promoted to the commander of the native and guest cavalry and infantry army, the governor of Jingjiang Army, the minister of the Central Secretariat, and the Marquis of Funan. He not only held military power, but was also allowed to have his own private armed forces. However, historical books are very secretive about Qian Yuan's past and do not mention his military achievements at all.

The only record of Qian Yuan was his "rebellion". Moreover, the "Wu Yue Beishi", which records the Wu Yue Kingdom in the most detailed way, mixed up the incident and recorded "Qian Yuan" as "Qian Yuanqiu". "Qian Yuan" was deliberately erased from the "Wu Yue Beishi".

A glimpse of the whole picture. Is it just Qian Yuan? Are the other sons really so mediocre that they are beyond description, or are they just like Qian Yuan, indescribable?

And so on... Let me ask again, was the fire in Lichunyuan really just an accidental fire?

The second is the prophecy of "two fires and one knife".

When Qian Yuanguan sent Yang Renquan to build a prefecture, he separated 13 townships from Shan County in Dongfu (Yuezhou) to form "Xinchang County". Soon after, Shan County was changed to Shan County. Historical records say that Qian Yuanguan hated the fact that "there were two fires and one knife in Shan", which he thought was unlucky.

When the Qian family ruled Liangzhe, they used to call Hangzhou "West Palace" and Yuezhou "East Palace". There are also records of "West Capital" and "East Capital", also collectively referred to as "Two Capitals". Two fires and one sword seem to indicate riots in the two capitals and the country is in danger of war.

How could Qian Yuanguan be so sensitive, or why did he become so sensitive at this moment? In just half a year, he discussed sending troops, opposed collectively, overcame all objections, had two fires and one sword, returned in defeat, had a fire in Lichunyuan, and left us too early... Do you feel the taste of it?
Finally, the prime ministers collectively "disappeared".

Not only did Qian Yuanguan's character script start off well but end badly, the same thing happened to the prime ministers during his reign, for example Shen Song, Pi Guangye, and Cao Zhongda. In their personal biographies, all the space was devoted to recording what they did before Qian Yuanguan founded the country, but after he was appointed prime minister after the founding of the country, they were immediately fired.

For example, Shen Song: "Guo Jian, appointed Prime Minister Song, died in February of the third year of Tianfu."

Pi Guangye: "King Wenmu (Qian Yuanguan) succeeded to the throne and appointed him as the governor of the Eastern Palace. In the second year of Tianfu, the country was founded and Guangye was appointed as the prime minister. He was appointed on the same day as Cao Zhongda and Shen Song. He made many revisions to the teachings and rituals. Guangye was handsome and good at talking. Some people who saw him thought he was a fairy. He loved tea and often wrote poems about tea. His hobby was widely known in the country. He died on Bingchen day of the second month of the eighth year."

Cao Zhongda: "When the country was established, he was appointed Prime Minister and shared the throne with Shen Song and Pi Guangye. King Zhongxian ascended the throne..."

Shen Song died prematurely after serving as prime minister for only one year, so he is barely worth analyzing. But what about the other two? After Cao Zhongda became prime minister, he directly jumped to the next king of Wuyue, Qian Hongzuo, the King of Zhongxian; although Pi Guangye had two more lines of words, the two extra lines recorded that he was handsome and loved to drink tea, which had nothing to do with governing the country.

Let's look at another prime minister, Lin Ding. After he was appointed prime minister and before his death, one thing he did was indeed recorded. That was to oppose Qian Yuanguan and strongly advise him not to send troops to Jianzhou.

Isn't this a bit unbelievable? The monarch was mediocre, and the prime ministers had made no achievements... but they were all the capable ministers carefully selected by Qian Liu for Qian Yuanguan to govern the country!
During the Qian Yuanguan period, there was a ten-year vacuum in the history of the Wuyue Kingdom, and the ten years of history were artificially hidden.

(End of this chapter)