History of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms

Chapter 998: Past Events in Quanzhou (Part )
【Quanzhou Incident】

There are several popular theories about the transfer of supreme power in Quanzhou.

For example, there is a saying that when Liu Congxiao was dying, he had completely lost control of his generals, and the generals were shaken. A general named Wang took the opportunity to cheat him of his official seal. The generals recommended Zhang Hansi as the new commander and Chen Hongjin as the deputy commander, and then sent General Wang to Zhangzhou. General Wang refused to go, and everyone planned to send him to Putian for garrison, but Wang still refused to listen. So the generals surrounded and beat him, beat him half to death, and then sent him to Tongan County for detention. As a result, Wang died of his injuries.

Why didn't he recommend Liu Congxiao's son as the new commander? Because Liu Congxiao had no sons... no biological sons, so Liu Congxiao adopted his younger brother (or elder brother) Liu Congyuan's two sons, Liu Shaoji and Liu Shaoqi, as his adopted sons.

In fact, when Liu Congxiao was critically ill, Liu Congyuan was stationed in Zhangzhou, his eldest son Liu Shaoji was sent to Southern Tang as a hostage, and only his youngest son Liu Shaozhen was by his side, so it was indeed the younger Liu Shaozhen who succeeded to the throne in the beginning.

The core members of Liu Congxiao Group are Chen Hongjin, Wang Zhongshun, Dong Sian, Zhang Hansi, etc. In the early days of the business, Liu Congxiao was the commander of the scattered troops in Quanzhou, Chen Hongjin was his deputy - the deputy commander of the army; Wang Zhongshun and Dong Sian were Liu Congxiao's subordinates; Zhang Hansi was Chen Hongjin's subordinate.

The relationship network of the five people is very simple. If they must be divided into factions, Liu Congxiao, Chen Hongjin, Wang Zhongshun and Dong Sian are the "core faction", and Chen Hongjin and Zhang Hansi are the "subordinate faction". Pay attention to the key figure - Chen Hongjin. His immediate superior is Liu Congxiao, and he is also Zhang Hansi's immediate superior. He becomes the link between the two factions.

Or according to the seating arrangement:
The top leader stays from the effect;
second in command, Chen Hongjin;

The third in command, Wang Zhongshun and Dong Sian;

The fourth in command is Zhang Hansi.

In the process of team development, Liu Congxiao's management ideas were very traditional. He promoted the third-in-command Wang Zhongshun and Dong Sian, suppressed the second-in-command Chen Hongjin, and let the fourth-in-command Zhang Hansi "bite" the second-in-command Chen Hongjin to death. Let's take a look at the specific operations:
When the team began to achieve success, that is, after it had established control of Quanzhou and Zhangzhou, Liu Congxiao of course had to occupy the old revolutionary base of Quanzhou, while the newly acquired Zhangzhou was commanded by the third-in-command Dong Sian instead of the second-in-command Chen Hongjin. When the second-in-command Chen Hongjin was appointed as the commander-in-chief, the fourth-in-command Zhang Hansi was soon afterwards appointed as the deputy commander-in-chief.

If the second in command is dishonest and wants to rebel against the first in command, then the first in command can instigate the fourth in command to rebel against the second in command first; at the same time, the third in command can be promoted to a higher level to check and balance the second in command.

Man proposes, God disposes. Wang Zhongshun lived up to his name, and died for Min when the Southern Tang attacked Wang Yanzheng of Jianzhou. After Dong Si'an took charge of Zhangzhou, Liu Congxiao's brother Liu Congyuan poisoned him to death and replaced him, but Liu Congxiao did not blame Liu Congyuan, and it was obvious that Liu Congyuan was secretly instructed by Liu Congxiao.

As a result, the only lone member left in the "core faction" is Liu Congxiao, while Chen Hongjin and Zhang Hansi in the "contingent faction" are growing silently.

Of course, strictly speaking, the "core system" should add one more person, that is Liu Congxiao's brother Liu Congyuan, who is based in Zhangzhou and occupies half of southern Fujian.

A blessing in disguise. Because the "commoners" had been suppressed and "watched over" by Liu Congxiao, they had always stayed by Liu Congxiao's side, hovering near the highest power. When Liu Congxiao was critically ill, he realized his mistake - his "own people" were dead, fled, and were not around! So there was an intriguing record in the history books, saying that when Liu Congxiao was seriously ill, "there was no communication between China and the outside world", and Liu Congxiao was placed under house arrest by some people, cutting off contact with the outside world.

Now think back to why he sent his eldest son Liu Shaoji as a hostage to Southern Tang. Do you feel something is wrong? When the feudal lords sent hostages to the imperial court or other powerful feudal lords, they usually would not send their eldest sons, or heirs, but other sons, or sometimes even nephews. Once something unexpected happened to him, the heirs around him would immediately become the official successors. How could they take over if they were sent to other countries as hostages? Why did Liu Congxiao send his eldest son Liu Shaoji instead of his youngest son Liu Shaoqi? Was it really Liu Congxiao's own order to let Liu Shaoji be a hostage in Southern Tang?
I personally think that it is very likely that Chen Hongjin and Zhang Hansi "forged the imperial edict" and Liu Congxiao was sidelined at the end of his reign. The history books only say that Liu Shaoqi was young, but it is not clear how old he was. Chen Hongjin and Zhang Hansi only let Liu Shaoqi be a puppet for a month, and then tied him up and took him to Shengzhou to make a pledge of surrender to the Southern Tang. Later, Chen Hongjin recommended Zhang Hansi as the successor.

Zhang Hansi had always been Chen Hongjin's deputy. Why did Chen Hongjin settle for second best and be willing to be Zhang Hansi's deputy? This was because the nature of this change of leadership had changed. The previous "military rebellion" was at least to support Liu Congxiao's son, which was still a recognized hereditary feudal lord during the Five Dynasties. However, this time it was a true rebellion by people of different surnames.

Chen Hongjin did not dare to be the first to take action, so he asked his deputy Zhang Hansi to test the waters for him and test the attitude of Southern Tang. The history books also said that Zhang Hansi was "too old to govern, and all military affairs were decided by Hongjin", which made it clear that Zhang Hansi was a puppet.

Under the threat of the Song Dynasty, Li Yu, the last emperor of the Southern Tang Dynasty, had no time to look south, and any action taken by Quanzhou was a compromise without bottom line.

Since the Southern Tang had no objection to replacing the Liu family of Quanzhou, the conflict between Chen Hongjin and Zhang Hansi began to surface.

Chen Hongjin originally wanted to use Zhang Hansi as a test stone. If the Southern Tang took a tough stance, Zhang Hansi would become the scapegoat for the Quanzhou Incident; if the Southern Tang softened its stance, Zhang Hansi would have to step down and let others take over. This was Chen Hongjin's wishful thinking.

As a veteran of the business, could Zhang Hansi not see through it? Their team got started by supporting puppets. From Wang Jixun to Liu Shaoxun, they first supported and observed, and then abandoned the donkey after it was no longer useful. They have long formed a path dependence. Now they still want to follow the same prescription? They are all monks in the same temple, so don't be so apologetic.

Zhang Hansi planned to take the initiative and get rid of Chen Hongjin behind the scenes. Zhang Hansi's sons were all guards, which was equivalent to the "Central Imperial Guards" of Quanzhou. In Zhang Hansi's view, it was very simple to get rid of Chen Hongjin. All he had to do was wait for Chen Hongjin to punch in at work, and then the guards would rush up and hack him to death. It was simple, crude and effective. Or he could hold a Hongmen Banquet... In short, there were thousands of ways to kill him, so let's do it!

One day in April 963, Zhang Hansi held a Hongmen Banquet, inviting all the generals to drink at his residence, and secretly ambushed swordsmen, waiting for the signal of breaking cups. Chen Hongjin was very foolish and naive and happily attended the banquet, not realizing the danger was approaching.

In theory, Zhang Hansi's plan was simple but absolutely foolproof. If nothing unexpected happened, Chen Hongjin would have left us too early. However, the evil taste of history is that it is impossible for nothing to happen unexpectedly. As expected, this simple assassination plan went wrong.

At the banquet, Zhang Hansi and several of his accomplices exchanged glances secretly and were about to take action when suddenly - an earthquake occurred. The ground shook and the houses were in danger of collapsing. The people at the banquet were also shaken to the point of staggering and rolling around.

At that time, people believed in the connection between heaven and man. Several generals who participated in the conspiracy believed that this was a warning from heaven, indicating that Chen Hongjin was not destined to die and that he had the help of the gods. So someone secretly leaked the conspiracy to Chen Hongjin, who was shocked and fled in a hurry.

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

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(End of this chapter)