【Research Party】
Wei Baoheng became a Jinshi in the fifth year of Xiantong (864) and started his official career. But his real political career should begin when he married Princess Tongchang in the tenth year of Xiantong.
His time has come.
Wei Baoheng is a political upstart. Although his father and ancestors have been officials for two generations, he still has no foundation in the court. He has been an official for a short time and has basically no network resources. He just got lucky and became the prince-in-law. In fact, he The political resources currently available are still quite limited. Wei Baoheng has a clear understanding of this.
And this is not a problem for Wei Baoheng, who is good at finding tricks. He knows a way to quickly gain political benefits: hug someone's lap.
What came into Wei Baoheng's eyes was another young star of the DPRK - Prime Minister Lu Yan.
Lu Yan is equally handsome, charming, and equally shameless and despicable. The two had similar personalities and hit it off immediately, forming the "Baoyan Party" and collaborating since then.
The Baoyan Party inherited and carried forward the glorious tradition of crony warfare in the middle and late Tang Dynasty. Unlike the previous "niu-li party struggle", the Baoyan Party did not encounter a strong opponent, and the political struggle showed a "one-sided" crushing advantage.
In the eleventh year of Xiantong (870), at the beginning of the new year and before the Spring Festival had passed, Wei Baoheng, then the doctor of Zuo Jianyi, went to court with Lu Yan, the then prime minister, to jointly impeach Kang Chengxun, the commander-in-chief of Xuzhou's bandit suppression, accusing him of being unfavorable in the battle. .
Kang Chengxun was demoted again and again and became Sima of Enzhou (Enping City, Guangdong Province).
At this time, just two months had passed since the "Pang Xun Rebellion" was put down.
It's only been two months since he had to kill the donkey. It's too ugly to be popular. Kang Chengxun's demotion became a pain in the hearts of everyone in that era, and also became an important reason for the demise of the Tang Dynasty.
The article denouncing Kang Chengxun is even more difficult to read carefully:
"The generals are trivial, the military bases are mediocre, they never know how to fight, and they are foolish and heavy on salary..." First, there is a personal attack, scolding someone for being a vegetarian;
"Playing with Kou and Mo Zhan, but not moving forward..." continues to be labeled as passive and idle;
"The culprit collapsed on his own, and Xuan Nian was loyal... What credit do you have!" Pang Xun's gang "collapsed on its own," and the one who made the meritorious service was Zhang Xuannen, who surrendered to the uprising. What credit do you have?
We don't need to examine Kang Chengxun's role in the war to quell the rebellion. Just looking at the wording of this imperial document is very chilling. Looking at the opinions on Kang Chengxun's treatment, it is even more depressing: he first demoted King Fu of Shu and divided him into Dongdu (deprived of all real power), then demoted Enzhou Sima (to travel to Guangdong and Guangxi at public expense), and asked to be "dispatched by Chiyi". Get out of here!
There is hard work even if there is no credit. It would be too ugly to kill the donkey and become popular. ,
The Baoyan Party won its first battle and killed Kang Chengxun, the hero of the rebellion. After all, Kang Chengxun was still a "foreign official", not an "internal minister". If you want to dominate the government and the opposition. We must extend our claws into the imperial court.
However, the water in the imperial court is very deep, and the intricate forces of all parties can influence the whole body. Wei Baoheng is also an upstart in the core political circle. His foundation is still shallow and it is difficult to shake the big guys who stand in front of him. If he doesn't, he may steal the chicken and lose the rice, and get himself involved.
How can we effectively attack political opponents and escape unscathed? Wei Baoheng thought hard and finally moved God.
God gave him a golden opportunity - his wife was dead!
On the Mid-Autumn Festival of the same year that Wei Baoheng impeached Kang Chengxun, on August 15th, Princess Tongchang died in the capital Chang'an due to ineffective treatment. She was 21 years old and left us prematurely.
The life of Princess Tongchang was a life of extravagance and lust, a life of revelry, and a short life. The dowry she received when she got married was the most luxurious dowry in history; her daily diet was as good as any princess in history; her funeral also ranked on the history list.
And the reason why she is recorded in history is not because of her outrageous high-profile display of wealth.
She was so good at dying. With her death, she completed a beautiful divine assist, allowing Wei Baoheng to thrive in the political struggle. Her death also created the bloodiest and most appalling medical incident in history.
[The bloodiest medical incident in history]
Princess Tongchang passed away, and the news spread to the palace. Tang Yizong was deeply saddened, and the black-haired man gave the black-haired man a gift (Tang Yizong was 37 years old at the time).
Tang Yizong turned his grief into a butcher's knife and ordered the execution of more than 20 people, including the attending doctors Han Zongshao and Kang Zhongyin, and arrested more than 300 of their relatives and sent them to prison to await their next fate.
The highest prime minister at that time (Zhongshu Shilang Tongping Zhangshi), Liu Zhan, summoned the admonishers and ordered them to advise the emperor not to vent his anger on the innocent imperial doctor.
The emperor is furious. The admonishers all remained silent and acted like cowards.
Liu Zhan had no choice but to give advice in person.
After reading the memorial, Tang Yizong threw it aside and was very unhappy.
The upright Liu Zhan saw that the emperor refused to take back his order, so he took Wen Zhang, the mayor of Chang'an (Jing Zhaoyin), to go to the emperor in person, face to face, and present the facts and reason.
Wen Zhang, the one who was expelled from Xuzhou by the Silver Sword Army, has always been known for his impartiality in enforcing the law and his impartiality.
Tang Yizong was furious, and regardless of the courtesy of the monarch and his ministers, he shouted loudly: "I've given you some shame, haven't I? You idiot..." He scolded the two of them out.
Immediately afterwards, Liu Zhan was demoted to Jingnan Jiedushi; Wen Zhang was demoted to Zhenzhou Sima.
Zhenzhou, today's Sanya City, Hainan Province. Today's Sanya is different from what it used to be. The impression given to us is that of a feast of feasting and feasting on the sea and sky. But at that time, it was a barren and barren land.
At that time, the people who were demoted or exiled were as far away as Guangdong, Guangxi, and Fujian today. If you were demoted to Hainan Island and had to cross the Qiongzhou Strait, it only meant that the emperor really hated you.
When Wen Zhang received the transfer order, he looked up to the sky and sighed: "Hey! I was born at the wrong time, so why die?" That night, he committed suicide by taking poison.
When Yizong of the Tang Dynasty heard that Wen Zhang had committed suicide by taking poison, he was so angry that he issued an edict, to the effect that Wen Zhang must have done something wrong and committed suicide out of fear of guilt. This guy was full of evil and deserved his death! He took his body outside the city and displayed it to the public until I was happy and allowed him to be buried. Only in this way can we please the people and make the evil villains know to be afraid!
The owner of the family, the Prince Consort Wei Baoheng, took advantage of Tang Yizong's grief to kill people with a knife and eliminate dissidents. The scale of this medical incident was deliberately expanded and eventually evolved into a horrific massacre.
The death of Princess Tongchang was an important turning point in Wei Baoheng's political career. If he wins, he will wield power; if he loses, he will be beyond redemption. The most important thing is that this is an encounter arranged by fate for him. He has to fight whether he wants to fight or not.
His only political capital is his status as Prince Consort, which is also the basis for his alliance with Lu Yan. After his wife died, the favor from the emperor would also plummet, and he would become a lamb to be slaughtered (after winning this battle, he slaughtered a fallen prince-in-law, which will be mentioned later).
If you don’t break out in silence, you will perish in silence! Wei Baoheng couldn't remain indifferent or sit still and wait for death. He wanted to take advantage of the fact that his father-in-law had not yet emerged from the shadow of the widowed daughter and fight with his last resort!
The entire Prince Consort's residence was immersed in grief. During the Spring Festival last year, the place was still decorated with lanterns and colorful decorations, with bright red curtains and red lanterns hanging high everywhere to welcome the bride, Princess Tongchang, to get married. Unexpectedly, only one year and eight months later, the red theme was changed to black and white, the red events were changed to white events, and Princess Tongchang was sent to the funeral.
In the whole house, there was only one person who did not shed tears. He was hiding in the inner room of the mourning hall, where no one was disturbing him and it was very quiet. At this moment, he was holding a small notebook, frowning, and reading carefully.
He was Wei Baoheng. What he was looking through was not the funeral ledger, but the roster he carefully recorded, which contained all his political opponents and stumbling blocks.
"Who will be harmed first?"
Political struggle is the same as military struggle. It pays attention to methods and strategies. When attacking, you must choose the right time and breakthrough point. You must also have a main attacking force, an assisting force, a feint attacking force, a second and third echelon, and a strategic reserve...
In the end, Wei Baoheng decided to use Liu Zhan, who took the initiative to attack the muzzle, as a breakthrough point and launched the first wave of attacks:
On September 20, Gao Xiang, Yang Zhizhi, Wei Quan and others were demoted to Lingnan on the charge of "being friendly with Liu Zhan".
These are all officials of the fifth rank, and they are not officials with real power or powerful departments. To put it harshly, they are all soldiers and generals.
Wei Baoheng launched the "Dead Wife" political struggle. In the first battle, he sacrificed their flags and successfully won first blood.
Immediately afterwards, Wei Baoheng pursued the victory and joined forces with Lu Yan to jointly frame Liu Zhan, who was already dying, and slandered Liu Zhan for secretly colluding with the imperial doctor to deliberately poison Princess Tongchang.
Anyone with a brain can see that this is nonsense! The dignified chief prime minister, the good royal physician, poisoning the princess after eating too much? What's the motive?
Brain is a good thing, but it's a pity that Tang Yizong didn't have it.
On September 27, Liu Zhan was demoted to the governor of Kangzhou (Deqing County, Guangdong Province). Look, it’s the Guangdong and Guangxi regions.
The person responsible for drafting the edict to remove Liu Zhan as prime minister was Zheng Tian, a Hanlin scholar.
Zheng Tian was brought up by Liu Zhan in one hand, so in the draft, Zheng Tian complained about Liu Zhan's grievances. There is a sentence in it: "I have a home of several acres, but I still don't own it; I am bribed by all directions, but I am afraid that others will know it." It means that Liu Zhan is honest and upright.
Lu Yan shook the draft and sneered: "You are not deposing him as prime minister. You are clearly recommending him to be prime minister."
Later, he demoted Zheng Tian to the position of governor of Wuzhou. Wuzhou, now Wuzhou City, Guangxi, another person from the Guangdong and Guangxi regions has gone.
Zheng Tian's knowledge was very solid, and he was admitted as a Jinshi by Emperor Wu Zong. Because he was very young when he was admitted, Emperor Wu Zong thought he was a "connected person" when he first looked at the roster and had to re-examine himself. Zheng Tian successfully passed the test.
Zheng Tian's father, Zheng Ya, was highly appreciated by Li Deyu and was promoted to a Hanlin bachelor's degree. Zheng Ya became the "Li Party", and Zheng Tian was naturally classified into the "Li Party" group.
During the Xuanzong Dynasty, Bai Minzhong (Bai Juyi's younger brother) and Linghu Gu served as prime ministers. Both of them were "famous party members", so Zheng Wei, the "remnant of the Li Party", had been squeezed and suppressed, and his official career was bumpy (so he had been out of tune for decades).
Until Xuanzong died and Yizong ascended the throne, Bai Minzhong retired and died due to physical reasons, and Linghu Xu was also excluded from the court. Liu Zhan appreciated Zheng Tian's talent, so he started to work in it. But the right minister Zheng Xun was a member of Linghu Tui's party, so he released Zheng Tui again.
After Liu Zhan became prime minister, he promoted Zheng Tian for the second time and recommended him as a Hanlin bachelor.
Therefore, Liu Zhan had the kindness to know Zheng Tian and supported him twice. Liu Zhan was wronged and demoted, and Zheng Tian complained on his behalf. This is human nature.
Please remember this Zheng Tian who repaid his kindness. Later, he will also establish meritorious deeds for the Tang Empire.
The "Baoyan Party" demoted Liu Zhan to Guangdong, and felt dissatisfied, so he took out the "Ten Maps" that recorded the geography of the country, studied geographical knowledge carefully, and finally discovered a place even more remote than Guangdong - Huanzhou (in present-day Vietnam).
Therefore, Liu Zhan was demoted to Huanzhou Sihu again.
Wei Baoheng's first wave of attacks was a complete victory. In the final stage, the "Baoyan Party" discovered a fish that had slipped through the net and quickly dealt with it: he demoted Sun Wei, the censor Zhongcheng, to the governor of Tingzhou (today's Tingxian County, Fujian Province). , because he was also promoted by Liu Zhan and was a "Liu Zhan party member".
