【The last emperor ascends the throne】
Zhu Yougui, who committed parricide to seize power, knew that he had no reputation and that his throne was erroneous. In order to consolidate the throne, Zhu Yougui's ideas were simple and clear: widespread bribery; promoting cronies, cultivating party members; and suppressing potential threats.
The first path yielded very little. Everyone took advantage of it, and on the surface they bowed their heads and swore allegiance, but in reality they were waiting and watching;
The second path begins to offend people. In order to promote close associates, dissidents must be eliminated;
The third path is even more dangerous, because those who qualify as "potential threats" contain a certain amount of energy (even much more than Zhu Yougui).
Therefore, Zhu Wen's adopted son Zhu Youqian and Generalissimo Yang Shihou belong to the first route and must be courted by all efforts; Jingxiang will not threaten the throne, but will not be loyal to Zhu Yougui, so they are targets of the second route and need to be excluded; Zhu Youwen is said to be Zhu Wen's favorite successor. There is no doubt that he must be the target of the third route.
In addition, there are also some "marginal people" who always wander between these three routes regarding their positioning. Zhu Yougui's attitude towards them is also extremely tangled, such as the prince-in-law Zhao Yan (the second son of Zhao Yan, formerly known as Zhao Lin). Married to Zhu Wen's daughter) and Zhu Wen's nephew Yuan Xiangxian (son of Yuan Jingchu, his mother is Zhu Wen's biological sister).
When you stare into the abyss, the abyss stares into you.
Zhu Yougui looked at the two of them very tangledly, and the two of them looked at Zhu Yougui even more tangledly, "Brother, what do you mean?"
In the first month of the third year of Qianhua (913), Zhu Yougui "had something to do in the southern suburbs", so he changed the Yuan Dynasty to Amnesty, and changed the third year of Qianhua to "the first year of Fengli".
In February, Zhao Yan was ordered to go to Dongdu and meet with Zhu Youzhen, who was staying in Dongdu. After performing official duties during the day, Zhao Yan attended the private banquet hosted by Zhu Youzhen in the evening. During the dinner, Zhu Youzhen talked about national affairs intentionally or unintentionally.
After several trials, Zhao Yan understood what Zhu Youzhen meant: Zhu Youzhen planned to kill Zhu Yougui and seize the throne.
Zhao Yan pointed out a clear path for Zhu Youzhen: if he wants to succeed, he must get the support of Yang Shihou!
Therefore, Zhu Youzhen immediately sent his confidant Ma Shenjiao to Weizhou secretly to lobby Yang Shihou.
Ma Shenjiao was sharp-tongued, Xiaozhi used emotion and reason, and persuaded Yang Shihou to support Zhu Youzhen, pointing out that it was not natural for Zhu Yougui to kill his father to seize power, and Zhu Youzhen was the one everyone wanted, so the commander-in-chief only had to go with the flow and make a gesture, and great things could be accomplished; and Make a promise and immediately donate 500,000 yuan in benefits once the matter is accomplished.
Yang Shihou was hesitant, he had concerns.
First of all, Zhu Yougui and Zhu Youzhen are both heirs of the late emperor. No matter who becomes the emperor, they will be on the same page as Yang Shihou. There is no need for him to risk the huge sacrifice of "rebellion" to steal chestnuts from the fire;
Secondly, when Zhu Yougui killed his father and seized power, he did not immediately raise the army. He raised the army again after half a year, which was a bit unfair and inconsistent with his words.
Furthermore, he had already led his troops to Yique, met with Zhu Yougui, recognized Zhu Yougui's throne, and established the distinction between monarch and ministers. In principle, he supports Zhu Yougui.
Ma Shen knew himself and the enemy, and knew Yang Shihou's thoughts and concerns, so he repeatedly emphasized that Zhu Yougui's murder of his father to seize power was illegal in itself, while Zhu Youzhen was avenging the late emperor and eradicating the evildoers, which was a just act. There are only good and evil here, so where does it come from? Between monarch and minister?
While firmly occupying the moral high ground, Ma Shenjiao also threatened: "If you don't express your position at this time, then once Zhu Youzhen succeeds, how will you behave, Commander?"
This is the essence of negotiation or lobbying, which is to say something good and something bad at the same time. You will be morally invincible. If you obey me, you will get benefits. If you disobey me, you will be in disaster. Whether you obey or not, you can decide for yourself.
Yang Shihou immediately had an epiphany and slapped his thigh, "If it weren't for Mr. Wang's words, I almost made a big mistake!" He immediately expressed his support for Zhu Youzhen. Then he sent his confidant general Wang Shunxian to Luoyang to plan with Yuan Xiangxian, and then sent his confidant Zhu Hanbin to lead his army to Huazhou as external support.
Zhao Yan returned to Luoyang and discussed the next plan with Yuan Xiangxian.
At that time, Yuan Xiangxian was the commander of the Zuo Longhu Army and the commander-in-chief of the Guards and Guards Army. He controlled part of the Central Forbidden Army, so he was an important insider for the subsequent coup. Yang Shihou held heavy troops in Weibo, Hebei, and was an important outside line. With the cooperation of these two people inside and outside, the coup will basically be declared successful.
It happened that Zhu Yougui mobilized Long Xiang's army back to Luoyang.
Longxiang's army had mutinied previously and was suspected by Zhu Yougui, and was subsequently bloody purged. Now a part of Long Xiang's army is stationed in Dongdu, under Zhu Youzhen's nose. Perhaps because he was worried that Zhu Youzhen would collude with him, Zhu Yougui ordered the Long Xiang army to be mobilized back to Luoyang.
Seizing the opportunity, Zhu Youzhen immediately spread rumors that Zhu Yougui planned to completely cleanse the Longxiang army. This time he wanted to trick the Longxiang army into Luoyang and then trap and kill them all.
Sergeant Long Xiang was so frightened that he ran to Zhu Youzhen to cry out and beg for mercy.
Zhu Youzhen forged an edict in advance, to the effect that Zhu Yougui said that Long Xiang's army was a rebel and unreliable. You help me deal with them in Dongdu. If you don't have the heart to do it, send them to Luoyang and I will kill them. them.
When Long Xiangjun saw the "Edict", he cried out in despair, praying to Zhu Youzhen to "point out a clear path."
Zhu Youzhen's acting skills were outstanding. He looked extremely sad and with tears streaming down his face, he said: "You followed the late emperor in the north and south for more than thirty years and established the foundation of the empire. However, even the late emperor himself was killed. How could you escape? This calamity?"
First destroy the psychological defense of Long Xiangjun and plunge him into despair. Once people are desperate, they will no longer have worries and will be able to do anything.
Everyone burst into tears. Zhu Youzhen saw that the fire was coming, so he took out Zhu Wen's portrait, placed the imperial portrait of the late emperor in the center of the hall, and led everyone to kneel down. Then, Zhu Youzhen pointed out the clear path for Long Xiang's army. : Enter Luoyang, avenge the late emperor, and kill the traitors. This is your only way to survive!
Everyone was excited and shouted long live the mountain.
Zhu Youzhen opened the armory and distributed weapons and ammunition to them, "Luoyang, let's go!"
Longxiang's army rushed towards Luoyang with murderous intent, and Zhu Youzhen quickly informed Zhao Yan, Yuan Xiangxian and others in Luoyang of the good news, asking them to cooperate.
In the early morning of February 17, the third year of Qianhua's reign (913), Long Xiang's army arrived in Luoyang and immediately launched a mutiny, burning, killing and looting in the city. Yuan Xiangxian and others immediately led thousands of imperial troops to "quell the rebellion." Under the leadership of Yuan Xiangxian and others, this peacekeeping force directly entered the palace.
Zhu Yougui was shocked and immediately fled into hiding with his queen and close confidant Feng Ting'e. They fled under the North Palace Tower and planned to escape over the wall. However, there were "rebels" inside and outside the palace, and they had no way to escape.
In despair, Zhu Yougui ordered Feng Ting'e to kill the queen first and then himself. Zhu Yougui, who was emperor for 7 months, died at the age of 30.
This Feng Ting'e also went down in history forever for killing two emperors (Zhu Wen and Zhu Yougui) with his own hands. He should be unprecedented and unprecedented. It's just that Zhu Yougui was not the real "emperor" because he was deposed as a commoner, so Feng Ting'e's deeds were also discounted.
After killing Zhu Yougui, the legendary killer Feng Ting'e committed suicide.
Subsequently, the capital Luoyang fell into chaos, and the Forbidden Army soldiers looted the city wantonly. There are also historical records that Longxiang's army was still on its way to Luoyang at this time, and the "mutiny" was basically directed and performed by Yuan Xiangxian's Forbidden Army.
In any case, under the command and instigation of Zhao Yan and Yuan Xiangxian, Zhu Yougui was killed. The two of them carried the imperial seal and went to the east capital to welcome Zhu Youzhen in person.
Zhu Youzhen knew that Luoyang was dangerous and did not dare to leave his revolutionary base, Kaifeng Prefecture (Bianzhou) in Tokyo, so he said: "Bianzhou is the place where the Daliang Empire flourished. The capital does not have to be in Luoyang."
As a result, Zhu Youzhen officially ascended the throne and proclaimed himself emperor in Kaifeng Mansion, announced the cancellation of the "Fengli" era title (which only existed for less than a month), restored the "Qianhua Three Years", deposed Zhu Yougui as a commoner, and restored all the titles of Bo Wang Zhu Youwen. .
According to the usual practice, Zhu Youzhen changed his name to Zhu Kun after he ascended the throne, and later changed his name to Zhu Ai. We will continue to use "Zhu Youzhen". Zhu Youzhen was the last emperor of the Later Liang Dynasty.
After Zhu Youzhen came to the throne, he was granted the title of Master Yang Shihou Zhongshu Ling, and the title was promoted to King of Ye by the Prince of Hongnong County. Yuan Xiangxian and other meritorious officials also had their own awards, so there is no need to list them in detail.
