[Suspicious clouds in the Eastern Capital]
From the time of Zhu Wen's murder to Zhu Youzhen's accession to the throne, for more than half a year, the Houliang Empire completed the transfer of supreme power amidst bloody turmoil. The history books are conclusive, as mentioned above, in short: Zhu Yougui killed his father to seize power, and Zhu Youzhen avenged his father and seized power a second time.
I have also reminded you before, please pay attention to the loopholes and questions in this story. Anyway, I personally have a head full of black question marks, and many key clues seem to have been deliberately modified.
History is written by the victors. Yes, this story was left to future generations by Zhu Youzhen.
Zhu Youzhen was also overthrown by Li Cunxu ten years later, and the Later Liang Dynasty perished. Li Cunxu had a deep hatred for the Zhu family. After overthrowing the Later Liang Dynasty, it was the political need of the Later Tang Dynasty to discredit, vilify, demonize, and completely deny Zhu Wen and his Hou Liang regime. We will expand on this in detail later.
In other words, as early as the Li Cunxu era, this period of history had been systematically revised from top to bottom by the authorities, artificially causing serious inaccuracies in historical data.
Even the historians of the Song Dynasty more than 50 years later were troubled by it, let alone us more than a thousand years later. It is almost impossible to completely restore this period of history, and it is no longer possible.
I can only put forward some of my personal doubts and assumptions that seem more logically reasonable.
The core of these questions is the death of Zhu Youwen. There are many unknown key clues hidden around this core issue, which I collectively call “Eastern Capital Mysteries”:
1. Whether Zhu Wen really intended to pass the throne to Zhu Youwen; why Zhu Yougui's assassination went surprisingly smoothly.
2. Why did Zhu Youzhen strictly implement and actively implement Zhu Yougui's "corrective edict" to kill Zhu Youwen?
3. Zhu Yougui’s enthronement edict was full of loopholes, so why no one raised any objections.
4. Why did Jingxiang, the biggest insider, disappear during this period.
5. What roles did Zhao Yan and Yuan Xiangxian play, and what role did they play in the two regicide operations.
6. Zhu Youzhen’s enthronement edict was also full of loopholes.
Rough expansion:
1. According to historical records, after the death of Mrs. Zhang Hui, Zhu Wen became dissolute and lustful, lusted after women, and did many heinous animalistic behaviors. Among them was the hobby of doting on his daughter-in-law. In order to compete for favor, all the disciples took the initiative. Dedicate your wife to Zhu Wen. Among them, Zhu Youwen's wife Wang and Zhu Yougui's wife Zhang were especially favored by Zhu Wen, so they stayed by his bedside for a long time.
Zhu Wen was critically ill and said to Wang, "Go to Dongdu quickly and summon your husband Youwen to Luoyang!" This meant that he wanted to pass the throne to Zhu Youwen. When Zhang knew about it, she hurriedly told Zhu Yougui that Wang had gone to the Eastern Capital with the imperial seal and that Zhu Youwen would definitely kill you after he came to the throne. So Zhu Yougui entered the palace to assassinate him.
The above two paragraphs are full of flaws. Let’s put aside the issue of Zhu Wen’s life style for the time being. If Zhu Wen intended to pass the throne to Zhu Youwen, he should not let Zhu Youwen’s wife hold the imperial seal to summon him. There is a complete set of procedures for summoning the prince to the capital. At least To issue official documents, ministers must go and summon them, and the imperial seal should be left in the capital, Luoyang.
Besides, Zhu Yougui's patricide was simply too simple. He only bribed Han Qing, the commander of the Zuo Longhu Army, and managed the assassination of the king without leakage. Not only was he successful in the assassination, he was also able to strictly block the news. The key is that all this work is done in just one day.
This is killing the emperor, not killing a chicken. Simply unbelievable.
2. After Zhu Yougui usurped power, he ordered to kill Zhu Youwen. Zhu Youzhen killed Zhu Youwen without saying a word. Of course, we can understand it this way: Zhu Youzhen was stupid and naive, thinking that this was indeed what his father meant. Because Zhu Youwen was an adopted son, his father helped his son get rid of the "outsider" who was the greatest threat to the throne before he died, so Happy to obey the order.
Did Zhu Youzhen really kill Zhu Youwen on Zhu Yougui's order?
3. The edict of Zhu Yougui's accession to the throne gave an official explanation for the execution of Zhu Youwen, saying that Zhu Youwen sent people into the palace to assassinate him but failed. Fortunately, Zhu Yougui rescued him in time, so the throne should be passed to Zhu Yougui.
According to the "Edict", Zhu Youwen attempted to assassinate Zhu Wen, but Zhu Yougui acted bravely when he saw justice. Where is the evidence? Where is Zhu Youwen's assassin? You want to see the person alive, you want to see the body after death, so important evidence disappears out of thin air? How many assassins were sent? How to sneak into the deep palace? Why not punish the palace security personnel who seriously neglected their duties? The most important question is, why did Zhu Yougui appear in the palace at that time? Did he kill the assassin by himself, or did he bring his troops with him? If you had your troops with you, why would you show up in the palace with your troops in the middle of the night?
This "edict" is full of loopholes and doubtful points. It can be called Zhu Yougui's confession of guilt!
4. Jingxiang is the biggest insider of Zhu Wen Tuogu. According to records, Zhu Wen asked Jingxiang to release Zhu Yougui, implying that Zhu Yougui was a time bomb and he must be expelled from the central government and as far away from the capital as possible, so he was granted the title. Laizhou governor.
In other words, Jingxiang knew that Zhu Wen definitely did not want to pass the throne to Zhu Yougui. Faced with this most important insider, Zhu Yougui neither bribed him with large sums of money nor framed him and killed him. Instead, he isolated and marginalized him. Isn't he afraid that Jingxiang will tell the truth to the world?
Jingxiang did not need to tell "the world", he only needed to tell Zhu Wen's nephews and nephews. He can overthrow Zhu Yougui with just one sentence.
Jingxiang is to Zhu Wen, just like Zhuge Liang is to Liu Bei. From Zhu Wen's time in Bian to the fall of the Later Liang Dynasty, Jing Xiang was always involved as Zhu Wen's chief adviser. However, during the most critical and turbulent six months, Jing Xiang disappeared from the annals of history. , it’s really puzzling.
5. Yuan Xiangxian was also an important commander of the Forbidden Army and killed Zhu Yougui's main force. However, according to historical records, the Long Xiang army who was instigated by Zhu Youzhen to rebel was not used to kill Zhu Yougui, nor was Yang Shihou's field army used. It seems that he is just confirming the attitudes of Zhu Youzhen and Yang Shihou. As long as they nod, you won't have to worry about killing the emperor.
Ever since... I had a bold idea: Did Zhu Wen die like this?
I would like to declare that the following opinions are purely personal speculation: Yuan Xiangxian, a relative, is the real mastermind of the two regicides! The reason why there was a second regicide (Zhu Yougui) was because of the uneven distribution of the spoils and disagreements.
And when Yuan Xiangxian and Zhao Yan supported Zhu Youzhen, they immediately dominated the government and the public, covering the sky with one hand, causing chaos in the rear beam, and perished ten years later. Is this just Zhu Youzhen's repayment of kindness? Or, what kind of "favor" did Zhu Youzhen repay?
6. After Zhu Youzhen ascended the throne, he also had to give a reasonable explanation for the murder of Zhu Yougui.
According to Zhu Youzhen's official explanation, the late emperor Zhu Wen planned to pass the throne to Zhu Youwen, and Zhu Yougui's rebellious intentions had been revealed. Therefore, when Zhu Wen was critically ill, Zhu Youwen secretly made a memorial, asking his father to do a good job in security and protection to avoid lawlessness. The poisonous hand of molecules. Zhu Wen thought so and quickly ordered Zhu Yougui to go to Laizhou, the coast of the East China Sea. When Zhu Yougui saw what had happened, he jumped over the wall and killed Zhu Wen. Then he forged an edict and killed innocent people indiscriminately (killing Zhu Youwen). Therefore, I was supported by all the ministers and finally avenged the late emperor...
Since it was Zhu Wenyou's secret report, how did you know about it? As for Zhu Yougui completing the planning, deployment, entering the palace to assassinate, and blocking the news in a very short period of time (one day)...it returns to the first question.
After the coup was successful, facing the invitations of Yuan Xiangxian and Zhao Yan, Zhu Youzhen did not dare to enter Luoyang and ascend the throne. Instead, he ascended the throne in his own territory, Kaifeng Mansion in the Eastern Capital, which seemed to be responding to the fifth question.
To sum up, my personal guess is: Yuan Xiang first sought to "support the first achievement", kill Zhu Wen first and install Zhu Yougui. Unexpectedly, the spoils were unevenly divided, and Zhu Yougui crossed the river and demolished the bridge; so Yuan Xiang first contacted his subordinates and supported Zhu Youzhen again.
When Li Cunxu eliminated Houliang, Yuan Xiang was the first to surrender, and took out a large amount of gold and silver treasures to bribe all the top executives of the Hedong Group indiscriminately. So Yuan Xiangxian won Li Cunxu's favor and trust, was named "Li Shao'an", was awarded a high official and a generous salary, and renamed his Songzhou Xuanwu Army "Guide Army", and told him that the name was changed specifically for him.
After Yuan Xiangxian died, Li Cunxu posthumously gave him the title of "Grand Master". After the establishment of the Later Zhou Dynasty, he posthumously gave him the title of Zhongshu Ling and the posthumous title of Duke of Chu.
In other words, as a "previous dynasty veteran", Yuan Xiangxian was one of the few politicians in the Later Liang Dynasty who was not denied, smeared, or vilified by the Later Tang regime. On the contrary, he was the target of the Later Tang regime's efforts to protect and beautify. Then all the stains on Yuan Xiangxian (such as my guess) will also be artificially modified and tampered with.
No matter what the truth is, the last emperor Zhu Youzhen ascended the throne and inherited the throne. Under his leadership, where will the country of Houliang go?
