Just over two months later, An Chongjie took advantage of Zhu Shouyin's rebellion to imply that during Li Siyuan's chaos, a frustrated senior politician should not be allowed to wander outside, otherwise he would be in danger of becoming a traitor. Under An Zhongjiao's instigation, Li Siyuan finally issued an edict that shocked both China and the world:
"...Ren Wan...disobeyed etiquette, hid in Yin, and...committed suicide." Without any evidence, the emperor spoke eloquently and just opened his mouth to say that Ren Wan colluded with the traitor general.
After Ren Wan knelt down to receive the edict, he smiled slightly, neither begging for mercy nor crying out for injustice. He gathered his whole family and set up a sumptuous banquet to see him off. During this last supper, the whole family burst into tears. They could only eat and drink freely, and finally died with a calm expression.
Everyone in the world is wronged. Zhao Feng, a bachelor of Duanming Palace, ran to An Zhongjie and cried bitterly, accusing An Zhongjie: "Ren Wan is a loyal man, why do you have to frame him and put him to death? You use your power to kill indiscriminately, how can you Can you make the empire rich and powerful? Aren't you afraid of retribution?"
An Chongjie's retribution will come soon.
Kong Xun
This person has been grandly introduced in the previous article, but I will briefly mention it here: together with Gao Jichang and Dong Zhang, he is the adopted son of Zhu Wen's adopted son Zhu Yourang, and he is the grandson of both. He is cunning and scheming, otherwise he would not be able to please Zhu Wen. Before the advent of Li Siyuan's era, he bet on the eunuch Li Shaohong very wisely and entered the core power circle through the strong recommendation of the eunuch Li Shaohong.
After the era of Li Siyuan came, Kong Xun hugged An Zhongjie's thigh very accurately.
An Chongjie believed that Kong Xun had been active in the core power circle (Later Liang) for a long time, had been in the court for a long time, had a full and profound understanding of central affairs, and was more familiar with the character and conduct of the civil and military officials of the Later Liang Dynasty, which could just make up for his shortcomings. , so he regarded Kong Xun as his right-hand man, and almost obeyed Kong Xun's opinions (especially on the issue of Hou Liang politicians).
As a high-ranking official who parachuted into Luoyang, it was necessary for An Chongjie to find a personnel consultant, eyes and ears, and informants, but this person, Kong Xun, should be positioned as a consultant rather than a strategic decision-maker. However, Kong Xun's hard work finally deceived An Chongjie's trust. In the subsequent struggle, An Chongjie was used by Kong Xun.
For example, when discussing the candidate for prime minister, Kong Xun, who was born in the "Hou Liang Gang", strongly recommended members of the "Hou Liang Gang" such as Zheng Jue and Cui Xie, while Ren Wan from the "Heshuo Gang" recommended Li Qi, and the two groups had a fierce dispute. struggle.
The parting of ways between Kong Xun and An Chongjie was also very dramatic. In short, it was the "Friendship between Pan and Ga":
Li Siyuan planned to marry An Chongjie's daughter for his prince Li Conghou. After Kong Xun heard about it, he immediately warned An Chongjie, saying that you have a high position and great achievements, so you should take the initiative to avoid suspicion and not marry the royal family, otherwise there will be great disaster. Disaster is coming! An Chongjie was convinced that Kong Xunyan was obedient, so he politely declined Li Siyuan's marriage request.
However, as soon as he turned around, Kong Xun ran to Li Siyuan's favorite concubine, Wang Defei, and with sweet words, begged to let the prince Li Conghou marry his daughter.
This concubine Wang De came from a very humble background. She was originally the daughter of a cake seller in Pizhou. She was born so delicate and beautiful that she was nicknamed "Hua Jian Sha". When she was young, she was sold to the Hou Liang general Liu Wei as a maid. After Liu Wei was forced to commit suicide, Wang was adopted as a concubine by Li Siyuan under the influence of An Zhonghui.
Wang dispersed all the money she brought with her to Li Siyuan's attendants and other concubines, so everyone spoke well of her, and she was favored by Li Siyuan.
From this point of view, An Zhongjie should be a nobleman of the Wang family, but once the Wang family becomes "Wang Defei" or "Wang Shufei", the change in status means a change in interest orientation, which also means "friends" and "Wang Shufei". The definition of "enemy" may change significantly. In the end, Wang was deeply involved in An Chongjie's death.
We will discuss this in detail later. Kong Xun took away her relationship and finally facilitated the marriage between his daughter and the prince Li Conghou.
After An Chongjie got the news, he suddenly realized that he had been betrayed by his most trusted "good brother" and was furious. Kong, you deceived my feelings!
Within three days, Kong Xun was appointed as the military governor of Xuzhou Zhongwu Army and was expelled from the court. Soon after, he moved to Cangzhou and finally died in Cangzhou at the age of 48.
There is a saying that man's calculation is not as good as God's calculation. Kong Xun did not hesitate to offend An Chongjie, the man in power, but also wanted to marry his daughter to the prince Li Conghou. A few years later, Li Conghou succeeded Li Siyuan and became the third emperor of the Later Tang Dynasty. His daughter also became Li Conghou's queen. However, Li Conghou only After five months in office, he was killed in a coup. Kong and his four sons were also killed.
Zheng Jue
The descendant of "Zheng Wu", a descendant of "Xie Hou Zheng Wu", has a special affinity with the "Nineteenth". When Hou Liang was about to be destroyed, he came up with a plan, saying that we could go to the enemy camp with the imperial seal to fake surrender. Everyone asked him what he was cheating on, and he was very serious. He replied "I don't know either". At that time, the civil and military officials of the Manchu Dynasty were holding hands with Zhu Youzhen and crying. Mr. Zheng Jue's words made the whole audience burst into laughter.
After Li Siyuan appointed Wan as prime minister, An Zhongjie wanted to find another person to be prime minister to share the power of Wan, so he asked Confucius for advice. Kong Xun immediately recommended Zheng Jue, a humorous and old waste. The reason for the recommendation was that Zheng Jue had served as prime minister during the Later Liang Dynasty, had rich work experience, and was of good family background. He was the descendant of Zheng Wei, the prime minister of the Tang Dynasty, and had a cautious and steady personality. If you have the style of a master, you can definitely use him.
An Zhongjia was deeply convinced, so he asked Zheng Jue to be the prime minister.
Powerful ministers always like to recommend useless people to be high-ranking officials, so that they can go beyond their authority and monopolize government affairs. This is the reason why Kong Xun recommended Zheng Jue.
After becoming the prime minister, Zheng Jue continued his work style of "doing nothing". Doing nothing. To be precise, instead of doing good things, I did two bad things:
One is to hug Kong Xun's thigh tightly and follow every step. An Chongjie, Kong Xun and Ren Wan were competing for power. Ren Wan recommended Li Qi, while An Chongjie and Kong Xun recommended Cui Xie. Zheng Jue also actively excluded Li Qi and praised Cui Xie.
Second, it continues the absurd and shameless comedy style. Not long after Li Siyuan became emperor, he traveled to Bianzhou. The officers and soldiers of the Sixth Army took their families and moved from Luoyang to Bianzhou with the emperor. Before they could settle down, Li Siyuan had a whim and wanted to travel to Weizhou. According to the news As soon as they came out, the sergeants complained and were in danger of mutiny, but Li Siyuan didn't care.
Zheng Jue speculated on the holy will and praised the greatness, glory and correctness of the Northern Expedition to Weizhou... Zhao Feng, a bachelor of Duanming Palace, went to An Zhong for instructions, analyzed the pros and cons, and said that he should never be the Northern Expedition to Weizhou. An Chongjie woke up in time and quickly admonished Li Siyuan, which made Li Siyuan give up this dangerous idea. Scholars of later generations believe that if Li Siyuan insists on going his own way this time and insists on going north to Weizhou, I am afraid that Li Siyuan's era will come to an end.
Comrade Zheng Jue, who had previously expressed his firm support for the abolition of Beixing Weizhou, "Jue also praised it and thought it was appropriate to let it go." shameless.
Later, Kong Xun lost power and was dismissed as Privy Councilor. Zheng Jue was greatly frightened, so he resolutely resigned on the grounds of old age, frailty and various illnesses. Li Siyuan sincerely persuaded him to stay and rejected his request for retirement three times. In the end, Comrade Zheng Jue After four times of begging for his bones, he finally retired as Zuo Pushe and was given a manor in Zhengzhou. After his death, he was given posthumously to Sikong.
And the reason why he was able to die well was not that he retreated bravely, but that he was really useless. Even when he was in phase, he was still someone else's puppet, a funny responsibility of the core power level, and a pollution-free product. As mentioned before, only those who do not hold real power and know how to advance and retreat can truly protect themselves wisely and die well.
