【Brother is back】
After Wang Shenzhi's death, his eldest son Wang Yanhan succeeded to the throne. At the beginning of Wang Yanhan's accession to the throne, Chen Ben, a rebel from Tingzhou, gathered 30,000 people and launched a rebellion, which was suppressed by Wang Yanhan. Subsequently, in March of the fourth year of Tongguang (926), Li Cunxu officially appointed Wang Yanhan as the military governor of the Mighty Army.
In the same month that Wang Yanhan was appointed, Li Cunxu's regime was overthrown and Li Siyuan took over Luoyang.
In order to maintain stability, Li Siyuan fully recognized Wang Yanhan's old official position (Mighty Military Military Envoy) and granted him the title of Tongping Zhangshi to show his favor.
However, Wang Yanhan felt the decline of the Central Plains dynasty amid the changes in Luoyang, and there was nowhere to put his restless little heart.
Wang Yanhan took out "Historical Records", opened the "Biography of King Wu Zhu of Min Yue", and told everyone, "Look, Wu Zhu was granted the title of King of Min Yue during the Han Dynasty. What does this mean? Min has been an independent kingdom since ancient times. Now, I If you don’t call yourself the king, who else should you treat?”
This is no longer hinted, but stated explicitly. The staff then wrote letters to persuade him to join.
On October 6, the first year of Tiancheng (926), Wang Yanhan claimed to be the king of the Great Fujian Kingdom, built a royal palace, set up civil and military officials, and all cultural relics systems were modeled on the emperor's specifications, and ordered a general amnesty for the world.
However, what is interesting is that after Wang Yanhan established his own country, he still recognized the legal rule of the Later Tang Dynasty and continued to use the reign name of the Later Tang Dynasty. In this way, the country of Fujian was officially established and ranked among the "Ten Kingdoms". It was obviously an illegal separatist regime politically.
The founding monarch of Fujian, Wang Yanhan, was overthrown in less than three months.
When Wang Yanhan became queen, he was arrogant, extravagant and lewd, no different from other "second generations":
When they danced on the grave, their father Wang Shen learned that the mourning period had not yet expired, so Wang Yanhan terminated the mourning period early;
Build civil engineering and build a luxurious palace more than ten miles away across the West Lake in the west of the city, named "Crystal Palace";
He was lustful and dissolute, searched for folk beauties, forced them into the palace, and asked officials from all over the country to search for folk beauties for him;
Rejecting his brothers, his younger brother Wang Yanjun was advised by Shangshu. Wang Yanhan was furious and sent him to Quanzhou.
Wang Yanhan's wife was born in the Bolingcui family, a famous high-ranking family. This Mrs. Cui is very ugly, but also very lustful and jealous. Whenever Wang Yanhan collected folk women, Ms. Cui would select the beautiful ones among them, and then lock them up and torture them. They would use big wooden boards to make the shape of palms and slap their cheeks; they would hang them up and whip them until they were bloody and then the whip would stop; Face, arms, etc. 84 people were tortured to death in one year.
Such a vicious lady who was naturally jealous, cruel, murderous, and promiscuous actually believed in Buddhism. "Madam Ya believed in Buddhism and took Huileng, a monk from Fuzhou, as her teacher, and she called herself a trainer."
In the Buddhist history book "Upasika", there is a record about this "Trainer Cui", saying that she often answered questions with the old monk and was quite knowledgeable about Buddhism.
So how did she answer questions from the eminent monks and how did she come to know so much about Buddhism? "Wu Deng Hui Yuan" records such a story:
Mrs. Cui sent someone to send some clothes for charity to Zen Master Huileng. The person who sent the clothes told Zen Master Huileng that Master Cui asked him to reply to his letter. Zen Master Huileng said: "Go back and tell her: Please get a reply." The servant came back after leaving and gave Zen Master Huileng a long bow.
The next day, when Zen Master Huileng arrived at Jiedu Mansion, Mrs. Cui saluted him and said, "Thank you for your reply yesterday!"
Zen Master Huileng said, "Then bring yesterday's letter and let me have a look."
Mrs. Cui spread her hands with her palms facing the sky. Her hands were empty, but she pretended to be holding something, and respectfully held it in front of Zen Master Huileng.
Wang Yanhan asked from the side: "Senior Monk, do you think this reply is okay?"
Zen Master Huileng nodded and said approvingly: "Yeah - it has an internal flavor (it's a bit more subdued)."
Wang Yanhan still maintained more or less a normal mind, and when faced with the "Eminent Monk's Answer" styled in the emperor's new clothes, he had reservations and couldn't help but ask: "Master, may I ask...what does the letter say? (What is the master’s will yet to be judged)”
Zen Master Huileng closed his eyes and was speechless, too lazy to argue with such an ordinary person. He was in a different realm and could not be taught.
The atmosphere was awkwardly frozen like this. After a long time, Wang Yanhan couldn't stand the condemnation of his conscience and his wife's vicious and contemptuous eyes, and said to himself: "Master's Dharma is profound... it's incredible."
This is the dialogue between Cui and the eminent monk, as well as the profound realm of Buddhism.
There is poetry to prove it:
"The city is open across the West Lake and the road is open, and the Crystal Palace Garden is allowed to accompany you.
The trainer talked about the Dharma of the West alone, and Xin asked for a letter from Zen Buddhism. "
In fact, it is not surprising that many people who superficially believe in Buddhism do not believe in Buddhism from the bottom of their hearts. Instead, they bribe the Buddha to seek spiritual liberation. Burn two sticks of incense to the Buddha, donate a sum of money to the temple, and then go back to murder, arson, embezzlement and bending the law. The same is true for many criminals today.
Later, Ms. Cui fell ill. During her serious illness, she suddenly saw the ghost of an innocent person asking for her life, and she was so frightened that she died. There is another theory that it was a midsummer day with clear skies, cloudless and sunny, but suddenly there was a thunderbolt from the clear sky, killing Cui. He was hacked to death in the courtyard; there is another theory that he was killed together with Wang Yanhan, which will be mentioned below.
Wang Shenzhi also had an adopted son named Wang Yanchen, who is now the governor of Jianzhou. His appearance is the same as that of Li Keyong, and he is nicknamed "One-Eyed Dragon" due to his "squinting eyes".
This Wang Yanzhen was at odds with Wang Yanhan. Wang Yanhan ordered him to search for beauties in Jianzhou. Wang Yanzhen sent letters and remonstrances, many of which were rude. Wang Yanhan was furious, and the relationship between the brothers became even more tense.
Wang Yanzhen's Jianzhou is northwest of Fuzhou, located in the upper reaches of Jianyang River, while Fuzhou is located in the lower reaches of Jianyang River; Wang Yanjun, who was previously excluded from foreign affairs, is in Quanzhou, which is located to the south of Fuzhou.
In December, Wang Yancun and Wang Yanjun secretly united and raised troops at the same time to attack Fuzhou.
Wang Yanxun, who traveled by water, arrived in Fuzhou first. Chen Tao, the commander-in-chief of Fuzhou, fought, was defeated and committed suicide. That night, Wang Yanxun led more than a hundred warriors to climb the city wall at night and took control of the west gate. Then he rushed directly into the inner city, opened the armory, seized weapons, and then went straight to the palace.
When Wang Shenzhi attacked Fuzhou in the 30th year, the siege lasted a whole year, but Wang Yanzhen only spent one day.
Wang Yanhan was sleeping soundly when he heard something had changed. He was so frightened that he had no time to put on his clothes and hurried to the next door to hide, but was caught.
Early the next morning, Wang Yan reported that he beheaded Wang Yanhan and his wife Cui, and announced their crime: killing their father Wang Shenzhi. Go out and bring peace to the people.
Later, Wang Yanjun arrived belatedly.
Wang Yanchen opened the city gate and warmly welcomed Wang Yanjun's arrival. Although Wang Yancun was older than Wang Yanjun, he was only Wang Shenzhi's adopted son, and their relationship was like that of Li Siyuan and Li Cunxu. Therefore, Wang Yancun supported Wang Yanjun's accession to the throne and recommended him to be the successor of the mighty army.
After everything settled down, Wang Yanxun led his troops back to Jianzhou. Wang Yanjun respectfully went out of the city to see him off, and bid farewell to the godbrother who helped him ascend to the throne in the suburbs. After drinking and eating, the two brothers expressed their feelings to each other and shed tears to say goodbye. But just when Wang Yanchen was about to leave, he suddenly said the last words to Wang Yanjun:
"Keep the family business well, don't let me come again!"
