Afterwards, Ma Yin went to war with Huainan. On the surface, he wanted to make up for his mistakes to Zhu Wen's group and use the name of the war against Huainan. In fact, he wanted to seize the strategically important Yuezhou from Huainan.
At the same time, Ma Yin actively wrote to persuade him to advance, and immediately professed his vassalship and paid tribute after Zhu Wen usurped the Tang Dynasty, and was canonized as King of Chu by Zhu Wen.
In order to further curb the threat from Huainan, Qian Liu from Hangzhou took the initiative to request a marriage in the sixth year of Zhengming (920). Ma Yin readily agreed and married his daughter to Qian Chuanying, Qian Liu's son, the following year.
When Li Cunxu destroyed the Later Liang Dynasty, Ma Yin sent his son Ma Xifan to the throne, and handed over the "Hong'e Xingyingdutong" seal given by the Later Liang court, indicating that he wanted to draw a clear line with the Later Liang Dynasty; he also handed over the roster of officials and household registration books in the territory to express his acceptance of the Later Tang Dynasty tribute.
Ma Yin is by no means a die-hard fan of the Zhu family of the Later Liang Dynasty, and certainly not a crazy fan of the Li family of the Later Tang Dynasty. It cannot be said that Ma Yin is a capricious villain. Tanzhou's policy is very simple: pay tribute to the Central Plains Dynasty.
In order to show goodwill to the post-Tang Dynasty court, Changjiang County in Yuezhou under its jurisdiction was renamed Pingjiang County to avoid the taboo of post-Tang Dynasty.
In the second year of Tongguang (924), the Later Tang Dynasty granted Ma Yin Shangshu Ling.
In the third year of Tongguang (925), when the Later Tang Dynasty destroyed the former Shu, Ma Yin was so frightened that he hurriedly went to court, saying that he was old and would like to return home as a douqiu plan (meaning to retire from old age and return to his hometown), expressing his willingness to dedicate his territory to the imperial court. Land, just to preserve the remaining life. That's pitiful to say.
Li Cunxu said, "You are not allowed by the imperial edict," and he comforted him with kind words.
In the fourth year of Tongguang (926), Li Siyuan came to power. Ma Yin sent envoys to pay tribute and congratulate him on his enthronement. Li Siyuan granted Ma Yin the title of Shangshu Ling, and in the following year (927), he conferred the title of King of Chu on Ma Yin, sent a royal letter to Zhu Shu, and allowed Ma Yin to establish the country, appoint hundreds of civil and military officials, and set up institutions to represent the central court - the pedestal and ceremonial guards. "Half of the Emperor".
As a result, Ma Yin officially established the Chu State, which was called "Southern Chu" in history and ranked among the "Ten Kingdoms". Tanzhou was the Changsha Prefecture, and the cultural relics system was like the emperor's system. According to convention, Ma Yin was no longer a carpenter from Xuzhou, Henan, but after the famous Han Fubo General Ma Yuan, "after Liu Sheng, Prince Jing of Zhongshan."
The subsequent story has been mentioned in "1, Jingnan". It can be seen that Ma Yin's "loyalty" to the Later Tang Dynasty was exactly the same as that to the Later Liang Dynasty. He was not foolishly loyal and was still guided by practical interests.
In November of the first year of Changxing (930), Ma Yin died of illness at the age of 79.
Historically, Ma Yin has been highly praised, especially the entrepreneurial heroes of Nanchu, who are full of talents:
The pioneer of Longxiang—the founder Liu Jianfeng;
Sima pushed the boss - Zhang Ji abdicated in favor of someone worthy of his position;
Li Qiong's bravery, Gao Yu's planning, Xu Dexun's determination, Qin Yanhui's determination, Wang Huan's wisdom and courage, Yuan Heng's generosity and straightforwardness...
Some of the deeds of these people have been mentioned in the previous article, while others have been omitted because they have little connection with the main plot. For example, Gao Yu, we need to introduce it in the following article; Qin Yanhui is Qin Zongquan's cousin; the most interesting one is Yuan Heng, who changed his surname to "Tuoba" because of taboo (Ma Yin's father's name is Ma Yuanfeng). At first glance, I thought he was from Xianbei. Why did he change from "Yuan" to "Tuoba"? Because the Tuoba family of the Northern Wei royal family later changed his surname to Yuan, and the great-grandson of Tuoba Tao, the founder of the Northern Wei Dynasty, was named "Yuan Heng", so this Wei Yuanheng changed his name to "Tuoba Heng", not intentionally to be alternative or non-mainstream.
The Ma Yin Group was originally born out of Sun Ru, so after Ma Yin occupied Hunan, he built an ancestral hall for Sun Ru, the thief who killed people without batting an eye and massacred the city like a child's play, and eulogized Sun Ru. If you demolish a hut and build a building, it will stink from the ground up. Later, he began to surrender to the Central Plains Dynasty, and the political basis was gradually changed from Sun Ru to the canonization and appointment of the Central Plains Dynasty. As a result, Sun Ru's influence was gradually weakened, and he was replaced by Han Fubo General Ma Yuan.
Under the governance of Mayin Group, Hunan's economy has developed rapidly and it has become a national logistics distribution center. The people are happy and healthy, living and working in peace and contentment, and it has become a desirable paradise on earth. Among them, Gao Yu, Ma Yin's number one adviser and a well-known economist during the Five Dynasties period, is inseparable.
Gao Yu, whose native place is Yangzhou, Huainan, probably fled to Hunan to avoid the war in Huainan (Lu Yongzhi harmed Huainan, Bi Shiduo and Qin Yan rebelled, imprisoned and executed Gao Pian, and then Yang Xingmi and Sun Ru fought for Huainan). Ma Yin occupied Tanzhou Later, the two chatted very well and met each other late. Ma Yin immediately used Gao Yu as his number one adviser, just like Liu Bei met Kong Ming.
At that time, Ma Yin had just gained a foothold in Tanzhou and was surrounded by powerful enemies who were eyeing him. Ma Yin planned to bribe the surrounding neighbors with large sums of money in exchange for peace.
Gao Yu shouted no, and analyzed it: Jingnan is a small country with weak troops, so there is nothing to fear; Liu Yan from Guangzhou is a frog in the well, he only wants to retreat to Lingnan and has no ambition to expand north, so he will not be in trouble; Yang Xingmi has a deep hatred for us (Sun Confucianism), no matter how much money you give him. Therefore, it is better to serve the emperor and care for the soldiers, in order to achieve hegemony.
Gao Yu's views coincided with those of Xu Dexun and others, both of whom wanted to respect the emperor on the surface and increase their strength privately.
The reason why Gao Yu is famous in history is because of his other secret identity-an economist. Through trade wars and currency wars, he made Hunan stand out from the cracks surrounded by powerful enemies and rose rapidly, becoming the only powerful vassal in South China that dared to compete with Huainan's forces.
Gao Yu methodically opened up a battlefield without smoke:
The first step is to act as a middleman and earn the price difference.
As early as the Tang Dynasty, tea has been an important daily necessity for the Chinese people. "Tang Huiyao" records that "tea is food, no different from rice and salt."
At that time, the main producing area of tea was the Jianghuai area. It traveled northward through the Grand Canal, entered the Yellow River Basin from the Jianghuai River Basin, and then reached Luoyang, Chang'an and surrounding places through water transportation of the Yellow River. This formed a huge tea trade network, and tea tax became a One of the important sources of tax revenue for the government.
Due to the feud between Huainan Yang Xingmi and Bianzhou Zhu Wen, this trade network was artificially cut off, and tea from the Jianghuai area could not be directly transported to the Yellow River Basin.
So, under Gao Yu's guidance, Ma Yin, who was attached to Zhu Wen, winked at Yang Xingmi. From then on, tea from the Jianghuai area was first sent to Hunan to be "whitened", and then delivered to the Central Plains in an honest manner. This was a method that benefited all three parties, not only losing face but also getting benefits, so Zhu Wen also adopted a tacit attitude towards this "smuggling" behavior.
As a result, Hunan instantly became a tea trading center. In order to facilitate the "tea smuggling" business, Gao Yu suggested that Ma Yin petition Zhu Wen to "open ports for trade" and open tea stores in Bianzhou, Xiangzhou, Tangzhou, Yingzhou, Fuzhou and other places. Through the "tea smuggling" business, Ma Yin wasted no time and actually earned dozens of times the profit (sales of tea made dozens of times)!
The snipe and the clam quarreled, and the fisherman benefited. The political game and military confrontation between Bianzhou and Huainan made Hunan's economic prosperity possible.
