【The ferocious appearance】
In the first year of Changxing (930), Li Siyuan made Li Congrong King of Qin and Li Conghou King of Song;
In the fourth year of Changxing (933), Li Congrong, King of Qin, was awarded the title of Shou Shangshu Ling and concurrently serving as a minister.
Li Congrong was methodically approaching the throne of the emperor, and his behavior became more arrogant and domineering.
According to convention, princes should be provided with tutors (Wang Fu). The prime ministers were all afraid of Li Congrong, so they hid behind each other and did not dare to have any opinions. They asked him to choose by himself and be happy.
Li Congrong's staff recommended Liu Zan, the Minister of War, to him, so Li Congrong named Liu Zan.
Li Siyuan appointed Liu Zan as King Fu of Qin, and also sent Li Congrong an "assistant teacher" - Yu Chongyuan. In the Tang Dynasty, "Wang Fu" was equivalent to being demoted from an official position, which basically meant forced retirement. For example, Prime Minister Yu Cong was squeezed out by the "Baoyan Party" and was demoted to Pu Wangfu and the branch of the Eastern Capital.
So after Liu Zan received the appointment letter, he ran to Li Siyuan and cried, insisting that he should resign from the honor of "Prince Fu of Qin".
Li Siyuan persuaded Li Congrong with good words and dismissed it in order to appease Li Congrong. Liu Zan could only bite the bullet and serve Li Congrong.
Through Li Congrong's attitude towards Liu Zan, we can intuitively see the collapse of Li Congrong's character. He does not respect Confucianism from the heart at all. The so-called courtesy and virtuous corporal, and being open-minded and open-minded to accept advice are all the princes carefully created by his team for him. Persona.
Li Congrong is surrounded by so-called "Confucian scholars". The reason why these people support Li Congrong is just to get dividends from the tradition of "one emperor and one courtier". They are basically unknown young students, just like retail investors new to the stock market. Leeks, they succeeded in "innovating" and successfully subscribed to Li Congrong Group before its IPO. As long as Li Congrong Group is successfully listed, they can achieve overtaking in a corner and become an emerging giant in the financial world.
These political speculators surround Li Congrong every day, only trying to flatter and flatter Li Congrong in order to gain Li Congrong's favor and obtain a larger share of the original shares.
Only the gentleman Liu Zan, although he was extremely reluctant to be the "Fu King of Qin", after taking office, he performed his duties seriously, often admonishing Li Congrong and teaching him to follow the right path.
Good medicine tastes bitter, but honest words offend the ears. Li Congrong hated Liu Zan very much, and his attitude towards Liu Zan was extremely indifferent. He did not have the basic respect that students have for their teachers. Instead, he treated Liu Zan like a slave and bossed him around.
Li Congrong simply gave an order to the old guard: Liu Zan could only come to the palace once a month, and was not allowed to enter at other times! I don’t like to see him, I get annoyed just by looking at him!
Even if it was a monthly meeting, Li Congrong would try his best to humiliate Liu Zan. For example, when Liu Zan entered the palace, he was not allowed to inform or introduce him.
Generally speaking, out of basic courtesy, especially if the host has a good reputation and status, when a guest comes to see him, there will be a dedicated staff member at the door to inform him first. This is common in movies and TV dramas, where visitors announce their names at the door. Then a servant came into the back office and said, "Prince Taishi, King Jin so-and-so, please see me."
In this way, visitors will have face.
If the host hears about it and rushes to the door to greet him in person, then the visitor has earned enough face; if the host doesn't even have time to put on clothes and shoes, and rushes out to greet him with his hair disheveled and barefoot, then the guest's face is simply as great as that of the city gate, such as Cao Cao Welcome Xu You at the Battle of Guandu.
And if the doorman refuses to announce, "Here you are? Go in by yourself." That is tantamount to telling you that the owner does not want to see you at all and that you are not welcome. Visitors who fail to inform and do not know what to expect will lose face and will be ridiculed by other guests in the hall.
Liu Zan blushed, lowered his head, and finally walked into the palace hall, only to find that there was no one in the hall. Because Li Congrong was gathering with those sycophants in the back house or the back garden, he deliberately left Liu Zan alone and sat on the bench alone in the hall. What's even more outrageous is that at lunch time, there was no working meal for Liu Zan at all.
As Li Congrong's teacher, Liu Zan's job was to come to the palace to starve for one day every month.
Treating his teacher like this shows Li Congrong's true face as a "courteous and virtuous corporal".
In May of the same year (933), Li Siyuan named his adopted son Li Congke the King of Lu.
The civil and military officials and upright people in the court increasingly looked down upon Li Congrong's actions, while the frustrated political opportunists kept moving closer to Li Congrong, fearing that they would not be able to get a piece of the pie. Among them, there is a frustrated politician-He Ze.
He Ze was good friends with Prime Minister Zhao Feng, and he often presented himself as an outspoken scholar who dared to remonstrate. After Zhao Feng was promoted, He Ze approached Zhao Feng many times to smooth things over and use the back door to establish connections. Gradually, Zhao Feng recognized He Ze's true face, began to hate him, and alienated him.
Later, He Ze was appointed Taichang Shaoqing. However, at that time, this appointment was only the preliminary result of internal discussions, and the appointment letter was not officially issued. However, He Ze, who had received the "grapevine information" in advance, could not restrain his joy, so he submitted a letter of thanks in advance, and the signature was unexpectedly This official title was used.
You have self-appointed yourself before the organization made it public, which is a serious violation. Therefore, Li Siyuan ordered the relevant department (Zhongshu) to investigate the matter, and the result was that he was ordered to retire in the name of "Taichang Shaoqing".
He Ze wanted to cry but had no tears. He looked forward to the stars and the moon. Finally, he looked forward to a high-ranking official and a generous salary. He retired honorably without even starting work one day.
Now, He Ze saw that Li Congrong was gaining momentum and expected that he would definitely inherit the throne, so he took the initiative to lick Li Congrong and went directly to Li Siyuan, requesting that Li Congrong be established as the prince as soon as possible and the heir to the throne be clear.
When Li Siyuan saw this memorial, he couldn't help crying. Because he went to Jiuquchi to escape the summer heat a few days ago, suddenly "the wind and poison broke out", and then "the holy body was not hesitant".
Jiuquchi is a cursed royal garden, where Zhu Wen massacred a large number of Tang Dynasty royals and threw their bodies into Jiuquchi. Later, Zhu Wen was boating on the Jiuqu Pond for fun. The boat capsized suddenly without warning. Zhu Wen fell into the water, and then "hesitated". Now Li Siyuan is sick again here and "is not hesitant".
The old emperor was seriously ill, and his ministers asked him to appoint a prince, which was very unlucky. Especially in the last years of Li Siyuan's life when undercurrents were surging, for Li Siyuan, who was in a precarious situation, this was "forcing the palace".
Li Siyuan had mixed feelings, anger, fear, helplessness, and sadness, all turned into tears and burst out, "Civil and military officials forced me to establish a crown prince. It seems that I will return to my hometown to retire!"
A retired He Ze is a complete little person, but his superiority contains huge energy. Obviously, behind this memorial, there is also the involvement of a mastermind behind the scenes. He Ze is just a pawn used by a big shot.
Under the pressure of the mastermind behind the scenes, Li Siyuan had to summon the prime minister, privy envoys and other senior officials to seriously study and discuss the establishment of a prince.
When Li Congrong learned that the court was discussing making him the prince, a strange scene occurred: Li Congrong found Li Siyuan and firmly opposed making him the prince.
What kind of cool operation is this?
