This great leader is Kong Qian, the mediocre envoy. At that time, Li Cunxu was fighting for years and was in urgent need of logistical supplies. As long as he could raise money and food, it would be fine, no matter what methods the officials used. Kong Qian was his right-hand steward, and he successfully completed the tasks assigned by the organization. Yang Bin, who also used unscrupulous means and completed tasks on time and over the limit, was naturally Kong Qian's right-hand man.
Relying on his excellent work ability and nepotism, Yang Bin's official career was prosperous and he was promoted steadily. However, after Kong Qian was dismissed, Yang Bin also entered a low period in his life. Disappeared in the spotlight.
By the time he returned to the world, he had already fallen in love with Liu Zhiyuan. When Liu Zhiyuan was in charge of Weizhou, he used him as the governor and became Liu Zhiyuan's bodyguard.
After Liu Zhiyuan became emperor, he was directly appointed as Privy Councilor, ushering in the peak of his life.
2.2 Grudges with the Civil Service Group
"Ping was born as a minor official and did not like scholars. He was in conflict with Su Fengji and other internal ministers."
As mentioned above, Su Fengji took bribes and sold his officials to win titles, which made the officialdom of the Later Han Dynasty a mess. Yang Bin hated this deeply and often complained to the people around him, saying, what is the use of these civil servants? The country relies on strong soldiers and abundant treasury. These people who call themselves civil servants are nothing but worms in the country!
In his daily work, Yang Fan targeted Su Fengji everywhere. He refuted Su Fengji's memorials whenever he could and delayed them whenever he could, especially in terms of personnel appointments and removals.
Obviously, Yang Bin blocked Su Fengji's financial path. Su Fengji held a grudge, so he wanted to squeeze Yang Bin out of the center. He was more insidious and did not choose to fight head-on. Instead, he found a silly shotgun as his pawn.
The man he was looking for was named Li Tao, the upright remonstrator who had once stood up to Jingtang and insisted on Zhang Yanze's execution. At Su Fengji's instigation, Li Tao went to the Shang Shu, to the effect that the war in the western part of the empire was tense, and capable and trustworthy generals must be sent to guard it, such as Comrade Yang Yi and Comrade Guo Wei. They were both founding heroes, and their abilities were obvious to all. ; The trivial affairs of the central government were handed over to the prime ministers Su Fengji and Su Yugui.
It was March of the first year of Qianyou (948). Yang Bin and Guo Wei were both Privy Councilors. At that time, there was no precedent for local vassals to serve as Privy Councilors. Therefore, Li Tao's intention was to remove Yang Bin and Guo Wei's Privy Councilors and exclude them from foreign affairs. It was placed in the northwest; the prime ministers Su Fengji and Su Yugui also served as privy envoys.
After Yang Bin heard about it, he ran to the Queen Mother and cried, "We have followed the late emperor for many years, licking blood with our swords, and narrowly escaped death, and finally established the Han Dynasty. Now, the emperor has listened to the traitor's slander and wants to send us to the northwest border. Even the emperor She thinks that we are not qualified for our current official position, and please ask the Queen Mother for the sake of the late emperor to let us bury the late emperor first, and then go to the frontier before it is too late."
The old man cried in front of the Queen Mother with runny noses and tears, and the Queen Mother was moved by it.
The Queen Mother called Liu Chengyou over and scolded her angrily, "They are ministers who have contributed to the empire. How can they be expelled from the central government casually? Why should you listen to slander!"
Liu Chengyou was so frightened that his legs trembled and he hurriedly defended, "This... this is the prime minister's opinion... not what I meant."
The Queen Mother was still angry, "Which prime minister? Let him get out of here!"
Li Tao, the Secretary of the Ministry of Revenue and the Secretary of Tongping Zhang, is still the same young man as before. Not only did he dare to defy the sky, the earth, and the air, but he was also very righteous and took the initiative to help Su Fengji block the gun. It’s irrelevant.”
Therefore, Liu Chengyou issued an edict to remove Li Tao from all official positions and go home to reflect on his mistakes.
After the establishment of Guo Wei in the Zhou Dynasty, the brave and upright Li Tao was reinstated and became the Minister of the Ministry of Household Affairs. After the establishment of the Northern Song Dynasty, he became the Minister of the Ministry of War. He died of illness in the second year of Jianlong's reign (961) in the Northern Song Dynasty at the age of 64, and was given posthumously to You Pushe.
Everyone knows that the innocent Li Tao has been taken advantage of by some people. Who are they? For example, Su Fengji, who did not want to be named. Obviously, simply deposing Li Tao is not enough to calm Yang Bin's anger.
Yang Bin and others immediately launched a counterattack.
In April, Liu Chengyou discussed with his attendants, saying that it was not his original intention to release Yang Bin and Guo Wei, but that he did not act carefully and angered the Queen Mother. In any case, he had to come out to help wipe the butt. How to wipe it? It was to promote Yang Bin, Guo Wei and others to show that he really had no intention of suppressing or ostracizing them, and to calm the Queen Mother's anger.
The attendants on the left and right were also very disgusted with the arbitrary and arbitrary behavior of Su Fengji and other civil servants, and they unanimously praised Liu Chengyou as a wise emperor.
Therefore, Liu Chengyou issued an edict: Comrade Yang Bin not only retained the title of Privy Envoy, but also served as Minister of the Secretariat and Minister of the Ministry of Civil Affairs; Comrade Guo Wei was promoted from Deputy Privy Envoy to Privy Envoy; Comrade Wang Zhang was granted the title of Prime Minister.
Knock on the blackboard and mark the key points: Yang Fang is also the Minister of the Ministry of Personnel.
The Ministry of Personnel is responsible for the appointment, removal, assessment, promotion, promotion, transfer, etc. of officials. It is the head of the six departments and is commonly known as "Heavenly Official", an official who specializes in managing officials.
If Yang Bin was just a stumbling block on Su Fengji's road to accepting bribes before, now he is a stumbling block and a southern wall. Su Fengji's financial path was completely cut off.
Liu Chengyou clearly instructed that in the future, any personnel orders issued by the Central Prime Minister's Office (Zhongshu) and all memorials of various ministries must be approved by Comrade Yang Bin.
The function of this sentence is not a wall, but a coffin. From then on, the three prime ministers Dou Zhengu, Su Fengji, and Su Yugui became decorations, and Yang Bin had absolute say. As long as Yang Bin doesn't nod, no work of the three prime ministers can be carried out.
Under Yang Bin's strong intervention, even temporary workers (county officials) of the county government or auxiliary policemen of the county police station had to get Yang Bin's nod.
Yang Bin's time and energy were limited, and it was impossible for him to handle the work of the three prime ministers well. Moreover, he was originally very opposed to the personnel work of Su Fengji and others. So, Yang Bin simply vetoed the work at hand and refused to handle it at all. Love whoever you want. The work of the court immediately came to a standstill.
Yang Bin not only put an end to the evil trend of selling officials to win titles, but also investigated Su Fengji's previous abuse of power. He also wanted to assess the officials who had been appointed. Anyone who failed to meet the standards or was unqualified would be dismissed from office.
And because Yang Bin closed the channel for scholars to enter the official career, many scholars in the Central Plains were forced to go to places such as Houshu and Huainan, resulting in a serious brain drain problem in the Central Plains.
Yang Bin not only closed the upward path for scholars, but also closed the privileges (menyin) of "children of martyrs". The Youmenyin system in the Tang Dynasty was a green channel for civil servants to rely on the merits of their ancestors to become officials. The original intention of this system was good, but later, the supervision and execution system was imperfect, and phenomena such as impersonation were common. As early as the beginning of the Five Dynasties, it had been banned many times. It was only the founding monarchs of the Five Dynasties, especially since Li Siyuan. From now on, most of them are weak claims that cannot be revived again and again in order to gain widespread support.
Yang Bin of the Later Han Dynasty canceled it again.
