Li Ye and other "uncle clan members" constantly made snitches in front of Empress Dowager Li and Liu Chengyou, slandering Shi Hongzhao and Yang Bin. Empress Dowager Li was quite sensible. Although she gradually disliked Shi Hongzhao and Yang Bin, she would still consider the overall situation and complain only. However, she had no doubt about their loyalty to Shi Hongzhao and Yang Bin.
Liu Chengyou is different. Because he is young, shouldn't he be called a young man because of his arrogance?
He ascended the throne at the age of 18 and was full of ambition. He was about to display his great ambitions, do something great and become famous in history. Unexpectedly, these ministers who cared about their orders ignored him. In his eyes, Shi Hongzhao and Yang Bin were Cao Cao, Sima Yi, and Zhu Wen! He will never act like Emperor Xian of the Han Dynasty, he will fight back.
The "little uncles" also focused their work on Liu Chengyou.
Yang Fan seemed to be aware of a slight crisis, so in April of the third year of Qianyou (950), Yang Fan took the initiative to resign from the post of Privy Councilor.
Of course, this was just a test for the emperor.
Liu Chengyou was also very cautious about this. If he agreed immediately, Yang Bin would probably take the opportunity to rebel. At this time, Wu Qianyu, the envoy of Xuanhui North Academy, persuaded Liu Chengyou to agree, and said that some old comrades should also give up their leadership positions to give young people the opportunity to experience.
Later, Liu Chengyou demoted Wu Qianyu and sent him away, and sent a message to Yang Bing: "The Privy Council is very important to the empire, who should I give up? It's inexplicable that Aiqing suddenly resigned. Could it be that someone is driving a wedge between our monarch and our ministers?"
Sure enough, Yang Bin no longer mentioned resignation.
Liu Chengyou secretly breathed a sigh of relief, thinking that it was indeed a test! Fortunately, I am smart.
This month, the "April Wine Bureau" incident occurred, and the next month the "May Wine Bureau" incident occurred. The "May Wine Bureau" was the work of Wang Zhangchan, the envoy of the Third Department. Afterwards, Wang Zhang also wanted to resign and be transferred to the local government to avoid the central government where conflicts were becoming increasingly acute. Shi Hongzhao and Yang Bin jointly persuaded him to stop him. This can also indirectly prove that Yang Bin's "resignation" a month ago was to test the emperor.
"Some people" are suspected of building weapons and armor overnight. Not only are they usually arrogant and domineering, and they don't take the emperor seriously, they also dare to test the emperor... What exactly do you want to cause trouble?
"Uncle's clan is small" also continued to stir up excitement. Liu Chengyou finally made up his mind to preemptively eradicate potential rebels and agreed to Li Ye and others' shocking plan to murder Shi Hongzhao, Yang Bin and others.
No matter which angle or vision we use in future generations to examine it, this plan can be called a terrible one. The plan is very simple and crude. It consists of three steps:
The first step is to take advantage of the opportunity of going to court to ambush the warriors and eliminate Shi Hongzhao, Yang Bin, Wang Zhang and others;
The second step is to wipe out the wives, children, children and young people of the above-mentioned people in the capital, and execute them all;
The third step is to send people to Hebei to kill Guo Wei and other remnants.
Then, the world will be at peace.
In Liu Chengyou's view, this plan was flawless, so he secretly reported it to Empress Dowager Li.
Queen Mother Li was shocked and said, "My child, what do you want to do? Kill the imperial officials, and not just one or two. You have to be careful! Have you discussed it with the prime ministers?"
Li Ye said from the side: "The late emperor has long said that it is best not to ask those literati about national affairs. They are as timid as mice and look forward and backward, so it is difficult to achieve great things!"
Queen Mother Li still insisted on her opinion and believed that Liu Chengyou and others were too reckless.
Liu Chengyou was so angry that he even contradicted Empress Dowager Li, "What do you know about a woman?" Then he flicked his sleeves and walked away angrily.
On November 1, the third year of Qianyou (950), there was a solar eclipse.
On November 12, Li Ye told Yan Jinqing the plan, and the time to start is tomorrow. Because Yan Jinqing is also "one of our own" and also has resentment towards Shi Hongzhao and others, he will definitely cooperate with the plan.
Yan Jinqing was immediately frightened to death, pretending to be calm on the surface, and agreed. After saying goodbye, he hurried to Shi Hongzhao's house to leak the secret to Shi Hongzhao.
The King of Hell wants you to die at the third watch, who dares to keep someone alive until the fifth watch?
Shi Hongzhao was urged to die. He heard that Yan Jinqing, a member of the "Jiu Clan Xiao", asked for an interview. He felt disgusted and thought that Yan Jinqing was paying bribes to win the position of "Xuanhui Envoy", so he made up a random reason and refused to meet. In this way, Shi Hongzhao missed an opportunity to survive.
Yan Jinqing knew that a catastrophic disaster was inevitable, so he returned home in despair, hung the late emperor's royal face in the middle of the living room, knelt in front of the late emperor's royal face, and cried like rain for a whole night.
Liu Chengyou and his "uncle clan brother" were crazy and impulsive, Shi Hongzhao and others were numb, only Yan Jinqing was awake, but he could do nothing but cry bitterly in memory of the late Emperor He, and could only watch the empire he had helped to build collapse. collapse.
In the early morning of the next day (November 13), the winter sun was lazy. Shi Hongzhao, Yang Bin, Wang Zhang and others, covered with stars and moonlight, came to the palace in the dark as usual and clocked in to go to work.
Suddenly, dozens of warriors poured out from the Guangzheng Hall. They didn't talk nonsense and just chopped with their swords. Shi Hongzhao, Yang Bin and Wang Zhang were killed on the spot.
It was as simple as turning one's hand into clouds and turning one's hands into rain. The three all-powerful bosses died miserably and tragically at the door of the office. I couldn't see the sun today.
Immediately afterwards, Nie Wenjin urgently summoned the prime minister and civil and military officials to Chongyuan Hall and asked everyone to stand in line. Just when everyone was confused, Nie Wenjin took out the edict from his arms and read it to everyone: "Yang Bin, Shi Hongzhao, Wang Zhang and others conspired to rebel and wanted to endanger the clan. They killed them and celebrated with you."
All the officials were stunned. Before they could recover, Nie Wenjin led everyone to the Long Live Hall to listen to the emperor's holy teachings.
Liu Chengyou was in high spirits and could not hide his ecstasy, and announced to all the officials: "Hongzhao and others bullied me when I was young, and used arbitrary power to give orders, which made you always worried and fearful. From now on, I will be your master, and I will have no worries." .”
This is Liu Chengyou's "declaration of accession to the throne" in the true sense. From this moment on, he began to "take charge".
All the officials expressed their thanks and congratulations. Subsequently, Liu Chengyou ordered the imperial army to control all doors of the palace, and all civil and military officials were temporarily not allowed to leave the palace, and Bianzhou entered a state of emergency.
Because Liu Chengyou wants to carry out the second step in the plan: Shi Honglang (Shi Hongzhao's younger brother), Zhen Yanqi, Xin Congshen, Yang Yankan, Yang Yanwei, Yang Yanyi (all three of Shangshu are the sons of Yang Bin), Wang Min (Wang Zhang's nephew) , Zhang Yisu (son-in-law of Wang Zhang), Guo Yong, Gao Jin, Jingnan Bureau, Chai Xun and other "rebels" members and family members were all killed.
Among them, Shi Hongzhao's other younger brother, Shi Hongfu, was in Xingyang at the time. Hearing about the disaster, he hurriedly hid and escaped. Later, he was secretly taken in by one of Shi Hongzhao's subordinates. After Guo Wei was established in the Zhou Dynasty, he issued an edict to search for the relatives and heirs of Shi Hongzhao, Yang Bin and others, and the subordinates dedicated Shi Hongfu.
Wang Zhang had no children and only one daughter. His only daughter was married to Zhang Yisu, a member of the Ministry of Household Affairs. Zhang Yisu was in poor health and had been bedridden for many years. He was helped from the hospital bed to the execution ground by the executioner, and he persisted in completing the execution despite his illness.
Wang Zhang's wife Bai died of illness a few months before the incident. Therefore, although Wang Zhang was "barbarized" in this tragedy, not many people in his family died.
