Chapter 34 Yang Yan's death

Speaking of this Lu Qi, there is still a lot of background. His grandfather was Lu Huaishen, the prime minister who partnered with Yao Chong in the early years of Kaiyuan. He was clean and honest all his life, and his family had no money. When the Shan rebels invaded Luoyang, other officials fled one after another, but Lu Yi stuck to his post and was killed by the rebels. Since both his father and grandparents had orders, Lu Qi directly entered the official position by virtue of his door shade (a political treatment given to the descendants of meritorious officials in the Tang Dynasty, and they could be awarded official positions without taking the imperial examination). In the first year of Jianzhong, he was promoted to the imperial censor Zhongcheng.

It is said that Lu Qi has a very famous feature, that is, he is extremely ugly-"Ugly in appearance and blue in color, everyone looks at him like a ghost." ("Old Tang Book·Lu Qi Biography") There are yellow, white, black, and brown people in the world, but I have never heard of blue people, but Master Lu is blue, no wonder people regard him as a ghost. Regarding Lord Lu Qi's appearance, there is still an anecdote circulating in Chang'an: it is said that when Guo Ziyi received guests in his later years, concubines and maids were always around him. Once he heard that Lu Qi was visiting, Guo Ziyi quickly dismissed all the concubines.After Lu Qi left, his family asked him why he was like this. Guo Ziyi smiled bitterly and said, "Lu Qi is ugly and treacherous. I am afraid that when women see Lu Qi's respectable appearance, they will not be able to help criticizing and laughing. How can you escape the disaster of being wiped out?"

This anecdote can at least explain three things: first, Lu Qi's appearance is indeed shockingly ugly; second, Guo Ziyi's prudence is unmatched; He is ugly, and he must be a person with a sinister heart and a vengeful person.Later facts proved that Guo Ziyi's judgment was correct. In fact, it's not Lu Qi's fault to be ugly, but it must be his fault for being sinister.Dezong sent such an ugly and treacherous person to partner with Yang Yan, of course Yang Yan's life will not be easy. Since Lu Qi came to work in Zhengshitang, Yang Yan had to work with him, and had to have lunch face to face with him every day, so Yang Yan often felt nauseous.Later, when eating at noon, Yang Yan always used the excuse of being unwell and went to eat elsewhere, which was considered to have solved the problem of loss of appetite and inability to eat.

When Lu Qi saw that Yang Yan was avoiding him even while eating, his blue face turned green with anger. In order to give Yang Yan some color and at the same time establish his own authority, not long after Lu Qi entered the prime ministership, he fired a squid who was the chief editor of Zhongshu with an excuse.You know, the chief secretary of Zhongshu is Yang Yan's subordinate, and Lu Qi did this clearly to provoke trouble.Yang Yan was so angry that he stomped his feet behind his back: "The master secretary is mine. If there is any mistake, I will discipline myself. When will I get you, an ugly monster, to take the mouse?"

However, Yang Yan at this time also knew that he had lost power and his glory was gone, so there was really no other way except stomping his feet and cursing his mother. In June of the second year of Jianzhong, Liang Chongyi, the Jiedu envoy of Shannan Dongdao (Xiangyang, now Xiangfan City, Hubei), repeatedly disobeyed the emperor's edict, and there was a tendency of rebellion. State, now Runan County, Henan Province) Jiedu envoy Li Xilie led various soldiers and horses to crusade.However, Yang Yan urged Dezong not to appoint Li Xilie.He said: "Li Xilie is the adopted son of Li Zhongchen, and he is deeply favored by Li Zhongchen. However, Li Xilie will avenge his kindness, expel Li Zhongchen, and seize his power. This man is cruel and ruthless. , how did the imperial court control it?"

It should be said that Yang Yan's worry was justified, but Dezong had high hopes for Li Xilie, so he couldn't listen to him at all.Yang Yan insisted again and again, which made Dezong very angry. In July, due to continuous rain in the Huaining area, Li Xilie did not send troops for a long time.Dezong, who was suspicious by nature, couldn't help thinking about it. Lu Qi took the opportunity to tell Dezong secretly, saying: "The reason why Li Xilie postponed his stay was because he was dissatisfied with Yang Yan. Why should your majesty ruin the country's affairs just to cherish Yang Yan? In my opinion, it is better to dismiss Yang Yan temporarily to make Li Xilie happy, and it will not hurt to resume Yang Yan's post after Liang Chongyi is put down."

Dezong thought so, so he dismissed Yang Yan from the position of prime minister and changed him to Zuo PUshe (since the time of Xuanzong, the left and right servants of Shangshu Province have become empty positions without real power). Yongping Jiedu made Zhang Yi the Minister of Zhongshu and Tongping Zhangshi. Later, Lu Qi promoted another man named Yan Ying to serve as the imperial historian.There is no doubt that both Zhang Yi and Yan Ying are Lu Qi's best friends.As Lu Qi's party takes full control of the government, Yang Yan's end is coming. In August of this year, Li Xilie easily flattened Liang Chongyi.At the same time, Lu Qi also launched an operation to strangle Yang Yan.

Lu Qi started with Yang Yan's son Yang Hongye. According to the iron law of officialdom that "power leads to corruption, and absolute power leads to absolute corruption," Lao Tzu is the chief prime minister, and his son is usually not a good bird.Relying on his father's power, this Mr. Yang did a lot of things that were corrupt, corrupted the law, and accepted bribes.Not long after Yan Ying was promoted by Lu Qi to be a royal censor, under his instruction, Yang Hongye was put on file for review. After Mr. Yang was "double-guided" by the discipline inspection department, he was so frightened that he lost his mind. He not only revealed all the ugly things he had done, but also confessed something his father did not long ago.

The key word in this matter is: family temple. The so-called family temple is the clan ancestral hall.In ancient times, all those who were well-known and respected paid great attention to the construction of clan ancestral halls, because it can not only glorify their ancestors, but also demonstrate their identity, status and power.Therefore, ordinary people build a family temple with one or two temples, and dignitaries build a large temple.Yang Yangui was the chief prime minister, so his family temple had to be built to stand out from the crowd, not only had to cover a vast area and be magnificent, but it had to be built on a piece of geomantic land.

The Fengshui treasure land that Yang Yan was looking for was located on the banks of the Qujiang River in the southeast corner of Chang'an City.Here flowers are blooming, willows are green, and the scenery is pleasant. It is definitely considered a first-class treasure land in Chang'an City. Therefore, the price of the land will naturally not be cheap. In order to raise enough funds to get this land, Yang Yan decided to sell his house in Dongdu. It stands to reason that whether it is selling a house or building a family temple, it is Yang Yan's private matter, as long as he does not buy or sell by force, or bully others, there will be no problem.However, Yang Yan still had a problem with this matter, and it was a big problem.

First of all, Yang Yan did not sell the house in Dongdu to a private person, but to the public. Why sell it to the public? Of course there is something tricky here.At that time, in Luoyang, the eastern capital, it was Henan Yin Zhao Huibo who was Yang Yan's confidant.Yang Yan suggested that he use public funds to buy this house. As for what the public can do with buying this house, it is out of Yang Yan's consideration. All Yang Yan cares about is the price. Of course, Zhao Huibo did not disappoint Yang Yan, and soon bought the house at a price that made Yang Yan very comfortable. Later, from Mr. Yang's confession, the censor Yan Ying found out that the transaction price of this house was much higher than the market price at that time. This time it's all right, around the family temple issue, Yang Yan's first crime surfaced.Yan Ying immediately played Lu Qi.Lu Qi immediately approached Tian Jin, the president of the Supreme Court (Dali Siqing), and asked him what crime Yang Yan should be guilty of.Tian Jin replied: "According to the law, officials in charge who profit from the transaction of public property shall be punished as extortion for bribes and shall be dismissed." "Removal" is certainly not the answer Lu Qi wanted.Lu Qi made some hints to Tian Jin with a gloomy face, but Tian Jin still insisted on acting in accordance with the law.Lu Qi stopped talking, and the next day he expelled the minister of Dali Temple from the imperial court and demoted him to Sima of Hengzhou.Then, Lu Qi found another official of Dali Temple and asked him to convict Yang Yan.The official was very clever, and immediately said: "Government officials violated the law and should be sentenced to death by hanging." This is what I want! So far, Yang Yan's crime of soliciting bribes has been established.However, to put him to death in one fell swoop, Lu Qi felt that the charge was not enough. What is enough weight? rebellion. However, Yang Yan just built a family temple, is it worthy of such a terrible crime? Enough, definitely enough!Things in Chinese officialdom have always been like this. If you say you have something to do, you will have something to do, and if you have nothing to do, you will have nothing to do.Lu Qi used his brain for a while, and dug deeper, and Yang Yan's second crime, which was enough to make him die without a place to bury him, immediately surfaced before the eyes of the world. It turned out that Yang Yan was not the first to build a family temple on the banks of the Qujiang River.As early as the Kaiyuan period, then Prime Minister Xiao Song built a family temple here, but Xuanzong thought it was a scenic spot for leisure and recreation for officials and people in Chang'an, and it was not suitable for building a private ancestral hall, so he asked Xiao Song to move the family temple to another place. . After grasping this evidence, Lu Qi felt as if he had found a treasure, and immediately played Dezong: "The land where Yang Yan's family temple is located has always been royal, so Emperor Xuanzong ordered Xiao Song to move. Yang Yan clearly knew this. But deliberately building a temple here is obviously harboring evil intentions and plotting something wrong!" Well, don't say anything. The emperor was very angry, and the consequences were very serious! In October of the second year of Jianzhong, Emperor Dezong categorically ordered that Zuo Pushe Yang Yan be relegated to Yazhou, the end of the world. Yazhou is Qiongshan City in Hainan today.Now, Hainan is a tropical paradise and resort that countless "donkey friends" flock to, but at that time, it was an undeveloped and wild land, where miasma was rampant and diseases were prevalent all the year round.Of the officials demoted here, nine out of ten will die, and the remaining one, even if he can return to Chang'an in his lifetime, will only have half his life left.Therefore, in the minds of all officials at that time, Yazhou was almost synonymous with hell. This winter, on a morning when the north wind was whimpering, Yang Yan sat on a creaking carriage and walked on the road of no return.Passing through a place called "Ghost Gate" in Guangxi, Yang Yan, a master of articles, wrote the last poem in his life full of sadness: Yang Yan knew that being demoted to Yazhou meant death. But Yang Yan didn't know - he couldn't even walk to Yazhou alive. The envoy sent by Emperor Dezong caught up with him a hundred miles away from Yazhou.Then, a cold rope wrapped around his neck involuntarily... A few days later, Henan Yin Zhao Huibo was demoted to Feizhou (now Sinan County, Guizhou Province), and he met the same fate as Yang Yan before reaching the demotion office. After killing Yang Yan, Dezong Li Shi finally got rid of a heart disease.Next, he can finally concentrate on dealing with those domineering feudal towns. Li Shi was an emperor with great ambitions and high self-esteem. He was deeply dissatisfied with the political chaos of the Su and Dai dynasties long before he came to the throne.He really couldn't understand, since the last years of Emperor Xuanzong, why all the vassals in the world, especially the towns in Hebei, have been so arrogant and domineering, doing whatever they want, self-reliant and rebellious at every turn?And why is Li Tang's central government so weak and powerless, repeatedly played by the courtiers? Faced with all this, Li Shi was very angry. Therefore, since he ascended the throne, Li Shi has been waiting for an opportunity to eradicate those domineering vassals and towns that are "named vassals, but they are like foreign lands" and bring power back to the central government. To achieve this goal, the most convenient way to start is of course to abolish the hereditary system of "father dies, son succeeds, brother ends up with brother".In Li Shi's view, as long as those strong vassals die and the court refuses to recognize the hereditary power of the children of the strong vassals, the authority of the Li and Tang Central Committee may be reshaped. In the first month of the second year of Jianzhong, the long-awaited opportunity finally appeared for Dezong Li Shi. Li Baochen, the Jiedu envoy of Chengde (Hengzhou, now Zhengding County, Hebei), died, and his son Li Weiyue submitted a letter to the court in an attempt to succeed him. Duties. Li Shi smiled meaningfully. He gave the most concise answer in the world—— No!