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Chapter 22 Ma Yin's Marriage

Early the next morning, Ma Yin summoned Liu Yan's envoy and said to the envoy: "Go back and tell King Nanping that I agree to his marriage proposal. Please ask him to send someone to marry my daughter after one year. And tell King Nanping that you must

Be kind to my daughter!" The envoy was overjoyed and said: "Thank you, Your Majesty! Don't worry, Your Majesty, my Prince has said that after the Princess passes through, she will be the Princess! My Prince is twenty-six years old this year, which is exactly the same age as the Princess, so the Prince will definitely do it.

I love the princess in every possible way. Apart from Prince Nanping, she is the first person in Lingnan. My prince also said that once the marriage is completed, we will give priority to the supply of salt from various places under the jurisdiction of Prince Chu in the future. All the tea needed in Lingnan will also come from Tanzhou.

Purchase and assist you in selling to overseas locations."

Ma Yin nodded and said: "This is the best. Then go back and tell your prince!" The envoy thanked Ma Yin and then left and went back to Guangzhou. Liu Yan was naturally overjoyed when he learned that Ma Yin was getting married.

. He immediately asked people to prepare tens of thousands of tons of salt to send to Tanzhou, and at the same time bought tens of thousands of tea leaves from Tanzhou.

At this time, Liu Yan heard that Zhu Youning, the Lord of Liang, had conferred the title of King Qian Liu of Wuyue on the title of King of Wuyue. Liu Yan was dissatisfied because he was just a prince of Nanping. So Liu Yan asked the Lord of Liang to grant him the title of Prince of Nanyue and the title of King of Nanyue.

Zhu Youzhen, the Lord of Liang, did not agree to the post of Dutong. Liu Yan was furious. He and Ma Yin were already related to each other anyway, and Ma Yin would not obey the orders of Lord Liang to deal with him.

Liu Yan thought that even if he angered Lord Liang, Lord Liang could not do anything about him. So Liu Yan said to his staff: "Now that the Central Plains is in chaos, who can be regarded as the real emperor! How can he travel long distances and go through dangers to serve this man?"

Where is the puppet court that usurped the throne?" From then on, Liu Yan and Zhu Liang cut off their contributions and envoys.

In August of the fifth year of Liang Qianhua's reign (915), Nanping King Liu Yan sent people to Tanzhou to marry Ma Yin's daughter, Princess Ma Yanmei, and at the same time sent tens of thousands of tons of salt and many overseas rare and rare treasures as betrothal gifts. Ma Yin sent his third brother,

Ma Cun, the envoy of Yongshun Jiedu, led a thousand people to send his relatives to Guangzhou. After that, Liu Yan became Ma Yin's son-in-law, and the two sides turned their hostility into friendship and became in-laws. Naturally, the war subsided, and the two sides exchanged what they had, vigorously developed trade, and each made huge profits.

.

After Miss Ma and Liu Yan got married, they were immediately named princess. A few years later, Liu Yan proclaimed himself emperor and established the country, and Miss Ma was made queen. Empress Ma was a virtuous and courteous person, and with her persuasion, Liu Yan was still able to restrain himself.

Their relationship harmed the people, and the couple always respected and loved each other. They also maintained a good relationship with the State of Chu. It was not until her death that the relationship between the two parties deteriorated again. This is a later topic and will not be mentioned.

Ma Cun sent his relatives back to Tanzhou and reported to Ma Yin the story of his trip. After listening to this, Ma Yin said to Ma Cun: "The third brother came back at the right time. I was just about to send you to lead the army to attack Shanggao in the Kingdom of Wu."

It turns out that after Yuanzhou's defeat last time, Ma Yin had been thinking about finding an opportunity to retaliate against Wu. There happened to be civil strife in Wu recently, which was a good time to send troops. Ma Yin had already thought about the candidates to lead the army.

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Ma Yin planned to make his third brother Ma Cun the commander-in-chief because he hoped that his third brother could establish military exploits and thus establish prestige. After all, Ma Yin was already old. Although his sons were growing up, they were still young and inexperienced. What if?

To drive Hexi by himself, he must have close relatives and reliable people to assist his sons. Naturally, there are only two younger brothers for this choice: Ma Bin and Ma Cun. However, Ma Bin is also old, and only Ma Cun is relatively young, so naturally he is the most suitable orphan.

Therefore, Ma Yin wanted to take advantage of the chaos in Wu and have no time to worry about the frontier, and send troops to attack Shanggao. Ma Cun naturally understood what Ma Yin meant, and immediately obeyed the order and went down to prepare.

It turns out that Xu Wen first defeated Wu Yue and then defeated the Liang army in the past two years. He had just put down Liu Chongjing's rebellion in Yuanzhou and defeated the Chu army, and his prestige was even greater. King Yang Longyan of Wu appointed Zhenhai Jiedu envoy, and all armies commanded envoys. , Xu Wen, who recruited envoys from Zhejiang and Zhejiang provinces, became the Duke of Qi and led Runzhou. The six states of Sheng, Run, Xuan, Chang, Chi, and Huang were the state of Qi. Xu Wen left the town of Runzhou (Zhenjiang, Jiangsu), which was only separated from Yangzhou by a river. , leaving his son Xu Zhixun to assist in Yangzhou.

Xu Wen announced that from now on, Xu Zhixun would be in charge of daily government affairs in the Kingdom of Wu, except for particularly important and confidential matters that still had to send people to seek his advice. Xu Wen naturally wanted to train his own son to take over in the future. Xu Zhixun After all, he was young. In order to prevent him from being unable to control the situation when he was away, Xu Wen left two important ministers to his son, one civil and one military. Among them, the civil minister was Yan Keqiu, the famous counselor who had plotted to get rid of Zhu Yanshou and Zhang Hao; It was Zhu Jin, Zhu Wen's former sworn brother and a fierce general in all battles.

As for the very capable adopted son Xu Zhigao, Xu Wen asked him to continue to serve as the defense envoy and naval envoy of Shengzhou (Nanjing, Jiangsu). Xu Zhigao, whose original surname was Li, was an orphan since he was a child. He was kidnapped by Yang Xingmi during the war and thought that he Adopted son. Yang Xingmi's disciples could not tolerate him, so they gave him to Xu Wen as their adopted son and changed his name to Xu Zhigao.

Since being appointed to take charge of Shengzhou, Xu Zhigao has been very attentive to running Shengzhou. Xu Zhigao spent several years building a new Shengzhou city on a large scale. In the third year of Liang Zhenming, it was basically completed and renamed Jinling Mansion. It was rebuilt by Xu Zhigao The scale of Jinling was much larger than that of Jiankang Taicheng in the Six Dynasties. As soon as it was completed, a large number of merchants arrived, making Jinling quickly prosperous.

When Xu Wen heard that his adopted son's Jinling City had been built, he found some time to inspect it and express his condolences and encouragement to Xu Zhigao.

After an inspection, Xu Wen fell in love with this new city. Xu Wen's confidant Chen Yanqian saw Xu Wen's intentions and suggested, "Why not move the headquarters of Zhenhai to Jinling?" When Xu Wen heard this, he got what he wanted and immediately transferred Xu Zhigao. Go to Runzhou to serve as a regiment training envoy.

Xu Zhigao received the order from his adoptive father and worked hard for several years. Now that his work was in vain, he was inevitably unhappy. What was even worse was that Runzhou was very close to Yangzhou, which meant that Xu Zhixun was very close, and Xu Zhixun had always looked at it. Xu Zhigao was not pleasing to the eye. Once, Xu Zhixun invited his brothers to host a banquet, but Xu Zhigao did not go. This made Xu Zhixun extremely angry. He cursed: "That beggar, I gave him a favor and bought him a drink. But he didn't come. Do you really want me to invite him to eat the sword?"

Later, Xu Zhixun invited Xu Zhigao to drink and ambushed the soldiers, hoping to kill Xu Zhigao. Xu Zhijian secretly stepped on Xu Zhigao's feet to indicate that he should leave quickly, and Xu Zhigao took the opportunity to escape under the pretense of going to the toilet. Xu Zhixun called his confidant Diao Yanneng and asked him to leave. He caught up with Xu Zhigao and killed him. Diao Yanneng quickly caught up with Xu Zhigao, but he did not kill Xu Zhigao. He just raised his sword and waved it beside Xu Zhigao, then turned his horse and went back. After Diao Yanneng returned, he only said that Xu Zhigao had run away. It was too fast and I couldn't catch up.

Thinking of these, Xu Zhigao was naturally frightened. Xu Zhigao felt that it was better not to go to Runzhou, so he asked Xu Wen to transfer him to Xuanzhou, but Xu Wen vetoed it. Seeing that there was no way to escape, Xu Zhigao couldn't help but feel worried. At this time, , but one of his counselors said to him: "This may be a good thing!" This counselor is called Song Qiqiu, and his father Song Cheng is Zhong Chuan's deputy envoy to Zhennan Jiedu.

Song Qiqiu was eager to learn since he was a child and was proficient in the art of intrigue. The Zhong family was destroyed, and the Song family also declined. Song Qiqiu was forced to live in Qinhuai River, relying on a provocateur named Wei to make a living. Soon, Xu Zhigao was promoted to He took office in the prefecture and began to invite guests from all over. Song Qiqiu met Xu Zhigao through the cavalry commander Yao Kezhan and presented a poem: "Nursing flowers is like nourishing virtuous people, and removing grass is like removing evil. Pines and bamboos will never fade, and cattails and willows will fall first in autumn." Xu Zhigao heard that this poem contained profound meaning, so he called Qi Qiu from Song Dynasty to discuss it alone. After a conversation, Xu Zhigao found out that this poem was a genius and greatly appreciated it. From then on, Qi Qiu from Song Dynasty became Xu Zhigao's most important adviser.

Song Qiqiu said to Xu Zhigao: "Xu Zhixun is not just like this to you, he is the same to others, and he has made many enemies. If Xu Zhixun is as arrogant and wanton, something will happen sooner or later. Once something happens, there is only the Yangtze River between Runzhou and Yangzhou. .You can clean up the mess as quickly as possible. This is an opportunity given to you by God, you can’t miss it.”

Xu Zhigao suddenly realized this, so he happily went to Runzhou to take office. Since Xu Wen left Yangzhou, Xu Zhixun had no one to control him, and his behavior was completely consistent with Song Qiqiu's judgment of him, but no one dared to ask Xu Wen Reporting and exposing. Let alone reporting a son to his own father, there is no chance of winning. In Yangzhou City, there are many people with higher official status than Xu Zhixun in name. But when everyone saw Xu Zhixun, they all bowed their heads and obeyed orders, and were trembling with fear.

Once, Xu Zhigao heard that Li Decheng, the mighty military governor in Fuzhou (Linchuan, Jiangxi), had dozens of beautiful female actresses at home, so he wrote to Li Decheng to ask for them. Unexpectedly, Li Decheng refused to send the beauties. He just wrote back and said: "The singing girls in my family are now very old, old and ugly, and are not qualified to serve noble people. I will find some young and beautiful ones before sending them to you." Xu Zhixun was furious and immediately faced The envoy sent by Li Decheng cursed: "He won't even give me a prostitute. When I kill him, I even take back his wife! Can he escape my grasp?" Li Decheng was frightened after hearing this. Unexpectedly, he hurriedly bought a few beauties and dedicated them to Xu Zhixun, and Xu Zhixun gave up.

Even Yang Longyan, the king of Wu, could not escape Xu Zhixun's bullying. Once, Xu Zhixun actually forced Yang Longyan to act with him. He pretended to join the army and ordered Yang Longyan to follow him and play the role of a boy servant. Yang Longyan He didn't dare to refuse, so he had to comply. Another time, Yang Longyan and Xu Zhixun went on a night boat trip. After the boat docked, Yang Longyan landed first. Xu Zhixun thought it was disrespectful to him and hit Yang Longyan with a marble. The guards blocked him and he was not injured. Then when he went to Chanzhi Temple to enjoy the flowers, Xu Zhixun was still angry and insulted Yang Longyan with obscene words. Yang Longyan was scolded to tears, but Xu Zhixun continued to insult him. Attendants They couldn't stand it anymore, so when Xu Zhixun was not paying attention, they secretly helped Yang Longyan escape, boarded the boat and left. Xu Zhixun became even more angry when he realized it, and immediately chased him in a small boat and killed an attendant with an iron lao.

Late one night in the second year of Liang Zhenming, when Zhu Jin was on his way to Runzhou for business, Li Qiu, the general of the imperial army beside Yang Longyan, Ma Qian, suddenly attacked. They forced Yang Longyan to climb the tower, summoned reserve soldiers, and attacked Xu Zhixun. Xu Zhixun He lied and ordered his men to lead his horses and wanted to abandon the city and flee. Yan Keqiu quickly stopped him and said: "A sudden mutiny in the capital is when people are panicked. If you abandon your troops and come here, then who is loyal to you?" The people will be leaderless, and the situation will be irreversible!"

Xu Zhixun did not leave. Yan Keqiu asked Xu Zhixun to mobilize troops to defend the palace, and urgently notified Zhu Jin to come back for reinforcements. After that, Yan Keqiu went back to his room to sleep, and deliberately snored loudly to show his calmness and calm people's hearts.

To settle down. Early the next morning, Zhu Jin rushed back to Yangzhou. He looked at Ma Qian's formation and said to Xu Zhixun: "Don't worry, these people are easy to deal with!" Then, Zhu Jin got on his horse and rushed to

In front of the formation, he waved his horsewhip and led his army to attack the rebels. The rebels were quickly attacked by Zhu Jin

After the defeat, Polo and Li Qiu were captured and immediately beheaded, and the mutiny was put down.

Zhu Jin helped Xu Zhixun put down the rebellion and saved Xu Zhixun from great difficulty. However, Xu Zhixun did not miss his old virtues and was secretly suspicious of him. Zhu Jin once sent his concubine Tao to greet Xu Zhixun. Xu Zhixun saw her beauty and wanted to possess her. But Tao knew that

He had evil intentions, so he escaped and came back to tell Zhu Jin. Zhu Jin was naturally very angry.

Soon, Xu Zhixun sent strong men to assassinate Zhu Jin at night. Zhu Jin killed several people and buried them behind the house. Xu Zhixun failed in the assassination, so he asked King Wu Yang Longyan to order the establishment of Jinghuai Town in Sizhou and appointed Zhu Jin as Jinghuai.

Huai Jiedushi drove him out of Yangzhou. However, Zhu Jin had a bad premonition about this, so he took heart and prepared to attack Xu Zhixun first.

Xu Zhixun held a family banquet to see Zhu Jin off, and Zhu Jin served him even more humbly. The next day, Zhu Jin went to Xu Zhixun's house to say goodbye and stayed in front of Xu's house for a long time. Xu Zhixun's family boy said to Zhu Jin: "Ms. Xu is here tonight

Waiters are not allowed to go to the White Peony brothel." Zhu Jin said to the concierge: "I can't stand the hunger in the morning, so I will go back for now." Afterwards, Xu Zhixun learned about it and said in shock: "I should visit Zhu Jin in the evening." Zhu Jin then made a fuss about it.

Have a banquet.

Zhu Jin had a famous horse, which he covered with brocade tents in winter and Luo tents in summer. He also had a courtesan, Tao Shi, who was a stunning beauty and was good at singing and dancing. When Xu Zhixun arrived, Zhu Jin held a cup to celebrate his birthday.

, first presented the famous horse to him, and Xu Zhixun said happily: "My husband is out guarding, and I have to say goodbye for a while. You can understand the separation and regret, and I would like to have fun here!" Zhu Jin invited Xu Zhixun to come to the middle hall and called Tao Shi.

Accompanying the wine. After getting drunk, Zhu Jin's wife Tao came out, kowtowed to Xu Zhixun and said, "My master will always rely on you from now on." Xu Zhixun returned the gift proudly. The moment he bowed his head, Zhu Jin suddenly picked up the hand in his hand.

The wat board hit Xu Zhixun hard on the back of the head! Xu Zhixun fell to the ground in response. Immediately afterwards, the guard Zhu Jin had been hiding jumped out and chopped off Xu Zhixun's head with a knife. The guards brought by Xu Zhixun outside were not aware of it and were too late.

Guard.

Zhu Jin went out with Xu Zhixun's head and ran straight to the palace of King Wu. When Xu Zhixun's guards saw it, they dispersed in fright and went back to report the news. Zhu Jin ignored them and went straight to the palace and gave the head to King Wu Yang.

Longyan looked at it and said: "I have eliminated this great harm for your Majesty!" He then showed the bloody head to Yang Longyan. Yang Longyan was so frightened that he hurriedly covered his face with clothes and muttered: "

This...I don't dare to hear this." As he said this, he walked into the inner room.

Zhu Jin couldn't help but became angry and shouted loudly: "Ignorance, I can't accomplish great things!" Zhu Jin had no choice but to throw Xu Zhixun's head on the pillar and rush back with his sword. At this time, the inner city of Yangzhou had been closed.

The Zicheng envoy Zhai Qian and others were leading troops to arrest Zhu Jin. Seeing that he could not get out of the gate, Zhu Jin turned and ran to the backyard, trying to escape over the wall in the backyard. Unexpectedly, he lost his footing while climbing over the wall and injured his ankle.

Seeing that the pursuers were approaching and he could no longer escape, Zhu Jin said: "I have eradicated great harm for tens of millions of people, and I am willing to bear all the consequences!" After saying this, he swung his sword and killed himself.

After Zhu Jin committed suicide, Xu Wen returned to Yangzhou and killed Zhu Jin's family to vent his anger. Zhu's wife Tao cried loudly before her execution. But her concubine Tao said, "We are about to see our husband, so why shed tears?"

After hearing this, he immediately showed a pleased expression.

Xu Wen also ordered that Zhu Jin's corpse be displayed to the public at the north gate of Yangzhou. Although it was the height of summer in June, folk legend said: Zhu Jin died without decay, and flies and maggots did not dare to touch his corpse. Many strangers

The people of Yangzhou jointly contributed money and efforts to bury Zhu Jin privately.

At that time, there was an epidemic in Yangzhou. Some people said that even the god of plague was afraid of Zhu Jin. As long as he took the soil and water from Zhu Jin's tomb, he would be cured! So, people kept coming to Zhu Jin's tomb to get soil for medicine. Every time they took the soil from Zhu Jin's tomb, they would be cured.

Once the soil was removed, more new soil had to be filled. As a result, Zhu Jin's tomb became taller and taller day by day.

When Xu Wen learned about it, he became furious and ordered the grave to be opened, Zhu Jin's body dug out, and thrown into the Lei Pond in the north of the city! But then, Xu Wen fell ill and dreamed that Zhu Jin drew his bow and shot him. Xu Wen then

A funeral was held for Zhu Jin and a temple was built to worship him.

On the day Zhu Jin killed Xu Zhixun, Mi Zhicheng heard the news and ran away from home with more than a dozen cavalrymen, asking about Zhu Jin all the way. Later, he heard that Zhu Jin was dead, so he returned home. Xu Wen heard the news

, suspected that he was conspiring with Zhu Jin. At that time, Xu Wen had not returned to Yangzhou, so Xu Wen secretly ordered Xu Zhigao and Yan Keqiu, who had arrived in Yangzhou first, to try to kill Mi Zhicheng.

Mi Zhicheng had just made great achievements in quelling Yuanzhou's rebellion and repelling the Chu army. He was also a famous brave general in Wu State. Yan Keqiu was worried that improper handling would provoke him to rebel, so he created a fake news

, falsely claimed that the Wu army defeated the Chu army in Yuanzhou. When the civil and military officials in Yangzhou heard the news, they naturally went to see the King of Wu as usual to express their congratulations. Mi Zhicheng did not expect that this was directed at him, and he entered without any precautions.

They arrived at Prince Wu's Mansion. As soon as they entered, they were captured by Yan Keqiu's ambushed soldiers. Yan Keqiu then sent troops to surround Mi Zhicheng's house, and captured all his family members, who were all beheaded.

The news soon spread to Tanzhou. After learning about it, Ma Yin thought he could take advantage of this opportunity to launch a surprise attack on Wu as revenge for Yuanzhou's defeat. But Ma Yin did not choose Yuanzhou, but chose to go to Gao. Of course
Chapter completed!
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