The older brother called the empress dowager and toasted to the younger brother: I wish you a long life and a thousand years! The younger brother wittily replied to pick up a life As the saying goes, "Accompanying the king is like accompanying the tiger", in the history of China's feudal dynasty for more than two thousand years,

The older brother called the empress dowager and toasted to the younger brother: I wish you a long life and a thousand years! The younger brother replied wittily to retrieve a life

As the saying goes, "accompanying the king is like accompanying the tiger", in the history of China's feudal dynasty for more than two thousand years, there is no shortage of brutal and suspicious kings who do not hesitate to kill those closest to themselves in order to consolidate the power in their hands, even those who are as close as brothers are often doomed.

During the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period, when wars were frequent, there was such an emperor who, after ascending the throne and becoming emperor, decided to kill his brother so that he could sit on the throne. The older brother who was already the emperor took the initiative to toast his younger brother and said: I wish you a long life and a thousand years! The witty younger brother knew that the emperor's toast had ulterior motives, most of the wine was poisonous, and he was obviously powerless to resist, but he took his life back with a reply. What's going on?

In the last years of the Tang Dynasty, because the rule of the imperial court had already declined, the peasant rebel armies rose up one after another, and the jiedushi envoys who held local military power seized the opportunity to divide and stand on their own. Since Zhu Wen usurped the tang dynasty, warlords everywhere established themselves as kings, and Chinese history entered the period of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms, which was still frequently war-torn.

It was in this chaotic world that Li Sheng, who later founded the Southern Tang dynasty, was born in the Jianghuai region. Due to the chaos of the war, Li Sheng's parents unfortunately passed away, and Li Sheng became an orphan at a young age and could only wander around. When Li Sheng was only six years old, Yang Xingmi, a warlord who had divided the Jianghuai region, met Li Sheng on his march and thought that the child was clever and clever, so he wanted to adopt him as an adopted son.

However, Yang Xingmi's sons refused to accept the child out of jealousy, and in desperation, Yang Xingmi handed Li Sheng over to his subordinate Xu Wen for adoption. In this way, Li Sheng was adopted by Xu Wen as an adopted son and changed his name to Xu Zhihuan. Because of his older age, Xu Zhihuan also became the older brother of Xu Wen's own son Xu Zhiqian.

Compared with the well-bred brother of the gongzi, Xu Zhihuan, who has experienced vicissitudes at a young age, knows better than the other sons of his adoptive father that it is not easy to survive in a chaotic world. Xu Zhihuan, who was already intelligent and clever, soon learned to observe the color of speech and carefully treat his adoptive father Xu Wen, and soon won Xu Wen's trust and like.

Under the care of Xu Wen, Xu Zhihuan still received a good education in the chaotic world. Xu Zhihuan, who grew up, not only looked good-looking, but also liked to read, was good at riding and shooting, and was a good young man who was both literate and martial. In this way, Xu Zhihuan can help his adoptive father Xu Wen deal with some government affairs and military affairs, and he began to emerge as his adoptive father's right-hand man.

Yang Xingmi, who originally intended to adopt Xu Zhiyu, was a local warlord who divided the Jianghuai region and single-handedly founded the foundation of what became known as the State of Wu at the end of the Tang Dynasty. Xu Wen, as Yang Xingmi's right-hand man, gradually took control of the imperial power of the State of Wu after Yang Xingmi's death, and Xu Zhiyan's status also rose because he was favored by his adoptive father Xu Wen.

Xu Zhihuan accepted the appointment of his adoptive father and successively served in Shengzhou, Runzhou and other places, taking charge of the military and civil affairs of one side, and tempering his talents. Unlike Xu Wen's other sons at that time, who only knew how to fight, kill and kill, and did not know how to govern the localities at all, Xu Zhihuan was lenient and reclusive to the people, and won the support of the people.

Seeing that his adopted son was gradually gaining popular support, Xu Wen's heart began to make up his mind. Xu Wen, who had already seized the power of the State of Wu, admired Xu Zhihuan's talents, so he constantly promoted and reused him, hoping to use his talents to govern the State of Wu well. However, seeing that he was getting older and older, Xu Wen hesitated and did not make up his mind when choosing who would be his heir.

Xu Wen was well aware of Xu Zhihuan's talents, and although he had many sons, there was no one who could match Xu Zhihuan. In the end, Xu Wen was not willing to let Xu Zhihuan take over all his powers, but instead chose his own son, Xu Zhiyan's younger brother Xu Zhiyuan, as his heir.

However, the heavens did not obey people's wishes, and Xu Wen made up his mind to let Xu Zhiqian as his heir soon after, he died of an acute illness. Although Xu Zhiqian took over the military power from Xu Wen's hands, the level of struggle was not Xu Zhihuan's opponent at all. Xu Zhihuan designed to take away the military power in Xu Zhiyuan's hands and succeeded his adoptive father Xu Wen as a powerful minister.

Soon after Xu Zhihuan seized power, he was no longer satisfied with being a courtier, forced Yang Pu, the king of Wu, to abdicate, established himself as emperor, and founded the Southern Tang Dynasty. Xu Zhihuan, who had become the Supreme Of the Ninth Five- Dynasty, restored his original surname and changed his name to Li Sheng. As for xu zhiqian, the heir chosen by his adoptive father Xu Wen, Li Sheng, in order to avoid future troubles, moved to kill.

Therefore, Li Sheng, who had become emperor, summoned Xu Zhiqian, and at the banquet where the two had been brothers began to clash. "Brother" Li Sheng and the former Xu Zhihuan took the initiative to toast their younger brother Xu Zhiyuan and said to him: I wish you a long life and a thousand years! Xu Zhiqian knew that his brother, who had already claimed the title of emperor, must have an ulterior motive, perhaps he was poisoned in the wine and wanted to end himself.

However, at this time, Xu Zhiqian had no reason to reject Li Sheng, although there was no risk of being poisoned without drinking poisonous wine, but disobeying the emperor's orders was also a capital crime. At this critical moment, Xu Zhiqian made a clever move, divided the wine that his brother gave himself in two, gave half of Li Sheng, and said: If he can really live a long life, then the younger brother is willing to give it to his brother for five hundred years.

In this way, Li Sheng originally thought that he could effortlessly get rid of this younger brother who might be a threat to himself in this way, but he was defused by Xu Zhiqian's witty response. Because he was able to survive in the chaotic world because he was favored by the Xu family, and Xu Zhiyuan escaped his own murder without damaging his own majesty, Li Sheng finally remembered his old feelings and let Xu Zhiyuan go.

In this way, Xu Zhiqian escaped the disaster through this witty response, and although he lost his power, he was able to return home safely and enjoy his old age peacefully. But then again, although Xu Zhiyuan's response can be called witty, in the end, Li Sheng is not a cold-blooded and ruthless monarch after all, taking into account the brotherhood of the past, which allowed Xu Zhiyuan to escape.

Just as the so-called "most ruthless imperial family", in the face of supreme power, fragile humanity often cannot withstand the test. Since ancient times, it is not uncommon for cold-blooded emperors to kill their own brothers in order to fight for power and profit. And like Li Sheng, he can still have a benevolent heart for his adoptive father's descendants, and he has not killed them all, which is also a rare and precious thing.