This article is written with reference to historical sources and personal opinions, and the relevant literature sources have not been indicated.
(Southern Han Dynasty Gaozu Liu Ling image)
Liu Ling, the founding emperor of the Southern Han Dynasty, when he first ascended the throne, paid great attention to the rule of officials, he knew how to win people's hearts, treat scholars well, and also had a lot of praise in the management of officials.
Of course, this is the old tradition of the Liu family in the Southern Han Dynasty, whether it was his brother Liu Yin or his father Liu Qian before.
At the same time, Liu Ling also had a lot of innovations in the political system of the Southern Han Dynasty, for example, since the end of the Tang Dynasty, the imperial court has used martial arts to govern the local area, which is very unreasonable.
This military general, the stability is not high, and the stickiness to the court is not enough, and there are many generals who are not admitted to that position through formal channels, and a large part of them have been bandits and anti-thieves, and they only stepped into the system after being recruited by the imperial court.
If it weren't for the likes of famous generals, his cultural level would not be very high, and the most important thing for you as a state assassin is not only to manage, but also to know how to educate the people, as a result, these big bosses either simply and rudely made a mess of local governance, or simply cut off the connection with the imperial court and directly self-govern.
And Liu Ling was very able to learn the lessons of the previous dynasty, because the state pastors and local governors under his rule were basically literati and doctors.
Liu Ling may have thought that the literati were weak and could not set off strong winds and waves, and even if they were rebels and uprisings, they would be far less harmful than martial artists, but he did not expect that his active use of literati not only solved the frequent problem of secession in the local area, but also brought unexpected results.
The history books describe them as "preaching politics and religion" and "the people are blessed", which means that they have not only achieved local education, so that the people can keep to themselves, but they themselves have more political ability and personality charm, and know how to care for the people.
(Lu Guangtu image)
For example, Jian Wenling, the assassin of Frame Zhou (now Huizhou, Guangdong), he was very hard-working, and when he was in office, he was busy solving the life problems faced by the people of Frame Prefecture every day.
For another example, Liu Bogu, the assassin of Dezhou (now Guiping County, Guangxi), practiced good governance when he was an official, and he was very good to the people, and the local people loved him very much.
For another example, Chenzhou (now Chenxian County, Hunan) assassinated Lu Guangtu, helped the people, helped the poor, sympathized with the orphans and widows, and the people of Chenzhou deeply felt his merits, and every time they saw Lu Guangtu, they were affectionately called "Father Lu".
Yes, the people of that season, often because of the war and the family is ruined, there are not a few people who have lost their relatives, from the central court to the local separatist regime, the scholars and doctors are hesitant for their own future, the warriors take advantage of the opportunity to reshuffle the cards in the troubled times to launch wars, the eunuchs are arbitrary, the emperor is inactive, from the province to the state, from the government to the county, there are bandits everywhere, swords and soldiers are everywhere, the people of the world have kings and no protection, the people of the Quartet have the chief officials but have no birth, full of eyes, analyze the remains to plan, sell children and women, people are no longer people, Man is just a number that dies in troubled times.
However, this group of assassins in the Southern Han Dynasty, they knew the etiquette, understood the righteousness, and had a benevolent heart, they blessed and preserved the people, and gave them the scarce warmth in the troubled times.
If I have no father, you will be your father.
In the history books, there is no biography of them, and there are only a few records about them, but in fact, the long history is written for them.
In addition to the relatively clear rule of officials, the economic development of Lingnan is also a major feature.
Because since the middle and late Tang Dynasty, this place has actually been an important source of tax revenue for the Tang Dynasty, that is, when the Liu family did not occupy Lingnan, this place was already very wealthy.
(Lingnan Scenery)
During the Huangchao Rebellion, Huangchao also went to Guangdong to wreak havoc, but compared to the monstrous war he provoked in the Central Plains, his impact on Lingnan can be said to be minimal.
Since the Liu family took over Lingnan, they have been working hard to develop the prosperity of industry and commerce, the ancestors of the old Liu family came to Lingnan because of business, this group of people was born in a wealthy businessman's family, has a business mindset, and has not relaxed this piece after the establishment of the country, so the economy of the Southern Han Dynasty at that time was very good.
Liu Ling seems to be still a social expert, and he has business contacts with Southern Wu, Southern Tang, Fujian, Chu, and Shu in the ten countries of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms, and he even did business in Yunnan, which was controlled by Nanzhao at that time.
Needless to say, it is important to be friendly with the inland regime, mainly because the Southern Han is close to the sea, and behind it is the South China Sea, so the maritime trade of the Southern Han is particularly prosperous, and in order to go to sea to do business, the Southern Han also established a fairly large fleet, which was very rare at that time.
In Liu Ling's view, making money is, of course, the first priority, because in his eyes, anything in the troubled times is not as good as money, as long as there is money, all the problems in this world can be solved, if it is not solved, it can only mean that there is not enough money.
The author praised the Southern Han Dynasty under Liu Ling's rule, as if he wanted to prove that Liu Ling was a Ming monarch who governed the country well, but in fact Liu Ling was not, not only was he not a Ming Jun, but for most of his imperial career, he behaved very ordinarily and even poorly.
Because, Liu Ling may be very capable, but his personality is extremely problematic, in current words, he is not a pervert.
(Cell)
This Liu Lingna, it can be said that he is brutal by nature, in order to maintain his rule, he personally formulated a lot of inhumane and appalling torture, which torture readers and friends can imagine for themselves, I won't say it, anyway, it is the kind of cruel punishment that the king shook his head when he saw it, and Yang Guang had to sigh when he heard it.
It is not enough to like to study torture to torture others, Liu Ling also likes to visit the execution scene in person, whenever he sees the prisoner being tortured for survival and death, he is very happy, so beautiful that the snot bubbles can come out, while dancing, drooling, excited is not to want.
In addition to the extreme heart, Liu Ling also loves pleasure, we can even say that a very important reason for his vigorous development of the Southern Han economy is to rely on strong financial resources to meet his daily expensive expenses, after all, money will always be spent, but enjoyment is inexhaustible, so for eternal enjoyment, you need to keep making money, this is Liu Ling's values.
He had to collect all the treasures in the Southern Han Dynasty and keep them for himself, and then set up a luxurious palace in the capital city of Xingwangfu, that is, Guangzhou, for pleasure.
As soon as a person has money, he will either spend it or show off, or even show off his flowers, Liu Ling likes to show off his abundant financial resources very much, at that time, as long as there are businessmen passing by or coming to the Southern Han Dynasty, Liu Ling must pull people to his palace, and then open his own small warehouse, take out the treasures inside to show off.
In 923 A.D., six or seven years after Liu Cheng became emperor, the Later Liang perished.
The five generations of regimes after the Later Liang were the Later Tang Dynasty.
During Liu Qian and Liu Yin's entrepreneurship, they were still close to the Tang Dynasty and Later Liang, but after Liu Cheng became emperor, Later Liang had declined, so he simply changed his face and reprimanded Hou Liang for being a puppet court, completely cutting off contact with the Central Plains regime.
Let's say that the Later Liang regime is also unlucky enough, it has not been good since the beginning of its establishment, and it has been declining day by day.
However, the Later Tang Dynasty and the Later Liang are very different, the Later Tang Dynasty was very powerful at the beginning of its establishment, and it seems that they all have the posture of recovering the Tang Dynasty, so even if Liu Ling is crazy and floating, he will get the Later Tang Dynasty to explore the reality.
(Later Tang Dynasty Zhuangzong, Li Cunxuan, portrait, detail)
Sent by Liu Ling to the Later Tang Dynasty, it was an official named He Ci, this He Ci may have been found after arriving in the Later Tang Dynasty, the founding emperor of the Later Tang Dynasty, Zhuangzong Li Cunmiao, who was in the palace all day long with the Lingren drama, probably thinking that Li Cunmiao was not a reliable master, after returning to the Southern Han Dynasty, He Ci said that I don't think the Later Tang Dynasty is very good, sooner or later there will be chaos, Liu Ling listened, and thought about the Later Tang Dynasty Li is not good, and the relationship with the Later Tang Dynasty is also estranged.
The Later Tang Dynasty wanted to crown him as the king, but he was ashamed to accept it, he thought that his ancestor was a rich merchant who came out of the Central Plains after all, how could he accept the reward of the Shatuo people? Later, he simply didn't care about the Later Tang Dynasty emperor calling him emperor, and renamed them "Luozhou Thorn History".
It stands to reason that Li Cunmiao has such a violent temper, knowing that Liu Ling buried him like this, he would have led his troops to kill him, but the problem is that the geographical location of the Southern Han Dynasty is still relatively special, for example, if Li Cunmiao wants to fight the Southern Han, then he must go down and cross the two small regimes of Nanping and Ma Chu one after another to hit the Southern Han.
On this way, the mountains are high and the water is long, not to mention, the road is not easy to walk, the natural environment of Lingnan is also relatively bad in the local area, poisonous insects and beasts, smoke and fog, fight the Southern Han Dynasty, it really takes a lot of energy and financial resources, if you win, you will not make money, and if you lose, you will lose everything, it is really not cost-effective.
It is precisely because of this peculiar geographical advantage that during the period from the founding of the Southern Han Dynasty to the fall of the country, they only visited the Central Plains Dynasty twice, one at the beginning of the Later Tang Dynasty established by Li Cunmiao, and the other was when Chai Rong of the Later Zhou Dynasty Shizong went on a southern expedition.
However, if you want to say that the Southern Han Dynasty can't fight at all, it is also unrealistic, because after all, the Southern Han Dynasty borders Ma's Southern Chu, and the two regimes often have wars, plus Liu Ling himself is a war maniac, and frequent military actions are inevitable, but fortunately, Liu Ling still has some talent in military command, and he can often win battles.
It is worth mentioning that the territory of the Southern Han Dynasty was close to today's Vietnam, and at the end of the Tang Dynasty, Vietnam was actually the territory of the Tang Dynasty, called Jiaozhi, five dynasties and ten kingdoms of the feudal towns, Jiaozhi was also divided by warlords, Liu Ling also once wanted to take Jiaozhi back, but then he was defeated and failed to do so.
(Raising Troops)
You can see that Liu Ling's life is very colorful.
He has struggled, fought, enjoyed, and experienced all kinds of tastes of life.
And in his later years in the second half of his reign, he, like most traditional kings in history, entered the comfort zone of passivity and pleasure.
I used to want to go further, but now I don't want to, I used to think about the southern and northern wars, but now I can't move, I used to want to chase the Central Plains, but now I also go with the wind.
What does an honest life look like? In fact, you can live according to your own wishes, you can eat when you are hungry, you can drink water when you are hungry and thirsty, and you don't have to lie when you want to express yourself.
And this kind of life, as the emperor, Liu Ling did it, and enjoyed it very much.
Because Liu Ling also knew that it was too difficult and too hard to achieve the goal of unification that all feudal emperors were pursuing in the five dynasties and ten kingdoms.
Since the pinnacle and glory are really hard to strive for, then let me come here.
In 942 AD, Liu Cheng died.
Resources:
History of the Old Five Dynasties, Volume 135, Biography of the False Falsehood II
Spring and Autumn of the Ten Kingdoms, Volume 58, Southern Han Dynasty, Liezu Family, Gaozu Benji
Chen Xin: The Life of Liu Yan, the Gaozu of the Southern Han Dynasty. 《vip》，2014
Zhao Jianling: An Overview of the Relationship between the Southern Han Dynasty and the Central Plains and the Surrounding Separatist Regimes. 《WanFang》，2002