One

So Xu Wen jointly signed a letter to Yang Longyan as a minister of the central government, wanting to support him to establish the country and become the emperor, saying that it was a joint name, but in fact, it was arranged by Xu Wen. Yang Longyan was very embarrassed after receiving the joint letter, although he has a cowardly personality, but he is not stupid, the regime in Huainan has been controlled by the Xu family and his son for so many years, he is actually just a decoration. So he asked the privy envoy Wang Lingmou what his opinion was, and Wang Lingmou said:

"King Wu, it is obvious that it is Xu Wen's intention to call the emperor the founding of the country, if that is the case, Xu Wen's power will become greater and greater."

"Hey, it's fake for me to be the emperor, in fact, he wants to be Cao Cao." Yang Long said with a sigh.

"Well, King Wu has become the emperor, and Xu Wen can justifiably coerce the Son of Heaven to order the princes."

"Yes, I have no name as an emperor, so how can I be good?"

"King Wu," Wang Lingmou said, "you can tell Xu Wen that he is blessed with a small virtue and is useless in Huainan, and he does not dare to take on this great responsibility." ”

Yang Longyan had no better way, and replied to Xu Wen according to Wang Lingmou's intentions, and Xu Wen saw that Yang Longyan refused to be the emperor, so he said to Yan Keqiu, "It seems that I have to go back to Guangling in person." Xu Wen has been in power for many years, and he has long been accustomed to saying the same, this time Yang Longyan refused his proposal, how could he be willing to leave it at that.

Knowing that Xu Wen was coming back, Yang Longyan began to be nervous, and he was afraid of Xu Wen from the bottom of his heart. On the one hand, Xu Wen is outstanding, can choose and employ people, but on the other hand, he is suspicious and ruthless.

"King Wu, the ministers and others please play the founding of the country and call the emperor, why did the king of Wu refuse?" As soon as he saw Yang Longyan, Xu Wen said with a straight face.

"Duke Xu, I have explained in the letter that I am blessed with little virtue and thin virtue, and I have no merit in Huainan, and being the king is already the favor of God, so don't you kill me if you want me to be the emperor?"

"You are the son and son of King Xianwu, with the blood of King Xianwu flowing in your body, and you have inherited his merits, how can you say that you are blessed with little virtue? King Wu has been on the throne for more than ten years, the world is peaceful, the people live and work in peace and contentment, and the people's livelihood is rich, how can it be said that it is useless? ”

"I succeeded to the throne at the age of eleven, and I was just a child at that time, and how to govern the country was all the credit of Duke Xu and the ministers."

"We are Huainan's courtiers, you are the king of Huainan, and our credit is naturally your credit, how can King Wu say that there is no credit? Please Wu Wang Mo to refuse. ”

"Yes...... But I think the time to build the country and become the emperor is not appropriate, so it is better to ...... Why don't you wait until the time is right to think about it? Yang Longyan said pleadingly.

"King Wu, the Tang Dynasty has long since perished, and now Shu, Han, and Wu Yue have all established the country, and my Huainan is in line with the general trend of the world at this time, and the time is right." Xu Wen raised his tone very high, and Yang Longyan was a little scared, so he said nervously:

"Duke Xu, otherwise, build the country first, as for the matter of being called emperor, I am really not competent, and it is not too late to be called emperor when there is a better time in the future, how about it?" Seeing that Yang Longyan resolutely did not claim the title of emperor, Xu Wen was a little unhappy, but he did not force Yang Longyan again, he thought that since the country was founded, it was natural to be called emperor.

Yang Longyan skillfully vetoed the matter of becoming emperor with a trick of delaying the army, and successfully prevented Xu Wen from wanting to take the opportunity to exercise imperial power. In fact, Yang Longyan taught him this trick by Wang Lingmou, because when he learned that Xu Wen was going to come back, Yang Longyan asked Wang Lingmou what to do if Xu Wen forced him to build a country and become emperor, Wang Lingmou told Yang Longyan that he could first build a country and not be called an emperor to drag Xu Wen.

Two

Since you want to build a country, you have to take a name for it. Xu Wen said that the founding of the country in the territory of King Wu should naturally be called "Wu State", as for the year name, Xu Wen and everyone discussed it as "Wuyi", which is the meaning of cultural governance and martial arts, benevolence, righteousness and morality, Yang Longyan was more satisfied with the name of the country and the name of the year, so he agreed to Xu Wen's proposal.

In the sixteenth year of Tianyou (919 AD), another state of Wu was established in Chinese history, and Yang Longyan was promoted from a vassal king under the rule of the Tang Dynasty to the king of an independent country, and officially changed the Yuan to "Wuyi", and since then he has severed the legal relationship with the Tang Dynasty and granted amnesty to the territory. Since the establishment of a new country, it is indispensable to increase the number of meritorious officials to knighthood, which is also the direct motivation for Xu Wenren and others to advocate the establishment of the country. Under the control of Xu Wen, Wu set up a hundred official system, which was not set up according to the rank of the king, but according to the rank of the emperor, because in Xu Wen's view, Yang Long's speech as the emperor was a matter of time, so it was in place in one step, Xu Wen became the prime minister, the governor of the military inside and outside, and the king of Donghai County, integrating the army, politics and glory, and was a very popular minister; Xu Zhihe is the left servant, participates in political affairs, and knows the internal and external military, and is also a combination of military and political, and the father and son firmly control the power of Wu State. Xu Wen did not forget the great hero Yan Keqiu, and promoted him to be a subordinate waiter, Luo Zhixiang was a Zhongshu waiter, and Xu Jue was a deputy envoy. Other Yang generals, such as Chai Zaiyong, Liu Xin, Li Jian, etc., are all generals, and Wang Lingmou is the internal privy envoy. Other civil and military generals were subordinated, and the clan was named a county duke. And Zhou Zong, Song Qiqiu and Ma Renyu did not get the title because they did not directly serve in the court.

Of course, Yang Longyan's posthumous sealing of his father and brother is also indispensable, establishing a temple and a shrine, posthumously honoring his father Yang Xingmi as the king of filial piety, and the temple name is Taizu; The elder brother Yang Wu is the king of Jing, and the temple name is Liezu. In order to distinguish it from the state of Wu in other eras in history, later generations called the state of Wu established by the Yang clan "Southern Wu" or "Yang Wu".