Chapter 6 6. Startling at every step

There are many motives for seizing imperial power in feudal society, some are for wealth, some are for inheritance, some are for survival, some are active, some are forced, and so on.Guo Wei was wrapped in a yellow flag, and seemed to be forced to be the emperor. Knowing that he had won the first lottery and was chosen as the heir to the throne, Liu Chengyun burst into ecstasy, almost convulsed because of this.Liu Chengyun secretly sighed: "Oh my god, what a destiny, such a big meat bun just fell on my head." Liu Chengyun couldn't wait to set off immediately, and under the protection of Feng Dao and others, he rushed from Xuzhou to Kaifeng starry night.All prefectures and counties have received news that Liu Chengyun is going to ascend the throne and become the new emperor.Along the way, Liu Chengyun was received and treated like an emperor. Wherever he went, the cry of long live would ring out.

On December 1, Guo Wei led the team to leave the capital and return to Hebei with mixed feelings.He has just taken control of the overall situation of the imperial court, and hastily left the center of power before he has time to flex his muscles, make comprehensive arrangements, conceive the next chess game, and warm up his chair.Guo Wei suffered from being dumb, and had nothing to say, so he was depressed all the way. On December 4th, when Guo Wei went to Huazhou on the bank of the Yellow River, he stayed for a few days.As for why Xiaozhu, Guo Wei must still be hesitant and unwilling to take up the post, and seems to be thinking about a strategy to restore the passive situation.Anyway, it's not as fast as when you swung your troops south.When staying in Huazhou, Liu Chengyun hurriedly sent envoys to Guo Wei's camp to express his condolences and comfort and encourage the three armies.

Liu Chengyun's condolences came so unexpectedly.All the generals looked at me, I looked at you, and looked at each other, none of them would bow down and accept orders.Everyone whispered and whispered to each other: "We captured the capital and looted it. This is a very serious crime. If the surname Liu continues to be emperor, will we still have a way to survive? We must die!" "Yes, yes, What kind of condolence order is clearly a soul-chasing order. This is to remind us to remember what we did in Kaifeng so that we can settle accounts after the fall." The fluctuating morale of the army reached Guo Wei's ears.Guo Wei was very worried. He was worried about a mutiny, so he decided to set off immediately and continue marching, arriving in Yedu one day earlier for stable deployment.On December 16, Guo Wei led his army across the Yellow River, arrived in Chanzhou, and stayed in the posthouse to rest.

At the same time, Liu Chengyun was traveling much faster than Guo Wei, and he had already arrived in Songzhou.The imperial court sent Su Yugui to meet Liu Chengyun.Su Yugui and Dou Zhengu remained neutral in the political struggle created by Li Ye, ignored them, and didn't like to cause trouble. In the end, they were not guilty of any crimes, and they were continued to be reused by the new court. On December 20th, just after dawn, Guo Wei ordered the army to set off and continue on their way. Guo Wei dressed neatly, stepped out of the bedroom, and was about to get on his horse.Suddenly, thousands of soldiers shouted and poured into the yard, the crowd was excited, and it seemed that a big chaos was about to happen.Guo Wei was very experienced, and immediately ordered someone to close the door, put on strict guard, observe the movement, and find out what happened.These emotional soldiers climbed over the wall, climbed onto the roof, kicked through the windows, and squeezed into Guo Wei's room.The crowd was crowded, and everyone shouted: "You should be the emperor, Marshal. The soldiers have forged a blood feud with the Liu family, and they must no longer support the descendants of the Liu family as emperors!"

Guo Wei understood that it was because his subordinates were worried about being retaliated by the Liu family emperor in the future, so they took the risk and set up a new king to protect themselves. What these people desperately need is a sense of security. Why doesn't Guo Wei need a sense of security?He was also worried about being retaliated by the new emperor, and he was also worried that tens of thousands of troops would mutiny, and all kinds of unforeseen disasters could happen at any time.However, Guo Wei has experienced big scenes after all, so he tried his best to maintain the calmness he should have. He ordered loudly: "Keep calm, everyone calm down, don't mess up, this commander has his own punishment."

No matter what Guo Wei said, these disturbed military schools didn't listen to him at all.At this time, someone tore down a yellow flag from nowhere, put it on Guo Wei's shoulders, and shouted: "This is the emperor, the commander is wearing a yellow robe, this is our emperor!" Guo Wei was covered with a yellow flag, and his heart suddenly became nervous. He knew what it meant.In order to get rid of the flag, Guo Wei struggled desperately, pulling and pulling.The military academies would not let him tear it down, they hurriedly hugged Huang Qi and Guo Wei together, and wrapped Guo Wei with the flag so that Guo Wei could not move.Guo Wei was anxious and angry, his face was flushed red, and his throat was broken by shouting, but no one paid any attention.

The rebel army took Guo Wei hostage, left Chanzhou, and rushed towards Kaifeng. Guo Wei went south to the capital again. Guo Wei "became the emperor". There is something suspicious here.When Guo Wei came to Beijing from the south for the first time, he traveled night and day and arrived in Kaifeng from Yedu in a few days.But this time from Kaifeng back to Yedu, it took 20 days to reach Chanzhou.It can be seen that Guo Wei is reluctant to take up the post, maybe he is waiting for something.What's even more suspicious is that Liu Chengyun, who has not yet ascended the throne, unexpectedly sent people to Huazhou to comfort the army, which was unreasonable both emotionally and rationally.What's more, Liu Chengyun, who has rushed to the capital to be the emperor, has no intention of sending people to work in the army. The army works hard or not, it's none of his business at this time!What's even more suspicious is that Guo Wei had already found that the army's morale was unstable in Huazhou, so he didn't dare to delay and set out to march. Then why did he stay for four days after arriving in Chanzhou?Contradictory, full of doubts.

During these twenty days, many things can happen. It can be completely suspected that Guo Wei directed this drama of forcing the palace to proclaim the emperor.Guo Wei was unwilling to leave the capital, but he had no reasonable excuse to stay.So he dawdled, thinking of ways as he walked.When they arrived in Huazhou, they finally came up with a clever plan, pretending to be Liu Chengyun's name, and fabricated a condolence order, so as to scare the soldiers who were originally guilty, and force them to associate Liu Chengyun's consequences as emperor with their future fate. , so as to arouse the fear of soldiers.

I dawdled in Chanzhou for a few more days, the purpose was to allow this fear to have time and space to ferment and contagious, and finally catalyzed the panic and restlessness of a large area of ​​soldiers, creating an emotional, popular and interest foundation for supporting Guo Wei as emperor. At such a delicate moment, as long as a few people stand up and support Guo Wei as emperor, others will definitely respond in droves under the influence of herd mentality and the way out. But Guo Wei is definitely not able to direct such an exquisite show alone, there must be someone to help, who is it?

Analyzing from two perspectives, the degree of intimacy with Guo Wei before and the degree of title benefits afterwards, the suspects include Wang Jun, Wang Yin, Li Qiong, Wei Renpu, Guo Chongwei, Chai Rong, and Zheng Renhui. After Guo Wei became emperor, Wang Jun's credit was rated as the first, which shows that he must have made great contributions.However, Wang Junyuan was in the capital at this time, and it is unlikely that he would directly participate in the Huazhou and Chanzhou incidents, but it is possible that he discussed the follow-up matters with Guo Wei before leaving.Wang Jun actually served as Guo Wei's support in the court.

Although Wang Yin was on the same front as Guo Wei, he was also in the capital at this time and had no chance of directly participating in the mutiny. Although Li Qiong is the eldest brother of Guo Wei's ten sworn brothers, he was always optimistic about Guo Wei's future in his early years.But Li Qiong was not with Guo Wei at this time, and there was no time or opportunity to participate in this matter. Guo Chongwei was also in Kaifeng at this time and did not accompany Guo Wei in the Northern Expedition.Although Guo Chongwei is loyal to Guo Wei, he really has no chance to participate in this big action to change history, and he also lacks the brains to plan such a big action. Chai Rong is still staying in Yedu at this time, so he lacks the opportunity to participate in this operation. Among Guo Wei's right-hand men, only Wei Renpu is the most suspected.He is deeply trusted by Guo Wei and always follows Guo Wei.What's more, when he was in Yedu, Wei Renpu once advised Guo Wei to revise the emperor's secret assassination order in order to anger the generals and unite the hearts of the people.Therefore, Wei Renpu is very good at the strategy of stealing the beam and changing the post.He was probably the one who fabricated Liu Chengyun's condolence order in Huazhou.It is also likely that he was the one who directed the anger of the generals in Chanzhou. Wei Renpu is a counselor, and only Wei Renpu can hardly complete the task of planning and implementing the mutiny support, and there should be someone among the generals involved in this matter.This person is likely to be Zheng Renjiao.In the biography of Zheng Renhui, it is said that he has the merits of life.It may be that Zheng Ren urged and led the army to implement forced support.In the biography of Han Tong in "History of the Song Dynasty", it is said that Guo Wei "reached Bian, and his communication was very powerful." Trained confidant go-getters.Han Tong, nicknamed "Han Duanyan", is brave and foolish, and loves to brag. It is estimated that Han Tong is the leader of the Chanzhou mutiny. The mysterious cases in Huazhou and Chanzhou seem to have an answer, and there is another mysterious case. This suspected case is in Kaifeng. In the emergency situation of national crisis and foreign invasion, Guo Wei was sent by the imperial court to lead the Northern Expedition.Since it is going to fight a big battle, it must require a large-scale military force, a large number of generals, a strong bureaucracy, and the main force of cronies.However, the main deployment of civil and military forces that Guo Wei brought into Kaifeng basically stayed in Kaifeng.Why is that?Does Guo Wei want to be a polished commander to resist the mighty Khitan? There can only be two reasons. One is that Empress Dowager Li took this opportunity to divert the tiger away from the mountain and send Guo Wei away, but left her right and left arm to cut off Guo Wei's wings.The second is that Guo Wei deliberately left his cronies behind as an internal response to prepare for a big action in the future. I think the first possibility is very small.Being able to take this opportunity to transfer Guo Wei away from the capital is already considered a high-level move, but also a difficult move, requiring extremely difficult games to barely succeed.If Empress Dowager Li forcibly keeps Wang Jun, Wang Yin and others in the capital in order to weaken Guo Wei's power, it will anger the Guo Wei Group.If Guo Wei does not agree to do so, Queen Mother Li can only be wishful thinking. The second possibility is more likely, which means that Guo Wei has already planted his back tricks before leaving the capital.Perhaps when designing this back move, Guo Wei hoped that its main function would be to grasp the overall situation of the capital, so that Guo Wei could control the politics of the capital remotely.And Guo Wei is not willing to take risks alone and lead such a weak army to fight.Perhaps his plan at the time was to garrison defense after arriving in Yedu, and not to go deep into the north to fight against Khitan, lest the meat bun beat the dog and never return.This is Guo Wei's first purpose of leaving the main confidants in the capital.However, with Guo Wei's scheming and steady style, it is unlikely that he only thought of the step of remote control of the capital, and it is very likely that he made the worst plan. What's the worst? The threat to Guo Wei's safety is the worst case scenario. When will Guo Wei's safety be threatened?Guo Wei is the most powerful now, and no one in the Central Plains can threaten his safety for the time being.There are only two people who can threaten Guo Wei's safety. Maybe the Empress Dowager Li sent someone to assassinate him, or maybe the new emperor killed him. If such a crisis arises, Guo Wei will launch a counterattack.The line of counterattack will be to return to the capital and seize power.It would not be a separatist rule of Yedu, because Yedu has no main force, and Yedu is obviously at a disadvantage in terms of political status. What are the chances of success in counterattacking Kaifeng?Guo Wei already has a wealth of experience in this regard. A few years ago, Guo Wei assisted Liu Zhiyuan to enter the capital. A month ago, Guo Wei himself entered the capital himself.He is well aware of the difficulty of challenging the authority of the capital and the confrontation, it is no big deal, it is not difficult. Therefore, the second purpose of Guo Wei's last move is likely to be to return to Kaifeng. In such a tense, complex, changeable, lack of trust, and crisis-ridden situation, Guo Wei is most likely to choose to return to Kaifeng. So far, the two major doubts of the Chanzhou Change and the remote control of Kaifeng have been answered. The mystery of Guo Wei being forced to be the emperor has been completely solved. It's just that due to the shadow of loyalty to the emperor in feudal society, this suspicious case has been covered with a veil that has been looming for more than a thousand years, and the parties and historians are not willing to expose it.Once this veil is pierced, it will affect the image of Zhou Taizu Guo Wei, and will also add a "bad" example for future generations. Guo Wei, surrounded by soldiers or being surrounded by soldiers, turned around and rushed towards Kaifeng.Wang Jun, who stayed in Kaifeng, was the first to get the news. As a privy envoy, he had the right to mobilize the army. He immediately sent Guo Wei's confidant General Guo Chongwei to Songzhou to guard the incoming emperor Liu Chengyun.What Wang Jun did was legitimate, timely, responsible, and politically conscious. While sending people to guard the emperor-designate immediately, Wang Jun also dispatched Ma Duo, the former governor of Shenzhou, to Xuzhou to protect the emperor's uncle Liu Xin. Guo Chongwei flew to Songzhou with 700 imperial guards, lured Liu Chengyun's first guard and commander to surrender, and killed several entourages of the emperor-designate.Liu Chengyun became a bare-bones commander, so he obediently followed Guo Chongwei to live in a specific post house, and was actually placed under house arrest.The old man Feng Dao who was in charge of meeting the driver was silent at this moment and did nothing.Feng Dao clearly knew that he had been bullied by Guo Wei, and that he had given Guo Wei the notoriety of defrauding the future emperor, but Feng Dao still squatted in this big pit that had been predicted in advance, and did not scream.Feng Dao's cleverness lies in the fact that he knows when to appear, when to do something, when to keep a low profile and hide, and when not to do anything and keep silent. I see. It is false that Wang Jun sent Guo Chongwei to escort him, and it is true that the emperor-designate was detained in Beijing under house arrest.Gain time and space for Guo Wei to occupy the capital and seize imperial power. The escort is fake, and the emperor's uncle Liu Xin is even more nonsense. After Ma Duo arrived in Xuzhou, without any effort, he forced Uncle Liu Huang, who only knew how to eat, drink and have fun, to commit suicide.Among Liu Zhiyuan's descendants, there is one less person who is qualified to inherit the throne, and the challenge to Guo Wei is one point less. Guo Wei's trip back to Beijing was extremely fast, much faster than when he left Beijing, faster than taking a special train. In addition to inventing the new form of adding the yellow flag, Guo Wei has another innovation.He wrote a memorial to Empress Dowager Li, stating that he was wronged by being coerced by the army to proclaim himself emperor, and expressed that he would continue to respect the ancestor god of Liu Han, and was willing to ask Empress Dowager Li to be his mother.This is really a great invention. It is much more concise and practical than beating around the bush and adding nine tin seals to the king of Wei and then giving way.In this way, Guo Wei is eligible to inherit the throne and directly entered the finals. The Empress Dowager Li in the capital is gone, no matter what kind of thoughts she has, she has to lower her noble head.Under the planning of Wang Jun and others, on December 27, an order was issued in the name of Queen Mother Li to deprive Liu Chengyun of the heir to the throne, abolish Liu Chengyun as Duke of Xiangyin, demote two levels, and appoint Guo Wei as the supervisor of the state, acting as the acting Imperial power presides over state affairs. On the fourth day of the first lunar month in 951 AD, Empress Dowager Li issued another circular, expounding a lot of reasons for the ups and downs of the past and present, and the replacement of saints, kings, Taoists, and countries. be emperor. Guo Wei finally achieved his goal and successfully ascended the throne and proclaimed himself emperor. Guo Wei was 47 years old this year, in the prime of life. Immediately after Guo Wei proclaimed himself emperor, a new problem arose. Li Siyuan seized power and proclaimed himself emperor, but did not change the name of the country, and still used the name of the Later Tang Dynasty.Shi Jingtang and Liu Zhiyuan raised troops in Jinyang and proclaimed themselves emperors in Jinyang.Because of the royal surname Yi, they started from scratch, and they all created a new country name. Since Guo Wei has stated that he respects the ancestors of the Liu family and asked the Empress Dowager Li to be his mother, will Guo Wei change the title of the Later Han Dynasty after he becomes emperor?It seems that it is reasonable to continue to use the post-Han name. Guo Wei, of course, wants to establish a new national name, and start a new business with heavy drums and drums.But how can we solve this problem? First of all, after Guo Wei proclaimed himself emperor, he issued a long open letter, tracing his ancestry back thousands of years, and finally connected it with the surname Ji of the Western Zhou Dynasty, and became a descendant of the Western Zhou royal family. Lineage of origin.Then he praised himself for his great achievements, he was obedient to others, healthy in body and mind, with excellent morals and abilities, and he was very suitable to be an emperor. If he did not become an emperor, it would be against God's will.By creating public opinion, it paved the way for reforming the old and reforming the old and changing the name of Yuan Jian. Then, Guo Wei instructed Si Tianjian and other calendar and astronomy officials to find evidence from specious and strange theories such as astronomy and geography, solar terms, Yin and Yang and five elements.Although these things seem absurd now, in the social environment at that time, these rules were the basic laws guiding the operation of everything in society, and they had already been deeply rooted in the hearts of the people. The final conclusion is that when the new emperor succeeds to the throne, a new country name must be created, and the country name should be Zhou. After becoming emperor, Guo Wei fulfilled his promise and honored Empress Dowager Li as Empress Dowager Zhaosheng, but deprived the power of the supreme mother of the country and moved to the West Palace for resettlement. Regarding the funeral of Emperor Yin of the Han Dynasty, Guo Wei also did enough to save face and buried Liu Chengyou generously with the emperor's etiquette. The weak and sickly Liu Chengxun finally came to the end of his life at this time, and died of "sickness".His death was well timed. A few days later, Guo Wei sent someone to secretly assassinate Liu Chengyun, Duke of Xiangyin. Guo Wei put his heart in his stomach. The eldest brother has become the emperor, and the brothers who have worked hard for this big action and event should naturally be rewarded.Everyone is promoted to rank, and everyone is honored. The number one hero is Wang Jun, who not only continued to serve as a privy envoy, but also served as a right servant, a servant under the door, Pingzhangshi, and supervised the compilation of national history.In terms of official titles alone, Wang Jun's position has surpassed Jing Xiang, the number one minister of the Zhuliang Empire, and became the number one senior official in the Later Zhou Empire. Wang Yin sent the secret order to Guo Wei first, and stayed behind to stay in the capital. He deserved the most credit.Zhou Taizu Guo Wei handed over the most important duty of guarding the feudal town to Wang Yin, and promoted him to be the Jiedu envoy of the Tianxiong Army.Now it is no longer a strange thing for a local official to concurrently serve as a central official, but it has become a legal treatment. The great counselor Wei Renpu was promoted by Guo Wei to the Privy Council Chengzhi and General Youhabayashi, which is also a compound power, and the importance of his status can be seen.General Habayashi is the chief of the emperor's personal protection force.Taking advantage of this convenience, Wei Renpu often discussed world affairs with the emperor in the palace. Guo Chongwei, the commander of the guards and horse troops, the defense envoy of Guozhou, and the Taibao of the school, was promoted to the Jiedu envoy of Yangzhou and the Taifu of the school, and he was still in charge of the imperial army.Cao Wei was promoted to be the commander of the guards and infantry, and Cao Wei, the defense envoy of Yuezhou, was promoted to the Jiedu envoy of Lizhou and the Taifu of the school, and he was still in charge of the imperial army. Prince Chai Rong was transferred to Chanzhou to serve as Zhenning Jiedu envoy and inspector Taibao.Because of his contribution to supporting Guo Wei, Zheng Renhui was appointed as inspector Sikong, director of the Beijing office, inspector of the capital, and envoy of the Enzhou regiment. The cronies who supported and planned Guo Wei's proclaiming the emperor were promoted to the rank of civil and military officials.As for the former officials of the Later Han Dynasty, as long as they had not directly persecuted Guo Wei, they were all promoted this time to win people's hearts. In the past, Feng Dao, the grand master and Duke of Qi, served as Zhongshu Ling and a bachelor of Hongwenguan; Situ and his servant, Tong Pingzhangshi, and Dou Zhengu, a scholar of Hongwenguan, served as servants, supervising the history of the country; Zuo Pushe and Pingzhang Su Yugui, a scholar of Jixian Hall, is the guardian of Sikong and Pingzhang. Promote Yunzhou Jiedushi, Shoutaishi, Jianzhongshuling, Qi Wang Gaoxing Zhou Jinwei Shangshuling; Xiangzhou Jiedushi, Jianxiao Taishi, Shou Taifu, Jianzhongshuling, Qi State Public Security Shenqi Jinfeng Nanyang King; Qingzhou Jiedu Envoy, Calibration Taishi, Shou Taibao, and Zhongshu Ling, Wei Wang Fu Yanqing entered Huaiyang King.These military leaders have emerged since the post-Tang Dynasty. After three dynasties, they have seen many turmoil in the Central Plains, and have been confused by the revolving-door regime.In their eyes, no regime is good, and no regime is worthy of their loyalty. Therefore, they later became half-independent and half-independent in world affairs.Because of holding the army and separatist rule, no one who becomes the emperor will underestimate them, and they will be promoted to appease them.Therefore, these people may not have the merits of rebuilding the empire and stabilizing the country, but their official titles have risen to below one person and above ten thousand. Wu Xingde of Zhenzhou, Wang Yan of Jinzhou, Zhang Yancheng of Xiangzhou, Chang Si of Luzhou, and Hou Zhang of Binzhou were granted the titles and concurrently served as servants. Guo Wei became emperor, established a new empire, and became Zhou Taizu. One of Liu Zhiyuan's younger brothers and three sons died, and Guo Wei's heart was in his stomach. But Guo Wei can only let go of half of his heart, and there are new things that make Guo Wei not sleep well. Although Guo Wei spent a lot of time trying to appease these fires, they still burned, making Guo Wei very uncomfortable.