Chapter 18 1. Fog

Chai Rong's death is a mystery, and Chai Rong's succession is also a mystery.No matter how you look at it, it is full of doubts. If it is said that Chai Rong suddenly suffered from an incurable disease, and it is possible to speculate that he became ill from overwork and a cold after drinking, then all the strange things he arranged for the funeral on the way back to the car are indeed very intriguing.Not a clear history by any means.For such a big event, the amount of official history information is very scarce, and the information of various unofficial histories is full of legends, which adds to the mystery of various events in the history of more than a month.

In terms of writing style, it focuses on recording events that have important reference significance for governing the country, focusing on explaining the right way and righteousness, and demonstrating loyalty and integrity.This is very different from "Historical Records".Sima Qian paid attention to textual research, but also liked to collect legends and anecdotes, and recorded a lot of information and clues, which made "Historical Records" have a romantic side, with strong storytelling and readability.I don't know whether it's intentional cutting of relevant content, or disdain or disapproval of the so-called unofficial information. Anyway, some stories appear incomplete and pale due to lack of information.The "Old History of the Five Dynasties", which specifically records this period of history, not only records official history information, but also includes some unofficial historical materials. At the same time, the author Xue Juzheng and his father are officials of the Later Zhou Empire and belong to the parties involved. His knowledge of things has a close side .Therefore, we synthesized the information in these two history books and made some speculations about the history of Chai Rong's illness and succession.

First of all, we need to introduce a few characters, because these characters are all important figures in the military and political circles of the Later Zhou Dynasty. The first one is Li Chongjin.The official worships the commander of the guards and the army, the Songzhou Jiedu envoy, the inspector Taifu, and the servant.Li Chongjin was actually the supreme commander of the Central Army established by Chai Rong.After the Battle of Gaoping, Chai Rong drastically reformed the military system, and selected brave and skilled soldiers from all over the country to enrich the central army, that is, the bodyguard army, thus establishing a main special force directly under the emperor's command.Chai Rong's approach is a bit like the Central Army established by Liao Taizu Yelu Abaoji.Chai Rong mainly relied on this army in the South and North Wars, unlike the previous dynasties, which relied more on the strength of a certain town when they launched the war.In this way, the Zhou Empire not only strengthened the central military power, but also restrained and weakened the princes and towns, killing two birds with one stone.Chai Rong's efforts were very successful, and basically reversed the situation where the arrogant soldiers in the feudal towns bullied the emperor.

Since it is such an important army, its commander must be very important.It is necessary to be good at fighting, but also to be loyal to the emperor.Guo Wei's nephew, Li Chongjin, was awarded an important task.This position was conferred on Li Chongjin by Zhou Taizu Guo Wei on his deathbed.Guo Wei, who was on the sick bed at that time, specifically asked Li Chongjin to assist the successor emperor Chai Rong.When Chai Rong was in power for more than five years, he had always relied heavily on Li Chongjin, and the monarch and his ministers trusted him very much.Even though Zhang Yongde, Qi Zangzhen and others said a lot of bad things about Li Chongjin, Chai Rong didn't take it to heart.Li Chongjin was loyal to the Great Zhou Empire and Chai Rong, made many military exploits, and became the highest ranking person in the army.If he gets promoted again, he might be crowned king.Although Li Chongjin's official status continued to rise, he had been firmly in control of the core troops of the Central Army of the Great Zhou Empire, which showed that his position was stable.

Chai Rong was sick and returned to the south. Although he gave up attacking Youzhou, he did not give up attacking the Northern Han Dynasty. He left Li Chongjin to cross the Taihang Mountains to attack the Northern Han Dynasty.Regarding this deployment, Chai Rong did not explain what his intentions were. He probably taught Taiyuan Liu Chengjun a lesson and consolidated the northern frontier defense. But when Chai Rong was seriously ill and even in danger of dying, why did he stay on the battlefield with Li Chongjin, who was heavily armed and trusted? The second is Zhang Yongde.Zhang Yongde is Guo Wei's son-in-law. He was very fond of Guo Wei since he was a child, and he held an important military position at a young age.Since then, he has been in the commanding position of the Central Army, and now he is the inspector in front of the official worship hall, the captain of the horse, the governor of Chanzhou, and the Taiwei of the school, and his status is second only to Li Chongjin. The post of "Dianqian Dudian" seems to have been invented by Chai Rong, and its function probably evolved from the previous Dianqian Dudian, and the name of Dianqian Dudian seems to be a copy of the previous Da Nei Dudian check name.Although the inspection of the capital has been set up, the position of the commander of the capital in front of the temple is still reserved, and the authority of the inspection of the capital in front of the palace is higher than that of the commander of the capital in front of the temple.Zhang Yongde was promoted to the inspection of the capital, and Zhao Kuangyin took over the post of commander of the capital in front of Zhang Yongde's palace.Before Zhang Yongde, Li Chongjin was the commander of the front of the palace. It can be said that Zhang Yongde succeeded Li Chongjin.But the tasks of the two are different. Under normal circumstances, Li Chongjin is in charge of the guards and the guards. The guards have actually become a combat force, while Zhang Yongde is in charge of the central security force. The two do not belong to each other.Zhang Yongde has no intentions, although he is a dutiful son and a loyal minister, but he is straightforward, he doesn't have much flirtatiousness, and basically has no political acumen.

The third is Han Lingkun, whose official titles are the commander of the guard Ma Jundu, the Jiedu envoy of Chenzhou, and the inspector Taifu.Under the leadership of Li Chongjin, he was parallel with the commander of the infantry.Chai Rong stayed in Bazhou to garrison. The fourth is Zhao Kuangyin. At this time, the official worships the Zhongwu Jiedu envoy, the inspector Taibao, and concurrently serves as the commander of the front of the palace.He is led by Zhang Yongde and is Zhang Yongde's direct subordinate.It can be said that Zhao Kuangyin's promotion is closely related to Zhang Yongde. After the Battle of Gaoping, it was Zhang Yongde who tried his best to recommend Zhao Kuangyin, and Zhao Kuangyin came to prominence and was valued by Chai Rong.During the Huainan War, Zhang Yongde and Zhao Kuangyin were praised and recommended many times.

Chai Rong left the main combat force outside, and drove back with the guards led by Zhang Yongde and Zhao Kuangyin and the guards led by Han Tong.Han Tong is the Marquis of Duyu, the bodyguard's pro-army, and the number two figure in the bodyguard's pro-army after Li Chongjin.It seems that Chai Rong made various military deployments not because of his personal closeness to these generals, but because of his defense against foreign invasion during his serious illness.Fearing that the Khitan and Northern Han would take advantage of Chai Rong's critical illness to invade the Central Plains, Chai Rong left the main force of the combat troops led by Li Chongjin on the battlefield.Since Youzhou could not be conquered, Chai Rong adopted a defensive strategy against Khitan and ordered Han Lingkun to station in Bazhou.For the Northern Han Dynasty, a strategy of attacking and defending was adopted, and Li Chongjin was sent to continue attacking Hedong.From this point of view, the possibility that Chai Rong didn't trust Li Zhong and deliberately didn't bring him with him was ruled out.

The fifth is Wu Yanzuo, who doesn't make many appearances in our stories. He followed Guo Wei in the South and North Wars since he was a child.Due to his extensive reading, Wu Yanzuo has held important positions in both civil and military circles during his career.It may also be because of this kind of compound talent that Wu Yanzuo was appointed as the envoy of Xuanhui South Academy, sentenced to Henan Province, and left behind in Tokyo during Chai Rong's northern tour. Fan Zhi, Wang Pu, Wei Renpu and other civil officials are all around Chai Rong. These people are all bigwigs in the central administrative and central military agencies.At this time, among the civil servants, Zhang Mei and Wu Yanzuo, the envoys of the third division, were in Bianliang, Tokyo.

So are these people who are with me necessarily trusted?It should be said that Chai Rong still trusts these accompanying ministers. Establishing a benign relationship of mutual trust between monarch and ministers has always been one of Chai Rong's efforts.He often lamented the deaths of Wang Jun and Wang Yin, thinking that Emperor Taizu Emperor Guo Wei tolerated them, so that they became more arrogant, and eventually harmed the interests of the emperor and the country, and had to end with the monarch and his ministers turning against each other.Wang Jun and Wang Yin were judged as disloyal and traitors, and Guo Wei's reputation was also damaged. Everyone thought he was too mean and suspicious and not kind enough.

The lack of mutual trust between monarchs and ministers, or even mutual suspicion, will directly endanger the stability of the regime in most cases, and will also cause harm to the development of the country.How to build mutual trust between monarchs and ministers?How to share peace?How to live in harmony?This is where Chai Rong took great pains.Chai Rong adopted many methods. First of all, he conducted ideological analysis, carried out criticism and self-criticism, asked his officials to write the composition "It's Difficult to Be a King and It's Not Easy to Be a Minister", and faced various incentives and difficulties directly. .Furthermore, Chai Rong will criticize and educate subordinates who have problems in a timely manner, so as to prevent the erroneous signs and eliminate them in time, so as to prevent them from intensifying and becoming difficult to deal with.Therefore, almost all officials in the Later Zhou Empire have been criticized by Chai Rong.Therefore, Chai Rong didn't have much vigilance against the officials of the Zhou Empire, unlike some emperors who, when they were dying, wanted to get rid of ministers who had made great achievements and threatened them, or tried to deprive them of their rights.

From this point of view, Chai Rong is not too worried that the civil and military leaders will seize power. So is there another possibility that the factional disputes among officials in the Later Zhou Dynasty will break out when Chai Rong is critically ill and takes over? From this point of view, it is also unlikely.Because Chai Rong used a variety of means, there was basically no situation in which the civil and military ministers of the later Zhou Dynasty had personal rights to the government and the opposition, and the phenomenon of factional struggles was not obvious. It should be said that the team led by Chai Rong was a relatively united group.Therefore, Chai Rong does not have to worry about the outbreak of fighting among official groups, which will disrupt the political stability. According to this analysis, the situation Chai Rong is in is the best environment for the change of imperial power since the Five Dynasties. Then why did Chai Rong stay in Chanzhou and not return to the capital?Why did Chai Rong reprimand Zhang Yongde?Why was Zhang Yongde deprived of his position of inspection in front of the temple after returning to Beijing?Why did Chai Rong issue the agnosticism of future generations?Why didn't Chai Rong appoint an auxiliary minister? From the analysis of the importance of various matters in the current situation, Chai Rong fell ill suddenly, so the most important thing is whether his health will recover, and whether foreign enemies will take advantage of it. Whether Chai Rong's health will improve is directly related to a big issue in the future. Do we need to arrange funeral arrangements?In this regard, I am afraid that Chai Rong himself did not have an accurate estimate.After all, he was only thirty-nine years old, in his prime.What's more, he also asked Wang Pu to divination that he could be in power for 30 years. Compared with it, these five years are only the beginning.Chai Rong hadn't suffered from any illness, at least he looked healthy on the surface.He may not be willing to bow to the disease.Therefore, he probably thought that it was too early to arrange the succession of the imperial power at this time. Since Chai Rong thought that there was no need to consider succession, Zhang Yongde had the audacity to ask about Chai Rong's death on behalf of his officials, and Chai Rong was of course not happy.But Chai Rong knew Zhang Yongde very well, and thought that his limbs were strong and his mind was simple, and he would not think about such complicated issues, so Chai Rong deduced that someone ordered Zhang Yongde. Then Chai Rong didn't want to accept his fate, but he didn't know whether the disease would get better, so he couldn't express his position, neither could he express his position on the basis of improvement, nor could he express his position on the basis of not recovering from the illness, so he wasted, and the ministers were exhausted. Nowhere. What does it mean that Chai Rong blames Zhang Yongde for "I don't understand my intentions alone"?What did he think Zhang Yongde should understand what he was thinking?Many people guess this sentence, thinking that it implies a mystery, especially when it is connected with the other two things, it is even more suspicious. One thing is that Chai Rong picked up a two or three-foot-long piece of wood on the way to Hebei, with a few words written on it: "Check to be the emperor".However, neither the official history nor the unofficial history has recorded that this piece of wood was picked up by Chai Rong on his way out or on the way back. Many people were present at the time and saw this piece of wood, but no one could tell what it meant.The second thing is that when Chai Rong returned to the capital from Chanzhou, many people were promoted, but Zhang Yongde was removed from the post of inspection in front of the palace, which is puzzling. Connected in this way, it seems that this sign reminded Chai Rong to guard against Zhang Yongde, fearing that he might usurp the throne, so he cut off his military post.Is this speculation logical? First of all, analyze this piece of wood. It will never come out for no reason. Someone must have tampered with it beforehand, buried it on the road that the emperor passed by, and "coincidentally" was "discovered". After the discovery, it actually passed through many security checks. The procedure was presented to the emperor.This series of actions would not have been possible without careful planning.Moreover, the identity of the person doing this must be extraordinary, he must have the conditions to be close to the emperor.With such a piece of wood popping up halfway, with Chai Rong's wisdom, he should be able to guess that someone is playing tricks.But would Chai Rong believe it?I think he may not fully believe it, it is possible to be half-believed.Because both Chai Rong and the Chai family have a record of pretending to be gods and ghosts, Chai Rong is still very keen on things like divination.Therefore, the person who planned the "Wooden Incident" must have grasped Chai Rong's psychology.And this kind of half-understandable text, because of its limited information, will trigger infinite associations.This piece of wood probably had a certain impact on Chai Rong's psychology, causing him to be suspicious of Zhang Yongde. Although Chai Rong is determined to establish a relationship of mutual trust between the monarch and his subjects, he also has psychological obstacles when it comes to critical moments.The so-called "it is better to believe what you have than to believe what you don't have", when Chai Rong was dying, he still dismissed Zhang Yongde from the post of inspector in the capital, and did not arrange other military posts. So what is the purpose of Chai Rong's stay in Chanzhou?If you wait and see the disease, you can go to the capital to wait and see, why do you have to stay in Chanzhou?One reason is that Zhou Taizu Guo Wei mutinied in Chanzhou, and Long Sheng usurped the throne and seized the world.The second reason is that Chai Rong served as a feudal town here for many years, which was a position for him to obtain an independent territory.Chai Rong has feelings for this place, is there some kind of complex, since the dragon ascended here, he also wants to return to heaven here?Or test the left and right ministers, take advantage of Chai Rong's critical illness and take the opportunity to cause chaos, and once again "add the yellow flag" in Chanzhou? I speculate that there is another more important and more realistic reason. This time Chai Rong's northern tour is intended to strengthen the border defense and deter Liao and Han.Unexpectedly, such an accident happened during this northern tour.Once the news of Chai Rong's deteriorating condition spreads to the enemy country, the Liao and Han will definitely unite to attack the Central Plains on a large scale, so the little achievement of just recovering the three passes is likely to be lost.Therefore, Chai Rong made a strategic deployment of withdrawing and fighting.As the northern gate of the capital, Chanzhou is a strategically important town. Chai Rong stationed here, probably because he wanted to guard the overall situation and support the war in Hebei.Sure enough, during the few days when Chai Rong was stationed in Chanzhou, there were frequent reports of success in Hebei, and the Zhou army won several consecutive battles, beating the Northern Han Dynasty to the ground.So far, Chai Rong believes that in the short term, Liao and Han do not have the courage to make a big counterattack, Chanzhou is safe, and the capital is safe.So Chai Rong got up and drove back to the palace.This may be Chai Rong's true intention, and it is also the military strategy he scolded Zhang Yongde for not being able to see through. Maybe Chai Rong thought of another problem: he intended to let Zhang Yongde succeed him, but he found that Zhang Yongde was not the material, nor did he have the ambition, so he gave up.Without evidence, it is difficult to guess. Perhaps the document will have more clues later, and then discuss this possibility specifically. After returning to the capital, Chai Rong's condition lasted for more than ten days.In the end, Chai Rong did not survive the catastrophe.Chai Rong once planned his career with "ten years to bring peace to the world, ten years to recuperate the people, and ten years to achieve peace", but he only sat on the dragon chair for five and six months.Five times six is ​​thirty, just in line with Wang Pu's prophecy.Wang Pu was inconvenient to say it at the time, but only vaguely and euphemistically said that Chai Rong could be in power for thirty years.And Chai Rong optimistically regarded it as thirty years. There is no suspense about Chai Rong's succession, and it must be passed on to his son.But his son is too young, the eldest son Chai Zongxun is only seven years old.Of course, Chai Rong knew the weakness of the emperor, and such lessons abound in thousands of years of history.How to ensure that his son can successfully ascend the throne, grow up and govern the country smoothly has become a multivariate and multiple equation in front of Chai Rong.He has to face two harsh realities: his short life and his son's uncertain future.This tragic ending and future is a great devastation to the heart of a young emperor who is full of pride and swallows the world.Chai Rong inevitably had helpless agnostic guesses about the future.From this, it is not difficult to understand Chai Rong's mentality of admonishing Southern Tang to strengthen combat preparations for a long-term solution. In order to stabilize the political situation as much as possible and continue the line and ruling structure he determined as much as possible, Chai Rong took various measures.First of all, dismissing the mindless Zhang Yongde from his military post is actually to protect the political power structure of all parties after his death.He was worried that Zhang Yongde would do something out of the ordinary with his status as a noble relative and real power, and no one would even be able to restrain him and expand viciously, endangering the stability of the court.Another measure is that when Chai Rong died, the heavyweights of the civil service prime minister group and the military leadership organization were interleaved and part-time, which not only supervised and checked each other, but also balanced and stabilized each other, so as to avoid power seizures among ministers and clique chaos. Chai Rong did a lot of work to pave the way for his son's succession, which can be described as painstaking and calculating. The so-called wise man will make a mistake if he has a thousand worries.Chai Rong never expected that shortly after his death, a crisis broke out under his nose instantly.