Chapter 19 2. A man named Zhao

With Zhou Shizong Chai Rong's wisdom, he didn't notice Zhao Kuangyin's energy and threat. This is not because Chai Rong was confused for a while, but because Zhao Kuangyin's huge appeal and influence came naturally. schemer. When Zhou Taizu Guo Wei led troops from Weizhou to Bianliang Qingjun, there were rumors that a person surnamed Zhao would be the emperor.Guo Wei was very afraid of this, so he ordered a search for suspects related to this rumor, and finally found a young man surnamed Zhao.This kid is very good. When the army was in chaos in the capital, he sat alone at the entrance of the alley, shot and killed more than a dozen soldiers who took advantage of the fire, and declared that Guo Wei came to Bian to suppress thieves, not to rob houses. .Guo Wei felt that this young man surnamed Zhao was extraordinary, so after he proclaimed himself emperor, he secretly ordered Yin Chairong of Kaifeng Prefecture to assassinate the Zhao family in order to extinguish the flame of this possible emperor.

But there was another person surnamed Zhao, Guo Wei and his son were not on guard. Zhao Kuangyin. Zhao Kuangyin, a native of Zhuojun (now Zhuozhou), Hebei, was born in the second year of Tiancheng (927 A.D.) in the Later Tang Dynasty.The year Chai Rong passed away, Zhao Kuangyin was thirty-two years old. Zhao Kuangyin is from a family of officials and eunuchs. His ancestors have been officials in the past dynasties. Although he is not as prominent as a general or prime minister, he has also worked as a bureau-level cadre in some northern states.Zhao Kuangyin's father is Zhao Hongyin, who appeared in the previous document.Zhao Hongyin was brave and good at fighting. When he was young, he served under Chengde Zhao Wangrong.In the previous document "Iron and Blood Central Plains", after Li Keyong's son Jin Wang Li Cunxu succeeded to the throne, he united Chengde, Yiwu and other feudal towns to launch a counterattack against the Zhuliang Empire.Li Cunxu and Zhu Youzhen fought the Yellow River decisively, and Zhao Wangrong sent troops to assist the Hedong Jin army in fighting, including Zhao Hongyin.Because of his bravery in combat, Zhao Hongyin was deeply appreciated by Li Cunxu and was appointed as a member of the Imperial Guard.

For unknown reasons, Zhao Hongyin's official position has been promoted very slowly.In the Qianyou period of the Later Han Dynasty, Zhao Hongyin followed the privy envoy Guo Weixi to conquer the San Francisco of Hexi.In the battle between the Han army and the Shu army in Chencang, Zhao Hongyin charged forward and served as the main attack task.In the hail of bullets, Zhao Hongyin was shot in the left eye by the enemy's stray arrows.Not only did Zhao Hongyin not back down, but on the contrary, he showed great power and became more and more courageous as he fought, defeating Wang Jingchong and the Shu coalition forces in one breath.Because of this, Zhao Hongyin was promoted to the commander of the Guardian City.

The time soon came to the end of Zhou Guangshun, Zhou Taizu Guo Wei promoted Zhao Hongyin to the commander of the first iron cavalry army, and soon transferred to the commander of the right wing, leading the Yuezhou defense envoy, equivalent to a department-level cadre or military division commander.Zhao Hongyin's dignitaries were mainly in the era of Chai Rong. As a general of the bodyguard and pro-army, he followed Zhou Shizong Chai Rong on his expedition to Huainan.At this time, Zhao Kuangyin was also a general in the bodyguard's army, but his rank was slightly lower.Although Zhao Hongyin is not as showy as his son Zhao Kuangyin, and not as popular as his son, he has repeatedly made military exploits.After the victory of the first expedition to Huainan, Zhao Hongyin went to inspect the school Situ and Tianshui County male.

Both Zhao Hongyin and Zhao Kuangyin were high-ranking generals of the Forbidden Army at the same time, serving in the combat force and the guard force respectively. This was a great honor at the time, showing that the Zhao family was deeply trusted by the court.The Zhao family's influence in the army, especially in the imperial army, was at its peak.The Huainan War was not over, and Zhao Hongyin died.Zhao Hongyin is so brave and good at fighting, but he was promoted very slowly in his military career. Later, he was overtaken by his son Zhao Kuangyin, and the father and son were almost equal.This shows that Zhao Hongyin has more than enough courage, but not enough strategy, and he is not very good at adapting to the wind in the officialdom. He belongs to a kind of kind and honest person.This may also be an important reason why Chai Rong has more trust in Zhao and his son.

Zhao Kuangyin has five brothers, and he is the second eldest.The eldest Zhao Guangji died early, the third Zhao Guangyi, the fourth Zhao Tingmei, and the fifth Zhao Guangzan died very young.Among the remaining brothers, Zhao Kuangyin and Zhao Guangyi are biological brothers with the same father and mother.Zhao Guangyi's nurse Chen later married Zhao Hongyin and gave birth to Zhao Tingmei.It is said that when Zhao Kuangyin was born in Jiamaying, Luoyang, he also had an extraordinary scene. The room was full of red lights, and the strong fragrance lasted for a long time.When Zhao Kuangyin was born, his body was golden, which could not fade for three days.According to modern medical speculation, it is estimated that Zhao Kuangyin is a child with jaundice, and he has severe jaundice.After Zhao Kuangyin became an adult, he was tall and tall, with a square face and big ears, high spirits, great stature, and an open-minded man.At first glance, it looks like a popular and attractive MAN.

Although the Zhao family has been officials for generations, for some reason, they don't pay much attention to the cultural education of their children.Zhao Kuangyin grew up in the army compound, and he hardly attended systematic schools when he was a child, and he did not study cultural courses seriously.Perhaps due to the influence of a military family, Zhao Kuangyin likes riding and archery to practice martial arts, and he can master martial arts as soon as he learns it.Zhao Kuangyin is very talented in martial arts, and he is born to lead an army in battle.Zhao Kuangyin was idle when he was young, wandering around, doing nothing, and failed to find a decent job.However, there are many legends about Zhao Kuangyin's youth.Let's find a few stories that don't seem to be arranged by later generations to tell you.

One day, Zhao Kuangyin and a group of friends were wandering in Luoyang City, and someone suggested to go to the horse farm.There are many horses sold from the Northwest in the horse farm. These horses are all wild horses or free-range herd horses, waiting to be domesticated into military horses.The sons of this army were lying on the fence of the horse pen, pointing at all kinds of horses.At this time, someone suddenly said: "These horses have not been domesticated, and they have not worn saddles and bridles. Who would dare to ride?" Everyone looked at each other, but no one dared to respond.After a while, Zhao Kuangyin waved his hand and said, "I would like to give it a try."

These horses are all wild horses on the Hetao grassland in the northwest. They are violent and unrestrained.Zhao Kuangyin gently opened the gate of the stable, walked into the stable, and quietly approached a maroon wild horse.While the horse was not paying attention, Zhao Kuangyin grabbed the mane and flew onto the horse's back.The wild horse was suddenly ridden by someone, and suddenly felt very unaccustomed, uncomfortable and useless.The wild horse is free on the grassland. It has been kept in this pen for several days, and it is almost suffocated. Now there is another boy who jumps on its back. How can it obey?The horse raised its head and let out a long roar, its front legs soared into the air, intending to throw Zhao Kuangyin off.Zhao Kuangyin hugged the horse's neck tightly, his legs firmly clamped the horse's belly, and his body stuck to the horse's back like a plaster.The horse didn't knock Zhao Kuangyin off, and was unwilling to do so, and became mad, jumping violently and kicking violently in the stable.Zhao Kuangyin and Lie Ma were bouncing and bumping in the stables like popping beans.The gang of little buddies watching outside the stables were laughing, pointing and commenting.

Suddenly, the fierce horse kicked off a fence wooden pole with a "bang dang", jumped up and flew out of the damaged fence, and galloped away with Zhao Kuangyin on its back.Everyone exclaimed, stunned for a moment, and then followed Lie Ma and Zhao Kuangyin to watch the excitement.The fierce horse galloped on Luoyang Street, rushing towards the city gate.The inner side of the ancient city gate usually had a ramp against the city wall, so that the guards could go up and down the city wall easily.When the horse rushed to the gate of the city, because the gate was blocked by the bustling crowd, the galloping horse was blocked. Suddenly, it braked suddenly, turned around, and rushed up the ramp.Zhao Kuangyin was thrown out by the fierce horse like a cannonball on horseback, and his forehead hit the lintel of the city gate directly.Zhao Kuangyin immediately fell to the ground.

The bustling crowd was stunned by the sudden scene. Everyone dispersed with a "hula", and then gathered together with a "hula", thinking that Zhao Kuangyin's head was smashed, or at least he would be knocked unconscious.But to everyone's surprise, Zhao Kuangyin got up on the ground, brushed the dust off his body nonchalantly, collected himself, and continued to chase the fierce horse. At this time, the fierce horse walked halfway up the ramp, the ramp was closed, and there was no way to go, so he had to turn back and go down again.Zhao Kuangyin jumped up, kicked the city wall with his feet, and his tall body jumped into the air to rush towards the fierce horse. Zhao Kuangyin twisted in the air and stepped on the horse's back again.The fierce horse was sweating all over at this time, shaking its head and tail, still wanting to throw Zhao Kuangyin off, but this time Zhao Kuangyin hugged the horse's neck tightly and never let go.The fierce horse ran down the ramp, and after a while of wild jumping in the street near the city gate, it finally calmed down and lost its wild strength.And Zhao Kuangyin's little buddies also rushed to the front out of breath, and the audience pointed out the danger of Zhao Kuangyin's fall and recovery, unscathed. of admiration. Zhao Kuangyin was originally tall among his little buddies, had a good capacity for alcohol, was loyal, and was open-minded. This incident of horse training greatly improved Zhao Kuangyin's star point and became even more popular.Among Zhao Kuangyin's buddies are Han Lingkun, Wang Shenqi and others. In various versions of unofficial history, novels, notes and official history, the story of Zhao Kuangyin being funded by monks is recorded. The versions vary greatly, but the plots of the stories are all well written. Some of them happened in Luoyang, and some happened in Shaanxi. , and some happened in Xiangyang.It is estimated that when Zhao Kuangyin was in his twelfth year, it was unlikely that he would encounter monks by chance many times, and it was even less likely that he would meet monks with profound morals every time.But one thing can be seen, in order to find a job, Zhao Kuangyin traveled all over the world, and for several years, he found nothing. Once he went south to Hubei and entered the boundary of Fuzhou (in the area of ​​​​Tianmen County, Hubei).At this time, the defense envoy of Fuzhou was Wang Yanchao.Zhao Kuangyin signed up with Wang Yanchao to join the army.Wang Yanchao looked at Zhao Kuangyin, pondered for a while, and did not keep Zhao Kuangyin, instead he gave Zhao Kuangyin some money to send him away and go elsewhere.Wang Yanchao said to Zhao Kuangyin: "Seeing that you are a talent, there are no opportunities for development here, so you should invest elsewhere." Zhao Kuangyin hit a wall again, feeling that his future was bleak, and he was useless, so he felt very uncomfortable.He came to Gaoxin Temple in Xiangyang, and asked for a lottery in the temple to divination his future.The symbols on each lottery are different, and different symbols represent different futures.Zhao Kuangyin prayed silently to see if he could be a Jiedu envoy, but the lottery was empty.Zhao Kuangyin sighed, it seems that there is no hope of working at the provincial and ministerial level.So Zhao Kuangyin continued to pray, hoping to be a defensive envoy, but the lottery was empty again.Zhao Kuangyin's heart turned cold, and there was no hope at the bureau level.Zhao Kuangyin retreated to the next best thing, continued to pray, and secretly made a wish in his heart to be a group trainer, but the lottery drawn was still empty.Zhao Kuangyin is about to collapse. Could it be that I, Zhao Kuangyin's indomitable man, have only to be a small school?So he gritted his teeth and drew another lottery, but it was still empty!Zhao Kuangyin's heart was so cold, he looked up to the sky and sighed: "His grandma, this is not possible, that is not possible, do you want me to be the emperor!" Zhao Kuangyin had just finished expressing his emotions when suddenly a lot slipped from his hand. Zhao Kuangyin picked it up and looked, and was shocked. The hexagrams on the sign really showed that it was the emperor!The fortune-telling result of this lottery was too unexpected. Zhao Kuangyin, who was already in an extremely gloomy mood, once again became full of pride, full of ambition, and felt good about himself.In addition, Zhao Kuangyin is an optimist, and he quickly recovered to a state of optimism and ease. One day, Zhao Kuangyin drank a lot of wine and broke into a vegetable field in a daze.Due to the effect of alcohol, the burn made his mouth thirsty, so Zhao Kuangyin pulled out a few lettuces from the vegetable field and started chewing.While Zhao Kuangyin was sitting on the ridge of the field, devouring the food, an old monk came.The old monk looked at Zhao Kuangyin and asked, "Is the benefactor hungry?" Zhao Kuangyin nodded hastily and said, "That's right, that's right." The old monk said: "Please the donor come with me." Zhao Kuangyin followed the old monk into a small temple.The old monk brought food and tea, and asked Zhao Kuangyin to sing casually.Zhao Kuangyin wolfed down all the food, swept away the old monk's food in an instant.After Zhao Kuangyin ate and drank enough, he blinked and asked, "Master, why are you helping me?" The old monk smiled and said: "I am a wandering monk. I built a small temple here to settle down and grow vegetables on the side of the road to make a living. Just now I was taking a nap, and in my dream a yellow dragon came to my vegetable field and ate my lettuce. I was awakened by the dream, and hurried to inspect the vegetable field, just in time to see you, the benefactor. Could it be that the benefactor is Huanglong who came down to earth?" When Zhao Kuangyin heard what the old monk said, he was both happy and sad.I am happy to have such a dream omen, of course I feel very useful in my heart.What's sad is that he is already in his prime, but he still doesn't accomplish anything, wanders around, and can't support himself. Zhao Kuangyin said with a little embarrassment: "Thank you for your help, master. I have been looking for a job everywhere, but I have made no progress. I plan to serve in the former enemy army, but I have spent all my money." The old monk nodded, and said: "You are a great figure, a very handsome man, and a splendid appearance. You will be very expensive in the future. I have some silver taels here, and I will give it to you. If you go north, you will definitely have opportunities." Zhao Kuangyin quickly stood up, gave a deep salute, and thanked the old monk. The old monk laughed and said: "The benefactor will be rich in the future, please don't forget each other. The old monk has nothing else to ask, just ask the benefactor to build a temple for me." Zhao Kuangyin agreed with all his mouth, left the small temple, and drove all the way north to the river. At this time, in the early years of Qianyou in the Later Han Dynasty, Guo Wei, the privy envoy, was ordered to conquer San Francisco.Zhao Kuangyin's father, Zhao Hongyin, was already serving in the army at this time.Twenty-two-year-old Zhao Kuangyin joined Guo Wei's Han army and took part in the war to pacify San Francisco. After Zhou Taizu Guo Wei became emperor, Zhao Kuangyin became the squad leader of the emperor's imperial guard on duty.Zhao Kuangyin loves to make friends, he is generous, generous, and very popular.There is no way, Zhao Kuangyin exudes infectious power all over his body.Whenever he has free time, Zhao Kuangyin finds people to drink, chat, play cards and gamble. As long as he is present, the atmosphere will be lively and lively. As long as he greets everyone, they will definitely have fun.Whether it is older or younger than him, Zhao Kuangyin can treat him wholeheartedly.This is a natural advantage of Zhao Kuangyin. He has extraordinary communication skills and can easily win the trust of others.Since then, Zhao Kuangyin has enjoyed himself in the army like a fish in water, and he can enjoy it very much.Zhao Kuangyin quickly made friends with a group of new buddies in the army, and everyone kowtowed to him.This is the legendary "Ten Brothers".The former clerk Guo Wei made a sworn "Ten Brothers", and Zhao Kuangyin now also made a sworn "Ten Brothers". Zhao Kuangyin entered the fast lane of career promotion after following Chai Rong's Gaoping battle, and was promoted by his immediate boss Zhang Yongde, and began to send young soldiers into the main force of Chai Rong's bodyguards.Since then, Zhao Kuangyin has made outstanding military achievements in the three Huainan campaigns, and quickly surpassed his father Zhao Hongyin and entered the ranks of provincial and ministerial cadres. Guo Wei, Chai Rong and his son like to pretend to be gods and play ghosts very much. They arranged many weird and magical things by themselves and their cronies.At the same time, they themselves believed in these half-truths and half-truths of prophetic stories.It is unlikely that Zhao Kuangyin's extraordinary experience was compiled and released temporarily before and after he seized the throne. There should have been public opinion a long time ago, but why did Chai Rong allow such a strong man like the sun god Apollo under his nose? Woolen cloth?Not only was he not suspected, but he was promoted to a noble.Chai Rong once believed that people with square faces and big ears had the appearance of emperors and might endanger his position as emperor, so he found many reasons and quietly dismissed or even beheaded these civil and military officials.But Zhao Kuangyin dangled in front of Chai Rong every day, but he was not harmed.Zhao Kuangyin himself wondered, he didn't know why, he could only think that it was destiny. Zhao Kuangyin has such an extraordinary experience, it seems that he has the destiny of being rich and famous, and he has a group of high-ranking generals as good brothers. He himself is especially good at fighting and enduring hardships. . Military influence is capital, especially in an era when there are many military leaders and fickleness.What is the trajectory of such a highly influential and radiant military powerhouse?