Chapter 3 The Ruthless Man in the Three Troubled Times

In the third year of Qianyou (951), Guo Wei launched a mutiny, usurped the Later Han Dynasty, and became emperor himself.Guo Wei was the last dynasty of the Five Dynasties period and the founding emperor of the Later Zhou Dynasty, Zhou Taizu. After Guo Wei became the emperor, he promoted Zhao Kuangyin to be a small leader of the Imperial Palace Guards, and he was appointed as the deputy commander of Huazhou. The previous position was a real position, and the latter position was a false position. The salary is not going to Huazhou to work. Guo Wei had several wives and none of them gave birth to a son for him. There are three unfilial acts in life, and having no descendants is the greatest. Seeing that he has no descendants, Guo Wei adopted Chai Rong, the son of his brother-in-law Chai Shouli, as his adopted son before becoming emperor.Chai Shouli was long gone, and Chai Rong was helpless at this time, so he worshiped Guo Wei as his godfather.One has lost his father and has no support, and the other has no children under his knees, which can be regarded as the best of both worlds.

After Guo Wei became emperor, he granted Chai Rong the title of King of Jin, concurrently as servant, governor of Bianliang (capital), and in charge of the world's soldiers and horses. Chai Rong and Zhao Kuangyin are the same age, and they are both heroes of the time. From the point of view of connections, Chai Rong is the heir to the future throne, and Zhao Kuangyin is also a small leader of the imperial guards, which is not the same; from the point of view of ability, Chai Rong Of course, it is much stronger than Zhao Kuangyin. Chai Rong often went in and out of the palace, and found that Zhao Kuangyin was very capable and talented, so he transferred Zhao Kuangyin to Bianliang Mansion and was promoted to Ma Zhijun, that is, the cavalry commander of Bianliang Mansion.Zhao Kuangyin began to embark on the road to the peak of power.

In the first year of Xiande (954), Guo Wei fell ill, and he was still seriously ill. He knew that his lifespan was over, and King Yama arranged a seat for him, waiting for him to report for duty.Before he died, he called his adopted son Chai Rong, his nephew Li Chongjin, his son-in-law Zhang Yongde, and Prime Minister Fan Zhi to his sickbed, and announced to them that the throne would pass to his adopted son Chai Rong.He ordered several Gu Ming ministers to assist Chai Rong and continue his unfinished business. Hearing this, Chai Rong couldn't help but burst into tears, and said while crying: "Father is in the prime of his life, this disease can always be cured..."

Guo Wei shook his head with difficulty, and refused to let him go on. He turned to Li Chongjin and Zhang Yongde and said, "After King Jin ascends the throne, the three of you must work together to protect the great Zhou, the country, and the people of Li for everlasting peace." Li Chongjin was a little dissatisfied with Guo Wei's arrangement in his heart. From his background, he was the nephew of Guo Wei, the great ancestor of the Later Zhou Dynasty. He fought with Guo Wei from north to south since he was a child.From the Dianzhi primary school to the front of the Dian, there are commanders.No matter in terms of credit or relationship, he is not inferior to Chai Rong.When he heard that the throne was going to be passed on to Chai Rong, he was not convinced.Therefore, when Guo Wei verbally ordered to pass the throne to Chai Rong, he did not express his position immediately.

But Zhang Yongde sobbed and said: "Father, don't worry, if one day, after a hundred years, Yongde will serve the new king just like serving His Majesty, if there is a second heart, the sky will not tolerate..." Fan Zhi is the prime minister, he knows that to whom the throne is passed on is the emperor's family business, he has no right to intervene, his responsibility is to do whatever the emperor says, except obey, or obey, Nuo Nuo repeatedly said that he is his duty. Seeing that Li Chongjin didn't express his opinion, Guo Wei said in a deep voice: "While I'm still awake, you should perform the ceremony of a monarch and a minister in front of me to determine your status."

The reason why Guo Wei did this was because he was afraid that after his death, these people would fight for the throne and cause civil strife in the Zhou family. He wanted to solve the problem of successors when he was sober, which can be described as well-intentioned. Chai Rong was shocked, and hurriedly cried and begged to decline. Guo Wei suddenly changed his face and said: "Chai Rong, do you dare to resist the order?" Chai Rong had no choice but to get up from the ground, and sat down on a chair facing south according to Guo Wei's will. Why do emperors have to sit facing south?There are two explanations.One is from the perspective of yin and yang, the south is yang, the north is yin, and sitting facing the south means facing the sun, and the emperor only bows his head to the sun; In the north, all the ministers are in the south.In ancient China, the north was always strong and the south was weak. Historically, the north unified China.Therefore, there is the saying that the king faces the south, that is to say, the person who is called the king faces the south from the north.

Although Li Chongjin was a little dissatisfied, he didn't have the guts to resist the order, so he had to kneel down with Zhang Yongde, facing Chai Rongxing's three kneeling and nine kowtowing salutes.In this way, the titles of Chai Rong, Li Chongjin, and Zhang Yongde as monarchs and ministers were settled. A few days later, Guo Wei died of illness.Chai Rong succeeded to the throne and was historically known as Shizong of the Later Zhou Dynasty. After Chai Rong inherited the throne, he did not change the Yuan Dynasty, and still used the "Xiande" reign name of Zhou Taizu Guo Wei.

When Zhao Kuangyin bid farewell to Monk Kongkong, he presented him with a sixteen-character gatha, the second sentence: Beginning of the week The verse seems to imply that Zhao Kuangyin started his business in the "Xiande" year after going through generations of the Zhou Dynasty.Although he doesn't know what will happen in the future, but from the word "Xian", he understands that there must be a bright future. Sejong Chai Rong succeeded to the throne. Before his butt was hot, someone challenged him publicly. The person who challenged him was Liu Chong, the leader of the Northern Han Dynasty.

In the Northern Han Dynasty, there was a small country between Khitan in the north and Hou Zhou. The Northern Han Dynasty took Taiyuan as its capital, occupied several counties in the east of the river, and called itself Han.Because at that time there was also a vassal state surnamed Liu in Guangzhou south of Wuling, which was called the Southern Han Dynasty, so the Han state in Taiyuan was called the Northern Han Dynasty. Speaking of the Northern Han Dynasty, it was not established for a long time. The lord Liu Chong is the same mother and brother of Liu Hao, the great ancestor of the Later Han Dynasty.When Liu Hao established the Later Han Dynasty, he granted Liu Chong the prefect of Taiyuan.After Liu Hao's death, his son Liu Chengyou succeeded to the throne, and he also named Liu Chong as the Jiedu envoy of Hedong.At that time, Guo Wei served as the privy envoy of the Later Han Dynasty, and his relationship with Liu Chong was very tense, and the two had been in constant friction.Guo Wei launched a mutiny to abolish Liu Chengyou, overthrew the Later Han regime, and established the Later Zhou Dynasty.Seeing that the world of the Liu family was taken away, Liu Chong was naturally not convinced.So he sealed off the borders in the land of Hedong that he controlled, and established another country, which is still called Han.

Liu Chong, the lord of the Northern Han Dynasty, heard that Zhou Taizu passed away and Zhou Shizong was first established, so he wanted to fish in troubled waters and make some money when Zhou was handed over from the new emperor to the old emperor.Considering his limited national strength, he sent envoys to Khitan to ask the Lord Khitan to send troops for assistance. Khitan has long had the idea of ​​annexing the Central Plains, and naturally they hit it off with Liu Chong. The two countries agreed that the Northern Han Dynasty would send 30,000 troops, and the Khitan would send 10,000 troops to join forces in Taiyuan.Forty thousand soldiers and horses set out from Taiyuan and marched towards Gaoping in mighty force.

When the alarm reached Bianliang City, Zhou Quanguo was shocked.When Chai Rong learned that Liu Chong of the Northern Han Dynasty had united with the Khitan people to raise troops to commit crimes in the south, he was not panicked. He immediately decided to go on a personal conquest and handed down an imperial decree: 20,000 troops were ordered, with Zhao Kuangyin as the envoy and Zhang Yongde as the supervisor. The rest of the generals will go out with them. Chai Rong led the Zhou soldiers to Gaoping day and night. After the army arrived in Gaoping, they ordered to set up camp in the south of the city, line up troops, and prepare for a decisive battle with the Northern Han and Khitan coalition forces. Gaoping is a county town in Zhou. The place that used to be very peaceful suddenly came with thousands of troops, and it became lively all of a sudden. The Northern Han and Khitan armies rushed towards Gaoping like wolves and tigers, as if they were going to swallow the whole of Gaoping.Chai Rong led Zhou Bing to stand ready to stop the invading enemy in Gaoping. One must be defended and protected; the other must be robbed and seized. The battle of Gaoping is imminent. The two armies are facing each other, do you have anything to say?No, does it make sense?nor. Fighting a war is a gamble, and it is not a reasonable thing. If you are reasonable, many battles will not be fought.Liu Chong, the Lord of the Northern Han Dynasty, was not a reasonable person either. If he had been reasonable, he would not have led troops to attack.Although Chai Rong really wanted to talk to Liu Chong about theories and reasoning, but there must be a place for reasoning in reasoning. If someone is charging at you with a knife, is there any reasoning?Since reasoning is no longer possible, then you're welcome, if you come across it, let's fight! Seeing that the Northern Han coalition forces had arrived, Chai Rong commanded all the soldiers to go forward and talk to them with swords and guns, and a great battle began. In front of the formation of the two armies, soldiers fought against soldiers, generals against generals, captured and fought each other until the sky was dark, the sun and moon were dark, flesh and blood flew everywhere, crying for father and mother.During the fierce battle, suddenly, an unexpected thing happened. A group of cavalry jumped out of the Zhou army, holding a white flag, abandoned their weapons and disarmed, and ran towards the Han army, shouting as they ran, Long live Liu Chong of the Northern Han Dynasty!Long live Liu Chong of the Northern Han Dynasty!The sound shook the valley.In the infantry formation, more than a thousand people followed. It turned out that some Zhou soldiers were frightened by the momentum of the Northern Han Dynasty, thinking that the week was over, they defected and surrendered.The generals who surrendered to the enemy were named Fan Aineng and He Hui. Although the remaining soldiers of the Zhou army were still fighting bloody battles, it was not a good thing for some people to defect to the enemy before the battle, and it had a very bad impact on morale. Fighting is based on one breath, and morale is damaged, and this battle is not easy to fight.The morale of the Zhou army was damaged, and the battlefield immediately showed a trend of defeat. When Chai Rong saw someone surrendering to the enemy, he was furious. He swung his sword and urged the horses. Liu Chong, the Lord of the Northern Han Dynasty, was standing on a high place. Seeing that Zhou Emperor Chai Rong was personally supervising the battle and charging into the battle in the face of danger, he ordered hundreds of archers to shoot at Chai Rong.For a moment, arrows shot towards Chai Rong's head like locusts.Chai Rong's personal soldiers raised their shields and surrounded Chai Rong, blocking the enemy's flying arrows like locusts.Although the surrounding shields protected Chai Rong, the flying arrows falling from the sky could not be stopped by the shields.I saw dozens of arrowheads sticking on Chai Rong's helmet, like a hedgehog. It looked shocking, and I thought Chai Rong was doomed and dead. Zhao Kuangyin was supervising the battle of the Chinese army at this time. Seeing that Chai Rong was in danger and the situation was extremely urgent, he immediately asked Zhang Yongde to take the archers to occupy a high ground on the left, and suppressed the opponent's cavalry with random arrows.He himself held a coiled dragon stick, jumped up a high slope, and shouted: "Brothers, the Lord is worried about the humiliation of the ministers, the death of the dangerous ministers, the emperor is in danger, and we, as ministers, can still be greedy for life and fear death." Is it? If you are not afraid of death, come with me." After shouting, he jumped on the horse and raised his stick, and smashed directly into the enemy's formation. None of the soldiers were willing to be left behind, and they rushed towards the enemy line together. They counted one as ten, and ten as hundreds, risking their lives and rushing to the past. There is a saying that if one person works hard, ten people are invincible.It is not one person who is desperate now, but thousands of forbidden soldiers of Zhou. The impact brought by their desperate efforts is like the water breaking the embankment and the rising whirlwind, which is unstoppable.In an instant, the Han army was like cutting wheat, and immediately fell a large area. The morale of Zhou Bing's army was immediately boosted, and the decline on the battlefield was immediately reversed. Standing on a high place, Liu Chong saw victory in sight, when suddenly he saw a group of Zhou soldiers rushing towards him like crazy.The Northern Han army couldn't resist, and they were defeated one after another. Seeing that the Han army was retreating, Chai Rong raised his arms and led the three armies to pursue the victory. Those who fled in front were in a hurry like a bereaved dog, and they were defeated; those who were chasing behind were like tigers on the mountain, with high morale and courageous pursuit.They chased until the Han army retreated into the east of the river, closed the city gate, and could not hold out. When Chai Rong rushed to the city, he saw that the Han army had closed the city and could not come out. He ordered the three armies to choose a favorable terrain and set up camp. In the evening, just as Chai Rong called the generals for a meeting, he suddenly heard a report from the small school saying that Fan Aineng and He Hui had returned with their troops and were asking for an audience outside the camp. It turned out that after Fan Aineng, He Hui and their troops surrendered to the Northern Han Dynasty, they did not gain the respect of Liu Chong, the Lord of the Northern Han Dynasty. After the Han army was defeated and returned to the city, they did not enter the city with the Han army. It was Liu Chong who prevented them from entering the city. Liu Chong didn't allow them to enter the city because he couldn't trust Fan Aineng and He Hui. Did the rebels who surrendered before the battle really surrendered or did they pretend to surrender?Who can tell clearly, maybe it's a false surrender!Besides, the Han army has tens of thousands of people, and there are hundreds of surrendered soldiers in this area. There are not many with you, and there are not many without you. If it is a false surrender, isn't that bad luck?With this in mind, he ordered Fan Aineng, He Hui, and their troops to be kept out of the city. Fan Aineng and He Huike were miserable. They thought they had found a new master, but they had no choice but to put their cold face on their cold ass. They don't want such a bastard.In desperation, he had no choice but to turn around and beg his old master Chai Rong to take him in. How can there be such a good thing in the world?How could it be possible to treason and join the enemy just before the battle, and then come back immediately to ask for forgiveness?Only those who have no brains will forgive this kind of unkind, unrighteous, unfaithful and unfilial villain. Chai Rong is not a brainless person, he is a master with clear thinking and clear rewards and punishments.After he heard the small school's report, without even thinking about it, he immediately ordered Fan Aineng, He Hui, and all the soldiers who had surrendered to the enemy to be pushed out of the camp and beheaded for public display. Hundreds of bloody human heads hung on the trees in unison. This is the fate of traitors and defectors.The soldiers of the three armies were really relieved when they saw it. The next day, Chai Rong continued to drive troops to attack the city. Liu Chong was so frightened that he closed the city and entertained Zhou soldiers with bows, arrows, rolling logs, flying stones, and boiling water. Zhao Kuangyin took the lead again and led the soldiers to attack the city with fire. When Liu Chong was in the city, he saw a Zhou general commanding the Han army to attack the city with fire. He was frightened and ordered his archers to gather and shoot the Zhou general.Zhao Kuangyin immediately became the target of public criticism.The arrows were like locusts, making it hard to guard against. A stray arrow hit Zhao Kuangyin's left arm, and blood flowed profusely immediately. Zhao Kuangyin gritted his teeth and pulled out the arrow, and was about to wrap up his wounds and fight again, when Chai Rong, who was standing on a high ground and supervised the formation, saw it and was afraid that he would hurt the pillar general, so he ordered Ming Jin to withdraw his troops and called Zhao Kuangyin back to the camp for treatment. Liu Chong knew how powerful Zhou Bing was, so he didn't dare to go out of the city to pursue the enemy. For several days, he just stuck to the city and didn't dare to go out to fight. Seeing that he could not attack for a long time, Chai Rong felt that such a stalemate was not a long-term solution. In addition, the supply of food and grass was somewhat difficult, and Zhao Kuangyin was injured by an arrow, so he decided to retreat temporarily and try to make progress when he had a chance. beam. The Battle of Gaoping was a battle related to the life and death of Hou Zhou.Zhao Kuangyin is the key figure to ensure the complete victory of this battle.His outstanding performance of great wisdom and courage at the critical moment made Zhou Jun look up and down. This is the first time Zhao Kuangyin has made great achievements. Zhao Kuangyin made great contributions in the Battle of Gaoping, and was exceptionally promoted by Chai Rong to be the Marquis of Yu in front of the palace. He was on duty in front of the palace with Zhang Yongde, the commander of the palace in front of the palace, and concurrently served as the governor of Yanzhou. The era in which Zhao Kuangyin lived was a troubled time. In just a few years, Zhao Kuangyin stood out, from a tramp and an ordinary soldier to a general, and ranked among the ranks of senior generals in the later Zhou Dynasty. The Battle of Gaoping became the beginning of his future "revealing the imperial career". Zhao Kuangyin's outstanding performance in the Battle of Gaoping won the trust of Chai Rong. Chai Rong promoted him to be a senior general of the Forbidden Army, and at the same time gave him an important task: to rectify the Forbidden Army. Zhao Kuangyin accomplished the task of rectifying the imperial army very well.After the rectification, the appearance of the Houzhou army has been greatly improved, and the combat effectiveness of the soldiers has been increased.More importantly, Zhao Kuangyin has gained a lot in the process of rectifying the army: one is to accumulate experience, and the other is to get acquainted with senior generals in the Forbidden Army. Experience is a precious wealth, which will be useful in the future. What is even more rare is that Yang Guangyi, Shi Shouxin, Li Jixun, Wang Shenqi, Liu Qingyi, Liu Shouzhong, Liu Guangyi, Han Chongyun, and Wang Zhengzhong became the "Ten Brothers of Yishe", In the army, gradually formed its own forces. Among the ten brothers of Yishe, who is the eldest brother and who is the younger brother, there is no detailed record in the history books.Among the ten brothers, most of them became Zhao Kuangyin's right-hand man to achieve glory.This is something.