History of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms

Chapter 1010: "Jin" is within reach 3
Hedong, this name has always been a thorn in the side of the Central Plains dynasty. Since it was occupied by the Shatuo leader Li Keyong in the late Tang Dynasty, this place has become a novice village for new dynasties and new emperors. Li Cunxu, Shi Jingtang, and Liu Zhiyuan all worked as bricklayers in this job before becoming emperors.

It borders Tatar and Khitan to the north, Huanghe and Luo River to the south, the rugged Taihang Mountains to the east and south, and the surging Mother River to the west. It is easy to defend but difficult to attack. After several generations of unremitting repairs, Taiyuan City is as solid as a rock. Even men of great talent and strategy like Chai Rong and Zhao Kuangyin found it difficult to shake Taiyuan City, which relied on Khitan for support.

In addition, there are two famous salt ponds in Hedong. In ancient times, this was equivalent to having a mine at home, and the salt pond was a cash cow. Relying on the geographical advantage of being easy to defend and difficult to attack, with an inexhaustible cash cow hidden at home, and colluding with foreign reactionary forces, Hedong has become a hotbed of warlord separatism since the middle and late Tang Dynasty, and is also a major concern for the court.

After recovering the Northern Han, in order to eliminate future troubles, Zhao Guangyi ordered the complete destruction of Taiyuan City, downgraded Taiyuan Prefecture to Bingzhou, and moved the provincial government to Yuci County, and then moved from Yuci County to a place 300 miles northwest of the old city.

Nowadays, the demolition of several villages is extremely difficult, let alone the demolition of an entire capital. The Song Dynasty officials only said that the demolition work was relatively smooth, and they were embarrassed to record the details. The historians of the Northern Han Dynasty helped them to add: In order to force the people of Taiyuan to obey the demolition order, the Song army set fire to the city. The people had no time to pack up their belongings and fled to the outside of the city in panic. The young and strong people were able to squeeze out, but many old people and children were unfortunately buried in the sea of ​​fire, which was extremely tragic.

No one would sympathize with the slaves of a conquered nation, no one would shed a tear for the victims of the forced demolition of Taiyuan City, and the historians would not blame the Song army for ordering the burning and demolition, but would only praise Zhao Guangyi for not issuing the order to massacre the city.

The winner is free from blame.

After Liu Jiyuan surrendered, he was granted the title of Duke of Pengcheng County, and was given a luxurious villa in the capital. He died of old age 13 years after returning to the Song Dynasty. After his death, he was posthumously granted the title of Prince of Pengcheng County and the title of Minister of the Central Secretariat.

Historical books have a bad opinion of Liu Jiyuan, saying that he was suspicious, cruel and murderous, and that he destroyed the Great Wall himself.

When talking about the characterization of Liu Jiyuan, we have to mention his mother. His mother is the daughter of Liu Chong and the sister of Liu Chengjun. This fairy first married a man named Xue Zhao and gave birth to a boy, let's call him "Xue Xiaobao". Later, the couple had a bad relationship and Xue Zhao committed suicide. The fairy remarried immediately. The second husband's surname was He. This honest man surnamed He did not leave his name in the history books. Maybe there was, maybe he was called "He Yun", and later the word Yun was taken away... In short, the fairy and Xiao He gave birth to another boy, let's call him "He Xiaobao" for the time being.

The relationship between the characters is very simple. Xue Xiaobao and He Xiaobao are half-brothers, Liu Chengjun is their uncle, and Liu Chong is their grandfather.

After Liu Chong's death, the throne was passed to Liu Chengjun. Unfortunately, Liu Chengjun had no offspring, no biological son, so he adopted Xue Xiaobao as his own son, and named him "Liu Jie'en", to prevent his sisters from remarrying with their ex-husband's sons... Later, he also adopted another nephew, He Xiaobao, as his son, and named him "Liu Jiyuan".

After Liu Chengjun died, he passed the throne to Liu Jie'en. Liu Jie'en was assassinated by the powerful official Guo Wuwei after only two months in office, and Guo Wuwei then ushered in Liu Jiyuan.

This shows how bad the political environment was when Liu Jiyuan ascended the throne!
There is a grandfather and a father outside. The father is a Khitan father, "I, the Khitan father, send money"; the grandfather is a Central Plains grandfather, who beats the Northern Han like a grandson.

Internally, Liu Jiyuan's throne was also in turmoil. The reason why he sat on the throne of emperor was entirely because of the arbitrary dethronement and enthronement of the powerful minister Guo Wuwei. The power was controlled by Guo Wuwei, and he was just a puppet. The danger of Guo Wuwei was not limited to controlling Liu Jiyuan. As mentioned above, Guo Wuwei was a genuine traitor, the "leader of the Song Dynasty", and the number one traitor. In addition, before Liu Jiyuan ascended the throne, there were a large number of voices in the country demanding the support of Liu Jiwen.

Putting these issues together, it is not difficult to see Liu Jiyuan’s dilemma:
If Liu Jiyuan wants to secure his throne, he must rely on (at least temporarily) the power of Guo Wuwei, and Guo Wuwei is an obstacle that must be eliminated on his road to personal rule; Liu Jiwen is a major uncertain factor that threatens Liu Jiyuan's throne, and at the same time can become a chess piece to restrict Guo Wuwei; Liu Jiwen's source of power is the Khitan behind him, he is an extension of the will of the Liao Kingdom. Once Liu Jiwen overthrows Guo Wuwei, the Liao Kingdom will inevitably replace Liu Jiyuan with Liu Jiwen, and Liu Jiyuan will still lose in the end.

Not only do they have to rely on Guo Wuwei to block the infiltration of the Liao Kingdom, but they also have to use the power of the Liao Kingdom to eliminate Guo Wuwei... both the palms and the backs of their hands are thorns.

However, Liu Jiyuan quickly found the entry point of the problem: Liu Jiwen.

Liu Jiwen's father was Liu Yun, the eldest son of Liu Chong, who was tricked and killed by Guo Wei. Therefore, Liu Jiwen was the legitimate grandson of Liu Chong and had pure blood. Later, he went to Khitan as a hostage, made contributions to the country and had close relations with Khitan. Khitan did put great pressure on Northern Han and planned to transform Northern Han into a pro-Liao regime with Liu Jiwen as the core.

Crisis breeds opportunity. When Liu Jiyuan, who had just ascended the throne, was worried about these thorny problems, Zhao Kuangyin launched a large-scale northern expedition and started the "Three Expeditions to Northern Han". However, it was this war that helped Liu Jiyuan get rid of all the shackles.

Liu Jiyuan's countermeasure was to kill with a borrowed knife.

Guo Wuwei was bribed by the Song army and spread the "national destruction theory" in the country, forcing Liu Jiyuan to surrender. Liu Jiyuan packaged himself as a "pro-Liao element" and insisted on using the Liao Kingdom to repel the Song army. In the propaganda, Liu Jiyuan very cleverly avoided the important issues and only emphasized the persistence of resistance and the vow not to surrender, while deliberately weakening the concept of "pro-Liao", which was a bit like a green tea goddess fooling an honest man.

As a result, Guo Wuwei, who advocated surrender, became a rat crossing the street, a traitor and capitulationist condemned by thousands of people, while Liu Jiyuan won countless fans with his "tough guy" image. More importantly, the Liao Kingdom also admired Liu Jiyuan's attitude very much. As a result, Liu Jiyuan, who originally had nothing, suddenly had the support of the Liao Kingdom and was almost invincible politically.

Since Liu Jiyuan was willing to act as an agent of the Liao Kingdom, there was no need for the Liao Kingdom to take huge political risks to interfere in the internal affairs of the Northern Han Dynasty, and the issue of replacing Liu Jiyuan with Liu Jiwen was shelved. Liu Jiyuan killed two birds with one stone.

Zhao Kuangyin was determined to attack the Han Dynasty, but he did not expect that he would help Liu Jiyuan stabilize the situation. The Liao Kingdom spared no effort to protect Liu Jiyuan, which stopped the Song army and greatly weakened Guo Wuwei's influence in the Northern Han Dynasty.

In the end, the traitor Guo Wuwei was easily killed by Liu Jiyuan. The specific operation was detailed in the previous article. The following is Liu Jiyuan's amazing operation:

The Liao Kingdom regarded itself as the savior of the Northern Han Dynasty, and made decisions on the internal affairs of the Northern Han Dynasty. It sent Liu Jiwen back to the country with courtesy, and ordered Liu Jiyuan to appoint Liu Jiwen as prime minister. Although Liu Jiyuan acted very pro-Liao, his feelings for the Liao Kingdom were not as deep and simple as Liu Jiwen's, so the Liao Kingdom allowed Liu Jiwen to return to the country to guide the work and monitor the Northern Han court.

"Pro-Liao" has always been Liu Jiyuan's means, not his goal.

Isn't it easy to get rid of an airborne prime minister? Liu Jiwen lived in Khitan for seven years. When he left, it was still the era of Liu Chengjun. When he came back, Liu Jiyuan had been the emperor for three years. Therefore, Liu Jiwen had no direct power of his own and was alone. As soon as he came back, he was appointed as prime minister. There were many people in the court who disliked him. So people kept slandering him, and Liu Jiyuan adopted an attitude of acquiescence or even indulgence. Soon (less than four months), Liu Jiwen could no longer survive in the court and was forced to be sent to the local area. There were as many as 16 people who followed Liu Jiwen back to the country. They all held high positions under the "invitation" of the Liao father, and they were also excluded.

If you beat a dog, you must look at its owner. If you beat the Khitan father's dog, you must give the Khitan father an explanation. Liu Jiyuan constantly sent envoys to the Liao Kingdom to pay tribute and bribe with large sums of money.

During this period, Liu Jiyuan strengthened the construction of the internal team and purged a large number of old people from the previous dynasty and relatives of the Han Dynasty. This is also the stain that Liu Jiyuan has been criticized for. The reason is simple, he dared to kill his brothers! It was too politically incorrect and too un-Song Dynasty. Of course, he would be criticized by the historians of the Northern Song Dynasty and his whole family would be scolded.

For example, he killed his cousin (actually his cousin) Liu Jiqin. Liu Jiqin was the nephew of Liu Chengjun and the grandson of Liu Chong. Zhang Zhaomin's words deeply hurt Liu Chong's grandson, Liu Jiyuan, and reminded him that if they could support Liu Jiwen today, they could support Liu Jiqin tomorrow, and they might support other descendants of the Liu family the day after tomorrow. So Liu Jiyuan wielded the butcher knife against these Han royal family relatives, and after Wang Mang, he killed Liu Babaihu and exterminated Liu Sanqianli.

As early as when Liu Jiyuan ascended the throne, he made a fuss about his deceased wife Duan, saying that Duan did not die of illness, but was poisoned by her adoptive mother, Empress Guo of Liu Chengjun. He used this as an excuse to kill Empress Guo, and then slandered Liu's descendants as accomplices and slaughtered all of them.

Liu Jiqin was not an "accomplice" for the time being because he held the power of the imperial army. In order to save his life, Liu Jiqin took the initiative to hand over his power and said that he had no intention of competing for the throne. However, Liu Jiyuan still killed him three years later.

Let's count the Liu's dead souls in his hands:
Liu Chong had ten sons. In addition to Liu Yun and Liu Chengjun, the other sons recorded in history were Liu Chenghao, Liu Chengqi, Liu Chengxi, Liu Chengkai and Liu Chengxian. Among them, Liu Chenghao, Liu Chengqi and Liu Chengxi were the most virtuous. Liu Jiyuan imprisoned them and killed them all within a year. The remaining uncles, except Liu Chengxian, could not escape his clutches and were all killed. Liu Chengxian had foresight and pretended to be crazy and stupid, successfully deceiving Liu Jiyuan.

The historian commented:
"Gao, Qi, Xi, and Xian were virtuous enough to support the clan, Jiwen and Jiqin were talented enough to resist insults, and Xiaohe (Liu Chengjun) abandoned his brothers and followed the heroes, and established a different surname as his successor... He really deserved it."

Liu Chengjun’s younger brothers and nephews were very capable, but he chose to pass the throne to his "son", which eventually led to the extinction of his own bloodline and the loss of his country. He deserved it, it was his own fault!
Translate, translate, translate into the Northern Song Dynasty version: You deserve it for passing it on to your son and not to your younger brother!

Is that straightforward enough?
To be honest, Liu Jiyuan was not the only one who killed his brothers. Liu Jie'en had a younger brother, whom we will call "Xue Erbao", who was also adopted by his uncle Liu Chengjun and named Liu Jizhong. When Liu Chengjun was seriously ill, Guo Wuwei sent all the Liu clan members out of the city. Liu Jizhong received a ticket to Xinzhou, but Liu Jizhong claimed that he suffered from "joint stomach" (chronic cold disease) and could not tolerate severe cold, so he insisted on staying in Taiyuan for recuperation.

Liu Ji'en rebuked him for waiting and ordered him to leave immediately. Liu Jizhong showed great resistance, so he was strangled to death. Leaving his body intact was Liu Ji'en's greatest mercy.

However, Liu Jie'en was in power for only 60 days, and he only had time to kill his younger brother, so the Liu clan, which had a larger population and a wider range, had to be left to Liu Jiyuan reluctantly.

Liu Jiyuan wielded the butcher knife against the Liu clan members and launched a purge of the civil and military officials in the court, quickly consolidating his absolute authority through bloody means.

This is what the historians called "cruel and murderous."

Soon after, the Khitan and the Song Dynasty reconciled, and Liu Jiyuan was ordered to make peace with the Song Dynasty. Liu Jiyuan finally waited for the opportunity to get rid of the control of the Liao Dynasty. He was heartbroken and cursed the Khitan. In anger, he threatened to destroy the Khitan first and then the Song Dynasty.

Under the persuasion of his confidant Ma Feng, Liu Jiyuan finally controlled his "anger" and did not actually send troops to attack Liao, but he also took this opportunity to draw a clear line with the Liao Kingdom.

Of course, "drawing a clear line" translates to legally living off one's parents. The son no longer honors his father, but the father still has to support his son. Liu Jiyuan's political skills are simply the pinnacle.

Even though Liu Jiyuan had the ruthlessness of a politician and the perfect political tactics, in the face of absolute power, any skills were futile. How could the light of a rotten firefly compete with the bright moon? Emperor Taizong of Song destroyed him with his overwhelming advantage.

Success or failure does not determine a hero. The kings who lost their country are not necessarily incompetent. For example, Meng Chang of the Later Shu Dynasty, who overthrew the ministers entrusted to him, showed a brilliant story. His wisdom was no less than that of Kangxi who removed Oboi. Looking back on Liu Jiyuan's short reign, it is not difficult to see his wisdom and courage. I personally think that Liu Jiyuan is at least above average among emperors.

Emperor Taizong of Song, Zhao Guangyi, finally ended the "Ten Kingdoms" and gathered the last king of the fallen country. What was Zhao Guangyi's attitude towards the king of the fallen country?
Zhao Guangyi once mentioned the story of "being happy and not thinking of Shu" to his close ministers, and despised Sima Zhao's behavior, saying that the kings of fallen countries are more or less cowardly, otherwise, how could they be captured by you? Since they have surrendered and admitted their mistakes, why did you Sima Zhao still humiliate them by saying "Why do you sound like Xi Zheng?" Then Zhao Guangyi said that even a stubborn person like Liu Jiyuan, the public enemy, could be treated well, but I was afraid that I could not appease him.

The Zhao Song Dynasty was indeed magnanimous towards the kings of the fallen country (except Li Yu), which demonstrated the broad-mindedness that a great country should have.

There are historical records that after Liu Jiyuan surrendered, Liu Jiwen, who had been exiled before, still occupied Daizhou. With the help of Khitan, he refused to surrender and insisted on resistance. After being defeated, he fled to Khitan. However, more records show that Liu Jiwen fled to Khitan before Liu Jiyuan surrendered, and there was no such thing as insisting on resistance. For example, the History of Liao clearly records that Liu Jiwen and Lu Jun fled to Khitan in May, and Liu Jiyuan surrendered in June.

After Liu Jiyuan surrendered, was there no one to continue the resistance? Don't worry, there really was one. This person was also Liu Chengjun's adopted son, named Liu Jiye.

Liu Jiye persisted in resisting, and his command and response were appropriate, which caused the Song army to suffer a little. Zhao Guangyi had heard of this man for a long time and wanted him to work for him, so he ordered to stop the attack and asked Liu Jiyuan to write him a letter to persuade him to surrender. After reading Liu Jiyuan's letter of persuasion, Liu Jiye cried bitterly on the top of the city, "I am willing to fight to the death, why did Your Majesty surrender first?" He bowed to the north again, and then surrendered at the order of his lord.

It is easy to build a country, but it is hard to find a pillar of the country. Zhao Guangyi admired Liu Jiye very much and comforted him for a long time. Then he restored his original surname - Yang, and abandoned the character "Ji" with strong Northern Han elements, and only used the name Ye. So Liu Jiye had a brand new name - Yang Ye.

Later on, he and his sons became known to everyone, young and old - the Yang Family Generals.

(End of this chapter)