History of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms

Chapter 675 Zhou Ge Han Ming 1
Guo Wei enforced strict military discipline along the way, prohibited harassment of civilians, and sent a notice to reassure the people of the situation in Bianzhou, explaining the "Chanzhou Mutiny" to people and asking them not to panic.

On December 12, Guo Wei arrived in Qilidian.

Prime Minister Dou Zhengu led all the civil and military officials out of the city to welcome him and persuade him to ascend the throne. Guo Wei said, "No, no..."

This is the general process of plotting to usurp the throne. All officials and local vassal princes would submit petitions to persuade the emperor to ascend the throne, and then the emperor would repeatedly refuse, persuade again, and threaten to commit suicide. Finally, the new emperor would be forced to, extremely reluctantly, and very painfully announce his ascension to the throne.

On the one hand, Guo Wei followed the process and proceeded step by step. On the other hand, because the preliminary work had not been completed, he had to take one step at a time to avoid any setbacks.

1. External environment

1.1 Southern Countries
Since the "Mingzong's heyday", the children of the "Ten Kingdoms" have faded out of the entertainment circle and rarely appeared on screen. Only at the end of the Jin-Liao War, Hou Shu played a supporting role and Huainan played a minor role. It is still the same today.

During the entire "Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms" period, the Central Plains dynasties went through Liang, Tang, Jin, Han, and Zhou, and changed five dynasties, with eight surnames and 5 emperors in rotation, which shows the degree of turbulence.

The local governments of the "Ten Kingdoms" were relatively stable, and were basically passed down from one family to another. For example, the Ma family of Southern Chu and the Qian family of Wuyue. Their founding monarchs were the same age as Zhu Wen. They started a business together from scratch in the late Tang Dynasty. The Ma family regime of Southern Chu was eventually ended, while the Qian family of Wuyue survived until the Northern Song Dynasty.

The Ma regime of Southern Chu fell at the hands of Ma Yin's son, and the Qian regime of Wuyue fell at the hands of Qian Liu's grandson. The most successful entrepreneur of the same period, Zhu Wen, has his grave covered with tall grass.

The stability of the "Ten Kingdoms" was only relative to the "Five Dynasties" of the Central Plains. In fact, there were also turbulent stories within them, such as palace coups and alliances.

For example, during the Jin-Liao War, Huainan coveted the Central Plains, but was too busy with the war in Fujian to spare any time. Although it failed to gain the advantage from the Central Plains like the Later Shu, Huainan destroyed the Min Kingdom and annexed the Wang regime in Fujian.

Almost at the same time, the Ma regime in Southern Chu also suffered from internal strife, with the Ma brothers killing each other. Huainan, which had just annexed Min during the civil strife in Min, immediately stretched its claws to its western neighbor like a hungry vulture and attacked Southern Chu. Southern Chu hurriedly asked for help from the Later Han.

At this time, Liu Chengyou was already dead, and the actual head of the Later Han Dynasty was Guo Wei. Guo Wei sent Chen Sirang to lead his army across the border into Huainan, and only gave Chen Sirang one top-level instruction: to contain the Huainan reinforcements and try to prevent the Huainan forces from infiltrating into Southern Chu. As for the specific military actions, it was up to the front-line commander to decide and act at his own discretion.

There was civil unrest in Fujian before and civil unrest in Southern Chu after. Huainan forces intervened strongly. Containing Huainan was the interest of the surrounding forces such as the Later Han Dynasty, Wuyue, and Jingnan. The joint intervention of their own forces also made Huainan's expansion path full of obstacles and fell into the quagmire of war, which provided a relatively safe external environment for the change of regime in the Central Plains.

1.2 Khitan
The reason why Guo Wei led his troops to patrol the border was the invasion of the Khitan. From December 12, when Guo Wei sent troops to Bianzhou, to the "Chanzhou Mutiny" on December 1, and then to Guo Wei's return to Bianzhou to change the dynasty, it seemed that the threat of the Khitan had been far behind people's minds, as if the Central Plains had abandoned Hebei and allowed the Khitan to wreak havoc.

The truth is not so.

Although the Khitans came with great force, they retreated on their own. First, the Khitan army encountered stubborn resistance in Neiqiu City. Neiqiu City was small but solid, and the Khitan army could not capture it for five consecutive days, and suffered heavy casualties. Later, the Khitans captured Neiqiu City because the 500 defenders in the city surrendered, and then massacred the city. Although they gained a lot, the Khitans suffered heavy casualties. Yelu Ruan did not have enough appeal, so he had to stop while he was ahead.

Secondly, a series of "strange things" happened.

At that time, there was a lunar eclipse, and the nomadic people were as afraid of lunar eclipses as the people in the Central Plains were of solar eclipses. According to records, some bizarre supernatural events also occurred one after another in the Khitan military camp. These strange events caused the Khitan army to be unstable. Like the first reason, Yelu Ruan lacked absolute control and chose to withdraw.

Third, it was because the Later Han Dynasty had responded in time and sent Guo Wei to patrol the border. Nomadic peoples have always been mainly engaged in plundering, and they follow the tactic of retreating when the enemy advances. Yelu Ruan's strategic goal was to train his troops and establish his prestige. He had no intention and no strength to annex Hebei, so since the Central Plains sent a large army, Yelu Ruan returned home with a full load of spoils.

When Yelu Ruan withdrew his troops, he had already sent envoys to the Later Han Dynasty to make peace. Before the envoys arrived in Bianzhou, Liu Chengyou had been assassinated. The one who received the Khitan peace envoy on the way was Guo Wei's trusted general, Liu Ci. The general who followed Guo Wei to pacify Li Shouzhen in Hezhong, remained calm in the face of danger, and resisted the "Wang Santie" who sneaked into the camp and robbed the camp.

Seeing this, supporters of the "conspiracy theory" will suddenly understand, "So that's it!"

All the questions were answered: Why did Guo Wei dare to procrastinate and ignore the crisis in Hebei? Because Hebei was not in danger at all. Yelu Ruan left and said hello to Guo Wei. Guo Wei's group deliberately exaggerated the threat of Khitan to force the Later Han court to give him greater power and resources, a typical example of using foreign powers to gain power.

We cannot arbitrarily say that there was any dirty secret agreement between Guo Wei and Yelu Ruan, but there was a tacit understanding between the politicians.

Of course, even if there is no such tacit understanding, and the Khitan people do not deliberately cooperate with Guo Wei's performance, it does not matter, because the protagonist of this play is Guo Wei. As long as the Khitan people are sincere and go home, Guo Wei can complete the rest of the work alone.

The southern countries were in chaos, the Khitans in the north had left, and Guo Wei's work to overthrow the Later Han Dynasty was basically free of external interference.

2. Internal mine clearance

For Guo Wei, there is basically no need to deliberately manage external threats, just let them fend for themselves. What really requires him to mobilize his brain cells are the three hidden dangers in China.

2.1 Liu Yun from Xuzhou
When the "Chanzhou Mutiny" broke out, Liu Yun was still staying in Songzhou. After Wang Jun and Wang Yin, who stayed in Bianzhou, learned of the mutiny, they immediately sent Guo Chongwei to lead 700 cavalrymen to Songzhou to "protect" Liu Yun and prevent him from getting into trouble.

Guo Chongwei led elite cavalry and suddenly appeared at the gate of Songzhou. Liu Yun was shocked and hurriedly closed the city gate. Then he climbed up to the gate tower and shouted to Guo Chongwei, asking him why he came.

Guo Chongwei hung his gun on the victory hook, spurred his horse forward, saluted and said: "It's just because there was a sudden mutiny in Chanzhou, and the details are unknown. Marshal Guo is afraid that you will misunderstand, and he is even more worried about other accidents along the way, so he specially sent me to escort you!"

If you hadn't come, what would have happened to me?
(End of this chapter)