History of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms

Chapter 841 Chai Rong Governs the Country 7
3. Military Reform
When Chai Rong first ascended the throne, he lacked direct support in the military system and had insufficient control over the army, which was one of the reasons why he had to lead every battle in person.

The "Battle of Gaoping" had a great impact on Chai Rong. Even though the emperor was leading the army in person, generals Fan Ainen and He Hui dared to desert the battlefield right under the emperor's nose, and more than a thousand infantrymen surrendered on the spot. The reality did not allow Chai Rong to proceed step by step, and military reform was imminent.

After the encounter on the previous day, Chai Rong beheaded more than 70 senior generals in public, and then listed the names of all the escaped soldiers outside Luzhou City, "beheading all those above the rank of military commander and those who were in charge of the envoys."

In October of the first year of Xian De (954), after the end of the "Battle of Gaoping", Chai Rong promoted Zhao Kuangyin to the position of Defense Envoy of Yongzhou and Palace Guard Commander, responsible for the daily training and ideological education of the imperial guards. At the same time, he selected those with superb martial arts in the army and incorporated them into the Palace Guard Division (various squads in front of the palace) of the imperial guards; "the old, weak and small were removed."

After this wave of operations, the central imperial guards of the Later Zhou Dynasty became an elite force with extremely high combat effectiveness. "As a result, the abundance of weapons and armor was unparalleled in modern times." At the same time, due to the layoffs of the old, weak, sick, disabled and pregnant women, military expenditure was greatly reduced, "and the cost of redundant food was reduced."

The Five Dynasties Records gave an accurate summary of the imperial army reform:
"The Emperor (Chai Rong) was in Gaoping, and seeing the retreat, he was determined to punish and reform. Moreover, most of the brave men were from foreign princes, so he recruited heroes from all over the world, not from the wilderness, and personally tested them at the gate. He selected those with outstanding martial arts and those who had won the first prize, and assigned them to various squads in front of the palace."

There were two main reasons why Chai Rong carried out reforms on the imperial guards: 1. The direct stimulus of the Battle of Gaoping; 2. The local vassal armies were stronger than the central imperial guards.

The local army was stronger than the central imperial army, which was the root cause of the chaos in the late Tang Dynasty and the Five Dynasties. Since Zhu Wen, all the founding emperors were military governors of the previous dynasty. Weakening the local army and strengthening the central imperial army is the most effective way to solve the cancer of separatist regimes.

Therefore, since the "Battle of Gaoping", the main force of all foreign wars of the Later Zhou Dynasty was the central imperial guards, unlike the previous four dynasties, where the main force of the war was all "XX Army Jiedushi".

So it is very ironic that it was no longer the local military governor but the general of the imperial guards (Zhao Kuangyin) who overthrew the Later Zhou Dynasty.

Chai Rong's "strengthening the trunk and weakening the branches" measure was only the first step in military reform. The second step was completed by Comrade Zhao Kuangyin, which was to "release military power with a cup of wine", and to return the military power concentrated in the imperial guards system to the emperor himself. In this way, the world would be at peace.

The reason why the Song Dynasty was able to achieve basic unification and last for more than 300 years is that we really have to thank Comrade Chai Rong.

Historically, the evaluation of Chai Rong is almost one-sided and full of praise. The "Old History of the Five Dynasties" praised him as "a great ruler"; even the arrogant old man Ouyang Xiu could not help but praise him as "a hero" and "a wise ruler" in the "New History of the Five Dynasties"; Sima Guang praised him as "benevolent" and "wise" in "Zizhi Tongjian", and said that Chai Rong was close to the sage monarch in "The Book of History", that is, "impartial and without party, the kingly way is vast", "big countries fear his power, small countries cherish his virtue", and he can be compared with Yao, Shun, Yu, Tang, Wen and Wu; Long Gun said in "Jiangnan Wild History" that "I have observed that there has been only one emperor since ancient times", meaning that Chai Rong was the best emperor in ancient and modern times, a master emperor, who was armed to the teeth.

In short, Chai Rong received all five-star praise indiscriminately. No matter how demanding the historian or how nitpicking the nitpicker is, they would be too embarrassed to say anything bad about him.

Of course, there are all kinds of birds in the forest. In the Song Dynasty, there were professional nitpickers who criticized Chai Rong for not launching the Northern Expedition, saying that he blindly declared war on the powerful Khitan, ignoring the disparity in national strength, etc. Ouyang Xiu couldn't stand such stupid remarks and directly retorted, "It's really beyond the reach of Shi Shi!" You stupid people don't understand anything!

Of course, no one is perfect. In order to make Comrade Chai Rong look more three-dimensional, this book also excerpts some of his "black material":
1. Violent debt collection in Songzhou

During the "Three Expeditions to Huainan", in the winter of the second year of Xian De (955), Chai Rong sent the attendant Tao Wenju to Songzhou to collect the remaining rent. Tao Wenju was a famous cruel official who was best at violent debt collection. His method was simple and crude, that is, he would arrest the people who owed taxes and torture them severely until they paid the taxes or were beaten to death.

In the face of severe punishment, everyone was equal, prices were fair, and no one was cheated. In Songzhou alone, thousands of people were arrested and tortured, and eventually people died (thousands of people in Song were tortured, and their cries of injustice were heard on the streets. Some people mourned and died because they could not bear the torture).

The use of cruel officials to collect debts violently can barely be considered one of Chai Rong's stains.

When Chai Rong was young, he once paid a visit to a county magistrate. At that time, the magistrate was busy going to the grassroots, getting close to the masses, experiencing life, and actively carrying out a popular entertainment activity - gambling. He was having a great time and had no time to meet Chai Rong. Chai Rong therefore resented him.

Many years later, the county magistrate was still the same county magistrate, but Chai Rong was no longer the same Chai Rong.

As mentioned above, after Chai Rong ascended the throne, he launched a large-scale anti-corruption campaign and showed zero tolerance for corrupt officials. It happened that the subordinates of this county magistrate embezzled hundreds of pieces of cloth, and the prime minister Fan Zhi reported the case according to the procedure.

Chai Rong was furious, saying that as a local official, he was corrupt and should be put to death! Although he was furious on the surface, he was very happy in his heart, thinking that I finally caught you, and I will kill you!

However, Prime Minister Fan Zhi raised objections, saying that although he had broken the law, according to current laws, his crime was not punishable by death and he could not be sentenced to death.

Chai Rong was really angry this time, and said sternly: "What is the law? I am the law! The law is meant to punish evil and promote good, not a dogma that restricts one's hands and feet. I use the weapon of law to punish corrupt officials, what's wrong with that?"

Fan Zhi argued, "If your majesty has a personal grudge, please just issue an imperial decree to kill him. I can't do anything about it. But if you insist on putting on the cloak of law, handing it over to the relevant departments, and going through legal procedures, then I'm sorry, I won't sign!"

The law is sacred and inviolable. Your Majesty, you can be a tyrant, but don't desecrate the law.

Whenever he has read history books, he will find that records similar to the above often appear in the biographies of emperors and ministers of all dynasties.

From Fan Zhi's response, we can capture a message: even under the highly centralized feudal monarchy, in that society where we often mistakenly believe that the emperor can do whatever he wants, legislative power, judicial power, and executive power coexist independently. Even the Son of Heaven cannot interfere with the Supreme Court's decision and the final interpretation of the law.

3. The most stringent "315"

In the third year of Xian De (956), Chai Rong first conquered Huainan, besieged Shouzhou and conquered Yangzhou, and shook Huainan. One day, Chai Rong discovered that the cake vendors in Shouchun County were shortchanging each other, and the cakes they sold were obviously smaller than those in the Central Plains. So he arrested more than a dozen cake vendors and planned to sentence them to death to protect the legitimate rights and interests of consumers.

The imperial guard general Zhao Hongyin tried to dissuade them and finally saved more than a dozen bakers. This Zhao Hongyin was Zhao Kuangyin's father.

Just because the pie was small, more than a dozen people were killed. Chai Rong should be respected as the founder of the Consumer Association.

(End of this chapter)