History of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms

Chapter 969: Peace and Prosperity
【Taiping Xingguo】

When a new emperor ascends the throne, as usual, public opinion is building momentum. Let's take a look at the official description (packaging) of Comrade Zhao Guangyi by the Song Dynasty:

“Born with Vision”

According to the old saying, the birth of the emperor must be accompanied by a vision. It is said that Empress Dowager Du had a dream that a god gave her the sun, and then she became pregnant and gave birth to Zhao Guangyi. He is the son of the sun.

When he was born that night, the delivery room was filled with dazzling red light, as if it was on fire, and the whole alley was filled with a strange aroma.

“Outstanding”

Zhao Guangyi was a typical "other people's child" since he was young. He was born with leadership skills and was a leader among children (the emperor was different from others when he was young, and everyone was in awe of him when he played with them). His words and deeds revealed a maturity and stability that was inconsistent with his age, and he was quite precocious. He was fond of reading, learning, and was multi-talented (he was fond of studying...he was good at industry and literature, and had many talents). He was a three-good student with all-round development in morality, intelligence, physique, aesthetics, and labor, and an excellent class leader.

"Work experience"

In a word, after thirty years of professional tower guarding, the drama ends.

After ascending the throne, Zhao Guangyi's behavior could be considered to be very conventional. First, the whole country changed its name to avoid taboos, and place names and personal names were changed, for example, Yizhou was changed to Yizhou, Yiwu Army was changed to Dingwu Army, and Zhao Guangmei was changed to Zhao Tingmei; then he canonized the queen; followed by an imperial decree that Zhao Tingmei and Zhao Dezhao were ranked above the prime minister.

He still adopted an attitude of trust towards the "Fourteen Generals of the Northwest", and their power delegation and rewards increased. However, he moved the "national archer" Ma Renyu to Liaozhou. Because Ma Renyu had violated military orders and arbitrarily transferred troops into enemy territory to plunder, he had a conflict with another general Li Hanchao. Zhao Guangyi gave him wine to persuade them to reconcile, and then transferred Ma Renyu from his job.

To sum it up in Zhao Guangyi's own words, "All matters concerning the border affairs are carried out in accordance with the established rules of the previous emperor, and no changes are made."

The only substantial move was to order the withdrawal of the troops in Taiyuan and stop the "three expeditions to the Northern Han". Of course, if we follow the Northern Han's statement, such as the "Annals of the Ten Kingdoms", it insists that the Song army was defeated under the city of Taiyuan and was forced to withdraw. Obviously, this is the self-consolation of the people of the Northern Han. When the new lord ascends the throne, the generals with military power return to the court to pay homage. This is a routine operation. Moreover, judging from the subsequent records of authoritative historical materials, the statement that the Northern Han defeated the Song army under the city of Taiyuan does not stand up to scrutiny at all, which will be explained in detail later.

In addition, it is worth pondering that Zhao Guangyi was impatient to change the reign title. As mentioned above, usually, the new emperor would continue to use the reign title of the previous emperor and change the reign title on the first day of the first lunar month of the following year. Zhao Guangyi ascended the throne in October and changed the reign title to "Taipingxingguo" in December. Couldn't you wait two more days until the first lunar month of the following year?

No.

Changing the era name at the beginning of his reign has become an important point of criticism for Zhao Guangyi by later generations. They believe that this is enough to illustrate his wolfish ambitions, and some even regard it as indirect evidence of his "candle shadow and axe sound" plot to kill his brother and seize power.

Some people also expressed their understanding of this, believing that the reign title of Zhao Guangyi was very auspicious, because he was about to continue Taizu's path of unification, the world was peaceful, and China was rejuvenated, so it was named "Taiping Xingguo". Of course, the sooner this day came, the better.

The reign title is an important political symbol. Zhao Guangyi was eager to change the reign title, more out of political considerations, such as the rapid transition of power. As long as the reign title was changed, a clear line would be drawn between him and the Taizu Dynasty, cutting the Gordian knot.

The Northern Expedition Army returned to Bianzhou under the leadership of Pan Mei and Dang Jin; Zhao Pu, Xiang Xun, Zhang Yongde, Gao Huaide, Feng Jiye, Liu Tingrang (Liu Guangyi), Zhang Guangmei and other local governors came to Beijing to pay homage and pay respects, so there was Taizong's version of "releasing military power with a cup of wine". In March of the following year, Zhao Pu was first promoted in name but demoted in reality, and was given the honorary title of "Prince's Guardian" and gloriously stood aside. In the following May, Xiang Xun, Zhang Yongde, Liu Tingrang, Zhang Guangmei and others were all dismissed from their posts as governors. In the edict, Comrade Zhao Guangyi even explained sourly: "I dare not trouble the old virtues with the heavy responsibility of leading the vassal."

The ups and downs of Zhao Pu's official career will be dealt with in a special article later; and as for Zhao Guangyi's graduation message, it exudes the aura of a big boss who supplies talents to society.

The transfer of supreme power in the Song Dynasty was ultimately smooth, and it was the smoothest of the dozen or so supreme power transfers in the past half century. Not only was there internal unity, but the external environment was also festive and peaceful, and this was largely due to the painstaking efforts of the Zhao brothers.

Since Chai Rong, the reunification of the motherland has been set as the basic national policy, and all reforms have revolved around this. During the Zhao brothers' period, they were determined to create a peaceful and prosperous era. So when we analyze the Taizong Dynasty, it is not difficult to find that many reform measures are the continuation of Chai Rong's policies. Taizu inherited Chai Rong, and Taizong inherited Taizu. Coherent policies are naturally full of vitality.

For example, the creation of an external environment. In comparison, internal reform measures will be immediate, while external transformation and influence are relatively slow, just like we can change ourselves in a short period of time, but it takes a long time to change others' views of us. Song Taizu worked hard for many years and left Taizong a precious diplomatic legacy, which was mainly reflected in the two major aspects of Wuyue Kingdom and Liao Kingdom. If the Central Plains after Song Taizu experienced another change of dynasty or a major policy turn or emergency brake, then the Central Plains would likely fall apart, lose the unified situation since Chai Rong, and return to the chaos of the Five Dynasties. Fortunately, Taizong "all followed the established rules of the previous emperor", so the seeds planted by Taizu finally blossomed brightly and produced two fruits that can be called historical miracles: one is the peaceful unification of Wuyue Kingdom, which had been separatist for nearly 80 years, without bloodshed; the other is that the Song Dynasty successfully implemented strategic deception on Liao Kingdom and annexed Northern Han at the speed of light.

【The past of two heroes】

The sixth year of Emperor Xuanzong of Tang's Dazhong reign (852) was truly a magical year. In Wugou Village, Dangshan County, Songzhou, a poor teacher had a baby boy named Zhu Wen; in Hefei County, Luzhou, a farmer had a baby boy named Yang Xingmi; in Yanling County, Xuzhou, a carpenter had a baby boy named Ma Yin; and in Shijing Township, Lin'an County, Hangzhou, a fisherman had a baby boy named Qian Liu.

History gathered the "Four Heavenly Kings" that year, four inspirational stories of underdogs' counterattack.

Qian Liu's entrepreneurial story has been described in detail in the previous article, so I will just briefly mention it. Now I will focus on the development process within the Wu Yue Kingdom and how it gradually moved towards peaceful reunification.

Qian Liu's entrepreneurial history is a typical online story of a loser's counterattack, and it is perfectly synchronized with Yang Xingmi's next door. Any similarities are purely intentional historical facts.

When Huang Chao's bandit army was wreaking havoc in Jianghuai, the two grassroots men from the bottom of society chose to join the army at the same time. Then, relying on their strong physiques and flexible minds, they grew stronger step by step and became the eldest brother's right-hand men. Later, they replaced their eldest brother as local governors, and became stronger and stronger, and finally became warlords who ruled a certain area.

This book refers to Qian Liu and Yang Xingmi as the "Two Heroes of Jianghuai". They loved and hated each other, sometimes exchanged glances and became in-laws; sometimes they fought against each other. One of them held a logging festival every year for cutting down poplar trees, called "Chopping Yangtou", and the other held an activity of threading money strings every year, called "Threading Money Eyes".

The entrepreneurial journeys of the two were quite similar, and even the internal rebellions they encountered after taking charge of one side were surprisingly similar. However, the two sides made completely opposite choices on many key issues. This is also the key reason why the Southern Wu regime and the Wuyue regime ultimately ended up with two different outcomes.

This different choice is the attitude towards the Central Plains regime.

Yang Xingmi's Huainan group's attitude towards Zhongyuan is irreconcilable and irreconcilable, "One of us must die today"; while the Liangzhe Qian family flirts with Zhongyuan, "Want a date?"

It has to be admitted that "geographical determinism" played a key role in this. Opposing the Central Plains was the legal basis and political correctness for the existence of the Huainan regime bordering the Central Plains. The Qian family of Liangzhe, separated from the Central Plains, needed to join forces with the Central Plains to form a pincer attack and containment situation against the common enemy Huainan, the so-called making friends with distant countries and attacking nearby ones.

Therefore, whether it was the Southern Wu regime of the Yang family or the Southern Tang regime of the Li family, the Huainan Group always competed with the Central Plains; the Qian family regime made respecting the Central Plains its basic national policy from beginning to end, and even wrote it into the "ancestral precepts."

Another difference between Yang Xingmi and Qian Liu is their different life spans and fertility. It may seem like gossip, but it is actually a key factor influencing the development of their regimes. Yang Xingmi died in 905, while Qian Liu lived until 932; Yang Xingmi had 6 sons, while Qian Liu had 38 sons...

When Yang Xingmi died, his successor was his eldest son Yang Wo, who was only 19 years old at the time; when Qian Liu died, his successor was his seventh son Qian Yuanguan, who was 45 years old at the time.

According to records, Yang Wo, who "danced on graves", was always idle and did not work properly. Yang Xingmi did not like him and thought it would be difficult for him to inherit the family business, but his other sons were even younger (the second son Yang Wei was only 8 years old), so he had no choice but to let the useless eldest son Yang Wo succeed to the throne. Yang Wo was young, had a bad reputation, and had never made any military achievements. Whether in the bureaucratic system or the military system, Yang Wo had neither direct descendants nor fans with high reputation. Therefore, the script after he succeeded to the throne was bound to be quickly sidelined by the powerful minister (Xu Wen), and then lost the foundation of the country. The Huainan Group that Yang Xingmi had worked hard to manage soon changed its name, and Li Yu, the last ruler of the Southern Tang Dynasty, was about to emerge.

Comrade Qian Liu, who lived to the age of 81, successfully outlived several sons, including his eldest son, and had ample time to train and observe his sons, and finally select the best of them. Qian Yuanguan, who eventually succeeded him, had a very high reputation and sufficient network resources within the group. The Wuyue regime was able to continue in the Qian family lineage.

Why did the seventh son inherit the throne instead of the first six brothers? Why didn't the younger brother inherit the throne after the elder brother's death? The answer can be found in the development history of the Qian family group.

Thanks to my old friend “江湖刘白” for the reward and support!

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(End of this chapter)