Portrait of Chai Rong
He joined the army at the age of fifteen, worshiped the general at the age of twenty-four, and became the heir to the imperial throne at the age of thirty-three, inheriting the will of the former emperor and becoming the Han who made the Khitan most feared.
His name is Chai Rong!
Chai Rong, a native of Yaoshan, Xingzhou, is a handsome man, good at riding and shooting, a little through the history of Huang Lao, heavy and taciturn.
The second emperor of the Later Zhou Dynasty, raised in the family of his uncle Guo Wei, was cautious and generous, and became Guo Wei's adopted son.
When he was young, he used to sell tea in Jiangling with the merchant Jie Baoshi, and experienced the shortcomings of society, and later Guo Wei was called emperor, and because Guo Wei had no heirs, Chai Rong ascended the throne as emperor for Zhou Shizong.
The 34-year-old Chai Rong, silently looking up at the heavens, he felt that the heavens were really not thin for him, originally he was just a tea merchant (ancient Chinese scholars, farmers, industrialists, merchants are the lowest level), so coincidentally became the heir to the throne, he felt that he had been favored by heaven.
Chai Rong looked at the world after this week, and couldn't help but think of his uncle Guo Wei.
Guo Wei and his aunt regarded themselves as their own, and during Guo Wei's reign, he advocated frugality, modesty, and reform of maladministration, which made the following week a prosperous scene.
He is also determined to inherit the will of his uncle Guo Wei and unify the world and benefit the people.
During the dynasty, Chai Rong and the ministers agreed to set a thirty-year grand ambition, that is, the famous "ten years to open up the world, ten years to feed the people, ten years to bring peace."
For this wish, he reorganized the army to train pawns, cut the weak, invite exile, and reduce taxes, a series of measures that made the politics of the Later Zhou clear, the people rich, and the economy of the Central Plains began to recover.
After the completion of the first stage, Guo Wei began the second stage, that is, ten years of development.
Chai Rong began a southern expedition to the north, defeated Hou Shu in the west, captured the four prefectures of Qin, Feng, Cheng, and Jie, and three expeditions to the Southern Tang, and exhausted the fourteen prefectures of Huainan in the north of the Jiangsu Province.
At this time, there was no one in the Central Plains who could be an opponent with him, so he set his strategic sights on the Khitan in the north, determined to attack the Xiongnu in the north like the Qin Emperor Han Wu and sweep away the border troubles for the Central Plains.
The Khitan and the Northern Han Seemed to understand that Zhou Shizong wanted to use troops against them.
In 954, the combined forces of the Northern Han and Khitan invaded, and Chai Rong personally marched, and the two sides confronted each other at Gaoping, Zezhou.
When the battle was about to begin, the Later Zhou general Fan Aneng and others fled first, and the Later Zhou army was very critical.
At this critical juncture of death and survival, Ai general Zhao Kuangyin took the lead with a gun and shouted "Long live", and the generals of the Later Zhou Dynasty were suddenly full of energy and threw themselves into the battle to the death.
Zhou Shizong was resolute and resolute, personally visiting the front line of the battlefield to supervise the battle, and his morale was greatly boosted. In the end, the combined forces of the Northern Han and Khitan dynasties were defeated and fled.
Portrait of Zhao Kuangyin
After this battle, Zhou Shizong was well aware that the Khitan was a serious disaster, so after several years of development, Zhou Shizong Chai Rong decided to personally lead tens of thousands of troops to the Northern Expedition to the Khitan at the age of 38.
Although the Khitan army was fierce, it was vulnerable to Chai Rong's army, and in just forty-two days, Chai Rong connected the Khitan three passes and three prefectures and seventeen counties.
The Khitan generals mentioned that Chai Rong was all afraid, and no one dared to fight with him, and just when the Later Zhou Bingfeng was in his prime, Zhou Shizong fell ill and fell ill, and the Northern Expeditionary Army had to return.
In June of the following year, Zhou Shizong died at the age of 39.
Although Chai Rong failed to realize his desire to be a monarch for 30 years and sweep the world, his 5 and a half years of reign in Wenzhi Martial Arts has determined that he will become a decisive figure in ending the turmoil of more than 200 years since the Middle and Tang Dynasties.
The northern song established by Zhao Kuangyin in the future can be unified in 20 years, which also proves this.
A few years later, when Zhao Kuangyin talked about Zhou Shizong after drinking with Zhao Pu, he said that Chai Rong was the person he most admired, and if Chai Rong did not die, he would certainly not rebel, and he would definitely follow Chai Rong to continue to conquer the world.