Introduction: The reason why Chai Rong of the Later Zhou Dynasty was remembered and repeatedly mentioned by posterity is the tragic experience of other monarchs of the five generations and the foreign war layman of the Song Dynasty. Later Jin Shi Jingyao was proclaimed Emperor Er; Emperor Shi Chonggui of the Jin Dynasty was taken captive; Emperor Taizong of Song was destroyed by the entire army of the Khitan Dynasty; the shameful emblem of Jing Kang, and the thousands of people in the QinZong clan were abducted by Jin soldiers, and so on, all of which were remembered by everyone and expected him to unify the world and become a banner against foreign enemies. As the only emperor who dared to confront the Khitan and still have the advantage, chai rong could bear the banner of unifying the world and carrying the banner of the nomadic regime in the north? The answer is very likely, let's elaborate on whether chai rong can live a long life and achieve everyone's expectations?
Chai Rong was a very accomplished emperor in the Five Dynasties period, and was also known as the First Emperor of the Five Dynasties. Chai Rong was born into poverty and deeply understood the sufferings of the people, and his business experience also gave him a sense of the suffering at the grassroots level. This laid the foundation for Chai Rong to ascend to the throne, to love the people in logistics and to implement the administrative policy of light and thin service. If these aspects of civil affairs are not too prominent, chai rong will remember the tough attitude towards the Khitan for posterity. In the sixth year of Xiande, Chai Rong personally led a large army to the Northern Expedition to the Khitan and captured the seventeen counties of Sanguan And Three Prefectures in just over 40 days. Unfortunately, Emperor Shizong Chai Rong died of illness shortly after entering Youzhou, which pushed the recovery of Youyun hundreds of years later.
Chai Rong's actions after succeeding to the throne indicate the birth of an emperor who has both culture and martial arts
Chai Rong ascended the imperial throne as the adopted son of Guo Wei, the taizu of later Zhou, with a certain degree of serendipity. Because the Later Han Emperor Liu Chengyou was dissatisfied with the control of the government by the four auxiliary ministers left by his father, he took the opportunity to kill him. However, Guo Wei, who was a member of the auxiliary chancellor, was not in the capital at the time, so he escaped the disaster, but the stupid Liu Chengyou killed Guo Wei's family. This annoyed Guo Wei before he raised an army to besiege the city of Bieliang, and then seized power to establish the emperor houzhou. Three years later, Later Zhou Taizu Guo Wei died of illness, and Chai Rongshi was called Later Zhou Shizong. In the 30-year-old good years when he took charge of the Later Zhou Empire, Chai Rong's energy and mentality of making meritorious achievements were at their peak.
The respect and prestige that Chai Rong gained after succeeding to the throne not only came from the inheritance of the throne, but more importantly, his deeds made everyone see the unusual second generation of emperors in the Five Dynasties period. On the one hand, Chai Rong took positive measures to improve the national strength in the economic aspect: for example, he adopted a policy of recuperation and recuperation; he set up land and rewarded farming; restored water transportation and water conservancy; restricted Buddhism and ensured that all forces were used for the improvement of national strength. In addition, Chai Rong actively revised the calendar, refreshed the bureaucracy to rectify corruption, and selected talents to participate in state affairs. And Wang Pu, even if he is the best of them, his "Pingbian Strategy" has a huge influence in the Later Zhou and Northern Song dynasties. Although Wang Pu had long been Chai Rong's aide, the introduction of the Pingbian Policy allowed Wang Pu to sit firmly in the position of Chai Rong's confidant.
The main content of Wang Pu's "Pingbian Policy" is to analyze the actual situation of the divided regime in the world at that time, and to provide the steps and specific operation methods for sweeping away the princes and unifying the world according to these. As soon as this book came out, the paper was expensive. Chai Rong very much recognized the "Pingbian Policy" and actively implemented it according to the Pingbian Policy.
The authority of the emperor required his own efforts, and because Chai Rong's reputation before he ascended the throne was not prominent, the courtiers did not agree with Chai Rong's military talents. However, In Gaoping, Chai Rong defeated the invasion of the combined forces of the Northern Han and Khitan Dynasties, allowing the courtiers to see Chai Rong's bravery and at the same time giving Chai Rong the opportunity to reorganize his army. Chai Rong cleaned up the greedy and fearful generals according to the law and actively promoted his own team. With everything in place, Chai Rong began to follow the steps of the Pingbian Strategy to begin his conquest of the separatist regime. After the defeat of Shu in the west, he captured the four prefectures of Qin, Feng, Cheng, and Jie; destroyed the Southern Tang in the south and won the fourteen prefectures of Huainan in the north; and broke the Khitan in the north and the three passes of the two prefectures of Lianke. Unfortunately, Sejong Chai Rong fell seriously ill on the way to youzhou and died shortly after his death at the age of 38.
Chai Rong's six-year imperial career showed the potential of the Ming Dynasty, so that we have a richer imagination space for him to unify the world and fight against the Khitan if he lives a long life
First of all, we say that Hou Zhou already had the strength to unify the world after Chai Rong took over, and the Minister Wang Pu's "Pingbian Policy" was very feasible. Therefore, the Northern Song Dynasty basically unified the world on such a basis and in accordance with the "Pingbian Policy". Therefore, if Chai Rong can live a long life and not die with the Khitan in the early stage, the later Zhou will inevitably complete the unification in Chai Rong's hands. Therefore, there is no difference between Chai Rong and Zhao Kuangyin "first south and then north" or "first north and then south", and the process of reunification has been clearly stated in the "Pingbian Policy" in the way of first easy and then difficult. Therefore, we infer that the Great Zhou after the unification of Chai Rong has the following characteristics:
First, the territory of the unified Later Zhou was much larger than that of the Northern Song Dynasty.
Later Zhou Shizong Chai Rong, unlike the Song Taizu Zhao Kuangyin, had strong ambitions to expand his territory. Chai Rong would not be like The Song Taizu Zhao Kuangyin who drew a jade axe to "end here in the country and mountains of decay", and would definitely enter the chase like the sui and tang dynasties that could keep moving forward to the greatest extent possible. First of all, by the sixth year of Xiande, Chai Rong had pacified the fourteen prefectures of the southern Tang River and northern Jiangsu; captured the four prefectures of Qin, Feng, Cheng, and Jie in Later Shu; the three Khitan states already had a unified image in their hand territory, and the conservative estimated territory also exceeded one million square kilometers. Among them, there were many rich places, and the later Zhou Dynasty was politically clear and the national strength was at its peak; with chai Rong's prestige, first of all, Zhao Kuangyin, Wang Pu and other wenwu calmed the world as if they were probing for things.
After the unification of the Central Plains, there were two more breakthrough directions in the later zhou, Youyun and Hexi. Youyun We put in the next subsection to introduce, this article talks about Hexi. At this time, the northwestern part of later Zhou was basically the Dingnan Army of the Dang Xiang and the Liugu Department of Tubo, as well as the four separatist regimes of the Ganzhou Uighurs and the Gui rebel army. Historically, these four parts were conquered by Li Jiqian, Li Deming, and Li Yuanhao's grandsons and grandsons of the party and became an important part of the western Xia territory.
According to the overall vision of Later Zhou Shizong Chai Rong, it is impossible not to fail to see the important role of Hexi in the economic and military aspects. Moreover, according to Li Deming and Li Yuanhao, they could complete the conquest of the Hexi Corridor, not to mention the powerful Hou Zhou. Later Zhou was not a weak Northern Song Dynasty, so the conquest of Hexi became inevitable. In this way, the Later Zhou Dynasty could not only obtain rich taxes through Hexi (the prosperity of trade brought about by the Silk Road), but also obtain excellent war horses and elite cavalry (Yongliang has always been rich in fine horses, and Ma Teng divided one side through this area during the Three Kingdoms period). The Hexi Corridor, together with the rich taxes of the Central Plains, was the material basis for the Later Zhou Pingding Youyun; the elite cultivated by the Pingding Separatist Forces plus the Hexi Elite Riding were the military forces that captured youyun.
Second, Chai Rong did have the opportunity and ability to seize the Sixteen States of Youyun
Let's now look at the situation of the Khitan during chai rong's reign, and the Khitan ruler of the Xiande period, known as the sleeping god Ofe, was Liaomuzong Yelü Jing. This emperor was a famous emperor and tyrant, cruel and stupid, drunk and absurd. During his 18-year reign, rebellions arose one after another, and Khitan rule was very unstable. So he was killed in the Black Mountain Rebellion in 969 AD at the age of 39. During his reign, the Khitan can be said to have been full of fires, and rebellions occurred from time to time: in the second year of the Ying calendar (952), Tai Wei Kugu plotted rebellion and ambushed; in the third year of the Ying calendar (953), Yelü Li Beard Yelü Wan, Lang Jun Yelü Jigan, and Yelü Enemy Lie plotted rebellion; in the ninth year of the Ying calendar (959), the prince Yelü Enemy Lie, the former Xuanhui envoy Yelü Haisi and Xiao Dagan plotted rebellion; in the fifteenth year of the Ying calendar (965), the rebellion of the various departments of Murong Wei swept through the northeast of the Khitans.
In the sixth year of Xiande's conquest of the Khitans, Chai Rong had already achieved the achievement of breaking three levels and capturing two states, and was ill in attacking Youzhou. Therefore, if at this time, chai rong and the unified power attacked the Khitan who was worried about internal and external troubles, there was a very great certainty that they could recover Yanyun Sixteen Prefectures. If you're lucky, you'll even be able to pacify the prairie. Because the creation of history is originally about reality. The Khitan did not reach its peak until the late Liao Dynasty, but later Zhou fully used this time difference to pacify the grasslands. Let me give you an example: Murong Chui, the founder of Later Yan, and Tuoba Jue, the founder of Northern Wei, were both masters of the time, but both were defeated by Former Qin's Jian Jian to unify the north during extraordinary times. This was the importance of timing, if it were not for Jian Jian's rush to pacify the Eastern Jin Dynasty, he might not have slowly digested anything about Northern Wei.
We take a step back and say that even if the Later Zhou dynasty could not completely pacify the Khitans, there would be no problem in taking Youyun Sixteen Prefectures at all. In this way, the Later Zhou Dynasty would become a Great Zhou Dynasty that was bordered by the Great Wall; west to the western region; east to the sea; and south to the South China Sea.
Third, occupying Youyun and relying on the Great Wall to fight a defensive counterattack against the Khitan did not dare to say that like the Han and Tang Dynasties, they chased the great desert to Shi Yanran; but like the Ming Dynasty, there was no problem in defending the city.
Chai Rong's enterprising spirit made him not choose the model of releasing the military power with a cup of wine like the Song Dynasty, so his Shangwu character would inevitably be injected into the soul of the Great Zhou Dynasty like Li Yunlong. Therefore, in terms of attitude toward the Khitans, if the domestic situation could be quickly stabilized, then the chaotic situation of the reign of Emperor Muzong of Liao could be taken advantage of to pacify the grasslands. Emperor Muzong of Liao ruled until 969 AD, so history left Chai Rong with sixteen years. If in these sixteen years, Emperor Chai Rong of Zhou Shizong can complete domestic unification and maintain domestic stability, it is really possible to pacify the grasslands.
However, in order to prevent the mistake of making the same mistake as former Qin Zhijian in the Battle of Shuishui, then If Chai Rong took the battalion step by step, he would retreat to the second place to capture Youyun and rely on the Great Wall to build a northern defense line. After more than ten years of consolidation, the northern defensive line must be impregnable. Therefore, even the unified Great Zhou Dynasty could not leap into the desert and achieve the grand situation of Le Shi Yanran. However, like the Ming Dynasty, relying on the Great Wall defense line to fight defensive counterattacks and forming a confrontation with the Liao is not a problem at all.
brief summary:
Moreover, it seems that Chai Rong is not yet 40 years old in six years, and if Chai Rong lives long enough to cultivate a qualified heir of Qualified Yunwen Yunwu. Therefore, there will definitely be a unified Great Zhou Dynasty and will not be hanged by the Liao state like the Song.
I am the emperor of history, welcome your attention; if there is a flaw, the axe is right.