Speaking of which, the change of the feudal dynasty is similar to the singing drama, after one opera leaves the stage, the other immediately enters and sings a paragraph in full swing. In the eighth century AD, Huang Chao, a ticket holder, took the stage to stir up, the Tang Dynasty stopped singing, the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms immediately appeared, a new repertoire was staged, and the Tang Dynasty became the past tense.
Different from the "one-man show" of the Tang Dynasty, there are many roles in the drama of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms, and the Later Han Dynasty is one of them.
Whenever there is a chaotic world of division between the masses, there will be a drama of "yellow robe plus body" on the stage of the Central Plains, and Liu Zhiyuan, like Zhao Kuangyin in later generations, is the direct beneficiary of this drama. With the support of his subordinates, Liu Zhiyuan changed into a dragon robe, laid down Kaifeng, established himself as emperor, and founded Han unification. Of course, in order to distinguish it from the Han Dynasty, later generations will usually refer to this Han as the Later Han. Since ancient times, there are few guys who wear dragon robes with their bosses, and Liu Zhiyuan's subordinate Guo Wei is a typical example.
The reason why Liu Zhiyuan was able to establish political power was inseparable from the help of this group of old brothers under his command, and Guo Wei held heavy troops and was a powerful cadre under Liu Zhiyuan. When Liu Zhiyuan grabbed the territory, Guo Wei made countless contributions, and it can be said that he was the founder of the Later Han Dynasty. It is reasonable to say that such a capable general should not only be commended, but also valued. With the gradual stabilization of the Later Han Dynasty, Liu Zhiyuan committed the emperor's common disease, that is, doubting gods and ghosts.
Like the founding emperors of previous dynasties, Liu Zhiyuan gradually began to feel that it was not a good thing to have a group of military generals around him who liked to throw up their superiors' "yellow robes and add their bodies", and planned to make a "rabbit dead dog cooking" and sweep these old heroes away, so as not to cause similar situations to happen to them. Guo Wei gained a pivotal position because of his military achievements, so he was naturally in the list of the Hidden Emperor and ranked among the best. However, because Liu Zhiyuan had already run out of oil before he started, he died before he began to clean.
After Liu Zhiyuan's death, his son Emperor Yin of Han inherited his father's legacy and prepared to complete the feat of "rabbit dead dog cooking", completely sweeping away these meritorious ministers and consolidating centralized power.
By all accounts, Emperor Yin could not calculate that Guo Wei was not a fuel-saving lamp, and the former emperor's decision to kill the heroes gave him a lesson in history, so he had already begun to set up defenses against the emperor. When the spies he had placed next to Emperor Yin sent news that Emperor Yin was about to act, Guo Wei calmly and calmly led his subordinates to raise troops to rebel.
Guo Wei is a wise man, and rebellion has always been despised by the people of the world. Therefore, from the moment he decided to oppose the Hidden Emperor, he was doomed to not get the support of the common people. If you want to succeed, you must pull more cushions, and then find some justified reasons to obtain the legitimacy of rebellion and usurpation.
Therefore, Guo Wei ordered people to forge an edict, saying that the emperor would slaughter the heroes and pull the Hou Han generals who held military power into his camp. At that time, Emperor Yin's actions had aroused the vigilance of the generals, so Guo Wei's forged edict did not arouse suspicion, and every general believed that Liu Zhiyuan wanted to kill himself. As a result, most of the generals led their troops to Guo Wei, and those who still served the Hidden Emperor also held a wait-and-see attitude and no longer fought for the emperor.
Suddenly, the situation became stormy, the Hidden Emperor lost the hearts of the people, and his situation was precarious. Immediately after, the Battle of Qilipo broke out. Under the auspices of Guo Wei, his generals held high the anti-banner and attacked Liu Zhiyuan. In order to resist Guo Wei, The Hidden Emperor sent all his troops to fight the rebels to the death at Qilippo. Because the civil and military officials at that time were all instigated by Guo Wei and showed unprecedented centrifugal force against the Later Han, Emperor Yin had to take the throne in order to consolidate people's hearts.
For Guo Wei, the Hidden Emperor was just a hairy boy who had never seen the world. After Liu Zhiyuan's death, Emperor Yin inherited his father's business, where did he experience war? As a result, Guo Wei's army defeated the regular army in one fell swoop, and also killed the Hidden Emperor who was personally marching. Guo Wei, who had won the battle, drove straight in and took his men to Kaifeng. Under guo wei's coercion, the empress dowager made Guo Wei a superintendent and took charge of the major affairs of the military state.
Although at that time, Guo Wei asked the empress dowager to listen to the government and preside over the situation, and also supported Liu Zhiyuan's heirs to ascend the throne, these were just puppets that Guo Wei used to deceive people's hearts. After all, the trick of "holding the Son of Heaven hostage to order the princes" was very useful in the feudal dynasty, and Guo Wei was only one fictitious name away from the emperor.
When the time was ripe, Guo Wei led his troops north under the guise of resisting the Khitans. In the process of the expedition, Guo Wei's subordinates naturally supported Guo Wei as emperor, and the drama of "yellow robe plus body" was repeated again. After becoming emperor, Guo Wei came to Beijing with a big wave, changed the name of the country to Zhou, and became emperor. With the rise of Guo Wei, the Later Han Dynasty was completely destroyed and withdrew from the stage of history.
Of course, Guo Wei never dreamed that in the end, he would not be able to escape the fate of being usurped in the end, and he Guo Wei could play the play of "yellow robe plus body", and Zhao Kuangyin could also act. After the Later Han Dynasty and the Later Zhou Dynasty, the rise of Zhao Kuangyin's Northern Song Dynasty finally ended the absurd years of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms.
It is said that Guo Wei was buried in Songling after his death. Songling is about 500 meters south of Zhouzhuang Village in present-day Guodian Town, Xinzheng City, Henan Province. The mausoleum is high in the north and low in the south, with a small ridge in the east and west, and a ditch on each side of the mausoleum. The height of the mound is about 9 meters, and the circumference is 103 meters, so it is well preserved. According to a poet who inscribed a poem after the Gurudwara SongLing:
"Thorns grow old armor, and the sunset shines on the dragon's robe."
Shuo Yi was quiet in the day, and the iron rode into wheat seedlings. ”
It was probably the evening of autumn and winter, and the poet saw a mound in the middle of a wheat field, covered with thorny weeds, which looked particularly cold and desolate in the light of the setting sun...
Resources:
【History of the New Five Dynasties" and "Five Generations will be essential"】