In 959, the sixth year of Later Zhou Xiande, Emperor Chai Rong of Zhou died of illness after returning to Beijing on his northern expedition. Before his death, he appointed his confidant Zhao Kuangyin (赵匡胤) as the head of the palace and put in charge of the forbidden army in front of the palace, in order to prevent others from spying on his seven-year-old Chai Zongxun's throne. Unexpectedly, Emperor Gong Chai Zongxun reigned for only one year, because there was false news that the Northern Han and Khitan joint troops had invaded the border, Zhao Kuangyin was ordered to go to the enemy, and on the evening of the third day of the first month, the large army mutinied at Chen Qiaoyi, twenty kilometers northeast of the capital city of Bieliang, and the generals supported Zhao Kuangyin as emperor in the early morning of the next day, which was called the "Chen Qiao Mutiny" in history. The army immediately returned to the capital, and the Later Zhou Gong Emperor Chai Zongxun took the throne, Zhao Kuangyin ascended the throne, changed the yuan Jianlong, and the national name was "Song", and the history was called "Song Dynasty" and "Northern Song".
At that time, in addition to the newly established Song Dynasty, there were also forces such as Later Shu, Southern Han, Southern Tang, Wuyue, and Northern Han. So from the beginning of the founding of the Song Dynasty, Zhao Kuangyin began the process of unifying the whole country.
After the Song army pacified Jingnan, the Song army began to attack Shu. The Later Shu lord Meng Chang heard the news and wanted to rely on the dangerous terrain of Sichuan and Shaanxi, strictly refused to defend, and at the same time sent envoys to the Northern Han Dynasty to jointly oppose the Song. Zhao Kuangyin captured the Shu rebel general Zhao Yantao, and when he learned of the deployment of the Shu army, he ordered the troops to be dispatched.
Later Shu was far away from the Central Plains, there were few wars in its territory, and the economic development was good, so the monarchs and courtiers took pleasure in luxury. Meng Chang was even more extravagant and obscene, and even the drowning utensils were decorated with Seven Treasures. The Northern Song Dynasty arose and had already captured Jing and Tan, and Meng Chang sent the Great Cheng official Sun Yu to use the Wax Pill Book from the Trail to the Northern Han Dynasty to jointly send troops to obstruct the unification activities of the Northern Song Dynasty, and Sun Yu was captured by the Northern Song border officials. Zhao Kuangyin therefore issued an edict to later Shu, with Wang Quanbin as the commander of the Sichuan camp and Liu Guangqi and Cui Yanjin as his deputy generals. He led more than 60,000 infantry and cavalry, divided into two roads, Fengzhou and Guizhou, took the danger of the ZhanDao and the Three Gorges of the Yangtze River, and marched into Western Shu. At that time, the King of Shu, Meng Changxin, had no soldiers around him, and it was difficult to escape the doom of destruction. The Song army progressed smoothly, and it took only 66 days to occupy forty-five prefectures and one hundred and ninety-eight counties.
After Meng Chang surrendered to the Northern Song Dynasty, on the way from Chengdu to the Northern Song Dynasty's capital division Of Liang (present-day Kaifeng, Henan), tens of thousands of ordinary people in Chengdu risked their lives to send him off, people cried and sent, men, women and children escorted along the river, hundreds of them cried desperately, Meng Chang also covered his face and wept bitterly, and the common people have been sent from Chengdu to Jianwei County, up to hundreds of kilometers, and the scene is very touching.
After the surrender of Later Shu, in order to completely change the evils of the previous division of feudal towns, the Song Dynasty adopted a centralized system, did not allow the localities to control the troops, did not keep property for the localities, and transported the "heavy goods" such as gold, silver, jewelry, copper coins, and "light goods" such as gold, silver, jewelry, and copper coins stored in the treasury of the Later Shu Province to the capital city of Kaifeng, known as the "Rijin Gang". When these gold and silver treasures were transported away, a large number of people were forcibly conscripted, both land and water, and it took more than ten years to be transported, and many Sichuan people felt humiliated and angry at being conquered.
After the fall of the Song Dynasty and the Shu Dynasty, the Song generals who had entered Sichuan held a grand banquet in Chengdu all day and all night, singing and dancing continuously, indulging in alcohol, and unscrupulously wandering, no longer caring about military affairs, allowing their subordinates to loot money and goods and occupy women. The people of Sichuan were indignant at the obscene threats of the Song army. The Song general Cao Bin repeatedly invited the commander Wang Quanbin to return to Beijing. Wang Quanbin and others coveted the enjoyment of Chengdu and ignored it.
Zhao Kuangyin soon issued an edict ordering the Shu army to be sent to the capital, each giving 10,000 yuan, and those who did not leave were given an additional two months of food. Wang Quanbin and others did not carry out the execution immediately, and from then on, the Shu army was indignant and everyone wanted to make trouble. When the Shu army arrived in Mianzhou, it rebelled, robbed the subordinate counties, gathered more than 100,000 people, and called itself the "Xingguo Army". Among the Shu people was a man who had served as a general in the History of Wenzhou, who had been a general, and who had prestige and virtue, and the soldiers were afraid of him. At that time, he was leading the whole clan to the capital, and encountered a rebellion in Mianzhou, and Quan Shixiong was afraid of being held hostage by the soldiers, so he first hid the whole family in the Jiangqu Folk House. A few days later, he was caught by the rebels and pushed to be the commander-in-chief. Subsequently, the seventeen prefectures of Qiong, Shu, Mei, Ya, Dongchuan, Guo, Sui, Yu, He, Zi, Jian, Chang, Pu, Jia, Rong, Rong, and Ling all followed quan shixiong in rebellion. At this time, there were still more than 27,000 Shu soldiers in Chengdu, and Wang Quanbin was afraid that they would cooperate with the rebel army, so he conspired with his generals and killed them. This atrocity of killing and descending soldiers has made the Sichuan people even more angry.
When Zhao Kuangyin, the grandfather of the Song Dynasty, learned of the Sichuan rebellion, he immediately sent a large army to reinforce, and it took a year and another bloody massacre to be put to rest. Although this turmoil was won by the absolute superiority of the Song army, the central government of Song Taizu also completely lost the hearts and minds of the Shu state.
Under the rule of the Song Dynasty, the burden on the people of Sichuan at that time was very heavy. In the Chengdu area of Sichuan, there are many people and few land, and the peasants "do not have enough to give" more side businesses such as textiles and tea picking. In addition to the normal taxes, there are various types of harsh taxes and miscellaneous taxes. Everyone had a lot of taxes on their heads, as well as servitude and apportionment. Farmers do not have enough to feed themselves all year round. Although the people in the post-epidemic Shu era also had a lot of taxes, they were finally able to have a food and clothing, and now the people of Sichuan are even poorer than in the past.
In the fourth year of Chunhua (993), the rebellion of Wang Xiaobo and Li Shun broke out in Qingcheng County (present-day south of Dujiangyan City, Sichuan). Wang Xiaobo put forward the idea of "equalizing the rich and the poor," and more than 10,000 followers occupied Qingcheng and Pengshan. Soon, Wang Xiaobo was killed, and Li Shun succeeded him as the leader. The following year, he occupied Chengdu, established the Dashu regime, and controlled most of Sichuan.
Zhao Guangyi, the grandfather of the Song Dynasty, urgently ordered his confidant eunuch Wang Ji'en to recruit an envoy for Xichuan, and to unify the army from Jianmen into Sichuan; he also sent Lei Youzhong, Pei Zhuang, Yin Yuan, and others to lead troops from Hubei into the Gate of Chuanmen to suppress it, and repeatedly issued edicts to persuade Zhang Yong to know Chengdu Prefecture and wait for the opportunity to enter Sichuan. In April, Wang Ji'en's army broke through Jian Prefecture, Mianzhou (present-day Mianyang, Sichuan), Langzhou (present-day Langzhong, Sichuan), and Bazhou (present-day Bazhong, Sichuan); the Eastern Route officers also entered the Fumen and attacked the Fujiang River Valley. Wang Ji'en led an army to attack Chengdu. More than 100,000 rebel troops refused to defend the city and fought fiercely. On May 6, Chengdu fell, and Li Shun was killed when the city was destroyed.
Wang Ji'en's style was exactly the same as Wang Quanbin's, coveting enjoyment, extravagant and lascivious, and conniving at his subordinates to rape women and plunder money, so that the rebellion movement in various parts of Sichuan continued to rise and fall.
In the first year of the reign of Emperor Zhenzong of Song (998 CE), the Song sent Fu Zhaoshou to the yizhou (Chengdu) terracotta warriors and horses (in charge of the yizhou terracotta army). Zhaoshou was the son of Fu Yanqing, a general of the early Song Dynasty, who was both a meritorious warrior and a relative of the emperor's family, and as a son of a nobleman, he took charge of all the soldiers and horses, "arrogant and not pro-military", ate and drank in the garden every day, and recruited all the brocade workers, specially for his family to weave beautiful silk ribbons, and the materials needed were forced to be handed over by the people of the city, or plundered in lengths; and rice and wheat were widely brought, stored in the temples, and after a long period of decay, that is, the monks were ordered to compensate, and many evils were committed. He himself did not care, all military affairs, only the servants preached and adjudicated. His servants also bullied others, insulted the military academy, and made everyone resentful. Taking advantage of his lack of preparation, The Divine Garrison Zhao Yanshun and eight other men led a rebellion, killed Zhaoshou, occupied Chengdu, established the name "Great Shu", and changed the yuan to "Huashun". The rebellion lasted nine months before it was put down by the Song army.
From the three-year demotion of troops in Qiande to the three-year rebellion of Xianping, the people of Sichuan experienced 36 years of non-stop war. Therefore, Sichuan people generally harbor a rebellious mentality and form an attitude of non-cooperation. The "History of Song" says that "the Shu people are not good at being a master". During the Northern Song Dynasty, there were 90 prime ministers, of which only four belonged to Sichuan. At the beginning of the founding of the country, none of the high-ranking officials of the Taizu and Taizong dynasties were Shu people.