The founding emperor of the Later Han Dynasty, Gaozu Liu Zhiyuan, founded the empire only half a year, and the Later Han Dynasty was also the shortest-lived dynasty in history, Liu Zhiyuan's eldest son Liu Chengxun died early, so in 948 he passed the throne to his second son Liu Chengyou. Before his death, he appointed Yang Ying, Su Fengji, Shi Hongzhao, and Wang Zhang as the prime minister to assist Liu Chengyou, and Guo Wei was given the status of privy councillor to fight and guard the capital.
Among the five people, only Guo Wei was more approachable and kind, and the other four were full of contradictions, Yang Ying was arrogant and arrogant, Shi Hongzhao was arrogant, Su Fengji was sinister and cunning, and Wang Zhang was arrogant and arrogant. In addition to Guo Wei's perennial garrison outside, the important internal affairs and administrative affairs were basically handled by Yang Ying, Su Fengji, Shi Hongzhao, and Wang Zhang, and the power gradually concentrated in the hands of these four people, and the emperor Liu Chengyou did not have real power in his hands.
Liu Chengyougui was the Son of Heaven, but he was often despised by his vassals, the most rampant of whom were. It is recorded in history that he openly insulted Liu Chengyou in the courtroom, and during a court visit, Yang Ying and Wang Zhang talked in front of the emperor without any barriers, and finally decided on the implementation plan of the final plan without consulting the emperor, and decided to start preparing it immediately. Liu Chengyou saw the situation and said: "I think the idea of the two Aiqing is very good, but to really implement it, we must consider the people's ideas." As soon as the words fell, Yang Ying immediately expressed his dissatisfaction, and he opened his mouth and said, "Your Majesty, please don't speak at will, will there be any big chaos caused by the old minister?" The court ministers saw the green tendons on the emperor's neck jumping violently, and couldn't help but pinch the sweat for Yang Ying.
What was even more excessive was that Yang Chengyou not only blatantly overstepped his authority to interfere in politics, he also stared at the emperor's harem, he prevented Liu Chengyou from making Lady Geng empress, after her death, he also prevented Liu Chengyou from burying her with the empress's funeral rites, and when Liu Chengyou was distraught, the chancellor Li Ye and others began to stir up the flames, and in order to punish Yang Chengyou, a big problem, they instigated the execution of Liu Chengyou and held real power themselves.
Coincidentally, at this time, Su Fengji and Shi Hongzhao had friction, took the initiative to defect to the emperor, and pretended to be Shi Hongzhao, Yang Ying, and Wang Zhang in front of Liu Chengyou, who were secretly plotting and preparing to rebel. In 950, in the third year of Qianyou, Liu Chengyou sent more than a dozen warriors to kill Yang Ying, Wang Zhang, and Shi Hongzhao, and destroyed their homes. Then, fearing that the Privy Counsellor would cause trouble for Guo Wei and Shi Hongzhao's confidant Wang Yin, he sent the worshippers Meng Ye and Zhen Ning Jiedu to make Li Hongyi lead elite soldiers to kill Guo Wei and Shi Hongzhao to solve their concerns. What the emperor did not expect was that Meng Ye and Li Hongyi finally passed on the plan of killing guo wei and Wang Yin, and they decided to jointly rebel in anger.
On November 14 of the same year, Guo Wei and Wang Yin rose up, led their troops south, killed countless people along the way, and soon attacked the capital Kaifeng after defeating the main forces of the imperial court, Liu Chengyou saw that the situation was irreparable and fled with a small number of cronies, but in the end he did not escape, Liu Chengyou was only 21 years old when he was killed. After Guo Wei's great victory, he forced Empress Li to establish herself as a prisoner of state and formally deposed the Han dynasty in the first month of 951 and established the Zhou Dynasty, which only existed for 3 years.