After Zhao Kuangyin destroyed the Southern Tang, only wuyue and Zhangquan remained in the south, two nominally independent regimes. According to Zhao Kuangyin's established policy of unifying the world, he should eliminate these two regimes with one blow. However, Zhao Kuangyin, the grandfather of the Song Dynasty, did not immediately go out on the expedition, but instead issued an edict in 976 and inspected Luoyang, the western capital. His trip to Luoyang sparked a major debate over the relocation of the capital. Why did Song Taizu move the capital? Is there anything hidden about moving the capital?
Zhao Kuangyin
The reason for the hidden danger
After the reconquest of Jiangnan, Zhao Kuangyin did not take the remaining two regimes in the south, Wu Yue and Qingyuan Jun (Zhangquan), into the territory of the Great Song Dynasty in one fell swoop, mainly for two reasons:
First, because these two regimes had completely lost their resistance to the Great Song, especially Wu Yue, actively responded to the call of Zhao Kuangyin, the grandfather of the Song Dynasty, and personally participated in the military operation against the Southern Tang. Wu Yue, as the main force besieging Jinling, made an important contribution to the capture of the Southern Tang. Chen Hongjin, who had divided Zhangzhou and Quanzhou, claimed to be a vassal state of the Great Song Dynasty from the beginning of the Song Dynasty, and after Jiangnan was captured, he suddenly realized the crisis he was facing, so he sent his son to Tokyo in order to strengthen friendly relations with the Great Song regime.
Volume XVII of the Continuation of the Zizhi TongjianChang edition reads: "Pinghai Jiedushi made Chen Hongjin enter the dynasty with Jiangnan and Wuyue, and without self-peace, Peng Yin, sent his son Zhangzhou to stab Shi Wenhao to pay tribute, and begged for a ceremony, and promised it." ”
For such obedient and obedient people, although it is not difficult to quickly subdue them, it will damage the demeanor of a big country and is not in line with the highest ideal of "peaceful reunification" that Zhao Kuangyin has always pursued.
The second reason is that when Wu Yue jointly attacked Jiangnan with the Great Song Dynasty, Li Yu personally wrote a letter to Wu Yue in an attempt to break the alliance between the two regimes. The content is as follows: lips are dead, teeth are cold, today without me, tomorrow is your death date! Once Wu Yue was also incorporated into the territory of the Great Song, you would no longer enjoy the status of a king, and you would be just a clothed citizen of the Great Song.
In order to show his loyalty (in fact, there is a careful thought), In order to avoid "cunning rabbit death, lackey cooking", Wu Yue sent emissaries to send the letter to Zhao Kuangyin. In the face of what Li Yu said, Zhao Kuangyin was naturally unwilling to let a loser say that in order not to fall into the truth, Zhao Kuangyin did not rush to include Wuyue and Zhangquan into the territory after recovering the Southern Tang.
Li yu
In fact, the question that Zhao Kuangyin should consider is how to unify the north, how to recover the Northern Han, and how to deal with the threat of the Liao state. However, Zhao Kuangyin's understanding of Tokyo, the capital of the Great Song Dynasty, changed, and the idea of moving the capital was born. To this end, he wanted to go to the field to do some research in person. Unexpectedly, Zhao Kuangyin's idea of moving the capital caused a series of problems.
The dispute over the relocation of the capital began and ended
In 976, Zhao Kuangyin, the grandfather of the Song Dynasty, issued an edict saying that he would visit Luoyang, the western capital, in April. Zhao Kuangyin found two good reasons for this inspection: one was to worship at the Yong'an Mausoleum of his father Zhao Hongyin; and the other was to worship the heavens in the southern suburbs of Luoyang, Xijing. Although these two reasons are very grandiose, the people around Zhao Kuangyin are very aware of the purpose of his trip, so they strongly oppose it.
Zhao Kuangyin ignored the opposition and dissuasion of the crowd and insisted on going to Luoyang. According to the plan, he first went to Gongyi to worship his father's mausoleum, and then went to the southern suburbs of Luoyang to hold a ceremony to worship the heavens. After everything was handled, Zhao Kuangyin showed no sign of leaving, but continued to stay in Luoyang, and the entourage of ministers knew Zhao Kuangyin's meaning, so no one dared to advise him to return to Beijing.
However, there were not many people around him, Li Huaizhong also followed Zhao Kuangyin to Luoyang, and he said to Zhao Kuangyin: "Tokyo has a water and land transportation channel of the Bian River, transporting millions of grain from the Yangtze River and the Huai River every year, and there are hundreds of thousands of people in Kyoto, and they all rely on this waterway for supplies. Moreover, our foundation is already very strong in the girder. If the capital is moved to Luoyang in a hurry, the minister really did not find any benefits. ”
Volume XVII of the "Continuation of the Zizhi Tongjian Long Edition" contains: "There is a canal in Tokyo, and there are millions of rice in Jianghuai, and hundreds of thousands of troops have been sent down, and they are looked up to Yan. His Majesty is here, will he take it? And the heavy troops in the treasury are all in the big beams, and they have been solid for a long time and cannot be shaken. If the capital is moved, the subject will not see it.
In the face of Li Huaizhong's advice, Zhao Kuangyin showed no mercy, and according to the "Continuation of the Zhizhi Tongjian Long Edition", Zhao Kuangyin directly rejected Li Huaizhong with only four words- Shang Yifu Cong. So where exactly did Luoyang attract Zhao Kuangyin, causing Zhao Kuangyin to insist on moving the capital to Luoyang despite the opposition of everyone? Let's compare the status of Kaifeng and Luoyang during the Great Song Dynasty.
The first thing to consider is, why did the Song Dynasty be established in Kaifeng at the beginning?
The difference between Kaifeng and Luoyang
First, historical factors
The Great Song Dynasty was obtained by Zhao Kuangyin through the Chen Qiao Mutiny, being "yellow robes plus body" in his sleep, and then using thunderous means to seize the power of Later Zhou by peaceful means. At that time, the capital of Later Zhou was Kaifeng, and Zhao Kuangyin almost took over the power of Later Zhou as a "receiver", and Kaifeng naturally became the capital of the Great Song Dynasty.
In the five dynasties, the capital of four dynasties was set at Kaifeng: Later Liang, Later Jin, Later Han, and Later Zhou. That is to say, Kaifeng has always been favored by the royal family and has been influenced by culture, especially in the glorious period of the Later Zhou Dynasty, Kaifeng's population has increased sharply and houses are dense, and it has become the first center in the world at that time.
Kaifeng Province Map
During the Zhou Shizong period, in order to maintain the image of Kaifeng, Zhou Shizong carried out a drastic transformation of Kaifeng, so that Kaifeng formed a three-fold pattern: the outer city, the inner city, and the imperial city. Kaifeng has fully possessed the scale of serving as the capital of a unified country, and this is the biggest foundation of Kaifeng, the capital of the Northern Song Dynasty.
Second, geographical factors
The History of song, volume 93, "Hequ Zhi", says: "With the four sides of the great beam, the hub of the world, can be controlled by the four seas, so Bu Jingyi is the capital." "Kaifeng is located at the southern end of the North China Plain, in the center of the Central Plains, occupying this place can completely overlook the whole country, which is showing the style of a big country." And around Kaifeng, there is a horse pingchuan, which is conducive to the dispatch of troops and the control of local unrest.
Third, traffic factors
We can clearly see from the map of the Great Song Dynasty that Kaifeng is not only in the central region of the Central Plains, but also has extensive land and water transportation, which is a veritable "four-way meeting".
Kaifeng land map
On the land side, there are several major arterial roads: from Kaifeng to the north, through Huazhou (present-day Huaxian County, Henan), Liaozhou (present-day Puyang, Henan), and Daming (present-day Daming, Hebei), you can reach the Hebei Prefectures, and you can directly reach the capital of the Liao State.
There are two main arterial roads from Kaifeng to the east: one is through Caozhou, Jeju, Yanzhou, and Qizhou to reach the Shandong Peninsula and other places; the other is through Nanjing (present-day Shangqiu, Henan) and Xuzhou (present-day Xuzhou, Jiangsu) to Haizhou (present-day Lianyungang, Jiangsu).
From Kaifeng to the south, through Chen Prefecture (present-day Huaiyang, Henan) you can reach all parts of the middle reaches of the Huai River. To the west, it could pass through Luoyang and then reach Qinzhou (present-day Tianshui, Gansu) and Sichuan.
Kaifeng not only has the convenience of land, the waterway is also very developed, and in the Song Dynasty Kaifeng was a city dominated by waterways and the center of waterway transportation in the country. In Kaifeng in the Song Dynasty, there were as many as four waterways: the Beihe River, the Yellow River, the Huimin River (Cai River), and the Guangji River (Wuzhang River), of which the Beihe River was the most important, which ensured the supply of the Northern Song army.
Northern Song Dynasty map
Fourth, military factors
Gu Zuyu of the Qing Dynasty once made the following instructions in the "Reading History and Minutes: Henan and The Chronicles": "Henan, the ancient so-called land of the four wars. When the day comes to take over the world, Henan will have something to fight. and the world is established, and if it is in Henan, it is in a precarious situation. ”
That is to say, Kaifeng here a horse Pingchuan, although the transportation is convenient, but because there are no mountains and rivers around, there is no natural barrier that can be relied on, if the Liaoju army goes south, it is like entering no man's land on the North China Plain, which is the only disadvantage of Kaifeng, and it is also the most obvious disadvantage.
In summary, Luoyang's advantages were not as good as Kaifeng's, and Zhao Kuangyin's name could not fail to see this, so after the third consultation of others, Zhao Kuangyin, the grandfather of song, finally changed his decision.
The moral hat of Zhao Guangyi, king of Jin
Zhao Guangyi was the younger brother of Zhao Kuangyin and contributed to the unification of the Great Song Dynasty. He said to Zhao Kuangyin: "Moving the capital to Luoyang has not been facilitated. Zhao Kuangyin replied, "It is not long before the move to Henan, it has long been time to move to Chang'an." This means that moving to Luoyang is not a long-term solution, but a long-term solution is to move the capital to Chang'an.
Zhao Kuangyin continued to explain: "I will move west without it, and I want to rely on the victory of the mountains and rivers to go to the redundant army, follow the stories of Zhou and Han, in order to secure the world." Zhao Kuangyin really moved out Kaifeng's geographical advantages that had no natural barriers to rely on and lacked mountains and rivers, and also moved out the Zhou Dynasty and the Han Dynasty, in order to prove that the prosperity of these dynasties was due to the good use of the natural advantages of geographical advantages and the elimination of redundant military expenditures to achieve the long-term peace and stability of the Great Song Dynasty.
Zhao Guangyi
Regarding Zhao Kuangyin's remarks, Zhao Guangyi did not think so, saying: "There is no danger in Germany." He also said: "Mencius has long said that 'the heavens are not as good as the place, and the location is not as good as the people'." In the face of the moral hat sent by Zhao Guangyi, Taizu was momentarily gagged and dumbfounded, according to the record of the "Continuation of the Zhizhi Tongjian Long Edition", and: "The upper does not answer."
After Zhao Guangyi, the King of Jin, left, Zhao Kuangyin, the grandfather of the Song Dynasty, turned his head and said to the people around him: "The words of the King of Jin are solid and good, and this aunt obeys them." Within a hundred years, the people of the world have been exhausted. ”
The next day, Song Taizu issued an edict and returned to Kaifeng, Tokyo. From the ninth day of March from Kaifeng to the 15th of April, Zhao Kuangyin's western tour lasted for more than a month, and the goal of this western tour "to inspect Luoyang in the western capital and prepare to move the capital to Xijing" was finally aborted under the advice of the ministers, especially Zhao Guangyi, the king of Jin.
brief summary
Although the historical record is so recorded, we can still see many clues in it. For example, the ministers, including his good brother Li Huaizhong,did not give the slightest face, and no matter what they said, Zhao Kuangyin always "obeyed the Buddha". After his younger brother Zhao Guangyi came, it was a little too simple to "persuade" Zhao Kuangyin to change his mind with only three words and two words.
Moreover, Zhao Kuangyin had been staying in Luoyang after doing all the work in Luoyang, as if he was waiting for someone, and when Zhao Guangyi came, if Zhao Kuangyin was really persuaded, how could he leave behind "Jingu Congzhi." Within a hundred years, the people of the world have been exhausted. "What about such inauspicious words?
Coupled with the fact that Zhao Kuangyin died at a candlelit dinner after returning to the capital, and his younger brother Zhao Guangyi became the second emperor of the Great Song Dynasty, it is really puzzling.