After zhao kuangyin, the grandfather of the Song Dynasty, established the Northern Song Dynasty, he began to expand his power step by step. Song Taizu first annexed the Southern Han Dynasty, and later targeted the Southern Tang. At that time, the emperor of the Southern Tang Dynasty was Li Yu. Li Yu was not originally the prince of the Southern Tang Dynasty, because he usually did not like political affairs but studied poetry and songs.
However, Li Yu's brother and his father both died early, and in the absence of any other candidate, Li Yu succeeded to the throne as emperor. Zhao Kuangyin, the grandfather of the Song Dynasty, was a natural emperor who liked to fight wars and expand his territory by nature. However, Li Yu was more like a literati in his bones, and the series of measures he took as emperor were also relatively mild, which was conducive to the development of the people's lives.
Later, after Song Taizu sent troops to Southern Tang, Southern Tang also resisted for a period of time, but there was a huge disparity in strength. In the end, in order to reduce the unnecessary casualties, Li Yu sent emissaries to ask Zhao Kuangyin for peace, saying that he would take the initiative to surrender and become a vassal. However, Song Taizu was not moved, and he said a word at that time, allowing others to sleep soundly on the side of the bed, so that Li Yu's desire for peace was completely broken.
1. The Lord of the Southern Tang Dynasty
China has a long history and has a variety of different dynasties. Different dynasties have different emperors, and each emperor has his own personality characteristics. An emperor at the end of the Tang Dynasty did not have great achievements in political affairs. But his name has also been passed down through the ages, and this person is Li Yu.
Li Yu, the lord of the Southern Tang Dynasty, was well known, mainly because of his achievements in writing words. Many people especially like Li Yu's words, and the words he writes are mournful and exquisite. Because of his achievements in pen and ink, even people ignore his failure as an emperor. Li Yu was just an ordinary prince in the beginning.
But at that time, because of his talent and appearance, he caused the jealousy of the prince. Since then, Li Yu has begun to ignore political affairs, chanting poems all day long and indulging in classics. Later, the crown prince died of illness, and the emperor died not long after. In this case, only Li Yu could succeed to the throne, and he became emperor.
However, because Li Yu has been very interested in writing and painting since he was a teenager, he basically did not learn how to deal with political affairs. And his ascension to the throne was largely an accident, due to the early deaths of his brother and father. At this time, the strength of Song Taizu Zhao Kuangyin became stronger step by step, so Li Yu had been sleepless and terrified since he ascended the throne.
Fearing that the Song Dynasty would attack the Southern Tang, Li Yu even sent emissaries to the Song Dynasty to send them money and some treasures. Later, after these nests had been angry for a long time, Li Yu also had a temper, of course, this had a lot to do with the advice of some ministers. So during that time, Li Yu often discussed state affairs with his ministers, and sometimes even stayed up late at night.
Second, voluntarily surrender
But Li Yu's temper was only three minutes hot, and later Song Taizu led the army to destroy the Southern Han. To some extent, this is equivalent to sounding the alarm bell for Li Yu, who is very afraid, afraid that the next object of Song Taizu's action will be himself. At that time, the Song Dynasty built more than 1,000 warships at the border of the Southern Tang Dynasty, which were discovered by the spies of the Southern Tang.
Southern Tang spies reported this situation to Li Yu, so Manchao Wenwu advised Li Yu to quickly send someone to secretly burn these warships. But by this time, Li Yu had been scared out of his guts and couldn't make any useful decisions. Moreover, later, Li Yu rectified some palaces and official titles in the Southern Tang Dynasty, so as not to violate the taboos of the Song Dynasty.
At that time, as soon as the Song Dynasty had emissaries coming, Li Yu hid out; when the Song Emissaries left, Li Yu returned again. In general, Li Yu, the lord of the Southern Tang Dynasty in that period, did his best to submit to a low and small posture. However, Li Yu's style did not soften Song Taizu's attitude. In the seventh year of Kaibao, Song Taizu sent an army to the Southern Tang.
During this period, Li Yu finally decided to give it a go. Li Yu ordered his men to strengthen the city's defenses, hoarded a lot of grain, and actively prepared for war, preparing for a decisive battle with Song Taizu. However, I did not expect that the strength of the two sides was too different, so the Southern Tang side presented a situation of defeat. In February of the new year, the soldiers and horses of the Northern Song Dynasty had already besieged Jinling.
The people inside the city desperately resisted, and the soldiers and horses of the Northern Song Dynasty outside the city repeatedly launched a fierce attack on Jinling day and night. On the one hand, there was very little grain left in Jinling City, and on the other hand, the number of soldiers in the Southern Tang Dynasty was too many. Under such circumstances, Li Yu had no choice but to send emissaries to the Northern Song Dynasty to send them money and ask them to withdraw their troops.
3. The side of the bed
However, Zhao Kuangyin, the grandfather of the Song Dynasty, was not moved, but instead said a word, and the side of the bed showed his attitude of allowing others to sleep soundly. Song Taizu then ordered the army besieging Jinling to continue the onslaught against Jinling. Two months later, almost all of Jinling's defenders were killed, and some officials chose to commit suicide, and Li Yu announced his surrender. At this point, the Southern Tang Dynasty was destroyed by Song Taizu.
In the past few years, Li Yu was captured and taken to the capital of the Song Dynasty. Song Taizu also gave him a knighthood, but unfortunately, within two years, Li Yu died in the Northern Song Dynasty, when he was 42 years old. In fact, Li Yu was not an absurd emperor, but his talent was more in poetry and song than in the conquest of the four sides.
Since Li Yu took the throne, he has also adopted some policies and measures that are relatively good for the country. For example, he attaches great importance to the fairness and fairness of the examination, and even personally writes the examination questions in the imperial examination. Even if the national strength weakened in the later period, he also insisted on holding imperial examinations to select talents for the country. Before Li Yu succeeded to the throne, the economic situation of southern Tang was already very poor.
However, Li Yu was very kind to the common people, and after ascending the throne, he was exempted from military service and also reduced taxes. Li Yu also tried to restore the Ida system, although it failed due to opposition from the landlord class. Even after the southern Tang Dynasty really went to war with the Song Dynasty in the later period, Li Yu personally went to the city many times to supervise the battle.
4. Summary
Fate is a very wonderful thing, such as the fate of Li Yu, the lord of the Southern Tang Dynasty. He has a proud talent in poetry and song, and has written many good sentences that have been passed down through the ages. However, he was born in the royal family of the Southern Tang Dynasty, and under the trick of fate, his father and brother died early. In desperation, Li Yu succeeded to the throne as emperor.
Li Yu is not bad, and the series of policies and measures promulgated after he became emperor are all from the perspective of the state and the people. It can only be said that Li Yu's ability to become emperor was very mediocre, and at that time, when the Southern Tang Dynasty reached Li Yu's hands, it was already a mess.
Li Yu did not have the ability to turn decay into magic and bring the dead back to life. Therefore, he could only watch as the Southern Tang Dynasty was invaded and annexed by the Song Dynasty step by step, while Li Yu himself could only write some poignant poems to convey his sense of powerlessness.