In the eyes of many people, the Great Song Dynasty is a very weak, bullying, spending money to buy peace, and even has a nickname that jokingly calls the Song Dynasty "Great Sending" or "Frustrating the Song".
During the reign of Emperor Zhezong of Song, he was able to break people's stereotypes about him, and he led the Song army to conquer Western Xia three times in just seven years, breaking Tubo in the north, resisting Daliao in the north, attacking the Tubo regime in Qingtang, forcing the Huangtou Huihu, Western Xia to claim the title of subordinate Nagong, opening up the territory for 2,000 li, raising his eyebrows and exhaling for the Great Song, making the national strength of the Song Dynasty reach the extreme, and achieved the dream of Song Renzong and Song Shenzong for several lifetimes.
In 1077 AD, a baby's cry was heard in the harem of the Great Song Dynasty, and a prince was finally born, he was Song Shenzong's sixth son Song Zhezong Zhao Xu, and his mother was only a very low palace concubine, but Song Shenzong liked his son very much, and often praised him in front of ministers for being young and intelligent, responsible, and Zhao Xu admired his father's ambitions since he was a child.
Young Song Zhezong
In 1084, Zhao Xu was directly made the Prince of the Great Song Dynasty by Emperor Shenzong, when he was only 8 years old.
Due to the disastrous defeat of Shenzong in the Xia War and the failure of the imperial reform, the ambitious emperor became depressed and his physical condition became worse and worse, and by 1085 he fell directly ill and died not long after.
Crown Prince Zhao Xu ascended the throne as emperor with the support of his grandmother Empress Dowager Gao, and became the seventh emperor of the Great Song Dynasty for Emperor Zhezong of Song.
In this year, the envoys of the Liao State entered the dynasty to congratulate them, and at the same time, they also inquired about the reality of the Song Dynasty. At this time, Prime Minister Cai Que said to Zhezong how fierce and vicious the Liao people are, which may scare His Majesty the Emperor, and Zhezong replied that they are people? Cai Que had to say yes.
"Since it's a human being, what's so scary?"
The minister was instantly impressed by the young emperor, and the envoys of the Liao State were also very impressed when they saw the young emperor's bravery and fearlessness.
Emperor Zhezong of Song ascended the throne, and Empress Dowager Gao took power
However, at this time, although he was the emperor, the real power was in the hands of his grandmother Empress Dowager Gao, who appointed Sima Guang not only to depose all the new laws in the name of "changing the mother to the son", but also expelled all the ministers who supported the change of law from the imperial court, but also ceded the six cities of the change of law to Western Xia in an attempt to calm the war, but did not expect to cause a full-scale invasion of Western Xia, the government and the public began to be turbulent, and the party was hot, all this Zhezong saw in his eyes, and it hurt in his heart, and the merits he had established by his father and emperor since he was a child were completely defeated by this old woman.
Empress Dowager Gao
Empress Dowager Gao not only acted arbitrarily in the court, but also exercised strict control over Zhezong's life, which made Song Zhezong feel very depressed and suffocated, but he could not do anything at this time, he could only choose to wait quietly, waiting for the arrival of his own era.
The opportunity finally came, and when Empress Dowager Gao died in 1093, Zhezong, instead of griefing, felt that he had finally broken free from his grandmother's cage.
He immediately expelled all the ministers used during the Empress Dowager period from the imperial court and replaced them with his father's group of courtiers. Appointed Zhang Wei as the prime minister, restored the main content of Wang Anshi's reform of the law, rectified the rule of officials, strengthened armaments, attacked landlords and powerful landlords, and reduced the burden on peasants, so that the weakened national situation of the Song Dynasty could recover, and also tore up all previous peace treaties against Western Xia, and ordered Zhang Li to lead the Western Route Army to take the initiative to launch a large-scale war against Western Xia, known in history as the "Battle of Pingxia City".
The iron-blooded prime minister of the Northern Song Dynasty, Zhang Wei
With the strong support of Song Zhezong and Zhang Wei, the morale of the Song army was high, the soldiers used their lives, the Song army broke out with amazing combat effectiveness, and constantly pounced on the Xia army like a tide, the Xia army saw that the morale of the Song army was high, and it was defeated one after another, losing a large area of land, and the three battles of Pingxia City not only recovered the land ceded by the Song Dynasty, but also captured Hengshan, Lanzhou and other places in Western Xia, advancing the Song-Xia front by hundreds of kilometers, occupying an absolute strategic advantage, building a large number of military fortresses along the front, and threatening to destroy Western Xia.
Song-Xia War
Western Xia sent envoys to the Song Dynasty several times to ask for peace, but they were strongly rejected by Song Zhezong, so they had to ask the Liao Dynasty to mediate, and the Liao Dynasty saw that Song Zhezong and Zhang Wei had a tough attitude, and also saw that the Song army was extraordinary, so he had to agree to the conditions put forward by the Song Dynasty, kill the Empress Dowager of Western Xia, and ask Western Xia to make Song a tribute and a vassal state, and promised the Song Dynasty the right to recover the land of Western Xia.
Subsequently, the Liao Dynasty sent envoys to poison the Empress Dowager of Western Xia, support the young lord of Western Xia, and send envoys to the Song Dynasty to claim the title of subordinate Nagong and become his vassal state, and Emperor Zhezong of Song was satisfied. At the same time, the Song army launched military operations in the Qingtang area, and Wang Shao took advantage of the internal chaos in Tubo to take the opportunity to eliminate the Tubo regime in Qingtang, and forced the Huangtou Uighur to pay tribute to the Song and accept the edict, this battle is known as the "Battle of Hehuang", recovering parts of Qinghai and expanding the territory for more than 2,000 li, and the Great Song also raised his eyebrows because of these military victories.
Map of the Song Dynasty during the Song Zhezong period
During this period, the monarchs of the Song Dynasty worked together, let the wise use their abilities, reform the imperial government, the country was rich and the people were strong, the people were willing, there were Zhang Li, the fold was suitable, Wang Shao these famous generals, the imperial court supported, the soldiers used their lives, the morale of the soldiers was high, the national strength of the Northern Song Dynasty reached a peak state in the hands of Song Zhezong, and he achieved remarkable results in just seven years.
It is a pity that just when Emperor Zhezong made a series of achievements, the young Zhezong fell ill unexpectedly, at this time he still cherished the dream of the Great Song Dynasty, and he also fantasized about the dream of destroying Western Xia in his lifetime, destroying the Liao State in the north, restoring the old frontiers of the Han and Tang Dynasties, and unifying China, but it is a pity that heaven did not give this ambitious young emperor too much time, nor did he give the Song Dynasty the last chance.
It wasn't long before Song Zhezong died at the age of 24, an age like a flower, but withered in a short bloom, while the successor Song Huizong destroyed the good fortune left by his brother in just a few decades, and finally died in the cage of the Five Kingdoms City.
If the most regrettable emperor of the Song Dynasty is none other than Song Zhezong, his first half of his life was deliberately suppressed by his grandmother, living suffocated and suppressed, after his grandmother's death, he could finally show his skills to achieve his ideals and complete the career of his ancestors, but the heavens wanted to take away him only time, no longer give him any chance, and no longer give the Song Dynasty the last chance to rejuvenate, and the Northern Song Dynasty entered an extremely dark era after that.