Preface
In China's thousand-year-old history, there is a period that can be regarded as a period of great division in China, and this period is the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms, which is also a collective name for the Five Dynasties and the Ten Kingdoms.
The Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms appeared at this stage of the fall of the Tang Dynasty, and this period was also a relatively chaotic era, the Five Dynasties were in this period, five dynasties took turns on the political stage, and the Ten Kingdoms were ten small countries that stood on their own in addition to these five dynasties.
The dynasty we are going to talk about today is the Later Han Dynasty, and the founder of the Later Han Dynasty is Liu Zhiyuan, although Liu Zhiyuan established the Later Han Dynasty, but he did not sit in this position of the Emperor of the Later Han Dynasty for a long time, only for two years.
This dynasty is also the shortest dynasty in history, but it also leaves a very legendary historical story, what happened in between?
1. Break out of the world
Liu Zhiyuan is indeed not very famous among the emperors of all dynasties, and the Later Han he established is not very good among the previous dynasties, and he is also surnamed Liu, and the Later Han he established is also the Han Dynasty.
Therefore, people will inevitably associate him with Liu Bang, so does Liu Zhiyuan have anything to do with Liu Bang? Han has appeared many times in history as a country name, but it has nothing to do with Liu Bang.
Liu Zhiyuan is not only not a native of the Central Plains, but a member of the Shatuo tribe. Born in 895 AD, there are many stories about Liu Zhiyuan.
When Liu Zhiyuan was young, he was more introverted, taciturn, often alone, his physique was relatively weak, and he was easy to get sick, which also made his expression look very grim.
Liu Zhiyuan's family conditions were difficult when he was a child, and his life was very difficult, so he had no choice but to come to a big family surnamed Li to be a son-in-law, which was called a son-in-law at that time.
The social status is also at the bottom, which is despicable and often discriminated against. Even the status is the lowest, and once when Liu Zhiyuan was letting go of the horse, the horse's hooves trampled the crops of the temple, and the monks of the temple were very angry.
Liu Zhiyuan was tied up and beaten by the monks of the temple, Liu Zhiyuan was very unhappy after this experience, he thought that he could not go on like this, and was determined to go out to break out of the world and achieve a great career.
Liu Zhiyuan soon came to serve as a soldier under Li Siyuan, he was very brave in battle, and was appreciated by his superiors, and was promoted to a partial general, working with Shi Jingjiao.
At that time, when Li Siyuan and the Liang army were fighting fiercely in Desheng on the bank of the Yellow River, Shi Jingjiao's vest was broken, and seeing that Shi Jingjiao was about to be chased by the Liang army's army, Liu Zhiyuan exchanged his horse for Shi Jingjiao at this critical moment.
Liu Zhiyuan changed Shi Jingjian's horse to cover his retreat, and later Shi Jingjiao remembered Liu Zhiyuan's kindness of being able to sacrifice his life to save him, and was very grateful to Liu Zhiyuan.
After Li Siyuan became emperor, he promoted Shi Jingjiao and let him serve as the envoy of Hedong Jiedu, Shi Jingjiao was very excited when he learned that Liu Zhiyuan was going to serve under him, so he let him serve as a guard, took great care of him, and made him his own cronies.
At the end of the Tang Dynasty, Li Congke raised troops, intending to compete for the throne with Emperor Li Conghou of the Tang Dynasty, Shi Jingjiao also led his soldiers to the capital, and met Li Conghou who escaped on the road, and Shi Jingjiao and Li Conghou had a secret conversation in the house.
When Liu Zhiyuan learned about this incident, he was afraid that something would happen, so he asked a warrior named Shi Kang to secretly protect Shi Jingjiao, and Shi Kang hid a hammer in his sleeve in case of emergency.
Standing behind Shi Jingjiao, at the end of the negotiation, Li Conghou thought that Shi Jingjiao was not sincere in protecting him at all, so he stabbed Shi Jingjiao with a sword, but fortunately he was blocked by Shi Kang, who was quick with his eyes, and covered Shi Jingjiao to leave here quickly.
When Liu Zhiyuan arrived, Shi Kang had already been killed in battle, so he killed all the entourage around Li Conghou and captured Li Conghou, but Shi Jingjiao did not order Li Conghou to be killed, but imprisoned him, but was assassinated by the people sent by Li Congke.
Second, the establishment of the Later Jin Dynasty
Under the planning of Liu Zhiyuan and others, Shi Jingjiao borrowed the strength of the Khitan army to eliminate the Later Tang Dynasty and proclaimed himself emperor in Kaifeng, and then established the Great Jin, that is, Jin Gaozu.
In order to repay the Khitan for his help on the road to Shi Jingjiao's claim to be emperor, Shi Jingjiao very generously gave the sixteen states of Yanyun, that is, the gateway to the Central Plains, to the Khitan, and recognized Yelu Deguang, who was 11 years younger than him, as his father.
Liu Zhiyuan didn't understand Shi Jingjiao's approach, so Liu Zhiyuan said: "You can understand the Khitan vassal, but why do you want to be a son, it's okay to send more gold and silver to the Khitan, you don't have to cede the land to the Khitan, otherwise it will leave a big hidden danger." ”
As Liu Zhiyuan expected, Shi Jingjiao's giving the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun to the Khitan was equivalent to giving the gateway to the Central Plains to the Khitan, which also caused them to have no danger to defend.
After the establishment of the Later Jin Dynasty, Liu Zhiyuan served as the inspector of the school and other positions because of his high military and political talents and his contribution to assisting Shi Jingjiao in ascending the throne, and gradually assumed more important positions, and his identity gradually became noble.
After seven years as emperor, Shi Jingjiao died in 942 A.D. and was succeeded by his adopted son Shi Chonggui, who was also the emperor of Jin. Liu Zhiyuan served as the Taishi of the relocation inspection school, and was promoted to the Zhongshu Order.
In 944 A.D., the Khitan lord Yelu Deguang led his army south, and it became a big disaster as Liu Zhiyuan expected, but Liu Zhiyuan, as a recruit envoy of the Youzhou Daoxing camp, broke the Khitan army in Xinkou.
Liu Zhiyuan made military achievements, once again served as the king of Taiyuan and the king of Beiping, and then defeated the Khitan again in Yangwu Valley in Shuozhou.
As the saying goes, "the general is outside, and the king's order is not subject to it", so Liu Zhiyuan's edict is half-pushed and half-done, and he does not obey the above dispatch, on the other hand, he will still take the initiative to attack the Khitan.
Until 947 AD, the Khitan invaded the capital again, Liu Zhiyuan took the young emperor out of the north, and sent the general Wang Jun to surrender to the Khitan, so that the Jin Dynasty was destroyed.
When Wang Jun came back, he told Liu Zhiyuan that the internal politics of the Khitan were very chaotic, so he must not capture the Central Plains, so he discussed with Liu Zhiyuan to prepare for the establishment of the country.
3. The fall of the Later Han Dynasty
In this way, Liu Zhiyuan saw the opportunity, established the state of the emperor in Hedong, established the Later Han Dynasty, and easily occupied the Central Plains. Although Liu Zhiyuan was founded and proclaimed emperor, his reign was only two years, and the dynasty only existed for four years.
Although the country was short, it came out on top among the five dynasties, and why is this? It has been recorded in the history books: "Those who won the country and died quickly, and there was no one who was the Shatuo Liu clan." This sentence means that the reason why the Later Han Dynasty perished very quickly was that there was no emperor like Liu Zhiyuan of the Shatuo Liu clan.
So what commendable things did Liu Zhiyuan do during his reign, or did it do things that were beneficial to the country and the people? After Liu Zhiyuan became emperor, he lightly paid taxes and carried out reforms.
At the same time, it also severely punished corrupt officials and corrupt officials, ensured the stability of internal affairs, effectively controlled the domestic political situation, and vigorously developed agriculture and commerce, so that the Central Plains region was restored to vitality.
However, there were also local divisions, which made the imperial court's control over the local areas very small, so Liu Zhiyuan had to take some relevant measures to deal with these problems, and began to strengthen the management of his subordinates and restrict the rights of the local government.
Many measures were also taken to quell the separatist forces in various places, and gradually came under the control and restraint of the imperial court, so that the local government actively moved closer to the imperial court.
And the imperial court has indeed restored its control over various places, and the lives of the local people have also been greatly improved, so although Liu Zhiyuan has only been in power for two years, it has had a far-reaching impact and has also played an important role.
epilogue
Liu Zhiyuan's reign was very short, and in the third year of his son's reign, the Later Han Dynasty perished, but he stabilized the lives of the people in the Central Plains and defeated the Khitan army, so as one of the five dynasties and ten kingdoms, the Later Han Dynasty came out on top.
It is precisely because of Liu Zhiyuan that the Han nation rose again, laid the foundation for the future development of the country, and left a legendary chapter in the torrent of history.