The third watch in the middle of the night, also known as the "midnight three watch", is usually used to refer to the late night. In ancient times, a night was divided into five watches, each watch was about two hours, and the three watches were about 23:00 to 1:00 the next morning. The idiom comes from "History of the Song Dynasty: The Biography of Zhao Changyan", "The four will be prosperous every day." Jingshi said: 'Chen Sangen, Dong in the middle of the night'. ”
Zhao Changyan, whose name is Zhongmo, was a filial piety person in Fenzhou in the early Northern Song Dynasty. His father, Zhao Rong, served under Zhao Guangyi of Taizong of the Song Dynasty, and when Zhao Guangyi served as the Yin of Kaifeng Prefecture, he was successively appointed as the county commander of Yongqiu and Taikang counties under his rule, and later became the judge of An'an and Shen Observer.
In the third year of Taiping Xingguo (978), Zhao Changyan was admitted to the Jinshi, he was quite prestigious in the examination room because of his quick thinking, and because of his lofty ambitions, he was praised by Zhao Feng, Gao Xi, Kou Zhun and others, so he became the first recommendation of the tribute department. On the day of the court examination, Song Taizong was quite satisfied when he saw his eloquent rhetoric, and when he saw his father's name, he was even more impressed.
Since then, Zhao Chang has successively served as the Right Collector, the Zhishi Museum, the Deputy Envoy of Jinghu Transport, the Right Supplement, the Qingzhou Prefect, and the Fang Yuan Wailang.
As the saying goes, "if you lose the north of the mountain, you will be in trouble with Yanyun, and if you lose Yanyun, you will be in trouble with the Central Plains", since the later Jin Shi Jingjiao dedicated the sixteen states of Yanyun to the Khitan, the entire North China Plain, and even the Central Plains, are exposed to the iron hooves of the northern nomads, and the northern nomads can cross the Yanshan Mountains or the Taihang Mountains at any time to gallop in the North China Plain, and they can drink the Yellow River day and night.
After the founding of the Northern Song Dynasty, Zhao Kuangyin adopted the strategy of "easy first and then difficult, first south and then north", and while unifying the south, he set up a "pile sealing warehouse" to accumulate money and grain, and prepared for the recovery of Yanyun. After basically unifying the south, Zhao Kuangyin sent troops three times to try to destroy the Northern Han, but the first two times failed due to the timely rescue of the Liao State, and the third time was abandoned due to Zhao Kuangyin's sudden death.
After the death of Zhao Kuangyin, his younger brother Zhao Guangyi ascended the throne, and when the Qing Navy made Chen Hongjin surrender in the third year of Taiping Xingguo (978), the Northern Song Dynasty finally officially unified the southern region. After that, Song Taizong, who was bent on completing the great cause of unification of his brother, began to shift his strategic focus to the north, and defeated the Northern Han Dynasty in the fourth year of Taiping Xingguo (979), and collected the first army, ten prefectures, and forty-one counties in Hedong, completely ending the situation of secession since the late Tang Dynasty.
In May of the same year, Zhao Guangyi intended to take advantage of the victory to take Youzhou, and the Song army and the Liao army fought fiercely in the area of the Gaoliang River. After that, the Song army and the Liao State fought successively in Mancheng, Yanmen Pass, Xiongzhou and other places, and the two sides won and lost each other.
In the autumn of the seventh year of Taiping Xingguo (982), Liao Jingzong suddenly collapsed and died on the way to Liuzhou on a safari. Empress Xiao Xuan, with the help of Han Derang and Yelu Xian, supported the enthronement of Yelu Longxu, the eldest son of Liao Jingzong, as Liao Shengzong. Because Yelu Longxu was only twelve years old at the time, he was ruled by the Empress Dowager Xiao.
Zhao Guangyi, Taizong of the Song Dynasty, learned the news and decided to take advantage of the weak mother and widow of the Liao State to launch the Northern Expedition to wash away the shame of the Battle of the Gaoliang River in the past.
In March of the third year of Yongxi (986), Song Taizong mobilized heavy troops and launched the Northern Expedition in three ways. At first, the Song army progressed extremely smoothly, with Pan Mei on the west road successively capturing Huan, Shuo, Ying, and Yun four prefectures, Tian Chongjin on the middle road also conquering Ulzhou, and Cao Bin on the east road also capturing Zhuozhou after occupying Qigou Pass, Xincheng, and Gu'an. However, due to the command error of Cao Bin on the eastern route, he was defeated by the main force of the Liao army, and the western and middle routes were also forced to withdraw, and the "Yongxi Northern Expedition" finally ended in failure.
When the imperial court used troops, Zhang Hong, the privy deputy envoy, was conformist and did not want to forge ahead, but Zhao Changyan was anxious and went to Chen Bian Bei many times, so Song Taizong took Zhao Changyan as the left counselor, replaced Zhang Hong as the privy deputy envoy, and then changed to the Ministry of Works.
At that time, Chen Jiayu, the deputy envoy of salt and iron, had a good relationship with Zhao Changyan, and Dong Yan, the deputy envoy of the Zhizhi Hu Dan and the deputy envoy of the Du Branch, was a jinshi in the same year as Zhao Changyan, and Liang Hao, the right Zhengyan, had worked under the curtain of the Daimyo Mansion, so the four of them often came to Zhao Changyan to discuss national affairs, and gathered in Zhao Changyan's mansion day and night. Over time, Jingshi began to have such a popular saying, "Chen Sangen, Dong in the middle of the night." ”