Regarding the diplomatic strategy of Later Zhou Taizu, the general view in the past was the policy of "protecting the territory" and "making peace". The editor believes that "protecting the territory" and "peace with the border" are only one aspect of Guo Wei's diplomatic strategy, not all of his strategy.
In the chaotic society of five dynasties and ten countries. In order to cope with the turbulent internal and external world, it is far from enough to just stay in the "protection of the territory" and "peace border", and in order to consolidate the political power, Later Zhou Taizu must explore a new way out in diplomacy. So, what exactly is Guo Wei's diplomatic strategy?
(a)
First of all, let's analyze the internal environment that constrained Zhou Taizu from formulating diplomatic strategies. Later Zhou Taizu Guo Wei (904-954) character Wenzhong, a native of Yaoshan in Xingzhou (now Longyao, Hebei), was born on July 28 in the first year of Jiazi (904 AD) in the first year of Tang Tianyou, born in a dilapidated bureaucratic family. ”
Soon his mother also died in the yin, "Ziwei is less lonely, and he is from Luzhou." The family was ruined, and Guo Wei, who was under the fence, had suffered from war since he was a teenager.
Guo Wei was recruited as a soldier of the Luzhou warlord Li Jitao from the age of eighteen, and was enthroned as the Emperor of the Later Zhou Dynasty at the age of forty-eight.
Internal strife, fighting each other, foreign invasions, and the dying of the nation forced Guo Wei to calmly think about the situation in the whole country and his future way out. Therefore, when he was selected as the forbidden soldier of the Later Tang Dynasty at the age of twenty-eight, he worked hard to study the military book "The Spring and Autumn Period of the Outer Tang Dynasty", "often with his sleeves and read it when he has time" and worshiped his friend Li Qiong and others in the army as his teacher to "ask questions". Since then, Guo Wei has initially understood the principle of "defending the country with righteousness and using soldiers with odds", "being the enemy with righteous soldiers, and winning with strange soldiers", clarifying the principle of "survival and chaos", and arguing the reasons for "success or failure of virtue".
In 947 A.D., Liu Zhiyuan, the envoy of the Later Jin Hedong Festival, took advantage of the fact that the Jin Emperor was taken away by the Khitan and went north, and the Central Plains was ownerless, and he was proclaimed emperor in Jinyang (now Taiyuan, Shanxi). And set the capital of Bianliang (now Kaifeng, Henan), because Guo Wei supported Dai Gonggao, Liu Zhiyuan regarded him as a minister of the humerus, and awarded Guo Wei as the deputy envoy of the privy council and the captain of the school. When Liu Zhiyuan was critically ill, he willed Guo Wei to be the minister of Gu Ming, and assisted the new monarch Yin Emperor Liu Chengyou to ascend the throne.
In 950, Guanzhong Li Shouzhen and other three towns rebelled, as the highest military governor, Guo Wei appointed "the generals of the Western Governor to quell the rebellion," after the rebellion triumphed, Guo Wei was promoted to the Tianxiong Festival envoy, sitting in Yedu, controlling the Hebei prefectures. Yedu is the core area of the Later Han Dynasty.
Defend the military town of Khitan and move the whole body. At this time, Guo Wei had become a pivotal figure in the Later Han court. Guo Wei's participation in and discussion of politics in the Han Dynasty enabled Guo Wei to accumulate rich experience in domestic and foreign affairs, which provided a solid foundation for him to formulate a correct diplomatic strategy after the establishment of the Later Zhou Dynasty.
Looking at the external environment that constrained Zhou Taizu from formulating diplomatic strategies: Liu Chengyou, the hidden emperor, was a rash and reckless emperor who did not learn and did not know how to do things, neglected political affairs, and specialized in absurdity. After November 950, the Han regime broke out in internal strife, and Emperor Yin successively killed the powerful ministers Shi Hongzhao, Yang Wei, and Wang Zhang.
Then they slaughtered their relatives and henchmen, and Guo Wei, who led the troops outside, was also implicated, forcing Guo Wei to launch a mutiny, he led the army to Kaifeng in the name of "except for the monarch's side", and Guo Wei announced the establishment of the Zhou Dynasty on the fourth day of the first month of the following year under the support of the soldiers, which was the Taizu of the Later Zhou.
After the establishment of the Later Zhou Dynasty, Guo Wei did not revel in victory, and he clearly realized that in addition to rectifying the internal situation, a good external environment was very important for consolidating power. At that time, the Khitan, the Northern Han Dynasty, and the Southern Tang Dynasty formed a three-sided encirclement of the Later Zhou Dynasty, and the slightest carelessness could suffer the disaster of being annihilated by the north and south. How to deal with relations with them was a diplomatic dilemma that the Later Zhou regime had to solve first.
The Khitan is a branch of the Xianbei tribe, which has been recorded in the history books since the third year of Emperor Daowu's ascension to the country of the Northern Wei Dynasty (389 AD). In the late ninth century, under the influence of the advanced production methods of the Han people, the development of the Khitan was changing with each passing day. In the early years of the tenth century, there was finally a transition from a military democracy to a state.
The Khitan was a powerful ethnic group emerging in northern China after the Turks and the Hui Dynasty. The Khitan kingdom was more complete and powerful than the state apparatus of the Turks and the Uighurs, and its soldiers were more fierce and warlike. The warlords of the five dynasties at the end of the Tang Dynasty fought and divided the territories, which provided an opportunity for the Khitan to invade southward.
After Yelu Deguang ascended the throne in 926, the harassment of the Central Plains by the Khitan aristocratic group became more and more rampant. Later Jin Dynasty established, Shi Jingjiao and Khitan about the "child emperor" and cut Yanyun sixteen states, (this area is about the current Beijing, Datong as the center, east and west extend to the north of Hebei and Shanxi provinces) lost Yan, Yun sixteen states, so that China lost the natural barrier to defend against the invasion of the northern peoples, through the Yanshan Mountains, the Khitan iron horse can drive straight into the Central Plains.
The establishment of the emerging Khitan with its powerful military and geographical advantages against the Central Plains forced Guo Wei to take great pains and carefully manage relations with the north and begin to formulate and implement a new diplomatic strategy.
In 951, at the same time as Guo Wei destroyed the Han Dynasty, Liu Chong proclaimed himself emperor according to Hedong, seized Taiyuan, and took Han as the national name, which was the Northern Han Dynasty. The Northern Han Dynasty governed 12 states north of Taiyuan, except for Wei and Lin, the rest were not out of present-day Shanxi Province, and compared with the Later Zhou Dynasty, "the land soldier armor was not enough to be the eleventh of China".
Liu Chong knew that he was not the opponent of the Later Zhou, so he waged his tail to the Khitan and begged for mercy, followed the old path of Shi Jingjiao, and agreed with the Khitan to be the uncle and nephew of the Three Kingdoms, and pay tribute. In fact, it degenerated into a vassal and servant of the Khitan. "The Northern Han Dynasty was barren and poor, serving the military state internally and serving the Khitan outside, with heavy servitude and poor livelihood. "It is such a dilapidated regime, under the umbrella of the Khitan repeatedly attacking Zhou, although the Northern Han is not a strong opponent of the Later Zhou, but how to deal with the harassment of the Northern Han is also a problem that Guo Wei must solve.
In addition to the Khitan, among the regimes in the Jianghuai area, only the Southern Tang Dynasty could pose a threat to the Later Zhou. At its peak, it had 35 states, a population of 5 million, and half of China's rivers and mountains south of the Jianghuai River; almost all of them became the sphere of influence of the Southern Tang Dynasty. ”
In order to contain the Central Plains regime, at the beginning of the founding of the Southern Tang Dynasty, it adopted the diplomatic strategy of "forming alliances with the Khitan and jointly controlling China". Facing the strongest opponent among the Ten Kingdoms, Guo Wei would never take it calmly, but throughout the entire Taizu Dynasty, Hou Zhou did not take large-scale military action against the Southern Tang Dynasty. What kind of diplomatic strategy did Guo Wei adopt towards the Southern Tang Dynasty?
(b)
Throughout the fifty-three years of the Five Dynasties, the most serious threat to the Central Plains was the Khitan regime. The establishment of the Khitan State and the five dynasties of the Central Plains formed a new state of confrontation between the North and the South. The collusion between the Northern Han and the Khitan not only caused frequent emergencies on the northern border of the Later Zhou Dynasty, but also seriously endangered the nascent Later Zhou regime.
After the establishment of the Later Zhou Dynasty, the situation in front of Guo Wei was still very grim: first, the Central Plains was in the land of four wars, and second, the Later Zhou was surrounded by the Khitan, the Northern Han Dynasty, and the Southern Tang Dynasty on three sides; third, the local towns had different aspirations, and "the Son of Heaven had strong soldiers and strong horses, and he would rather have a kind of yes" Fourth, the economy was ruined, the people were poor, and the country was poor. The harsh reality forced Guo Wei to work hard to adjust the country's domestic and foreign policies from the day he ascended the throne.
How to deal with the relationship with the Khitan State has always been the focus of the Later Zhou's diplomacy, and the diplomatic lessons of the Shatuo Three and Five Dynasties, namely the Later Tang, Later Jin, and Later Han, made Guo Wei clearly realize that relying on the Khitan is equivalent to seeking skin with the tiger, and the country cannot have long-term peace and stability.
However, the national strength of the Later Zhou Dynasty was weak. It is not enough to conquer and eliminate the Khitan, and if there is a head-on conflict with the Khitan, it is likely that the country will not be protected in the Later Zhou. It can neither be relied on nor conquered in a short period of time. In the face of the complicated situation, Guo Wei formulated a diplomatic strategy to protect the territory and the people, avoid large-scale armed conflicts with the Khitan as much as possible, and resist at the right time, show his might, and dispel the Khitan's ambition to seek the Central Plains.
Later facts proved that Guo Wei's diplomatic strategy was the best plan to deal with the Khitan at that time, which won time for the Later Zhou Dynasty to reform politics and consolidate political power, and also laid the foundation for Zhou Shizong's southern and northern expeditions.
At the beginning of the Later Zhou Dynasty, due to the ruin of the economy, he was unable to fight against the Khitan, so Guo Wei at this time was humble to the Khitan, in order to quickly rectify the internal and reform the maladministration. In November 950, "tens of thousands of Khitan lords rode into Kou, attacked Neiqiu (now Neiqiu, Hebei) for five days, and suffered many casualties."
In December of this year, Guo Wei supported the next generation of Han in the soldiers. When the Khitan came to ask for peace, the Central Plains changed hands, and the new monarch Guo Wei immediately sent Zhu Xian to hire (return visit) and wrote a letter "The reason for the revolution is to use a pair of gin wine vessels and a jade belt to leave a vulture." In February 951, the Khitan sent an envoy to Zhu Xian again to "offer a good horse and a horse, and He Dengji".
In order to show respect for the Khitan, Guo Wei sent Shangshu Zuo Cheng Tian Min to express his gratitude to the Khitan, and when Tian Min completed the mission and returned to Daliang, "the Khitan lord wanted to send the aunt to report his life, and offered a pair of jasper gold and silver saddles, bows and arrows, weapons, mink fur, etc., 30 native horses, and 10 native Han horses."
In order to defend against the southward movement of the Khitan, Guo Wei took the Khitan as an imaginary enemy militarily, and often reminded the ministers not to slack off in military action. Yedu is located on the northern border of the Later Zhou Dynasty and is the frontier position for the defense of the Khitan, Guo Wei is well aware of the importance of this, "deal with it with the heart". In order to avoid the scourge of war as much as possible, Guo Wei solemnly ordered that "the towns along the border states in the north should defend their own frontiers and not enter the northern boundary to float and plunder."
In addition, Guo Wei also paid attention to winning the support of the people of Yan 66 Prefecture diplomatically. In the second year of Guangshun (952), the people of the three states of Ying, Mo and Youzhou, under the ravages of the Khitan, "returned to China and scattered in Hebei Prefecture, where hundreds of thousands of households" Guo Wei ordered "Guo Wei to give preferential treatment to the displaced people's diplomatic strategy", which achieved remarkable results, "China was plundered first, and those who were returned were five or six".
Timely resistance is an effective supplement to the Later Zhou Taizu's diplomatic strategy of protecting the territory and securing the people, otherwise, it will be impossible for the Later Zhou to consolidate the regime. In December 951, the Khitan and the Northern Han Dynasty attacked Jinzhou with 70,000 soldiers, besieged for more than 50 days, the situation was very critical, in order to relieve the siege of Jinzhou, Guo Wei "ordered Wang Jun to go out to Jinzhou, Xingxi Zhuang to eat it", Guo Wei personally set up a banquet for Wang Jun in the west of Daliang City, which shows the importance he attaches to this battle.
Later Zhou reinforcements to Jinzhou defeated the Khitan "Khitan than to Jinyang, Shimash lost three or four", the victory of the Battle of Jinzhou became the key to reversing the situation at that time, it not only dispelled the Khitan ambition to seek the Central Plains, but also even the Northern Han who was determined to take revenge also "began to rest and enterprising". From then on, until the establishment of the Northern Song Dynasty, the Khitan invaders were only for the purpose of general sexual harassment and plundering of property.
After the establishment of the Northern Han Dynasty, because Guo Wei killed Liu Yun, so Liu Chongzhi was in revenge, Liu Chong ascended the throne in January 951, and in the same month, he "sent troops to Tunyindi, Huang Ze, and Tuanbai" Chen Bing, and wanted to peep at the six states (that is, Jin, Xi, Xing, Zhao, Zhen, and Dingliu Prefecture), in February, he could not wait to send troops to attack the two states of Zhou Jin (now Linfen) and Xi (now Xi County), and the defenders of the two states fought bravely, and the defenders of Jinzhou won a surprising victory, causing more than 1,000 casualties to the Northern Han soldiers;
The battle of Jin Yu made Guo Wei deeply feel that he must not be tolerated and accommodating to the Northern Han Dynasty, otherwise he would raise tigers and become troubled. In this way, in terms of the harassment of the Northern Han Dynasty in the future, Guo Wei's diplomatic strategy was to resolutely crack down on them and severely punish them, teach them a lesson, and reduce the negative effects of the war.
Compared with the Northern Han Dynasty, Guo Wei had ninety-eight states in the Zhou Dynasty, while the Northern Han Dynasty had only twelve states, namely Merge (Taiyuan), Fen (Fenyang), Xin (Xin County), Lan (Lan County), Xian (Jingle), Long (Qi County). Wei (Wei County, Hebei) Qin (Qin County), Liao (Zuo Quan), Lin (Shaanxi Shenmu), Shi (Lishi).
After the battle of Jin Yu, Liu Chongshen felt powerless, so he attacked Shi Jingjiao and Liu Zhiyuan's old skills, "the heavy coin khitan, willing to be like the story of Jin, about father and son", was canonized as the Shenwu Emperor of the Han Dynasty by Liao Shizong, with the support and help of the Khitan, Liu Min was more arrogant and fearless, in the face of the collusion between the Northern Han and the Khitan, repeatedly attacked, Guo Wei treated it differently, for the southern invasion of the Northern Han, Guo Wei fought back every time, and chased the poor Kou.
In February 951, more than 260 Northern Han soldiers were captured in Shexian County; in July 951, Zhou defeated the Northern Han in Pingshan County, Zhenzhou, and "beheaded 500 people"; in October 951, Chen Siyu, the inspector of the inspection history, and Xiang Xun defeated the Northern Han soldiers in Yuting (now Shanxi)In December 951, 70,000 Khitan and Northern Han soldiers attacked Jinzhou, and the people spontaneously organized themselves to fortify the wall and clear the wilderness.
In February 952, he "beheaded 2,000 ranks" in Fuzhou (now Fugu, Shaanxi) and took advantage of the victory to recover the Lan army occupied by the Northern Han Dynasty (now Lan County, Shanxi).
Later Zhou Taizu's diplomatic strategy dealt a heavy blow to the arrogance of the Northern Han Dynasty, ensured the safety of the lives and property of the border people to a certain extent, and also enabled the Taizu Dynasty to basically remove the threat from the northwest, especially after the Battle of Jinzhou, due to the political corruption of the Northern Han Dynasty and the people's lack of livelihood, there was a phenomenon of "many people who fled to the Zhou border".
It should be noted that the Northern Han lasted for twenty-eight years from the founding of the country to its demise (951-976), more than any of the five dynasties. The reason, I think there are three points: first, the backstage boss of the Northern Han Dynasty is the Khitan, if the direct attack on Jinyang, it may cause the Khitan to make a desperate bet, Guo Wei is soberly aware of this, so in the diplomatic strategy, the Zhou only hit the Northern Han hard, to teach a lesson, military tactics is a quick battle, not to eliminate the goal.
- The analysis in "History of the Song Dynasty" is very reasonable: "Taiyuan has few soldiers and is fierce, and it is not easy to take it with Khitan as aid";
- Favorable terrain, the North Han is close to the Yellow River, the east leans on the high mountains, there are high mountains in the south, there is the Yellow River outside, the east, west and south are easy to defend, and the Taihang Mountains can rush to the broad plain as soon as they step out of the Taihang Mountains to the east, and the strategic points that are easy to defend and difficult to attack have also brought great difficulties to the conquest. Therefore, the conquest of the Northern Han was not completed until the hands of Song Taizong.
(c)
In 937, the Southern Tang Dynasty was established, it inherited the foundation of Wu, possessed eastern Hubei and Jiangxi, and "controlled Zhu Fang to determine hegemony, and Zongze State to dominate" was the strongest separatist force in the south. It is adjacent to the Central Plains in the north, the Southern Han Dynasty in the south, Minyue in the east, and Jingchu in the west, and is at the key point of North and South China, and its strategic position is very important. ”
After Li Jing won the country, he immediately "sent an envoy to repair it with a beautiful woman and treasure the sea, and the Khitan lord also sent an envoy to report it."
When Li Jing was on the throne, he pushed this diplomatic strategy to the extreme, and the use of the strategy of "sending orders back and forth every year" between the Southern Tang Dynasty and the Khitan did bring great trouble to the Central Plains regime. Not only that, on the one hand, the Southern Tang Dynasty worked hard to strengthen the alliance against the Central Plains regime in the south, and on the other hand, it actively prepared for war.
Chuzhou (now Huai'an, Jiangsu) is also an important town in northern Xinjiang, so the Southern Tang carried out the largest Chen soldier army in the Ten Kingdoms here, and in 951 the Southern Tang sent 10,000 troops to Changsha and destroyed the Chu regime that was friendly with the Central Plains regime. After the death of Chu, Li Jing was indispensable: "It is said that the countries can be determined." Wei Cen said at the banquet: The ministers and young ministers traveled to Yuancheng, enjoyed its terroir, and His Majesty set the Central Plains, begged Wei Bo to make envoys, and the Tang lord Xu Zhi" This shows that the established diplomatic strategy of the Southern Tang Dynasty has formed a serious threat to the Later Zhou regime.
In order to avoid the worries of fighting on two fronts, Guo Wei was arrogant and arrogant in the Southern Tang Dynasty, and he was ready to do his best to be lenient and tolerant, and adopted a diplomatic strategy of taking the initiative to be friendly and influenced by virtue in diplomacy. In March 951, "the imperial court has no grudges with the Tang Dynasty, and the Huai military town is the capital town, and each guards the frontier city, and there is no barrage for soldiers and civilians to enter the Tang territory without permission, and there is no prohibition for business and travel." ”
In April, "the town of Binhuaizhou said: 'The hungry people in Huainan have crossed the Huai Lai Valley, and they dare not prohibit it'. The edict said: 'The people of the other country, how different is this, it is advisable to make the prefecture and county Jinpu have no ban.'" The two incidents of strictly prohibiting soldiers and civilians from entering the Tang Dynasty without permission and allowing the hungry people of Huainan to cross the Huai Lai Valley fully reflected Guo Wei's friendship and generosity towards the Southern Tang Dynasty and also enabled the Later Zhou to win the diplomatic initiative.
In July 953, "the Tang Dynasty was drought, the well water dried up, the Huai water could be waded, the hungry people crossed the Huai and the north one after another, Hao, Shoufa soldiers and the soldiers, the people and the soldiers fought and came to the north, the emperor (Guo Wei) heard it and said: "The people of him and me are also listening." In this regard, Hu Sansheng sighed with emotion and said: "Looking at the people's hearts and minds, the monarchs and ministers of the Tang Dynasty can be in a precarious position."
Guo Wei's leniency and forbearance was not an unprincipled compromise and concession, it was based on the fact that the actions of the Southern Tang Dynasty could not fundamentally endanger the rule of the Later Zhou Dynasty.
In 952, Taining Jiedu envoy and Zhongshu ordered Murong Yanchao, "north to call the Northern Han and Khitan, south to lure the Tang people" to launch a rebellion, the Southern Tang Dynasty thought that this was a good opportunity to win the Central Plains, so sent 5,000 troops to aid Yanchao, in Shuyang (now Xuzhou), after the Zhou "broke the Tang soldiers, killed, drowned more than 1,000 people, and won the general Yan Jingquan", after the three battles of Shuyang, Guo Wei disregarded the previous suspicions, summoned Yan Jingquan and other four people to His Majesty, "give clothes and gold silk, released to the mainland" and even the captured Huainan breeding animals were also returned to the Southern Tang Dynasty.
According to history, after summoning Yan Jingquan to return to the Southern Tang Dynasty, "he told Li Jing with the emperor's words", Guo Wei's generosity and forbearance, and the influence of virtue made "the Tang lord ashamed, the first to get the Chinese, all returned with courtesy", and called the emperor of the Great Dynasty (Later Zhou) of the United States Shengde Guangfu, Engu neighboring land" Guo Wei's diplomatic strategy eased the contradictions and conflicts with the Southern Tang, and since then, the two sides have basically been at war, and the Southern Tang has begun to "rest the army and rest the people"
The above analysis of the diplomatic strategy of Later Zhou Taizu from three aspects, it can be seen that "protecting the territory" and "peace border" are only part of Guo Wei's diplomatic strategy, not all of him. Applying different diplomatic strategies according to each country is precisely what Guo Wei is brilliant.
Historical facts have proved that Guo Wei's diplomatic strategy was successful and effective, and he enabled Hou Zhou to finally gain a firm foothold in the era of competition among the heroes. "When the layers of dark clouds are endless", the establishment of the Later Zhou Dynasty: "revealing a faint morning light" and "revealing a new atmosphere", the Later Zhou Taizu "Although he enjoys the country for a long time, he also has a rich foundation".