This article is written with reference to historical sources and personal opinions, and the relevant literature sources have not been indicated.
(Long Night)
The night is low, the stars are dotted on the dome, the palace walls are high, and the outline looks solemn and solemn in the moonlight.
The wind chimes on the corners of the eaves swayed gently in the breeze, and the eunuchs and court ladies held lanterns and shuttled between the corridors, the faint light jumping in the darkness and then fading away.
At that time, it was 943 AD, the second year of Guangtian of the Southern Han Dynasty of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms, and Liu Jue, the second emperor of the Southern Han Dynasty, had not yet slept.
At that time, it was already past eleven o'clock.
You Liu Jue is not a worker, you don't need to work with your liver, and you are not the kind of master who eats and wears clothes, so if you don't sleep in the middle of the night, there must be no good thing.
That night, Liu Jue was not in the palace, but went to the home of his younger brother Liu Hongxi, the king of Jin, to watch the hand-to-hand combat performance.
Don't think about it, this hand-to-hand fight is a group of samurai wrestling each other on the stage.
Liu Ying was particularly fond of watching others fight and wrestle, just as his father, Liu Ling, was particularly fond of watching torture of prisoners, and he simply enjoyed it.
And Liu Hongxi has always been to his favor as the emperor's brother, and these warriors on the stage who wrestle with each other with huge waists are specially trained by Liu Hongxi to perform for Liu Jue.
It turns out that Liu Jue really likes to watch it, he can't take his eyes off it, Liu Hongxi next to him keeps toasting him, and he can't stop shirking, so he simply drinks one cup after another.
(Mural painting)
After drinking three or five cups, Liu Jue was still conscious, but after twenty or thirty cups, Liu Jue felt a little confused.
I came to my younger brother Liu Hongxi's house this time, I traveled lightly, so I brought two guards and they were still outside the door, and now it is the second half of the night, and I have almost watched this performance, and I have drunk a lot of wine, so Liu Jue is going to go back.
However, this is easy to say, but it is difficult to leave.
Liu Jue staggered to his feet and was just about to leave the table, several samurai who were originally wrestling in the stands jumped in front of Liu Jue in three steps and two steps, one pulled his left hand, one pulled his right hand, one hugged his left leg, and one hugged his right leg.
The description in "Zizhi Tongjian" is "killed by pulling", so probably Liu Jue's death is not much different from the five horses.
Anyway, the emperor, just died.
Of course, Liu Jue's death belongs to many acts of injustice and will kill himself, because since he ascended the throne, he has not done anything good, he has fun all day long, is arrogant and lascivious, ignores the government and politics, does not listen to advice, and kills people indiscriminately at every turn, and is trembling inside and outside the government and the opposition.
Due to the cruelty of this Liu Jue's rule, a very serious peasant uprising broke out under his rule.
The uprising broke out in Zhenzhou, which is today's Longchuan, Guangdong.
When Liu Jue was in power, the bandits in Zhenzhou were rampant, the social security was quite bad, this gang of bandits was huge, launched an uprising, and also supported a small official named Zhang Yuxian in the Yamen of Zhenzhou as the leader, so Zhang Yuxian gathered these bandits and robbers, and established a new regime in a similar way, he called himself the king, and set the name of the new regime: Yongle.
The army led by Zhang Yuxian all wore red clothes and were very bright, so everyone called them "Red Army", and the number of the army continued to grow and grow, and there were tens of thousands of people in less than a month.
(Zhang Yuxian uprising)
Under the leadership of Zhang Yuxian, the rebel army attacked the city and occupied many cities in the Southern Han Dynasty, but the response of the Southern Han Dynasty was also very fast, although the emperor Liu Jue was useless, but the emperor's other younger brother named Liu Hongchang has always been capable, and immediately put into the battlefield to command the army to counterattack.
After all, the rebel army is a temporary team, relying on surprise, the first to seize a lot of cities, but once forced the official army to a very passive situation, but once the official army reacted, stretched the battle line to fight with them, they were a little unable to parry, the eastern part of Guangdong that had been occupied by the rebel army was quickly recovered by the official army, and the rebel army suffered several defeats, and the living space became smaller and smaller, Zhang Yuxian had no choice but to give up the plan to attack the Southern Han Dynasty, but instead crossed Meiling and began to march north, attacking Qianzhou in Southern Tang. (now Ganzhou, Jiangxi)
It stands to reason that Zhang Yuxian rebelled, and his rebellion was the brutal and unkind rule of Liu Ying of the Southern Han Dynasty, as an insurrectionist, a very important factor in his uprising was because he had an uncommon hatred with the ruling class of the Southern Han Dynasty, and they should fight to the death with the Southern Han Dynasty, so he turned around and attacked the hand of the Southern Tang Dynasty, everyone did not expect it, this is equivalent to A and B have enmity, B and C are neighbors, A and B know each other, A and C do not know, A in order to retaliate against B, and B scuffled in everything, and found that he couldn't beat B at all, and felt that he was going to suffer, A immediately gets rid of B, but instead of running away, A gives a backhand slap to C, who is passing by.
You can imagine what kind of expression C, who was inexplicably shot, would have on his face.
The Southern Tang Dynasty was defenseless, and the rebel army succeeded in its sneak attack, taking many state capitals and cities in the Southern Tang Dynasty in one fell swoop, and the number of rebels made a qualitative leap, from 10,000 to 100,000, which seemed to be a force to be reckoned with.
The emperor of the Southern Tang Dynasty at that time was Zhongzong Li Jing, Li Jing, who was the father of Wenqing Emperor Li Yu.
Zhang Yuxian wreaked havoc in the territory of the Southern Tang Dynasty, for Li Jing, it was simply a person sitting at home, disaster came from the sky, buddy recruited you to provoke you, you have a grudge to find the Southern Han Dynasty, and a grudge to find the Southern Han Dynasty, what are you doing with me?
(Southern Tang Dynasty Zhongzong Li Jing image)
But the enemy has already hit the doorstep, Li Jing must also take it seriously, he immediately commanded the army to encircle and suppress the rebel army, the result was unexpectedly good, soon the uprising was put down, Zhang Yuxian was also captured, and was immediately executed.
This Zhang Yuxian, in fact, belongs to such a leader elected by the rebel army composed of bandits, because in the record of "Zizhi Tongjian", we can see Sima Guang said, "When the thieves in Xunzhou rose up, Mo was unified, and the thieves prayed to God, and God said: "Zhang Yuxian should be your master", what does it mean? It means that there were a lot of bandits in the local area at that time, there were several groups, these forces could not unify with each other, everyone wanted to talk and count, under the stalemate, they handed over the decision to God, that is, they found a person similar to a wizard, and the wizard concluded after the ceremony that Zhang Yuxian, a small official in Zhenzhou, should be the leader of everyone, so this gang of bandits supported Zhang Yuxian as the lord.
Leaving one's fate to the heavens who no one can say clearly, just as people who are in confusion tend to make even more confused choices.
In essence, Zhang Yuxian's lord, a little more symbolic meaning, and less practical significance, in the process of the rebel army's southern conquest and northern war, he could not play too much commanding role, can not mobilize military forces well, in this case can open the gap in the Southern Han and Southern Tang respectively, and it is not easy to win some wars, and want to completely subvert the Southern Han and Southern Tang Dynasty, for such a grassroots figure, it is too difficult.
However, despite this, this elusive peasant uprising dealt a heavy blow to the rule of the Southern Han Dynasty, sounded the alarm for the future development of the empire, and at the same time, beat the old neighbor Nantang by the way.
The Southern Han Dynasty was in turmoil, and the sudden outbreak of peasant uprisings made the court anxious, it can be said that this Liu Jue was extremely unpopular as the emperor, so at this time, the emperor's younger brother Liu Hongxi had an idea.
(Southern Han Dynasty Emperor Liu Jue image)
Liu Jue, the third son of the old emperor Liu Ling, Liu Hongxi is the fourth son, Liu Hongchang is the fifth son, it stands to reason that this Liu Hongchang's humanity is a little better, Liu Jue has a lot of immorality and morality when he is in power, Liu Hongchang has also advised Liu Jue many times, of course, persuasion is in vain, Liu Jue must not listen.
Everyone dislikes Liu Jue very much, whether it is the princes and ministers or ordinary people, people generally have no good impression of Liu Jue, which gives Liu Hongxi the opportunity to usurp power and seize the throne.
Liu Hongxi saw that the third brother was already on the verge of betrayal and separation, so he launched a rebellion without saying a word, invited Liu Jue to his house to watch boxing, pushed the cup and changed the lamp during the banquet, and killed him after getting drunk with Liu Jue.
This matter did not arouse much repercussions in the Southern Han Dynasty and the opposition, in the eyes of many people, this is completely natural, logical thing, after killing Liu Jue, Liu Hongxi became the third emperor of the Southern Han Dynasty, that is, Zhongzong of the Southern Han Dynasty, and later he changed his name and changed Liu Hongxi to Liu Sheng.
Raise your head and crown the three mountains, overlooking the rising sun, the sheng here has the meaning of brightness.
Since Qin Chuangxing, Yu Turnover Sheng, the Sheng here, has the meaning of prosperity.
But it is clear that Liu Sheng himself is not compatible with Guangming, and it is difficult for him to make the Southern Han Dynasty prosperous.
Because, Liu Sheng's throne was obtained by rebellion through mutiny, this emperor who killed others, usurped others' rights, and seized other people's thrones and came to power, he would unconsciously worry that others would do the same, so he paid great attention to maintaining his rule, and after becoming the emperor, he not only used cruel punishments than Liu Ling and Liu Ying to manage the people, but also made a big move with a butcher's knife to these relatives of the Liu family, but if he could kill, he would never let go, and even the cronies who helped Liu Sheng ascend the throne were quickly eliminated by Liu Sheng.
We say that Liu Ling, the founding emperor of the Southern Han Dynasty, was very capable of giving birth, and he gave birth to a total of nineteen sons.
The eldest Liu Yaoshu, the second Liu Guitu died of illness, which can be regarded as escaping, the ninth Liu Hongcao died on the battlefield, which is also a kind of luck from a certain point of view, and the remaining fifteen brothers, including the second emperor Liu Jue, were all killed by Liu Sheng after Liu Sheng ascended the throne, including eight brothers, who were executed by Liu Sheng on the same day.
(Southern Han Dynasty Zhongzong Liu Sheng image)
Killing siblings in such disregard of family affection, I am afraid that there will be no second one in the past.
Among these fifteen brothers, the name of the tenth is Liu Honggao, and he has a last word before he dies:
Hong Gao misthought, the palace in the next life, and now he will be killed. Hereafter, let the people live, so that they will not be slaughtered.
After dying today, I hope that I will never enter the emperor's family in the next life, and I only wish to become a common man and live in peace.
Liu Honggao's exclamation also shows the cruelty of political struggle and purge.
Kill! Kill! For the sake of my throne and my great cause, if you don't go to hell, who will be like hell?
But Liu Sheng couldn't understand that he could kill anyone he thought was a threat to him, but after he went on such a killing spree, after his former brothers, relatives, and friends all died and fled and were injured, would he still be the emperor who was on the high?
Who will do your bidding? Who will help you?
We say that every story has an end, which is true, but the people in the story don't necessarily have an end.
The cold iron lock in the deep palace is in spring and autumn, and the siblings are bloody and tearful. In the past, under the green light, now there are two temples in the strange road.
The scourge of the wall sighs, and there are no gulls under the nest. Hate the water is difficult to fill the sea of power, and the sad wind often sweeps the emperor's building.
The thorn tree fell apart, and the wind tightened, and the wagtail left blood marks on the plain. The dragon tower and the phoenix are all illusory, not as quiet as a corner of the forest.
If an emperor is to be truly generous to the future, then he must give everything to the present.
And if Liu Sheng wants to be truly generous to the present, then he needs to destroy the Southern Han Dynasty and all the future.
Resources:
Zizhi Tongjian, Volume 283
History of the New Five Dynasties, Volume 65, The Fifth Family of the Southern Han Dynasty
ZHANG Jinmi. The Southern Han People and Their Political Destiny. 《CNKI》，2000
XU Gang. Southern Han Dynasty Qianheng heavy treasure back "Yong" lead money test. Regional Finance Studies, 1998