Emperor Gaozong of song was an emperor with the greatest difference in evaluation by folk and historians. In the folk, he bowed to the Jin Dynasty, humiliated and sought peace, sat back and watched large areas of mountains and rivers in the Northern Song Dynasty fall into the hands of others, reused the traitor Qin Juniper, and executed the national hero Yue Fei.
However, in the field of historiography, he was ordered to reorganize the mountains and rivers in danger, develop a crumbling empire from the border of death to the peak dynasty in the history of Art in our country, depose the "Four Generals of Zhongxing", kill Yue Fei to deter the gentry of Jiangnan, and even more so that the already scattered military power was once again concentrated in the hands of the Zhao and Song imperial families, ensuring the continuation of the Zhao Song Dynasty, and was known as the lord of the Song Dynasty Zhongxing, and was praised as "emperor of the Martial Spirit Wuwen Zhaoren Xianxiao", which shows the highest evaluation of history.
So is Zhao Zhuo a Dark Jun or a Ming Jun, is he really as bad as some people say? Emperor Huizong of song had so many sons, and his brother Emperor Qinzong had heirs, it can be said that no matter how the wheel could not turn Zhao, why did history choose Zhao to build the Southern Song Dynasty? The story after Zhao Shuo's succession has been told by too many people, and there are too many people evaluating, but how Zhao Shuo stood out before he succeeded to the throne, established his own crony system, and looked for the legitimacy of succession, this is a very interesting story.
The first time the Jin people went south to Kaifeng, the capital of the Northern Song Dynasty, was in the winter of the seventh year of Xuanhe (1125), when Emperor Huizong of Song listened to Li Gang's advice and passed the throne to the crown prince Zhao Heng to call on the army and the people to resist Jin, that is, Song Qinzong. Not thinking that in the spring of the first year of Jing Kang (1126), Zhao Yao's Chan Rang not only did not resist the attack of the Jin people, but even Kaifeng Province was besieged by the Jin people. To this end, the ninth son of Emperor Huizong of Song, Zhao Shuo the Prince of Kang, as a hostage and the young zai Zhang Bangchang, was ordered to go to the Jin people's camp to negotiate peace, which was the first time that Zhao Shuo appeared on the stage of history as a protagonist.
However, there are so far two theories about Zhao Shuo's performance in the Jin camp, one is that the "History of Song" says that he was not only "generous and inviting", but also "leisurely", and was not afraid of the Jin people at all. In the end, the Jin people all felt that this must be an unimportant false prince, and asked the Song court to replace the more important hostage, the fifth prince Zhao Shu. However, in the Qing Dynasty scholar Hong Liangji's "Case of the History of the Dynasties", it is said that Zhao Shuo was so frightened that he was like a wooden chicken, and the Jin people thought that the Song court had sent an idiot to fool themselves, so they asked for a replacement hostage, Zhao Shu.
In short, no matter what really happened during the period, the Zhao Dynasty's character explosion returned from the Jin people's tent, so the Zhao and Song Dynasties had a Song Gaozong. After all, the replaced Zhao Shu was directly taken captive to the north, and his life and death were unknown.
But this was not the highlight of Zhao Zhao's luck. In the winter of the first year of Jing Kang (1126), the Jin people besieged Kaifeng Province for the second time, which led to the fact that although the central system of the Northern Song Dynasty was still normal, it could no longer play a role, after all, the Song Qinzong government decree could not go out of the city, and the soldiers and horses everywhere did not know what was happening, and they did not dare to act rashly.
In this helpless situation, Emperor Qinzong of Song made Zhao Zhao the Grand Marshal of the Terracotta Army (Hebei) and led the Hebei army of Ma Qinwang to relieve the siege of the capital. The History of the Song Dynasty records:
The city is in danger. King Kang's northern envoys were not allowed to enter for the people of Heshuo, and Providence was also destroyed. Please pay homage to the Grand Marshal and summon the soldiers of the world to come to the aid.
Here we should pay attention to the four words "Providence also", that is to say, Zhao Shuo's appointment as the Grand Marshal of The Terracotta Army is a very, very good luck situation. Why?
The Song Dynasty had learned the lessons of the rebellion of the former imperial family and the clan kings, so it had strict restrictions on the clan relatives. Although theoretically speaking, Zhao Shuo, who was a crown prince, was given the title of Duke of Shu at birth and automatically entered the title of King kang when he reached adulthood, in order to prevent the king of the clan from becoming powerful, the king of the Song Dynasty had no fiefdom and no military power, which was nothing more than to give you some economic privileges and offerings. This is also why in the final Song Dynasty, there was never a phenomenon of rebellion by the king of the clan, which stemmed from the high concentration of imperial power in the hands of the emperor and the strict control of the clan relatives.
In fact, as early as the first siege of Kaifeng by the Jin army in the first year of Jing Kang (1126), Fu Liang proposed that Song Qinzong cede military power to the princes of various roads and let them enter Heshuo to drive out the Jin soldiers. As a result, Song Qinzong's face immediately changed when he heard it, "What if the prince directly seizes power in turn"? So he directly asked someone to put Fu Liang out.
When the Jin army invaded the south for the second time, some people suggested appointing Zhao Zhao, the king of Kang, as a marshal and sending troops to resist Jin. However, Song Qinzong was still "hesitant", and in the end, even if he sat back and watched Kaifeng being besieged, for the emperor, he was not willing to hand over the military power to other brothers and princes.
The real turnaround was in the winter of the first year of Jing Kang (1126), when Emperor Qinzong of Song ordered Zhao Shuo and Bingbu Shangshu Wang Yun to send an envoy to jin to negotiate peace. Traveling to Cizhou, since he was also the main envoy of the Northern Song Dynasty to divide the three towns and negotiate peace, the people of the prefecture thought that Wang Yun was a traitor, causing Wang Yun to commit suicide to prove his innocence. After this incident, Zhao Zhuo stayed in Xiangzhou.
At the same time, at the same time, at this moment, the Beijing division Kaifeng was once again besieged by the Jin army, and the Northern Song Central Center was paralyzed, so at this time, the closest to the capital, the most likely to rescue the "Kaifeng Siege", only in Xiangzhou, The Kang King Zhao Shuo and the soldiers and horses in Hebei. To this end, Emperor Qinzong of Song issued an order for Zhao Shuo, the King of Kang, and the Defender of Hebei to merge into reinforcements.
Here we can see that as a prince, Zhao Heng of Song Qinzong was still wary of his own brother, and did not directly ask him to lead an army into reinforcements, but joined the Hebei defenders in reinforcements. But at this time, Geng Nanzhong, a subordinate of Zhao Zhao, said:
Falsely claiming to be in accordance with the emperor's holy will, he raised the soldiers of the counties of Hebei into the guard.
What does this mean? To put it bluntly, the siege of the Beijing Division, your brother Zhao Heng's government decree is not out, this is the best opportunity for us (Zhao Zhao) to grasp the military power in Hebei. We now pretend that no one believes in the Holy Will. When the time comes to bring the soldiers of Hebei into Kaifeng, the world will change hands. Admittedly, this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for Zhao Shuo, who has ambitions, and it is also an opportunity that can no longer be possible if he misses it in this life.
So Zhao Zhao raised an army in Xiangzhou. And according to the "History of Song", In order to keep the latter hand, Zhao Zhuo specially sent a "grass edict" to his brother Song Qinzong, saying that now the messenger is not working, I suggest that I make myself a marshal, so use the "secret draft edict", one is that outsiders do not know, the other is that this is a "grass edict", brother If you do not agree, you can immediately withdraw it.
But for Song Qinzong, what could he do? At that time, Kaifeng was besieged, and as a result, two days later, the King of Kang, Zhao Zhao, raised an army to rescue him in Xiangzhou, and the dynasty was full of joy. At this time, it is impossible to pour a basin of cold water and say "not allowed", right? So he could only issue an edict:
King Kang could be the Grand Marshal of the Terracotta Army, Chen Hengbo was the Marshal of the Terracotta Army, and Zong Ze and Wang Boyan were the Deputy Marshals, and they conspired together to help the great merits.
At this time, although Zhao Zhuo took the military power in Hebei, he still lacked the excuse of "succession orthodoxy" and the edict to make soldiers and horses outside Hebei obey his orders. After all, Zhao Shuo had already broken the rule that the Song Dynasty's relatives did not hold military power, and he was not Zhao Heng's son, and second, he was not the prince of the dynasty, and before there was an edict from Song Qinzong, he wanted to call on the world and tell the fool about his dreams.
A very significant point of confusion about Zhao Shuo here is that although the Grand Marshal's Mansion of Terracotta Warriors and Horses was moved to Daming Mansion for a while, Dongping Province for a while, and Jeju for a while, due to the limitations of government decrees, they were all circulating around in Hebei, and Zhao Shuo's military power could not be expanded at all.
Until the heavens dropped a piece of pie for Zhao Zhao.
On March 7 of the second year of Jing Kang, Emperor Hui Qin had been taken captive by the Jin, and in order to better control the Han people of the Song Dynasty, Emperor Taizong of Jin forced Emperor Qinzong of Song to give up the throne of Zhang Bangchang, the chancellor of Yu WendeDian, and established the (pseudo) Chu state.
This news for King Kang and his staff is no less than a thunderbolt on a sunny day. No one expected that the throne that was about to reach the moment would actually disappear, and the pseudo-Chu state at this time already had "legitimacy" because it was built by Zen. At this juncture, Zhao Zisong, senator of the Grand Marshal's Office, proposed:
Fearing the four sides of the adulterous male, taking advantage of the change, it is difficult to calm down. The King of Desire obeyed the story and made it with the Great Marshal of the Terracotta Army and called on the four sides.
Zhao Zisong's proposal is of course very reasonable, and the establishment of the pseudo-Chu state is a golden opportunity for all the heroes of the Northern Song Dynasty, who can completely break away from the central jurisdiction and stand on their own in the name of Qin Wang. If the action is not fast, China is likely to enter another "five generations and ten countries". Of course, for Zhao Shuo, it is also a very big opportunity, the throne has always been passed from father to son, there is no brother to brother, so at this moment, if he becomes the "Great Marshal of the Terracotta Army", he can naturally call on the soldiers of the world to become the de facto orthodoxy.
So on April 14 of the same year, an imperial list appeared in Kaifeng Province, which read:
Kaifeng Province was the Grand Marshal of the Terracotta Army under emperor Kang's brother
At this time, Hui and Qin Erzong had already been abducted, and it was obvious who sent this imperial list.
In this regard, under the circumstances of his own deep calculations and the favorable circumstances of heaven and place, King Zhao of Kang gradually changed from a prince without a little military power to a great marshal of soldiers and horses who could command the world. In the history that followed, he would gradually eliminate the people and horses left by his brother Song Qinzong and replace them all with his own team, so that even if his father and brother had the opportunity to return, they could not threaten his throne, thus moving towards his own name of Emperor Gaozong of the Southern Song Dynasty.
Who says King Kang has no strategy?