Episode 52: Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms
From 907 AD to 960 AD, in just fifty-three years, many heroes competed, including the Later Liang, Later Tang, Later Jin, Later Han, In the later Zhou Dynasty, one short-lived middle-aged dynasty appeared in a pool of blood one after another, known as the Five Dynasties in history. Other local governments also followed suit, forming ten large and small independent kingdoms, known in history as the Ten Kingdoms. Mutinies continued and wars continued. In the smoke of war, the wheel of history entered a chaotic and unclear historical mystery.
In 884 AD, a grand banquet was being held at Shangyuan Station in Bianzhou Post Office. Just like the Hongmen Banquet during the Qin and Han Dynasties, this banquet in the late Tang Dynasty also changed the history of China. It has been recorded in many history books. Not only that, it has also been widely circulated among the people and has become a legend that is full of emotions. The protagonists of the banquet were Zhu Wen, the military governor of Xuanwu, and Li Keyong, the military governor of Hedong. Zhu Wen was originally a general of Huangchao's uprising army in the late Tang Dynasty. He later defected to the Tang regime and was known for his harsh military management. He became the leader of the encirclement and suppression of Huangchao. As an important force, he defended Bianzhou and formed a powerful military group. Li Keyong, a native of Shatuo, was brave and good at fighting. He was called Fei Huzi in the army. He had a problem with one eye and was nicknamed One-eyed Dragon. During the war to encircle and suppress Huangchao, Li Keyong's power rapidly expanded, with Taiyuan as the center. Form a powerful Hedong military group. The two major military groups finally met in the battle to encircle and suppress Huangchao. They joined forces to attack and won a complete victory. Zhu Wen specially arranged a grand celebration banquet for Li Keyong. Li Keyong was young and energetic, always showing off his strength at the banquet, and showing disrespect in his words. Zhu Wen was angry inside, but he did not show it at the banquet. He put the highlight after the banquet.
Li Xiao: Of course, there is a saying in history about this matter, called the Hongmen Banquet, which lasted for more than 100 years. After the failure of the Huangchao Uprising, it can be said that it has become more and more intense. Two of them have developed the fastest. , Zhu Wen and Li Keyong were the two most powerful. They were sitting together, ostensibly drinking and chatting, but actually hiding murderous intentions.
Li Keyong's post house was in danger. Zhu and Wen's army had secretly surrounded the post house, waiting for the right opportunity. As night fell, Zhu and Wen's army set fire to and fired arrows. Li Keyong's 300 soldiers All the soldiers were killed, and Li Keyong was in danger. However, at this time, there was a thunderstorm, and the power of the rocket was greatly reduced. Under the desperate protection of several personal followers, Li Keyong escaped in embarrassment. His former comrades suddenly became enemies, and the two major military groups From then on, their struggle for hegemony began, and their struggle for hegemony would influence the political structure of the Five Dynasties period. At the end of the 9th century, the Tang Empire was in terminal illness. During the encirclement and suppression of the Huangchao Uprising, the power of the vassal towns further strengthened. The Tang Dynasty was on its deathbed, but the courtiers and eunuchs were still fighting fiercely, and they all formed alliances with the forces of the vassal towns.
In 900 AD, the eunuch forces not only killed the courtiers, but also planned to depose Tang Zhaozong. In order to subdue the eunuchs, whether they were the emperor or the courtiers, they had to rely on local power. They all unanimously pinned their hopes on On Zhu Wen's body, Prime Minister Cui Yin secretly sent a letter to Zhu Wen, asking him to send troops to fight the rebellion. After receiving the letter from Prime Minister Cui Yin, Zhu Wen was overjoyed. This was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. He led his army to set off with the goal of Chang'an City. The eunuch Han Quanhai and others kidnapped Tang Zhaozong out of desperation and took refuge with Li Maozhen, the military governor of Fengxiang. However, Li Maozhen was no match for Zhu Wen. After the battle failed, he was forced to hand over Zhaozong. At this time, Zhu Wen had completely controlled the central government of the Tang Dynasty. regime. The brutal massacre unfolded quickly. More than 700 eunuchs were killed by Zhu Wen. The Shence Army of the Central Army, which had been controlled by the eunuchs for a long time, was disbanded. Then, Zhu Wen, who was recognized by everyone as a loyal minister, quickly revealed his true identity. On the other hand, he slaughtered the courtiers and even killed Cui Yin, the prime minister who had escorted him to the capital. He forced Tang Zhaozong to move to Luoyang, and before leaving, he burned down all the palaces, offices, and private houses in Chang'an. Soon, Tang Zhaozong was killed in Luoyang. After a series of preparations, in 907 AD, Zhu Wen proclaimed himself emperor on behalf of the Tang Dynasty and changed the country's name to Liang. This was the first Central Plains regime in the Five Dynasties - Houliang. The 289-year-long rule of the Tang Dynasty finally came to an end.
But has the influence of the Tang Dynasty really disappeared completely? After the establishment of the Later Liang Dynasty, although many vassal towns were wiped out by Zhu Wen, even Weibo and Chengde, the strongest vassal towns since the middle Tang Dynasty, were defeated and surrendered to Zhu Wen. However, there was only one important figure who always believed that the history of the Tang Dynasty was not over. He was Li Keyong, who had a deep feud with Zhu Wen. At this time, 23 years had passed since the Shangyuanyi Feast, and Li Keyong had also transformed from a young and energetic young man into a mature military overlord dominating Hedong. At this time, only Li Keyong's Hedong Military Group really posed a major threat to the Rear Liang Dynasty, and the next struggle for hegemony in the Central Plains was also launched between these two military groups. When the news of Zhu Wen's murder of Emperor Zhaozong of the Tang Dynasty reached Taiyuan, Li Keyong mourned to the south and vowed to punish the murderer and fight against rebellion and restore the Tang Dynasty. Li Keyong still regarded himself as a Tang official, and under the banner of King Qin's fight against rebellion, he fought with the Houliang army Keep attacking and killing.
Zhang Minghua: From a military perspective, the Zhu and Wen Group occupies an absolute military advantage, but from a moral perspective, Li Keyong was under the banner of revenge for the Tang Dynasty. came, so morally speaking, it has greater support.
Zhu Wen's army had strict discipline and was very fierce. He once issued an order that if a general was killed or escaped during the war, all the soldiers under his command would be killed. This is the famous postscript. This is true for one's own soldiers, but it is even more cruel for enemy soldiers. Li Keyong used loyalty to form a powerful volunteer army with his adopted son Thirteen Taibao as the core, and then formed a powerful military group with the volunteer army as the center. It is Jinzhong Art School in Shanxi Province. For this year's performance, students have begun intense rehearsals again. The rehearsed play Jin Opera Yaguanlou tells the story of Li Keyong and his adopted son fighting together. In the story, Li Keyong's adopted son Li Cunxiao, who was only a teenager but had superb martial arts skills, captured Huang Chao general Meng Juehai alive in the battle. In the era when drama was popular, plays such as Shatuo Kingdom, Yaguan Tower, Feihu Mountain, and Taiping Bridge, which described the story of Li Keyong and his son's conquests, were numerous and very popular. They became classic plays one after another, and thus became a household legend. Story, Li Keyong and the Thirteen Taibao. It is said that Li Keyong had thirteen adopted sons, all of whom were extraordinary in martial arts. They were all heroes and warriors who helped Li Keyong gain fame and conquer the world. Li Cunxiao, the eunuch, said he was the most valiant military general in the world. Li Keyong had a very close relationship with his adopted son during the fighting between horses and soldiers. They fought bloody battles together and continuously achieved great results.
Li Biao: The so-called adopted sons used by Li Ke actually mean that he is in the Central Plains region. Because he is of this ethnic minority origin, he has to form his own identity in the Central Plains region. He must have this kind of power, that is, to recruit many so-called adopted sons in the Central Plains area. At that time, the meaning of "righteousness" was more beneficial, and the word "righteousness" was just a name.
For more than twenty years, Zhu Wen and Li Keyong have been engaged in an uninterrupted struggle. After the establishment of the Later Liang Dynasty, the war between the two sides became more intense, and it was about to reach the final moment of a showdown. In the first month of 908 AD, however, Li Keyong died violently. Until Li Keyong's deathbed, he was still planning military plans in the military camp. He established his son Li Cunxu as King of Jin, took out three arrows, and asked his son to complete three things. event. The first arrow points directly at Liu Rengong and Liu Shouguang and his son in the north, who are occupying Youzhou; the second arrow points at the Khitan outside the Central Plains Dynasty; the third arrow is the most important, which is to eliminate the feuding Zhu Wen.
Li Xiao: Should we attack Zhu Wen first or stabilize our rear defense first and weaken the power of Liu Rengong in the north and the Khitan who have always posed a strong threat to the Central Plains? This was what some politicians at the time said and military strategists need to make a major strategic choice. Li Keyong gave top priority to pacifying Youzhou, now Beijing, and resisting the then powerful enemy Khitan, which showed that he regarded stabilizing the rear as his top priority.
The Youzhou occupied by Liu Rengong and Liu Shouguang was at the junction of the Central Plains Dynasty and the Khitan. This place was a battleground for the military. Li Keyong pointed the second arrow at the Khitan, and he could only avoid the strong invasion of the Khitan. , Only then can we have no worries. Li Keyong's ultimate goal is Zhu Wen. Only by eliminating Zhu Wen's Houliang army can Li Keyong's military group truly dominate the Central Plains. When Li Keyong died, the sky was full of yellow sand outside. The real war would begin after Li Keyong's death. Since Zhu Wen proclaimed himself emperor and established the Later Liang Dynasty, various military envoys in the south also became independent one after another, and established nine countries one after another. Go up to the Northern Han Dynasty in the north, which are the ten countries in the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms.
This is Yangzhou. As early as the Sui and Tang Dynasties, Yangzhou was very prosperous and was the largest city in the southeast at that time. During the Five Dynasties, with Yangzhou as the center, two countries were established successively, the Wu State and the Southern Tang Dynasty. . Yang Xingmi, a native of Hefei, served as the Huainan Jiedushi of the Tang Dynasty and was named King of Wu. When the war in the Central Plains spread, Yang Xingmi decisively sent troops to forcefully curb Zhu Wen's southward advance and save the southern economy from destruction. In 937 AD, Xu Zhigao, a powerful minister of Wu State, proclaimed himself a descendant of the Tang Dynasty and changed his name to Li Sheng. He changed the name of the country to Datang, which was known as Southern Tang in history. In the Southern Tang Dynasty, the basic national policy was to protect the environment and the people, calm down the troops and stabilize the people. The intensity of agricultural development exceeded that of the political powers in the north and the south. Great progress was made in diversified operations. The handicraft industry and commerce in the Southern Tang Dynasty were very prosperous. This is also an artistic dynasty. The two generations of kings, Li Jing and Li Yu, were both talented people from the south of the Yangtze River. Under their leadership, the Southern Tang Dynasty made outstanding achievements in literature, art, calligraphy, and music.
Li Xiao: If the southern region of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms is compared with the northern region, then there are two outstanding differences. The first is that it is relatively stable, and the second is that the social economy has developed very greatly. In order to win in the competition with each other, these local governments in the south competed to adopt policies such as developing the economy and protecting the environment and the people. This had a great impact on the recovery and sustainable development of the social economy at that time. promotion effect.
This is the world-famous Suzhou and Hangzhou. King Qian Miao of Wuyue developed mulberry farming and built water conservancy, which made Wuyue rich in the southeast. Suzhou and Hangzhou were vigorously built, including the Liuhe Pagoda and Baojiao Tower in Hangzhou. Pagoda, Leifeng Pagoda, and Yunyan Temple Pagoda in Huqiu, Suzhou. Its construction technology was high and ranked first in the world at that time. The natural scenery and the cultural landscape complement each other, forming an enviable place. There is heaven above and there is heaven below. Suhang's statement spread throughout the world.
To the south of Wuyue Kingdom, the Fujian regime established by Wang Chao and Wang Shenzhi was booming. The marine economy was vigorously developed. Gantang Port has been prosperous since its opening. Among the ten kingdoms, the Shu region in the southwest, with Chengdu as its center, has dangerous mountains, rivers, and fertile fields for thousands of miles. It is known as the land of abundance. When Zhu Wen established the Later Liang Dynasty, the king of Shu, Wang Jian, also called himself emperor. The founding name was Shu, and it was called the former Shu in history.
Hu Wei: At the end of the Tang Dynasty, due to wars, many officials and scholars from the Central Plains took refuge in the former Shu Kingdom. Then with their help, Wang Jian established the official system in imitation of the Tang Dynasty. A set of political systems, this is also a very complete set of political systems. Because the Shu region has many natural dangers, it can be said that it is a dangerous place. Under such unique conditions, the economy of the former Shu has been greatly developed.
Wang Jian can be called the emperor of the Ming Dynasty, but his successor was cruel and mediocre. After the destruction of the former Shu, the later Shu was established. The second emperor of the later Shu, Meng Chang, worked hard on state affairs and rested with the people in the early days of his reign. As a result, the Shu Kingdom became powerful, and Meng Chang was still a famous literary and artistic young man. He was most obsessed with opera. Some opera troupes still regard him as their patron saint and call him Meng Langjun. In Chengdu, Shu embroidery girl Feng Yuying is one of the few artists in the city who still adheres to traditional crafts. As a folk artist whose traditional crafts are the leader of Shu, she has been teaching her skills in her own home for more than ten years. In the post-Shu period, despite the constant wars in the Central Plains, Sichuan was relatively peaceful and had a prosperous economy. Shu embroidery, a folk craft that originated in Chengdu, also began to develop and become popular at that time.
Today, Feng Yuying’s Shu embroidery workshop is already well-known, and the most popular works among customers are still the beautiful hibiscus flowers and Mrs. Flower Stamens.
There are also upright people among pity people, but more pity officials rely on the emperor's favor and act unscrupulously. Officials dare to be angry but dare not speak out. Lian Ren Jing Jin specializes in spying on the outside situation for Emperor Zhuangzong of the Tang Dynasty. As long as someone offends him, he will be there. Zhuangzong made slanderous remarks to slander his opponents, and disaster soon befell him, and the eunuchs were re-employed.
In 925 AD, eunuchs and pity people selected three thousand women to fill the harem. In 926 AD, Li Cunxu listened to the eunuch's slander and killed Guo Chongtao, the king of Xiping who had made outstanding achievements in pacifying the former Shu. The mutiny broke out again and Weizhou Mutinies occurred in other places, and rebellions also occurred in the capital. Guo Congqian, a pro-army general who was born in Lianren, regarded Guo Chongtao as his uncle and had a close relationship with him. After Guo Chongtao died, Guo Congqian led his troops to attack the city gate, and Li Cunxu personally led the cavalry to attack. But he had betrayed his relatives and could not mobilize nearby troops. People around him also left one after another. This once all-powerful warrior was now isolated and fighting alone. In the midst of great loss and pain, Li Cunxu was shot by an arrow and proclaimed himself emperor. He died in just three years. At that time, there was only a poor man who picked up some discarded tattered musical instruments, put them on Li Cunxu's body, lit them on fire, and burned his body. Li Cunxu was a master at writing and acting, and was even regarded as the ancestor of opera by many theater troupes. In the real world outside the theater, he also used In his own life, he wrote an unparalleled tragedy and comedy, pitying people, musical instruments and bows and arrows, representing the passion and charm of Zongzong's life, and participating in his dramatic end. In the words of Zuo Zhuan quoted by Ouyang Xiu, you will start with this. End with this.
Li Siyuan is the adopted son of Li Keyong and the oldest among the Thirteen Taibao. He has fought with Li Keyong and Li Cunxu and his son for more than thirty years, and has repeatedly performed extraordinary feats. When the mutiny broke out, , Li Siyuan was ordered to attack the rebels in Weizhou, but not long after the rebellion was suppressed, his soldiers launched a mutiny, merged with the rebels, and supported Li Siyuan as the new emperor. This was another successful mutiny, and Li Siyuan benefited from the mutiny. who. But after he came to power, he had to forcefully curb the mutiny, otherwise he might be the next to be killed.
Deng Xiaonan: In fact, during the Five Dynasties, the Forbidden Army actually referred to the elite regular army. What about the Forbidden Army? On the one hand, their military strength was relatively strong in combat effectiveness. On the one hand, the commander-in-chief of the Forbidden Army was also trained through many years of brutal wars. He was relatively popular. Emperors like these did not dare to touch them easily, so even though there were many precautions at the time, Some measures were taken during the mutiny, such as strict discipline and rectification of some rebellious warlords and generals, but there was no way to fundamentally solve this problem.
If Li Siyuan wanted to break through the mutiny pattern, the first thing he had to do after taking the throne was to suppress and rectify. For the arrogant and difficult-to-control soldiers, Li Siyuan killed them all to avoid future troubles. Several large-scale massacres were carried out. The situation that was prone to chaos was initially changed. Li Siyuan further strengthened the centralization of power, reorganized the personal bodyguard army, and began to establish a new imperial army system. In addition to defending the capital, the imperial army was also stationed in various places to contain and weaken the power of vassal towns. Jiedu envoys were frequently mobilized to prevent them from forming separatist forces, and their strength The powerful vassal towns were divided repeatedly, and their strength was greatly reduced. Li Siyuan also tried to completely eliminate the soil for mutiny. He purified the government and allowed the people of the Central Plains who had suffered from war to gain a certain degree of self-cultivation. These measures undoubtedly stabilized the political situation and also made the mutiny lose its foundation. However, Li Siyuan had an insurmountable flaw. When he came to the throne, he was already sixty years old and his strength was weak. He still could not establish a perfect system. He had to distribute a large amount of power to his family members and cronies, and let close people replace the original warlords as the new warlords. power.
Li Siyuan tried to make up for the shortcomings of the system with the connection of friendship and friendship. But could he succeed? When Li Siyuan fell ill in his later years, a palace coup occurred again. The second son Li Congrong led troops to attack the palace gate in an attempt to usurp the throne, but was defeated and killed. Li Siyuan himself was horrified and mourned, and died miserably. After a series of palace killings.
In 934 AD, Li Siyuan's adopted son Li Congke proclaimed himself emperor. He had just ascended the throne. Li Congke was very jealous of Shi Jingtang of Taiyuan. Shi Jingtang was not only a prince with an army, but also Li Siyuan's son-in-law. In order to eliminate the threat of Shi Jingtang, , Li Congke decided to strike first and forced Shi Jingtang to leave the nest.
But this decision not only caused Li Congke to die quickly, but also triggered a problem that the Central Plains Dynasty could not solve for hundreds of years. In order to resist Li Congke, Shi Jingtang faced a difficult choice. In the end, he did not hesitate to take extraordinary measures and took the initiative to ask for help from the Khitan in the north. After a series of reforms, the Khitan had become stronger at this time. In order to obtain the help of the Khitan army, Shi Jingtang took the initiative to cede the Yanyun Sixteen Prefectures to the Khitan. This method completely changed the political structure of northern China.
The Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun stretch about 600 miles from east to west and about 200 kilometers from south to south. Historically, this was not only the natural dividing line between the Central Plains farming civilization and the grassland nomadic civilization, but also the Central Plains dynasty’s defense against the invasion of northern nomads. military demarcation line. As early as the Warring States Period, the states of Yan and Zhao did not hesitate to spend a lot of national power to build the Great Wall on the high mountains. After the establishment of the Qin Dynasty, the Great Wall was even connected. . Because once it is lost, there will be no danger to defend the north, and the cavalry of powerful countries can gallop across the Central Plains.
You Biao: For any dynasty, he must control the Yanyun area. After controlling the Yanyun area, he can basically guarantee the security of the Central Plains dynasty, and If this safety barrier is lost, it will be easy for the cavalry of the ethnic minorities to go south, which will have a great impact on the Central Plains Dynasty.
Deng Xiaonan: So after ceding this area to the Khitan, the Khitan was originally a nomadic nation, so they basically used nomadism as their mode of production and lifestyle, and they got Yanyun After the 16th state, there began to be an area dominated by agricultural economy. This situation was actually stimulating to the development of the Khitan nation itself, and it also had a negative impact on its social structure, including the rule of the Liao Dynasty. Methods actually have a kind of enlightenment or a driving effect.
With the help of the Khitan, Shi Jingtang established the third Central Plains regime in the Five Dynasties period, the Later Jin Dynasty. However, although Shi Jingtang became the emperor, he could only bow to the Khitan. Shi Jingtang's successor Shi Chonggui tried to risk his life and change. Retaking the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun from the Khitans completely changed the passive situation, but at this time the situation was irreversible. From 944 to 947 AD, the Khitan army went south three times, and the Later Jin Dynasty was destroyed. Although the Khitans invaded the Central Plains, their plunder and atrocities aroused the resistance of the Central Plains people, and the Khitans were forced to retreat, leaving a political vacuum in the Central Plains.
Liu Zhiyuan, who stayed behind in Taiyuan, took the opportunity to send troops and establish the Later Han Dynasty. He died after only one year in office. His second son Liu Chengyou succeeded to the throne. The mutiny happened again and Liu Chengyou was killed. In the first month of 951 AD, Zheng led an army to resist. The Khitan's Ye capital stayed in Guo Wei, and he was proclaimed emperor by the soldiers. The army returned to Tokyo and established a new regime. This was the last Central Plains dynasty in the Five Dynasties period - the Later Zhou Dynasty. Guo Wei and his successor Zhou Shizong Chai Rong were both in the Five Dynasties period. They were very accomplished emperors. They took drastic measures to eradicate ills, and eliminating pathologies became their top priority in governing the country. Guo Wei's successor, Chai Rong, was his nephew and adopted son. In order to prevent mutiny, Chai Rong was placed outside the bodyguards. The Dianqian Army, Envoy Dianqian and Guard Divisions were also established to form the Central Forbidden Army and even the core of the entire armed force, which fundamentally changed the situation since the late Tang Dynasty that the external emphasis was on the outside and the internal was neglected.
Deng Xiaonan: In the process of reorganizing the Forbidden Army, Chai Rong added some elite forces to the Dianqian Division. Therefore, the role of the Dianqian Division’s power was at that time The structure of the Forbidden Army has obviously risen. In this case, it has almost become a force that can keep pace with the Guards Division. Therefore, the two divisions of the Forbidden Army have such a command structure, or a leadership structure. The mutiny of the Forbidden Army at that time was restricted to a certain extent.
In fact, in addition to the problem of mutiny, the 16 states of Yanyun have always been a problem that the Later Zhou regime was eager to solve. Chai Rong's army successively conquered Hou Shu and the Southern Tang Dynasty, and achieved significant results. But Yanyun Sixteen Prefectures were always stuck in his throat, and Chai Rong couldn't wait to take them back from the Khitans.
In 959 AD, Chai Rong determined to personally conquer the north, fought against the Khitan army, and recovered the three states of Mo, Ying, and Yi occupied by the Liao Kingdom. However, he did not expect that just when Chai Rong was about to take advantage of the victory to enter Youzhou, the disease suddenly struck him. He left behind a vigorous and great cause, but his successor, his son Chai Zongxun, was only seven years old. Death was coming, but Chai Rong still used his last strength to arrange funeral arrangements. He made one last major adjustment to the personnel of the army, but he did not expect such an adjustment, and still could not get rid of the terrible mutiny predicament.
The Five Dynasties are coming to an end. In the long night, one ruler after another appears and disappears in an instant. Whether it is the cunning and harsh Zhu Wen, the opera-obsessed Li Cunxu, or the old and frail Li Siyuan, the fate of Poor Chai Rong, they are unable to solve the political dilemma in China, let alone the seven-year-old Chai Zongxun. However, the wheel of history can't wait to move forward, and the Central Plains is calling for a great king.