HISTORY
As we all know, the establishment of the Great Song Dynasty originated from the "Chen Qiao Mutiny" of Zhao Kuangyin, the grandfather of the Song Dynasty, and the addition of yellow robes. As a major event that has influenced the direction of China's history, people have not stopped discussing it for thousands of years. Among the countless topics related to it, the most controversial is whether Song Taizu was forced to drive the ducks to the shelves during the mutiny, or whether it was premeditated for a long time.
In the records of the history of the Song Dynasty, the Chen Qiao Mutiny was a mutiny without premeditation and without bloodshed, and Zhao Kuangyin was unaware of the mutiny before the mutiny and was supported by the generals. However, in recent years, many scholars have found that the Chen Qiao mutiny is very suspicious, and Zhao Kuangyin is not as unaware as recorded in the history books, this is a long-planned mutiny to seize power, and it is very successful, almost called a bloodless blade, and the city is not easy to wanton.
On the first day of the first month of the seventh year of later Zhou Xiande, the news of a large-scale invasion of the Liao state suddenly came from the border where there had been no war for a long time, and it turned out that the Northern Han Dynasty had united with the Liao state and wanted to destroy the Later Zhou when Sejong Chai Rong was newly mourned.
Chai Rong was succeeded by the seven-year-old Emperor Gong, and Empress Fu, who was listening to the government, had no opinion, so she had to ask the chancellor Fan Qian, who thought that only Zhao Kuangyin could solve this problem. Unexpectedly, Zhao Kuangyin said that the soldiers were few and could not fight. Fan Qian had to entrust Zhao Kuangyin with supreme military power, and was promoted to the post of commander of the national soldiers and horses before the palace.
At the second o'clock of the first year, the third day of the first year set off, and the large army marched to a post called Chen Qiao, camped and camped, and spent the night at peace. Early the next morning, the army mutinied, and the soldiers rushed to the door of the marshal's bedchamber. Shouting in unison, he shouted from inside: "All the generals have no master, may the lieutenant be the son of heaven!" He rushed into the house and forcibly put a yellow robe on Zhao Kuangyin's body. Then the army marched, and the Liao army stopped fighting, and returned to the capital. All the way unimpeded, Shi Shouxin, who was guarding the capital, heard that Zhao Kuangyin had returned to Beijing, and actually directly opened the city gate to meet him.
Didn't anyone raise an army to resist? One of them, he was the deputy commander of the guards Ma Bujun, but before he could gather the army, he was killed by Wang Yansheng, a military academy next to him. At this time, the imperial court had not dispersed early, and upon learning the news, the hundred officials elected the chancellor Fan Qian and Wang Pu to meet Zhao Kuangyin. When the two men saw Zhao Kuangyin, they first wept bitterly and regretted the hasty dispatch of troops, and then the two of them wiped their tears and knelt down on the mountain to cry out long live.
Zhao Kuangyin arranged for the two to return to the palace, on the one hand, to appease the hundred officials, and on the other hand, to arrange for Zen concessions. Zen made the ceremony complicated, but the two arranged it in a very short time, and sent a ceremonial officer to greet Zhao Kuangyin, who had just walked to the foundation of the main hall, and when the courtiers saw it, they immediately knelt down collectively and shouted long live.
The third march of the first year, the fourth of the first year of the mutiny back to Beijing, the fifth week of the first year became the Great Song Dynasty, everything happened too quickly, countless doubts proved that the Chen Qiao mutiny was a long-planned coup d'état.
The mutiny has the following suspicious points, which make people suspicious.
Reasons for sending troops
Do you remember why Zhao Kuangyin led the army to go out? The history books describe this incident as follows: "In the spring of the seventh year, the Northern Han Dynasty married the Khitan into the Kou and ordered the division to go to the Imperial Family. ”
This was the reason for the initial dispatch of troops, and by the time of the coup d'état, the Great Song Dynasty had been established, and he said: "Guo Chongbao of Zhenzhou: The Khitan and Northern Han armies have retreated." This is the saying of the Song Shi Taizu Benji. The "seven years" here refers to the seven years of Later Zhou Xiande. In just four days, the Liao army retreated, was it afraid of Zhao Kuangyin's ability? Apparently not.
Although the Song people all rumored that the Khitan entered the Court in a big way at the beginning of the first month of the first month, the Liao Shi Muzong Benji, as well as the biographies of the governors and generals of the Liao state who bordered the Later Zhou during this period, did not record this fact.
That is to say, at the beginning of this year, the Khitan did not send troops to attack Hou Zhou at all, and even did not have such an intention. It is very obvious that this is a deliberately created false military intelligence in order to launch a mutiny for Zhao Kuangyin.
The response of the ministers was intriguing
In this mutiny, in addition to Zhao Kuangyin's concubines Zhao Kuangyi and Zhao Pu, several ministers played a very important role in it. Let's first look at the performance of the two prime ministers.
Fan Zhi and Wang Pu were immediately pushed by hundreds of officials to see Zhao Kuangyin after receiving the news of the mutiny, and as soon as the two entered the door, Zhao Kuangyin said to them with embarrassment: "I have been generously favored by Emperor Sejong, and now I am forced by the generals, and when I reach such a situation, I really have no place to look at myself, and I am ashamed of Emperor Sejong!" "Say it, and cry loudly." Fan Qian only said one sentence: "The hasty dispatch of troops is a mistake of my waiting!" Next, Wang Pu first knelt down, Fan Zhi followed, and the two sang a "long live" song. Then go back to the palace and arrange zen affairs.
These two prime ministers were deeply favored by the former emperor, and in the face of Zhao Kuangyin, who wanted to seize the Later Zhou Jiangshan, they did not question Zhao Kuangyin in awe, but only said a few words of regret and went to arrange the matter of Zen Rang. Judging from the reactions of these two people, the two of them were informed, if not accomplices.
There is also a minister who is very important, Hanlin Bachelor Tao Gu. The Zen Dynasty ceremony was presided over by Shi Zanjurun, the highest official of the imperial court at that time. When the ceremony was about to begin, everyone suddenly found that there was one important thing missing, and there was no preparation of the Zen edict. Everyone was worried, and Tao Gu, a Scholar of Hanlin, triumphantly took out from his sleeve the Edict of Zen that had been privately written in place of the eight-year-old little emperor. The prime minister read it out, and Zhao Kuangyin took over the edict. This is the performance of Wen Chen.
Some people believe that there are no soldiers in the hands of civilian subjects, the situation is forced, and they have to submit, and the military generals are bound to be different. But Zhao Kuangyin was not the only one in this mutiny who had a heavy army in his hands. Fu Yanqing was the father of Empress Dowager Fu of the Later Zhou Dynasty, not only a lieutenant, but also a Zhongshu Ling, a Jiedu envoy, a Tianxiong army under his command, a heavy army, and a King of Wei in Later Zhou, with an incomparable status.
There was also Zhang Yongde, although he was not Chai Rong's close relative, but he was the horse of Guo Wei, the grandfather of later Zhou, and he also had the titles of Inspector Taiwei and Tongzhongshu Menxia Pingzhangshi, who was still a cadre at the rank of prime minister, and served as an envoy of the Zhongwu Army, and also held military power in his hands. When the two men heard that Zhao Kuangyin had become emperor, he was not only not surprised, but also immediately went to the table to say "long live" to express their loyalty.
You know what's on your mind?
Although Zhao Kuangyin showed great loyalty during the Zhou Taizu and Sejong dynasties (he was not loyal and could not become the supreme commander of the Forbidden Army), after ascending the throne, he repeatedly said that he was forced to become emperor by the situation and his imperial throne, and this was also recorded in the history books. However, just as the so-called authorities are obsessed with bystanders, the eyes of the masses are shining. Zhao Kuangyin's "Heart of Sima Zhao", although deeply hidden, was still detected by at least three people.
The first to suspect Zhao Kuangyin was the Later Zhou chancellor Yang Huizhi, who had "spoken to Emperor Sejong, thinking that there were people in the upper echelons and that it was not appropriate to ban soldiers" (Continuation of the Zhizhi Tongjian Long Edition).
Immediately afterward, Zhou Chen ZhengQi also said the same thing to Prime Minister Fan Qian. However, neither Zhou Shizong nor Fan Zhi had remembered it in their hearts. It is worth noting that after Zhao Kuangyin ascended the throne, he demoted the two to remote prefectures and counties, and the reasons for the demeaning were not recorded in the historical records. In addition, Han Tong's son Han Wei also advised his father to guard against Zhao Kuangyin as soon as possible, but Han Tong also failed to listen, and as a result, both father and son were killed shortly after the mutiny.
Just imagine, if Zhao Kuangyin is not weak-minded, is it necessary to degrade or kill these three people?
Through the above description, we should be able to draw conclusions: Although the whole process of the "Chen Qiao Mutiny" was perfect, the performance of Zhao Kuangyin and his generals was also in place, and the historical records also tried their best to beautify it, but these cannot hide that the mutiny was actually an organized and premeditated change of dynasty carried out by the Zhao Kuangyin clique.
However, in order to alleviate the moral guilt of seizing Jiangshan from orphans and widows, in order to reduce the pressure of public opinion, and in order to appease the ministers in order to smoothly take over the Later Zhou Jiangshan, Zhao Kuangyin had to and could only mold himself into a passive superior forced by helplessness.
However, we should also see that although the "Chen Qiao Mutiny" was an out-and-out conspiracy, the historical decision was not wrong: it chose Zhao Kuangyin and the Song Dynasty, which gave ancient China the privilege of ushering in an era of unprecedented development of civil rule, created a peaceful and tranquil environment for the people who had suffered from the fires of the five generations of war, and laid a solid foundation for China's economic and cultural progress.
At the same time, although this mutiny was also "a regime out of the barrel of a gun", it became a rare bloodless change of dynasty. Even the biggest disappointment, the Chai royal family of the Later Zhou Dynasty not only saved their lives, but also received considerable preferential treatment, which undoubtedly became the beginning of the rationality of ancient Chinese politics, and laid an enlightened, harmonious and tolerant political tone for the prosperity of the two Song dynasties and three hundred years, and its positive impact on history cannot be overstated.