The Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms (907-979 AD, a total of 73 years) was a brief and chaotic period of great division between the fall of the Tang Dynasty and the founding of the Northern Song Dynasty, after the fall of the Tang Dynasty, the former Tang Dynasty made all the envoys independent, the crowds competed, the world was in chaos, and there were dozens of various divided regimes, they sometimes united, sometimes mixed, and the people did not have a good life.
Chai Rong (921---959), Emperor of later Zhou during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period, was described in history as "heroic in appearance, good at riding and shooting, a little through the history of Huang Lao, heavy and taciturn", and historians called him "the first Ming Emperor of the Five Dynasties".
In 951, after Guo Wei's founding, Guo Wei became childless, and made his nephew Chai Rong crown prince and renamed guo rong.
In 954, Guo Wei fell ill and died, and Chai Rong took the throne as Emperor Shizong of Zhou. In the same year, the Northern Han Dynasty took advantage of the change of power of later Zhou and the instability of the state, colluded with the Khitan southern invaders, and attempted to destroy Later Zhou in one fell swoop.
Chai Rong knew that he was not Guo Wei's own son, and he had no military achievements, so he had to face the provocations of the ministers and generals of the dprk and the outside, and the threat of foreign enemies such as the Northern Han Dynasty and the Khitans. Therefore, in order to quickly establish his power, Chai Rong decided to march in person.
The two armies encountered gaoping, both lined up the strongest lineup, the commander of the Later Zhou Ma Army, Fan Aneng, and the infantry commander He Hui, who were afraid of the enemy, collapsed at the first touch, and the two led their headquarters to flee desperately, and robbed and plundered all the way, spread rumors, and tried to stop the advance of the rear support troops.
The escape of the two main generals brought a negative impact on the Later Zhou army and greatly boosted the morale of the Later Han army. In an emergency, Chai Rong disregarded his safety and personally commanded himself, Zhang Yongde, Zhao Kuangyin and other generals rose up to fight, and other generals also shook their spirits and fought bravely, and finally resisted the crazy offensive of the enemy.
Later Zhou's reinforcements finally arrived, and the two armies merged into one, seizing the opportunity to launch a counterattack, reversing the situation on the battlefield, and beating the Northern Han dynasty into the wilderness and fleeing, killing eight or nine of them, known in history as the Battle of Gaoping.
In the Battle of Gaoping, Later Zhou won a complete victory, and Zhou Shizong naturally wanted to discuss the merits and rewards, and feast on the soldiers. Chai Rong killed Fan Aineng and He Hui, who had taken the lead in escaping from the battlefield, and all the more than 70 generals who escaped under his command were also beheaded, and Zhao Kuangyin, Li Chongjin, Liu Ci and other generals were rewarded.
A few years ago, in Tangwangtou Village, Gaoping City, Shanxi Province, the ownerless tomb with the inscription "The tomb has the day of reopening, and there are no fewer people", some experts infer that its owner was among the more than 70 people who were killed.
During Chai Rong's reign, the whole army trained pawns, eliminated redundant and weak, invited exile, and reduced taxes, so that the politics of later Zhou were clear, the people were prosperous, and the Central Plains began to recover. He wanted to serve jun for 30 years, and his wish to "open up the world in ten years, feed the people in ten years, and bring peace in ten years" was ultimately unfulfilled due to his untimely death, but his 5 and a half years of civil rule martial arts laid the foundation for ending the division and creating a new situation.
In his lifetime, Chai Rong conquered the northern war in the south, defeated Hou Shu in the west, and captured the four prefectures of Qin, Feng, Cheng, and Jie; destroyed the southern Tang in the south, and exhausted the 14 prefectures of Jiangbei and Huainan, cutting off the qualification for the unification of the Southern Tang; in March 959, Chai Rong took cangzhou to the north, led tens of thousands of troops to ride straight into the Liao territory, and by May he had successively recovered 17 counties, which was the biggest victory in the five generations against the Liao. If the land of Yanyun can be recovered, the Later Zhou will once again unify China and establish a Han Empire bounded by the Great Wall, then the Khitan Western Xia will not rise, naturally there will be no Mongol Western Expedition, and our Great Chinese Empire will always stand proudly in the world.
Chai Rong fell ill at the time of the conquest of Youzhou (present-day Beijing) and died shortly afterwards at the age of 39.
If Chai Rong was there, Zhao Kuangyin would never dare to use the "false news of the Khitan and Northern Han combined forces going south" to deceive Empress Fu's orphans and widows to deceive the highest military power of Later Zhou, so as to add yellow robes and establish the Great Song.
Since the Beginning of the Great Song Dynasty, the Emphasis on Literature and Light Force has led to the Song Dynasty being bullied by nomadic peoples, successively subject to the Liao, Western Xia, and Jin dynasties and finally died in the Yuan, becoming the first dynasty to perish due to foreign invasion.
History says that Chai Rong "Shen Wu Xiongluo, is the hero of a generation" is really deserved!