Among the five founding emperors of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms, from slaves to emperors, there was Zhu Wen; there was Li Cunxun who fought and prospered the Tang Dynasty; there was Shi Jingyao, who left a long-ago insult; and Guo Wei opened the curtain of the Reform of the Central Plains regime and the unification of the Central Plains. And Liu Zhiyuan, the Shatuo man, was sandwiched between these emperors, which was really not very conspicuous.
< h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > trace</h1>
The Later Han regime established by Liu Zhiyuan after the fall of the Later Jin Dynasty did enjoy some of its success, but it must be explained that Liu Zhiyuan's opportunity to enjoy his success was also fought with one knife and one shot.
Liu Zhiyuan
Liu Zhiyuan is an undisputed Shatuo person, he "has a purple face and white eyes", but Liu Zhiyuan himself has long been Sinicized, and he cannot see the slightest Shatuo background. As for the Song people boasting that Liu Zhiyuan was the eighth son of Liu Zhuang, the Ming Emperor of the Eastern Han Dynasty, Liu Xun, he was just a boring horse ass.
For strong men from the grassroots, if they want to get ahead, there is only one way to join the army in the chaotic world. Liu Zhiyuan first mixed with Li Siyuan, but he was just a soldier, and the one who really opened the skylight for Liu Zhiyuan was a generation of traitorous male Shi Jingyao. And Liu Zhiyuan's acquaintance with Shi Jingyao is very dramatic. In October of liang zhenming's fifth year (919), Jin Liang fought a bullskin war in Deshengzhai in Weizhou, and the scene was very sticky. Shi Jingyao, who was then the envoy of the Left Archery Army in Hedong, was ambushed by the Liang army and broke the iron armor of the war horse that Shi Jingyao was riding, and if it were not for Liu Zhiyuan,around him who decisively gave his horse to Shi Jingyao, Shi Jingyao would have become a prisoner of the Liang army. After Shi Jingyao was rescued, he was grateful to Liu Zhiyuan, Shi Jingyao was already Li Siyuan's precious son-in-law at that time, Shi Jingyao said a word, Liu Zhiyuan stood up and went straight up. When Li Siyuan mutinied and became emperor, Shi Jingyao was still reading Liu Zhiyuan's life-saving grace and made Liu Zhiyuan the Governor of Yamen.
Shi Jingyao
Although this official was not large, in fact, Liu Zhiyuan and Shi Jingyao had already established a subordinate relationship at this time, and from the first year of Tang Tiancheng (926) when Shi Jingyao was appointed as the beijing retainer, Liu Zhiyuan did not stay away from Shi Jingyao for a moment, which can be described as a brother, and Liu Zhiyuan was only three years younger than Shi Jingyao. Liu Zhiyuan is a wise man, he knows that Shi Jingyao is his own fate nobleman, and Shi Jingtang's fate will determine his own fate. Therefore, Liu Zhiyuan was willing to serve Shi Jingyao before and after saddle. Li Conghou rebelled and drove away Li Conghou, who sought refuge with Shi Jingyao, and Li Conghou's bodyguards wanted to kill Shi Jingyao and seize Shi Jingyao's territory. In the end, Liu Zhiyuan took a step ahead of him, made timely preparations for the response, saved Shi Jingyao's life, and killed all of Li Conghou's bodyguards.
In fact, Liu Zhiyuan desperately tried to protect Shi Jingyao, which was to protect his own future. And Shi Jingyao was also very dependent on Liu Zhiyuan, and made Liu Zhiyuan the commander of the Ma Infantry Army, in charge of the Ma Army in Hedong, equivalent to the commander-in-chief and grand marshal. Together with Sang Weihan, who was the secretary of Hedong at the time, he was the two hardcore confidants of Shi Jingyao, Sang Weihan was in charge of political diplomacy, and Liu Zhiyuan was in charge of military affairs, forming a two-headed eagle power pattern of the Hedong clique.
Liu Zhiyuan's first major entry into the decision-making level in Hedong was that Shi Jingyao asked the Khitan for help when he was surrounded and suppressed by Li Congke, and was willing to submit to the Khitan . Liu Zhiyuan did not oppose the submission to the Khitans, and he also knew that the Khitan was the only force that could save the Hedong clique, but Shi Jingyao disregarded his personal dignity to give the Khitan a son, which was unacceptable to the orthodox Liu Zhiyuan. Shi Jingyao ceded Youyun Sixteen Prefectures, which was strongly opposed by Liu Zhiyuan. Shi Jingyao's little father Yelü Deguang once said, "Liu Zhiyuan, Zhao Ying, and Sang Weihan are all entrepreneurial heroes, and they should not abandon them without a big reason."
In fact, Yelü said that this sentence was very normal, and there was another layer of meaning, warning Shi Jingyao not to unload and kill the donkey, because at that time, Shi Jingyao already had signs of suspicion of Liu Zhiyuan. Shi Jingyao would not be jealous of Sang Weihan and Zhao Ying, these were just two literati who could not tie their hands to chickens, and it was not enough to be troubled. However, Liu Zhiyuan was brave and able to fight, and in the process of defeating the Tang army Zhang Jingda's troops, Liu Zhiyuan commanded the Hedong army to resist the official army, "using the law selflessly, caring for it as one, and being a man without a heart." When the Jin Dynasty was established, there were many deaths in the world, and Shi Jingyao went around fighting against his subjects, and for a while he could not do without Liu Zhiyuan. Liu Zhiyuan sat in the capital, holding heavy troops in his hands, and maintained the stability of the forbidden army.
With these two articles, Shi Jingyao was enough to sleep and eat, and once Liu Zhiyuan had a different heart, Shi Jingyao's personal safety could not be effectively guaranteed at all. Although Shi Jingyao did not dare to openly kill Liu Zhiyuan, the number one hero, he had begun to look for opportunities to deprive Liu Zhiyuan of his military powers. In August of the second year of Tianfu, after the initial determination of the world, Liu Zhiyuan was transferred out of Luoyang and left Xuzhou. The following year, he was transferred to Song Prefecture as an envoy to the German army. Although both Xuzhou and Song Prefecture were in Henan, Shi Jingyao's meaning was very clear, not only did he not allow Liu Zhiyuan to cultivate a sphere of influence in the Capital Division, nor did he give Liu Zhiyuan time to accumulate strength in the local clan towns. Shortly after assuming the post of Governor of Song, Shi Jingyao gave Liu Zhiyuan the title of prime minister of "Tong zhongshu menxia Pingzhangshi", which was then called "envoy", but this was only a false grant. However, because at the same time it was du Chongwei, a corrupt official whom Liu Zhiyuan despised, Liu Zhiyuan refused to accept the edict in anger.
The opportunity That Shi Jingyao had been waiting for had finally come. Shi Jingyao immediately convened a supreme state council to prepare a comprehensive repudiation of Liu Zhiyuan, and then relieved him of his military powers and returned to his private position, which was like house arrest. Zhao Ying, the prime minister, and Liu Zhiyuan had a good personal relationship, and naturally opposed it, on the grounds that Liu Zhiyuan was the number one hero of the Jin Dynasty, and if Liu Zhiyuan was deposed, it would make the people of the world feel that Shi Jingyao was unloading and killing donkeys, which was very unfavorable to Shi Jingyao's political image. Shi Jingyao's clumsy mouth could not be refuted, and he had to put down the political butcher knife that had long been aimed at Liu Zhiyuan.
However, Shi Jingyao was not at ease with Liu Zhiyuan's complicated connections in the military circles, but he really had no intention of killing Liu Zhiyuan. Without saying anything about the political image, the main thing is that there are too many killings in the chaotic world, and Shi Jingyao still has to face the iron blood of the forces of all sides, and in this case, killing the number one general is equivalent to suicide. And Liu Zhiyuan really did not have any different intentions, and Shi Jingyao could continue to use Liu Zhiyuan's military talents to serve himself.
In February 940, Liu Zhiyuan was reassigned to the capital of Yidu, which was the beginning of Shi Jingyao's attempt to squeeze out Liu Zhiyuan's military talents, with the natural purpose of defending An Chongrong. However, a year later, in April, Liu Zhiyuan was transferred to Hedong, the largest domain in the world, and served as an envoy to Jiedu, closely monitoring An Chongrong from the west side of the Taihang Mountains. Before going to Hedong, Liu Zhiyuan had returned to Bieliang once, and Shi Jingyao also personally went to Liu Zhiyuan's mansion. What the two junchen said, Shi Wuming said, but it was nothing more than Shi Jingyao's secret beating, looking at the color, Liu Zhiyuan was fake and stupid, and finally passed the pass. But then again, Shi Jingyao and Liu Zhiyuan are after all hot-blooded brothers who rolled out of the human head, and in the wind and rain of thirty years, Shi Jingyao still has feelings for Liu Zhiyuan. As long as Liu Zhiyuan is not far from the red line, Shi Jingyao is willing to treat him as a brother. Even when Shi Jingyao was about to ascend to heaven in Yidu, he considered transferring Liu Zhiyuan back to the imperial court as an auxiliary chancellor. It's just that the newly succeeded Shi Chonggui was already jealous of Liu Zhiyuan's strength, and he didn't dare to let Liu Zhiyuan enter Beijing at all, so he suppressed this edict.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > Later Han Gaozu</h1>
Liu Zhiyuan did not want to be the second Shi Jingyao. Shi Jingyao was good to him, but he saved Shi Jingyao's two lives, Shi Jingyao treated himself kindly, Liu Zhiyuan was naturally at ease, not to mention that Shi Jingyao was already dead. However, Liu Zhiyuan also knew that now was not the time for him to strike, because Shi Chonggui's control over the Central Plains was far stronger than that of Li Congke. Moreover, Liu Zhiyuan was very concerned about his own political image, and Shi Chonggui advocated abolishing the subordinate relationship with the Khitan and had already earned a lot of impression points.
Liu Zhiyuan's response strategy was that as long as Shi Chonggui did not recruit him to become a puppet, he could do his best to prevent the Khitans from going south on the Hedong front. In doing so, one is conducive to Liu Zhiyuan maintaining his own territory, and the other is also conducive to Liu Zhiyuan creating a good political image of the loyal subjects of biansai. Of course, Liu Zhiyuan has his own bottom line, that is, he only resists the Khitans in Hedong, never takes a step out of the Taihang Mountains, and he will not let Shi Chonggui be a gunman.
After the demise of Shi Chonggui, Yelü Deguang became the Great Emperor of the Central Plains, which was not good news for Liu Zhiyuan. Once Yelü Deguang sat firmly in the Central Plains, the Khitans would strategically encircle Hedong from the north, east, and south, and Liu Zhiyuan's survival pressure would be even greater. On behalf of Liu Zhiyuan, the guest general Wang Jun came to Bieliang to find Yelü Deguang and did two things: First, to congratulate Yelü Deguang on the destruction of Jin; second, in view of yelü Deguang's possibility of transferring Liu Zhiyuan away from Hedong in the name of the Emperor of the Central Plains, he said that "Taiyuan Yixia is mixed with life, and there are many affairs, and it is impossible to get rid of himself for the time being." Liu Zhiyuan is very mature in politics, diplomatically I can temporarily bow to you, I can't lose anything, but militarily I won't budge.
Sure enough, Yelü Deguang "gave praise to the beauty" and blew Liu Zhiyuan into the sky. Behind this is Yelü Deguang's fear that if he attacks Hedong, he may not be able to take it within a year, which will cause the situation in the Central Plains to be more unstable, and it is inevitable that other people will fish in muddy waters. In order to stabilize Liu Zhiyuan, Yelü Deguang gave him a wooden cane, which was the most honorable gift of the Khitans, and only those with high moral standing could get this staff. When Wang Jun returned to Taiyuan with this wooden crutch, as long as the Khitan people saw this staff along the way, they all feared and avoided it.
Liu Zhiyuan was only worried about one thing, that is, once Yelü Deguang stabilized the situation in the Central Plains, he would inevitably take back Hedong, and sooner or later there would be a war between Hedong and the Khitans. What Liu Zhiyuan could do now was to pray that Yelü Deguang would act recklessly in the Central Plains and offend the hearts of the people in the Central Plains. When Yelü Deguang was forced to withdraw from the Central Plains, Liu Zhiyuan was able to touch the big fish in the muddy waters.
In fact, according to the role of the nomads, Yelü Deguang was indeed as Liu Zhiyuan wished. The khitan people's entry into the Central Plains was undoubtedly an unprecedented disaster for the Central Plains people. Yelü Deguang asked the Khitan soldiers to kill and plunder everywhere under the guise of "hitting the grass valley", and this time "hitting the grass valley" caused serious evil consequences, "Ding Zhuang died in the blade, the old and weak were entrusted to the gully, from the east and west and Zheng, Slipper, Cao, Pu, hundreds of miles, the wealth and livestock were exhausted." Yelü Deguang also plundered the world, killing his head without paying money, and all the officials who surrendered to liao were scraped poor by the Khitans. The perverse behavior of the Khitans in the Central Plains aroused great indignation of the Han people in the Central Plains.
And this is undoubtedly good news for Liu Zhiyuan. Yelü Deguang had offended the Han people in the Central Plains, and the Khitan people could no longer gain a foothold in the Central Plains, and at that time, whether it was the experience of the rivers and lakes, the prestige of the officialdom, or the military strength, the Han warlords who were most qualified to come out and clean up the mess were none other than Liu Zhiyuan. In fact, the Southern Tang Dynasty also had the opportunity to enter the Central Plains north, but Li Jing, who was blind and blind, rejected Han Xizai's suggestion and watched the bustle across the Huai River, cheapening Liu Zhiyuan in vain.
Liu Zhiyuan did several things to win the hearts and minds of the Han people to the greatest extent. I. When Liu Zhiyuan heard that the Xiongwu army had made Qin, Jie, and Chengsanzhou surrender to Hou Shu, Liu Zhiyuan condemned himself and said: "Rong Di Pingling, the Central Plains have no lord, Ling Fan town is attached, I am Fang Bo, good and ashamed!" "It has created a political image of worrying about the country and the people." 2. Under the persuasion of his subordinates, although Liu Zhiyuan was officially proclaimed emperor at Taiyuan Palace on February 15, 947, the first year of the Liao Dynasty (947), he did not set the new national name, the national name was still Jin, and did not even have a new year number, but after abandoning Shi Chonggui's Kaiyun year number, he directly inherited Shi Jingyao's Tianfu year number, calling it the twelfth year of Tianfu. Liu Zhiyuan's reason for doing this is very simple, Shi Jingyao is really good to the people, and the people are very highly respected among the people, and Liu Zhiyuan said that the emperor did not change the name of the country, which touched countless people who did not forget Jinde, and laid a solid foundation for him to enter the Central Plains.
Liu Zhiyuan accepted the general Guo Wei's route to the south, abandoning Hebei, where the remnants of the Khitan were concentrated, and instead passing through the Fenhe River valley, going down to Luoyang and Towards Daliang. On May 12, 12012, Liu Zhiyuan sent troops to Taiyuan City and began to take over the Central Plains. The Jin Dynasty was gone, the Khitans were gone, and many of the generals who were defending the city did not know who they were defending the city for. If you want to talk about the luck index of being an emperor, after removing Zhao Kuangyin, it is roughly Liu Zhiyuan.
When the situation stabilized, Liu Zhiyuan directly threw the "Jin" national name into the stinky ditch. On June 13, the Great "Jin" Emperor transformed into the Great "Han" Emperor, but the Tianfu Nian number remained unchanged, because the so-called "Yu did not bear to forget Jinye". And Liu Zhiyuan's later temple number is very interesting - Han Gaozu. In fact, it doesn't matter if the change doesn't change, Liu Zhiyuan's overall situation is initially decided, the people have no ability to rebel, and the officials care about the high-ranking officials Houlu, real money and silver have not changed, even if one is changed every day, Liu Zhiyuan as long as there are soldiers, then no one has an opinion.
There are two Later Han regimes in history, for the Han Dynasty established by Liu Xiu, historians also called the Later Han, such as the Book of later Han, Liu Zhiyuan's Han Dynasty regime, the Song people also called "Later Han". Compared with the two Later Han Dynasties, Liu Xiu's empire was far greater than the empire of his impostor descendant Liu Zhiyuan, and Liu Zhiyuan's Han Empire only existed for four years. In the blink of an eye, the Later Han Empire was established. In the blink of an eye, the Later Han Empire suddenly disappeared.
As for why it only existed for four years, in the words of Wang Shune, who was then the supervisor of the Judge Si Tian, "After Gao Zu (Liu Zhiyuan) ascended the throne, he took revenge on the people who killed people and the clan of Yi people, and resented the world, so the luck was not long." Simply put, it is to kill too many people. The same is true of Sima Guang's evaluation.
Although Liu Zhiyuan was very mature in politics, this did not prevent Liu Zhiyuan from raising his butcher knife. As early as when Shi Jingyao and Zhang Jingda fought against Jin'an Village, more than a thousand Tang troops surrendered to Shi Jingyao, and Shi Jingyao planned to integrate these people into the guards, and Liu Zhiyuan persuaded Shi Jingyao to kill these people on the grounds that these surrendered soldiers might return to Tang again.
The Jin Dynasty chancellors Feng Dao and Li Neisong had to praise the corrupt official Du Chongwei because they were persecuted by Shi Jingyao, and Shi Jingyao used this to make Du Chongwei replace Liu Zhiyuan's position as a commander, and Liu Zhiyuan hated Feng and Li. After he succeeded to the throne, because Feng Dao's official status was too high, Liu Zhiyuan did not dare to act rashly, but he also confiscated all of Feng Dao's family property. For Li Song, Liu Zhiyuan first transferred all of Li Song's family property to su Fengji under his command, and then connived at Su Fengji to frame Li Song to secretly collude with the Khitan and kill the Li Song family. As long as it is to hinder Liu Zhiyuan's wealth, it is not wrong to kill, such as Li Congyi, the younger son of Li Siyuan of The Later Tang Dynasty. Li Congyi never did anything to apologize to Liu Zhiyuan, just because when the Khitans withdrew from the Central Plains, the Khitan general Xiao Han falsely claimed that the Khitan Emperor had a life, and let Li Congyi "quan know the military affairs of the Southern Dynasty", Liu Zhiyuan forced Li Congyi and his adoptive mother Hua Jianyi to die. At that time, public opinion cried out against Li Congyi's death, but Liu Zhiyuan only cared about killing people, and whoever affected the interests would have to die!
This custom handed down by Liu Zhiyuan directly changed the fate of the Later Han regime, to tell the truth, Zhao Kuangyin should thank Liu Zhiyuan, if there was no Liu Zhiyuan and others to do, Guo Wei would not be able to take office, then he Zhao Kuangyin would not have the opportunity to usurp the Chai family.