Song Zhezong Zhao Xu is the seventh emperor of the Song Dynasty, he ascended the throne at the age of ten, due to his young age, his grandmother Empress Dowager Gao listened to the government and controlled the situation, Zhezong was difficult to intervene, after he was in power, he tried to get rid of the shadow of the Empress Dowager, and displayed his ambitions, but died young at the age of 25, leaving many regrets.
Zhezong ascended the throne, and the Empress Dowager Gao listened to the government
Song Zhezong Zhao Xu, formerly known as Zhao Wei, was the sixth son of Song Shenzong, and it was not Zhezong's turn to succeed him, but the five elder brothers in front of him died early, and he became the oldest prince.
In February 1085, when Song Shenzong's illness worsened and he could not handle the government, the prime minister Wang Qizuo asked Shenzong to appoint Zhao Wei, the king of Yan'an County, as the crown prince as soon as possible, and the Empress Dowager Gao temporarily acted as the government of the court, and Shenzong agreed.
At this time, Zhao Wei was only ten years old and was still a child, but Shenzong's two younger brothers, Yongwang Zhao Hao and Cao Wang Zhao Hao, were both in their thirties, and they could be described as young and strong, with high prestige and status, and they were qualified to be emperors, and the Song Dynasty also had a precedent for the emperor's younger brother to succeed to the throne.
At that time, the ministers of the court and the central government had the intention of establishing two kings, and the two princes were also very concerned about the establishment of the crown prince, they often went to the palace to visit Shenzong's illness, and after the visit, they also ran to the Empress Dowager Gao to inquire about the news.
Empress Dowager Gao knew the thoughts of the two kings, and in order to prevent accidents, when Shenzong was dying, she ordered someone to close the palace gate and prohibit the two kings from entering and leaving the Shenzong palace.
In March 1085, Empress Dowager Gao read out the edict of Shenzong, appointing Zhao Wei, the king of Yan'an County, as the crown prince and changing his name to Zhao Xu.
A few days after the crown prince was established, Emperor Shenzong died, and the crown prince Zhao Xu succeeded to the throne, which was Song Zhezong.
Yuan Yu is changed
In the era of Shenzong, Empress Dowager Gao was an opponent of the new law, and she once cried in front of Shenzong that the new law broke the rules of the ancestors, so after listening to the government, she launched a comprehensive suppression of the new law.
The current situation gave hope to Sima Guang, who was idle in Luoyang, and he went to Beijing to observe the political wind in the name of mourning.
Empress Dowager Gao immediately sent someone to find Sima Guang, and then Sima Guang wrote a letter attacking the new law, and proposed that the abolition of the new law by Empress Dowager Gao was a "mother-to-son policy", creating a theoretical basis for the abolition of the new law.
Empress Dowager Gao summoned conservative ministers such as Sima Guang and Lu Gongshu into the ruling team, and from the first year of Yuan You, the conservatives led by Sima Guang began to completely abolish the new law, which is known as "Yuan You's change" in history.
Conservatives and reformists waged a fierce struggle, reformers were driven out of the imperial court, in the early second month, the reformist general Zuo Xiang Cai was indeed removed from Zhiruzhou, Sima Guang replaced Zuo Xiang, and in the same month, Zhang Dian was also ousted.
In fact, the effect of the reform is obvious, and the new laws introduced are all formulated in response to the accumulated shortcomings at that time, although some of them have shown shortcomings in the process of implementation, and they can be slightly improved and amended.
However, Sima Guang attacked the reformers from the perspective of political struggle and wanted to repeal all new laws, but in fact, in the course of the struggle, there were also differences among the conservatives, and different opinions were raised, and the repeal of the new laws was not complete, and some of the new laws were still being implemented after being remodeled.
Zhezong is pro-government
During the period when the Empress Dowager Gao listened to the government, she controlled the power of the court, Zhezong had no right to speak at all, and the ministers also felt that Zhezong was young and reported to the Empress Dowager on all matters and matters.
In the court, Zhezong and the Empress Dowager Gao sat opposite each other, and the ministers all played to the Empress Dowager and turned their backs to Zhezong.
Later, Zhezong grew older, and when he was 17 years old, the Empress Dowager Gao should have returned to power, but she had no intention of returning to power at all, and continued to control the power of the court.
Moreover, the Empress Dowager Gao was very strict in managing Zhezong's life, and she was also very harsh on Zhezong's biological mother, Concubine Zhu De, and deliberately suppressed it, which aggravated Zhezong's rebellious psychology.
In 1093, in the eighth year of Yuan You, the Empress Dowager Gao died of illness, and Zhezong became pro-government, and Zhezong began to dismiss the conservative ministers during the Empress Dowager's period, removing the shadow of the Empress Dowager's curtain and listening to the government, and the reformers returned to power and gradually restored the new law.
After the reformists came to power, they also used various means to retaliate against the conservatives, and conservative ministers such as Lü Dawan, Fan Zuyu, Su Shi, and Su Zhe were degraded one after another, and then ordered to pursue the gifts and nicknames of Sima Guang and Lü Gongzhu, and later belittled the conservatives again, and many people were driven to the barbaric Lingnan area at that time.
After Zhezong came to power, although the reformers were hired to resume the reform cause of the Shenzong period, similar to the situation of the conservatives in the Yuanyu period, the reformists also focused their efforts on cracking down on the conservatives.
The war against Western Xia
During the period of Zhezong, the war against Western Xia was also one of the main political affairs.
During the Shenzong period, an active strategy was adopted towards the Western Xia, and some progress was made.
In September 1081, Li Xian led his army to capture Lanzhou as a base for attacking Western Xia, and in October, Chong Ge led his army to capture the strategically important Mizhi Village and build a city to defend it.
After that, Shen Kuo, the governor of Yanzhou, occupied Futu, Wubao, Yihe, Jialu and other villages, although the Song army was defeated in the battle of Lingzhou, but on the whole it still had the upper hand over the Western Xia.
In February of the first year of Yuanyou, Sima Guang said that he was very worried about the relationship with the Western Xia, and the solution was to take the initiative to return the territory he had previously laid to the Western Xia, and it was better to take the initiative to return it than to give it back when the Western Xia called.
In June, the Western Xia sent envoys to demand the return of Lanzhou, Mizhi and other villages, but the vast majority of the ministers in the court did not agree, and only a few people such as Sima Guang and Wen Yanbo supported the abandonment of the land, but they were all decision-makers.
Since most of the ministers in the court and China were opposed to abandoning the land, Sima Guangcai finally decided to give up only the four villages of Mizhi, Futu, Jialu, and Anjiang, and cede them to Western Xia.
Sima Guang wanted to take the initiative to show weakness to the Western Xia by abandoning the land, in exchange for peace on the northwest border, but this made the Western Xia despise the Song Dynasty even more, and in fact, the invasion of the Western Xia never stopped.
After Zhezong came to power, he abandoned this strategy of compromise and retreat, and resumed an active policy to resist the Western Xia invasion.
In May 1096, the Western Xia sent troops to attack the Dunyan Road, but was appeased by the passage of the Yanyan Road, so that Lü Huiqing sent troops to repel it fourteen times.
In September, the Western Xia invaded again, broke through Jinming Village, hit Wuli north of Yan'an, and plundered on a large scale.
In February 1097, the Western Xia attacked Suide again, defeated by the defenders of the Song Dynasty, after which the Song army took the initiative to attack, recovered the Futu Village, Jialu Village, in June, recovered the Anjiang Village, in March 1098, and recovered the Mizhi Village, so far, the four villages of Mizhi ceded to the Western Xia were all recovered, and the Song army built more than a dozen new villages.
In October 1098, the Empress Dowager Liang of the Western Xia, who was the main battle, personally led an army of 300,000 to attack Pingxia City, and the Western Xia attacked for thirteen days in a row, using all kinds of means, and were repelled by the soldiers led by Guo Cheng, the defender of the Song Dynasty.
The Western Xia army suffered heavy casualties, and finally had to retreat when the food was exhausted, the Song army pursued the victory, attacked the Western Xia military camp at night, captured more than 3,000 generals and soldiers, and tens of thousands of cattle and sheep, which was a rare victory in the Song and Xia wars.
In the first month of 1099, the Empress Dowager Liang of the Western Xia died of illness, and the Western Xia sent an envoy to the Song Dynasty to mourn and apologize, but Zhezong refused, and the Song army still took an offensive against the Western Xia, and recovered the two cities of Miaochuan and Qingtang.
In September, the leader of the Michuan tribe rebelled and asked for help from the Western Xia, who sent tens of thousands of troops to help and besiege Huangzhou, when the defenders in the city of Huangzhou were less than 1,000 people, but fortunately, Yao Xiong, the governor of Hezhou, led the army to reinforce and repelled the rebels and the Western Xia army.
In December, the Western Xia submitted to the Song Dynasty, and then, in the Zhezong Dynasty, peace was restored between the Song and the Western Xia.
In 1100, Song Zhezong, who was only 25 years old, died, leaving no heirs, the eleventh son of Shenzong, the younger brother of Zhezong, Duan Wang Zhao Ji ascended the throne, that is, Song Huizong.
Song Zhezong reigned for 15 years, and this period of time was precisely the most fierce moment of party struggle in the Northern Song Dynasty, whether it was the Yuan You change during the period when the Empress Dowager Gao was listening to the government, or Zhezong's statement, the conservatives and the reformers fought fiercely against each other, attacked, and led the politics of the Northern Song Dynasty astray.
If Zhezong could actively guide and reconcile the contradictions between the two factions, Zhezong's ability might be able to prosper, but the snubbing and neglect of Zhezong during the period when the Empress Dowager Gao was in power made Zhezong's later reign mixed with too much personal color.
In any case, Zhezong is still a rare iron-blooded emperor in the Northern Song Dynasty, he defeated the Western Xia in a row, recovered the land ceded by the old party, and finally fought the Western Xia took the initiative to sue for peace, if Zhezong was given some more time, maybe he could avoid the shame of Jingkang.