Zhao Guangyi was the second emperor of the Northern Song Dynasty, and the temple name was "Taizong", so later generations called him Song Taizong. Among the emperors who have been given the temple name "Taizong" in history are many cattle people, such as Li Shimin of Tang Taizong, Zhu Di of Emperor Taizong of Ming (the temple number was changed to "Chengzu" during the Jiajing Period), and Emperor Taiji of the Qing Dynasty. However, Neither Wenzhi nor Wugong of the Song Dynasty could compare with these Emperor Taizong. Although he has ambitions to dominate the world, he is not capable of doing so. The two major defeats of the Battle of Gaoliang River and the Yongxi Northern Expedition lost the elite troops of the Great Song Dynasty who were the most capable of fighting good battles, which led to the military strength of the Northern Song Dynasty from strong to weak, and since then it has been suppressed by the Northern Liao State for a long time.
The Song Dynasty officials left a lot of praise for their own emperors, but later the people of the dynasty did not have to worry about the crime of slandering the former emperor, so they should say what they said, and they should scold. In addition to accusing Zhao Guangyi of being a great talent, many people also gave him the title of "Poison King" and mocked him for persecuting his opponents with disgraceful means. Tonight, I will read the history books to talk to you about who Zhao Guangyi is suspected of putting down.
1. Song Taizu Zhao Kuangyin
Zhao Kuangyin was the founding emperor of the Northern Song Dynasty and the brother of Zhao Guangyi. He had been a horseman for half his life, and his body had always been very tough. What people never expected was that Zhao Kuangyin, who had rarely suffered even minor illnesses and pains before, suddenly died violently on the night of October 19, the ninth year of Kaibao (976), and when he died, he was only surrounded by Zhao Guangyi, who drank with him in the palace. What is even more bizarre is that after Zhao Kuangyin's death, Zhao Guangyi moved out of the "Alliance of the Golden Plateau" that no one had ever heard of before, declaring that he would inherit the throne of the Great Song Dynasty by the will of the emperor's brother Zhao Kuangyin.
The succession of the throne in the imperial era generally followed the convention of succession between father and son. Even if the emperor died without heirs, it was a priority to find a suitable person in the generation of children and nephews to inherit. When Zhao Kuangyin died, his second son Zhao Dezhao and fourth son Zhao Defang were alive, and Zhao Dezhao was already 26 years old at the time and was fully capable of inheriting the unification. No matter how close a brother is, he can't compare to father and son, so how could Zhao Kuangyin suddenly want to give up the throne to Zhao Guangyi instead of his own son? It doesn't make sense.
Therefore, judging from the comprehensive situation in all aspects, Zhao Kuangyin was most likely poisoned and murdered by Zhao Guangyi when he was drinking with him, and then Zhao Guangyi falsely passed on the will and seized the emperor's throne.
2. Zhao Dezhao, Zhao Defang, Zhao Tingmei
According to Zhao Guangyi's proclaimed "Alliance of The Golden Plateau", he inherited the throne of his brother Zhao Kuangyin, and then passed the throne to his younger brother Zhao Tingmei after a hundred years, and then returned it to Zhao Dezhao, the son of Zhao Kuangyin, after a hundred years. However, Zhao Guangyi began not to talk about martial arts after he sat firmly on the emperor's throne. In the fourth year of the Taiping Revival (979), Zhao Guangyi was defeated in the "Battle of Gaoliang River", but he became angry with Zhao Dezhao and rebuked him in public in the court. Zhao Dezhao knew that Zhao Guangyi would not tolerate him, so he killed himself after retiring to the palace on the same day. At this time, it had only been three years since Zhao Kuangyin's death.
Two years later, Zhao Kuangyin's fourth son, Zhao Defang, who was 22 years old at the time, also died, the cause of death is unknown, and only three words are recorded in the history books.
In the seventh year of the Taiping Revival (982 AD), Zhao Guangyi's younger brother Zhao Tingmei was demoted to Fangzhou on suspicion of a bizarre conspiracy. He died of grief two years later, at the age of 38.
After Zhao Dezhao, Zhao Defang, and Zhao Tingmei died one after another, there was no successor to the "Alliance of the Golden Daggers", so Zhao Guangyi was naturally able to pass the throne to his son in a justifiable manner.
3. Li Yu, the lord of the Southern Tang Dynasty
Li Yu was the last monarch of the Southern Tang Dynasty. By the time he succeeded to the throne, the Southern Tang was already facing strong military pressure from the Northern Song Dynasty and was in danger. In the eighth year of Kaibao (975), the Song army attacked the Southern Tang from the south, and Li Yu's army was defeated and surrendered to the Song, and he was captured in kaifeng, the capital of the Northern Song Dynasty, and Song Taizu made him the Marquis of Disobedience.
Although he lived under the fence of Kaifeng, the Song people did not abuse the last monarch of the Southern Tang Dynasty much, so Li Yu lived a mediocre life in the first two years of Kaifeng, during which he also created many poetry works. After Emperor Taizong of Song ascended the throne, Li Yu was promoted to Duke of Longxi. At this time, Li Yu was powerless and powerless, and people and animals were harmless, but some things could not be hidden. On the Qixi Festival of the third year of the Taiping Revival (978), Li Yu suddenly died violently, which happened to be Li Yu's forty-second birthday.
Regarding the cause of Li Yu's death, there are many theories. Some say that some of the contents of Li Yu's poetry and works touched Zhao Guangyi's sensitive nerves, so they sent people to poison her; some say that Li Yu's wife Xiao Zhou hou Guose Tianxiang, Zhao Guangyi wanted to occupy her for a long time, so he got rid of Li Yu. But either way, it is assumed that the mastermind behind Li Yu's death was Zhao Guangyi.
4. Qian Li, the king of Wuyue
Qian Li was the last monarch of Wuyue. Like the Southern Tang, Wu Yueguo also faced strong military pressure from the Northern Song Dynasty. However, Qian Li did not resist to the end like Li Yu, and finally surrendered after he could not fight. Instead, he knew that he was powerless to resist and took the initiative to return to Song. Therefore, Qian Li's treatment was naturally much higher than that of Li Yu. He was successively named the King of Huaihai, the King of Hannan, and the King of Nanyang, and later Qian Li was afraid that his title was too ostentatious, and he also took the initiative to resign the name of the country and change the title of King Xu and King Deng. In August of the first year of Duan Gong (988), Qian Li died suddenly and violently on the day of his sixtieth birthday, and the method of death was the same as that of Li Yu. Although it is impossible for the official revision history books of the Northern Song Dynasty to identify Qian Li as being poisoned, many private notes and folk records of the Song Dynasty believe that this incident is inseparable from Zhao Guangyi of the Song Dynasty.