On May 3, 959, Chai Rong returned to Waqiaoguan and suddenly became seriously ill and bedridden. A careful examination of the history books shows that Chai Rong has succeeded to the throne for five years at this time. After five years on the throne, he went on five expeditions, and he was tired of pommel horses and would do everything himself. There are indications that just before this expedition, Chai Rong was already sick. Because when he went on the expedition, a minister wrote: "After the Eucharist is at peace, it is not too late to go on the Northern Expedition." But Chai Rong ignored it, and finally fell on the eve of the decisive battle with the Khitan, but that's it, Chai Rong still refused to give up, and there are records that Sun Xingyou, the envoy of Yiwu Jiedu, had also captured Gu'an (now Hebei) and Yizhou (now Yixian County, Hebei), and captured Li Zaiqin, the assassin of Yizhou of the Liao Dynasty. In order to show his determination not to retreat, Chai Rong ordered Li Zaiqin to be executed.

The next day, Chai Rong recruited thousands of people from all over the country to strengthen the walls of Bazhou, that is, he would never give up. Chai Rong then ordered the general Liu Chongjin to attack the Northern Han to further weaken the power of the Northern Han and make it impossible for it to converge with the main Khitan force, so as to conduct a decisive battle with the Khitan main force later. But on the seventh, Chai Rong finally couldn't hold it anymore. Chai Rong's condition deteriorated further, there was no way, under the hard persuasion of the ministers, Chai Rong decided to go back to Kaifeng to recuperate, before Chai Rong left, sent Han Lingkun and Sun Xingyou to guard the passes everywhere, you must guard it for me. When I come back, this is the base for me to attack Yanyun and destroy the Khitan. I must be back.

On May 8, Chai Rong led the army to return to Kaifeng, which was only 60 days before Chai Rong's expedition, but in these 60 days, Chai Rong's health underwent earth-shaking changes, and Chai Rong's condition deteriorated sharply. Years of Kurama fatigue and the usual joy and anger made Chai Rong's body completely collapse and could not recover. On June 2nd, Chai Rong received even worse news, Chai Rong's daughter died of illness, according to historical records, Chai Rong was grief-stricken, he didn't understand why the sky hit him so much, this blow made Chai Rong lifeless. Chai Rong finally couldn't hold on, and on the night of June 19, Chai Rong left this world with reluctance and remorse, at the age of Chinese New Year's Eve. Chai Rong is known as "the first Ming Jun of the five generations" by historians. He joined the army at the age of 15, worshiped the general at the age of 24, and became the emperor at the age of 33.

Under the complicated situation of the Central Plains at that time, it took only 20 years for the Northern Song Dynasty to complete the unification. Of course, this is inseparable from Zhao Kuangyin's wise decision, but more importantly, the Later Zhou regime he inherited was strong and unstoppable.

Zhao Kuangyin, who seized power in the Later Zhou Dynasty by mutiny, only continued the unification process of Chai Rong and the economic and cultural development of the Later Zhou Dynasty. The Song Dynasty's attitude towards commerce and its policy of favoring literati were directly related to this diligent and pragmatic monarch who was born as a merchant. Chai Rong's strategy for dealing with religious issues, developing commerce and cities, etc., not only deeply influenced the Song Dynasty, but also opened the precursor of China's move towards commercial civilization and civic culture.

Although Chai Rong failed to realize his desire to be the king for 30 years and sweep the world, his five-and-a-half-year reign of civil and martial arts has determined that he will become a decisive figure in ending the more than 200 years of secession and turmoil since the Tang Dynasty.

Zhou Shizong Chai Rong was ready to sweep the world and create a prosperous era, but he died young and failed; Zhao Kuangyin, Taizu of the Song Dynasty, continued the strategy formulated by Chai Rong to dominate the world, ended the turbulent era of wars and disasters and famine, and ushered in the era of the brilliant Zhao and Song dynasties.

If we imagine it, Chai Rong would not live to be forty-eight years old, maybe with Chai Rong's skills, he could really recover the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun? He could even build a powerful empire of the Han and Tang dynasties. But all this is just hypothetical. Chai Rong, a famous monarch, is finally dead, leaving behind a vast empire and countless problems that need to be solved urgently. One of the most important questions is: who will inherit the throne?

At this time, Chai Rong's crown prince was only seven years old, poor child, in fact, according to our traditional way of counting the age, Mr. Chai Zongxun, the legal heir of the Later Zhou Empire, he was born in 953, and now he is just 958 years old, in fact, he is only five or six years old, and those fierce generals of the Later Zhou Dynasty are not even convinced by Chai Rong, who was already in his thirties, let alone a little hairy child.

Therefore, Chai Rong was very tired when he was alive, and even if he died, he would die hard. He had to make arrangements for his children, which can be summarized as follows: First, it was time to make a queen. Chai Rong's queen was originally the daughter of the general Hu Yanqing, but unfortunately she left before him. Chai Rong was very sad and never named a new queen. But now it's not good, Chai Rong is gone, what if there is no one to take care of the children, thinking about it, Chai Rong canonized the queen's sister, that is, Hu Yanqing's other daughter as the queen, first, after all, he is the son of his sister, I believe that he will love the prince more, and secondly, it is also to win over the leading generals. Hopefully, they can do their best to protect the prince.

Second, Chai Rong acted fairly before, and never crowned the king only to the meritorious people, and never crowned the king to his children. But now it doesn't work, Chai Rong will all add his two children to the official and enter the knighthood, and the emperor's eldest son Chai Zongxun will be the general of the special left guard, and he will be crowned the king of Liang; With the second son Chai Zongrang as the general of Zuo Xiaowei, he was named the Duke of Yanguo. and set up Chai Zongxun as the crown prince, even if he died, the empire would have at least two heirs.

Third, Chai Rong is going to be lonely, in terms of Wenchen, Chai Rong chose three people, Fan Zhen, Wang Pu, and Wei Renpu, these are all people that Chai Rong can trust, especially Wei Renpu, who is quiet and frugal, tolerant and generous, eloquent, and resourceful. Wei Renpu was born into a poor poor family. The young Wei Renpu was shrewd and intelligent, but his father died of illness at an early age. Since then, the burden of life has fallen on the shoulders of my mother. Growing up in such an environment, he also became extraordinarily sensible.

Wei Renpu was grateful for his mother's hard work and studied hard. Once, his mother was running around and borrowed a piece of coarse cloth to make clothes for him. When Wei Renpu came home from school, he saw his mother, who had worked tirelessly and worked for him all day long, making clothes for him again, and sighed: "How can I feel at ease when my mother asks for a loan to dress me!" As he spoke, tears flowed down his face. Since then, he has studied harder.

After Wei Renpu finished his studies, he said goodbye to his mother with tears and embarked on the road to Luoyang alone. He walked as he went. While inquiring about the situation, I often leave early in the morning and find a cheap inn to stay in the evening. After walking for a few days, he came to the Ji River, which was very stormy, but he still got into the boat, and when the boat sailed to the middle of the river, Wei Renpu took off his shirt and threw it into the river, saying, "If you can't show up in this life, you will never cross this river again."

Wei Renpu was not born in the imperial examination, he was a talent raised by Chai Rong, and he was quite trusted by Chai Rong, but later events can also prove that he completely failed Chai Rong.

However, the most unexpected thing is that Chai Rong dismissed his first general, Zhang Yongde, from the military rank, not only that, but also demoted him and let him go to Lanzhou as a festival envoy, which is equivalent to completely excluding Zhang Yongde from the list of senior generals in the Later Zhou Dynasty. You must know that now that the emperor is critically ill, it is the time for relatives like Zhang Yongde, who have been commanding the army all the year round and have a high prestige, to contribute. Why did Chai Rong go against the norm and cut off his arm? And looking through the history of the old and new five dynasties, I can't find what mistakes Zhang Yongde made during this time, so why was Zhang Yongde suppressed?

This is actually very simple, and those who are familiar with the history of the Song Dynasty know that this is because of a small piece of wood, and he appeared on the way of Chai Rong's northern expedition to Youyan. Sejong Chai Rong led the Northern Expedition to recapture the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun, which originally belonged to the Central Plains, from the Liao State. On this northern expedition, when the emperor was reviewing the documents of the Quartet, he found a leather bag containing a wooden plaque with the words "Spot check as the Son of Heaven" written on it.

"The palace is inspected" is the most powerful military attache in the Later Zhou Dynasty, and it goes without saying what kind of association the emperor will have when he sees such a wooden card. At that time, the person in front of the palace was Zhang Yongde, the son-in-law of Zhou Taizu Guo Wei and the brother-in-law of Sejong. Sejong Chai Rong was originally the nephew of Zhou Taizu Guo Wei Yuan with his wife Chai, because he was adopted by Guo Wei as an adopted son since he was a child, so he inherited the throne after Guo Wei's death (Guo Wei's own sons and nephews died in the killing of Emperor Yin of the Later Han Dynasty, Guo Wei was forced to rebel), Zhang Yongde is Guo Wei's son-in-law, the Great Zhou Horse, on blood is not lost to Chai Rong, it is entirely possible to covet the throne, not to mention that it has almost become a practice for military generals with heavy troops in the Five Dynasties period to rob the throne. The emperor was suspicious, and after the class teacher returned to Beijing, he appointed Zhao Kuangyin to replace Zhang Yongde as the position of the palace capital. Soon after, Sejong died suddenly.

The wooden strip is a very ordinary wooden strip, and the skin bag is a very ordinary leather bag, but because of these two lines, the Supreme Commander of the Later Zhou Dynasty was removed from his post after checking in front of the palace. As for who wrote this wooden note, now the person who is most likely to write this is not Zhao Kuangyin, but Li Chongjin, because according to criminal psychology, who commits a crime and who benefits, there is no doubt that Li Chongjin is the person who benefits the most. This is not only the personal grievances of Li Chongjin and Zhang Yongde, but also the grievances between the two military departments of the Guards and the Palace Division. This is actually caused by Guo Wei. In the history of the Five Dynasties, the Guards and Pro-Military Division was the highest military command in the country, and Guo Wei's ability to come to power was completely supported by these people. After Guo Wei came to power, in order to prevent this situation from happening again. Therefore, Guo Wei fabricated a palace commander out of thin air, and divided the military power of the forbidden army into two.

As for the question of the top commanders of these two departments, Guo Wei chose his nephew Zhang Yongde and nephew Li Chongjin, because the two of them have the same ability, are similar in age, and even have similar qualifications. Zhang Yongde still has a problem, Zhang Yongde is loyal to his boss and benevolent to his subordinates, but for those who are his peers, he has become indisputable. How suitable Li Chongjin's conditions were, so Zhang Yongde kept looking for opportunities to attack Li Chongjin, even when the Southern Tang Dynasty was engaged. Zhang Yongde didn't let Li Chongjin feel better. In the most serious case, Zhang Yongde even let his subordinates secretly enter Beijing to engage Li Chongjin to rebel. What do you say Chai Rong can do, Chai Rong is difficult, and in the end, Chai Rong can only turn a blind eye, Chai Rong is difficult.