With the collapse of the mighty Tang Empire, Chinese history has finally entered this bloodiest and chaotic era. The five northern dynasties have won the Central Plains, and the ten southern countries have also dominated one side, and the Khitan iron horse, standing outside the fortress, is eyeing the tiger. Thousands of miles of mountains and rivers, swords and swords, bloody rain and dark clouds.

In the following decades, the two major nations collided fiercely, and the heroes of the Quartet appeared on the stage, Li Cunmiao, who destroyed Liang in a hundred battles, Yelu Abaoji, the Khitan hero, and Shi Jingjiao, who recognized the thief as his father - Liu Zhiyuan, Guo Wei, Chai Rong, you fight for me, fight to the death, fame through the ages, a pile of white bones, ask the vast earth, who will be the master of the ups and downs?

With vivid language and detailed historical materials, this book presents a panoramic view of this historical picture of the coexistence of blood and heroic souls, humiliation and pride.

Although the Northern and Southern Dynasties lasted for a long time, the Sui and Tang dynasties after its end did not change in terms of system, for example, the local governors of the Sui Dynasty at that time were transformed from the governors of the Wei and Jin dynasties. Moreover, after the end of the Northern and Southern Dynasties, there was also a prosperous Tang Dynasty, which was still heavy on the outside and light on the inside, so that after An Lushan raised troops in Fanyang, the entire Central Plains had no troops to send.

However, after five dynasties, the thinking of the Chinese rulers changed to focus on the internal and the external, although the Song Dynasty also had the temperance envoys, but it was completely different from the Tang Dynasty's temperance envoys, and the imperial court's control over the local area was greatly strengthened. It can be simply thought that before the end of the Five Dynasties, there were three great divisions in China's feudal society: the Three Kingdoms, the Northern and Southern Dynasties, and the Five Dynasties. Time accounts for almost 40 percent of the more than 1,000 years of history from the Qin Dynasty to the Five Dynasties. And in this millennium, the powerful ministers usurped the throne, and a large number of generals supported the army. It is already difficult to calculate how many times there have been rebellions, because there are too many.

But after five generations. Except for the special situation of Wu Sangui, there is no large-scale rebellion of military generals, and the usurpation of the throne by the ministers no longer happens, which is still obvious in comparison.

However, this preface is still a bit wrong, because many friends don't understand it after reading it, they just don't write the truth clearly, and I'm changing it. Refine it. Thanks for the reminder.

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On the fifth day of the first month of the first month of 951 AD, Guo Wei was in the military camp outside the city of Daliang (the city where Kaifeng Mansion is located), and received the book and the national treasure and jade seal handed down by the Empress Dowager Li of the Later Han Dynasty. From the Gaomen (Kaifeng North Gate) into the palace, in the Chongyuan Hall officially enthroned, that is, the emperor's throne, the country name Zhou. The era name was changed to Guangshun. Such. The last dynasty of the five dynasties, the Later Zhou Dynasty, officially stepped onto the stage of history.

After the founding of the Zhou Dynasty, the situation is generally not optimistic. First of all, Guo Wei was originally the privy envoy of the Later Han Dynasty, no matter what he had to do with it, and subverting the Later Han Dynasty did not conform to the moral and ethical norms of ancient China, which was also a congenital deficiency of the Later Zhou Dynasty.

Secondly, the Later Zhou was founded on the basis of the Later Han Dynasty. Although the Later Han dynasty was only four years, the damage it caused to the people in China was by no means inferior to any of the five dynasties. On the one hand, there were many civil wars. Floods and droughts are frequent.

On the other hand, the ruling class was extremely poor and extravagant, expropriating and extorting excessively, and they were fighting each other extremely fiercely, completely ignoring the lives of the people, so by the time of the founding of the country in the Later Zhou Dynasty, the domestic economic foundation was in a mess. Moreover, after Guo Wei became emperor, some feudal towns in China represented by Murong Yanchao, the envoy of Taining Jiedu, were afraid of Guo Wei because they had been supporting the Later Han regime.

In the end, the external threat faced by Hou Zhou has not been resolved, and this has become the first test that Hou Zhou's new regime will experience.

After Guo Wei led the army to attack Daliang, he thought that the ministers in the court would flock to him as the emperor, who knew that the nerves of these ministers somehow became collectively dulled, as if they were not interested in this matter at all, and even Feng Dao, the representative of the five generations of wall-riding faction, did not mean to support him as the emperor.

Guo Wei was not mentally prepared for this situation, so he had to temporarily agree to support Liu Chong's son Liu Yun as emperor in the eastern section of the Later Han River.

However, in the end, Guo Wei staged another mutiny in Lanzhou (now Puyang, Henan), returned to Daliang, and became emperor as he wished. At that time, Liu Yun had just walked to Songzhou (now Shangqiu, Henan), and was also detained by Guo Wei's people on the spot (see the Five Dynasties Wind and Cloud Scroll for details).

Liu Chong, the envoy of the Eastern Jiedu of the Later Han Dynasty, was the younger brother of Liu Zhiyuan, the ancestor of the Later Han Dynasty, and when he heard the news of Guo Wei's attack on Daliang, he was furious and immediately prepared to send troops to attack him.

However, as soon as the troops were assembled, he heard that his son Liu Yun had been made emperor. Liu Chong was very excited after hearing this, and said to the people beautifully: "My son has become the emperor, what else do I have to ask for, hurry up and call the army to disband!" Then he sent someone to the capital to inquire about the news.

At this time, Guo Wei was still in Daliang, he was planning to usurp the throne, and he didn't want to conflict with Liu Chong, so he pointed to a tattoo on his neck and said: "Go back and tell your master, I am a person who has carved green, ancient and modern, Chinese and foreign,

Worldwide, have you ever heard of the 'Carving of the Blue Son'? Guo Wei had a rough experience in his early years, he was born as an ordinary soldier, although he was not engraved on his face, but he still stabbed a sparrow on the back of his neck, so he was called "Guo Queer".

The messenger didn't know that Guo Wei was fooling him, so he went back to report to Liu Chongyu. Liu Chong is also more realistic, and immediately overjoyed after hearing it: "That's right! How can a person who has carved green be an emperor? So he was even more relieved and sat at home waiting for the good news of his son's accession to the throne.

But in fact, what Guo Wei said is a false proposition, because the entry threshold for the profession of emperor in ancient times was relatively low, and even a scoundrel could be an emperor, so what are you afraid of if you have a bird tattooed on your neck? So Liu Chong had just sat at home and been happy for a few days, when the news came that Guo Wei had been proclaimed emperor in Daliang and that his son had also been detained in Songzhou. At this moment, Liu Chong was so panicked that he hurriedly sent another messenger to see Guo Wei, begging him to save his son's life and send him to Taiyuan.

However, Liu Yun was the one who had been canonized as the emperor, and Guo Wei, a person like this, would definitely not let him live again, so he continued to fool Liu Chong and said: "Brother, don't worry!" Liu Yun is doing well now. The body is great, and the food is delicious! I will send someone to take him to Beijing and make him a big official. Arrange a good place to live, you help me guard the territory in Hedong, and I will make you a prince and let you guard Hedong forever. ”

After hearing this, Liu Chong shouted that he was fooled and regretted it, knowing that this son would definitely not come back. However, people like them who do big things are relatively indifferent emotionally. So I don't care if my son lives or dies,

Immediately on the sixteenth day of the first month of that year, he was proclaimed emperor in Jinyang, and still took "Han" as the country name. It is known as the "Northern Han Dynasty" in history. On the same day, Guo Wei ordered his son Liu Yun to be executed in Songzhou.

After the founding of the Northern Han Dynasty, the situation was also a mess. One is that the territory is small, with only 12 prefectures, including He, Fen, Xin, Dai, Xian, Lan, Long, Wei, Qin, Liao, Lin, and Shi. It roughly included the central part of present-day Shanxi and a small part of Shaanxi. Living space is very limited. In addition, the internal affairs of the Northern Han Dynasty are also very chaotic.

As soon as Liu Chong became the emperor, he said to his subordinates: "I am because of the foundation of Gaozu (Liu Zhiyuan), which collapsed overnight, and I have no choice but to become the emperor." Take a closer look, what kind of genius am I? What kind of minister can you be?

Therefore, we cannot live like those big countries. So it was time to pay the salary. At the level of the prime minister, a hundred strings of money are given every month. At this level, thirty strings of money are given every month, and the officials below can only give some subsidies.

But with the little salary he gave him, the officials really couldn't support their families, so they had to be greedy. Liu Chong also knew that he was wrong, so he never interfered, so that the officials of the whole country were blatantly corrupting the law, and finally passed on this contradiction to the people.

However, Liu Chong's troubles were not limited to this, the biggest threat to him was the Later Zhou in a state of hostility with the Northern Han. Because Hou Zhou was a big country, Liu Chong knew that he was powerless to compete with it, so he had to look for foreign aid.

The origin of the knots

The degree of moderation has the meaning of controlled scheduling. In the second year of Emperor Yongchu of the Eastern Han Dynasty (108), Liang understood that he was appointed to preside over the Western military and was appointed as the envoy of the military festival, which was the first appearance of the festival envoy in history. At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, the peasant uprising was in full swing, and in order to meet the needs of the war, the imperial court began to appoint a large number of governors of the Jiejie Prefecture to make them the commanders of a military region.

During the period of the Three Kingdoms, Cao Cao successively set up military towns in important areas in the process of unifying the north, and gradually evolved into the Chengdu Governorate.

Therefore, the governor of this period can be regarded as the predecessor of the Tang Dynasty and the five dynasties.

In the early years of the Tang Dynasty, there was also a governor, in the thirteenth year of Zhenguan (639), there were forty-one governors in the country, which were divided into prefectures and counties under the heavens, but in the later period, except for a few areas with frequent military activities, the vast majority were dismissed by the province.

During the Zhenguan period, according to the trend of famous mountains and rivers, the world was divided into ten provinces, namely Henan, Hebei, Hedong, Guannei, Lingnan, Jiannan, Jiangnan, Longyou (Liupan Mountain - west of Longshan), Huainan, Shannan (north of the Yangtze River, south of Qinling), but these ten roads are only geographical areas, there is no administrative level, and the imperial court will occasionally assign envoys such as observing the wind and patrolling to the provinces, but they are not permanent.

Until the Kaiyuan and Tianbao years of Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty, the imperial court gradually set up ten military towns in Pinglu, Fanyang, Hedong, Shuofang, Longyou, Hexi, Anbeiting, Jiannan, Lingnan and other ten military towns on the front line of border defense out of the needs of the imperial border (in fact, nine sections, one by omitted, and the five prefectures of Lingnan were the envoys of the meridians).

After the Anshi Rebellion, the imperial court set up military towns in the interior for the purpose of counterinsurgency, which directly increased to more than 20 provinces. The secondary military towns set up defense envoys or observation envoys, and did not give festivals, and most of them were interviewed and led.

Later, as the imperial court's control over the local area became weaker and weaker, the number of military towns also increased, and in the fourteenth year of Dezong Zhenyuan (798), Jia Tanshang said in the "Ten Daolu": "Where there are thirty-one knots in the country, eleven observations" The number of military towns has increased significantly.

In the second year of Xianzong Yuanhe (807), Li Jifu published the "Yuanhe National Accounting Book", saying: "There are forty-eight towns under heaven and two hundred and ninety-five state capitals. ”

At this point, the division of military towns in the Tang Dynasty was basically formed, and it was maintained until the end of the Tang Dynasty.

The Tang Dynasty festival degree made the power great, when ordered to give double double festivals, to be able to military monopoly, the line is to build a festival, the house tree six Xu, on the horse official army, off the horse to manage the people, set the army, the people, the financial three political power in one, kill the official can go to the assassin history, its wingmen have deputy envoys, support envoys, marching Sima, judges, push officials, etc., will be accompanied by the ya, Yu Hou, soldiers and horses, etc., civil and military possession, just like a small independent kingdom, it is not an exaggeration to call it a prince.

Of course, not all Jiedu envoys have the ability to secede, and some scholars in modern times have proposed that the Tang Dynasty feudal towns can be divided into several types, such as "Heshuo secession type, Central Plains defense and containment type, frontier royal border type, southeast financial source type" or "long-term secession type, once secession type, Jingdong defense internal type, northwest border defense type, southern financial source type" and so on, all of which make sense.

But in general, before the Huangchao Uprising, the domestic feudal towns in the Tang Dynasty were all under the management of the imperial court, and except for a few feudal towns such as Weibo and Chengde in Hebei, the imperial court had the ability to decide the appointment and dismissal of the envoys of the feudal towns. However, after the end of the Huangchao Rebellion, the power of the feudal towns became so expansive that the imperial court could no longer control them.

Jiedu made too much power, and it was the source of the fall of the Tang Dynasty and the turmoil of the Five Dynasties. Among the five dynasties and ten kingdoms, the vast majority of dynasties and the founders of the country started as Jiedu envoys, and only Li Yu, the founding emperor of the Southern Tang Dynasty, was in power in the center, which shows the great influence of Jiedu envoys at that time.

It was not until the establishment of the Northern Song Dynasty that Zhao Kuangyin learned the bitter lessons of his predecessors, and in the third year of Qiande (965), he ordered that all local taxes be transported to the central government, leaving only a small part to maintain daily expenses, which deprived the Jiedu envoys of their financial rights. In the same year, he ordered the state governments to select elite soldiers and send them to the central government, which weakened the military power of the Jiedu envoys.

In the period of Taizong of the Song Dynasty, he ordered the Jiedu to make the subordinate counties directly under the central government, and then appointed the courtiers to serve as the governors and prefects, and the authority of the envoys was greatly reduced.

During the period of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms, the number of military towns increased dramatically, and the number of military towns located in the territory of the former Tang Dynasty exceeded 100, which does not include the military towns set up by the Khitan in the interior and the Jiaozhou Jing Navy in present-day Vietnam, among which the most influential is the Hedong Jiedu envoy, the Later Tang, the Later Jin, and the Later Han in the Five Dynasties all came from this, followed by Tianxiong and Lulong in Hebei.

Wu (Southern Tang) in the south came because of the Huainan Festival, the Southern Han Dynasty came because of the Qing Navy, Wu Yue came because of Zhenhai and Zhendong, Chu (Hunan) came because of the Wu'an Festival, before and after Shu came because of the Xichuan Festival, Jingnan came because of the Jingnan Festival, and Fujian came because of the Fuzhou Festival.

Observation Envoy: The full name is the Observation and Disposal Envoy, in the national side town, the important town is called the Jie Du Envoy, and the sub-town is called the Observation Envoy, whose rank is slightly lower than that of the Jie Du Envoy, and the number of subordinate generals is slightly less than that of the Jie Du Envoy, but they are also local governors who hold military and political power.

Defense Envoy: The full name is the defense and capture envoy, which was placed in the northwest border town in the early Tang Dynasty and placed in the military key areas in the interior in the later period. All defense envoys can lead several states, and their status is slightly lower than that of the jiedu envoys. The state defense envoy is in charge of a state's military, and is often concurrently served by the assassin history, and often concurrently with the regimental training envoy.

Regiment training envoy: The full name is regimental training and capturing envoys, divided into two types of regimental training envoys, and state regimental training envoys. After the Huangchao Uprising, most of the regimental training envoys were promoted to the festival degree envoys. The state regimental training envoy is an official position that is only responsible for the military of a state, and the rank is equivalent to that of the defense envoy, and it is often concurrently served by the assassin. (To be continued.) )