Of course, Zhao Kuangyin was also very clear, but he didn't stop it, but just ordered the whole army to camp on the spot, and he hid and drank stuffy wine, and drank two more glasses, and then lay down in bed early and fell asleep.

Although Zhao Kuangyin slept, the soldiers in the army refused to sleep, and they all gathered together in groups of three or five, expressing their opinions on the natural phenomenon of "fighting for two days" during the day, and at the same time thinking of the young Son of Heaven, even if the soldiers risked death to fight, he didn't know, so if the people's hearts were scattered, how would the team take it?

The more everyone talked, the more excited they became, and finally they couldn't control their emotions in the evening, so they each picked up their swords and organized a group to find Zhao Kuangyin's younger brother Zhao Kuangyi and the secretary Zhao Pu, and shouted loudly: "The soldiers have already discussed it, and they want to support the Taiwei as the Son of Heaven." ”

Zhao Kuangyi already had a grasp of the situation, and he didn't feel alarmed, so he said to them: "Oops! Your enthusiasm is very high, and such a request is reasonable, but this matter is too big, let us have a meeting to study it! ”

After hearing this, the soldiers immediately refused, and shouted one after another: "No, we want to support the Taiwei as the Son of Heaven, and we have already taken action, if things can't be done, is there still a way for us to live?" ”

Zhao Kuangyi no longer refused after hearing this, and said: "The rise of the emperor and the change of dynasties, although there is a mandate of heaven, it is also in the hearts of the people. Do you intend to support Taiwei as the Son of Heaven, can you ensure that after the matter is completed, you will not plunder the people and not harm the Zhou Dynasty clan? The soldiers all agreed.

After Zhao Kuangyi received the assurances of the soldiers, there was no doubt, and he immediately passed the order. Start the deployment according to the established plan. That night, all the officers and men of the army were dressed neatly. With a blade in hand, stand in line. Nervously and anxiously waiting for the dawn. All night, there was only one person in the army who was still sleeping peacefully in the tent, and he was the first actor of the coup - Zhao Kuangyin.

In the early morning of the fourth day of the first lunar month, as soon as the sky was bright, the soldiers could no longer hold back their restless emotions and began to make noise. Zhao Kuangyi saw that the situation was ripe, so he personally took all the senior generals in the army to break into Zhao Kuangyin's account and gave him a detailed report on what happened last night. Zhao Kuangyin didn't know that the matter had been done because he drank the night before. After listening, he hurriedly went out of the account to watch. As a result, as soon as he went out, he saw that the soldiers of the brigade had surrounded his tent three layers inside and three layers outside, and their facial expressions were very serious, and there was a very strong momentum of vowing not to give up until the goal was achieved.

After Zhao Kuangyin finished reading, he turned his head and wanted to hide back in the tent, but he was immediately embraced by the generals beside him, followed by a yellow robe that had already been made and draped on his body, and then all the soldiers of the three armies knelt down and shouted in unison. And then, without saying a word, he lifted him up and carried him to the horse. He should be supported to go south and return to Beijing to seize the throne.

At that time, due to the enthusiasm of the soldiers, the scene was extremely chaotic and could not be controlled at all. Zhao Kuangyin knew that it was irretrievable, so he had to hold on to the reins. He shouted and scolded: "You people are greedy for wealth and want to make me emperor, then my command." Why don't you obey. ”

The soldiers all stopped and replied in unison, "Only Your Majesty's orders are obeyed." ”

Zhao Kuangyin said: "Okay then! You can make me emperor if you want me. But I have my conditions. The Queen Mother and the Emperor, I have served. The civil and military forces of the Manchu Dynasty also served as ministers in the same palace as me.

After returning to Beijing, I ask you not to hurt the royal family, not to insult hundreds of officials, and not to plunder the people, this is my three noes policy, and it is also my moral bottom line. If you can do it, I will agree to your request, and if you can't do it, I will not obey it. ”

The soldiers were very moved after hearing this, and made a promise to Zhao Kuangyin, and Zhao Kuangyin no longer shirked, and returned to the capital with the soldiers.

This is the whole process of the very famous "Chenqiao Mutiny, Yellow Robe" in history, which can be regarded as a copycat version of Guo Weizhou's mutiny. Because the prop used by Guo Wei at that time was a yellow flag, unlike Zhao Kuangyin this time, even the yellow robe had already been made, if he even had to say that he didn't know about it in advance, it would be a thunderbolt.

After Zhao Kuangyin returned to Beijing, everything was logical. Han Tong, the deputy commander of the guards, was the first to hear the news, and was about to go home to gather men and horses to organize resistance, but as soon as he entered the door, he was chased to his home by Zhao Kuangyin's general Wang Yansheng and killed. Han Tong was the only senior general in the forbidden army who did not obey Zhao Kuangyin, and with his death, Zhao Kuangyin seized power without any resistance from the military.

In terms of courtiers, Prime Minister Fan Zhen and Wang Pu heard the news of Zhao Kuangyin's mutiny in the court, Fan Zhen was very excited, grabbed Wang Pu's palm, and said repeatedly: "I regret that I shouldn't not distinguish between truth and truth, so I sent Zhao Kuangyin to fight, this is all our mistake." Because he overreacted, his nails were inserted into Wang Pu's flesh, and Wang Pu's palm was bleeding. But fortunately, Wang Pu was also stunned, and he didn't know the pain at all.

Not long after, these two people met Zhao Kuangyin under the coercion of the soldiers, and after Zhao Kuangyin met them, he immediately cried and said: "I was greatly favored by the first emperor, and before I had time to reciprocate, I was forced by these soldiers to do this kind of thing, I really have no face to live in this world anymore." After that, he cried so much that he beat his chest, and the performance was very good.

Fan Zhen and Wang Pu looked at each other, both staring at each other, and before they could speak, Zhao Kuangyin's subordinate general Luo Yanpu drew his sword and shouted: "There is no master in the world, and the captain should be the son of heaven." "This is forced by force, or Wang Pu is a clever person, and when he saw a bad opportunity, he immediately knelt down and said long live. Fan Zhen was reluctant to bow to Zhao Kuangyin, but when things reached this point, there was no point in fighting again, so Fan Zhen had no choice but to kneel down to Zhao Kuangyin stubbornly in the spirit of not suffering immediate losses.

Fan Zhen and Wang Pu were the leaders of the courtiers, and even they all declared themselves vassals to Zhao Kuangyin, and of course others would not resist anymore, so they all surrendered. At that time, the emperor of the Later Zhou Dynasty, Chai Zongxun, had just turned seven years old and was still a child, and the Empress Dowager Fu was twenty-five years old this year, and she had just entered the palace, so she could not constitute a resistance force at all.

Zhao Kuangyin didn't even pay attention to them, so he ordered someone to take out the abdication edict prepared in advance and read it, which was regarded as their initiative to abdicate.

The fifth day of the first lunar month. Zhao Kuangyin officially ascended the throne in Chongyuan Palace, due to before that. Zhao Kuangyin served as the envoy of the Later Zhou Dynasty to the German army, and the seat of the German army was located in Songzhou (now Shangqiu, Henan). Therefore, the country was named Song, the year name was changed to Jianlong, the Zhou lord Chai Zongxun was the king of Zheng, and the Empress Dowager Fu was still the queen mother of the Later Zhou Dynasty, and the mother and son moved to the West Palace to live.

He also ordered all relevant units to burn incense to the gods of heaven, the earth, and agriculture, and at the same time granted amnesty to the world, and sent envoys to the military towns and feudal countries of the four directions on fast horses to issue edicts. As a result, the five dynasties that lasted for 53 years finally became history, and the world entered the era of Zhao Kuangyin.

Zhao Kuangyin became the emperor in this way. It should be said that it is still very smooth, but what is smooth is only the process, and Zhao Kuangyin, who became the emperor, actually encountered more trouble than anyone else.

It is an indisputable fact that Zhao Kuangyin is the terminator of the five generations of troubled times, but when he first became the emperor, it was difficult for people to draw such a conclusion. This is because the Five Dynasties were extremely chaotic times, and there were many coups d'état, like Zhu Youqi and Zhu Youzhen in the Later Liang, and Li Siyuan and Li Congke in the Later Tang Dynasty. Shi Jingjiao of the Later Jin Dynasty and Guo Wei of the Later Zhou Dynasty both became emperors by coup d'état. These are all successful cases, and the unsuccessful ones cannot be counted.

But even these successful people in the coup world. None of them ended well, either they were usurped and killed during their reign, or they died a few years later. The country was taken away by the opposite sex, and no one could escape this law. So who would believe it. Zhao Kuangyin will definitely be able to get out of this strange circle?

In fact, Zhao Kuangyin compared with the above-mentioned pioneers. There is also a big disadvantage, that is, his predecessor emperor Chai Rong is a generation of heroes with high prestige, so that people miss him very much. After all, Zhao Kuangyin is a cadre raised by Chai Rong, if he denigrates Chai Rong's image of Mingjun excessively, he will be regarded as an ungrateful villain; But if people's admiration for Chai Rong is allowed to go, it will seem that the dynasty he built is not right. In the same way, if the ministers used by Chai Rong during his lifetime are all discarded, the court will inevitably be empty. If it is used as usual, these people are all important ministers of the previous dynasty, and it is inevitable that they will have the feeling of remembering their old master, and how can they be loyal to themselves?

It can be seen that although Zhao Kuangyin successfully ascended the throne, the situation is not very optimistic. The relationship in all aspects is very complicated, if it is not handled properly, if you are not careful, you will lose all the games if you don't do it well, even Zhao Kuangyin's mother, Empress Dowager Du, can see it clearly. On the day Zhao Kuangyin ascended the throne, someone pleased Empress Dowager Du and said: "Mother is more precious than son, and your son becomes the emperor, then you are naturally the mother of all people." Empress Dowager Du had a sad face and said: "The emperor is the honor of ten thousand times, and he is naturally extremely noble, but the emperor is not so easy to be, if he can't keep the throne, it is impossible to retire and be a flat-headed commoner." ”

The concerns in Empress Dowager Du's heart are by no means groundless, but insightful in times of peace. However, the reason why Zhao Kuangyin was able to become the strongest usurper emperor in history was not only because of his boxy face, but also because of his extraordinary political skills.

Since ancient times, the emperors who usurped the throne and won the world were often very suspicious, and not only could not give reuse to the former ministers, but often had to kill them. As for the clan of the previous dynasty, it is needless to mention, and there is no way to escape the tragic fate. This is because since ancient times, in order to maintain the need to maintain its rule, the ruling class has vigorously engaged in the education of fools and the people, preached the "Mandate of Heaven Theory", and compared the emperor to heaven and father.

Whoever dares to seize power is a chaotic minister and thief, as the so-called "violence of the most unruly and unruly, it is still called soup and force should not be punished". This theory is absurd, but because the ruling class has been indoctrinating people since childhood, it is so ingrained that almost everyone regards it as the truth.

Of course, those usurpers were also raised with this kind of education, so after the usurpation, there was inevitably a dark side in their hearts, thinking that what they were doing would not see the light of day, and they began to doubt everything, and then defeated everything. This is almost a strange circle that the usurper kings of all generations have not been able to get out of, but Zhao Kuangyin, the strongest usurper in history, is obviously much more calm in his performance at this point.

After Zhao Kuangyin became emperor, he immediately named Chai Zongxun as King Zheng, and Empress Fu as the Empress Dowager of Hou Zhou, and the mother and son moved to the West Palace to raise them, so that even if they kept the moral bottom line, they also gave an explanation to those who recalled the previous dynasty.

Such an arrangement still played a certain role in the stability of the DPRK situation. However, Chai Zongxun died mysteriously at the age of twenty, and he was the last emperor of the five generations. Temple number Zhou Gong Emperor. Chai Zongxun was just twenty years old when he died, and it is estimated that he was unspoken by Zhao Kuangyin. But at that time, it was the sixth year of Kaibao (973), and the Northern Song Dynasty had been established for more than ten years. The political situation has stabilized, and although Chai Zongxun's death is unknown, it has nothing to do with the overall situation.

For those ministers of the previous dynasty and various feudal towns, Zhao Kuangyin also gave them additional officials and knights. The original three prime ministers of the Later Zhou Dynasty, Zhao Kuangyin, were all retained intact, and Fan Zhen was given the rank of servant, Wang Pu was given the title of Sikong, and Wei Renpu was added to the title of right servant. It has nothing to do with the ranking of these people in the Politburo. But since the official has been added, the welfare benefits will definitely float up, which can be regarded as a benefit.

Among the local feudal towns, the first to be added to the official was Fu Yanqing, the envoy of the Tianxiong Festival. Fu Yanqing briefly introduced earlier, he is Chai Rong's father-in-law, Chai Zongxun's grandfather, and of course one of the main victims of Zhao Kuangyin's coup. In order to appease him, Zhao Kuangyin hurriedly added the title of Taishi to Fu Yanqing, which can be regarded as a kind of compensation for him.

Fan Zhen, Wang Pu, Wei Renpu, and Fu Yanqing are several leading figures in the Later Zhou Dynasty. The rest of the people also have rewards, so I won't go into details. And for the meritorious heroes in this mutiny, Zhao Kuangyin did not forget to give a reward.

After he ascended the throne, Zhao Pu was promoted from the secretary in charge to the right counselor and the privy counselor. Shi Shouxin was promoted from the commander of the front of the palace to the deputy commander of the guard Ma Bujun, the commander of Gao Huaide's guard and the horse army was promoted to the deputy capital of the palace, and Zhang Lingduo was promoted from the commander of the infantry army to the commander of the horse infantry army. The two most important official positions in the forbidden army system, namely the guards and pro-army commanders and the front of the palace, are inspected. It was awarded to the two old buddies who broke out of the horse camp like him, Murong Yanzhao and Han Lingkun.

When you look at it this way, the problem is clear. Zhao Kuangyin's political skills were very flexible, on the one hand, he added officials to the ministers of the former dynasty and local feudal towns, but on the other hand, he firmly held the most important military power in his own hands, which could not only stabilize the mood of the courtiers of the Later Zhou, but also not let the power fall.

At the same time, Zhao Kuangyin is also very measured, for example, the Hanlin bachelor Wang Shu of the Later Zhou Dynasty, which was originally the minister that Chai Rong began to use when he was the envoy of the Zhenning Festival, and his qualifications were very old, but he was not appointed as the prime minister because he was always drunk.

Soon after the founding of the Northern Song Dynasty, one day Zhao Kuangyin set up a banquet in the Guangde Hall to entertain the ministers, at the beginning of the banquet, Wang Zhu drank too much, stood up slowly, and said loudly: "Today is really happy!" If the first emperor was still alive, I don't know how happy he would be for you when he saw everyone like this! Then he began to cry aloud.

At this moment, all the ministers were shocked, and they all thought that the king would definitely die this time. Who knew that Zhao Kuangyin's expression only changed slightly, and then returned to normal, and just said lightly: "Wang Shu is just a drunkard, since he is drunk, just put him down, don't make a fuss." ”

So saying, he asked the king to go down and rest, and he did not blame him afterwards. Although this matter is small, it is enough to prove Zhao Kuangyin's generosity, and the ministers in the palace naturally calmed down a lot after witnessing this scene with their own eyes.

In addition, Zhao Kuangyin often made some small sacrifices in order to win over the old ministers of the Later Zhou Dynasty. For example, Zhao Pu was his most powerful minister, and he also contributed the most in the Chenqiao Mutiny, and he should have been the best candidate for prime minister, but Zhao Kuangyin, in order to take care of the emotions of several prime ministers of the previous dynasty, only made him a right counselor and a privy counselor, and only officially worshiped him a few years later.

For example, Han Tong, the deputy commander of the guards of the Later Zhou Dynasty, was originally the only one among the senior generals of the forbidden army in the capital who refused to cooperate with Zhao Kuangyin.

On the way back to the capital with his army, Han Tong immediately returned home after hearing the news, preparing to lead the crowd to resist, but was killed by Wang Yansheng, the general who advanced to Beijing.

It stands to reason that this time Wang Yansheng made a great contribution to Zhao Kuangyin, but instead of praising him, Zhao Kuangyin convicted him of unauthorized murder and ordered him to be beheaded.

Although in the end, under the persuasion of the generals, Wang Yansheng saved his life, but he was also reused for life. In fact, judging from this matter alone, Zhao Kuangyin is indeed a little sorry for Wang Yansheng, but Zhao Kuangyin easily bought the hearts of the guards and soldiers through this move, and it is still cost-effective in general.

However, Zhao Kuangyin did not always blindly tolerate the old ministers of the Later Zhou Dynasty, and sometimes used means to suppress them. There is such an interesting story recorded in "Records of Experiences and Experiences": On the second day of Zhao Kuangyin's accession to the throne, Fan Zhen and several other prime ministers sat in the Golden Palace to discuss politics with Zhao Kuangyin as usual, and then Zhao Kuangyin said to them: "I can't see clearly, you bring the document over and show it to me." ”

(This paragraph may read, "I can't hear clearly, so come closer and speak.") "Suspiciously wrong. After hearing this, these prime ministers had no choice but to go up and hand the documents to Zhao Kuangyin, but at this time, Zhao Kuangyin motioned to the eunuchs in the palace to remove the prime ministers' seats. When the prime ministers retreated, they suddenly found that their seats had been removed, so they had to stand and reply.

This thing doesn't seem like much, but it has a lot of symbolic significance. Since ancient times, there has been a clear division of labor between the emperor and the prime minister, the emperor manages the prime minister, the prime minister and the prime minister are hundreds of officials, and the first level is responsible for the first level, and the prime minister is equivalent to the general manager of the country, and the power is very large. Therefore, whenever the monarch and ministers discuss politics, the emperor must first invite the prime minister to sit down, and then order the eunuch to serve tea, and wait for the prime minister to dry his throat and pant evenly, and then he will have a calm conversation with the emperor.

This form can be traced back to the slave society, until the Tang Dynasty has not changed, even in the five dynasties of this extremely chaotic world, it is still the case, until Zhao Kuangyin established the Northern Song Dynasty, it can be regarded as a complete change, and then the generation is not as good as the generation, to the Qing Dynasty Prime ministers see the emperor, often have to kneel to reply, but also call themselves "slaves".

Fortunately, in the Qing Dynasty, China's feudal society was over, otherwise when the next dynasty appeared, the emperor would probably have to dig a big pit in the palace and let the prime minister lie in the pit to deal with national affairs.

It can be seen that Zhao Kuangyin has made a lot of efforts to stabilize the regime, and the means are still very flexible, sometimes soft and sometimes hard, and there is pressure and pressure, so that his ministers can't find the north. But even this is not convincing to everyone. In less than half a year after he became emperor, two powerful figures in China rebelled one after another, and both of them created a certain momentum. These two powerful figures are Li Yun, the envoy of the Zhaoyi Jiedu, the commander of the original guard army, and Li Chongjin, the envoy of the Huainan Jiedu. (To be continued.) )