The invasion of the Central Plains by the Northern Han Dynasty provided Murong Yanchao with an excellent opportunity to rebel, and Murong Yanchao also cherished this opportunity very much, and immediately prepared to rebel.

He first sent someone to see Guo Wei, saying that he intended to enter the Hajj to meet him. This is to test Guo Wei's reaction, if Guo Wei doesn't want to go to war, he will definitely try his best to appease him and prevent him from entering the court for the time being. But I didn't expect Guo Wei's attitude to be very tough and immediately approved.

This time, Murong Yanchao was not easy to handle, so he had to say that there were bandits everywhere in the territory, and he didn't dare to leave easily.

At this point, both sides are already in tension, and they just need to wait for a suitable moment to officially start the war. For Murong Yanchao, the best time was for the combined forces of the Northern Han and Liao States to come in from the north, so as to attract the army of the Later Zhou Dynasty, so that he could send troops from behind, and it would not be difficult to achieve twice the result with half the effort. As for Guo Wei, Yanzhou is definitely going to fight, but it is best to wait until the war in the north is over, so that he can concentrate and completely kill Murong Yanchao in one go.

Both sides anxiously awaited the outcome of the battle in the north with their own aims, but in the end the balance of victory tipped in favor of Guo Wei, who drove the combined forces of the Northern Han and Liao states out of the border as soon as he sent his troops to Jinju, and cleanly removed the threat from the north.

This news was extremely fatal to Murong Yanchao, which meant that he would fight against the central government alone in the future, so he didn't dare to wait any longer, and immediately recruited village soldiers into the city, and introduced Surabaya into the moat to defend against the Zhou army's siege. At the same time, he issued a number of flags to his generals and ordered them to recruit bandits to plunder the border. By this time, although Murong Yanchao had not yet preached the Dao. But in fact it was already a formal rebellion.

On the seventh day of the first month of the second year of Guangshun of the Later Zhou Dynasty (952), the Later Zhou Emperor Guo Wei issued a decree: to appoint Cao Ying (that is, Cao Wei) to deploy the camp on all sides of Yanzhou. Shi Yanchao, the defense envoy of Qizhou (now Jinan, Shandong), was deployed as the deputy deployment, and Xiang Xun, the envoy of the imperial city, was the capital supervisor. With Chenzhou's defense envoy Yao Yuanfu as the camp and the capital of Mabu, he organized a group to attack Murong Yanchao. At this time, it was less than twenty days before the defeat of the Northern Han according to Hou Zhou.

On the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, Cao Ying came to Yanzhou with soldiers and horses from all walks of life and began to build a long siege. Murong Yanchao was unwilling to sit idly by, and repeatedly led his troops to battle, but was repeatedly defeated by the Zhou army.

Ten days later, the long siege was closed, and the Zhou army began to formally attack the city. This battle lasted more than five months. But the process of the war was still very smooth, that is, the Zhou army had been attacking the city, and it had not been able to conquer it.

It wasn't until May of that year that Guo Wei drove his own expedition and personally came to the city of Yanzhou to command the battle, and finally broke the city, and Murong Yanchao, together with his wife and children, threw himself into the well and died. The war is over.

In this way, Guo Wei won the war at home and abroad in more than a year after the founding of the People's Republic of China, and it was also from the east and north. This enabled the foundation of the reign of the new regime of the Later Zhou Dynasty to be solidified, and it also enabled him to concentrate his energies on the work of economic construction in the country.

Guo Wei as a founding emperor. His own military exploits are not prominent, and his reign is not long. It should be said that his influence is not very great. But in fact, Guo Wei's popularity in history is still very high. This is mainly because he has made very outstanding achievements in the construction of the national economy.

And it is precisely because of this that the Five Dynasties, an extremely chaotic and dark era in Chinese history, finally ushered in a ray of light before the dawn.

Guo Wei is very simple, and he has not deteriorated when he becomes the emperor, and after he ascended the throne, he ordered: the costume of the public opinion should not be too gorgeous; The utensils in the palace must strive to be simple; All localities are not allowed to contribute precious and delicate items, as well as strange birds, animals, eagles and dogs.

And took out dozens of luxurious jade artifacts from the original Han Palace, smashed them in public in the main hall, and then said to the ministers: "I heard that Emperor Han Yin (Liu Chengyou) plays with his pets every day, and he does not leave his side, this matter is not far away, and he should learn from it!" ”

After that, he ordered the abolition of some of the harsh laws left by the Later Han Dynasty. As mentioned earlier, the rule of the Later Han Dynasty over the people in the country was very brutal, and some of the regulations were no longer reasonable.

For example, if a person steals more than one penny, he will be put to death; Those who have private possession of cowhide of more than one inch shall be executed; Those who sell salt privately among the people shall be executed regardless of the pound and taels; The general principle of such a law is basically to kill if there is a mistake, and it is so brutal that Guo Wei ordered it to be abolished.

For the thieves, the laws before the Later Jin Tianfu period were followed, and it was stipulated that the whole clan should not be slaughtered except for the crime of conspiracy and rebellion. As for the strategic material of cowhide, the five generations have always been strictly controlled.

In the Juwen-Ju era, it was purchased from the people at the government's expense. In the era of Li Siyuan, it was changed to the government taking salt in exchange for cowhide in the hands of the people, and no longer gave money.

In the era of Shi Jingjiao, even salt was not given, and it was confiscated directly; After the founding of the Later Han Dynasty, it was stipulated that "those who possess an inch privately will be executed", which is really worse than the next. It wasn't until Guo Wei came here that he completely changed.

He stipulated: The people should accept the total number of cowhides, and the third should be two. The remaining part was apportioned to the fields, and it was stipulated that one cowhide should be paid for every ten hectares of land. and the rest shall be for the people's own use, and shall be bought and sold for their own convenience.

For those who trafficked illicit salt, it was again changed to a conviction of two catties. It is stipulated that "anyone who sells more than five catties of salt shall be beheaded and abandoned in the market", although this regulation is also very cruel, but it is still much more advanced than that of the Later Han Dynasty. In addition, Guo Wei also ordered the abolition of those "saving consumption" and "strange money" stipulated by the Later Han Dynasty that exceeded the actual situation, and the remaining taxes owed by the people in the Later Han Dynasty were no longer collected. These regulations have indeed reduced a lot of burden on the private sector.

In addition, Guo Wei also ordered the abolition of some very unreasonable taxes and miscellaneous taxes. For example, there was a "cattle tax" at that time, which was first because Zhu Wen and Huainan fought in that year, and more than 10,000 ploughing cattle were snatched from there, and after they returned, they were distributed to the people of Henan, and then they began to collect rents from these people. Originally, there was nothing unreasonable about this.

The problem is that decades later, these cattle have long since died, but this "cattle rent" is still being collected. It was not until Guo Wei became emperor that this "cattle rent" was cancelled.

On land policy. Guo Wei is also very open-minded and encourages the people to open up wasteland and farm. Stipulate that there is no land of ownership. As long as the people are willing to plant, they will allocate it to him as a permanent field. In the future, all you need to pay taxes is, so the people have gone to reclaim the wasteland.

Since the end of the Tang Dynasty, there has been a system called "camp field affairs", that is, the government-owned land is handed over to tenants for cultivation, and the household registration of these tenants does not belong to the prefecture and county, but is directly managed by the household department, which is about equivalent to the later "people's commune", so the production level in the camp is very low.

After Guo Wei became emperor, he abolished this system. In addition, the fields within the system were equally distributed to the tenants, and the houses, farm tools, and ploughing cattle were also divided, and the tenants had the means of production and no big pot of rice to eat, and the enthusiasm for production was greatly increased.

Soon after Guo Wei became emperor, there was a great drought in the Southern Tang Dynasty, and the hungry people waded through the Huaishui and came to the territory of the Later Zhou Dynasty, and the local officials asked Guo Wei for instructions on how to deal with it. Guo Wei said, "What is the difference between their people and ours? It may not be prohibited. It was also ordered that local officials be properly accommodated for the hungry. In the second year, a flood broke out in Youzhou, which belonged to Liao, and a large number of hungry people poured into the Hebei area of Houzhou. Guo Wei still uses this method to deal with it. In just these two cases, hundreds of thousands of people were obtained out of thin air in the following week, and of course the national strength was enhanced.

For the problem of corruption in the country. Guo Wei is also very tough, and if officials are corrupt and pervert the law, he will find out. It will be dealt with immediately, and there will be no mercy. Ye Renlu, the assassin of Laizhou, was Guo Wei's old subordinate. was reported for embezzling 15,000 horses of silk and 1,000 pieces of money, Guo Wei sent someone to say to him: "You have followed me for many years, and I have deep feelings for you, but you have violated the law of the country, and I have no power to save you, so I can only go to comfort your mother." Then he was put to death.

Of course, corruption has always been a very complicated matter. Although Guo Wei is very resolute in his anti-corruption attitude, he is also divided into people, which means that the anti-corruption action is only effective for those petty officials, and the big officials are not subject to this constraint. His old buddy, Ye Du stayed behind, and Wang Yin, the envoy of the Tianxiong Army, took advantage of his position.

In the Hebei area, Guo Wei couldn't do anything after hearing about it, so he just sent someone to say to him: "Qing and the country are one, Yedu Treasury is very rich, Qing wants to use it, he can take it as much as he wants, why bother asking for it?" ”

It can be seen that although Guo Wei is a very accomplished emperor, he also has to make some concessions to his powerful ministers on a regular basis. Wang Yin is only one of his powerful ministers, and he is not the most domineering. Above Wang Yin, there is another person who is even more difficult to manage, and this person is Wang Jun, the first founding hero of the Later Zhou Dynasty, who is also the prime minister and privy envoy.

Wang Jun, the word Xiufeng, Xiangzhou Anyang (now Anyang, Henan) people. He has loved literature and art since he was a child, and he is very talented in music, and he became a singer when he grew up. However, in that evil old society, the social status of literary and artistic workers was quite low, and it was difficult to have any future. However, Wang Jun's luck was not bad, after he became famous in Xiangzhou, he was discovered by Zhang Yun, the festival of Houliang at that time, and got into his home. Since then, I have had dealings with politicians.

Later, after Liang Shou's evil rent, Zhao Yan went to Zhang Yun's house as a guest, and Zhang Yun asked Wang Jun to sing to help the fun. On that day, Wang Jun's performance was in excellent condition, and the performance effect was quite good, Zhao Yan was very satisfied after appreciating it, and took Wang Jun home when he left, and Wang Jun was also close to the political center at that time.

However, the good times did not last long, and it didn't take long for Li Cunqiao to destroy Liang and Zhao Yanmanmen, and Wang Jun had nothing to rely on and returned to society.

After a long time of exile, he was discovered by Zhang Yanlang, the third envoy under Li Congke, the late emperor of the Later Tang Dynasty, and summoned into the mansion, and finally had something to eat.

But at this time, Wang Jun's bad luck has not been able to come to an end, he just arrived at Zhang Yanlang's house not long after, Shi Jingjiao rebelled in Hedong, and summoned the Khitan soldiers in, Yu Jin Wangzhai broke the Tang army, and then destroyed the Later Tang Dynasty, Zhang Yanlang as the third envoy of the Later Tang Dynasty, but also failed to escape the tragic fate, after the fall of the country was destroyed, Wang Jun once again faced the situation of imminent unemployment.

But I didn't expect that this time it became Wang Jun's opportunity, after Zhang Yanlang was killed, all the family property and servants were occupied by Liu Zhiyuan, the general under Shi Jingjiao, and Wang Jun was also among them. And what feels very strange is that Liu Zhiyuan doesn't seem to be a very artistic person, but I don't know why I'm very interested in Wang Jun.

even let him change his career to work in the government department. After Liu Zhiyuan's death, Liu Chengyou, Emperor Yin of the Han Dynasty, further promoted him to the envoy of the Xuanhui North Court, and his social status was greatly improved. By the time Guo Wei was sent to Hebei to leave the town of Yedu, Wang Jun was already the prisoner of soldiers and horses in that army.

When Guo Wei rebelled, Wang Jun, as the second-in-command in the army, actively supported Guo Wei, fully cooperated, and made great contributions to him, so after Guo Wei became emperor, he appointed him as the prime minister, and later made him a privy envoy.

made him the prime minister and became the second person in the Later Zhou Dynasty, the Northern Han Dynasty and the Liao army attacked Jinzhou, that is, Wang Jun led the troops to relieve the siege, which was relatively effective.

However, although Wang Jun's merits are great, his faults are not small, he is authoritarian and has a very irritable personality. When he and Guo Wei were deliberating, they had to ask Guo Wei to follow his train of thought, and if Guo Wei agreed with his statement, he would happily get up and leave. If he didn't approve, Wang Jun's expression would immediately change suddenly, and his voice would rise straight to the height he had when he performed on stage, and his words were very inferior.

Guo Wei was brave and ruthless when he was young, but later his personality became very generous. After Liu Chengyou killed Yang Wei and Shi Hongzhao, he ordered Kaifeng Yin Liu Bao to destroy Guo Wei's Manmen, and Guo Wei's only two sons were all killed.

But after Guo Wei led his troops to attack Daliang, he only killed Liu Bao alone, and said against the left and right: "Liu Bao killed my family, I will kill his family again, when will it end?" Forget it! "Later, he also gave Liu Bao's wife, a grange and a residence.

It can be seen that it is benevolent. So Guo Wei is very tolerant of Wang Jun, the founder of the country, and never blames Wang Jun for his fierce words, and even because Wang Jun is two years older than himself, he always calls him "brother" when they meet.

In this way, Wang Jun will be more domineering, and the two will inevitably have some conflicts.

For example, after Wang Jun became a privy councillor, he built an office building in the privy council, which was very luxuriously decorated. On the day of completion, Wang Jun happily invited Guo Wei to visit.

After Guo Wei finished reading it, he praised Wang Jun, saying that people who have engaged in literature and art are aesthetic, and the office buildings built are so beautiful, Wang Jun is also very happy, and this matter will pass for the time being. But it didn't take long for Guo Wei to build a small hall in the palace,

After repairing, he happily invited Wang Jun to come and visit. Unexpectedly, after Wang Jun saw it, he immediately said to him seriously: "There are so many houses in the palace, why do you need to build this small hall?" Guo Wei was stunned by what he said, turned around and asked: "There are many houses in the Privy Council, why do you have to build another office building?" When Wang Jun heard this, his face was immediately full of shame, and he didn't know how to answer.

Another time, Wang Jun asked to lead the Pinglu Jiedu envoy (Zhenzhi Qingzhou), and at this time he was already the prime minister and privy envoy. Guo Wei had the heart to refuse, and then thought about it: Even the prime minister asked him to do it, do you still care about a festival envoy? So I agreed to his request.

Unexpectedly, as soon as Wang Jun was instructed, he immediately started the performance, saying that it would be okay if he didn't do it, but since he did it, he must do this work well and be responsible for the local people, but Pinglu was too poor in that place, and he was not rich, so he couldn't afford it, so he asked His Majesty to take out the 10,000 silk horses that were idle in the inner library and lend them to me temporarily, so that I could take them to the local area and make the foundation for economic construction.

At this time, Guo Wei was actually not rich, so he hid the 10,000 pieces of cloth, and somehow he was discovered by Wang Jun, and wanted to reject him! I was afraid that he would go to Qingzhou to scrape the ground, so in the end I had to grit my teeth and give it all to him.

Through the above two small things, it can be seen that Wang Jun is still very domineering in the court, but fortunately, Guo Wei is still big enough to not lose his happiness with his old buddies because of this kind of thing.

What really made Guo Wei feel intolerable was because Wang Jun provoked another person, who was also a super heavyweight in the Later Zhou Dynasty and a very well-known big figure in Chinese history - the second emperor of the Later Zhou Dynasty, Zhou Shizong Chai Rong. (To be continued.) )