Yaoshan scenery) five generations after the seventh year of Liang, September 24, Hebei Xingtai Yaoshan.
Yaoshan, that is, today's Longyao County in Xingtai, is located on the southern Hebei Plain at the eastern foot of Taihang Mountain.
This place is quite historical, with a history of more than 2,000 years, and it is the first place of the three generations of Emperor Shiyao.
There is a Chai family village in Yaoshan, and there are more than 100 people in the village, half of whom are surnamed Chai, which is also a big family in the local area.
There is a family in Chaijiazhuang, the old man in the family is called Chai Shouli, on this day, Chai Shouli is an old man, gave birth to a son, and his name is called Chai Rong.
Chai Shouli's father, called Chai Weng, was a famous rich man in Xingtai, with hundreds of houses and thousands of acres of fertile land, which was quite rich.
However, the world is not peaceful, since the end of the Tang Dynasty, the world has not stopped, warlords are fighting, bandits are rampant, homeless people are scattered, swords and soldiers are suddenly rising, the Chai family is a rich and noble family, but it can't stand such a toss, so by the time of Chai Shouli's generation, the Chai family has fallen, Chai Shouli is becoming more and more poor, to what extent has life passed?When the son is raised to the age of three or five, the family can no longer open the pot.
It is difficult for a good woman to cook without rice, and the old man can't support this child.
I have lived for most of my life, and I was in chaos that year, and it was a fluke to be alive, and it was okay to starve to death with an old bone, but this Chai Rong was three or five years old, and he had just come to the world, how could he bear to starve with him and bury his immature life in vain?
There was no way, Chai Shouli gritted his teeth and stomped his feet, and passed Chai Rong to his brother-in-law Guo Wei as a son.
Guo Wei) Guo Wei is Chai Shouli's brother-in-law, so Guo Wei is Chai Rong's uncle.
Brother-in-law Guo Wei was born in the army, leading the troops to fight is a general, the situation is a little better, but he is not rich, Guo Wei himself has a son, and now he has more mouths for no reason, and the family is starting to be a little poor.
The young Chai Rong was sent by his father to a strange uncle's house, he did not cry or make trouble, and he did not resent his father's abandonment of him in a sense, but was very well-behaved and sensible, he was raised at home, and when he was a little older, he began to go out to do things, following some businessmen on the rivers and lakes to and from Jiangling and other places, reselling tea, in order to supplement the family.
Chai Rong has a smart mind and can speak well, thousands of miles above Jiangling, his tea business is quite good, if there is no accident, he is likely to become a rich squire in Jingxiang area, and then spend his life in peace and prosperity.
However, Chai Rong does not seem to be here, he is doing business at the same time, visiting martial artists, learning riding and archery skills, often going to private schools, auditing the history books of the past dynasties and various ideological theories, he constantly enriches himself, constantly improves himself, he broadens his horizons, understands the customs of the four seasons, and grasps the customs and customs of various places, which is a huge change for the young Chai Rong.
Those who do business with Chai Rong have made a fortune by reselling tea, they use half a month to run a boat to do business, half a month to enjoy, go to the tavern to buy drunk, go to the brothel to sing and dance, go to the restaurant to go to the restaurant, they are vested interests, they think, the world has changed greatly, today the dynasty feasts guests, tomorrow the empire building will collapse, yesterday he was the emperor, today he is the son of heaven, the foundation is destroyed, the wealth is scattered, under the sword soldiers, people say no, so in their eyes who are happy to enjoy, Chai Rong, who works so hard, is simply sick。
Of course, Chai Rong soon began to disdain to be with them, but abandoned business and began to fight with his uncle Guo Wei.
Five dynasties and ten kingdoms, that is, five larger regimes alternate in turn, and ten smaller regimes interspersed.
These five great regimes are the Later Liang, Later Tang, Later Jin, Later Han, and Later Zhou.
When Guo Wei first debuted, he served in the Later Tang Army, and later became the founding hero of the Later Han Dynasty.
The regime of the Later Han Dynasty was the smallest and weakest of the five dynasties, and the emperor's lineage was also very simple, just a founding emperor and a last emperor.
The founding emperor Gaozu Liu Zhiyuan once returned to heaven, and the last emperor Liu Chengyou, the hidden emperor, was incompatible with the meritorious ministers, and even killed Guo Wei's two sons.
Guo Wei's life, he won the world, he spent most of his life fighting, but he was not a pure martial artist, the experience of dissecting the remains and shedding blood did not make him lose his humanity, let alone make him lose his conscience and become a killing machine, but made him realize that it is not easy to be a human being.
Guo Wei once said, "I am poor and miserable, and I am fortunate to be the emperor, how dare I be generous to support the sick people", which means that the emperor thinks that he is just an ordinary person, and he was also a hard-working person who struggled in the troubled times
The emperor can not only speak, but also do, after becoming the emperor, Guo Wei is quite frugal, and even once took the lead in destroying all the gold, silver, jade and luxury goods in the palace in public to show his simplicity.
Uncle Guo Wei's actions, Chai Rong saw it.
What is the most important education in life?Probably family education, the people who can influence our lives must be parents who had long-term contact with us in childhood, and Guo Wei's words and deeds obviously set an excellent example for Chai Rong.
When Chai Rong lived in Guo Wei's house, it was because his family was poor and his father raised himself, so he had no choice but to send people under the fence, Chai Rong had no hope, even if his uncle Guo Wei's career developed step by step, and his power rose step by step, it didn't seem to have any impact on him.
He is a nephew and an adopted son, and the two sons under the knees of his uncle are jumping around, and they seem to be leaning on the shade of the door or inheriting the mantle, and he has nothing to do with Chai Rong.
But now it's different, Guo Wei has become the emperor, and both sons are dead - Guo Wei is a good emperor, but no matter how good the emperor is, it is impossible to restore the Zen concession system thousands of years ago, so Chai Rong, who is closest to him by blood, has become his only successor.
In the first year of Xiande, in 954 AD, Guo Wei died of illness and was located in Chai Rong.
The bitter child who couldn't afford to eat and could only be adopted back then has now become a generation of emperors.
The gears of fate, starting from this year, quietly turned.
Regarding Chai Rong, the author's evaluation is that there are more than 500 emperors in Chinese history, and few of them have done so well, and the most important point is that it is difficult for you to find any stains on him.
There are many excellent emperors in history, but they all seem to be difficult to call perfect.
Qin Shi Huang swept away the eight wildernesses in a unified manner, laying the background of a thousand-year-old history, but the Qin law was severe, and the world was still bitter and violent for a long time.
Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty was eloquent and able to fight against the Huns, but Emperor Wu was poor and luxurious in his later years, made ghosts and gods, and also created the scourge of witches.
Tang Taizong Li Shimin knew how to make good use of people and followed the advice, but the act of killing his brother and destroying his brother in front of the Xuanwu Gate became a dark night that the emperor could never come out of.
Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty repaired the canal to open the imperial examination, but he was tyrannical, and the later lord Li Yu was talented and was a top artist in ancient times, but he was less ambitious, and Emperor Wu of Liang was devout to worship the Buddha, but he did not secretly state affairs, Emperor Qianlong claimed to be a perfect old man, but after all, he was self-appointed, and the government was corrupt in the middle and late Qianlong periods, and the incidents were frequent, which can be described as shocking.
In "Journey to the West", Tang Seng's scriptures were wet, and a few pages were destroyed, Tang Seng was annoyed by this, and Sun Wukong next to him comforted him and said, Master, this world is not complete, and the incomplete should also be incomplete.
Journey to the West) Yes, those emperors who can be called the first emperor of the ages are already very good, if you have to grasp some of their shortcomings and lash them out, it is inevitable that there will be a suspicion of nitpicking, but what is interesting is that throughout Zhou Shizong's life, it is almost complete and perfect.
Politically, Chai Rong actively clarified the rule of officials and severely punished corruption.
Militarily, he vigorously rectified military affairs, improved the combat effectiveness of the national army, and then on this basis, he conquered the north and the south, opened up the territory, he broke the Northern Han Dynasty, the west of the Later Shu, the three expeditions to the Southern Tang Dynasty, the northern expedition to the Liao State, and the frontal military battlefield is a rare defeat.
In the face of the brave Khitan Iron Cavalry, he miraculously created a proud achievement of recovering 17 counties in 3 states in 42 days.
The emperor revised the law, changed the strict punishment law since five generations, he dredged the river, carried out infrastructure construction throughout the country, he set the land endowment, good for the peasants of the world, in the dynasty's education, culture, etiquette, calendar, diplomacy and other aspects, we can see the emperor's hard work.
The academic achievements of his youth influenced him and changed him, making him understand how to be a good emperor.
The years of selling tea as pawns made him understand the sufferings of the people and the evils of society, and the words and deeds of his uncle Guo Wei deeply infected him.
Five dynasties and ten kingdoms, that was the famous troubled era in history.
What are troubled times?Troubled times are no order, no rules, no laws, no morality, troubled times are not only the collapse of one empire after another, but also the loss of people's hearts, but Chai Rong's ruling has changed all this.
The emperor once issued a Hongyuan that would open up the world in ten years, raise the people in ten years, and create peace in ten days, but this was not his wish, but this was the ideal he was realizing step by step.
But unfortunately, God did not have much time for him.
Chai Rong, he is an emperor who knows his position very well, he knows the ability to be the best, he knows more about where his limit is, so he has the courage to make drastic reforms, he knows that it will definitely get better after that, and he has more courage to use troops violently at the beginning of his ascension, because he understands that he will definitely be able to gain an advantage in the military battlefield.
But he could not predict his fate.
The emperor ascended the throne in the first year of Xiande, 954 AD, and died suddenly due to illness in the sixth year of Xiande, 959 AD.
Six years is certainly not enough for Chai Rong, but the country is endless, and from a macro point of view, Chai Rong is just a guest.
The author often said in previous articles that in the rise and fall of the dynasty, the fate of the individual is minimal, and in the long river of history, the rise and fall of the dynasty has also become a drop in the ocean.
In six years, 2,190 days, Chai Rong wrote his own story in the historical river of grand narrative.
It's not curious, it's not amazing, it's not memorable, but it's admirable.
Mausoleum of Zhou Shizong).
The founding emperor of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang, had a legendary life, and he left this opinion on Chai Rong:
The way of the emperor is not timely. The kings of the three generations have their time to do it, the Chinese language has its time to do it, and Zhou Shizong has no time to do it.
He said that a king governing the country, the most important point is not to go against the fortune of the times, at this time to heaven and earth are the same force, and to transport heroes are not free, many emperors they have a good time, to be able to achieve great causes, but Zhou Shizong is different, he can be in the era of no luck, cast his own chapter.
Zhu Yuanzhang sighed that Chai Rong's life was not timely.
However, it was the dark era that fell apart that created a bright faction of Zhou Shizong.
Emperor Qianlong of the Qing Dynasty thinks very highly of himself, and he likes to find fault with the kings of previous dynasties the most, but for Chai Rong, Qianlong left such an evaluation:
Looking at the Zhou dynasty, all the affairs are decided in person, and the history of American politics is not too good to be written, so you can know the key points of governance.
In Qianlong's mind, Sejong was a man who overflowed with perfection.
Green pines and cypresses, vast plains, birds and beasts, rivers flowing, generous men and soldiers, the spring and autumn written by historians.
There are so many delicate rivers and mountains, who can not be nostalgic?
Ascending to the top of the city, Chai Rong will recall the past and look forward to the future, he can't decide the fate of the dynasty, because he can't see it anymore, the sun is setting, and his life is about to come to an end.
However, but the sun, the sun is the rising sun every minute and every second, and it is also the setting sun, and in different places, you get different suns.
So, when the sun's rays ceased to shine, when its afterglow had dissipated and seemed to fade desolate into the horizon, on the other side of the earth, it was burning itself violently, struggling to reach the sky, and then illuminate every corner it could.