Later Tang Dynasty) in the twelfth year of Tianfu, 947 AD.
In this year, Liu Zhiyuan, the former Later Jin Jiedu, led troops to stand on his own and established the Later Han Dynasty in Taiyuan, Shanxi.
Today, five generations and ten countries have gone through four generations.
The Houliang established by Zhu Wen was kicked over by Li Cunmiao, the Zhuangzong of the Later Tang Dynasty, and the Later Tang Dynasty, which was very prosperous, was pulled off the horse by Shi Jingjiao, who was entrenched in Hedong.
The Later Jin Dynasty survived in the Central Plains for eleven years, and was soon beaten by the Khitan people on the northern grasslands, and was immediately destroyed, and taking advantage of the current chaos, our Comrade Liu Zhiyuan decisively proclaimed himself emperor and established the Later Han Dynasty.
The emperor ascended the throne on the front foot, and began to think about the problem of establishing a prince on the back foot.
The Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms were not a unified national regime, so the situation has always been turbulent.
Mutinies and rebellions occur from time to time, and usurpation and rebellion are commonplace.
Everyone wants to hold power, and everyone wants to achieve their own fame, so being an emperor during this period is actually a very dangerous thing.
Being in a high position and full of dangers, no one knows which one will come first, tomorrow or the accident.
If an accident strikes one day and you receive the bento box, but you don't appoint the prince as soon as possible, which leads to infighting within the royal family and the instability of the regime, wouldn't it cause a catastrophe?
In this case, it is necessary to establish an heir in advance.
Portrait of Liu Zhiyuan, Gaozu of the Later Han Dynasty).
Liu Zhiyuan, the ancestor of the Later Han Dynasty, had a total of four sons, the eldest son Liu Chengxun, the king of Wei, the second son, Liu Chengyou, the king of Zhou, the third son, Liu Chengxun, the king of Chen, and Liu Yun, an adopted son.
Liu Yun, don't mention it, you are not my own child, no matter how the throne turns, it will not be your turn to be the emperor.
Liu Chengxun, the king of Chen, is sick in bed all the year round, his physical fitness is not good, and he will have to get a bento one day if he becomes the emperor, so he is not a suitable candidate.
Liu Chengyou, the king of Zhou, has a reckless and impetuous personality, is embarrassed and useful, and has always been disliked by the emperor, so he is not a candidate for the emperor's attention.
Only the eldest son, Liu Chengxun, can be said to be virtuous and intelligent, benevolent and loving the people, and he is really the talent of the emperor.
Therefore, the old emperor Liu Zhiyuan quickly decided to leave the Later Han River to Liu Chengxun.
But it's a pity that Liu Chengxun has a thin life, and he hung up after working in the position of the prince for two days.
Touching the chest is safe, and sorrow starts from it.
We must know that when Liu Chengxun was made the crown prince, the old emperor Liu Zhiyuan was already very old, and his physical condition was not as good as before.
As a result, the old emperor was in a hurry, and his physical condition deteriorated rapidly, and soon reached the point where he would die if he did not advance the water and rice.
All men are mortal? If you die, you will die, but who do you want to entrust to the great country of the Later Han Dynasty?
Later Han Dynasty Emperor Liu Chengyou image).
The emperor looked at it, and in desperation, he had no choice but to mess with the emperor's genealogy and pass the throne to Liu Chengyou, the king of Zhou, who was the most unsatisfactory to him.
No way, it's really no way.
One is sick, the other is an adopted son, and he can't pass on the throne, although Liu Chengyou is not satisfactory, but at least he is healthy.
Imperial power is heavy and selfish.
No matter how virtuous and transparent the emperor is, at this juncture, he will only pass on his relatives and not his virtuous people.
So, Liu Chengyou became the lucky one.
In the first year of Qianyou, in 948 AD, Liu Zhiyuan, the founding emperor of the Later Han Dynasty and the troubled heroes of the five dynasties, went away, and the dragon rode to the guest and died.
As soon as Liu Zhiyuan died, Liu Chengyou took over the throne and became the second leader of the Later Han regime.
Before the old emperor died, he was really not very worried about his frizzy son, so he specially left four ministers to assist the new emperor, these four benevolent brothers, respectively, the prime minister Yang Wei, the inspector Wang Zhang, the secretary Shi Hongzhao, and the privy envoy Guo Wei.
Among the four ministers, the most powerful of them is Prime Minister Yang Wei.
Comrade Yang Wei was originally the prime minister, a role above 10,000 people under one person, and a minister of the emperor's order, but he was a figure in the Later Han Dynasty who wanted wind and rain.
When people are complacent, they are easy to get fluttering.
So to what extent has this benevolent brother drifted?
Yang Wei image).
Once, the Hidden Emperor Liu Chengyou summoned Yang Wei and Wang Zhang to the palace to discuss matters, hoping to increase taxes a little and make some money to enrich the treasury.
In the era of feudal monarchy, the emperor made money, which was nothing more than two modes.
One is to attack the merchants, and the other is to ask the peasants for money.
The businessmen and wealthy families in the city, let them donate voluntarily, and when the time comes, they will be awarded an innocuous official and a half-job, which can be regarded as the best of both worlds.
But the problem is that during the turmoil of the Five Dynasties, the country changed hands frequently, and the Central Plains was constantly in turmoil, it was really not an era when you could do business well, so the rich families in that period could be said to be very few.
For thousands of years, there was just one Shen Wansan, and he let Emperor Taizu Gao Zhu Yuanzhang clean it up, Liu Chengyou wanted to catch the big family, I'm afraid he had to wait.
If the money cannot be taken from the business, then it has to be demanded from the people.
Although the common people have no money in their hands, they can raise taxes and let them subsidize the state finances a lot, so it can be regarded as a solution.
The matter has been agreed, and the emperor is still a little worried, so he asked Yang Wei and Wang Zhang to say this:
"History of the New Five Dynasties, Volume 30, Hanchen Biography Eighteenth": "After the deed, don't make a word!" ”The emperor said that if he wants money, he will ask for money, but he must talk about ways and means, and he must not let the people complain, let alone arouse public anger and society.
Unexpectedly, before the emperor's words fell, Prime Minister Yang Wei immediately replied impatiently:
"History of the New Five Dynasties, Volume 30, Hanchen Biography Eighteenth": "Your Majesty is silent, and there are ministers. ”Yang Wei said, Emperor, don't ink, you don't care about this matter, I, Yang Wei, are fully responsible.
As soon as these words came out, Wang Zhang, who was standing aside, was almost frightened.
Wang Zhang's image).
Yang Wei, Yang Wei, did you let the door clamp your head? How dare you talk to the Emperor like that?
Friends, the minister told the emperor to shut up quickly, this is probably the first time in thousands of years.
Not only offended the emperor in the court, but Yang Wei also did not give Liu Chengyou face at all in his daily life.
The emperor's mother, Empress Dowager Li, had a younger brother who wanted to find a position in the imperial court, and after the emperor found out, he planned to arrange for this relative to be the Xuanhui envoy.
As a result, as soon as the emperor was about to appoint, Yang Wei stood up and resolutely expressed his opposition.
The selection of officials in the imperial court has always been the residence of the capable, even if you are the emperor, you do not have this privilege, your relatives want to be officials, you can let him participate in the imperial examination, what kind of ability is it to go through the back door?
As a result, there was an unhappy break up between the monarch and the minister, and in the end, this relative did not become a big official in the capital.
In addition to this matter, there are other trivial matters that make the relationship between the monarch and the minister more and more unharmonious.
The Hidden Emperor Liu Chengyou had a concubine named Geng.
Geng's family is bright and moving, and the emperor is especially favored, and he wants to make her the queen, but he didn't expect Yang Wei to stand up against it again.
Geng's image).
The position of the queen, the mother of a country, the world of Fengyi, and the Geng family, how can they deserve such a respectful position?
As a result, this matter was made such a fuss by Yang Wei, and the position of Geng's queen fell through again.
After a few months, Geng's violent illness and death soon after, the emperor was very sad, thinking that he couldn't make Geng the queen when he was alive, and when he died, I would use the queen's etiquette to bury her, right?
As a result, Yang Wei ran out to make trouble again.
Geng is a concubine, a concubine for one day, a concubine for life, dig a pit and bury it when she dies, why bother to bury her with the etiquette of the queen? Doesn't this break the etiquette and established rules of the country?
Things have developed to this point, and the Hidden Emperor Liu Chengyou is finally angry.
My dad didn't care about me like that, why do you point fingers at me every day?
In the third year of Qianyou, in 950 AD, the emperor launched a political purge by thunderous means, and immediately arrested Yang Wei, and then killed him.
Yang Wei's death is really a pity.
This minister is upright, frugal and quiet, honest and honest, virtuous and capable, outspoken and daring, and is really a rare loyal minister and good minister of that era.
Wei Zheng statue).
In Yang Wei's body, the author even saw the shadow of Wei Zheng, a famous minister of the Tang Dynasty.
But it's a pity that Yang Wei became a counselor and died in an admonition.
He regarded himself as Wei Zheng, who could offend Long Yan repeatedly, but was at ease, but at this time, Liu Chengyou, the Emperor of the Later Han Dynasty, was not the Tang Taizong Li Shimin who was like a stream.
As soon as Yang Wei died, Liu Chengyou quickly understood a truth, that is, he was the supreme emperor who held the power to kill people in the world, and he didn't have to endure the constraints and discipline of these ministers.
Death of a Yang Wei is death, and the death of a group of "Yang Wei" is also death, since this is the case, then I will simply kill all these ministers who command all day long and assume high positions.
So, the emperor raised his butcher's knife, punched Wang Zhang, the inspector of the school, and kicked Shi Hongzhao, the secretary of the school.
Now, there is only one privy envoy left, Guo Wei.
The reason why Guo Wei was spared was not because of the emperor's benevolence, but because although Guo Wei was a minister of Tuogu and a powerful person in the court, he did not serve in Beijing, but was stationed in Weizhou (Hebei Daimyo), and the emperor was beyond the reach of the whip, and he couldn't do anything with Guo Wei for a while.
But even if we are far away, it seems that our Comrade Guo Wei will suffer.
The emperor has gone crazy, and the emperor refuses to let go of several civil servants who are drumming up their lips in the court, so how can Guo Wei, who has a heavy army in his hands and is on one side, not get rid of him?
The emperor wanted to kill Guo Wei, but Guo Wei was in Weizhou at this time, but he didn't know about it.
The author once read the history books about Guo Wei during the Five Dynasties period and found that our Comrade Guo Wei was really a kind person.
Hard work, diligent and hard-working, loyal, reliable and down-to-earth, can be called the fighter of loyalty, the J-11 of loyalty.
Later Zhou Taizu Guo Wei image).
Even when Emperor Liu Chengyou had already sent a large army to Weizhou to destroy Guo Wei, Comrade Guo was still thinking about how to explain that if he proved that he had no second thoughts, he would ask the emperor to forgive him.
Yes, if it weren't for Liu Chengyou's madness and killing all the relatives and family members of Guo Wei living in the capital, Guo Wei would never have been able to take the step of rebellion.
Guo Wei's father, mother, younger brother, sister, and even his infant son were all beheaded by Liu Chengyou in public, and none of them were spared.
Guo Wei, Guo Wei, only by losing everything can you know how powerful you are.
But who wants to lose everything in such a way and become strong in such a way?
But at this time, Guo Wei finally understood that the road in front of him was not a path to be a minister, but a road to be crowned king.
Liu Chengyou, I am loyal to the country, but you killed my whole family, so hateful, I want you to pay with blood!
In the third year of Qianyou, in 950 A.D., a young man who had lost everything raised his arms and shouted and embarked on the road of raising troops to rebel.
The last founding emperor of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period officially appeared on the main stage and is about to create a historical legend that belongs to him.
Guo Wei, go forward, don't stop!
After walking this road, even if it is a road of no return.