After the successful mutiny of Song Taizu Zhao Kuangyin and Chen Qiao, he suffered from insomnia for more than a year, and knocked on the minister's door many times in the middle of the night to chat. One of the guards offered him a sword hidden in a cane, but he could not sleep.
Until the ninth day of the seventh month of the second year of Jianlong (961), Zhao Kuangyin invited Shi Shouxin and other generals of the forbidden army to drink, and when the wine was hot, Zhao Kuangyin expressed his worries - he is the emperor, who doesn't want to sit?
That's why he couldn't sleep. Shi Shouxin and others expressed their loyalty, and Zhao Kuangyin put forward another suggestion: give up military power. The next day, Shi Shouxin and others wrote to ask for resignation, and Zhao Kuangyin was finally able to sleep peacefully.
Song Taizu Zhao Kuangyin (927-976, reigned 960-976) had difficulty sleeping due to insomnia, although he pacified the ** of the Later Zhou, but in the face of internal and external difficulties, the Northern Song Dynasty still faced the challenge of "fighting outside".
At this critical moment, Zhao Kuangyin found Zhao Pu, who was his secretary, and worked together to pacify the northern and southern countries and unify the world. On a snowy night, Zhao Kuangyin brought his younger brother Zhao Guangyi to find Zhao Pu, they barbecued meat together at Zhao Pu's house, Zhao Pu's wife also toasted herself, and Zhao Kuangyin even affectionately called her sister-in-law.
In such a warm atmosphere, they discussed in depth the national plan and mapped out a clear path for the future of the Northern Song Dynasty.
Title: Conspiracy on a Snowy Night Wang Pu suggested that the Later Zhou should first go south and then north, first attack weak and small countries such as the Southern Tang Dynasty and Later Shu, and then take the Northern Han and Khitan in the north to recapture the Sixteen Prefectures of Youyun.
Chai Rong adopted and went south to attack the fourteen states of Jiangbei and Huainan, but the Northern Han and Khitan continued to invade, and had to turn to the north first and then the south, and obtained part of the sixteen states of Youyun. Zhao Kuangyin inherited Chai Rong's legacy, and the Northern Expedition regained the lost territory, first leveling Jingnan and Wuping, then defeating Hou Shu and Southern Han, and then fighting Southern Tang.
So far, only Wuyue and Zhangquan are left in the south, and only 30,000 households are left in the Northern Han. Zhao Kuangyin was worried, strengthened the centralization of power, weakened the military general group, and the rise of the imperial relatives and nobles. Zhao Pu offered ten bottles of "seafood", which were actually golden melon seeds, and Zhao Kuangyin forgave and accepted them.
Zhao Pu was worried, thinking that all major events in the world were decided by him, and Zhao Kuangyin said with a smile that there was no need to worry too much.
Zhao Pu, a powerful minister of the Northern Song Dynasty, although he came from a cold family, assisted Zhao Kuangyin in governing the world with the "Half of the Analects". He seized the opportunity to win favor by serving Zhao Hongyin's father and son, and became Zhao Kuangyin's retainer and secretary.
Before and after the Chenqiao Mutiny, he assisted Zhao Guangyi in close planning, which eventually led to the success of the mutiny and became the prime minister of the Northern Song Dynasty. Zhao Pu decided state affairs according to personal preferences, and also recommended progressive bureaucrats.
He believes that the struggle between imperial power and relative power cannot be balanced, and the emperor needs the prime minister's assistance in handling government affairs, but he is worried about the power of the prime minister and the elevation of imperial power. Zhao Pu invaded the people's land, opened his own inn to compete with the people for profit, and also bought and sold large timber in Shaanxi and Gansu to build private houses for himself.
Although Zhao Kuangyin has endured it many times, he still needs Zhao Pu.
Zhao Kuangyin, Zhao Pu, and Zhao Guangyi walked side by side, although Zhao Guangyi regarded himself as a prince, Zhao Kuangyin mastered the military power, political power and the capital Kaifeng. Zhao Guangyi began to tighten control over personnel, including bribing Wang Jien who served Zhao Kuangyin, taking his parents to Kaifeng, building a mansion for them to live in, and saying that Wang Jien could make the emperor happy for the benefit of the world.
Zhao Kuangyin gradually realized that Zhao Guangyi's power was huge, and he had suppressed the nobles in the capital, and Dang Jin was ordered to inspect Kaifeng, and when he saw that someone was raising birds and beasts, he ordered the release. One day, Dang Jin saw a young official walking an eagle, claiming to be Zhao Guangyi's eagle, Dang Jin immediately changed color and ordered his subordinates to buy meat to feed.
Both the government and the opposition knew Zhao Guangyi's status, and they didn't even dare to speak out when the party was advancing, only Zhao Pu, a retainer, dared to speak out. Zhao Pu defended Zhao Kuangyin's imperial power and opposed Zhao Guangyi's father-in-law Fu Yanqing as the commander of the forbidden army, Zhao Kuangyin retorted that Fu Yanqing would live up to him, and Zhao Pu asked why Zhao Kuangyin did not live up to Zhou Shizong.
Zhao Guangyi's power gradually grew, and no one dared to come forward to check and balance, which eventually led to a palace bloodbath. This story teaches us that the struggle for power is never a simple matter, and everyone is fighting for their own interests.
The fate of Zhao Kuangyin, Zhao Pu, and Zhao Guangyi also deeply reflected the social reality and the complexity of human nature at that time.
Originally, it was Zhao Pu and the privy envoy Li Chongju who married in private, which touched the most painful point of imperial power and led to Zhao Pu being demoted. But after Zhao Pu was demoted, Zhao Guangyi, the king of Jin in Kaifeng City, was dominant.
Therefore, Zhao Kuangyin planned to leave Kaifeng and move the capital to Luoyang. However, the generals of the forbidden army, Li Huaizhong and Zhao Guangyi, did not agree, and Zhao Kuangyin could only give up the plan to move the capital. He knew that his life was limited, but he also wanted to think about moving the capital to Luoyang in the future.
All this happened in "Axe Sound and Candle Shadow", Zhao Guangyi ascended the throne as Song Taizong, and Zhao Kuangyin's two sons Zhao Dezhao and Zhao Defang also died one after another in just a few years.
And after the death of Zhao Kuangyin and Zhao Guangyi's only younger brother Zhao Tingmei, Zhao Guangyi finally eliminated all those who threatened the imperial power. However, the descendants of Zhao Kuangyin's lineage did not get a good death because of this.
After the Jingkang Revolution, the Northern Song Dynasty royal family was almost captured by the Jin soldiers, and Zhao Guangyi's descendants were almost swept away. In this case, Song Gaozong Zhao Gou ascended the throne in panic, and his biological son Zhao Yang was also frightened to death after the Miao Liu mutiny, and since then, Song Gaozong has not given birth.
Perhaps feeling a kind of providence, Song Gaozong finally selected a seventh-generation grandson of Zhao Kuangyin from the people, that is, the sixth-generation grandson of Zhao Defang, the king of Qin, who died inexplicably, to raise him, and set up him as the crown prince, which is the second emperor of the Southern Song Dynasty: Song Xiaozong.
Since then, the throne of the Southern Song Dynasty has been inherited by the descendants of Zhao Kuangyin's line, and history seems to have returned to the original point. In the dark, it seems to be the will of heaven that allows the Song family to continue the world.