On October 20, 976, the seriously ill Zhao Kuangyin secretly met with Zhao Guangyi late at night. No one knew what happened that night, but with the occurrence of Candle Shadow Axe , the future of the dynasty of the Song Dynasty was changed forever.
As Zhao Kuangyin's younger brother Zhao Guangyi should not have inherited the throne. He should try his best to assist Zhao Kuangyin's son Zhao Defang to become the emperor, but according to Zhao Guangyi's own statement, his elder brother issued an edict on the night of his death and passed the throne to him.
Since then, the power of the Song Dynasty has been in the hands of Zhao Guangyi. Regardless of whether Zhao Guangyi's seizure of power is incorrect, he should be full of confidence at this time, thinking that he finally defeated his brother in the Game of Thrones, and his bloodline will continue for generations.
But what Zhao Guangyi did not expect was that the power he had finally seized for his descendants in the political game was returned to Zhao Kuangyin's descendants by his descendants without warning decades later, and at the same time, his bloodline was completely extinct.
So, what's going on? What kind of twists and turns are there? Today we will talk about this topic.
brothers battle! Why did the Zhao family divide into two bloodlines in the Song Dynasty?
Many people have doubts. Zhao Kuangyin and Zhao Guangyi’s brothers share wealth and glory. No matter who sits on the dragon throne, it is the Zhao family. As for the bloody thing that can kill brothers and seize power?
In fact, the Zhao brothers are not as harmonious as we imagined. Although they are both kind and kind on the surface, they are actually undercurrents in the court and the country of the Song Dynasty.
Just like the Zhao brothers, the bloodlines of the two men are divided into two factions, and the political forces in the court are also divided into two factions. One faction was a veteran faction who had a lifelong friendship with Zhao Kuangyin on the battlefield. After the establishment of the Song Dynasty, one by one was named as the king and enjoyed wealth.
Although Zhao Kuangyin used cup of wine to release military power and 's strategy to win over the military power of most of his generals, these generals still just listened to him and rely on their founding achievements to be more than ten thousand people.
On the other hand, Zhao Guangyi is different. He is also conquering the world with his brother and his comrades. He watches others be granted official titles and kings, holding a large number of fiefs and possessing huge wealth, but he is only named a marquis and king by his brother, and he is the smallest official rank among the nobles.
His heart was naturally unbalanced. Zhao Guangyi united those who also did not receive the same rewards and slowly formed his own faction.
Although the people Zhao Guangyi won over do not have a high status, there are many capable and warriors among them. They all hold on to their destiny and feel that they have been neglected.
Since then, the conflict between the two Zhao groups has sown seeds, waiting for future roots and sprouts, and finally tragedy has occurred. As time goes by, Zhao Kuangyin's obsession with power becomes increasingly serious.
He constantly centralized power and deprived others of his power, took the military power and imperial power in his own hands, and became increasingly paranoid when he was unwilling to listen to others' advice. What's even more terrifying is that in order to ensure that he could rule the Song Dynasty for generations, Zhao Kuangyin began to seek the art of immortality.
Although we modern people look ridiculous, for Zhao Guangyi at that time, his brother began to pursue the art of immortality, which meant that he would never have a chance to make a comeback.
So, Zhao Guangyi once again joined forces with the generals who were deprived of military power and prepared to do a big vote.
On a dark and windy night, Zhao Kuangyin's life span was about to end. He was originally going to meet with his successor Zhao Defang, but his younger brother took the lead and died tragically on his bed.
From then on, the royal power of the Song Dynasty was passed to Zhao Guangyi. It was precisely because of the ties he formed with his brother that Zhao Guangyi could no longer reuse Zhao Kuangyin's bloodline. In the next hundred years, Zhao Kuangyin's descendants' status plummeted, and the ending of the direct bloodline (several sons) was also very adopted.
It is worth mentioning that hundreds of years later this tragic cycle was broken by a person, and this person was Zhao Gou. After Jingkang Shame, Emperor Zhao Gou made a decision that violated his ancestors and returned the throne to Zhao Kuangyin's descendants.
helpless actions
Jingkang's shame is still not yet achievable, when will the hatred of the ministers be destroyed... Zhao Guangyi would never have expected that the Song Dynasty, which he had worked hard to create, would be over after only one hundred years. The throne of the imperial power he seized by his treacherous murder of his brother was also betrayed by his direct descendant Zhao Gou.
In 1162, 56-year-old Zhao Gou made an amazing decision when all civil and military officials came to court: he wanted to abdicate and abdicate the throne to Zhao Sheng . As soon as this statement came out, all civil and military officials in the court exploded and discussed it.
Who is this Zhao Group? That is a descendant of Zhao Kuangyin. Although a hundred years have passed since the incident of axe sound candle shadow , Zhao Guangyi's despicable attitude and extreme oppression of Zhao Kuangyin's lineage will undoubtedly become a time bomb that is "cleaned".
After Zhao Gou returned the power to Zhao Kuangyin's descendants, aren't he afraid that his bloodline will be liquidated? Facing the doubts of the civil and military officials of the court, Zhao Gou seemed very calm. He reiterated his thoughts again and told the civil and military officials that if he did not do this, the Southern Song would also die!
So, what made Zhao Gou decide to abdicate the throne to Zhao Kuangyin's bloodline, and what made him abdicate to Zhao Guo despite the opposition of the ministers? In fact, there is Zhao Gou's helplessness and his emperor's heart.
We return time to the Jingkang Shame. At that time, it was not only Song Huizong and Song Qinzong . The entire Zhao Song Most members of the royal family were kidnapped by Jin people . If Zhao Gou hadn't run fast, even Zhao Gou himself would have become a prisoner of the Jin people.
After escaping to Lin'an City, Zhao Gou re-invested his royal family members and found that his relatives were basically all left in the north without exception. On the contrary, many people in the Zhao Kuangyin lineage, who had never been valued, remained.
The civil and military officials of the Southern Song Dynasty were restless. Although he was elected as the emperor, the military power was not in the hands of the emperor. Who knows whether these people will be rebelled tomorrow? These are all embarrassing situations he needs to face.
Appointing a crown prince early is the most direct means to stabilize a country's politics. However, during his escape to the south, Zhao Gou ate grass and yelled bran and lost his fertility in an accident. Zhao Gou had no choice but to choose among the existing royal members, but reality gave him not many choices.
What's even more outrageous is that none of these candidates are descendants of Zhao Guangyi, and they are all descendants of Zhao Kuangyin. If he insisted on finding descendants in the few Zhao Guangyi's bloodlines, the Southern Song Dynasty would probably be destroyed directly.
0 million entanglements, Zhao Gou chose a candidate who was quite capable and adopted as his adopted son and trained it carefully. This person is Zhao Guo. Therefore, Zhao Gou gave up the throne to Zhao Kuangyin's lineage, partly because of helpless actions.
Zhao Gou is a waste emperor? His imperial skills are the most profound scheming
The historical evaluation of Emperor Zhao Gou is very complicated and contradictory. When the Northern Song Dynasty was destroyed, he threw away his armor on the way to escape south. In order to survive, he lost all his face in front of his hands. He barely escaped to Lin'an City like a waste.
After stabilizing the situation and establishing the capital of Lin'an, Zhao Gou's economic governance in the Southern Song Dynasty was in an orderly manner, and from this perspective, he looked like a wise ruler.
But just when the country was prosperous and the people were safe and secure, Zhao Gou persecuted Yue Fei to make peace with the Jin people, becoming an absolute coward.
In fact, what caused this situation was not only the influence of social contradictions, but also Zhao Gou's own considerations. First of all, he was basically the emperor. At that time, the Southern Song Dynasty had no leader and could only recommend the living, ready-made Zhao Gou as the emperor.
As mentioned above, Zhao Gou is a puppet emperor and he does not have much real power.Zhao Gou himself knew that this emperor was not stable. Once Song Huizong and Song Qinzong returned to the land of the Song Dynasty, he would lose all his power and might even be punished for treason.
So he was very cautious in fighting against the Jin people. He could not make the Jin people too strong and appear cowardly, nor could he overestimate the Jin people and let them put the two emperors back.
Later Zhao Gou also chose to sign a contract with Jinguo , and used Chanyuan Alliance to let the Jin people raise the two emperors well, so that he could also accumulate energy in the south.
Without the concerns and orthodoxy of the north, Zhao Gou was able to let go of his hands and feet. His rectification of the economy allowed the Southern Song Dynasty to take off, and even once caught up with the Northern Song Dynasty and became the most prosperous country in the world at that time. Even the Jin people were infected by the Song Dynasty.
At this time, he began to focus on culture and neglect military affairs to develop culture. He developed peacefully for more than ten years. As a result, Yue Fei jumped out at this time and wanted to expel the Jin Kingdom in the north and take back Song Huizong and Song Qinzong.
So Zhao Gou killed Yue Fei not because he "don't obey the emperor's orders" or " Qin Hui framed". The big reason is that he had his own ideas and was afraid that his status would be threatened, but after killing Yue Fei, he also made his reputation reach the lowest point in history.
Let’s take a look at the Southern Song court at that time. The court was divided into the main war faction and the main peace faction, but none of them were the hard-core supporters of Zhao Gou. In addition, the Southern Song Dynasty's military strength, which emphasized culture and neglected military forces, could be eliminated by the Jin Dynasty at any time.
The killing of Yue Fei also made Zhao Gou famous. It can be said that Zhao Gou is not only an emperor without real power, but also has to bear the reputation for others. He is the kind of thankless kind. Since this is the case, it is better to retreat to the second line and be a free king.
Of course, although Zhao Gou retreated to the second line, he did not completely delegate power, which was equivalent to Qianlong and Jiaqing emperor.
After Zhao Feng took power, he relied on the support of Zhao Guangyi's lineage to overthrow many governing measures, including domestic politics, attitude towards Jin, economic policies, etc., which is much better than the lonely Zhao Gou.
so much that although Zhao Gou was the Supreme Emperor, his actual influence was even greater than when he was an emperor. He did not have to worry about the world's scolding, nor did he have to be afraid of the invasion of the Jin Kingdom. Together with Zhao Group, he pushed the national strength of the Song Dynasty to a new height.
The history of the Southern Song Dynasty took a turning point at this time. Zhao Guo and his adoptive father joined forces to fight against the Jin Dynasty and lowered the Jin people to the north of Huaihe . Zhao Gou found a way for himself to get a heroic reputation for a lifetime, and the two of them also extended the life span of nearly a hundred years for the Song Dynasty.
Generally speaking, although Zhao Gou was a very contradictory emperor, his imperial skills were very high. He knew how to use the times to make profits for himself and how to use the situation of others to stabilize the situation. The so-called "abdication" was just a way to retreat to advance.
What do you think of Zhao Gou?
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