As a result, Cui Chao was dismissed from the Hanlin bachelor's degree and faded out of the bachelor's circle. Cui Chao has been upright and upright in his life, strict in behavior and unsmiling. He is a typical old scholar and old master. Only this time, he tried his best to flatter Sang Weihan and ease the contradiction in refuting the draft. Unexpectedly, he slapped him After falling on the horse's hooves and overturning the car, he was appointed as Zuocheng, the minister, and later moved to Taichangqing, all of which were sinecures for old age.
After Shi Chonggui came to the throne, the first soft persimmon he picked was Cui Chao, who was promoted from a position "equivalent to providing for the elderly" to a position that "is providing for the elderly" - a guest of the prince, branch of Xidu (the capital of the Tang Dynasty was in Chang'an, Luoyang is in the east, so it is called Dongdu, so the officials who were squeezed out were all "divisions in Dongdu". Now the capital is in Bianzhou, and Luoyang is in the west, so it was changed to "Xijing" or "Western Capital". Those who were demoted Officials then "divided themselves into the Western Capital").
As for the reason, let's not take it seriously: he is sick. It is said that Cui Chao's hands and feet often suffer from numbness. Oops, my feet are numb and I can't perform my duties anymore. I grant you permission to retire.
2.4.2 Plump feathers
As for the direct descendants of the "Long Qian" period, it is natural to vigorously promote them so that they can gradually enter the core power level and hold real power. They are the people most trusted by the new emperor.
Shi Chonggui's direct descendants such as Bian Wei, Zhang Xu, Bian Guangfan, etc., all of whom were Shi Chonggui's staff when he was in Weizhou, "Weizhou direct descendants", are now all promoted to the central government.
3. Diplomacy
The new king Shi Chonggui ascended the throne, and was even suspected of usurping the throne through false edicts. He urgently needed the support of the international community, especially the recognition of the Khitan father.
After Shi Chonggui proclaimed his accession to the throne, Khotan (an ancient kingdom in the Western Region in Hotan, Xinjiang today) and the Uighurs sent envoys to pay tribute and express their recognition of Shi Chonggui's new regime. Shi Chonggui was very happy. As usual, he awarded them the official positions of General Huaihua and General Lang and sent them back home with gifts.
In addition to the countries in the Western Regions, there were also international friends who traveled thousands of miles from the northeast to pay tribute. They were the Kingdom of Koryo.
These forces are basically cheating, especially Goryeo, which will be mentioned later. Their attitude is just a kind of political begging, whether they support or oppose, it is just for five buckets of rice. For the Later Jin Dynasty, the most important thing was diplomatic relations with the Khitan people.
At the end of Shi Jingtang's reign, the Khitans, under the combined influence of many factors, were preparing to go south to invade the Central Plains. Thanks to Shi Jingtang's "pro-Liao" efforts, the Khitans were very active, but they had no legitimate reasons, so they still maintained good neighborly relations on the surface. illusion.
The first thing Shi Chonggui did when he ascended the throne was to send the imperial army generals to escort the two royal horses of the late emperor Shi Jingtang to Xishan Mountain in Xiangzhou, and then kill the horses to sacrifice to the late emperor. This is the etiquette of the Khitan people, and history books say that "it is also the custom of the North." .
An emperor from the Central Plains used "Northern customary rituals", which was an obvious political signal, to show his goodwill to the Khitan people from a distance. Because Shi Chonggui was personally selected by Yelu Deguang, he inherited Shi Jingtang's mantle and also inherited Shi Jingtang's political philosophy of good neighborliness and friendship between Liao and Jin.
In the early days of Shi Chonggui's accession to the throne, the two countries did maintain close and friendly interactions. Before Shi Jingtang died of illness, the Khitan Empress Dowager Shulu was "unhesitant" and recovered after treatment. Therefore, the Later Jin Dynasty sent people to Khitan to express condolences and tell the bad news of Shi Jingtang's death. The Khitan sent envoys to pay homage to him and paid tribute to him. Morning seven days;
The later Jin Dynasty sent envoys to express their regards to Queen Mother Shulu and wish her a speedy recovery;
The Khitan sent envoys to congratulate Shi Chonggui on his accession to the throne, and the later Jin Dynasty sent envoys to express their gratitude;
The Khitan sent an envoy to send a birthday gift to wish Shi Chonggui a happy birthday. The later Jin Dynasty sent an envoy to pay tribute to Khitan with gold to express his gratitude. Later, Shi Chonggui sent his son Shi Yanxu to Khitan in person to express condolences to his great-grandfather Yelu Deguang and great-great-grandmother Queen Mother Shulu, and to pay tribute with gold;
After Shi Chonggui put down the rebellion of An Congjin in Xiangzhou, the Khitan sent envoys to congratulate him. It is worth noting that the Empress Dowager Shulu also sent envoys to express her condolences to Shi Chonggui alone in the name of the Empress Dowager of Liao (called "Mother of the Khitan" in the history books of the Central Plains). Congratulations, this involves the internal political struggle of Khitan, which we will elaborate on later.
In short, before the eighth year of Tianfu (943), the two countries had frequent and close friendly exchanges.
However, this friendly atmosphere was soon broken, and a large-scale war finally broke out between Liao and Jin. This was the Khitan's largest aggressive war in the Central Plains since the unification of Yelu Abaoji.
The outbreak, process and impact of this war on Chinese history will be presented later.
4. Natural disasters
During Shi Jingtang's period, disasters occurred every year in the Central Plains, but during Shi Chonggui's period, disasters occurred every month. Natural disasters are more frequent and more harmful than ever before.
The records of natural disasters in Shi Jingtang's period in history books basically report that a certain disaster occurred in a certain place, how many houses collapsed, how much farmland was destroyed, how many bridges were washed away... like news briefs; while the reports during Shi Chonggui's period were It’s more like a horror story, with words such as how many people starved to death in a certain place. Historians use such shocking numbers to describe the tragic situation at that time. Thousands of people starved to death. As for what the disaster was like, you can decide for yourself. Think about it.
Tianfu seventh year (942)
——On June 13, Shi Chonggui ascended the throne. That month, "Henan, Hebei, and Guanxi also reported locust damage to crops."
Locusts broke out simultaneously on both sides of the Yellow River in the area west of Tongguan. At first glance, it seems that it was just a locust plague in some areas. However, please note that the actual control areas of the Central Plains Dynasty were also in these places, so it can almost be summarized as a "national locust plague."
--July
"Anzhou plays, the horizontal ground is seven feet deep."
Regarding the length of the "chi", it was slightly different in different dynasties. The Five Dynasties basically followed the Tang system. In the Tang Dynasty, one foot was equivalent to 30.7 centimeters today, so "seven feet" was equivalent to more than 2.1 meters today. Whether it is 1.7 meters, 1.8 meters, or 2.1 meters, in short, it is more than the height of an adult man.
"Seventeen locusts in every state and county."
China has a vast territory. Floods occur in the south (Anzhou), and the depth of water accumulation is deeper than that of an adult man, while droughts occur in the north. Under normal circumstances, locusts and droughts are good friends and often go hand in hand. In the later Jin Dynasty, seventeen states in the northern region successively reported locust plagues.
Within a month, the imperial court received reports from both sides of the ice and fire world at the same time.
——August, "Locusts in Hezhong, Hedong, Hexi, Xu, Jin, Shang, Ru and other states."
This round of locust plague was centered in the Yellow River Basin and affected today's Shandong Province, Shanxi Province, Henan Province, Shaanxi Province, Jiangsu Province and other regions. In short, it is basically a "national disaster".
Tianfu eighth year (943)
——In the first month of the first lunar month, Luoyang reported, "There were 5,387 households that fled, and all of them died of starvation... There was a locust drought in the prefecture and counties, and the people went into exile, and tens of millions died of starvation."
