Guo Wei strictly enforced military discipline along the way and prohibited harassment of the people. He also sent a notice to Bianzhou to calm the people, explaining the "Chanzhou Mutiny" to people and asking everyone not to panic.
On December 25, Guo Wei arrived at Qilidian.
Prime Minister Dou Zhengu led all civil and military officials out of the city to greet him and took the opportunity to persuade him to enter. Guo Wei said, "No, no, no..."
This is the general process of seeking to usurp the throne. Hundreds of officials and local vassal princes come forward to persuade the emperor to advance, and then repeatedly refuse, repeatedly persuade to advance, and force him to death. Finally, the new emperor will have no choice but to declare his accession to the throne with great reluctance and pain.
On the one hand, Guo Wei follows the process step by step. On the other hand, because the preliminary work has not been completed yet, he still has to go step by step to avoid straining his hips.
1. External environment
1.1 Southern countries
Since the "prosperity of Mingzong", the children of the "Ten Kingdoms" have faded out of the entertainment industry and rarely appeared on the scene. Only at the end of the Shanxi-Liao War, Hou Shu acted as a soy sauce man and Huainan played a small role. The same is true today.
Throughout the "Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms" period, the Central Plains dynasty went through the Liang, Tang, Jin, Han, and Zhou dynasties, and changed into 5 dynasties with 14 emperors with 8 surnames, which shows the degree of turmoil.
The local political power of the "Ten Kingdoms" is relatively stable and is basically inherited by one family. For example, the Ma family of Nanchu and the Qian family of Wuyue. Their founding monarchs were the same age as Zhu Wen. They started a business together in the late Tang Dynasty and started from scratch. The Ma family of Nanchu It was eventually terminated, but the Wuyue Qian family survived until the Northern Song Dynasty.
The Ma family's regime in Southern Chu fell in the hands of Ma Yin's son, and the Qian family's regime in Wuyue fell in the hands of Qian Liu's grandson. Zhu Wen, the once most successful entrepreneur who started a business at the same time, has grown up with grass on his grave.
The stability of the "Ten Kingdoms" is only relative to the "Five Dynasties" of the Central Plains Dynasty. In fact, there are also magnificent stories within it, such as palace coups and alliances.
For example, during the Jin-Liao War, Huainan coveted the Central Plains, but was caught up in the war in Fujian and was unable to do anything. Although it failed to obtain benefits from the Central Plains like Hou Shu, Huainan also destroyed the Fujian Kingdom and annexed the Fujian Wang family. regime.
Almost at the same time, civil strife broke out in the Ma family's regime in Southern Chu, and the Ma family brothers killed each other. Huainan, which had just taken advantage of the civil strife in Fujian to annex the country of Fujian, immediately extended its clutches to its neighbors to the west like a hungry vulture and launched an attack on Nanchu. Nanchu hurriedly asked for help from the Hou Han Dynasty.
At this time, Liu Chengyou had already cooled down, and the actual head of the Later Han Dynasty was Guo Wei. Guo Wei sent Chen Sirang to lead his army across the border into Huainan, and gave Chen Sirang only one top instruction: to contain the Huainan reinforcements and try to prevent the penetration of Huainan forces into Southern Chu. As for specific military operations, it is up to the frontline commander to decide and act expediently.
There was civil strife in Fujian before, and then there was civil strife in Southern Chu. Huainan forces intervened strongly. Containing Huainan was the consistent interest pursuit of the surrounding forces such as the Later Han Dynasty, Wuyue, and Jingnan. The joint intervention of our own forces also made Huainan's expansion path full of obstacles and fell into a quagmire of war, which also provided a relatively safe external environment for regime change in the Central Plains.
1.2 Khitan
The reason why Guo Wei led his army to patrol the border was the Khitan invasion. From December 1, when Guo Wei sent troops to Bianzhou, until December 20, when the "Chanzhou Mutiny" occurred, and then when Guo Wei returned to Bianzhou to change dynasties, it seemed that the Khitan threat had already Being left far behind by people, it seems that the Central Plains has abandoned Hebei and allowed the Khitans to wreak havoc.
This is not the case.
Although the Khitan came fiercely, they retreated on their own.
First, the Khitan army encountered stubborn resistance in Neiqiu City. Neiqiu City was small but strong, and the Khitan army was unable to capture it for five consecutive days, and suffered heavy casualties. Later, because the 500 defenders in the city surrendered, the Khitan captured Neiqiu City and then massacred the city. Although the gains were substantial, the Khitans suffered heavy casualties, and Yelu Ruan did not have enough appeal, so he could only give in when things were good.
Secondly, a series of "monstrous things" happened.
A lunar eclipse occurred at that time, and the nomads were as afraid of the lunar eclipse as the Central Plains people were of the solar eclipse; according to records, some incredible supernatural events also occurred one after another in the Khitan military camps. These strange things caused the Khitan army to become unstable. Just like the first reason, Yelu Ruan lacked absolute control and chose to retreat.
Third, it was because the Later Han Dynasty had responded promptly and sent Guo Wei in command to patrol the border. The nomadic people have always been mainly engaged in plundering, and they pursue the strategy of retreating while the enemy advances. Yelv Ruan's strategic purpose was to train his troops and establish prestige. He had no intention or strength to annex Hebei, so since the Central Plains sent a large army, Yelu Ruan returned home loaded with loot.
When Yelu Ruan retreated, he had already sent conciliatory envoys to the Later Han Dynasty. Before the envoy arrived at Bianzhou, Liu Chengyou had already been killed. The person who received the Khitan peace envoy on the way was Guo Wei's trusted general Liu Ci. The general who followed Guo Wei to pacify Li Shouzhen in the river, stayed calm in the face of danger, and resisted "Wang Santie" who stole the camp and robbed the village.
Seeing this, supporters of "conspiracy theories" will suddenly realize, "So that's it!"
All questions are easily solved: Why does Guo Wei dare to wait and ignore Hebei's crisis? Because Hebei was not in danger at all, Yelu Ruan left and even greeted Guo Wei. The Guo Wei Group deliberately exaggerated the threat of the Khitan and forced the Later Han Dynasty to give him greater power and resources, a typical example of relying on foreign countries to show self-respect.
We cannot say arbitrarily that there is any dirty secret agreement between Guo Wei and Yelu Ruan, but there is still a tacit understanding between politicians.
Of course, even if there is no such tacit understanding and the Khitans do not deliberately cooperate with Guo Wei's performance, it does not matter, because the protagonist of this play is Guo Wei. As long as Khitan returns home sincerely, Guo Wei can complete the rest of the work alone.
The southern countries were in chaos, and the Khitan in the north was gone. Guo Wei's work of overthrowing the Later Han Dynasty basically had no external interference.
2. Internal demining
For Guo Wei, there is basically no need to deliberately manage external threats, just let them fend for themselves. What really needs him to mobilize his brain cells are the three hidden dangers in the country.
2.1 Xuzhou Liu Yun
During the "Chanzhou Mutiny", Liu Yun was still staying in Songzhou. After Wang Jun and Wang Yin, who stayed in Bianzhou, learned of the mutiny, they immediately sent Guo Chongwei and 700 cavalry to Songzhou to "protect" Liu Yun and prevent him from accidents.
Guo Chongwei led the elite cavalry suddenly appeared at the foot of Songzhou City. Liu Yun was shocked and hurriedly closed the city gate. Then he climbed onto the gate tower and shouted to Guo Chongwei to ask about his purpose.
Guo Chongwei hung his gun on the victory hook, clapped his horse forward, bowed his hands and saluted: "Because of the sudden mutiny in Chanzhou, the details are unknown. Marshal Guo is afraid that you will misunderstand, and is even more worried about another accident along the way, so he specially sent me to protect you!"
If you didn't come, what would happen to me?
