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[The most special eunuch in ancient times, created five historical records, from a small figure to a powerful person in the court. Historical trivia and historical figures]

He was the eunuch who had been in prison for the longest time in history, the eunuch who held the greatest military power, and the eunuch who had obtained the highest title. He was also the first eunuch to represent the country on a diplomatic mission to a foreign country and the only eunuch to be canonized as a king.

This person is Tong Guan, who was called one of the "Six Thieves" in the Northern Song Dynasty. So what ability did he have to rise from a small eunuch to the position of prime minister above all others, and create five unprecedented crimes?

Tong Guan was born in 1054. Although he was a eunuch, he was not as effeminate as he was portrayed in movies and TV dramas. Instead, he was burly and muscular, more like a masculine man.

Li Xian, a eunuch during the reign of Emperor Shenzong of Song, had served as a military supervisor for many years in the northwest border of the Song Dynasty. When Tong Guan was just promoted, he became his disciple and followed Li Xian to the front line more than 10 times in the northwest. Therefore, he laid some foundation in military operations and became a very unusual eunuch.

At that time, Song Zhezong saw Tong Guan as a very ambitious person and was afraid that he would step on his head in the future, so he was wary of Tong Guan everywhere and never promoted him or gave him special care.

However, with the rise of Emperor Huizong of Song, Tong Guan's life took a turn for the better. Tong Guan was very good at developing interpersonal relationships. As long as he thought he could use someone in the future, he would make friends with them out of loyalty and was quite generous.

Whether it was the ministers in the court or the concubines and maids in the harem, many people had received many benefits from him.

As a result, he maintained a very extensive network of contacts, so that there were always people speaking well of him in the emperor's ears.

Song Huizong had no interest in government affairs, but he had a special liking for calligraphy, painting and exquisite things. Especially after becoming emperor, he could indulge in his interests without any scruples.

At that time, he wanted to set up an official to serve in the inner court, who would specifically visit the people and collect various chess pieces, calligraphy and paintings.

Although this title was not a high position, it was a very lucrative one. Tong Guan was already 48 years old at this time, and the connections he had painstakingly cultivated finally came into play at this moment.

He took this position under the recommendation of everyone and went to Hangzhou. It was this title that opened the door to promotion for Tong Guan.

After Tong Guan arrived in Hangzhou, he bought a large number of exquisite items and brought them back to the court, which made Emperor Huizong very happy. He also got to know Cai Jing, who was demoted to a local position.

Cai Jing was a treacherous official in the Northern Song Dynasty, and also a very accomplished calligrapher. He was demoted from a high position in the court to a local position several times. The two had similar interests and met each other too late.

In order to return to the court as soon as possible, Cai Jing did not hesitate to use huge amounts of money to curry favor with Tong Guan, and also made many calligraphy and paintings for Tong Guan to give to Song Huizong.

Tong Guan's use of this opportunity was shrewd and calculating. He thought that in the entire court, only the prime minister disliked him. If he could take this opportunity to help a prime minister, it would be very beneficial to his promotion. So he began to bribe those who could speak in front of the emperor, asking them to speak well of Cai Jing's merits. He himself gave Cai Jing's calligraphy and painting a five-star praise.

Facts have proved that Tong Guan's ability to handle affairs is absolutely first-rate. In just one year, he helped Cai Jing become the prime minister with his own strength.

Afterwards, Tong Guan wanted to lead troops to recover the lands in Qinghai and Gansu and become famous through military achievements. Cai Jing agreed to his request without hesitation.

However, just as the war was about to begin, the imperial palace suddenly caught fire. Song Huizong felt very uneasy, thinking it was a bad sign, so he issued a handwritten order to Tong Guan to withdraw the troops.

It has to be said that Tong Guan was indeed a ruthless man. He put away the handwritten letter as if nothing had happened and told everyone that it was words of encouragement from Emperor Huizong of Song.

You know, disobeying the imperial edict is a capital crime. If he loses again, he will not be able to survive even if he has 10 lives. But in order to become famous, he simply fought to the death. As the saying goes, wealth and honor are sought in danger. Tong Guan actually cooperated with the generals to win the war and recovered the surrounding land.

What's even more amazing is that at the celebration meeting, he took out the handwritten order from Emperor Huizong of Song to withdraw troops. After reading it, the generals were shocked and asked him what he meant by this move.

He said: "If the Song army withdraws, then the Song Dynasty will surely be ridiculed by the world; if we insist on fighting, then the soldiers must not see this handwritten order, otherwise their morale will be greatly reduced and they will surely be defeated. So I can only risk my life to disobey orders. Even if I fail this battle, I will bear all the blame alone." When the generals and soldiers saw that Tong Guan had such integrity, they were all grateful and admired him.

Just when everyone's emotions were in place, Tong Guan took the opportunity to announce something - he would adopt the son of a fallen general as his adopted son and promised to raise him to adulthood.

After this set of operations, everyone felt that he was a boss worth working for. Tong Guan had a high prestige in the army. This victory was very important to the Song Dynasty, because the Song Dynasty had not had such a decent military operation for a long time. Tong Guan undoubtedly became the most handsome man in the Song Dynasty.

After he was promoted to the position of Jianxiu Sikong, Tong Guan became even more arrogant and domineering. He would take orders directly from the emperor for everything he did, or he would act on his own and directly skip over the prime minister Cai Jing. This obviously went against Cai Jing's wishes, so Cai Jing began to look for opportunities to teach Tong Guan a lesson, and the relationship between the two broke down.

Later, Emperor Huizong of Song Dynasty was going to appoint Tong Guan as the Grand Master of the Imperial Court. Cai Jing tried to stop him on the grounds that he was a eunuch, and the matter was eventually dropped. But Tong Guan did not give up.

He began to use his personal connections again, saying bad things about Cai Jing in front of Song Huizong and revealing all the bad things he had done.

He even asked the Taoist priests who usually practiced Taoism with the emperor to make up a bunch of nonsense about "traitorous ministers causing trouble and strange phenomena in the sky". This move was indeed very lethal.

Although Cai Jing begged Emperor Huizong of Song, he was still demoted to Hangzhou. Tong Guan was promoted to acting Grand Commandant after his great victory.

This position was the highest official position for military generals. Tong Guan became the only eunuch in history to hold this position and held the greatest military power in the Song Dynasty.

For a period of time afterwards, there was basically no war in the country, but Tong Guan was not content with the status quo, so he did something unprecedented - he represented the country to visit the Liao Kingdom to check out the other side's national conditions.

Some of Tong Guan's political enemies strongly opposed this matter. How could such a big event let an eunuch come forward? I'm afraid he would be laughed at for being a nobody in the Song Dynasty. But Song Huizong still supported Tong Guan very much. So he became the first eunuch in history to be sent as an envoy to a foreign country.

Less than three years after Tong Guan returned, he was promoted to prime minister and was known as "the Prime Minister of the State."

Song Huizong's various supports for him directly laid the groundwork for the dynasty's demise. At this time, Cai Jing had realized Tong Guan's strength, so he took the initiative to find him and admit his mistakes. The two men put aside their past grievances and started to cooperate for more than ten years.

Although Tong Guan held military power, he never paid attention to training soldiers, and the combat effectiveness of his soldiers was terrible. Although he suppressed the Fang La uprising and was named Duke of Chu, he fought very hard, and he also lied with Cai Jing about military expenses and embezzled a lot of money. It is said that his family wealth was comparable to that of a country, and even the tableware used in his home was made of jade.

He once rewarded a contractor who was renovating his mansion with a set of bowls and plates. From then on, this man became very rich.

In 1125, the Song Dynasty joined forces with the Jin Dynasty to attack the Liao Dynasty. The Song Dynasty's 20-strong army fought against the Liao army in Yanjing, but the fighting power was greatly weakened and they were defeated. This allowed the Jin army to thoroughly understand the strength of the Song army.

In the same year, the Jin army invaded the Song Dynasty from the south. The garrison led by Tong Guan was unable to resist, and Song Huizong felt that being the emperor was too tiring, so he abdicated to Song Qinzong. Tong Guan lost his support, was impeached by many political enemies, and was exiled to Yingzhou, where he was eventually killed on the way to exile.

[Famous general Zhong Shidao's three plans to save the country were all rejected. How incompetent was the Northern Song emperor? Just reading history can make you angry to death. Historical trivia and historical figures]

He was originally the last straw of the Northern Song Dynasty. At the age of 74, he was still trying to put out the fire. He proposed strategies to repel the enemy three times to save the country from the brink of destruction.

However, it was destroyed by the incompetent emperor and cowardly ministers, which led to the Northern Song Dynasty falling under the iron hoof of the Jin army. In this video, we will learn about the red legend of the famous general of the Northern Song Dynasty who valued teachers.

The generals of the Yang family during the Northern Song Dynasty are well-known in history, but the reason why the Yang family's reputation for loyalty and bravery is still praised to this day is entirely due to the circulation of Ming Dynasty novels.

What many people don’t know is that in the History of Song Dynasty and other historical books, the influence of the Chong family army and the family are unknown. However, because there is not much ink to describe their stories, the reputation of the Chong family army has become little known as time goes by.

The third generation of the Chong family army was named Chong Shidao. Because of the meritorious service of his ancestor Chong Shixing, he was admitted to the third class and was transferred to a civil servant after taking the examination. Later, due to his outstanding performance, he was gradually promoted.

However, his career path was not smooth. Because he offended the treacherous minister Cai Jing, he was idle for 10 years. When he was reinstated, he was already over years old.

Chong Shidao was very good at military strategy. When the Western Xia invaded the border of the Song Dynasty, Chong Shidao was ordered to lead his troops to build the fortifications of Gubei City.

However, the enemy attacked before the fortifications were completed. Chong Shidao then sent someone to lead a group of troops to bypass the city and then return from the other side, so that the Western Xia would think that the reinforcements of the Song army had arrived.

As expected, the Xixia army was very shocked, so they focused all their attention on this team. They never expected that the Jinjia troops sent by Chongshidao had circled behind them and launched a fierce attack. The Xixia army was caught off guard and was defeated instantly.

From then on, his reputation for respecting teachers spread throughout the Song Dynasty and he became a famous general.

However, as Tong Guan, the great eunuch, gained the trust of Emperor Huizong and gradually gained control of the greatest military power, he became arrogant and domineering. He always disdained the advice of respecting teachers and even impeached them in secret.

As a result, during the campaign against the Liao Kingdom, Chong Shidao was suddenly ordered to retire and his position was taken over by the military commander Liu Yanqing. In the end, the Song army was defeated miserably.

The shocking change did not happen in the northwest, but in the heart of the Song Dynasty. The Jin army suddenly marched southward and approached Kaifeng, Song Huizong was so frightened that he immediately appointed the 74-year-old Zhong Shidao.

Zhong Shidao, who was living in seclusion in Zhongnan Mountain, immediately led the Zhong family army to defend the king, and thus began the most bitter stage of his life.

Before Chongshidao arrived, Song Huizong felt that being the emperor was too tiring, so he abdicated to Song Qinzong. As a result, Song Qinzong accepted the peace proposal of Prime Minister Li Bangyan, who advocated peace, and sent envoys to the Jin camp.

Seeing the cowardice of the Song army, the Jin army made a huge demand, demanding that the Song Dynasty pay 500 million taels of gold, 5000 million taels of silver, one million rolls of silk and ten thousand cattle and horses, and cede the three towns of Zhongshan, Taiyuan and Hejian. They claimed that if these conditions were met, the Jin army would withdraw quickly.

After the Song envoys returned from the Jin camp, Feng Ren said that the Jin army was like a tiger and a wolf, and if they really fought, the country would be in danger of being destroyed. The only way to save it was to agree to their conditions. So the peace faction of the Song Dynasty began to persuade Song Qinzong to quickly agree to these unreasonable demands.

At this time, Chong Shidao had already rushed back to the court. Prime Minister Li Bangyan knew that he would definitely oppose the peace talks, so he directly issued an imperial decree, meaning that the peace talks were a foregone conclusion and anyone who dared to obstruct would be killed along with his entire clan.

However, he was so devoted to teaching that he dared to refute even the favorite minister Tong Guan, let alone take a mere imperial decree that was detrimental to the country seriously.

Therefore, he also told Song Qinzong that the Jurchens, who did not even know the art of war, only had brute force, and now that they had invaded the territory of the Song Dynasty, it would be impossible for them to withdraw smoothly. In the end, with the persuasion of him and the pro-war faction Li Gang, the peace agreement was terminated.

Chong Shidao believed that there was enough food in the city to last for several years. In addition, the city walls were strong. As long as they held their defense line and resisted the Jin army for several months, the Jin army would run out of food and other problems.

A few days later, Chong Shidao sent people to capture three Jin soldiers. They opened their grain bags and found only black beans, which confirmed his judgment.

So he announced to everyone that when the Jin army withdrew, they would go out of the city to pursue them and then annihilate them in one fell swoop.

However, what is even more ridiculous is that Emperor Qinzong of Song actually went from advocating peace to the end of a hasty war. Yao Pingzhong, who was born in a general family, was afraid that Chongshidao would make military achievements, so he teamed up with Taoist priests to tell the emperor a bunch of nonsense that the war should be resolved quickly.

As expected, Emperor Qinzong of Song Dynasty ignored the advice of Zhong Shidao and launched an attack on the Jin army ahead of time. At this time, the Jin army still had food and grass available, and the Song army was defeated in the end.

Just as the Jin army was preparing to withdraw, Chong Shidao once again proposed to Song Qinzong a strategy to attack the Jin army, which was to launch a fierce attack when the Jin army was halfway across the Yellow River in the north.

If the tiger is allowed to return to the mountains, it will be a disaster for the Northern Song Dynasty in the future. However, Emperor Qinzong of Song Dynasty did not dare to provoke the Jin army again. Not only did he not listen to Chong Shidao's advice, he also changed his position to a sinecure.

What’s even more hateful is that in order to seek peace with the Jin Kingdom, he not only gave up part of the land left by his ancestors, but also gave all the local people to the Jin Kingdom.

At that time, Emperor Qinzong of Song believed that Chong Shidao was too old and no longer useful. It was not until someone wrote a letter to recommend him that he was reappointed, but he was no longer allowed to command the army.