the Mysterious death of Zhao Kuangyin (Founder of the Song dynasty)

One can reasonably assume the Mongols would not have expanded as much as they did were it not for Zhao Kuangyi's actions.

Zhao Kuangyin was a general who usurpers the later zhou dynasty to establish the Song Dynasty. Usually these periods of disorder would last much longer (Three Kingdoms, Sixteen Kingdoms period. Northern & Southern dynasties) however he embarked on a 2 decade campaign and would reunite China with the exception of a few small Kingdoms. He was one of the best generals of the age

He planned to take the very important 16 prefectures from the Khitan Liao dynasty who took it from previous dynasties in the 5D10K era. The Khitans was the menace of the Chinese ever since the fall of the Tang dynasty. This would cripple the Khitan who would have lost much of their sedentary land and would have been only left with nomadic territory and would make Song China ascendant. but he died all a sudden under very mysterious circumstances and his brother Zhao Kuangyi succeeded him. There is very little doubt that the little brother killed his older brother. The sons of Zhao Kuangyin would also quickly die or commit suicide after his death. The Khitan would remain a potent foe with the resources of a sedentary empire as well as fielding deadly nomadic armies.

So Zhao Kuangyi succeeded but he was no general and his larp as one led to military defeat and stalemate with the Liao that would continue until the fall of the northern Song and Lio dynasty to the Jurchen Jin dynasty. The Jin controlled the northern half of China. When the Mongols attacked they made an alliance with the Song who would attack from the South. The Jin dynasty was destroyed and the Mongols gained control of a vast and rich landmass. Had Zhao Kuangyin have been able to establish the Song as ascendant then perhaps China would not be divided into two halves and the Mongols would have only become a regional power

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  1. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    Some fun random trivia: There's a legend that the Jin Emperor who oversaw much of the conquest of the northern half of Song, Wanyan Sheng (Wuqimai) greatly resembled Zhao Kuangyin in facial appearance, so that the common people remarked that the Jin conquest over the northern half of Song was Kuangyin getting revenge on his brother's descendants. This supposedly influenced the childless then-Emperor Zhao Gou (distant descendant of Kuangyi) to adopt a descendant of Kuangyin as an heir.

    • 2 years ago
      Anonymous

      That's hilarious, I didn't know that

  2. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    It was obviously the eunuchs, wake up sheeple

  3. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    The mongol conquests was good for China

    • 2 years ago
      Anonymous

      hardly compare the achievements of Song China to future dynasties. The difference between them is night and day.

      • 2 years ago
        Anonymous

        At least Later Chinese dynasties didn't do super moronic bullshit like execute successful generals.

        • 2 years ago
          Anonymous

          >execute successful generals
          every dynasty does this. Forget China everyone did this

          • 2 years ago
            Anonymous

            Except rarely to they do it in the middle of a fricking war that they are winning.

          • 2 years ago
            Anonymous

            >Except rarely to they do it in the middle of a fricking war that they are winning.
            The problem with Yue Fei was that the Song didn't actually have the resources to take back the north. Winning a few battles meant nothing strategic wise at least in the sense of reconquering the north. They needed to sign a favorable peace treaty with the gains they made and war mongers were detrimental for that end. Taking Kaifeng back would be moronic since the Jin always had the card of releasing the previous emperor thus they were capable of causing civil strife among the Southern Song whenever the wanted. Plus Kaifeng was hard to defend as well. Should he have been executed. No he shouldn't have.

        • 2 years ago
          Anonymous

          are you stupid the ming literally did this in the 1630s

        • 2 years ago
          Anonymous

          >execute successful generals
          every dynasty does this. Forget China everyone did this

          Except rarely to they do it in the middle of a fricking war that they are winning.

          homie this is being a monarch 101

          I do it all the time in attila total war too, if they get too much influence they frick your shit up

  4. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    >zhao zung zun
    >zhao zi zi
    Almost twisted my tongue for these chink names

    • 2 years ago
      Anonymous

      They're not that hard to pronounce

      • 2 years ago
        Anonymous

        Ok, Mr Ling Long

    • 2 years ago
      Anonymous

      >the gweilo scornfully thumbs his nose at something he can't lisguistically comprehend
      many such cases

    • 2 years ago
      Anonymous

      I never understood this meymey. Chinese names are short and have like 2 or 3 syllables, how can they be complicated. But westoids have no problems with bullshit like Nebuchadnezzar, Tutankhamun, or every single fricking French & German name in existence

      • 2 years ago
        Anonymous

        >Nebuchadnezzar, Tutankhamun
        Soul
        > Ching-Chong-Ping-Pong, also named Wing-Wang-Ling-Lang, also named General-Tso-Chop-Suey
        Souless

        • 2 years ago
          Anonymous

          Also not to mention how every fricking western monarch has the same goddamn name/serial number and you're just supposed to know who they are.
          >Henry II
          >Henry III
          >Henry IV
          >You mean Henry IV? (of England)
          >No I meant Henry IV!! (of France).
          Fricking Chinese Emperors have the decency not to repeat names. But for some reason their names are still "complicated."

          • 2 years ago
            Anonymous

            The countries are unique enough that you know from sheer context which monarch is being referred to.

          • 2 years ago
            Anonymous

            No its not from the outsider's perspective lol. Its one of our big annoyances when reading European history

            >Why is everyone's kings only have the same 5 or 6 names????

          • 2 years ago
            Anonymous

            everyone knows han wendi, han jingdi, han wudi, han guangwu etc
            who was henry iii, what did he do?

          • 2 years ago
            Anonymous

            Signed the Magna Carta after his dad John died.

          • 2 years ago
            Anonymous

            >Wendi
            >which Wendi? Han Wendi
            >Henry IV
            >which Henry? Then French one
            moron

          • 2 years ago
            Anonymous

            >Fricking Chinese Emperors have the decency not to repeat names.
            Posthumous and Temple names do repeat between dynasties, and those are the most common ways to refer to an Emperor.

            But I do get your point, since in modern times and especially in the west, you basically never come across a posthumous or temple name without the dynastic disambiguation included.

  5. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    Song is probably my favorite dynasty personally, the ultimate pre-Mongolification dynasty, it's too bad to see it get gimped so early.

    • 2 years ago
      Anonymous

      Yeah only the Han dynasty comes close. One of the most interesting things about the Song dynasty is that frankly most emperors were mediocre but the system the Song developed made it so that didnt matter

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