Chapter 24 Chapter 24 Death of King Chen Sheng

In 209 B.C., Chen Sheng and Wu Guang cut down trees to serve as soldiers in Daze Township, Qi County (now Liuji Village, Suzhou City, Anhui Province), and raised poles as flags, which ignited the raging fire of the peasant uprising in the late Qin Dynasty. The rebel army led by Chen Sheng and Wu Guang quickly captured Daze Township and Qixian County, and then Chen Sheng sent Ge Ying to lead his troops to march west.Ge Ying was an outstanding military talent. Under his command, the rebel army captured large tracts of land in eastern Henan and northern Anhui one after another. When the rebel army marched into Chen County (now Huaiyang County, Henan Province), they already had six or seven hundred chariots, more than one thousand cavalry, and tens of thousands of infantry.

Chen County used to be the capital of Chu State, and it seems that Chen Sheng has a good relationship with Chen Sheng. Therefore, Chen Sheng came up with the idea of ​​calling the king and founding the country here.He convened a meeting of the local elders and representatives of people from all walks of life, and hinted his ideas to each family. As he expected, everyone unanimously supported him as king. Therefore, he followed the public opinion and established himself as king. For Zhang Chu, it means "to publicize the Chu State in the old capital of the Chu State".At the same time, he named Wu Guang a false king (just like the one-character king in traditional opera storytelling), made Cai Ci the Shangzhu State in charge of military affairs (equivalent to the Minister of Defense), and appointed Kong Yu as a doctor who could participate in and discuss politics. The imperial court has begun to take shape.

Once he became king, Chen Sheng's conceited and vicious character became a vicious tiger that broke out of the cage. The first person to die at the tiger's mouth was Ge Ying. After Ge Ying led his troops to capture Dongcheng, he made a wrong move—he made Xiangqiang, a descendant of the Chu royal family, the king of Chu, because it was not long before the six kingdoms of Kanto perished, and many people wanted to revive the six kingdoms. thought.After the news came that Chen Sheng became king, Ge Ying immediately abolished Xiang Qiang and reported to Chen Sheng, but Chen Sheng refused to let go, held a grudge, and killed this excellent military general.

Many relatives and friends of Chen Sheng heard that he had become the "King of Zhang Chu", and they all rushed to join him, including his father-in-law.For Taishan Laozhang, Chen Sheng showed the excellent quality of treating him equally regardless of closeness or closeness, treating him like ordinary guests, and only gave a deep salute when meeting him, and did not bow down.But this old man is a person of great etiquette, so he got angry on the spot and made an ominous prophecy: "Chen Sheng, you claim to be king without authorization, and you are an arrogant elder, and you must not last long!" After speaking, he walked away.

Chen Sheng's father-in-law was very hurt, he left behind that sentence, but a good friend of Chen Sheng paid with his life for staying. This friend was made by Chen Sheng when he was a hired laborer plowing the fields. When he heard that Chen Sheng became king, he ran to Chen County with the dream of "one person will gain the Tao, and the chicken and dog will ascend to heaven". After some twists and turns, he finally got his wish and met his old acquaintance Chen Sheng, and was taken into the palace. As soon as he entered the palace, this man sighed with emotion at the magnificent palace and luxurious furnishings: "You are so rich! You, Chen She, have such a big palace!" When he was hiring a worker, Chen Sheng felt that his great and glorious image had been damaged, so he killed his friend when he was working.

This friend certainly did something wrong, but Chen Sheng was too vicious. In fact, his character had been distorted and deformed by the power after becoming king. With all the armies sent by Chen Sheng to attack the city, he was invincible. He successively occupied a large area of ​​land in Henan and Hebei, and went west to Xixi near Xianyang (now Lintong, Shaanxi). Out. What Chen Sheng trusted the most were two villains who were good at flattering and sucking sores. They were called Zhu Fang and Hu Wu respectively.For other civil servants and military generals, Chen Sheng has no trust at all, which further fuels the arrogance of Zhu and Hu.When the generals who went out to fight returned to Chen County to report the situation, Zhu Fang and Hu Wu acted in a powerful and indiscriminate manner. Those who did not obey their orders were thrown into prison for punishment, and even killed to vent their anger.

Under such circumstances, civil and military officials, especially military generals, became less and less supportive of Chen Sheng, and they were getting farther and farther away from him. Chen Sheng wasn't the only one whose personality changed, Wu Guang was also completely different from before. Before the uprising, Wu Guang had always cared for others, and the soldiers were willing to listen to him.After Chen County was established as the capital, Wu Guang became arrogant and arrogant. He didn't understand military affairs, but blindly commanded blindly, and couldn't listen to anyone's suggestions. In the end, his general Tian Zang and others couldn't stand it anymore, so they pretended to be Chen Sheng The king ordered Wu Guang to be killed, and his head was dedicated to Chen Sheng.

I don't know if it was because of arrogance that he lost his sense of the "sorrow of the rabbit dead fox", or because he was frightened by the news of the defeat of the Western Expeditionary Army and Zhou Wen's suicide, or because Tian Zang was his direct descendant. Anyway, Chen Sheng did not pursue Tian Zang's responsibility. Instead, he was given the seal of Ling Yin (equivalent to the prime minister), and he was appointed as the general.Although Tian Zang was loyal to Chen Sheng, he had no choice but to be weak and his fate was not good. He was defeated and died after encountering the God of War Zhang Han in Aocang (northwest of Zhengzhou, Henan today).Taking advantage of the victory, Zhang Han pursued and captured Tan (now Jiaxian County, Henan Province), Xu (now Xuchang, Henan Province) and other places, and soon came to the city of Chen County.

Cai Ci, who was in charge of the military, led his army out of the city to fight against Zhang Han, but was killed; Zhang He, the general of the rebel army, went out to fight and was defeated and died.Under such circumstances, Chen Sheng had no choice but to leave Chen County to find a place to live, but unexpectedly, he was killed by a hidden arrow shot by one of his own people. The one who shot this arrow in the back was his coachman, Zhuang Jia, who is equivalent to the current driver who specializes in driving for leaders.As Chen Sheng's full-time coachman, Zhuang Jia must have an extraordinary relationship with his master and son, not even comparable to the two treacherous ministers Zhu Fang and Chen Wu mentioned above. Contemporary people may understand this more deeply.However, at the critical moment of life and death, Zhuang Jia, the car driver, killed his immediate boss and raised a white flag to Zhang Han.

The famous and invincible King Chen Sheng died in the hands of a small coachman like this. It can be said that "it used to be as heavy as Mount Tai, but died as light as a feather".