Chapter 29 The Rise of Wu Wang and Liu Bi

Money can always bring disasters, or cause conflicts between people. As for the size of the disasters and the severity of the conflicts, it is determined by the economic situation of the society and the financial competition between people.The more money involved in the dispute, the greater the conflict. There was such a contradiction between the central government of the Han Dynasty and the State of Wu.The problem is that there is a huge disparity in the financial resources of the two parties.In Liu Bi's eyes, the pitiful amount of funds at hand of the central government is simply not worth mentioning.Because the largest copper mine in the world is in the territory of Wu State, it is the lifeblood of Wu Wang Liu Bi to consolidate the country, and it is also the capital he uses to challenge the court.

In the sixth year of Emperor Gaozu, Liu Bang made his second brother Liu Zhong the acting king.After Han Wangxin took refuge in the Huns, the Huns went south to invade the Dai Kingdom, and the Dai Kingdom was defeated. The hopeless Liu Zhong abandoned his people and fled all the way, returning to Liu Bang via Luoyang.Liu Bang saw that Liu Zhong was his second brother, so he didn't hold him accountable, but just demoted him to the Marquis of Heyang. In the eleventh year of Emperor Gaozu (196 BC), Yingbu, king of Huainan, rebelled and annexed the state of Jing to the east, killing King Liu Jia of Jing.After Liu Bang heard about it, he set off in person. At that time, Liu Zhong's son, Peihou Liu Bi, also followed Liu Bang.Liu Bi fought bravely on the battlefield and took the lead. As a cavalry general, he joined Liu Bang in defeating Yingbu's army in Qi County.

At that time, because King Jing Liu Jia was dead, and Wu Jun and Kuaiji counties were not governed by anyone, Liu Bang felt that the people in this place were aggressive and must be managed by a strong-tempered person.Liu Bang saw that the young man beside him was so brave, he thought he was a powerful person, and he was also a relative of the Liu family. In addition, many of Liu Bang's sons were not too old to be king here, so he passed through Pei County on the way back to his teacher. Liu Bi was granted the title of King of Wu, with four counties and fifty-three cities under his jurisdiction—namely, Dongyang County, Zhang County, Wu County, and Kuaiji County, and the State of Wu was established since then.

Liu Bang wrote a very famous "Great Wind Song" in Peixian County: "When the wind rises, the clouds fly, and when the wind rises, we will return to our hometown, and the warriors will guard the Quartet!" The "warrior" here probably includes King Wu. Let Liu Bi be inside. The following content is recorded in the history books as miraculous.According to historical records, after Liu Bi accepted the seal letter from King Wu, Liu Bang carefully looked at Liu Bi's face, and two piercing eyes were cast on Liu Bi's face.Liu Bang pondered for a moment, and asserted in his heart: Liu Bi has "reversal".

Liu Bang regretted it immediately. But as an emperor, you can't say what you say, you can't break your promise, and you can't deny your own previous words, that is denying your own authority.Liu Bang fell into a dilemma, he had no choice but to give up, and at the same time tried to educate Liu Bi with a glimmer of hope, he told Liu Bi: "There will be a rebellion in the southeast in another fifty years, could it be you? After all, this world belongs to our old Liu family, a family, so please don't rebel." After Liu Bi heard this, he kowtowed happily, expressing that he would never rebel, and vowed to defend Liu's family to the death. Unfortunately, he broke his promise in the future.

In the Huilu period, the Han Empire entered a stage of steady development after the suppression of the rebellious princes and kings. Except for Wu, all the empires were recuperating and comforting the people. Only Wu relied on its Danyang County There is a mountain rich in copper, so it is crazy to mint money in the country. If Liu Bi wants to make money, he needs sufficient labor force, so he recruited many desperadoes.At the same time, due to the coast of Wu State, Liu Bi also asked the people to cook sea salt. Japanese scholar Takikawa Suiyan quoted Nakai Jideku in the "Historical Records" and said: "The benefits of salt and iron are more than enough for national use, and there is no need to give them to the common people. It can be seen that those who serve the salt and copper are all desperate rogues, not civilians. Also, it was incurred by the king of Wu.” Copper mines and sea salt made the Wu government so rich that it didn’t need to collect taxes from the people, which shows the strong national productivity, and the high economic benefits brought to Wu by minting coins and boiling salt.

The rapid economic development of the Wu state is difficult for all parties to pay attention to. Liu Bi's economic construction is completely a show off in the eyes of the princes and the central government, showing off Liu Bi's ability and capital. The jealous princes and the central government had a strong hostility towards Liu Bi. They could not accept that Liu Bi was different, and they could not accept that when they were still trapped in a poor and unstable environment, Liu Bi's Wu China has gotten rid of poverty and become rich, surpassed a well-off society, and has been promoted from a developing country to a developed country.

Wealth is very magical. It can expand the power of a person, an organization, or a regime very quickly, although sometimes this power lacks a solid foundation and a stable source.But the pleasure brought by the rapid growth of strength will greatly satisfy a person's vanity, making this person continue to indulge in his own strength and start to be arrogant.This is the case with Wu Wang Liu Bi. With money and power, Liu Bi began to fight against the central government day by day.He often did not meet Liu Heng on time on the grounds of illness.And Liu Heng's side was also stimulated by this faint provocation. After discovering that Liu Bi was actually pretending to be sick, every time the envoys sent by Wu State would be severely interrogated by the central government, and even detained.

Wu Guo's credit value with the central government is close to bankruptcy. Liu Bi also felt this deeply, so we can guess that he had already had the intention of treason during the reign of Emperor Wen. Fortunately, Liu Heng is a reasonable person. One year, Liu Bi sent an envoy to the central government to meet Liu Heng. Liu Heng asked the envoy why Liu Bi was always against the central government and pretended to be ill to deceive the central government. The envoy explained: "It is true that the king of Wu is not sick, but the central government always detains the envoys of the state of Wu for no reason. "Observing that the fish in the abyss is ominous", the emperor of Wu Wang pretended to be sick and was discovered by the emperor. It was because you persecuted him that the king of Wu became more and more frightened and avoided seeing you all day. He was afraid that you would kill him, so he jumped over the wall in a hurry , I always think of some unreasonable ways to deal with it, and finally make this bad strategy. I advise the emperor to let go of the past with the King of Wu, and if you two have a good relationship, it will be great."

After hearing this, Liu Heng finally decided to let Liu Bi go, out of the idea of ​​maintaining brotherhood.He not only released the previously detained envoys of the state of Wu, but also gave Liu Bi a small table and a stick.And Liu Bi may also feel that the time for rebellion is not ripe at this time, and the strength has not been accumulated enough, and it is also because of the brother's face. He and Liu Heng are of the same generation, and the rebellion always has little chance of winning, unlike later in front of Emperor Jing. He is an elder and can be confident.Probably based on these two points, Liu Bi finally gave up the idea of ​​rebellion, and no longer deliberately opposed the central government, but at the same time, he turned to fully promote the development of the domestic economy.Maybe Liu Bi didn't really surrender, and negotiating peace with Liu Heng was just a tactic to delay the attack. It should be his fundamental goal to seize the time to strengthen his strength and hide his strength and bide his time.

Liu Bi has always been good at winning the hearts of the people, and has never collected taxes from the common people. The Wu government has already become rich with the profits from cooking salt and minting coins. Good impression.In addition, as long as the central government enlists the people of Wu to serve in military service, the Wu government will give subsidies to the people, which is clearly intended to embarrass the central government and make it appear to the people that Wu cares more about the people. In the final analysis, the reason why the central government did not interfere with the Wu state in these matters, allowing the Wu state government to fully demonstrate its benevolence and benevolence, is mainly because the central government has no money, while the Wu state government has plenty of money.The Wu government not only cares about intellectuals on a regular basis, subsidizes their life, but also distributes a big gift package to all the people under its rule during the festivals.The Wu government is rich in high-profile, tasteful, and purposeful. In addition, Liu Bi took in fugitives and desperadoes for a long time, blatantly accommodating criminals for political asylum without handing them over to the central government.This behavior of raising desperadoes is clearly preparing for the future rebellion.The purpose of enlisting intellectuals is to make them contribute, while favoring desperadoes is to make them contribute. After Liu Bi's forty years of management, the Wu government has the strength to compete with the central government in all aspects, and these strengths, including Liu Bi's self-confidence, can be cultivated because of one word—— -money. Wu State is rich, it has copper mines and sea salt, so it has political and military advantages.Money is not everything, but nothing is impossible without money. Money determines national strength, and economy determines national destiny.Thinking about it, if it weren't for the financial resources accumulated for the country in the early days of Emperor Wen and Emperor Jing, it is really unknown whether the central government of the Han Dynasty could withstand the impact of the Wu Chu Seven Kingdoms Rebellion. Liu Heng's indulging in Wu's economic development is actually raising tigers, but from Wu's point of view, it may not be a good thing to develop the economy eager for quick success.Those fruits of economic construction are not real accumulations, but just bubbles created by the restlessness and vanity of Wu's army and people. Moreover, the extraordinary development of the economy will inevitably lead to the relative backwardness of the cause of cultural and ideological construction.If the political and ideological awareness of Wu's army and people did not reach Liu Bi's level, even if Liu Bi rebelled in the future, the common people would have to follow blindly. Perhaps the strength of the economy can't really change the fate of Wu, everything will not be known until the reign of Emperor Jing.