Chapter 37 Feng Tang: The old man is standing still

There is a sentence in Wang Bo's "Preface to the Pavilion of the King of Teng" called "Feng Tang Yi Lao, Li Guang is difficult to seal." Get a reward. Feng Tang and Li Guang are actually figures in the early Western Han Dynasty, and their deeds are related to the Han-Hungarian War. Feng Tang's grandfather was from the State of Zhao during the Warring States Period. His father moved his family to Dai State before the establishment of the Han Dynasty, and moved his family to Anling after the establishment of the Han Dynasty.It can be said that Feng Tang is also a descendant of the nobles. Later, because of his reputation of filial piety, he was selected as the director of the Zhonglang office, and he worked in the Lang office in the palace every day.

The Han Dynasty advocated filial piety. We can see that every emperor in the Han Dynasty, regardless of Emperor Wen, Emperor Jing, and Emperor Wu, had the word "filial piety" in front of their posthumous names. Emperor Xiaowen, Emperor Xiaojing, Emperor Xiaowu, and Emperor Xiaolian were promoted in the Han Dynasty. Select officials with "filial piety". One day Liu Heng passed the Lang office by car and happened to see Feng Tang. At this time, Feng Tang was already very old. Liu Heng was very curious and asked Feng Tang why he was still a Lang official at such an old age. I asked where Feng Tang's hometown was.Feng Tang answered one by one.

As soon as Liu Heng heard that Feng Tang was a native of the Dai Kingdom, he suddenly became excited and said to Feng Tang: "You don't know, Old Feng, that the Dai Kingdom is my second hometown. When I was the Dai Kingdom and the King, the supervisor My catering official (Shangshi Supervisor) Gao Qu praised the talents of Li Qi, the general of Zhao State, many times in front of me. To this day, I still think about Julu whenever I eat. I think you are so old, do you know Li Qi?" Feng Tang replied: "Compared with people like Lian Po and Li Mu, Li Qi is far behind." Liu Heng asked Feng Tang why he said that. Feng Tang heard that Liu Heng was interested in this topic, and he was very pleased with himself. He couldn't help but have the urge to reveal his family background, so he showed off: "My grandfather worked in Zhao Guo. General, he has a very good friendship with Li Mu. My father was the prime minister of the Dai country, and he has a very good relationship with Li Qi, the general of the Zhao country. As the 'Three Generations of Officials', I know their characters very well."

Immediately after, Feng Tang began to tell Liu Heng about Lian Po and Li Mu's deeds, and Liu Heng was very happy to hear that, he slapped his thigh and said, "Hey, I'm really unlucky, I can't let people like Lian Po and Li Mu become generals for me. If I have such a general under my command, why would I be afraid of the Huns!" After hearing Liu Heng's emotion, Feng Tang timidly poured cold water on him, saying, "I don't think your Majesty will make good use of generals like Lian Po and Li Mu even if he gets generals like Lian Po and Li Mu." When Liu Heng heard it, his face immediately stretched as long as Changbai Mountain, and he turned around and went into the palace.After a while, Feng Tang was summoned into the palace and scolded him, "Why are you so ungrateful, you speak ill of me in public, won't you find a place where no one is around?"

When Feng Tang heard this, he apologized quickly and said, "Oh, we are a rough person with low EQ. Don't blame your Majesty." From then on, Liu Heng knew about Feng Tang, knew that Feng Tang was from a noble family, knew that Feng Tang knew many stories about famous generals... Naturally, he was classified as a courtier in his heart who could inquire about military matters.Of course, he also knew that Feng Tang was short-hearted, so he couldn't give him good looks all day long. In the fourteenth year of Emperor Wen's BC (169 BC), after the old Shang Shanyu led his troops to invade Chaona County and killed Gongsun Ang, the captain of the North, the relationship between Han and Hungarians was extremely tense.Liu Heng was anxious about it all day long. At this time, he remembered what Feng Tang had said, and asked Feng Tang: "Why did you think I couldn't reuse people like Lian Po and Li Mu?"

Feng Tang replied, "What's so difficult about this? Your Majesty, I heard that when the kings in the past sent their generals out to fight, they would kneel down and push the axles for them, and they would also tell them that' From now on, I will be in charge of the affairs within the palace walls. Everything outside the palace walls will depend on the general. You can decide who should be rewarded and how to reward the general. Just report to me when you come back. Come however you want.' "My grandfather told me in private that when Li Mu was stationed at the border, as long as he was only training in the army and not fighting every day, he would often organize his people to conduct foreign trade. Li Mu distributed all the profits from the trade to Soldiers, all rewards in the army are also determined by the generals themselves. The king never pays attention to this. As long as the general can win the battle, the monarch does not care about how to do it.

"That's why Li Mu was able to make full use of his talents and fight without any scruples. He brought his 1,300 chariots, 13,000 bow and arrow riders, and ten warriors who had received hundreds of gold rewards. Thousands of people galloped on the vast grassland of the Xiongnu, drove away the Huns to the north, defeated the Donghu people, wiped out the Danlin people, resisted the attack of Qin State in the west, and resisted the attack of South Korea and Wei State in the south. attack. "The State of Zhao became a hegemonic country at that time, but who would have known that the song girl Zhao Wangqian came to the throne, and he believed the slander of Guo Kai, a minister who was bribed by the State of Qin, and killed Li Mu in a daze, and sent another man named Yan Ju's mediocre general was in charge of the country's military affairs, which led to the collapse of Zhao State, and even the king became a prisoner.

"Now I heard that when Wei Shang was the prefect of Yunzhong County, he gave all the profits from the army trade to the soldiers, and often paid out of his own pocket, killing a cow every five or six days to reward the soldiers, so the Huns dare not It's close to Yunzhong County, because the soldiers worked so hard when they fought. "Once a foreign enemy invaded, and Wei Shang went out to fight and killed countless enemies. His soldiers were all peasant children. They were from the grassroots. They didn't know any military rules and regulations. The problem is that the officials of the knife and pen punished the soldiers by grasping the words of the law, but the result was that those who made meritorious deeds were punished and those who made mistakes received rewards.

"I'm so stupid and stupid. I think you've taken the law too carefully, and the rewards are light and the punishment is heavy. Wei Shang just reported six more heads when he reported his meritorious service. You will dismiss him and put him in prison, and cut him off." From this point of view, even if you have good generals like Lian Po and Li Mu, you may not be able to reuse them. You just indulge your civil servants and pluck their pigtails all day long. "I, Feng Tang, am a rough man, and my words are not pleasant, and I have angered you, the emperor, damn it."

After listening to Feng Tang's words, Liu Heng felt that although the old man's words were straightforward, they were quite reasonable, so he asked Feng Tang to release Wei Shang with a banner, and let Wei Shangguan return to his post.At the same time, Feng Tang was appointed as the captain of the chariot and rider with a rank ratio of two thousand stones, responsible for managing the army of the lieutenant and the armies of various vassal states.Feng Tang's power has increased, and his status has risen rapidly like a rocket. What is the magic of Feng Tang's words? On the surface, Feng Tang's words were just a case-by-case discussion, but they actually explained the contradiction between the king and the generals under the autocratic system.

Under the autocratic system, the army is a tool used by the king to maintain his own autocratic rule, so the general, who is the actual leader of the army, is fully empowered by the emperor. However, in the actual operation process, such an approach is simply not feasible. The battlefield situation changes rapidly, and the general must be able to adapt to the changing situation and adjust the strategic deployment.But if the general's power is firmly controlled by the emperor, and the emperor restrains the general's power in the army, then the army will lose its soul and lack strategic mobility. This kind of rigid and mechanized combat mode brought by autocratic rule to the army developed to the Song Dynasty. The emperor drew blueprints, and the generals had to line up troops according to the blueprints. The position of a person could not be changed, even if the emperor's map had problems—the target The land is actually a river, and soldiers have to stand in the water. Otherwise, even if you win the battle, as long as you change the formation, you will be punished when you come back. The grassland nation's warfare is just the opposite. This group of cavalry ran around as soon as they arrived on the plains. They were extremely mobile. As soon as a large strategic task was assigned, they each led their troops forward. How to fight was refined to the lowest level. Military units to decide.I have never seen an ethnic minority army that divides the corps and arranges the layout of the battlefield before the war. Some of them have been Sinicized. Random combination of situations, random response. Therefore, the nomadic people's combat flexibility is particularly strong, and the defeat of the Han Dynasty army was defeated in this place. In addition, there will be many uncertain factors on the battlefield in the era of cold weapons. On the one hand, the emperor himself is not on the battlefield. The king lacks tolerance for the general, so the general's problem is magnified, and the contradiction between the king and the general is also magnified. In the end, the autocratic requirements cover up all strategic needs, and the monarch must clean up the general. Feng Tang's vision is excellent, no wonder Shi Qian shouted at Feng Tang's point of view at the end of "Historical Records: Zhang Shizhi's Biography of Feng Tang": "It's interesting, it's interesting!" What Feng Tang said was indeed extraordinary in that era. Seven years later, Emperor Jing succeeded to the throne, and Feng Tang was appointed as the prime minister of Chu, but was later dismissed due to incidents. After Emperor Wu succeeded to the throne, he issued an edict to seek talents. Feng Tang was already in his nineties at that time, so he recommended his son Feng Sui. Feng Sui was a good friend of Shi Qian. The history of the country has told Shi Qian.This is why many records in "Historical Records Zhao Shijia" cannot be found in other historical books. It is Feng Sui's oral history. Feng Tang came to make a fortune, but there was a young man in the Wendi Dynasty who was also appreciated by Liu Heng in the Han-Hungarian War.Of course, all this is mainly because the new attack of the Huns came too fast. In the sixth year of Emperor Wen's reign (158 BC), the Huns' army went south again. This time, Liu Heng will find a future that will affect the direction of the empire. Star - Zhou Yafu.