Chapter 49 2. Guanlong Enmity

Within the ruling group of the nascent Northern Zhou regime, far from the harmony shown at the Zhu Kingdom Conference, there were huge internal contradictions and factional struggles.In order to safeguard vested interests, Yu Wenhu ordered that all military conscripts below the Zhu Kingdom must be approved by him.Among the six pillar kingdoms, Li Hu, who ranks first, is dead, and Li Bi, who ranks second, is seriously ill in bed. Those who have ideas are Zhao Gui and Dugu Xin. Zhao Gui was the Duke of Chu at that time, and Dugu Xin was the Duke of Wei.Both of them are heavyweight figures, the true founding fathers of the country, and Yu Wenhu received military power, but they refused to accept it.

However, the actions of the two are not consistent.Zhao Gui has been aggrieved since Yuwenhu became the regency, and he consulted with Duguxin in private to kill Yuwenhu.But Duguxin, dissatisfaction belongs to dissatisfaction, but he does not advocate using violence to solve the problem, and his attitude seems very ambiguous.When Zhao Gui's murder plan was about to be implemented, Dugu Xin stopped it again.As a result, Kaifuyi and Sansi Yuwensheng found out about the matter somehow, and Yuwensheng went to Yuwenhu to sue both of them.Yu Wenhu acted decisively, took Zhao Gui down when he entered the court, and arrested all the party members who participated in it, and executed them all.Duguxin was saved from death at first, but not long after, Yuwenhu ordered him to commit suicide to prevent accidents.

In the whole incident, it was Zhao Gui who took the lead, and it was Zhao Gui who took action. He was defeated and died, but it was justifiable; His death seems a bit unjust.In fact, these are the inevitable results of the development of events.The reason why Zhao Gui and Duguxin have very different attitudes in action and lead to the final failure is that their backgrounds and fundamental interests are very different. Let me talk about Zhao Gui first.We know that Yuwentai started his business with the support of He Bayue's old department, and Zhao Gui was the key figure who resisted all opinions and advocated welcoming Yuwentai (see).Yu Wenhu's measures after taking power made him feel strongly cheated and betrayed. It was not only his own interests that were harmed, but also He Bayue's old department represented by him.

Yu Wentai has always attached great importance to properly handling the relationship with He Bayue's old department. The six-pillar kingdom system, He Bayue's old department occupies the third.Li Hu, a big clan in Longxi, was even placed at the head of the Six Pillars Kingdom. You must know that Li Hu was the representative figure who advocated asking He Basheng to take over, and he didn't want to see Yu Wentai. From the point of view of the generals under He Bayue, in Guanzhong, they are the masters, while Yu Wentai is the guest.Even if Yu Wentai becomes the leading brother, he still has to be restrained by their original masters in all aspects. It is absolutely impossible to "turn the customer into the master".Therefore, if Yuwentai wants to truly dominate Guanzhong, he has to "clearly build the plank road" and make use of He Bayue's old department, and at the same time "secretly keep Chencang" and focus on cultivating his own power.After the Battle of Mangshan, he widely recruited the local tyrants in Guanzhong, which is an example; and under his single-handed cultivation and promotion, his sons and nephews represented by Yu Wenhu and in-laws represented by Wang Meng, Yu Chijiong, Yan Qing, etc., In the past ten years, he quickly occupied various military leadership positions under the Fubing system, which gradually reversed the balance, and the Yuwen family changed from a disadvantaged group to a dominant group.

Yu Wentai is good at balancing and has a high prestige. Although Zhao Gui and others are dissatisfied, they dare not make too much trouble in terms of face.Once Yu Wentai passed away, the conflict between the two factions would naturally be inevitable.Yu Wenhu operated properly, and he was lucky (someone informed him), and won the conflict.In contrast, Zhao Gui was not only unable to move wisely like Yu Jin, but also failed to recognize the internal situation, and made the mistake of choosing to cooperate with Duguxin.Although Dugu Xin and Zhao Gui have superficial similarities, they are not in the same boat.

Duguxin was neither Yu Wentai's subordinate nor He Bayue's subordinate at first.He entered the customs alone with Emperor Xiaowu, and then defected to He Basheng in Jingzhou.After Jingzhou was cut off from the Western Wei Dynasty by Gao Huan, he and He Basheng and others fled to Nanliang for many years, but in the end, out of loyalty to Wei, he returned to Chang'an after several twists and turns. The return to the north also received great help from Liang Guo).Duguxin, He Basheng and Yu Wentai fought side by side, hoping to help the Wei family to a large extent. This is contrary to Yu Wentai's original intention of "taking the emperor to command the princes". Impossible to achieve reconciliation.

However, Duguxin is different from He Bayue's old department. Yu Wentai is a guest to Zhao Gui and others, but a master to Duguxin. Moreover, Duguxin's power is limited and the threat is not great.Even though there are differences in views, Yu Wentai still boldly and confidently reuse Dugu Xin. Soon, Dugu Xin made great achievements in Shayuan. After the great victory in Shayuan, Duguxin led his army eastward to Luoyang. For a while, the tyrants from Henan and other places joined him one after another, and Duguxin's power grew rapidly.The value orientation of this group of people is consistent with Dugu Xin, that is, to work together to rejuvenate the Wei family. If it is not controlled, Yuwentai will face the danger of internal division.

Yu Wentai's political vision is so keen, and he will take timely countermeasures when he sees a sign.He used the method of conferring officials and titles to win over Henan Haoqiang, and then transferred Dugu Xin to the Longxi area to prevent Dugu Xin from supporting himself.Under the military system with Yuwentai as the core, Duguxin's lofty ambitions are difficult to realize, and the seeds of contradictions are planted here. This is no secret, even the foreign enemy Eastern Wei can see it clearly.Murong Shaozong once mentioned in his crusade against Hou Jing and Liang Jun: "Dugu fulfilled his wish (Supplied is the Xianbei name of Dugu Xin, that is, his character) to support the Qinzhong, and to control the soldiers. The black otter prepares for the west. Plan, inner camp heart, save the first and tail, exhausted.” “North prepares for the west, inner camp heart” means that Yuwentai must guard against the invasion of Rouran from the north and the rebellion of Duguxin in the west. The juxtaposition of Dugu Xin and Rouran is exaggerated, but it also vividly reflects the internal problems of the Western Wei Dynasty.

Before He Basheng himself died, he left a suicide note to Yu Wentai, saying: "I hope Duke Ming will coordinate and rectify the internal contradictions first, and then move in accordance with the times to recover the world." Although the two had conflicts over military power, they lived in peace after all.However, the conflict between the two factions did not resolve with He Basheng's death. He Basheng reminded Yuwentai softly but firmly that before the world is unified, there must be no cracks within the regime. Yu Wentai recognized this point, and most of the time, he worked hard to implement it.Dugu Xin ranked third in the Six Pillars Kingdom, which was one of Yu Wentai's methods of appeasement.In addition, Yu Wentai, the eldest son of the concubine Yu Wenyu, accepted Dugu Xin's eldest daughter as the main family, and the two families became in-laws.But the title of MG and the union of marriage cannot change the substantive differences in politics.As long as Duguxin does not give up his loyalty to Wei Shi, and Yu Wentai does not give up his ambition to replace Wei Shi, then no matter what they do, it is impossible to truly resolve their conflicts.In fact, Yu Wentai's vigilance against Dugu Xin has never been relaxed. During the Hou Jing Rebellion, Yu Wentai focused his troops on the east and south. Even at this time, he did not forget to keep a hand in the west. The governor, guarding Qinzhou in name, secretly keeps an eye on Duguxin's movements.After Yu Wendao's death, his son Yu Wenliang "inherited his father's business" and was still stationed in Qinzhou, not allowing Dugu Xin to move eastward.

At the last moment, Yuwentai finally had to speak out to Duguxin. In the third year of Emperor Gong of the Western Wei Dynasty (556 A.D.), Yuwentai called a meeting of senior military generals including Duguxin to discuss the establishment of an heir.Yu Wentai said to the crowd: "Gu intends to make a son-in-law as the heir, but I'm afraid Da Sima (Dugu Xin) will be suspicious." As soon as this remark came out, the audience fell silent, and Dugu Xin also remained silent and did not express his opinion immediately. Yu Wentai had a total of thirteen sons, and six of them were knighted as adults. Among them, Yu Wenzhen, the second son, died early. In fact, only five sons could become heirs.Among the five sons, the eldest son Ningdu Gong Yu Wenyu was twenty-three years old, with both ability and political integrity, but he was born to the concubine Yao's family, and he was a concubine. The third son Lueyang Gong Yu Wenjue was the only son born to the princess Feng Yi. The status is unshakable.The problem is that since the founding of the Northern Wei Dynasty, Xianbei's tradition has always focused on establishing elders and worthy men, rather than establishing a descendant; in terms of emotion and reason, Yu Wenyu is more suitable.But once Yu Wenyu is established, it will be difficult to guarantee that Dugu Xin will not enter the core of power. Even if Dugu Xin is not detrimental to Yu Wen, he will never allow Yu Wen to seek Tuoba Wei. This is something Yu Wentai will not tolerate.

When the scene was very embarrassing, Li Yuan suddenly jumped out and shouted: "Since ancient times, a son has been established as a descendant and not a grown-up. Duke Lueyang is a descendant, so why is it suspicious to be a son? If you are concerned about Dugu Xin, Please let me kill him first!" After speaking, he drew his sword with a "swipe" and went straight to Duguxin.The generals on both sides were shocked for a moment and were at a loss. Yu Wentai hurriedly got up, shot to stop Li Yuan, and persuaded: "What's the big deal, as for using swords?" Seeing this, Duguxin didn't dare to keep silent anymore, stepped forward and explained: "It is true that Duke Lueyang should be made the son, and I have no objection." Li Yuanfang put away the knife and stepped aside.All the generals said that what Li Yuan said was very true, and that Li Yuwenjue was confirmed as the heir. Afterwards, Li Yuan approached Dugu Xin to apologize, saying: "The offense was only because of the importance of the matter, and I hope Mr. Dugu will forgive the crime." Dugu was extremely annoyed in his confidence, but he had no choice but to agree lightly: "It's all thanks to Mr. Li that we can make a big decision today!" It can be seen that when Yuwentai was still alive, the contradiction between him and Duguxin had been fully exposed.This is not a simple personal grievance, but a matter of loyalty to the Wei family.Duguxin was not reconciled to seeing Wei Guo perish at the hands of Yuwen, but in the open and secret struggle with Yuwentai, especially when he saw Yuwentai's minions spread all over the court and the public, he could only helplessly accept that "the Wei family cannot be revived". The Northern Wei clan has generally accepted the reality. On the one hand, he was not willing. When Zhao Gui came to him, he sympathized with each other and expressed his willingness to participate; on the other hand, he knew that even if he killed Yu Wenhu, it would not help, so he took action to stop Zhao Gui's actions.The ambiguity in Duguxin's attitude aptly reflects the extreme contradiction in his heart. In contrast, the former He Bayue tribe represented by Zhao Gui was originally a separatist warlord, and he valued his own actual interests in the entire ruling group.What Zhao Gui couldn't accept was that facing Yuwenhu's dictatorship, he gradually lost the military independence he once had.He has been hit and must immediately rebel and retaliate.Therefore, he will be eager to murder Yu Wenhu. It is this difference that Zhao Gui and Dugu Xin not only can't work together, but hinder each other, and both fail.However, the conflict between the two major factions reflected in the rebellion incident still existed, and it ran through the history of the Northern Zhou Dynasty for more than 20 years, and finally led to the demise of the Yuwen regime, which is a later story.