Chapter 2 1. Liu Yu made a fortune

This so-called "ordinary alley" is Jingkouli in Dantu County, Jinling County, roughly located in Jingkou District of Zhenjiang City today.Leaving aside the boring "auspicious birth" attached to by later generations, Liu Yu, the majestic founder of the Southern Dynasties, was more like an ordinary citizen with bad luck before entering the rivers and lakes.Since the surname is Liu, it will naturally make people think of the clan of the Han family. In fact, it is said in the official history that his family is the descendant of Liu Jiao, the younger brother of Liu Bang, Emperor Gaozu of the Han Dynasty.This relative is not necessarily a false one. The Han Dynasty ruled the world for more than 400 years, and the number of people surnamed Liu increased exponentially. In Liu Yu's era, I am afraid that if you catch a few people surnamed Liu on the street, you will be killed. It is not uncommon for them to be descendants of Liu Bang, Liu Jiao, and the legendary Liu Sheng who had a group of wives and concubines.According to the genealogy records, Liu Yuzu's previous generations were more or less officials, but Liu Yu's father Liu Qiao's generation was very poor.When Liu Qiao was young, he only worked as a meritorious service in the county. To put it bluntly, he was a small role in copying and writing in government agencies.Liu Yu's life was even more difficult. His mother died when he was born. Liu Qiao wanted to abandon Liu Yu because his family was poor and couldn't afford to raise children.Liu Yu's aunt was Liu Huaijing's mother in the same county. She happened to give birth to Liu Huaijing soon after she heard that her brother-in-law's family was in trouble, so she went to persuade her.Anyway, in the end, she weaned her own son and nursed Liu Yu, saving a little life.Because of this, Liu Qiao gave Liu Yu a nickname, "Ji Nu".Therefore, the official history "Book of Wei" of the Northern Dynasties said that Liu Yu's "family background is humble", and he was not "wronged" at all.

When Liu Yu grew up, he had an extraordinary appearance, served his stepmother, and was known for his filial piety; he had no education, no background, and could not directly enter the government department through recommendation, so he had to weave some straw sandal mats and go to the market He was also tied up and tortured because he failed to pay back the money he lost in gambling. What changed Liu Yu's life was the ensuing chaos in the south.In the third year of Emperor Long'an of Jin'an (399 A.D.), someone launched a large-scale riot in the name of a cult organization. This was the famous Sun En and Lu Xun uprising.It turns out that after the Battle of Feishui, although the Eastern Jin Dynasty got a temporary respite, the internal struggles of various factions have never stopped.After some twists and turns, Huan Xuan (the son of Huan Wen) and Liu Laozhi, the top figure of the Huan Group, and Liu Laozhi, the general of the Beifu army, respectively controlled the middle reaches of the Yangtze River and the north bank of the lower reaches of the Yangtze River. The only areas where the Eastern Jin government could directly issue orders were left The small land of the eight counties in Jiangdong.The tax burden of the people in these areas has suddenly increased. Coupled with the excessive levies and extortions of the noble families in various places, the common people have already complained and suffered unspeakably.

So as long as someone raises their arms and shouts, the responders will naturally gather.Compared with the central government composed of the idiot Emperor Jin'an and the playboys Sima Daozi and Sima Yuanxian and his sons, the mob led by Sun En, who started his career with five buckets of rice, is already quite deterrent.His tribe was no more than a hundred people, and they were pirates in the Zhoushan Islands in the East China Sea. Once they landed in Shangyu, they quickly grew to tens of thousands, and captured Kuaiji (now Shaoxing, Zhejiang), and other areas in Jiangdong. The seven counties also responded one after another, and the Eastern Jin government had no choice but to dispatch Beifu soldiers to suppress it.

At this time, Liu Yu was serving as Sima under Sun Wuzhong, the general of the Beifu army.The position of Sima is second only to the general in the army, similar to the chief of staff.With Liu Yu's humble background, he can be mixed into this position, which shows that he is not an ordinary man.Liu Laozhi led troops to attack Sun En, and occasionally heard about his abilities, so he recruited him to join the army in his tent. Although joining the army is inconspicuous, Liu Yu actually worked hard and worked hard.In the troubled times, if not so, how can you get ahead?Liu Yu ushered in his battle of fame with such a mentality.In a reconnaissance operation, he and dozens of subordinates were besieged, and most of them died in battle, but he held a long knife, fought more and more bravely, and killed hundreds of people, scaring the enemy.Liu Laozhi's son Liu Jingxuan was worried about Liu Yu's safety, so he led cavalry to help in the battle, joined forces with Liu Yu, killed thousands of people, and won a complete victory.This battle drove Sun En back to the island directly, and at the same time greatly enhanced Liu Yu's status in the mind of Liu Laozhi, the leader of the Beifu soldiers.

In the second year, Sun En took advantage of the negligence of the Jin army and attacked Kuaiji again. Xie Yan, a general of the Eastern Jin Dynasty who had made great achievements in the Battle of Feishui, was also killed by his subordinates.Liu Laozhi led the crowd to the east, and Sun En retreated steadily.Liu Laozhi asked Liu Yu to defend the city. Whenever Liu Yu went to war, he took the lead and charged forward, absolutely unambiguous.What's more valuable is that the generals of the Beifu army who attacked Sun En at that time were lawless and chaotic, and allowed the soldiers to rob the people of their property. Only the army led by Liu Yu had strict laws and regulations, and no crime was committed wherever they went.Such a model army naturally won the support of the people, and Liu Yu's good reputation gradually spread.

Since then, Juzhang City (now south of Ningbo, Zhejiang Province) guarded by Liu Yu has become the first important front against Sun En. Sun En's several landings were all repelled by Liu Yu.He is not only brave, but also resourceful.In the fifth year of Long'an (401 A.D.), he built a city in the Haiyan area to guard against Sun En's new round of invasion. Due to the weak force in the city, he selected hundreds of death squads, took off their armor, held short weapons, and beat them with drums. go out of town.Sun En's men had never seen such a mighty force before, they were so frightened that they lost all fighting spirit, they threw down their helmets and armor, and suffered heavy casualties.Although Liu Yu won consecutive battles, Sun En continued to besiege, and the army in the city was outnumbered and very passive.

Liu Yu's joining the army was not for nothing. After analyzing the characteristics of the enemy and ourselves, he ordered the army in the city to lower their flags one night, hide them, and make a gesture of retreating.The next morning, the city gate was opened, and a few old and weak soldiers who had no combat effectiveness climbed up the tower to guard it.Sun En's subordinates were deeply surprised when they saw the changes on the tower, and asked from a distance, "Where did Liu Yu go?" En's followers had suffered so much from Liu Yu, they were overjoyed when they heard this remark, they would not consider the truth, they flocked into the city without any precautions.The result can be imagined, Liu Yu commanded the army ambushing in the city, suddenly broke out, smashed the enemy army, and completely shattered Sun En's confidence in winning.

Sun En saw that there was no hope of attacking the city, so he moved to Hudu (the lower reaches of the Wusong River) instead.Liu Yu decided to abandon the city to pursue. Bao Hou, the magistrate of Haiyan County, saw that Liu Yu had won the battle.Liu Yu felt uncomfortable, and suggested: "The bandits are strong, and the local army has fought too little. I'm afraid they are no match. If the vanguard loses, the whole army will be defeated. Why don't you let your army stand behind to support you?" Bao Hou and his son insisted. Not from. In order to make up for the old problem of insufficient troops, Liu Yu set up many ambushes that night and equipped them with banners and drums. In fact, there were only a few people in each place.The next day, as soon as the enemy fought with Bao Sizhi's vanguard, Liu Yu's ambush soldiers took advantage of the momentum and marched out, raising flags and beating drums.Sun En's men thought that there were ambushes on all sides, so they hurriedly withdrew.Bao Sizhi took advantage of the situation to catch up, and soon fell into a tight siege and lost his life. The vanguard army was then defeated, just like Liu Yu's prophecy. It can be seen that even in troubled times, not everyone can be Liu Yu.

Liu Yu's army fought and retreated, the enemy's strength was strong, and Liu Yu's soldiers were killed and wounded, and the situation was extremely bad.At this time Liu Yu retreated to the place where he set up an ambush the night before. Seeing the corpses of dead soldiers everywhere, he had a plan and ordered the left and right to stop retreating.When the enemy chased close, they saw a strange scene: Liu Yu's soldiers were busy taking off the dead man's clothes, and they acted calmly, with no intention of retreating.The enemy army was quite surprised, and had lingering fears about the previous ambush, suspecting that Liu Yu still had an ambush, and hesitated to move forward.Liu Yu took the opportunity to shout for battle with a fierce expression.The enemy army panicked and hurriedly led the army back. Liu Yu then led the army to retreat slowly and returned safely to the command post.

(Liu Yu's move can also be regarded as a disguised "empty city strategy". Just in terms of these few battles, he was not a gangster who went out of the army from the beginning, but a very talented general. Not only will you be able to win battles, but you will also be very good at defeating battles—don’t underestimate this point. Many talented people can’t do this well. In war, it’s taboo to be defeated. It’s out of control. In many cases, failure is not terrible. The real loss was heavy. Liu Yu's ability to "defeat but not collapse" is probably one of the key characteristics for him to stand out and become the most outstanding general in the late Eastern Jin Dynasty. When it comes to "empty city strategy", there have been many famous people in history. For example, Zhuge Liang’s empty city plan, which is the most widely spread, is not true. The difficulty of using troops lies in the fiction and reality. The difficulty of distinguishing history is precisely in the fiction and reality.)

Sun En didn't catch Liu Yu, but he finally freed up his hands to break through Hudu, and took advantage of the victory to march by water, until he reached Liu Yu's hometown Dantu. Huge, shocked the Jiankang government and the public.At this time, Liu Laozhi was stationed in Shanyin (now Shaoxing, Zhejiang), and he had no time to reinforce, so he ordered Liu Yu to go forward from Haiyan to stop Sun En.Liu Yu and Sun En's army met in the Dantu area. The situation at that time was: Liu Yu's army was less than a thousand people, traveling day and night, coming from a long distance, already exhausted, and the local defenders in Dantu had no fighting spirit; Sun En has tens of thousands of followers, the gap between the two sides is huge, and everyone is sweating for Liu Yu.Unexpectedly, Liu Yu had decided to be Sun En's nemesis. Sun En, who hadn't met an opponent for several months, met Liu Yu's army face to face, and was immediately defeated.His followers climbed Suanshan Mountain, thinking that they had a favorable position and that it would be easy to capture Dantu, but they were immediately attacked by Liu Yu, and they collapsed at the first touch. They either fell off the cliff and died or fell into the water and drowned.Sun En fled back to the boat in embarrassment. After this defeat, Sun En did not dare to land easily again, and was even more afraid of Liu Yu.Relying on a large number of people and a large ship, he reorganized his troops and marched towards Jiankang.Sima Yuanxian, who was guarding Jiankang, was no match, and he was defeated repeatedly. Fortunately, Sun En's building boat was unable to speed up due to the headwind.Soon after Sun En heard that Liu Laozhi had rushed back to Jiankang, he felt guilty and moved north along the coastline, occupying the loosely guarded coastal town of Yuzhou (now Lianyungang, Jiangsu).Seeing Liu Yu's outstanding military exploits, the Eastern Jin court promoted him to be the prefect of Xiapi to attack Yuzhou.Sure enough, Liu Yu defeated Sun En's main force again and drove Sun En back to the sea. Sun En's power has been in decline since then, but the declining Eastern Jin regime has not improved at all, but has fallen into many crises.No one expected that the ensuing internal strife in the south of the Yangtze River would make Liu Yu, who had made his fortune by fighting, a first-class protagonist on the political stage in the early Southern and Northern Dynasties.