Chapter 13 12. Lost Chang'an's Imperial Industry

After Liu Yu's army wiped out Qin, all Yao Qiang was killed, Guanzhong was shaken, and all the neighboring countries originally held a wait-and-see attitude, but now they are afraid that they will be the next unlucky one.Tuoba Northern Wei, who had just learned the lesson but was powerful in Yuezhen, didn't dare to think about Liu Yu for the time being.Qifu Chipan of the Western Qin Dynasty has always been an enemy of the Later Qin Dynasty and harassed the western border of the Later Qin Dynasty. At this time, he tried his best to show his favor to Liu Yu and took the initiative to help the Jin army sweep away the sporadic rebels on the border.Northern Liang in Juqu Mengxun in the northwest was originally an ally with the Later Qin Dynasty, and panicked at this moment.An official named Liu Xiang under Juqu Mengxun met him. It happened that he was in a good mood that day, and Juqu Mengxun noticed it.Juqu Mengxun said angrily: "You heard that Liu Yu has entered the customs, right? He looks so good!" As he said that, he beheaded—the anxiety was evident.

With such a good situation, it is not impossible to continue to create new achievements.However, Liu Yu, who has been one-sided throughout the entire state of Jin, decided to withdraw his troops and return to Jiankang. Why is this? According to "Book of Songs" and "Southern History", it was because Liu Muzhi died of illness, and Liu Yu was worried about trouble in the rear, so he had to go back in person; according to "Tongjian", except for the mutation factor of Liu Muzhi's illness, The fundamental reason for the generals' reluctance to stay in Chang'an was that they wanted to return after a long battle.In my opinion, neither of these points is very reliable.

Let's talk about the rear first. Liu Yu has spent more than ten years clearing away all rebellious and dissident forces, and has placed his absolute cronies everywhere.For example, in addition to Liu Yifu, the eldest son Liu Yifu who stayed behind in Jiankang, Xu Xianzhi and Wang Hong, who were assisted by Liu Yu, were all single-handedly promoted by Liu Yu. Others like Liu Yilong from Xuzhou and Liu Daolian from Jingzhou are either sons or brothers, and they are surrounded by people. His subordinates are very stable.Although Liu Yu was dissatisfied that Xu Xianzhi asked Chang'an for instructions on everything, he could definitely transfer a capable assistant from his side to Jiankang to replace him, and there was no need to hurry back. "Putting one hair will move the whole body", Liu Yu shouldn't understand this truth, and he won't understand it.

Secondly, although the soldiers of the Eastern Jin Dynasty said that it has been a year, it is not too long, not to mention that most of the soldiers have made a fortune after conquering Chang'an, which is a good time to start a family and start a business.Chang'an was the capital of the emperors, with fertile fields thousands of miles away, and easy to defend but hard to attack. Although Jiankang was quite prosperous at that time, it was a "land of barbarians" after all. It can be seen that the attachment of historians is sometimes very far-fetched and cannot withstand scrutiny.The real reasons why Liu Yu returned to Jiankang may be: 1. Liu Yu, who was born in a poor family, has been fighting north and south for more than ten years, and he already feels that he has made enough money.Just like a nouveau riche, what he cares about is his own interests. Other immortal achievements and historical status are obviously not within his consideration, and his greatest interest is to be an orthodox emperor. He will do any action that is conducive to his proclaiming emperor; Second, although Liu Yu intends to manage Guanzhong, he may not have a thorough understanding of the situation in the north. Well, when Liu Yu withdrew his troops, there were indeed elders who went to cry and complain about the bitter stay, but that should be only a minority.The ancestral mausoleum is still there, and the people are no longer the same. Under the national consciousness of "if you are not of my race, your heart must be different", it is too difficult for Liu Yu, who was born in the south of the Yangtze River, to deal with such a Chang'an.The huge gap between reality and imagination made Liu Yu give up the only remaining ideal. (Ideals and ambitions often have to succumb to reality. This has been the greatest frustration of countless scholars throughout the ages. I don’t know whether to say that ideals are too empty or reality is too cruel.)

Cui Hao and Helian Bobo both accurately realized these two points.The former persuaded Tuoba Si to stay in the army to observe the changes, while the latter accepted the surrender of the towns in the northern Qinling Mountains that the Eastern Jin Dynasty had not yet arrived in time, and at the same time mobilized his troops vigorously. Once Liu Yu returned to the east, he sent his troops south. Liu Yu stayed in Chang'an for three months before leaving.He appointed his second son, Liu Yizhen, who was only 12 years old, as the governor of Yongzhou and Qinzhou, and stayed in Chang'an; Together with Wang Xiu, he assisted Liu Yizhen in Chang'an.In addition, Liu Yu also left Shen Tianzi, Mao Dezu, Fu Hongzhi and others to deal with important military affairs.

Liu Yu's arrangement was the most criticized by later generations. There were countless great people in the Northern Expedition Army, and everyone led troops to fight at the top level, but they basically didn't understand the spirit of cooperation, and they refused to obey each other.This kind of behavior, just like Zhuge Liang left Yang Yi and Wei Yan to cause internal strife, will cause problems sooner or later.Before Liu Yu left, Shen Tianzi, Fu Hongzhi and others made small reports at Liu Yu's place. They first said: "Yao Hong's imperial chariot is hidden in Wang Zhen's evil house, and he wants to rebel!" Liu Yu sent someone to see it. , Wang Zhen'e picked off the gold, silver and jewelry from the imperial chariot, and left the car in the corner, which made Liu Yu feel at ease.Afterwards, Shen Tianzi said: "Wang Zhen'e's grandfather, Wang Meng, is very popular in Guanzhong. He is guarding Chang'an and cannot be trusted." If you have a different intention, you will just kill yourself, so you don’t need to say more.” In private, Liu Yu said to Shen Tianzi: “Back then, Zhonghui failed in chaos because of Wei Guan. As the saying goes: ‘A beast is not as good as a group of foxes. ’, you a dozen fierce generals, are you afraid that you won’t be able to deal with a Wang Zhen’e?”

These words were terrible, Shen Tianzi had always disliked Wang Zhen'e, but now that he got Liu Yu's hint, he started plotting to get rid of Wang Zhen'e. Liu Yu finally left Chang'an with a large force and headed for the Kanto.He Lianbo in the north was very excited, and he asked Wang Maide, the minister beside him: "I want to attack Guanzhong, you can plan a way." Wang Maide analyzed: "Liu Yu left only the unfinished part of such an important place in Guanzhong. The grown-up son guard is in a hurry to go back to usurp the throne, and he will never want to return to the Central Plains. This is a godsend in Guanzhong, and this opportunity cannot be missed. We should send troops to cut off the two dangerous north-south points of Qingni and Shangluo, and then return to the Central Plains. Block Tongguan in the east, block the water and land routes, and then pass it on to the central pass, and give the common people all the power and virtue, and when the time comes, capturing Liu Yizhen's child will be like searching for something."

According to his plan, He Lianbo sent his son Fujun General Helian Gui to lead 20,000 cavalry forward to attack Chang'an. The former general He Lianchang attacked Tongguan and cut off the passage of the Jin army. He led the army as his successor. In the fourteenth year of Yixi in the Eastern Jin Dynasty (AD 418), Helian Gui's cavalry arrived north of the Weishui River and approached the North Gate of Chang'an. Countless Guanzhong surrendered along the way.The Chang'an defenders in the Eastern Jin Dynasty had no fighting spirit. Shen Tianzi went to resist, but he was afraid of the enemy and retreated to Liu Huibao outside Chang'an City.

When Wang Zhen'e heard the news, he complained angrily: "Mr. Liu entrusted us with his ten-year-old son. We should do our best to assist him. How can we put down the Hulu if the soldiers don't come in?" Shen Tianzi hated him even more. Wang Zhen evil. Soon, Wang Zhen'e and Shen Tianzi went out of the city to resist Helian Gui.Shen Tianzi asked people to spread rumors in the army: "Wang Zhen'e is going to kill all the southerners, and they are rebelling in Guanzhong!" Then, he summoned Wang Zhen'e to Fu Hongzhi's tent to discuss matters under an excuse, and took the opportunity to kill him. (It's a pity that a generation of famous generals, Wang Zhenxi, did not die in battle, but died at the hands of his colleagues. It is sad and lamentable!)

Fu Hongzhi got the news and reported back to Liu Yizhen and Wang Xiu.Wang Xiu went to the north city of Chang'an to look around, saw Shen Tianzi returning to the city with a dozen people, he immediately ordered his men to hold Shen Tianzi down, reprimanded him, and then beheaded him.An internal strife caused the Eastern Jin Dynasty to lose two strong generals for no reason, which was enough to make Liu Yu complain, and He Lian applauded vigorously.Fortunately, Fu Hongzhi led his troops to defeat Helian Gui, chased him all the way to Widowdu (now Qingyang North, Gansu Province), and temporarily repelled Xia's army before stabilizing the situation.

Wang Xiu quelled the civil strife, and his life was hard to save. Only half a year later, Liu Yizhen listened to the slander, thinking that "Wang Zhen'e wanted to rebel, Shen Tianzi killed him, and Wang Xiu killed Shen Tianzi, which means Wang Xiu also wanted to rebel." (This logic of "negatives make positives" is nonsense, but Liu Yizhen is willing to believe it), so he sent his men to kill Wang Xiu.This is good, the people in Chang'an are panicked, Liu Yizhen is deeply disturbed, and hastily transferred the garrison from other places to Chang'an for defense.Seeing that the Jin army showed weakness, Daxia's army lost no time to make a comeback. Counties and counties outside Chang'an surrendered to Xia State one after another, and the powerful army marched into Xianyang without bloodshed. Liu Yu was stationed in Pengcheng at this time. Knowing the situation ahead, he realized that Guanzhong was in danger, but he had to put on a stance, so he sent Kuai En to Chang'an to recall Liu Yizhen, and then sent Zhu Lingshi to guard Chang'an on Liu Yizhen's behalf. Send Zhu Chaoshi to work in Hedong and other places. (For this gesture, the lives of three generals were lost in vain, which shows that Liu Yu is too selfish at this time.) When Zhu Lingshi came to Chang'an, the scene in front of him was the insatiable Liu Yizhen and his soldiers plundering the property of the people in Chang'an (this also shows that Chang'an was still quite rich at that time).When they left Chang'an, they all carried luggage, treasures, and beauties and moved forward slowly.The 30,000 cavalry of Helian Gui behind him were not far away.Fu Hongzhi persuaded Liu Yizhen to give up his luggage, march lightly, and get rid of Xia Jun's pursuit.Liu Yizhen didn't listen, retreated to Qingni, bumped into Wang Maide who had been waiting here for a long time, looked back, Helian Gui had also arrived, the Jin army was no match, and instantly collapsed.After Fu Hongzhi and Kuai En broke up, they covered Liu Yizhen and left first. Both of them were captured by Wang Maide.Liu Yi was really fast, walking ahead, and later hid in the grass, and was protected by Duan Hong, a Chinese soldier who joined the army, before he escaped Xia Bing's pursuit.The entire Jin army was wiped out, and the general who was obsessed with property and beautiful women finally suffered greedy retribution. The retribution was not over yet, and Zhu Lingshi also suffered along with him. After Liu Yizhen left, the people of Chang'an completely lost their favor for the Jin people. They took sticks and stones to expel Zhu Lingshi.Zhu Lingshi was forced to flee to Tongguan, where he met his younger brother Zhu Chaoshi on the way, but this trip was already planned by Wang Maide. He Lianchang was stationed in Tongguan. He cut off the Jin army's waterway and captured the Zhu brothers alive.Helian vigorously entered Chang'an and killed Fu Hongzhi, Zhu Lingshi and almost all Liu Yu's favorite generals. Only Mao Xiuzhi surrendered and saved his life. Maybe it's because he's old and has lost the vigor of the past. He thought back to Liu Yu's "lion's roar" to defeat the enemy, what a majestic scene it would have been, but now he is "busy" all day long for the crown on his head.Perhaps because of the glory, wealth and achievements of the emperor, the eyes are confused, and the former brave generals of the Beifu army have become power ministers who are greedy for profit.Liu Yu, who returned to Jiankang, finally no longer refused, and was granted the titles of Xiangguo, Song Gong, and Jiuxi.Then, he sent his men to hang Jin'an Emperor Sima Dezong to death, and changed his younger brother Sima Dewen to be the emperor, that is, Jin Gongdi. Compared with his idiot brother, Sima Dewen is much more qualified to be an emperor, but in the last days, even if he has talent, he has nowhere to use it.The reason why Liu Yu established him was simply because the prophecy said that "there will be two emperors after Changming" (Changming refers to Jin Xiaowu Emperor Sima Yao (word Changming)), and it is necessary to establish another emperor to make up the "two emperors". In the first year of Emperor Gong of Jin Yuanxi (419 A.D.), Liu Yu went one step further and was named king of Song Dynasty.In the second year, with the assistance of Zhongshuling Fu Liang, he forced Sima Dewen to abdicate and proclaimed himself emperor in Jiankang as Emperor Gaozu Wu of Song Dynasty.He set two precedents: the first one is that he brutally killed the old emperor of the Zen throne. It is not too surprising that he was born in a poor family, but it is such a bad example that has been used for five generations. Second, he was the first emperor to receive Zen in Jiankang (Huanxuan is not counted). Without Chang'an, he could not set his capital in Luoyang, and his quality was greatly reduced.Fortunately, he opened the prelude to the first ruling situation in the Southern Dynasty.