Chapter 5 3. Wen "Da" and Wu "Yao"

After Liu Yuan became the King of Han, he stepped up his preparations for the conquest of the Jin Dynasty, and at the same time tried hard to recruit talents. He had two men under his command, one civil and one military, who were very famous. One was Chen Yuanda, the rear of the Huns, and the other was Liu Yuan's clan Zi Jianwu General Liu Yao. Chen Yuanda was born in a very poor family, but he "has little ambition". He has been farming while studying since he was a child, and he is quite talented.But until he was forty years old, he rarely communicated with the outside world, let alone achieved any achievements.

When Liu Yuan was King Zuoxian, he heard about his talent and wanted to recruit him as an official (there were no imperial examinations in the Jin Dynasty, and the officials mainly followed the "chaju levy" practiced in the Han Dynasty in addition to being hereditary. In the Wei and Jin Dynasties, this system was not popular due to the implementation of the "Nine Grades of Zhongzheng System"), Chen Yuanda did not agree. When Liu Yuan became the King of Han, someone asked Yuan Da: "When Liu Gong was not high-ranking, he recruited you, but you ignored him. Now that he is King of Han, how is it? Are you afraid?"

Chen Yuanda smiled lightly, and said: "What are you talking about? This person is extraordinary, and he has the ambition to tolerate the universe. I have known this for a long time. The reason why I didn't go back then was that his luck hadn't come yet. I couldn't do it all. I'll chatter by his side when I'm free, Liu Gong must know my heart. Just watch, I don't expect his letter to arrive in two or three days." Sure enough, that night, Liu Yuan sent someone to recruit Chen Yuanda to be Huang Menlang (equivalent to a senior secretary, a person who advises).The original person who had ridiculed him couldn't help exclaiming: "You are too amazing!"

When Chen Yuanda came to Liu Yuan's tent, Liu Yuan complained to him, "If you came early, you would be just a Langguan." Chen Yuanda replied: "I think that people's talents have their own 'points', and letting others have their 'points' will put the cart before the horse. If I came earlier, I am afraid that the king will give me a Jiuqing, Nayan or something. It's not my 'point', how can I bear it? So I have been waiting for the opportunity, and when my 'point' arrives, I will come naturally, so that everyone can avoid possible troubles, isn't it great?" Liu Yuan Overjoyed. (People need to have self-knowledge. Chen Yuanda knows what he can do well and what he can't do well. He can be said to be superior to others by giving full play to what he is best at. I think his words are worth pondering.)

Liu Yao is a descendant of Liu Yuan.He was an orphan since he was a child, and Liu Yuan raised him as his son.This kid has been outstanding since he was a child. When he was eight years old, he went out hunting with Liu Yuan. When it rained heavily, he took shelter under a big tree. Suddenly, a thunderstorm struck and everyone fell down. Only Liu Yao looked calm. .Even Liu Yuan exclaimed in amazement: "This child is my family's Maxima!" He thought that based on these performances, the future is immeasurable. Liu Yao's martial arts is very good, and his arrows are precise, shooting iron and penetrating. At that time, he was called "Shenshe", and he often compared himself to Le Yi and Xiao Cao (it seems that these are not Zhuge Kongming's patents). Liu Cong, the son of Liu Yuan, always said, "Yongming (Liu Yao's character) is someone like Liu Xiu and Cao Cao. What's the point of Le Yi and Xiao Cao?"

Liu Yao has a lonely personality and is not very social. When he was young, he often wandered around the world. When he was twenty years old, he committed a crime in Luoyang and fled to North Korea. Fortunately, he was amnesty and returned to the Central Plains. Liu Yao felt that his temperament was different, and he might not tolerate it in the world, so he hid in Guancen Mountain, and made friends with Qin and books all day long.One night in the mountains, I suddenly saw two boys coming forward and said, "King Guan Cen ordered us to meet the Emperor Zhao and offer a sword." The two left with their swords.Liu Yao looked at it with a candle, but saw that the sword was two feet long and had an unusual luster. The scabbard was decorated with red jade, and there was an inscription on the back: "Excalibur, removes all poisons." This sword can also adapt to the temperature and climate of the four seasons. Changing the color, Liu Yao thought it was a treasure, so he wore it on his body. (This story seems to have the style of martial arts novels, quite similar to Lao Jin's usual "style". "Book" has been criticized as an official history, but from a reading point of view, more such interesting and bizarre records add a bit of color to the plain historical facts.)

There are quite a few talents like Chen Yuanda and Liu Yao under Liu Yuan's command, and they are not rare.For those who came to join him, Liu Yuan generally regarded them as talents, so it was no accident that Liu Yuan's power continued to grow in the Hedong area. At this time, the Jin Dynasty in the Central Plains, which was already in chaos, saw someone rebelling again, so they sent people to crusade.Sima Teng sent his subordinate Nie Xuan to attack Liu Yuan. The two armies fought in Daling. Nie Xuan's army was defeated. Sima Teng led more than 20,000 households in Bingzhou to flee to Shandong. Liu Yuan sent Liu Yao and the champion general Qiao Xi Taking advantage of the victory, he captured Taiyuan, the eldest son, Jiexiu and many other important places in the state.There was also a small episode in the process: when Qiao Xi invaded the isolated city of Jiexiu, Jia Hun, the county magistrate of Jiexiu, refused to surrender and was killed by Qiao Xi.Seeing Jia Hun's wife, Zongshi, who is young and beautiful, Qiao Xi has evil intentions and wants to take her as a concubine, but Zongshi insists on refusing to do so. While crying bitterly for her dead husband, Qiao Xi yells at Qiao Xi as a bullying "butcher" (Liu Yuan's tribe is also called Tu Ge, so they are called "Tu Ge Nu" by the Han people). He scolded Qiao Xi so annoyed that he killed her too.When this matter reached Liu Yuan's ears, he was furious and said, "If God knows, Qiao Xi, the son of a bitch, will definitely die!" At that moment, he ordered Jia Hun and his wife to be buried generously, and Qiao Xi was demoted to the fourth rank as a warning to everyone else. .The people in Jiexiu miss the loyalty and unyieldingness of Jia Hun and his wife, and there is still a hall dedicated to them, called Longtian Temple.Although Liu Yuan's behavior of chasing and respecting loyal ministers inevitably contained elements of "rebellious ministers and thieves" showing off, it can also reflect that Liu Yuan attached great importance to the support of the people during this period.

In the second year (AD 305), Sima Teng, unwilling to fail, sent Sima Yu, Zhou Liang, Shi Xian and other generals to attack Liu Yuan. The two armies met in the area of ​​Lishi Fen City. All the elite cavalry resisted the enemy with all their strength, and once again defeated the Jin army who had no fighting spirit and fled.Liu Yuan fought four times with Sima Yu's army in Bingzhou. He won consecutive battles, making it impossible for the Jin army to organize resistance for a while. The wave of rebellion intensified.The Li family in central Shu, who started as a refugee uprising, was not satisfied with the status of the newly proclaimed king of Chengdu at this time, and wanted to proclaim himself emperor.Let's leave Liu Yuan aside for the time being, and let's take a look at how the second country in the Sixteen Kingdoms, Li's Chengguo, made its fortune.