Chapter 30 12. Huan Wen destroys Han

Some people say that despite the thousands of years of Chinese history, there has been little progress.Thinking about it carefully, these words are indeed reasonable, and similar situations are always repeated in Chinese history.But similar situations sometimes lead to different endings.The influence of Zhuge Liang's "Longzhong Dui" on future generations may not have even occurred to him.The Yellow River Basin in the north and Wu and Shu in the south often belonged to different separatist regimes in each divided historical period, perhaps due to the differences in climate and regional environment.The final result of the unification of the three places is always that the northern regime first destroys the regime in Shu, and then attacks the regime in Wu from two directions in a way of advancing both land and water, so as to achieve unification.The first and most typical time this method was implemented was Sima's first destroying Shu Han and then destroying Soochow.Zhao Kuangyin also destroyed Shu first, and then conquered the Southern Tang Dynasty. Even the nomadic Mongols were no exception. The so-called "destroy Dali first, and then destroy the Southern Song Dynasty" has the same reason.The only exception to this is the "Battle of Feishui", which will be described in detail later.

However, when Shihu, who controlled the north, faced a similar situation of division, he failed to follow suit and unify China.The situation at that time was that Hou Zhao in the north formed an alliance with Cheng Han in the southwest, while Qianyan in the northeast and Qianliang in the northwest still regarded the Eastern Jin in the southeast as orthodox on the surface.The relationship between Later Zhao and Cheng Han was exactly the opposite of that of Wei and Shu during the Three Kingdoms period. Zhao and Han maintained friendly envoys exchanges. In addition, Shi Hu always regarded the Eastern Jin Dynasty as his biggest enemy, and the northern threat of Cheng Han was relatively small.The monarchs and ministers on this side of the Eastern Jin Dynasty all took the ending of the Three Kingdoms as a warning, and regarded Later Zhao and Cheng Han as their enemies, for fear that the Western Jin Dynasty would destroy Wu. "The power of two evils is the lesser." Apart from relying on the steep terrain, Cheng Han was much weaker than Later Zhao. The Eastern Jin Dynasty had already made Cheng Han the first choice for crusade, and this task was finally realized by Huan Wen.

Huan Wen's father, Huan Yi Guan, worshiped the prefect of Xuancheng, and was killed in the battle of Sujun Rebellion. Huan Wen found out that Jiang Bo, the county magistrate of Jing County, was among the participants who killed his father.Huan Wen was fifteen years old at the time, and he had already made up his mind to avenge his blood feud.At the age of eighteen, Jiang Bo died, and the three sons hid their sharp knives in the mourning hall to prevent Huan Wen from avenging him.Huan Wen had the murder weapon in his arms, disguised himself as a mourner's guest, sneaked into the mourning hall, took advantage of people's surprise, and stabbed the enemy's three sons one by one.The deeds of Huan Wen's revenge were widely circulated. Not only was he not convicted, but he also became a model of filial piety for a while. (It can be seen that the law at that time was really not very good, and it was overridden by the ethical system.)

As an adult, Huan Wen has a majestic figure, a bold personality and a good manners. His appearance is a bit "cool" in today's words. People who know him well think that he is someone like Sun Quan and Sima Yi.Because of his fame and talent, Huan Wen was able to marry Princess Nankang, the daughter of Emperor Cheng, as his wife. At that time, the Yu brothers were in power in the court, and Huan Wen had a close relationship with Yu Yi, the younger brother of the two brothers. own responsibility.Yu Yi also recommended Huan Wen to Emperor Cheng many times, hoping that he would not treat Huan Wen in the same way as ordinary people.

Yu Yi died before he had done a big job, and at this time the Eastern Jin emperor had also passed on to the fifth, Emperor Kang's son Mudi Sima Dan.Emperor Mu was only two years old when he came to the throne. He was a typical young emperor, and He Chong, the supervisor of Zhongshu, controlled the power in the court.He Chong also appreciated Huan Wen's talent very much, so he appointed him to replace Yu Yi as governor of Jingzhou and general Anxi.Lu Kang, the great general of the Eastern Wu Dynasty, once said that Jingchu "survives as Wu survives, and dies as Wu perishes." The importance of the position of governor of Jingzhou to the Eastern Jin Dynasty is self-evident.

At the end of Li Shou's period in Chenghan, the country has become a state of subjugation.The envoys sent by Li Shou to Hou Zhao came back from Yecheng, boasting of the prosperity of Yecheng and the magnificence of the palace.Hearing this, Li Shou felt itchy in his heart, and actually followed Shihu's example, building the imperial palace wantonly, and emigrating a large number of people from the counties under his rule into Chengdu to enrich the population of the capital.To deal with guilty people, he also used indiscriminate killing methods, and there were not a few ministers who were executed for direct remonstrance.The people in central Shu are destitute and full of complaints. (Li Shou didn't learn from the rising former Yan, but picked a later Zhao who was strong but capable. The "effect" was that he died a few years earlier than Later Zhao.)

In the sixth year of Chenghan Hanxing (343 A.D.), Li Shou died of illness, and the prince Li Shi came to the throne. This is an emperor who is even more licentious and ignores state affairs.Li Shi suspected his younger brother Li Guang of rebellion, forced him to death, and executed Li Shoushi's former ministers Xie Siming and Ma Dang.General Li Yi was dissatisfied with Li Shi, and started a rebellion from Jinshou, attacking Chengdu. Many common people in Sichuan followed him, and Emperor Li Shi went to the city to defend himself, and finally eliminated Li Yi. Huan Wen always paid attention to the trend of Shu in Jingzhou. He felt that the time was ripe to destroy Cheng Han, and he was ready to attack Han in the second year of Jinmu Emperor Yonghe (346 A.D.).Regarding this attack on Cheng Han, the opinions of the Eastern Jin Dynasty are also quite inconsistent.Opponents believed that the road to Shu was dangerous and far away, and if Huan Wen's army went deep, Hou Zhao's army might also sneak attack behind it, which was inevitable.Yuan Qiao, Prime Minister of Jiang Xia, urged Huan Wen, the two enemies of Han and Zhao, and the weak Han and Zhao Qiang, should adopt the method of first easy and then difficult (hehe, this is similar to Zhao Kuangyin's idea of ​​unifying the world); Li Shi Wudao, the subjects have long been divided , dare to rely on the danger and distance, do not repair the war preparations, the Jin army can select 10,000 elite soldiers to enter the Shu land quickly, pass through the dangerous area before the Han army finds out, and win a battle; and the Shu land is very rich, Zhuge Liang assisted the Shu Han, It has been operating for many years to fight against the Central Plains, and has strong basic resources. The capture of Chenghan is also of great benefit to the economy of the Eastern Jin Dynasty.As for the possible attack by Hou Zhao's army, Yuan Qiao believed that this view was specious. Without knowing the inside story, Hou Zhao could not know whether the Eastern Jin Dynasty was prepared against it, and would not easily invade the south.Taking a step back, even if Zhao Zhen went south, the Jin army along the river would be enough to resist.Huan Wen listened to Yuan Qiao's opinion, strengthened his confidence, and took Yuan Qiao as the vanguard to lead two thousand soldiers to send troops to the west.

Li Shi didn't dare to be negligent, so he hurriedly dispatched troops, and asked his uncle Li Fu, cousin Li Quan, and former general Zan Jian to command him, preparing to wait for the arrival of the Jin army.Unexpectedly, before the war started, there were problems within the Han army. Zan Jian ignored the suggestion of his generals to set up an ambush south of the Yangtze River, and sent troops to Qianwei in the north of the Yangtze River alone to guard against the Jin army. A few days later, Huan Wen's army arrived at Pengmo (now southeast of Mount Pengshan, Sichuan), and left and right believed that the two armies should be divided to resist the Han army.Yuan Qiao said: "Our army has penetrated thousands of miles away. We can only win but not be defeated. We should unite our troops in one place, go into battle lightly, attack with all our strength, and fight quickly. If we divide our troops into two places, the goals are different. As long as one army has If you make a mistake, you will have no chance of victory!" Huan Wen thought so, and he left the weak troops behind and personally led the elite infantry to attack Chengdu.

The army of Cheng Han had no fighting spirit for a long time, and the troops of Li Fu, Li Quan and others who fought against Huan Wen along the way surrendered without defeat.Zan Jian's army foolishly waited in Qianwei, but did not see Huan Wen's army. When they returned, they realized that Huan Wen's army had already stationed ten miles outside the city of Chengdu, and Zan Jian's soldiers would collapse without fighting. At this time, Li Shi was still fantasizing about defending the city of Chengdu and "fighting to the last ditch" to repel the Jin soldiers.Huan Wen's vanguard was unfavorable in the first battle. Yuan Qiao drew his sword to supervise the battle. The low-morale Cheng Han army gradually became no match. Huan Wen took advantage of the momentum to attack the city of Chengdu and set fire to the city gate.Li Shi had no choice but to open the east gate and escape from Chengdu, and fled to Jiameng (today's east of Jiange, Sichuan). Thinking that he had no future, he sent someone to hand over the surrender form to Huan Wen, and bound him face to face with Huan Wen's army to surrender.

(In this battle, apart from Huan Wen’s commendable decision, the guidelines put forward by the vanguard Yuan Qiao also played a very crucial role in the strategic battle. Unfortunately, he died young shortly after the battle and was unable to continue to demonstrate his military strength. talent.) It took less than half a year before and after the war of Huanwen's destruction of the Han Dynasty. The year of Chenghan's demise was the third year of Yonghe, Emperor Mu of Jin Dynasty (347 A.D.).So far, the Eastern Jin Dynasty has regained control of the three prefectures of Yi, Liang, and Ning, and at the same time held Wu and Shu.With the success of this battle, Huan Wen can enter the "Hall of Fame of Sixteen Nations".

When Huan Wen sent troops, there was a discussion in the Eastern Jin Dynasty. Among the many objections, only Huan Wen's friend Liu Tun believed that Huan Wen would win.Someone asked him why he was so sure, Liu Tun replied: "This can be seen from gambling. Huan Wen is a good gambler. He will never take risks if he is not absolutely sure. I am afraid that after conquering Shu, Huan Wen will take power in the court." The development of subsequent events proved the correctness of Liu Tun's prediction.The appearance of Huan Wen seems to have added another handful of salt to the chaotic and lively situation of the Sixteen Kingdoms. It is even more unpredictable for the princes to fight for hegemony.