Chapter 38 Two, the one-eyed demon king

Huan Wen did not march easily, and did not take advantage of the opportunity of high morale to eliminate the former Qin in one go.Huan Wen had his own ideas, and of course there were objective reasons. For example, Sima Xun who sent troops to Ziwu Valley was caught by the former Qin Prime Minister Fu Xiong and lost the battle, which shook Huan Wen's confidence in winning. Huan Wen's stagnation during the Northern Expedition has been criticized by historians. Their biggest basis is the passage that Wang Meng, who was a bystander at the time and came to Huan Wen's camp to listen, said while pinching his lice: "Ming You have traveled thousands of miles and penetrated into the enemy's territory. Now Chang'an is very close, but you have not crossed the Bashui River. The heroes in Guanzhong don't know what is in your heart, so they don't come to see you." Huan Wen, who is always domineering, responded to this question. The reaction was actually silent, and it took a while to look around and sigh: "There is no such person as Mr. Jiangdong!"

Of course, it’s not that Huan Wen doesn’t want to pacify the north (since the fall of the Western Jin Dynasty, the Eastern Jin Dynasty and the northern countries have always regarded each other as enemies. Among the sixteen countries, there are only a few countries such as the Han regime “Qianliang” A few, it makes no sense to say that Huan Wen does not want to destroy Qin. What's more, Huan Wen is a very successful person who "can't live forever, but will be infamous for thousands of years"), but the north can't be done just by talking about it. Brothers Fu Jian and Fu Xiong are definitely not For those who are idle, the defeat in the first battle is mostly related to lack of preparation and underestimation of the enemy. Once they are forced into the city of Chang'an, they will naturally assume the stance of fighting to the death. It is better to plan for the long term.Because Huan Wen's rear in the Eastern Jin Dynasty was not monolithic, the Northern Expedition hit this part, which was just right for Huan Wen (Huan Wen appeared to be "smarter" than Yue Fei on this point, and had a much more thorough understanding of the situation between the enemy and ourselves).

The actual situation of the battle soon became unfavorable to the Eastern Jin Dynasty. Huan Wen and Fu Xiong fought again in Bailuyuan, and the Jin soldiers suffered heavy casualties.Wang Zhuo, who attacked Chencang, also gained and lost, and fled back to Liangzhou.Huan Wen and Fu Jian rushed to harvest the wheat in Guanzhong, but the people of Qin took another step ahead.Huan Wen had no rations and couldn't stay any longer, so he had to retreat back to Xiangyang. Huan Wen's first Northern Expedition ended with victory first and then defeat. (The situation of Huan Wen’s three Northern Expeditions is not too different from Zhuge Liang’s six expeditions to Qishan. The Shu army probably lost better, and Huan Wen was portrayed as a treacherous minister like Wang Mang and Cao Cao, so he was not praised by others, but compared with China’s Throughout the dynasties, the Northern Expedition had few victories, and Huanwen’s Northern Expedition did not waste the people and money too much. Although the effect was not great, it could show the attitude of the southern government to the countries that split in the north. also plays a role.)

Huan Wen was dissatisfied with this result, and there was another melee in the Heluo area. It turned out that Ran Min's general Zhou Cheng, who surrendered to the Eastern Jin Dynasty, defended Luoyang and rebelled again.Yao Xiang, the Qiang who defeated Yin Hao, claimed to be the Great Chanyu and occupied Xuchang. He also had the idea of ​​Luoyang. He besieged Luoyang, but failed to conquer it for more than a month. Huan Wen also saw an opportunity to restore the north, so he set off from Jiangling for the second time in the twelfth year of Yonghe (AD 356) and quickly reached Yishui. Yao Xiang hurriedly withdrew the army that besieged Luoyang, hid the elite soldiers in the woods north of Yishui, and sent an envoy to Huan Wen, saying: "The general led the king's division to come. I, Yao Xiang, are willing to surrender. Please retreat a little bit. I will go to the road with my subordinates to greet you."

Huan Wen was careful, and sternly refused: "I am here to recover the Central Plains and pay homage to the emperor's mausoleum. It has nothing to do with you. If you want to come, come and see. Anyway, it is right in front of you. What kind of envoy should you send? It's unnecessary!" Go ahead. Seeing that Huan Wen was indeed much stronger than Yin Hao, Yao Xiang refused to defend Yishui and fought Huan Wen in a decisive battle. He was defeated and thousands of people were killed or injured. Yao Xiang led his army back to Luoyang Beishan. (Although Yao Xiang suffered repeated defeats, because of his bravery and love for the people, the local people still follow him, old and young, and are unwilling to leave. His subordinate Yang Liang once said to Huan Wen who asked about Yao Xiang's personality: "Yao Xiang The degree of a god is someone like Sun Ce, but he is more powerful and brave than Sun Ce." Coincidentally, Yao Xiang really became Sun Ce's second, and Yao Xiang, who still underestimated his own strength a year later, wanted to seize it from the former Qin. In Guanzhong, he finally suffered the last disastrous defeat in his life and was beheaded by the general of the Qin army Fu Huangmei. He left the hope of recovering the great achievements of the Qiang people to Yao Chang, the younger brother of the former Qin who surrendered, and Yao Chang became the "Sun Quan" of the Qiang people in the future. ", and most of the military power it masters was laid down during the Yao Xiang era.)

Zhou Cheng in Luoyang City was exhausted by Yao Xiang's siege. When he saw the Eastern Jin army coming, he obediently left the city and surrendered.Huan Wen occupied Luoyang and repaired the mausoleum of the empress of the Western Jin Dynasty. In view of the failure of the last battle alone, he did not continue to advance north. After guarding Luoyang, he hurried back south. With the martial arts of the two Northern Expeditions, Huan Wen established a leading position in the Eastern Jin court, and the South took the defensive again until the third Northern Expedition thirteen years later.During this period, the status of the two great powers in the north gradually reversed.

Although the former Qin Dynasty saved Chang'an during Huan Wen's first Northern Expedition, Fu Jian's prince, Fu Chang, died of serious injuries. The third son, Fu Sheng, was extremely brave in the battle with Huan Wen, and was made emperor by Fu Jian. Prince. In the fifth year of Huangshi (355 A.D.), Fu Jian died, and Fu Sheng became the former Qin emperor.For the subjects of the former Qin Dynasty, these were the darkest three years. Fu Sheng killed many people and used cruel methods. Compared with him, Shi Hu, the tyrant of the later Zhao Dynasty, can only lament that he is "frightening to be born later".

Fu Sheng was born blind in one eye. His grandfather Fu Hong once teased him by saying to his servants, "I heard that a blind child has only one eye to shed tears, right?" Left and right responded, "Not bad." Fu Sheng was furious, he pulled out the saber from his waist and stabbed himself in the face, blood flowed out immediately, he said: "This is also tears!" Fu Hong was terrified and beat him with a whip, but Fu Sheng actually said, "I am born with swords and axes, not whips and hammers." Fu Hong said angrily: "If you continue to act like this, I will make you a slave for life!"

Fu Sheng replied, "How does it compare with Shi Le?" Fu Jian originally wanted to get rid of Fu Sheng, but he stayed because of Fu Xiong's dissuasion, but this stay ruined thousands of innocent lives. After Fu Sheng ascended the throne, he lived a dissolute and indulgent life, and he was a one-eyed tyrant who loved to kill.When he went to court, he often carried a bow, arrow and dagger, and put hammers, pliers, saws and other shocking instruments of torture beside him.He likes to drink too much.Once at a court banquet, Fu Sheng asked the minister to order Xin Lao to supervise the drinking, and after a while he scolded Xin Lao angrily: "Why don't you persuade him to drink? There are still people sitting at the banquet!" After speaking, he even drew his bow and shot Xin Lao to death at the banquet .

Fu Sheng took drinking as his greatest pleasure in life, and sometimes he judged state affairs when he was drunk, and he repeatedly killed innocent people indiscriminately by taking advantage of his drinking power.The officials waited for Fu Sheng to go to court, but they often couldn't see him, or waited until evening, and even if they did, there was no good result. Fu Sheng was always angry and only knew how to kill the ministers. He held a banquet for the ministers in Xianyang City, and all those who came late were beheaded.The imperial physicians in the palace were also doomed. An imperial physician named Cheng Yan ordered the concubine to be prescribed anti-fetal medicine, and Fu Sheng personally asked about the quality of ginseng and the dosage.Cheng Yan replied, "A little bit is enough." Fu Sheng decided that he was laughing at his own eyes, and ordered Cheng Yan's eyes to be dug out and beheaded.

People on the left and right said he was a sage and praised the peace of the world. He said, "This is flattering me." He was dragged out and chopped up.Some people said that his punishment was too severe. He said: "This is slandering me." He also proposed to behead him.His favored wives and concubines are also doomed to escape bad luck, as long as they are slightly unsatisfactory, they will be killed and discarded in Weishui.What's even more absurd is that he also let court ladies and men have naked intercourse in front of the hall, or skinned cattle and sheep, boiled chickens and ducks alive, and put them in the hall for appreciation, and even peeled off the faces of condemned prisoners to make them sing and dance for fun.Because he was one-eyed, Fu Sheng abstained from words such as "insufficient", "not possessed", "less", "none", "missing", and "disabled", and countless people died of violating the taboo. A large number of man-eating beasts appeared in the area from Tongguan to Chang'an. The officials asked to organize manpower to eradicate the beast disaster, but Fu Sheng said: "The wild beasts will eat people when they are hungry, and they will stop when they are full. Isn't this just God coming to help?" Do I punish the wicked?" Such a half-human, half-demon "one-eyed monster" would be fine if he was just an ordinary pervert (if he was born now, he would probably be on the front page of some "fantasy hunting" tabloids), but now he has become the emperor , the former Qin Dynasty has reached the critical point of life and death, it seems that our protagonist should appear on the stage.