Chapter 41 5. Murong's Sorrow

Murong Jun spent seven years cleaning up the mess in northern China since he killed Ran Min and proclaimed himself emperor in 352 AD.The heartland of the formerly powerful Post-Zhao Empire has become the most unstable and turbulent area in China after its disintegration.Regarding this area, Huan Wen, who had been watching from the south, did not dare to move lightly (during the Second Northern Expedition, he only made a symbolic tour of the Henan area before retreating, which shows the complexity of the situation).Handing over such a situation to the Murong family, who has accumulated strength for many years, is really the result of historical choices.

Murong Jun's pace of unifying northern China (strictly speaking, his intention at this time was to unify the whole of China) has been going smoothly in the past few years. Under the attack of Yan General Murong Ping's army, Zhang Ping, the old general of Zhao, seemed helpless.Wherever the Yan army went, the Bingzhou army surrendered in anticipation of the wind. Within a few days, hundreds of fortresses in Bingzhou surrendered to the former Yan. Surrender to the Yan army.Murong Jun adopted a condolence attitude towards surrendered generals and soldiers, and retained the original official positions of the generals in order to win the hearts of the people in Bingzhou.As a result, Zhang Ping, who was stationed in Bingzhou, had lost his determination to resist. Not long after he led more than 3,000 people to retreat to Pingyang, he finally asked Murong Jun to surrender.Qianyan got Bingzhou without much loss. Happiness came too fast, and sometimes it was unreal. This may be one of the reasons why Murong Jun made mistakes next.

In the winter of this year, the Yan army wiped out the warlord forces entrenched in the Huaibei area of ​​​​Henan Province, and confronted the Eastern Jin Dynasty across the Huaihe River.During the period of the Sixteen Kingdoms, the "three divisions of the world, and the former Yan is the strongest" refers to this period. At this time, the territory of the former Yan Empire stretched from Liaodong in the east, to the Yellow River in the west, near the desert in the north, and Huaibei in the south. the first powerful country. However, perhaps because the favorable situation came too quickly and easily, Murong Jun's own ambitions also swelled very quickly.As mentioned earlier, he has shifted his strategy to the Eastern Jin Dynasty and the Former Qin Dynasty.In December 358 A.D., he ordered the prefectures and counties to check the population. Only one young man was left in each household, and all the remaining young men were recruited into the army. He planned to expand the army to 1.5 million and assembled the army in Luoyang in the spring of the following year. , To attack Jin in the south and attack Qin in the west.Because the minister Liu Gui tried his best to admonish that "the people are poor, sending troops illegally, fearing that people will die, and there will be a catastrophe of landslides", so the conscription was changed to one for three men and two for five men, and the deadline was extended to the next winter.

(At first glance at Murong Jun's actions, one can't help but be surprised that the military measures he took were too exaggerated. The scale of conscription dwarfs the mobilization of former Qin Fu Jian before the southern invasion of the Eastern Jin Dynasty. Such things happened to Murong Jun, who has always acted calmly , it can be seen that the former Yan officials were too optimistic about the situation at that time. Before the internal problems were resolved, they were impatient to expand outward. This was in stark contrast to Fu Jian and Wang Meng's step-by-step internal construction. As time goes by, we can see more and more that these actions are the root cause of Qianyan's prosperity and decline. Even the most shrewd Murongs have begun to make mistakes.)

Murong Jun's large-scale use of troops caused panic among the people and fluctuated popular sentiments, but Qianyan's problems were not only caused by this.Here we may say that the genes of the Murong family are a bit too good, and strong people emerge in endlessly, so that in the end they are prone to bad things.The first is Murong Jun's suspicion of his half-brother Murong Ke. Murong Ye, whom Murong Jun loved very much, died before him, so he had to replace his second son, Murong Wei.This Murong Wei is obviously a mediocre person, the minister Li Ji once pointed out to his face: "The prince likes to play and enjoy playing silk and bamboo." Murong Jun also saw that his talent was not as good as his younger brothers, especially when he held military power. Murong Ke, who was the chief minister at the time, wanted to find an opportunity to find out his cards.

At this time, Murong Jun was seriously ill. He called Murong Ke to the side of the couch, pretended to be indifferent and said to him: "I am afraid that I will die from my illness. I am destined to have a short life. What regrets! But now the Eastern Jin Dynasty, the former Qin Dynasty The two bandits have not been eliminated, the crown prince is still young, and the country is in great trouble, I want to imitate Song Xuangong in the Spring and Autumn Period and hand over the country to you." Murong Keli felt terrified, and hurriedly said: "Although the crown prince is young, he is a master of action. Who is this minister, who dares to violate the orthodoxy?"

Murong Jun said angrily: "Between brothers, is there still a need to use lies?" Murong Ke replied: "If Your Majesty thinks that the minister can take on the great responsibility of the world, can't the minister assist the young master?" Hearing this, Murong Jun turned his anger into joy: "You can be the Duke of Zhou, what else do I have to worry about?" He made it clear that he would neither advance nor retreat, and since then he has devoted himself to assisting the young master.) Then Murong Jun's jealous eyes turned to the fifth younger brother Murong Chui, this Murong Chui is also the Murong Ba we mentioned in the second part.

The old king of Yan, Murong Hao, loved Murong Chui very much during his lifetime, and specially named him Ba, the word Daoye, implying that he would entrust the great cause of dominating the world on him. Murong Hao even planned to make him his son, It was only later that the ministers persuaded him to give up, but his favor still surpassed Murong Jun.Because of this, Murong Jun has long held a grudge against this younger brother.Murong Chui once fell off his horse and lost his teeth.When Murong Jun succeeded to the throne, he changed his name to (Chui 夬), on the surface he admired the famous scholar Que (Chui 夬) in the Spring and Autumn Period, but in fact he hated him.Soon, "夬" was removed because it was consistent with the prophecy, so it was renamed Chui. (Murong Chui's "ninjutsu" is also absolutely top-notch, and he changed his name back and forth with him. It is the king who wants his ministers to die, and the ministers have to die. Changing the name is nothing.)

Murong Jun also understood that just changing his name was of no real use, so a servant came to him to falsely accuse Murong Chui's concubine Duan Shi (this Duan family was the daughter of Duan Mo Ting in the middle part of the Eastern Liao Dynasty) and Murong Chui's subordinates. , Dianshu ordered Gao Bi to partner in witchcraft activities, such a good opportunity was exactly what Murong Jun could not have dreamed of, not to mention that this time he had the support of Queen Kezuhun. It turns out that the Duan family is very talented, unlike others who respect the Kezuhun family very much, but the Kezuhun family has long been unhappy with her, and the interests of the couple are the same.Murong Jun immediately ordered Duan and Gao Bi to be arrested and imprisoned, tortured and tortured, and wanted her to drag Murong Chui into the water together.

It is really enviable for Murong Chui to have a wife like Duan Shi in this life. No matter how much she was tortured in prison, she didn't have the slightest intention of confessing and surrendering. Murong Chui felt pity in his heart, and secretly sent someone to tell Duan, "You can only die once in life, how can you bear to be tortured like this! Why don't you let him confess." Duan sighed, and replied: "I don't like to die! But this confession will humiliate the ancestors upwards and implicate King Wu (Murongchui) downwards. This is not something I can do."

Murong Chui was finally spared from misfortune, but his virtuous wife Duan Shi was tortured to death in prison.Murong Chui secretly buried his grief and hatred in his heart, silently accepted this fact, went out of the town of Liaodong according to Murong Jun's instigation, and followed Kezuhun's arrangement to marry her younger sister, Mr. Chang'an, as his successor. The Murong family’s regime has become the most powerful country in the world several times during the long century-old war, and people have to praise all the descendants of the Murong family for their ability; and they all collapsed in the end, which is also "attributable" to their ability .Is it just Murong's sorrow that cleverness is mistaken by cleverness?