Chapter 63 9. Juqu Mengxun sells his brother and becomes king

It seems unbelievable today that four or five countries existed within the same province of Gansu, but it was indeed a fact in the late Sixteen Kingdoms period.The five countries are Houliang (central Gansu) of the Lu family, Xiqin (southern Gansu) of the Qifu family, Nanliang of the Tufa family (southwestern Gansu and northeast Qinghai), and Beiliang of the Juqu family ( central and western Gansu) and Li's Xiliang (western Gansu). After Lu Guang's death, the struggle among the sons broke out.His nephew Lu Chao persuaded his successor Lu Shao to get rid of Lu Zuan who held military power, but Lu Shao held on to Lu Guang's will and insisted on refusing.Brothers Lu Zuan and Lu Hong were not so polite. The two hit it off in private and led an army into the palace. Lu Shao was forced to commit suicide.Soon, Lu Zuan and Lu Hong supported each other and became suspicious of each other, and fought in the palace.Lu Hong was defeated and was captured and executed after he fled.

Lu Zuan reinstated Lu Chao and other officials who had opposed him during the civil strife and then fled abroad, temporarily stabilizing the domestic situation and planting a time bomb.He wholeheartedly wanted to attack foreign enemies, and his purpose should be to improve his prestige, but in the second year of Xianning (AD 400), the soldiers of Houliang suffered a defeat in the confrontation with Nanliang's "star of hope" bald-haired Litan. Lu Zuan's prestige did not rise but fell.Duan Ye, who guarded Zhangye, proclaimed himself King of Liang a year ago and established the Northern Liang regime.Not to mention, Li Hao, the prefect of Dunhuang farther west, left Beiliang again this year, and also called himself the Duke of Liang, which is Xiliang.

Li Hao is one of the very few Han Chinese among the rulers of the various regimes in the north. There is no doubt about his origin. He is the sixteenth grandson of Li Guang, a famous general of the Western Han Dynasty.His ancestor was ordered to fight against the rebellious Qiang people in Longxi in the early Han Dynasty. Unfortunately, he died in battle. Later generations came to the funeral, buried him in Longxi, and moved the whole family here.Li Hao's family has been a big family in Liangzhou from the Han Dynasty to the Jin Dynasty.It was not easy for grandfather Li Yan to become a general and marquis under Zhang Gui of Qianliang.His father, Li Chang, was also very famous, but he died early, and Li Hao was his posthumous son.

At a young age, Li Hao has both civil and military skills, and likes to make friends with celebrities. He shares the same goals with Guo Fu and his half-brother Song Yao, and everyone agrees that he will do something. When Duan Ye and Juqu Mengxun raised their troops, Li Hao, Song Yao and others responded.Duan Ye appointed Li Hao as the county magistrate of Xiaogu (now Dunhuang West, Gansu).In less than a year, Meng Min, the prefect of Dunhuang, passed away, and Li Hao was promoted to be the prefect of Dunhuang again. Duan Ye claimed to be the King of Liang, and his right-hand general Suo Si from Dunhuang wanted to replace Li Hao as the prefect of Dunhuang. He tried his best to frame Li Hao in front of Duan Ye, and Duan Ye finally asked Suo Si to replace Li Hao.Suo Si rushed from Zhangye to Dunhuang with 500 cavalry.Twenty miles away from the city, the ecstatic Suo Si wrote a letter to Li Hao asking him to come and greet him.

When Li Hao was suspicious, he was about to go, but was dissuaded by Song Yao and Xiaogu Ling Zhang Miao.They said: "The decline of Lu's family and the weakness of Duan's business is the time for heroes to do their best. Now that the general has occupied the land of Dunhuang, how can he give it away easily? What kind of guy is Suo Si? The general can capture him in one battle." Li Hao had long been ambitious, but he was worried that although he belonged to a large family in Longxi, he was not a native of Dunhuang after all, and he was not sure about the attitude of a famous Dunhuang family. Now seeing that the leaders of Dunhuang scholars around him clearly expressed their support for him, his confidence was doubled, and he replied: "I've never had the ambition to be a powerful person. I was appointed as an official here, but I didn't expect to be supported by everyone. I was going to welcome you just now because I didn't know your intentions."

So, with the support of Song Yao, Zhang Miao and others, Li Hao took advantage of Suo Si's defenselessness and sent troops to defeat Suo Si.Suo Si fled back to Zhangye, and Li Hao wrote to Duan Ye again, enumerating Suo Si's crimes.Juqu Nancheng also took the opportunity to encourage Duan Ye to get rid of Suo Si because of his bad relationship with Suo Si.The reckless Duan Ye not only killed Suo Si, but also sent envoys to Dunhuang to express condolences to Li Hao, and promoted Li Hao to be the governor of the military forces west of Liangxing and general of Zhenxi. With the "support" of Duan Ye, the territory controlled by Li Hao continued to expand.Tang Yao, the prefect of Jinchang in Beiliang, followed Li Hao's betrayal of Duan Ye and supported Li Hao. He sent a message to Dunhuang, Jiuquan and other six counties, and elected Li Hao as the governor, general, and Duke of Liang.Li Hao ordered an amnesty in the territory, changed the yuan to Gengzi, and established a Han regime similar to that of Qianliang.

Li Hao's independence was almost facilitated by Duan Ye. As a leader, Duan Ye, a cowardly scholar, performed really poorly.Juqu Mengxun saw that this person was insufficient and resourceful, and decided to replace him.Ma Quan, the prefect of Zhangye appointed by Duan Ye, was brave and resourceful, and fought for power with Meng Xun.He said something bad about Ma Quan in front of Duan Ye, and things went smoothly. Duan Ye killed Ma Quan to remove an obstacle for him. Juqu Mengxun wanted to join forces with his cousin Juqu Nancheng, and said to him: "Duan Ye is dull and mediocre, and he is not qualified to be a monarch. I want to get rid of him and push my brother to be the master. How about it?"

Nan Cheng was not interested in this, and replied: "Duan Ye was originally a loner, and I supported him as the monarch. He is like a fish in water relying on us brothers. People trust us, but we have to betray them. This is not acceptable." Juqu Mengxun didn't get support, but he didn't want to give up, so he came up with a poisonous trick!In April of the third year of Tianxi in Beiliang (AD 401), he asked Nancheng to sacrifice to Lanmen Mountain together, but secretly sent someone to tell Duan Ye: "Nancheng is going to launch a rebellion. If he asks to sacrifice to Lanmen Menshan, my words will come true."

On that day, of course Nan Cheng asked Duan Ye to go to worship, Duan Ye sent someone to arrest Nan Cheng and ordered him to commit suicide.Nancheng said: "Juqu Mengxun had discussed with me about rebellion before, because he was my brother and I didn't report him. Now because I am here, he was worried that the people would not listen to him, so he asked me to sacrifice to the mountain and accused me of rebellion. He wants to kill me by the hand of the king. Why don't you assume that if I have been executed, Juqu Mengxun will definitely rebel. Then I will be ordered by the king to attack, and I will be invincible." Duan Ye didn't believe it, but still Killed Nan Cheng.

As soon as Juqu Nancheng died, Meng Xun went to his followers and cried, "Nancheng was loyal to Duan Ye, but was killed by Duan Ye for no reason. The reason why Duan Ye was recommended at the beginning was because he was like Chen Sheng and Wu Guang." People, but he listens to slander and abuses loyalty, how can we endure it any longer?" Nancheng usually won the support of his followers. In order to avenge Nancheng, the followers followed Mengxun to crusade against Duan Ye.Many Huns and Qiang raised troops to respond, and Mengxun went to Dichi (now Zhangye, Gansu), and the number of his men exceeded 10,000, and some generals under Duan Ye also surrendered to Mengxun.

In May of this year, when Juqu Mengxun arrived in Zhangye, Duan Ye's army had already scattered and fled.Meng Xun entered the city without any effort, beheaded Duan Ye, and became the governor, general, shepherd of Liangzhou, and Duke of Zhangye himself. Juqu Mengxun sold his brother to become the king, this trick is really poisonous.During the Sixteen Kingdoms period, there were a lot of intrigues and deceptions. It is not too much to adopt various extraordinary strategies to seek benefits, but there are not many like this.Juqu Mengxun betrayed his cousin, which was too insidious and unnecessary.In fact, Juqu Nancheng was not very opposed to Juqu Mengxun's rebellion. His original words were "the back is ominous", and it can be seen from his tone that he just didn't want to be the leader of the rebellion.Juqu Mengxun could use Duan Ye's incompetence and righteousness to persuade his troops, and sent troops to defeat Duan Ye in an upright manner. (In fact, Duan Ye had long since lost his mass base at that time.) At that time, it was natural to push Ju Qunan to become the master, or to become the master on his own. (Juqu Nan Cheng is no match for Juqu Mengxun in terms of war and power tactics.) The trick he used, despite the insidious layer, also has an element of risk.Juqu Nancheng's advice to Duan Ye before he died was very powerful.If Duan Ye acts according to his plan and exposes Juqu Mengxun's plot, then people's hearts will change, and Mengxun may lose instead.It's a pity that a fool is a fool, and Duan Ye's death cannot be blamed on others.