Chapter 43 Chapter 42: Emperor Wu Sima Yan

In 265 A.D., in a palace in Luoyang, the new emperor was accepting the abdication of Wei Emperor Cao Huan in almost the same tone as Wei Wang Cao Pi accepted the abdication of Han Xiandi. The new emperor was Sima Yan.So far, the Sima family has finally achieved its wish through the painstaking efforts of Sima Yi, Sima Zhao and Sima Yan for three generations, and became the veritable ruler of the Central Plains.Sima Yan, the founder of the Jin Dynasty, also started his 25-year career as emperor, and was posthumously named Emperor Wu after his death. Sima Yan, courtesy name Anshi, was the eldest son of Jin Wang Sima Zhao.According to the rule of the feudal era, he should be the natural heir to the throne, but Sima Zhao seems to have ignored the eldest son, and is more interested in the other son, Sima You.Sima Zhao adopted Sima You to his elder brother Sima Shi as his son, and planned to make him his son. Every time he saw Sima You, he patted the throne of King Jin and said to him: "This is the peach charm (Sima You's little son) first name) seat." The love is beyond words.It was against this complicated political background that Sima Yan, who was unwilling to be lonely, started his campaign for the throne.

According to historical records, Sima You, King of Qi, was a man of integrity, peace and fairness, kindness to the virtuous, loving ancient classics, and elegant articles. He was a refined man with a strong artistic temperament. Compared with Sima You, Sima Yan seemed He is a born politician. He has almost completely inherited the nature of his father and grandfather in terms of temperament. He not only has a strategy that can control the situation, but also has a generous and benevolent appearance, not to mention the magnificent wrigley card of establishing a successor. In short, the nature of a politician coupled with objective advantages made him able to handle complex court struggles with ease, and many important ministers also fought against Sima Zhao with historical examples of abolishing the eldest son and causing disasters.In the face of cruel facts, in his later years, Sima Zhao had to overcome his personal emotional likes and dislikes with strong political reason, and accepted the suggestions of ministers to make Sima Yan his son. And finally ascended to the throne.

Sima Yan was not at ease after accepting the Zen position.He knew very well that although he was on the throne of the emperor, the crisis still existed.From the inside, in order to pave the way for the Sima family to seize the throne, his father and grandfather brutally massacred the Cao family and its affiliated forces. The shadow caused by this incident still lingers in people's hearts; from the outside However, although the Shu Han was flat, Sun Wu was still there. Although the Soochow Wu at this time was no longer strong enough to compete with the Western Jin Dynasty, it was still a big threat after all.Internal and external troubles told Sima Yan that in order to consolidate the acquired regime, and then complete the great cause of annexing Soochow and unifying China, he must first strengthen the cohesion of the ruling group itself, and to achieve this goal, he must adopt a soft policy.For this reason, in the first year of Sima Yan's ascension to the throne, he issued an imperial edict to envoy Wei Emperor, who had become the king of Chenliu, to carry the emperor's banner and travel to Wei Zhengshuo.At the same time, one of the sons of Anle Gong Liu Chan was given as the captain-in-law.In the second year, the imprisonment of the Han Dynasty was lifted.This not only alleviated the internal troubles of the imperial court, especially the psychological fear of the Cao family who had become the ruling object of the Sima family, but also stabilized the hearts of the Shu Han, and then gained the initiative to annex Soochow in order to win the favor of the Wu people. .

In order to get the country out of the difficult and turbulent environment as soon as possible and lay a solid foundation for unification, inaction and lenientness became the founding spirit of the early Western Jin Dynasty. As the most authoritative and appealing figure at that time, Sima Yan Geng strives to fully reflect this in the country's major policies.In the fourth year of Taishi (268 A.D.), he clearly stated in his imperial edict: "In order to protect our great Jin country forever, the law of inaction is now the core of governing all nations." In the same year, he issued five imperial edicts to the prefectures : The first is to straighten the body, the second is to work hard for the common people, the third is to take care of the orphans and widows, the fourth is to keep the basics and rest, and the fifth is to let go of personnel affairs.For similar edicts, although we cannot rule out bureaucratic factors, we cannot blindly regard them as empty words, because its basic spirit is still in line with the realistic background at that time, that is, it is aimed at the harsh politics of the late Cao Wei Dynasty.At that time, Cao Cao, the founder of the Cao Wei Dynasty, followed the turbulent politics of the Eastern Han Dynasty. In order to stabilize people's hearts and restore national power, he implemented a relatively loose, open, frugal and realistic policy of building a country. , Wei Wu's demeanor back then is already a thing of the past, and has become an absolute legend.In order to satisfy their own selfish desires, the emperor often transferred the powerful material burden to the people, and the continuous wars made the people feel fear and exhaustion psychologically in addition to their bleak livelihood.Under such circumstances, it is appropriate for Sima Yan to do the opposite and propose a strategy of strengthening the country by doing nothing.

Just as Sima Yan was working hard to govern and the national prestige of the Western Jin Dynasty was flourishing day by day, the Soochow Wu was declining like the sun, showing a tendency to decline everywhere.Wu Wang Sun Hao's surly, cruel, and licentious nature developed even more pathologically in a desperate environment. He inadvertently drove the dying and dilapidated carriage of Soochow one step closer to death.Facing Sun Hao's crown stained red with human blood, everyone in the government and the public felt insecure and kept silent.Under such circumstances, Sun Hao's stupidity also brought out Sima Yan's enlightenedness. The Dongwu people who were in pain and darkness began to seek sustenance from the Western Jin Dynasty. Some generals turned their backs and surrendered to the Western Jin Dynasty.To some extent, this further aroused the Jin people's desire to destroy Wu, so for a while, the destruction of Wu became a topic of discussion among people in the government and the opposition.But Sima Yan also knew that although Soochow was weak, it had been established for decades, and it was an opponent that could not be ignored. If there was a slight mistake in strategy, it would be defeated.Therefore, although the voices of the government and the public to destroy Wu are increasing day by day, Sima Yan has never made a promise easily.It was not until the sixth year of Taishi (270 A.D.) that he sent Yang Hu to Jingzhou at the junction of Jin and Wu to prepare for the extermination of Wu.

Sima Yan could be said to have a unique eye, and he immediately caught a suitable candidate.Yang Hu is not only impeccable in personality and talent, but also a strategic strategist.He was famous for Qingde when he was a boy. After Sima Yan received Zen, Yang Hu became a general of the Chinese army because of his meritorious service.After the border town, he was more cautious in his work, devoted himself to his duties, and lived up to the country's reputation.On the one hand, he immediately occupied the key points and fertile land, which made the Wu army in a difficult situation both military and material; on the other hand, he practiced farming to lay a solid material foundation for future military operations.At the beginning of Yang Hu's tenure, there was almost no food for the army, but by the last year of his tenure, he had 10 years of savings in the warehouse.On this basis, he adopted a strategy opposite to the traditional way of using troops, "soldiers never tire of deceit", and used psychological tactics to gain the trust of the Wu people, so that they would have a psychological intimacy with Jin and alienation from Wu. feel.Every time he fought with the Wu people, he always waited until the sunrise and never made a cover-up attack.Once, the Jin army captured two children of Wu people. Yang Hu not only refused to interrogate them, but also sent them home to reunite with their families.Deng Xiang, a general of Eastern Wu, was captured when he attacked Xiakou. Yang Hu personally untied him. In order to repay Yang Hu for not killing him, he also led his troops to Jin.Another time, when Yang Hu led troops to patrol the border, due to insufficient army food, he used the ripe crops in Wu to satisfy his hunger along the way, but immediately asked the soldiers to send silk to the owners of the farmland as compensation.Yang Hu's good intentions were not in vain, Wu people began to change their hostile attitude towards Jin, and some people even respectfully called him Yang Gong.At this time, it was Lu Kang, a famous general of the Eastern Wu who was confronting Yang Hu. He knew that a smile was sometimes more lethal than a thousand troops, so he also adopted the same attitude as Hu.Once, when Lu Kang was ill, Yang Hu sent him some medicine. He was afraid that it might be poisonous, so he suggested not to take it. Lu Kang said, "Yang Hu is a harmful person." Then he took it without hesitation.Lu Kang also told his subordinates: "Yang Hu cherishes virtue, but we use violence. This is self-defeating without a fight. Now we only need to protect the border, and don't pursue petty gains." As a result, the border became more and more peaceful.But Yang Hu was not satisfied with this, and secretly stepped up preparations to destroy Wu.However, Jia Chong and others obstructed it, making Sima Yan still unable to make up his mind to destroy Wu.Time flies, and Yang Hu has entered his twilight years after several springs and autumns. Although Sima Yan treats him courteously in every way, he still cannot comfort his magnificent feelings. When his old friend Zhongshu ordered Zhang Hua to visit him, he was full of joy. He said worriedly: "Wu's politics are too cruel. If we attack now, we can easily get it. If Sun Hao dies and the Wu people set up a new master, even if we have a million troops, it will be difficult to cross the natural danger of the Yangtze River." He asked Zhang Hua again "Whether my wish can come true depends on you." In the end, the founder of the extermination of Wu failed to see the day when "a piece of flag came out of a stone", and died of hatred in the fourth year of Xianning (278 AD).

When Yang Hu was dying, he recommended another famous general, Du Yu, to succeed him.This elegant general has the brains of a scholar, but no weakness of a scholar, and his ability is no less than that of his predecessor Yang Hu.After Yang Hu's death, he served as the general of Zhennan and supervised all the military forces in Jingzhou.Du Yu lived up to Yang Hu's expectations, and since he took office, he has shown outstanding military talent.He first attacked the Wu army stationed in a key place, and won a complete victory. Wu general Zhang Zheng was afraid that the court would blame him, so he concealed the incident.Du Yu knew that Zhang Zheng was a difficult opponent, so he decided to use this matter to get rid of him.Du Yu sent people to return the prisoners of war to Soochow. Sun Haowen was furious and transferred Zhang Zheng away.In this way, Du Yu easily drove away his rival.At this time, Wang Jun, who was in charge of training the navy, was already a 70-year-old man. He submitted a sincere letter to the court, expressing his wish to destroy Wu. At the same time, Du Yu also asked Sima Yan During the war against Wu, when Du Yu's list was delivered, Sima Yan was playing chess with Zhang Hua. Zhang Hua did not forget the entrustment of his old friend Yang Hu, so he pushed away the chessboard and took the opportunity to encourage: "Your Majesty is smart and powerful, and the government and the people are clear. It can be said that the country is rich and military is peaceful and happy, but Lord Wu is licentious and tyrannical, punishing and killing talents. If you attack Soochow now, you can do it without any effort.” Under the urging of Du, Wang, Zhang and others, Sima Yan finally made up his plan to destroy Wu determination.

The battle was carried out according to the plan proposed by Yang Hu before his death: Among the six armies that destroyed Wu, the Bashu water army led by Wang Jun was the backbone.In order to stop the attack of the Jin army, the Wu people also made preparations. They laid long iron chains in the dangerous places of the Yangtze River, and buried more than ten feet of iron cones in the river in an attempt to stop the Jin army's warships.But this situation was expected by Yang Hu, so before the attack, Wang Jun prepared large and small bamboo rafts, and put armored scarecrows on them, so that he could move forward and carry away the iron cones in the river.He also made a huge torch, filled it with sesame oil, put it in front of the boat, and lit the torch when he encountered an iron chain, melting the iron chain into molten iron.In this way, the natural danger of the Yangtze River, which the Wu people relied on, turned into flat ground under Wang Jun's strategy. The Jin army quickly captured Xiakou and Wuchang with almost no bloodshed, and drove directly to Jianye (now Nanjing), the capital of Wu.But at this time, Jin was in trouble.As the commander-in-chief of the Six Armies, Jia Chong wanted to prevent the Jin army from attacking Wu, so he wrote to Sima Yan: "It is now at the turn of spring and summer, and the plague in Wu is prevalent. All the troops should be recalled. And Zhang Hua must be cut in half to thank the world. This time, Sima Yan didn't listen to his slander, but said coldly: "Fighting Wu is my idea, Zhang Hua just agrees." So Wang Jun's troops continued to advance.At this time, another land army under the leadership of Wang Hun also reached Hengjiang (now Hexian County, Anhui Province).Under the attack of the two armies, Sun Hao in Jianye City became a shackle. He sent the guerrilla general Zhang Xiang to lead the water army to resist.Unexpectedly, Zhang Xiang had no intention of resisting at all, and he became a prisoner as soon as he left the city.Under such circumstances, Sun Hao had no choice but to surrender to the Western Jin Dynasty with a bare car and a white horse. More than 40 counties, more than 300 counties in Soochow, and a population of more than 2.3 million were all included in the territory of the Western Jin Dynasty.Soochow, a country that had been established for nearly 60 years and once dominated Jiangdong, was finally ruined in the hands of Sun Hao, the king of subjugation.

Now that the country has been unified and foreign troubles have been eliminated, Sima Yan put his main energy on restoring the economy and developing production.Due to the frequent wars since the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, since the beginning of Cao Wei, the garrison system with a strong military color has been implemented to serve the wartime. This old production method is obviously not suitable for the needs of peacetime. The land system, that is, the land occupation system.In fact, as early as when Sima Zhao was in power, he had already considered this issue. In the first year of Xianxi (246 A.D.), he ordered the dismissal of the Tuntian officials in order to equalize the political service, and changed Diannong Zhonglang and Diannong Xiaowei. As the prefect, the Diannong Duwei was changed to the county magistrate or county magistrate. In this way, the original Diannongbumin and Tuntianke became registered households belonging to the county.On this basis, Sima Yan stipulated the amount of land occupation and class land: According to the regulations of the land occupation system, each man can occupy 70 mu of land, and each woman can occupy 30 mu of land; It played a certain role, which can be seen from the prosperity of the Taikang period.In the year of Pingwu (the first year of Taikang, 280 A.D.), there were more than 2.4 million households in the Western Jin Dynasty, but by the third year of Taikang (282 A.D.), the number had increased sharply to 3.71 million. There are more than 1.3 million households. Excluding the number of households that were hidden at the beginning, the actual increase in population is quite considerable.In the feudal era, the increase or decrease of the population was often a measure of social stability and turmoil. The increase in the population in the early years of the Western Jin Dynasty, in a sense, showed that the government's policies and decrees had achieved results.

Sima Yan, who walked into the world of peace and happiness from the days of trouble, felt a kind of satisfaction and intoxication in the face of the situation of great unification, the vast mountains and rivers and all living beings under his dominion. The ship of life also ran aground. Sima Yan, who was originally known for his frugality and integrity, began to live extravagantly after the destruction of Wu. After a short period of time, Sima Yan completely became a faint king dominated by material desires and lust.In order to express his filial piety, he began to build the ancestral mausoleum on a large scale. The 12 huge copper pillars were all plated with gold and decorated with pearls. The stones used were transported to Luoyang from distant places. .In order to satisfy his lust, Sima Yan took in more than 5,000 court ladies in the Sun Hao Palace in the year when Wu was destroyed, and even more than 10,000 in the harem. Because there were too many people, he could only roam around in a sheep cart. The emperor and the concubine who saw the beauty of the sky put bamboo leaves in front of the door and sprinkled salt so that the greedy sheep could stop when they passed by their door.

Facing Sima Yan's licentious and fatuous behavior, some people in the court felt dissatisfied.Once, Sima Yan led a group of officials to sacrifice in the southern suburbs of Luoyang. After the ceremony, he asked Liu Yi, the captain of the Silu school: "Which emperor of the Han Dynasty can I compare with?" Based on his thoughts at the time, he thought Liu Yi would definitely say one Who knows that the answer to the famous name is: "It can be compared with Emperor Huanling and Emperor Ling." Everyone knows that the age of Huanling was the darkest time of the Eastern Han Dynasty. Sima Yan couldn't help being surprised, so he asked: "How could it be so?" Liu Yi said unabashedly: "Although Emperor Huan sold officials and nobles in his life, he left the money to the government. Now his majesty sells officials and nobles, but he is full of private pockets." Facing this upright minister, Sima Yan had no choice but to He laughed at himself and said: "In Huan Ling's life, I didn't hear such bold remarks like you, but now I have a direct minister like you by my side. It can be seen that I am wiser than the two emperors Huan Ling." Originally from Emperor Wei Ming, the social atmosphere tended to be extravagant, and now Sima Yan added fuel to the flames, so, following the example, the ruling and opposition parties in the Western Jin Dynasty suddenly set off a trend of extravagance.Needless to say, the dignitaries in the court.Taiwei He Zeng was famous for his extravagance. His curtains and car clothes were extremely luxurious, and the taste of his kitchen and food surpassed that of a king.And Shangshu Ren Kai's extravagance is even more extravagant than He Zeng, spending tens of thousands of dollars on every meal.Once Sima Yan was a guest at the house of his son-in-law Wang Ji, and more than 100 maids serving the banquet were all dressed in silk and satin.Among the dishes was a suckling pig, which was very delicious. Sima Yan asked Wang Ji about the cooking method, and Wang Ji whispered to him, "This pig is fed and cooked with human milk." Sima Yan was very displeased after hearing this. Comfortable, I left without waiting for the final table.Under such circumstances, everyone takes pride in bragging about their wealth, and everyone takes pleasure in fighting for it.But what is shocking is that sometimes this extravagance is combined with cruelty. Shi Chong was a well-known rich man at that time. When he entertained guests, he always made beautiful women toast.Once, he invited Wang Dao and Wang Dun brothers to a banquet. Wang Dao knew Shi Chong's rules. Although he couldn't drink, he tried his best to support him, but Wang Dun didn't think so.Shi Chong killed three people in a row, but Wang Dun remained calm and unmoved. Director Wang blamed him, but he said: "Shi Chong killed his own family, what is it to you?" It is different and built like a boudoir. Once, a regular servant of Sanqi was a guest at his house and needed relief. The servant took him to a luxuriously furnished house with splendid curtains, and saw some maids standing with sachets On both sides, thinking that they had entered the inner room, they backed out in fright and apologized to Shi Chong, but Shi Chong told him that it was the toilet.The aforementioned Wang Dun also made a joke. Once he relieved himself at the princess’s residence and found a pot of jujube next to him. He was laughed at by the maid. Sima Yan, who was so heroic and heroic back then, soon became weak and precarious due to his indulgence, so the issue of heirs became a major concern of the ruling and opposition parties, and various political forces once again competed for different purposes.According to the legacy of the feudal era, Sima Zhong, the eldest son of Sima Yan, was established as the prince when he was 9 years old (the third year of Taishi, 267 A.D.), but he was born an idiot, and his speech and behavior often made people laugh. It's not that Sima Yan has no worries about making such an idiot son the crown prince.Sima Yan had already considered this question when he was still attacking Wu. Once he asked Zhang Hua: "Who can I entrust with my funeral?" Zhang Hua replied without hesitation: "When it comes to talent and kinship, of course King Sima You of Qi." Of course Zhang Hua's answer did not satisfy Sima Yan.Let's not say that the struggle between him and Sima You for the throne was enough to make him exclude Sima You, even out of kinship, he would also choose among his descendants.Sima Yan finally discovered a bright spot. Once, there was a fire in the palace, and Sima Yan stood on the tower to watch. At this time, Sima Zhong's 5-year-old son took Emperor Wu and said: "It is critical at night, and the light should not shine on the emperor." " Sima Yan was very surprised, hope was kindled in his heart that was almost desperate, so he bet all on this grandson who was still a child, and finally chose Sima Zhong, an idiot, as the heir to the throne.In March of the first year of Taixi (290 A.D.), Sima Yan became ill. In April, the founding emperor passed away at the age of 55. He was buried in Junyang Mausoleum with the temple name "Shizu".