Chapter 42 "Grass to pay the king" God's will

——The Rise of the Former Qin Dynasty After the fall of the Western Jin Dynasty, the vast area of ​​the Yellow River Basin became a historical stage. The five major ethnic minorities, Xiongnu, Xianbei, Jie, Di, and Qiang, took advantage of the momentum and appeared on the stage in North China. In the past few decades, sixteen "countries" have emerged. , most of the nomadic leaders proclaimed themselves kings and emperors. Among them, the lords of regimes such as Hou Zhao, Bei Yan, Da Xia, and Hou Han were mostly vicious and brutal, and they liked to kill. .Although there were millions of string-controlling men in armor when they were strong and strong, when they collapsed, they dissipated in an instant like ants in a nest.

Among the sixteen kingdoms, the most deplorable, regrettable, and embarrassing one is the generation of heroic emperor Fu Jian. With the assistance of Wang Meng and other Han ministers, this king destroyed Zhang Ping, took Zhang Hao, and attacked Wu Yan. Vigorously invigorating Xiliang, he also smashed the 400,000 army of Yan State Murong NFDA in Luchuan, destroyed Qianyan, and then destroyed Liang and attacked Dai, unifying the north.At this time, if the great hero Fu Jian rests and recuperates, caresses the soldiers and the people, waits for the right time, and takes advantage of the civil strife in the Eastern Jin Dynasty to raise troops and unify China, it will be against his will.But he went against the times, disregarding the objections of his officials, and dispatched 870,000 troops in a short period of time, claiming to be one million, and arrogantly said that by using this to strengthen millions of troops, "throwing the whip can stop the flow."As a result, the army moved forward and backward for thousands of miles, looking at each other with drums and drums, intending to destroy the Jin Dynasty with one blow.Precisely at this time, the trend of collapse is inevitable.

In the battle of Feishui, the wind was rumbling, and the grass and trees were all soldiers.Emperor Fu Jian added disgraceful typical battle examples to the history of Chinese wars, added several derogatory idioms to the history of Chinese literature, and added countless sad imaginations and mourning rhetoric to countless literati and poets. If you read the historical chapters in detail, you will find that Fu Jian was by no means a cruel and reckless king, but an enlightened, magnanimous, farsighted, appreciative of the situation, respectful and polite, admiring righteousness, good at accepting advice, talented and completely Chinese.It's a pity that he insisted on going his own way at the last moment, and was too tolerant of the former Yan, Eastern Jin and other surrenders, especially the battle of Feishui led to a crushing defeat, which caused the great former Qin to fall apart. In the end, he himself was strangled to death in a Buddhist temple for Yao Chang.Otherwise, the unification era of Emperor Wen of the Sui Dynasty is very likely to come earlier in the era of Emperor Fu Jian.

Shi Zhongzhengshuo, the history of the Sixteen Kingdoms is short and complicated, so future generations can only get a glimpse of Fu Jian's deeds from the idioms of "throwing the whip to block the flow", "the wind is rumbling", and "the grass and trees are soldiers", and they are from extremely negative The direction regards him as a headstrong alien invader.Wipe away the heavy dust of history, put aside the mutual slander of "Island barbarians" and "Suolu", as a generation of outstanding figures in the Chinese family, Fu Jian should be fairly and correctly evaluated and remembered.

Speaking of Fu Jian, we should start with his grandfather Fu Hong.Fu Hong, courtesy name Guangshi, was the chief of the Di tribe in Lueyang Linwei (now Qin'an, Gansu) in the Western Jin Dynasty.Because there are pu leaves growing in the family pool, which are five feet long, and each of the five joints is shaped like a shape, everyone around calls this family "Pujia", and "Pu" was used as the surname at the beginning. During the civil strife in the Western Jin Dynasty, Liu Yao of the Huns proclaimed himself emperor, and Pu Hong was forced to surrender and was named Marquis of Yiyi.Soon, Liu Yao was defeated by the later Zhao Shile, and Pu Hong was attached to Shihu. He made great military exploits and was granted the title of Duke of Xiping County. Lead the general.

Shi Hu's adopted son Ran Min (the Han general who later punished Shi's descendants and killed hundreds of thousands of Jie people) secretly persuaded Shi Hu at that time: "Pu Hong Xiongguo, his eight sons are all extraordinary, and they should be eliminated secretly. Get rid of it." Although Shi Hu was famously brutal and bloodthirsty, he didn't heed Ran Min's advice, and instead "treated him more generously", probably because he valued Pu Hong's outstanding military exploits and couldn't bear to kill him. After the death of the old tyrant Shi Hu, Later Zhao collapsed very quickly. Pu Hong judged the situation and first surrendered to the Jin Dynasty in name, and many Han people joined him one after another.In the sixth year of Yonghe, the Jin Dynasty appointed Puhong as the general of the Peking University, the governor of the military forces in Hebei, the governor of Jizhou, and the Duke of Guangchuan.At that time, Pu Hong's subordinates were repeatedly persuaded to call him an honorary title.There is also a saying in the prophecy "Caofu Yingwang", his grandson Pu Jian was born with the texture of the word "Caofu" on his back, so the family changed his surname to "Fu". So, the Three Qin Kings, and the vigorous and vigorous former Qin Dynasty began.

Fu Hong attacked Ma Qiu, one of Shihu's generals, and captured him. He stayed in the army as his own general and trusted him.Several generations of emperors of the Fu family have always committed this common problem of being soft and "kind" to the enemy, which is sad and deplorable.With ambition in mind, Ma Qiu hosted a banquet in honor of Fu Hong, secretly poisoned him with wine, and planned to kill Fu Hong and lead the crowd. Fu Jian, Fu Hong's eldest son, found out that the situation was different, and led his troops to kill Ma Qiu.When Fu Hong was about to die, he said to his son Fu Jian: "The Central Plains is not a place that your brothers can occupy. Guanzhong is a victory. After I die, I can march westward." He died at the age of sixty-six.

After Fu Jian succeeded to the throne, he took the throne of Qin Dynasty, pretended to be the title of noble conferred by the Jin Dynasty, entered Tongguan with 5,000 troops, defeated Jin generals Du Hong and Zhang Xian, entered Chang'an as the capital, and stabilized the three assistants.In the seventh year of Yonghe, Fu Jian claimed to be the king of heaven, the Great Chanyu, and set up hundreds of officials at the beginning of Emperor Jianyuan.In the eighth year of Yonghe, Fu Jian proclaimed himself emperor.After that, he defeated the Jin general Zhang Ju again, and made the Jin Zhenxi general Xie Shang (Xie An's elder brother, handsome and romantic, but an idiot in war) flee for his life in a hurry.In the tenth year of Yonghe, the former Qin defeated the Huanwen army in Bailuyuan, establishing the dominance of the Di people in the northwest.Afterwards, Fu Jian made three chapters with the common people, scorned corvee and paid less tax, practiced Confucianism, gave courtesy to scholars, paid attention to political affairs, and showed signs of a well-off life under his rule.