Chapter 45 The fate of the king and the minister

——Prime Minister of Celebrity Wang Meng When talking about Fu Jian, one cannot fail to talk about his adviser Wang Meng.Wang Meng, whose alias is Jinglue, was born in Beihai Opera (now Changle, Shandong). Since he was young, he has been erudite, good at military art, and has a great bearing. When Huan Wen entered the customs for the first time, Wang Meng came to see him in a ragged robe. He fumbled for the lice in his clothes and talked about world affairs to General Huan as if there was no one else around.One of the most important symbols of Wei and Jin demeanor, "Talking with the lice" was first started by Wang Jinglue.Huan Wen was very surprised, and when Wang Meng was about to leave, he sent off the car and the officials. He worshiped as a high-ranking official and supervised him, and invited Wang Meng to return south with him.Wang Meng went back to Huayin Mountain to ask his teacher, and the answer he got was: "How can you get along with Huan Wen? You can be rich if you stay in the north, why bother to look far away!" So Wang Meng continued to stay in the north.

When Fu Jian was the king of the East China Sea, he had great ambitions. When he heard about Wang Meng's name, he sent someone to invite him for a talk.When the two of them met, it was as if they had been together for the rest of their lives, and both had the feeling that Liu Bei met Kong Ming.Wang Meng immediately became Fu Jian's main advisor when he saw him.After Fu Jian ascended the throne, he appointed Wang Meng as the Minister of Zhongshu, imposed severe punishments, banned the powerful, and ruled the Qin State for a while.Fu Jian appointed Wang Meng as Shangshu Zuopushe, Fuguo General, Sili Captain, Juzhong Suwei, and was promoted five times within a year.

After repelling Huan Wen's attack with the help of Fu Jian, Murong NFDAA of Yan State repented of his preface and no longer cede land with Qin State.The royal family in the country was in civil strife again, and the hero Murong Chui was forced to have nowhere to go. He took his family and nephews to defect to Fu Jian, which made Fu Jian overjoyed. Fu Jian's greatest strength in his life was his love for talents and tolerance of others, and it was this kind of gentleness and tolerance that was the most deadly and finally caused him to lose his country.People in the Jin Dynasty admired appearance and conversation, and emperors and scholars often cherished each other. The Murong family was all suave and extraordinary, with great appearance. Every time they met, Fu Jian admired them and rewarded them with huge rewards. He also awarded high-level officials with real power .Wang Meng was very worried about this, and persuaded him: "Murong Chui is an honorable man in the Yan Kingdom. Perseverance and ability are outstanding among men, the so-called dragons and ferocious beasts cannot be domesticated, it is better to get rid of them now to avoid future troubles."

Fu Jian refused: "I'm benevolent to the heroes now, if I kill them, how will future generations evaluate me?" Murong Chui did indeed know how to hide his power and bide his time, much like Liu Xuande in the past, he acted as a guide, was named the champion general who defeated Yan, and went to attack Yan together. Around the first century A.D., many nomadic tribes gathered on the Mongolian grassland north of the Xilamulun River today. During the years of fighting, they gradually unified and merged to form a powerful Xianbei population.At that time, the Wuhuan (Wuwan) tribe had similar language and customs to the Xianbei people.In the 1950s, the formerly prosperous Xiongnu split, the southern Huns attached themselves to the Eastern Han Dynasty, and the northern Huns fled westward. Today's vast Mongolian grassland has become a land without owners.As a result, Xianbei people went out to occupy Mobei, Wuhuan people went out to occupy Monan, and more than 100,000 Xiongnu people also integrated into Xianbei, and "called themselves Xianbei, and Xianbei gradually prospered".

In the middle of the second century AD, when Xianbei Tan Shihuai was in power, he controlled 100,000 strings and had a great military strength.There are three main tribal alliances under it: Murong, the master of the central part, is the ancestor of Murong Yanguo; Huaitou, the master of the east, is the ancestor of the Yuwen tribe;In the early third century, Xianbei became more powerful under the rule of Ke Bineng, and gradually became Sinicized.Among the regimes of the Sixteen Kingdoms, those belonging to the Xianbei branch are Qian Yan, Hou Yan, Nan Yan (Murong family), Bei Yan (Feng family of Xianbeiized Han people), Nan Liang (bald family), and Western Qin (Qi Fu family). ).

Murong's Xianbei has always been called "Baibu Xianbei" because their skin color is fairer than that of other Xianbei people.During the Wei and Jin Dynasties, Murong Xianbei had moved to the northeastern region of Liaodong and harassed the border areas of the Han people for a long time.When the Western Jin Dynasty fell, Murongxin took advantage of the chaos and called himself the Great Chanyu of Xianbei.In 337 A.D., Murong Yu's son, Murong Yu, became King of Yan, and defeated the mighty Hou Zhao Shihu army, killing more than 80,000 soldiers of Hou Zhao. After the great victory of Queen Zhao, Murong Hao's self-confidence soared, and he moved his capital to Longcheng (now Chaoyang, Liaoning).When the Western Jin Dynasty fell, a large number of Han people from the Central Plains had turned to Murong Xianbei, and urged the Murong family not to adopt a policy of enslaving the Han people, and the Murong family pretended to always regard the Eastern Jin Dynasty as the suzerain, which attracted many people from the Central Plains who fled under the high pressure. Han people.

In 348 AD, after the death of Murong Hao, his son Murong Jun succeeded to the throne.At this time, Yan State had an army of nearly 300,000, with well-developed farming and strong national strength.Ran Min wiped out the Shi clan of the Jie family, and Yan Guo sent troops to attack Ran Min fiercely.It is precisely because the Murong family has been proclaiming the vassal to the Eastern Jin Dynasty and Ran Min proclaiming the emperor, so the Eastern Jin Dynasty refused to save Ran Min.After Murong Xianbei attacked and killed Ran Min, Murong Jun also proclaimed himself emperor in 352, and made his capital Jicheng (now Beijing), known as Qianyan in history.The Eastern Jin government slowed down, and it was too late.

At that time, Qianyan occupied large areas of today's Hebei, Henan, Shanxi, Shandong, etc., and the only rival in the Yellow River Basin was the former Qin Dynasty established by the Fu family of the Di tribe.In 360 A.D., Murong Jun died of illness. His son Murong NFDAA succeeded to the throne at the age of eleven.Murong Ke is a Xianbei aristocrat with deep Sinicization, loyal to the public, chaste and self-confident, and his seven years in power are the most stable years in Qianyan.Murong Ke died of illness in 367 AD.Before his death, he recommended his younger brother Murong Chui, king of Wu, to be the chief minister.Murong NFDAA is mediocre, Murong Ping is suspicious, refuses to listen to Murong Ke's last words, and instead appoints Murong NFDAA's younger brother Murong Chong as the chief Sima.So far, Qianyan's fate has come to an end.

During Huan Wen's third Northern Expedition, Murong Chui, king of Wu, defeated the Jin army at Fangtou.However, due to his high achievements, Murong Ping and others wanted to kill Murong Chui day and night.In a panic, Murong Chui fled to Fu Jian of the former Qin Dynasty.The former Yan broke its own pillars, and the day of perishing is getting closer day by day.At that time, in Qianyan, "politics was achieved through bribery, officials were not talented, and the people were gnashing their teeth." The people's burden was extremely heavy, while the upper class of Xianbei was extremely extravagant.It was under such circumstances that Fu Jian's campaign against Yan was carried out.

In the fifth year of Taihe, Wang Meng led more than ten generals including Deng Qiang, Yang An, Zhang Hao, and 60,000 cavalry to attack Yan.Fu Jian personally bid farewell to Wang Meng, and met with his heart before leaving, encouraging Wang Meng to concentrate on attacking instead of looking inside.In order to repay his kindness to Gu, Wang Meng was invincible all the way, conquering Huguan, Jinyang and other places one after another.After half a year of attack, he finally swore an oath in Weiyuan, ready to fight to the death with the Yan army. The night before the decisive battle, Qin General Xu Cheng was delayed in returning to the camp, and the military law ordered him to execute him.Deng Qiang pleaded for Xu Cheng on Xu Cheng's behalf.Wang Meng insisted on not allowing it.Deng Qiang was furious, and returned to camp to reorganize his army to attack and kill Wang Meng.After thinking about it, Wang Meng was also moved by Deng Qiang's bravery, and said: "I'm just testing the general. If you are so loyal to your county general, you will definitely work harder for the country."

The next day the decisive battle.The Yan army was several times larger than the Qin army.Wang Meng encouraged Deng Qiang: "Today's battle can only be won by you, the general." Deng Qiang lay down and replied: "If you agree to appoint me as an official like Sili, you don't have to worry about the war anymore." Wang Meng was in a hurry: "Victory, I guarantee that you can be the prefect of Anding, Wanhuhou, but I dare not promise you a position like Sili." While talking, the battle outside the tent had already started, and Deng Qiang was still sleeping in the army tent. get up.Gritting his teeth, Wang Meng agreed to Deng Qiang's request. So, Deng Qiang opened the wine jar in the army tent, and after drinking the old wine, he straddled the horse with Xu Cheng, Zhang Hao and other generals, galloped into Murong Ping's army, rushed out and into the land like no one, and captured the flag. Beheading generals will kill and injure many people.One morning, the Qin army captured and beheaded more than 50,000 Yan troops, took advantage of the victory to pursue, and captured and beheaded more than 100,000 Yan troops. Wang Meng led the Qin army to besiege Yecheng, the capital of Yan.Hearing the news, Fu Jian was overjoyed, and led a hundred thousand cavalry to conquest in person with the honor of the emperor. In the end, the former Qin army captured Yecheng, captured Yan Lord Murong NFDAA, Taifu Murong Ping, checked the household registration books of Yan State, and took over 157 counties , 1579 counties, with a total population of 9.98 million. After the successful attack on Yan, Wang Meng wrote a letter on behalf of Fu Jian to persuade Zhang Tianxi, a separatist warlord in Liangzhou, to proclaim him a vassal.Then, the monarchs and ministers joined forces and captured Liangzhou, Yizhou, Southwest and other places, all of which belonged to Qin. Before Wang Meng died, Qin had basically unified northern China. The relationship between Fu Jian and Wang Meng was very harmonious. He often said to the prince: "You serve the prince as you do me!" The degree of heart-to-heart relationship between the ministers can only be compared with the relationship between Liu Bei and Zhuge Kongming. In the third year of Ningkang, the 51-year-old Wang Meng became ill and went to the hospital when he was dying. He hoped that Fu Jian would know that his achievements were hard-won, and that he should be "trepid, as if facing an abyss" as a king.When he was dying, Fu Jian came to the sickbed in person, and Wang Meng uttered his last advice and worries: "Although the state of Jin is confined to the remote land of Wu and Yue, after all, it is the successor of Zhengshuo. It should be diligent in cultivating the rites of neighboring countries, and should not try to attack the state of Jin at will. Xianbei and Qiang chieftains are the country's enemies, and they will eventually become a serious disaster. Gradually eradicate them for the benefit of the country." Fu Jian obeyed Wang Meng's words before he was alive, but he didn't listen to his last words, and the defeat of the former Qin Dynasty was really due to these two things.If Wang Jinglue lived another five years, the world would definitely be unified by the former Qin Dynasty.