Chapter 29 28 The Three Families Divide up the State of Jin

After the long-term war for hegemony in the Spring and Autumn Period, many small vassal states were annexed by big powers.Some countries have undergone internal changes, and power has gradually fallen into the hands of a few doctors.These doctors were originally slave-owner aristocrats, and later they adopted feudal exploitation methods and transformed into the landlord class.In order to expand their influence, some even use the method of reducing taxes to win over people's hearts. In this way, their influence is getting bigger and bigger. The Jin State, which has always been known as the overlord of the Central Plains, by that time, the power of the monarch also declined, and the real power was controlled by six doctors.They each have their own territories and armed forces, and attack each other.Later, two families were broken up, leaving the Zhi family, Zhao family, Han family, and Wei family.Among the four, Zhijia is the most powerful.

Zhi Boyao, a senior official of the Zhi family, wanted to occupy the land of the other three families, and said to the three senior officials Zhao Xiangzi, Wei Huanzi, and Han Kangzi: "The Jin State was originally the overlord of the Central Plains, but was deprived of its hegemony by Wu and Yue. In order to make the Jin State When it grows stronger, I advocate that each family give a hundred miles of land and household registration to the public." The three doctors all knew that Zhi Boyao had bad intentions and wanted to force them to hand over the land in the name of the public.However, the three families were not in harmony. Han Kangzi first ceded the land and 10,000 household registrations to the Zhi family; Wei Huanzi did not want to offend Zhi Boyao, so he also ceded the land and household registration.

Zhi Boyao asked Zhao Xiangzi for land again, but Zhao Xiangzi refused, saying: "The land is an inheritance from the previous generation, and I will never give it away." Zhi Boyao was so angry that he immediately ordered the Han and Wei families to send troops to attack the Zhao family. In 455 BC, Zhi Boyao himself led the central army, the army of the Han family was on the right, and the army of the Wei family was on the left. The three teams went straight to the Zhao family. Knowing that he was outnumbered, Zhao Xiangzi retreated to Jinyang (now Taiyuan, Shanxi) with the Zhao family's troops.

Not many days later, the three families led by Zhi Boyao have surrounded Jinyang City.Zhao Xiangzi ordered the soldiers to resolutely defend the city and not to fight.Whenever the soldiers of the three families attacked the city, arrows from the top of the city fell like locusts, making it impossible for the three families to move forward. Jinyang City has been defending for more than two years with bows and arrows.The three soldiers and horses have never been able to capture it. One day, Zhi Boyao went outside the city to inspect the terrain, saw the Jinshui River in the northeast of Jinyang City, and suddenly came up with an idea: Jinshui bypasses Jinyang City and flows down, if the Jinshui River is diverted to the southwest , wouldn't Jinyang City be flooded?He ordered the soldiers to dig another river next to Jinshui, leading to Jinyang, and build a dam upstream to stop the upstream water.

It was the rainy season at this time, and the water on the dam was full.Zhi Boyao ordered soldiers to open a gap in the dam.In this way, the flood went straight to Jinyang and poured into the city. The houses in the city were flooded, and the people had to run to the roofs to take refuge. The stoves were also submerged in the water, and people had to hang up the pots to cook.However, the people in Jinyang City hated Zhi Boyao so much that they would rather drown than surrender. Zhi Boyao asked Han Kangzi and Wei Huanzi to check the water situation together.He pointed to Jinyang City and said to them proudly: "Look, isn't Jinyang almost finished? Earlier I thought Jinshui was like a city wall that could stop the enemy, but now I know that floods can also destroy a country." Woolen cloth."

Han Kangzi and Wei Huanzi obediently agreed on the surface, but were secretly surprised.It turns out that Anyi (now northwest of Xia County, Shanxi) was the fiefdom of the Wei family, and Pingyang (southwest of Linfen County, Shanxi Province) was the fiefdom of the Han family.Zhi Boyao's words just reminded them that since Jinshui can flood Jinyang, maybe Anyi and Pingyang will suffer the same fate as Jinyang one day. After Jinyang was flooded, the situation in the city became more and more difficult.Zhao Xiangzi was very anxious, and said to his retainer Zhang Mengtan: "Of course the people's hearts have not changed, but if the water rises again, the whole city will not be able to survive."

Zhang Mengtan said: "I think the Han family and the Wei family will not be willing to cede the land to Zhi Boyao. I will try to find a way to talk to the two of them." That night, Zhao Xiangzi sent Zhang Mengtan out of the city secretly, first found Han Kangzi, then Wei Huanzi, and asked them to attack Zhi Boyao together.The Han and Wei families were hesitating, so they talked to Zhang Meng, and they naturally agreed. On the second night, after the third watch, Zhi Boyao was sleeping in his camp when he suddenly heard the sound of shouting for killing.He hurriedly got up from the couch and found that his clothes and quilt were all wet, and when he took a closer look, the barracks was full of water.At first, he thought that the dam might have burst, and flood water poured into his camp, so he hurriedly asked the soldiers to rush to repair it.But after a while, the water was getting bigger and bigger, and the barracks were completely flooded.Zhi Boyao was panicking, and suddenly, war drums sounded from all directions.Soldiers from the Zhao, Han, and Wei families rushed over in boats and rafts.The soldiers of the Zhi family were hacked to death and drowned in countless waters.Zhi Boyao's entire army was wiped out, and he himself was captured and killed by the three families.

The three families of Zhao, Han, and Wei destroyed the Zhi family, and not only took back the land occupied by Zhi Boyao, but even the land of the Zhi family was divided equally among the three families.Later, they also divided up other lands left by Jin. In 403 B.C., Han, Zhao, and Wei families sent envoys to Luoyi to meet King Zhou Weilie and asked Zhou Tianzi to enshrine their three families as vassals.King Zhou Weilie thought that it would be useless not to admit it, it would be better to be a favor and formally seal the three families as vassals.After that, Han (whose capital was in present-day Yu County, Henan Province, and later moved to present-day Xinzheng, Henan), Zhao (whose capital was in the southeast of present-day Taiyuan, Shanxi, and later moved to present-day Handan, Hebei), Wei (capital in the northwest of present-day Xia County, Shanxi, and later moved to present-day Henan) Kaifeng) became a big country in the Central Plains, together with Qin, Qi, Chu, and Yan, they were called the "Seven Heroes of the Warring States Period" in history.