Conspiracy is an aboveboard use of tactics. You tell your opponent frankly how you are going to act. Even if your opponent knows it, he is helpless, powerless, and has no choice but to get into the trap.
If conspiracy is about trickery at the tactical level, conspiracy is about crushing at the strategic level.
Most of the conspiracies have solutions, but the conspiracy is basically unsolvable!
There are four major conspiracy in Chinese history, namely Spring and Autumn Period Qi State Yan Ying's two peaches to kill three people, Qi State Sun Bin's besieging Wei and saving Zhao during the Warring States Period, Lord Father Yan 's Pushing the Order during the Western Han period and Wang Meng 's Golden Sword Plan in the Pre-Qin period.
This section mainly talks about the Tweeting Order and other three strategies. If you don’t understand, please search online.
The kings were enfeoffed, and the tail was too big to lose
When Qin Shihuang unified the world, Li Si proposed to abolish the enfeoffment system and implement the county system , which was of progressive significance. In the early days of the of the Han Dynasty, Liu Bang, the emperor of the Han Dynasty, adopted the policy of enfeoffing princes and kings with the same surname, attacking the groups of kings with different surnames, and containing the groups of heroes and relatives, so as to ensure the Liu family's empire. At the time, it was consistent with the national conditions at that time.
However, the area of the vassal states accounted for almost half of the area of the Han Dynasty. They were so powerful that they could not lose their tail. The vassal states were vast in area and had armies, which seriously threatened the centralization of power of the Han Dynasty. Moreover, these princes were lawless and "may have dozens of cities and thousands of miles of land. If they are slow, they will be arrogant and prone to chaos; if they are quick, they will prevent them from becoming strong and unite, and plan to rebel against the capital." The titles and fiefdoms of these princes and kings were inherited solely by the eldest son. After a few generations, the relationship with the emperor faded, but the national power remained unchanged.
The first person to realize this problem was Emperor Wen of Han. Emperor Wen of Han was relatively gentle and had relatively clever methods. He once made several sons of Liu Fei kings in the form of widespread favor and divided the Qi country into seven.
During the period of Emperor Jing of the Han Dynasty, Emperor Jing of the Han Dynasty and Chao Cuo were impatient, and the effect of reducing the vassal was not good, and eventually the "Seven Kingdoms Rebellion" broke out. See The Great Han Empire - The Rebellion of the Seven Kingdoms. Although the Seven Kingdoms have been pacified, the problem remains unsolved. Someone needs to unbutton this button.
Here comes the unbuttoned person. This person is called Zhufu Yan.
Zhufu Yan was born in Linzi, Qidi. He studied the doctrines of strategists and hundreds of schools of thought. This person is talented in learning, but has poor character . Many scholars in Qi rejected him. He could not stay in Qi, which shows how bad his character was. His family lived in poverty and could not borrow money from others, so he went to Yan, Zhao and Zhongshan in the north to study, but no one wanted to see him everywhere. He did not reflect on himself and developed a deep hatred for these people.
In 134 BC, he believed that all the vassal states were not worth visiting. Only the imperial court could realize his ambition and revenge , so he went to Chang'an to see the general Wei Qing. Wei Qing thought he was a talented person and recommended him to Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty many times. How could the emperor be so easy to see? Even Dongfang Shuo could not see him. Later, he had to find a way to see Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty. He waited in line for a long time but didn't get his number, and Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty didn't summon him. The money he brought had been spent, and he had been staying in Chang'an for a long time. The guests of the princes hated him.
If he is not summoned, he will become a beggar, so he wrote to Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty. When Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty saw the letter, he felt that he was a talented person and summoned him on the same day.
Zhufu Yan was also a talented person with several skills. He met Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty many times and discussed political affairs. Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty appreciated him very much. Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty ordered him to be appointed as an emissary, and he was promoted to a senior official. In one year, Zhu Fuyan's position was promoted four times.
Tweet the favor order
Since you are not popular with the princes, then let them look good to you.
In response to the difficult problem of the enlargement of the princes and kings, Zhu Fuyan advised Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty: "In ancient times, the land of the princes did not exceed a hundred miles, and the situation of strength was easy to control. Today's princes often connect more than ten cities, and the land spans thousands of miles. The world is usually arrogant, extravagant, and licentious. When the situation is urgent, they will rely on their strength to jointly rebel against the imperial court. Now if the vassal is forcibly reduced, there will be a rebellion. This is what Chao Cuo did.
Nowadays, there are as many as a dozen sons of the princes, and only the eldest son inherits, although the other sons also. The sons of princes and kings have no sizeable kingdom.
I hope that your majesty will order the princes to promote kindness, divide his land among all his children, and make them marquis. Everyone of these children will be happy. This kind of kindness actually divided the territory of the princes and kings. It was not necessary to reduce their fiefdoms, but it weakened their power. "
In 127 BC, Emperor Wu adopted Zhufu Yan's suggestion and issued the "Tian En Order".
The Tweeting Order learned from the experience of Chao Cuo in the period of Emperor Jing. It stipulated that in addition to allowing the eldest son to inherit the throne, the remaining bastards would be granted the title of marquis in the original feudal state. The newly enfeoffed princely state would be directly managed by the counties, and their status would be equivalent to that of the county.
After several requests, "big countries are no more than ten cities, and small countries are no more than dozens of miles", so the kingdom's fiefdoms were divided, broken into pieces, and gradually shrunk, no longer enough to compete with the imperial court. Moreover, the area of counties directly under the central jurisdiction gradually increased and intersected with the vassal states, making it impossible for the vassal states to stay together and guard the favorable terrain (monitoring the vassal states).
The Tuien Order implemented by Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty was very clever in terms of means, because the Tuien Order was to break up the vassal states in the name of rewards, won praise for benevolent governance, and the most important thing is, did not use any troopsThe problem of the princes being too big to lose was solved.
The Tweeting Order was a symbol of the unity of ideological changes and political changes during the period of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, and completed the transition from the Han Dynasty feudal system to the county system.
Talent is better than virtue
Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty wanted to make Wei Zifu his queen. He was worried that the ministers would not obey, so he asked his master Fu Yan for countermeasures. Later, at the suggestion of his father Yan, Emperor Wu was able to make Wei Zifu his queen.
King Yan Liu Dingguo was so shameless that he actually had an affair with his concubine, his brother's wife and others. When the master's father Yan learned about it, he immediately reported it to Emperor Wu, and finally Liu Dingguo committed suicide out of fear of guilt. The ministers were all afraid of Zhu Fuyan's exposure, and the sum of bribes and gifts to him amounted to thousands of gold.
Someone advised Master Yan and said: "You are too outrageous." Master Father Yan said: " It has been more than 40 years since I studied abroad. My ambition has not been realized. My parents do not regard me as a son. My brothers refuse to take me in. Guests have abandoned me. I have been poor for a long time. Besides, if a man is alive, he will not be ranked among the Five Tripods. If you eat, then you will be punished by being cooked in five cauldrons when you die. I am already in my old age, so I have to act against my will and act violently. ”
The king of Qi’s incest
The cause of the incident started from the state of Qi.
After King Qi Yi died of illness, King Qi Li came to the throne. His mother was the Queen Mother Ji. As the saying goes: When a woman heads the house, the walls fall and the house collapses. The collapse of the house happened as soon as it was said. Queen Mother Ji wanted her old Ji family to pamper her for generations, so she would marry her brother's daughter as the queen. Please note that this Empress Dowager Ji is exactly the same as Empress Lu .
However, King Qi didn’t like Queen Ji because her son was older than her mother.
Empress Dowager Ji was a shrew and jealous woman. She thought: "I am your mother, and you don't listen to me. I can't cure you?" So she let her eldest daughter, Ji Wengzhu, the sister of King Qi, enter the palace to control the harem and prevent the concubines and ladies in the harem from getting close to King Qi. Queen Mother Ji's idea was very simple: "My dear King Qi, you have no choice. I'd better listen to your mother and just love Queen Ji. "
King Qi saw that there was not even a girl in the palace, not even a mother. What should I do? Oh, yes, there is another woman, that is my biological sister. Only the King of Qi and his sister were left alone in the palace, so let's learn from Adam Eve and Fuxi Nuwa , so the King of Qi actually had an affair with Lord Ji Weng. Empress Dowager Ji had countless calculations, but she ended up like this. She was really stupid.
In fact, this matter is not a big deal. During the Spring and Autumn Period, Qi Huan Gong 's brother Qi Xianggong did it. In addition, there were many such things in the vassal states of the Han Dynasty, such as Yan State , such as Zhao State . That’s it for now. However, the tree wanted to be quiet but the wind continued, and King Qi was sent to the point of no return by the combination of Queen Mother Ji and his father Yan.
Xu Jia talked as a matchmaker
There was a eunuch named Xu Jia in Qi State, who was the eunuch of the Empress Dowager Wang Nan. Before marrying Emperor Jing of the Han Dynasty, the Empress Dowager Wang Ao had a daughter named Xiuchengjun, who was the half-sister of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty. Out of guilt and compensation, the Empress Dowager Wang Ao loved her very much. Xiu Chengjun has a daughter named Mo, and the Queen Mother wants her to marry the princes. Xu Jia then requested to be sent as an envoy to the state of Qi, saying that he would definitely ask the king of Qi to write a letter requesting to marry E. The Empress Dowager was overjoyed and sent Xu Jia to Qi.
At that time, the master's father Yan knew that Xu Jia came to Qi State to ask the King of Qi to marry the queen. He also took the opportunity to tell Xu Jia: "If the matter succeeds, I hope to enrich my daughter into the palace of King Qi. "
Encountered a shrew
Xu Jia arrived in Qi State and hinted this matter to the King of Qi. As we have said above, Empress Dowager Ji was a shrew and jealous woman. After hearing what Xu Jia said, she became furious and said: "The King of Qi has a queen (Empress Dowager Ji's niece), and the harem is ready. Moreover, Xu Jia is a poor man in Qi. He has no way out and becomes a eunuch. He goes to the palace to do things, but he doesn't do anything. It is beneficial to Qi, but he wants to disturb my family, the King of Qi! Besides, what does the master father Yan want to do? He also wants to enrich his daughter into my harem of Qi! ”
Well, Empress Dowager Ji is still a big bad mouth. As soon as she said these words, she offended two people.
Xu Jia was greatly embarrassed. The matter could not be done and it was difficult to communicate. So he came back and reported to the Queen Mother: "The King of Qi is willing to marry E, but the matter may be harmful. I am worried that it will be like King Yan." King Yan This man committed adultery with his daughter and sisters, and died after being convicted. Xu Jia therefore used the incident of King Yan to shake the Queen Mother. The Queen Mother said: "Don't talk about marrying your daughter to King Qi anymore!" Later, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty gradually found out about this matter.
Zhufu Yan was also humiliated by the Queen Mother Ji, which caused a rift with the state of Qi.
Avenging private revenge
The master's father Yanzheng was favored by Emperor Wu. He took the opportunity to say: "There are 100,000 families in Linzi, Qi State, and they tax a thousand gold coins every day, which is more than Chang'an." , in such a wealthy place, no one can be king except the emperor's brother or beloved son. At that time, Qi State almost participated in the "Wu Chu Seven Kingdoms Rebellion", and now there was incest. "
So Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty worshiped his father Yan as the prime minister of Qi State and asked him to preside over the matter.
The master's father came to the state of Qi. He called his brothers and guests, distributed five hundred gold to them, and scolded them "In the past, when I was poor, my brothers did not give me food and clothing, and the guests did not let me in. Now that I have become the prime minister, some of you have gone thousands of miles away to welcome me."I have severed all relations with you. Please do not enter my master's father's house again! ”
Lord Father Yan then intensified his interrogation of the eunuchs in Queen Qi’s harem, and the King of Qi was also involved in his remarks. King Qi was young and thought that he would not be able to escape the blame after all. He was afraid of being sentenced to death like King Liu Dingguo of Yan, so he committed suicide. The official in charge of the matter reported the matter to Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty.
Zhufu Yan didn’t expect it, and it ended up like this.
Who is the expert in whistleblowing?
Zhufu Yan used to travel when he was a commoner. Yan and Zhao, after he became a high official, they exposed King Yan.
King ZhaoLiu Pengzu is the brother of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty. He is a cunning, deceitful and sycophantic man, humble and flattering. On the surface, he is humble, respectful and pleasing to others, but on the inside he is mean and vicious. He likes to play with the law and slander others with sophistry. He has more bad things than anyone else. Not only did he seize the concubine of King Yi of Jiangdu, his prince Liu Dan also committed adultery with his sister and his compatriot sister. You can say: It’s so messy! King Zhao's troubles later produced a butterfly effect, which eventually led to the witchcraft disaster that almost destroyed the Western Han Dynasty. We’ll leave it to the next few episodes.
Liu Pengzu was very afraid that after his father Yan had exposed the King of Yan, he would do more mischief and expose himself again. Strike first to gain advantage, strike later and suffer disaster. When it comes to conspiracy, I, Liu Pengzu, am the expert. He wanted to write to Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty to expose his father Yan's bribery, but because his father Yan was in the court, he did not dare to expose it. conspired with many people to transfer Zhufu Yan away from Chang'an, and then exposed Zhufu Yan and took the opportunity to take him down.
When Zhufu Yan became the prime minister, King Zhao sent someone to write a letter to report Zhufu Yan for accepting bribes from the princes. When King Qi committed suicide, Emperor Wu of Han He thought it was Lord Fuyan who had forced the King of Qi to death, and the old and new accounts were settled together, so Lord Fuyan was handed over to the officials for interrogation. Zhufu Yan admitted to accepting bribes from princes, but refused to admit that he forced the King of Qi to commit suicide.
After all, Zhufu Yan was very talented, and Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty did not want to kill Zhufu Yan.
Helpless Zhufuyan, this person is really not very popular.. At this time, Laoyoutiao Gongsun Hong was the imperial censor, and he said to Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty: "The King of Qi committed suicide and left no descendants. The feudal state was abolished and turned into a county and returned to the imperial court. Master Fuyan is the culprit. Your Majesty will not be able to explain to the world unless he kills Master Fuyan. ”
Since there is no way to explain it to the world, let’s let the master father Yan do it. In 126 BC, the master father Yan was defeated by the Yi tribe.
When the master father Yan was favored by the nobles, he had thousands of guests. When he was exterminated, no one collected his body , only Kong Che collected his body and buried him html. 2
Zhufu Yan was in an important position, and all the high-ranking officials in the court praised him. But when his reputation was ruined and he himself was killed, the scholars were all vying to talk about his bad qualities. How sad!
酎金胜尊
Regardless of Chinese medicine or Western medicine, take them together. That's good medicine.
Pushing the grace order is only the first step, breaking up the power of the princes and kings. Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty was a great centralized emperor. Breaking things into pieces could not meet the requirements of centralization. What Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty wanted was to break things into pieces . This is the gold medal to win the title.
During the reign of Emperor Wen of the Han Dynasty, it was stipulated that every August in the capital Chang'an, sacrifices would be made to the Temple of the Great Ancestor. The princes and princes should offer gold as a sacrifice according to the population of the feudal country. During the inspection by the Shaofu, if the weight or fineness of the gold is found to be insufficient, he will be punished. The princes and kings will cut off their counties and the princes will be exempted from the country.
In 112 BC, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty conquered South Vietnam and called on the princes to join the army. At that time, Lingnan was a barbarian land, and the miasma was very powerful. If you went there and got caught by the miasma, you would basically never come back. Let the wealthy princes suffer, and no one will do it. Let them die, and no one will do it. Therefore, no one responded to Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty's call.
Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty was very angry, and the consequences were very serious., what are you doing raising a bunch of corpse-like nobles like you? Isn’t it easy to find fault with this group of princes? Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty ordered a strict inspection of the fineness of the mint gold. took advantage of the lack of mint gold and took away the titles of 106 princes, accounting for half of the princes at the time, further strengthening the centralization of power.
Finding Money Techniques
In the early years of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, due to the recuperation and rest of the past dynasties, the "Han Dynasty flourished for more than seventy years, and the country If nothing happens, except for floods and droughts, the people will have enough money, and their houses will be full, but the money in the capital is hundreds of millions, which is rotten and unstoppable. TaicangThe grains are so full that they are rotten and inedible."
The reason why Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty was called Wu was because of his great martial arts. War means burning money. The three great wars against the Huns, the destruction of Fujian and Yue, the annexation of the southwestern barbarians, the destruction of South Vietnam, and the pacification of Korea were all fought with the strength of the Han Dynasty.
Continuous campaigns greatly consumed the national power of the Han Dynasty. Taking the three Han-Hungarian wars as an example, the Han army dispatched a total of 300,000 to 400,000 soldiers, horsemen and support personnel. With ancient transportation capabilities, 10 shi of grain and grass were transported to the front line, 9 shi were lost, and only 1 shi was left after arriving at the front line. In other words, the food supplied to the front line can feed 4 million people, which shows the serious loss.
The loss of horses was also very serious. Based on the Battle of Mobei , although it was a great victory, the loss of horses amounted to 4/5. If a total of 300,000 to 400,000 war horses were dispatched in the three wars, there would be less than tens of thousands of war horses left.
In several wars, the entire army was often wiped out, and the loss of soldiers was also around 100,000-200,000.
Around 120 BC, the money in the treasury was almost burned out, and Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty had to find a way to make money.
In order to deal with the financial deficit caused by foreign wars, Emperor Wu adopted Zheng's suggestion at that time and ordered the implementation of the official salt and iron policy, with the state monopolizing the production of salt and iron. Sang Hongyang participated in the official planning of salt and iron.
Sang Hongyang was born in a merchant family. At the age of 13, he entered the palace because of his good mental arithmetic. He successively held the positions of Shizhong, Da Nong Cheng, Du Wei of Su Su, and Da Si Nong. Starting from 120 BC, with the strong support of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, he successively implemented economic policies such as suanmin, gaomin, salt and iron official camp, equal loss, equalization, currency reform, and Jiuqian. At the same time, he organized 600,000 people to garrison the fields and guard the border to defend against the Huns. These measures were successful to varying degrees, significantly increasing the government's fiscal revenue and laying a solid material foundation for Emperor Wu to continue to promote civil and military affairs, but they also brought certain negative impacts.
Sang Hongyang is a capable minister, an capable minister has the talents of an capable minister, but most capable ministers are more talented than virtue, and are villains. Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty can use it, and it is very easy to use, but Emperor Zhao of the Han Dynasty period may not be able to tame . This also led to the tragedy of Sang Hongyang's rebellion and extermination decades later.
Postscript
As the saying goes: Only those who are virtuous are saints, those who are more virtuous are gentlemen, those who are more talented than virtuous are villains, and those who are without virtue are mediocre.
If we talk about the number one employer in ancient and modern times, it is Liu Bang. Liu Bang's important ministers are all virtuous and talented people, such as Xiao He, Zhang Liang, Cao Shen, Wang Ling, Zhou Bo , etc. Even the most cunning person Chen Ping is virtuous in his heart.
As the saying goes: Good people don’t do things, but bad people do things. A good old man who doesn't want to make progress and just sticks to the mud won't get anything done; while a villain who can shoot, be ruthless, and do whatever it takes to achieve his goals can often get things done. Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty was an energetic and capable monarch. If he wanted to do something, he must use talented people.
Since ancient times, saints are rare, but mediocre people are common. is good if it can find subordinates who are virtuous but not talented or talented but not virtuous.
Therefore, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty only needed to employ talented people. This has also led to many employment problems. For example, Zhufuyan, such as Sang Hongyang, such as , Luan Da, such as Jiang Chong. We will talk about this in the next few episodes.
The principle of employment is: Those with virtue and talent should be reused in an exceptional manner; those with virtue but no talent should be cultivated and used; those with talent but no virtue should be restricted in employment; those without virtue and talent should be resolutely not used.
How many people can stick to this employment principle?
In the past few episodes, we told the story of Wei Qing Huo Qubing's great military exploits.
This episode uses a few short stories to explain clearly the internal affairs of the Han Dynasty during the reign of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty.
In the next few episodes, we will tell the story of the two brothers-in-law of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty.
