1. Eternal Jiangshan
In 280 AD, the navy of the famous Jin Dynasty general Wang Jun approached Jianye City. Sun Hao, the Lord of Eastern Wu, left the city after an almost futile resistance. The surrender marked the end of the glorious Three Kingdoms era, and the Jin unified the world. Later generations called it "the return of the Three Kingdoms to Jin".
The person who accomplished the great cause of unifying the world was Sima Yan, the grandson of Sima Yi and the eldest son of Sima Zhao. The three generations of the Sima family were all smart and capable people. His grandfather Sima Yi had been dealing with Zhuge Liang for many years and finally dragged this thousand people to death. He became a prime minister in ancient times and seized the power of the Wei State. His father, Sima Zhao, not only controlled the power of the Wei State, but also conquered the Shu Han Dynasty in the south. The surname Liu had been passed down for so many years and was finally completely discontinued. In Sima Yan's generation, he finally replaced Wei and unified the world.
China has thousands of years of history, divided and united, united and divided, but there are really only a few monarchs who have unified the world, and compared with the others, Sima Yan is the only one worth mentioning. This is his "benevolence". Sima Yan replaced Cao Wei with Cao Wei, but he did not kill Wei Emperor Cao Huan. Instead, he named him King Chenliu, and allowed him to use the emperor's ceremonial guard and did not have to declare himself a minister when submitting a letter. This kind of thing is just The Jin Dynasty appeared, and the original Shu Han lord Liu Chan surrendered and was named Anle Gong, and now the Eastern Wu lord Sun Hao surrendered and was named Gui Minghou, both of whom died well. Perhaps because Sima's family came from a noble family, Sima Yan had a good relationship with the ministers around him. The ministers spoke very casually, and even if they said bad things about him, they would just laugh it off. Look carefully. This was the case throughout the Jin Dynasty, with the king being weak and the ministers being strong. The ministers are more powerful than the emperor.
Sima Yan cannot be called a wise king, all because he only conquered the country, but did not lay a good foundation for the country. As the saying goes, "It is easy to conquer a country, but difficult to defend it!" And the idiot emperor he chose was an idiot. The system in which vassal kings led troops outside laid the foundation for the downfall of the Western Jin Dynasty.
If his emperor's son was not an idiot, and the vassal king had no chance even if he wanted to cause rebellion, and if there was no system such as vassal kings leading troops, then no matter how chaotic the government was, it would not be like the Rebellion of the Eight Kings.
The chaos of the Eight Kings was like a meat grinder. All the power of the Central Plains was exhausted here, and a vacuum was formed in the Central Plains. The nomads who originally submitted to the Central Plains used various excuses to enter the Central Plains. This is the future of the Central Plains. Often called the Five Huanhua.
The Central Plains was in chaos. First the Xiongnu, then the Jie, and Xianbei came in swarm. First they attacked the Jin Dynasty, and then they also fought within themselves. It was a mess. Sima Rui, this and Sima Yan are already very different. Distant relatives from far away hurriedly ran to Jiankang, the capital of Soochow, which was captured by Sima Yan. With the strong support of Director Wang, they lived a life of a small court.
Maybe it was because he suddenly became emperor and wanted to enjoy peace and happiness, or maybe because the scenery in the south of the Yangtze River was so beautiful that he was reluctant to leave. Sima Rui didn't want to go back to the war-torn north.
The south is relatively stable, but the north is suffering. Anyone who can leave can leave. The people who stay can only be oppressed by the Hu people. Even if they are not oppressed, life is not easy in this war and chaos. Whenever people are in painful moments, their greatest hope is that a god, or at least a hero, will descend from the sky to save them.
Zu Ti tried it. He made the Northern Expedition with the heroism of a mid-stream attack, fought against Hou Zhao under extremely difficult circumstances, and regained the territory south of the Yellow River. He had no selfish motives. He was really a great leader. A great hero, but he left without completing the mission of the Northern Expedition.
So people placed their hopes on Ran Min, who was known as the reincarnation of Xiang Yu, but this hope was killed by Murong Ke's serial horse.
Then everyone turned their hopes to the south. A general named Huan Wen attracted their attention. However, when this general came to Chang'an City, everyone realized that this general valued the power of the south more. So he turned around and went back.
For a time, the benevolent Fu Jian and the lice-catching Wang Meng brought hope to everyone. However, Wang Meng passed away early, and the benevolent Fu Jian suddenly seemed to have lost his backbone and insisted on going his own way. The southern expedition. Unfortunately, people's hearts are still towards the Eastern Jin Dynasty, and luck is still on the south side. In the battle of Feishui, the Eastern Jin Dynasty won a great victory. Although they did not regain all the lost territory, the former Qin Dynasty collapsed.
Perhaps the Murong family is the hope? This family, all handsome and extraordinary, has famous generals like Murong Ke and Murong Chui. It may not be difficult to dominate the world. Unfortunately, things are unpredictable. After participating in the Hebei War, the Murong family declined.
Everyone does not know that this kind of pain will last for hundreds of years, and will not temporarily end until the establishment of a dynasty called Sui. During this period, all people are just passers-by, and in history They left a few strokes in the book and left, but some people left more and some left less.
We always admire those who leave a lot, even if it is a false reputation, but at least they can leave endless topics for future generations. And some of them, we call heroes, like Zu Ti. Among heroes, some people create an era and make history.
Please first remember this figure who created an era. His name is Liu Yu.
2. The hero came from a poor family
In 363 AD, the first year of Xingning, the reign of Emperor Ai of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, Liu Yu was born in Jingkou (now Zhenjiang, Jiangsu). His ancestral home is Pengcheng (today's Xuzhou, Jiangsu), the capital of Xiang Yu, the overlord of Western Chu. At that time, it was said that God would reincarnate Xiang Yu, the overlord of Western Chu. Everyone thought it was Ran Min, but it is not impossible to say Liu Yu. Of course, Liu Yu's relationship with Xiang Yu is not as close as that with Xiang Yu's rival Liu Bang.
Perhaps it was the overly glorious relationship between the two Han Dynasties. At that time, people with the surname Liu could always be related to Liu Bang, the ancestor. So Liu Xiu, who really restored the Han Dynasty, said that he was a clan member of the Han Dynasty. Liu Bei, who controlled one third of the world, also said that he was a member of the Han clan, and Liu Yu, who later became the leader of the dynasty, also said that he was a member of the Han clan.
However, his Han clan relatives are relatively far away. Liu Bei is the descendant of King Jing of Zhongshan, so he can be regarded as a direct descendant of Liu Bang. And Liu Yu's ancestor is Liu Jiao, King of Chu Yuan, who is Liu Bang. Although his younger brother is also a member of the Han clan, he is a collateral lineage. Moreover, it was no longer the end of the Han Dynasty, but the Eastern Jin Dynasty. His status as a Han clan clan member could not bring him any benefit. His status as a Han clan clan clan member could only be used as a talking point. In fact, if I have to say it, the Huns Liu Yuan also claimed that he was a clan member of the Han Dynasty and established the Han Dynasty. Perhaps because of this, Liu Yu did not rebuild the Han Dynasty, but took the ambiguous "Song" as his dynasty title.
That is a story for another day. In 363 AD, our future emperor was still just born and faced the danger of dying at any time.
Whenever an emperor is born, what good omen will everyone give? For example, dreaming about swallowing the red sun, dragons and phoenixes descending to earth, in short, is a very special thing. So what is the good omen for Liu Yu's birth? Unfortunately, if there is such a good omen, we have no way of knowing, because Liu Yu's mother, Zhao, died after Liu Yu was born.
Liu Yu’s family background was not very good. His biological father, Liu Qiao, was just a petty official. It would cost a lot of money to bury his wife, and raising a baby was not that simple. Ancient people There were no habits and conditions for feeding with milk powder like in modern times. The only option was to breastfeed. In this case, a woman with sufficient milk supply would have to be hired as a wet nurse, but this would cost money. Ancient novels mentioned that scholars encountered such a situation. , they have to hold their children around to beg for help, eat hundreds of milk, and most of them are hungry and full. Liu Qiao probably didn't have the time or the face to do so, not to mention the thought that the child would kill his wife. He was so angry that he was ready to abandon Liu Yu.
According to ancient romances, Liu Yu must have been picked up by a servant of a high-ranking official and brought back after he was abandoned. Then the high-ranking official had no children at home, so he raised him as his own child. , inheriting the family business when you grow up, and getting to know your biological father in the future, that is a comedy, turning against your biological father, that is a tragedy, falling in love with your biological sister, that is a thunderstorm. If we follow the way Western history is written, Liu Yu will be adopted by a wolf and eventually become a hero and establish a country called Rome. If the writing method of martial arts novels is followed, then Liu Yu will be adopted by a Taoist monk or a master in the mountains. He will grow up and learn martial arts. Later, he will find that his life experience is complicated and confusing. It turns out that he is someone...
Stop it, Liu Yu's life experience is not so dramatic. At the critical moment, he was rescued by his uncle Liu Wan and his aunt Du Shi. Du Shi became his wet nurse and stayed in his home. As an aunt and wet nurse, Mrs. Du was very good to him. She even refused to feed her second son Liu Huaijing for his sake. It is said that Liu Huaijing had some mental problems later on because he was weaned too early. Liu Yu would treat Liu Huaijing in the future. The family also took great care of her and showed her kindness, probably in order to repay this kindness.
However, it would be a bit exaggerated to say that it was Du who saw Liu Yu's future achievements. When Liu Bei was valued by Liu Yuanqi, it was because Liu Bei was already an adult and showed certain potential. To say that Mrs. Du could tell that the infant Liu Yu had the appearance of an emperor is a bit incredible. Du's actions were completely out of sympathy.
Liu Yu stayed at his aunt's house for two years before returning home, and then, to use a more popular word, he grew up vigorously. He became a "heroic and magnanimous man, seven feet six inches tall, magnificent in character, and careless about trivial matters."
However, this strange man did not have a good reputation. At this time, Liu Yu's biological father Liu Qiao had died of illness, and his second wife, Liu Yu's stepmother Xiao, raised Liu Yu and his two children alone. A half-brother. Liu Yu was very filial to his stepmother, but his career was not very good and he made a living by selling shoes. This was very similar to his predecessor, Liu Bei. It's strange to say that the Liu family was not without talents at that time. Liu Biao and Liu Zhang's personal conditions were much better than Liu Bei's at that time, and Liu Laozhi, a famous general in Beifu, was also there during Liu Yu's period. But it was always Liu Bei and Liu Yu who were born in poverty and achieved great achievements.
But speaking of it, the four most famous monarchs of the Liu family, Liu Bang, Liu Xiu, Liu Bei and Liu Yu, did not have good habits when they were young. Liu Bang was looked down upon by his father, who thought he was idle and not doing his job properly. Liu Xiu was young He liked to shelter lawbreakers, and he was obviously a local tyrant. Although Liu Bei was still studying, he also liked to form gangs and be a little gangster. Judging from his temper when he was a postal supervisor, he was quite angry. In Liu Yu's generation, it was nothing The improvement is that he doesn't like reading and is very idle. What's more, he also has a super bad habit of gambling. He was even tied up and beaten because he owed money. If his friend Wang Mi hadn't helped him pay off the debt, we would only have seen in history books that a gambler named Liu Mingyu was beaten to death for not paying back the money he owed, as a warning to the world. example. Of course, this example will only appear in some notes and will not appear in the Chronicles of the Emperor.
It is unknown whether Liu Yu got rid of this bad habit in the future, but judging from his future use of troops in battles, he was very bold in taking risks, and he always succeeded. I wonder if he was trained by gambling, but his The general's talent is much better than his gambling talent.
In fact, Liu Yu not only loved gambling, but also liked to brag. Once at Zhulin Temple, the monks said that he had the dragon's light in his body, and that he shot an arrow and wounded a snake, which was passed down as a king. This is similar to his predecessor Liu Bang. The story of killing the white snake was almost carved out of the same mold. It is probably because Liu Yu didn't read enough books and he didn't write the story well. However, after Liu Yucheng's death, these stories officially entered the official history.
Let’s look at the entire world. At this time, in the west, the capital of the Roman Empire has moved to Constantinople. The Roman Empire will soon be split into the east and west sides. The city of Rome will soon be Will be conquered by the barbarians. China in the east and the former Qin Empire in the north are prospering just like the legendary Great Qin Empire. The wizard Wang Meng, who is rare in a century, assists the barbarian king Fu Jian in Renhe and passes away after unifying the north. At this time, Fu Jian was at the peak of his career. He already had most of the original territories of the Han and Jin Dynasties in the Central Plains, Northern Saipe, the Western Regions, Liaodong, and Bashu. Only the Eastern Jin Dynasty in the south still maintained the name of Han orthodoxy, which was really a thorn in his side.
However, this thorn in the side was too difficult to bite. Although the Eastern Jin Dynasty was relatively peaceful, it was still popular among the people, and it also produced several generals. The Han people at that time were also very good at fighting. Fu Jian could not suppress the people who unified the world. However, in the Battle of Feishui, the white-faced scholar-like famous general Xie Xuan among the Eastern Jin gentry defeated Fu Jian, and the conflicts within the former Qin Empire broke out. In the blink of an eye, The great empire that unified the north collapsed. The Eastern Jin Dynasty was unable to advance northward, and the talented and famous general Xie Xuan soon fell ill and died.
Going back to Liu Yu, Liu Yu was only 21 years old during the Battle of Feishui. There is no record in history that he participated in this rare battle in a century. In fact, he had not joined the army at this time. Maybe it was the bravery of the Beifu Army in the Battle of Feishui that aroused his arrogance. Maybe he wanted to get ahead, so he was ready to join the army.
There was no imperial examination system during the Eastern Jin Dynasty. The main way to become an official was through recommendation, and most of the powerful official positions were in the hands of aristocratic families. A commoner like Liu Yu who had no background and a poor family background could at best do what his father did. If you are a small official, you may be able to serve as a local official if you are lucky, but it is impossible to become a high official.
However, the two Jin Dynasties inherited the Han system, and military merits were greatly rewarded. If ordinary civilians wanted to achieve their careers, the best way was to join the army. At that time, there was no custom of "good men should not be soldiers" as in later generations. Although most civilians made a living by farming, there was no discrimination against joining the army. The court would not carve words on the faces of soldiers, especially when the military system of the Jin Dynasty had been changed by the government. The military system developed into a recruitment system, and the famous Beifu Army was also composed of recruiting northern refugees.
However, it is easy to join the army, but difficult to achieve great achievements. The gentry in the Jin Dynasty was powerful, and most of the people who held real power were aristocratic families, like Huan Wen and Xie Xuan. They all came from famous families, and they could hold real power, like Liu Yu. It is not easy for such a humble person to achieve great things and hold great power.
However, this was the only way. Liu Yu joined the army, perhaps because of his good conditions. He became the champion general Sun Wuzhong Sima and began his glorious military career.
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-- Author: Qin Jian Shanhe
-- Release time: 2005-4-19 3:14:00
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3. Watching the sword while drunk
When talking about Liu Yu joining the army, we have to talk about the Beifu Army that Liu Yu joined. In the late Eastern Jin Dynasty, there were two main military departments. One of them was the Jingyang Qiangbing founded by Huan Wen. This was the main force of Huan Wen's Western Expedition and the Northern Expedition. Although he suffered a lot in the last Northern Expedition, his vitality was not damaged. Two generations of management, their strength is considerable, they are the main force on the Western Front of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, but the imperial court hates and fears the Huan family. Why? At that time, Huan Wen clearly wanted to usurp the throne, but he only managed to get through it with Xie An's delaying tactics and the Jin Emperor's crying. After that, although Huan Chong was still loyal to the court, the court was worried about Jing Yang's strong soldiers who controlled the Huan family. .
You can't rely on Jing Yang to strengthen your army, so you can only build your own armed forces. That was the Beifu Army, the strongest army in the late Jin Dynasty. This Beifu Army was an army established by Xie Xuan by recruiting northern refugees in order to resist the former Qin Dynasty. After its establishment, this army made many outstanding achievements, and became famous all over the world in the Battle of Feishui. The base camp of the Beifu Army was in Jingkou, where Liu Yu was born, and it was famous. If he wanted to join the army, he would naturally have to join the Beifu Army.
At first Liu Yu worked under the veteran general Sun Wuzhong. At this time, Xie Xuan, the founder of the Beifu Army, had died, and Wang Gong was in charge of the army. However, in 398 AD, Wang Gong, the governor of Qingyan and Yanzhou, Huan Xuan, the governor of Guangzhou, Yang Quanqi, the prime minister of Nanjun, and Yu Kai of Yuzhou were dissatisfied with the imperial Sima Daozi and raised an army to resist. However, because of Liu Lao's rebellion, Wang Gong was captured and killed. . Liu Lao took over the power of the Beifu Army on behalf of Wang Gong. The other three towns reached an agreement with the imperial court to withdraw their troops. Here, Liu Yu should have accompanied the army, but there are no historical records of his battles. We see him again in the Sun En Rebellion.
The political situation in the Eastern Jin Dynasty was corrupt, which made other people have the intention to rebel. This visit was not due to the troubles of other powerful towns, nor was it the usurpation of power by powerful officials in the court, nor was it the Hu tribe from the north moving south, but that The Five Dou Rice Road has been popular since the Eastern Han Dynasty.
Everyone knows that the Yellow Turban Uprising at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty was instigated by Taiping Dao. In fact, at the same time, there was also a Five Pecks of Rice Dao. The founder was Zhang Daoling in Sichuan. Although he and Taiping Dao belonged to the same Taoism, they did not belong to the same Taoist religion. The system did not rebel during the Yellow Turban Rebellion. Later, the leader Zhang Lu occupied Hanzhong and became a prince. Later Zhang Lu surrendered, but the Five Dou Rice Road developed in various places. The Eastern Jin Dynasty was also greatly affected. Many gentry such as Wang Xizhi Like Zhang Jiao, Sun Tai, the leader of the Five Pecks of Rice (who was also a court official), also rebelled and was killed by Sima Daozi. However, his nephew Sun En escaped and became a pirate. In the land of Sanwu, chaos broke out due to dissatisfaction with the imperial court's "music subjects" (which simply meant that tenants were asked to become military households again), so he went ashore and gathered a crowd to rebel. In a short period of time, he gathered hundreds of thousands of people. He petitioned the court to kill Sima Daozi and his son Sima Yuanxian, and he had great potential to invade Jiankang. This is the year 399 AD. Three years in Long'an.
(Tell me a funny thing. Wang Xizhi believed in it, but his son Wang Ningzhi also believed in it, and his belief was too deep. When Sun En, the Taoist leader, rebelled, he actually said that he could use Taoism to restrain him. He really forgot the identity of the other party, and then he escaped and was killed. Fortunately, his wife Xie An's niece Xie Daoyun organized the servants to resist, and was appreciated by Sun En, so the whole family was saved from disaster)
Of course the court would not listen. He ordered Xie Yan and Liu Laozhi to go ahead to encircle and suppress Liu Yu. At this time, Liu Yu was assigned to Liu Laozhi's military counselor and joined the army in the expedition. It was this expedition that made him stand out and became a famous general of the generation.
A legendary event occurred at the beginning of this expedition. Let’s take a look at the records in the history books first. "Liu Laozhi attacked Sun En and lured Yu to join the army, and sent dozens of generals to target the thieves. When they encountered thousands of thieves, they immediately attacked them. All the followers died, and Yu fell to the bank. The thieves approached the bank and wanted to come down, but Yu fought hard. He raised his sword and killed several people, and then he was able to get to the shore. He still shouted to chase them away, but Yu Suo killed many people. Liu Jingxuan was surprised that Yu didn't return for a long time, so he led his troops to look for him. When he saw Yu, he drove thousands of people away alone. *Sigh. Because he attacked the thieves, defeated them, and killed more than a thousand people."
Many military generals in history were called "enemies of ten thousand people" and "killing of thousands of people", but most of them said that these generals were brave. Being good at fighting does not really mean that they can fight ten thousand or one thousand people. In fact, it is usually only a few dozen people. Otherwise, there is no need to spend money to support the army. It is enough to find a few such supermen. However, we really saw one thing in the history books. In Southern History, there are suspicions that later generations have falsified and exaggerated the facts, and the credibility is not high. However, Sima Guang was extremely serious. This paragraph was quoted throughout the Zizhi Tongjian compiled by him. Is there really a thousand enemies?
It should be a fact that there are a large number of enemies. Otherwise, everyone who followed would not have died in the battle. However, there must be certain factors. Sun En’s followers have three characteristics. One is that most people They are a mob with no formal training. The second reason is that they are very powerful because of their religious beliefs. The third reason is that they are very superstitious.
The strong fighting power has been shown in the fact that everyone around Liu Yu died in the battle, and the other two points I think may be the key to Liu Yu's ability to defeat one against a thousand. It is said in the history books "Yu Fen slashes several people with his long sword and kills several people." The people killed in this pattern may be the enemy's leaders, or the most adept at fighting. Killing them will firstly deter the enemy, and secondly, kill the leader and organize the command. There is a bit of chaos on the ground, which even a well-organized army cannot avoid, let alone a rabble. On the one hand, superstition can lead to extremely strong combat power, and on the other hand, it can cause the collapse of combat power. Liu Yu's prowess and certain specific details may make people think that this person is the reincarnation of some kind of god. People are not in harmony with gods. Fighting, this is what caused the scene of driving thousands of people alone.
Of course, Liu Yu's prowess and wisdom played a key role here. If it were anyone else, he would have died early or escaped for his life. Liu Yu has been fond of gambling since he was a child and has a strong gambling habit. In fact, it is not only this. Several times, and countless times in the future, he managed to survive with less and more. The biggest benefit of driving thousands of people alone this time was not that it caused such a spectacle, but that Liu Laozhi's son Liu Jingxuan saw this spectacle and marveled at it. He admired Liu Yu very much, and the two became irreversible. Liu Jingxuan's high regard made Liu Laozhi look at him with admiration. (Speaking of which, Liu Laozhi's ancestral home is Pengcheng like Liu Yu, and they have the same surname. I don't know if they are the same family, but Liu Yu is very similar to Liu Laozhi in some aspects. What's more, this "battle of thousands" has already made his army famous.
With a tiger general like Liu Yu, the Beifu Army is naturally more powerful, and it is the strongest army in the Eastern Jin Dynasty to deal with those rabble. It was not a piece of cake. Soon, Sun En fled back to become a pirate, and the situation in Jiangdong was alleviated.
However, another thing happened at this time, which reversed the situation. This was the death of Xie Yan. When talking about the Eastern Jin Dynasty gentry, we think of the Wang and Xie families. In fact, they were said to be gatekeepers. But without ability and merit, what is the use of this high family status? The Wang family contributed greatly to the establishment of the Eastern Jin Dynasty. Wang led several prime ministers, and it was once said that "the king and his horse dominate the world." Unfortunately, Wang Dun rebelled, and the Wang family suffered His involvement is highly suspected, and the Wang family has many calligraphers and few politicians and military strategists. Perhaps it is a genetic mutation. However, the Xie family has Xie An, a famous prime minister, and Xie Xuan, a talented Confucian general. The Battle of Feishui made them famous. It reached the highest point. Unfortunately, Xie An and Xie Xuan died one after another. Xie Yan is Xie An's son. He and Xie Xuan made great military exploits in Feishui back then. He is the only general in the Xie family now. In the following years, his military exploits were also considerable. He was so prominent that he no longer led the army due to various reasons, but he was always regarded as the pillar of the court and the gentry. After the rebellion of Sanwu, the court ordered him to stay. If this continues, he will not succeed his father in becoming the leader of the court or military power. It's impossible. At least he is here, which shows that the nobles and the court still have strength, and the towns have to make plans for rebellion. However, in the fourth year of Jian'an, in 400 AD, Sun En made a comeback, and Xie Yan was killed by his subordinate Zhang Meng. The court had no one to use. People had no choice but to mobilize the Beifu army to encircle and suppress them.
Originally, the imperial court used Xie Yan, a famous Feishui general from the Xie family, to contain the Beifu army, and then used the Beifu army to contain Jing Yang. Now that Xie Yan is dead, the court can only hope in the loyalty of the Beifu army. Unfortunately, Liu Lao But he is not a loyal person. This is a story for another day.
The Beifu Army encircled and suppressed again, which was a great opportunity for Liu Yu to make meritorious deeds. I don’t know whether it was bad luck or something else, but Liu Yu always had to fight more with less. This was true in Juzhang and also in Haiyan. However, he always performed extraordinary feats repeatedly. On the one hand, this was naturally because the regular army of the Beifu Army was much more powerful than Sun En's rabble and had the advantage of defending the city. On the other hand, it was also Liu Yu's frequent tricks.
For example, during the time of pirates, "Enbei went out to Haiyan, and Gaozu chased him and built a city in Haiyan. The thieves came to attack the city, and the troops in the city were very weak. Gaozu chose hundreds of people who dared to die. The men took off their armor, held short soldiers, and came out with a loud noise. The thieves were frightened and ran away, abandoning their armor and fled. Although they defeated the commander Yao Sheng in a row, they were outnumbered. The enemy, Emperor Gaozu, spent the night hiding the crowd. If he had escaped, he would open the door in the morning and send a few people to the city. "The thieves believed it and led the troops to attack. Gaozu took advantage of his laziness, attacked hard, and defeated him." ("The Chronicles of Emperor Wu in the History of the Song Dynasty")
Both attacks took advantage of the enemy's unpreparedness to defeat him. Without knowing the truth, the sneak attack was successful. Now we naturally think that this plan is very simple. In fact, we must know that Sun En is not a fool. It is not easy to deceive him. Liu Yu must have put a lot of effort into confusing him. As the saying goes, if the magic is higher, the devil is higher. ten feet. This kind of risk requires courage. A cautious person like Zhuge Liang would only take it occasionally. Liu Yu was born a gambler and was not afraid of taking risks. No, a few days later, he came again, but this time it was a field battle.
During the pursuit, Haiyan ordered Bao Hou to send his son Si Zhi to lead a thousand Wu soldiers to assist in the battle. The Wu soldiers were not much better than the regiment training, and naturally not much better than Sun En's soldiers, not to mention the number was small. Liu Yu persuaded him to take the Wu soldiers behind. This was also a good intention, but his good intentions were misunderstood. Because he did this, he was considered to want to monopolize the fruits of victory. (Sun En stole a lot of gold and silver treasures.) Bao Si Zhi disagreed. Liu Yu had no choice but to set up an ambush and build more flags and drums, so as to make some noise when the war started. In ancient times, how many armies had as many flags and drums was fixed. This would first scare off Sun En's army, but this retreat was a proactive one. Retreating means not being defeated, but still having fighting strength. The heir brother can't wait to catch up. Naturally, the whole army will be wiped out, and he himself will be ruined. Moreover, the defeat of the front army will naturally disrupt the rear army. (Why else would China value vanguards so much?) Liu Yu had no choice but to fight and retreat, but this would also result in heavy casualties, and he was about to be annihilated like last time in a one-on-one duel. He struck hard again, hadn't he already retreated to the ambush where he had made a bluff? He asked everyone to stop and said that everyone could take a rest and tidy up when they were free to see what good clothes others had on them so that they could be taken back to make flags or sold in pawn shops. This habit is common in the army, but it is usually done when the troops are victorious and get the spoils of war. This time the retreating troops did it, which shocked the pursuers.
This was because Liu Yu had retreated and attacked again several times before. It was hard for a novice to tell. The pursuers wanted to see what was going on first to see if there was another ambush. At this time, Liu Yu He came out to call the formation. He is a veteran in gambling. When a cheater comes out of gambling, he requires that his face not be red, his heart not beating, and his eyelids not blinking. This time, he also deceived others by falsely calling the formation. (Speaking of which, Liu Yu is always a loser in gambling. , the trick is always to win) take the initiative to retreat. This is a bit more amazing than the clips from The Romance of the Three Kingdoms. However, the dangers involved are not as simple and easy as those of us who read the book. There must have been several trials on both sides, and the psychological changes have also been great.
Liu Yu was really a nemesis for Sun En. Later, Liu Yu's army, which was less than a thousand men and exhausted from the long journey, actually defeated Sun En in Dantu. Later, Liu Yu pursued Sun En by land and water and forced him to drive him away. Returning to the sea, in the first year of Yuanxing, when Sun En came back, Liu Yu was not around, but was defeated by Xin Jing. He committed suicide by throwing himself into the sea. However, his brother-in-law Lu Xun continued to fight and caused great trouble to Liu Yu in the future. This That’s a story for another day.
During the rebellion against Sun En, Liu Yu won many battles and became an emerging famous general in the Beifu Army. His reputation was second only to Liu Laozhi, and he was awarded the title of General Jianwu. Everyone already regards him as a victorious general, but what should be more important is his control of military discipline.
The military discipline of the ancient army was very poor. Not only the rebels, but also the officers and soldiers often made trouble. In fact, this is also a normal thing. Being a soldier is very dangerous. You don’t know what will happen today, and the soldiers are under great psychological pressure. , need to adjust and vent, if the court reward is good, then it is easy to say, just use the money to spend the day and night. But the court was very stingy most of the time. (There are some who are generous, but those emperors are called prodigal sons.) During the chaos, the court had no money to reward, so it had to indulge the soldiers in looting. (In the Tang Dynasty, during the Anshi Rebellion, the Huihe soldiers helped the Huihe soldiers to recover Chang'an. The emperor promised the Huihe soldiers to raid Chang'an. If not for Guo Ziyi and Civil and military officials begged for mercy, and the walls of Chang'an City were about to be dug down.) In fact, most of the soldiers were poor. Soldiers were young people, so they couldn't keep doing it. How much military pay was there? There was no pension insurance before, so we often saw that every time there was a battle, there would be strategies to throw away clothes and property and deceive the enemy into grabbing them. This has been tried and true. If the enemy soldiers didn't have to worry about clothes, who would grab them? (But there is nothing that can be done. The British invaded India and China, looting, burning and killing were not uncommon. Even soldiers in developed countries now loot.) The Beifu Army was recruited, which is equivalent to a disguised mercenary established by the government. The military discipline is not good. Wherever he goes, when Liu Laozhi lost to Murong Chui, he fell into the old trick of throwing away money and things to trick the Beifu army into snatching them. In my hometown, I knew everyone, and I was too embarrassed to rob him. But when I arrived in Sanwu's foreign land, I started to mess around. The Beifu army was in Sanwu, and its military discipline was really bad, so Sun En could always gather the masses when he came back. However, Liu Yu performed very well in this. He always restrained his soldiers from looting wantonly. He had a good reputation abroad. The famous generals admired by the world must firstly fight fiercely and secondly, love the people. Many people can do this first, but Very few people can do this second thing. Yue Fei did it, so we call him a hero and always admire him. (Not only because of his military record, but because of the discipline of his army.) Liu Yu also performed very well at this time. If he does not usurp the throne in the future, we will worship him as a famous general like Yue Fei. Now we just call him For a generation of emperors.
However, Liu Yu was still a budding Jianwu general at this time, and the Eastern Jin Dynasty was about to be stormy.