Speaking of Cheng Biting Jin, most people's impression is that he looks simple, making a gossip Xuanhua axe, and playing around will only have those three tricks.
However, the real Cheng Biting Jin in history may subvert your cognition.
One
In the sixth year of Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty (610), thieves swarmed from all over the country, and Cheng Yanjin organized an armed force of hundreds of people in the township to protect the villagers and elders.
Later, Cheng Yanjin took these hundreds of people to Wagangzhai and became a tiger general under Li Mi, commanding a Li Mi's ace troops, four hussars.
These four hussars were composed of 8,000 brave men selected by Li Mi from the army, divided into left and right armies, known as "8,000 people are worth a million troops", and it is impossible for non-cronies to lead them.
Li Mi is a suspicious person, and Cheng Biting Jin will be reused soon after entering Wagangzhai, which shows Cheng Biting Jin's courage and outstanding political skills.
Later, Li Mi was defeated by Wang Shichong, and Wagangzhai was disbanded.
Cheng Yanjin and Qin Shubao were also captured by Wang Shichong on the battlefield, and Wang Shichong had long heard of the prestige of the two, treated them with courtesy and appointed them as generals.
When he arrived at Wang Shichong's camp, Cheng Yanjin quickly saw that this person was narrow-minded, and if he couldn't make a big deal, he would be destroyed by Datang sooner or later, so he had the idea of switching to Datang.
Since you want to leave, you have to take your good brothers with you. At the beginning, he was captured with Qin Shubao, and now he will also surrender to Tang together.
With his three-inch incorruptible tongue, Cheng Yanjin quickly persuaded Qin Shubao and agreed to join Tang together while the two armies were fighting.
Two
In the second year of Wude (619), Wang Shichong led a large army to attack Guzhou and met the Tang army. When the two armies were fighting, Qin Shubao and Cheng Yanjin took their men and horses to the Tang army camp, and after running for more than 100 steps, they both dismounted and saluted Wang Shichong to say goodbye, and surrendered to the Tang Dynasty.
After coming to Tang Ying, the two followed under Li Shimin. Because of his bravery, Cheng Yanjin soon became Li Shimin's right-hand man, and he was present in almost all battles.
So, how fierce is Cheng Biting Jin?
In the seventh year of Wude (624), the relationship between the crown prince Li Jiancheng and Li Shimin had reached the level of tension; In order to weaken Li Shimin's power, Li Jiancheng slandered Li Yuanjin and demoted Cheng Yanjin to the post of assassin in Kangzhou (now Deqing County, Guangdong).
Li Jiancheng was so jealous of Cheng biting gold that he directly demoted people from present-day Xi'an to Guangdong.
When receiving the order, Cheng Yanjin said to Li Shimin: "The prince cut off the king's right-hand man like this, how long can you be safe?" I will not leave at the risk of death, and I am willing to make a decision as soon as possible. ”
This is recorded in historical records, the first person to persuade Li Shimin to take the initiative; At this time, there were still two years before the Xuanwumen Change, and Cheng Yanjin had already seen that the prince and the king of Qin would have a battle.
Judging from the situation at that time, Li Shimin's chances of winning were not great.
Chang'an is the territory of the prince, and the defense of the capital is in the hands of the prince's party, Li Shimin has the title of "Tiance General", but he can't mobilize a single soldier in Chang'an, and the only thing he can rely on is a few hundred private soldiers of the Qin Palace.
On the other hand, the prince's party, the private soldiers of the prince's mansion and the prince's mansion alone are more than several times that of the king of Qin, not to mention that the important ministers in the court have all fallen to the prince's party, and even the emperor Li Yuan is biased towards the prince.
In this case, Cheng Yanjin firmly chose to stand on Li Shimin's side, which shows how vicious his political vision is.
Three
In the ninth year of Wude (626), Li Shimin launched the Xuanwumen Rebellion, and Cheng Yanjin also participated in it. After the incident, Cheng Biting Jin Guan worshiped the prince's right guard rate, and then moved to the right military guard general, enjoying the actual seal of 700 households.
After you have achieved fame, you should start enjoying the blessings.
What is puzzling is that after Li Shimin ascended the throne and became emperor, Cheng Biting Jin was exiled for 18 years.
Li Shimin is not the kind of emperor who unloads the mill and kills the donkey, and those heroes who participated in the "Xuanwumen Change" can still be reused in the Zhenguan Dynasty and enjoy supreme wealth and privileges.
But Cheng Biting Jin is an exception, Li Shimin has been in power for 23 years, and he has been commanding troops in the frontier for 18 years! Even a marshal like Li Jing does not have such a long record of stationing on the frontier.
From the first year of Zhenguan (627), Cheng Yanjin was appointed as the envoy to supervise the military forces of Lu, Rong, and Rong, and the Luzhou Assassin (now Luzhou, Sichuan), responsible for suppressing the rebellion of the Tieshan Fangren. Eight years later, he was transferred to act as the governor of Yuanzhou (present-day Guyuan, Ningxia).
In the eleventh year of Zhenguan (637), he was appointed as the envoy to supervise the military affairs of You, Yi, Tan, Ping, Yan, and Youzhou. Cheng Biting Jin has turned the southwest, northwest, and northeast of Datang.
It can be seen from the above resume that Cheng Biting Jin was not degraded, but reused.
Take the eleventh year of Zhenguan as an example, Cheng Biting Jin served as the assassin of Youzhou and the military governor of the six states, which is equivalent to handing over the military and political power of these six states to Cheng Biting Jin.
If there is no absolute trust in Cheng Yanjin, I believe that Li Shimin will not delegate power like this.
Four
Perhaps, Cheng Yanjin didn't want to get too close to the court. According to his merits, if he applied to Li Shimin for being transferred back to Chang'an, Li Shimin would not be rejected.
Obviously, being stationed abroad for a long time is the result that Cheng Yanjin wants. Cheng Yanjin is not as stupid as written in the novel, on the contrary, he is well versed in the way of people and ministers, and has superb political wisdom.
In the past, there have been no good results for military generals involved in the court, especially those military generals with high merits, most of whom are not guaranteed in their later seasons and have different heads. Heroes Zhang Liang, Li Junxian and others are living examples.
Later facts proved that Cheng Yanjin's behavior of taking the initiative to stay away from the court perfectly escaped Li Shimin's suspicion of heroes in his later years, but because he had no chance to form a party in the frontier for a long time, Li Shimin trusted him even more.
In the seventeenth year of Zhenguan (643), Cheng Yanjin was transferred back to the capital by Li Shimin and transferred to the general of Zuotunwei, the garrison of the north gate of the palace city, and the general of the Jiazhen army.
Why did Li Shimin transfer Cheng Yanjin back this year? Because he wants to reuse Cheng to bite gold.
In the eighteenth year of Zhenguan (644), Li Shimin personally conquered Goguryeo, leaving the crown prince Li to govern the country. Traditionally, the emperor has been afraid that there will be problems in the rear, and only by leaving people with absolute trust to stay behind can the safety of the rear be guaranteed.
After thinking about it, Li Shimin finally chose Cheng Yanjin and asked him to stay in Chang'an with the prince.
With Li Shimin's trust and a period of cooperation, the crown prince Li Zhi also has a good impression of Cheng Yanjin.
In May of the twenty-third year of Zhenguan (649), Li Shimin died in Cuiwei Palace, Zhongnan Mountain. The emperor died outside the capital, and the prince was not in the palace of the capital, so this point in time was the most likely to cause chaos.
Out of trust in Cheng Yanjin, the crown prince Li Zhi handed over his life to Cheng Yanjin and asked his commander to fly to protect him to return to the dynasty and succeed to the throne. In order to ensure that nothing goes wrong, Cheng Yanjin also personally guarded outside the palace gate for three consecutive months, and did not stop until Li Zhi sat on the throne.
It is precisely because of Cheng Yanjin's loyalty that as soon as Gaozong Li Zhi ascended the throne, he was immediately promoted, appointed as the general of the left guard, and also inspected the soldiers and horses of the school camp.
Li Zhi wanted to reuse Cheng Yanjin, but Cheng Yanjin didn't want to get involved in the court, and he thought of a way to stay away from the court whenever he had the opportunity.
Five
In August of the first year of Xianqing (656), Li Zhi appointed Cheng Yanjin as the general manager of the march of the Green Mountain Road to go to crusade against the Western Turks; After the class teacher returned to the court, Cheng Yanjin was arrested and imprisoned, and was almost beheaded.
What's going on here?
Things have to start a year ago, on May 14, the sixth year of Yonghui (655), Li Zhi asked Cheng Yanjin to lead his troops to crusade against the Western Turks. As soon as Cheng Yanjin arrived on the battlefield, he was mighty and won the first battle, breaking Geluo and the second part of the month in Yumu Valley, beheading more than 1,000.
Then he attacked Tuqishi, Chu Mukun and other troops in Yuyucheng, beheading more than 30,000. This is not over, when he arrived at Yingsuo River and encountered 20,000 cavalry of the Western Turks, Cheng Yanjin sent Su Dingfang to lead 500 cavalry to attack, defeating the enemy army and killing more than 1,500 enemies.
It can be said that the start is very good!
At this time, Wang Wendu, the deputy general manager, jumped out and persuaded Cheng Yanjin not to chase the enemy further, and he should slow down. His reason was that there were too many casualties among the soldiers and that they needed to rest well.
Anyone with a discerning eye can see that this is a good time to exterminate the Western Turks in one fell swoop.
This Wang Wendu was jealous when he saw Su Dingfang's repeated military exploits, so he took the opportunity to sabotage behind his back and gave Cheng Jinjin the idea of losing weight. He was afraid that his people would be soft-spoken, and he also lied that he had the emperor's secret decree in his hand and could restrain the process of biting gold.
It stands to reason that such a simple trick should be obvious at a glance.
Interestingly, Cheng Yanjin not only did not demolish Wang Wendu, but also ignored the strong opposition of others, accepted the suggestion and ordered to stop the pursuit.
In this way, a good opportunity to destroy the Western Turks was wasted. This is not over, and later Cheng Yanjin also listened to Wang Wendu's suggestion and slaughtered thousands of troops in Hengdu City.
As soon as the army returned to the capital, Cheng Biting Jin and Wang Wendu were immediately imprisoned. According to the law, Wang Wendu's edict was to be beheaded, and Cheng Biting Jin had to die even if he sat down.
Li Zhi took care of his previous achievements and was extrajudicially gracious, but only dismissed the two from office.
Six
Cheng Yanjin is not the kind of foolish person, nor is he a martial artist who is thirsty for killing; The reason why he listened to Wang Wendu's nonsense was completely an act of self-preservation.
When Cheng Biting Jin led the army to go on the expedition, a major event was happening in the Tang Dynasty: Li Zhi abolished the original queen and made Wu Zetian the queen, which is the famous "abolish Wang Liwu" incident.
On the surface, "abolishing Wang Liwu" is a battle in the harem, but in fact, Li Zhi is waging war against the eldest grandson Wuji group.
On one side is the emperor, and on the other side is the patriarch of the Guanlong group, and neither side can afford to offend. Since you can't afford to offend, you can always afford to hide, and an expedition to the Western Turks is the best way.
Therefore, when Wang Wendu said those words, Cheng Yanjin had to be cautious.
Wang Wendu dared to say that he had a secret decree in his hand, so he naturally had his confidence. Cheng Biting Jin can let Wang Wendu come up with a secret decree, but it doesn't make much sense to do that, and no secret decree doesn't mean that he is not the emperor's person.
You must know that falsely preaching the holy decree is a great crime to exterminate the clan, but Li Zhi opened up to Wang Wendu, just to avoid death and dismiss the official, and later re-activated him as the general of the left guard.
It can be seen that Cheng Yanjin's caution is justified.
If Wang Wendu was really sent by Li Zhi, it means that the emperor began to be suspicious of Cheng Biting Jin; In the battle against the Western Turks, Cheng Yanjin can no longer take too much credit, and the emperor will not be at ease if the credit is too great.
If you want to reassure the emperor, you have to learn from Li Jing, Wei Chigong, Qin Shubao and others, and protect yourself by defiling yourself.
This is why Cheng Biting Jin knows that he can't do it, but he also wants to listen to Wang Wendu's idea of thinness.
Seven
Afterwards, although Cheng Yanjin was dismissed from office, his reputation was ruined; However, his title and glory were retained, and he lived for another 10 more years.
It was not until February 7 of the second year of Lin De (665) that Cheng Yanjin died in a private residence in Chang'an City at the age of seventy-seven. Li Zhi's edict posthumously presented the hussar general and the governor of Yizhou, and was buried in Zhaoling, nicknamed Xianggong.
It can be described as a posthumous mourning!
As a fierce general, Cheng Yanjin has a strong judgment ability on politics, and can show extraordinary wisdom when faced with choices, and can always stand in the right position at critical moments.
Because of this, Cheng Yanjin can become the longest-lived and most chic one among the founding heroes. He is not as simple as the novel, but an extremely intelligent person, which can be described as "old and cunning".
Interestingly, Cheng Biting Jin Hero I taught three sons who were not very brilliant.
The eldest son, Cheng Chu, attacked the Duke of Lu Guo; The second son, Cheng Chuliang, married Li Shimin's daughter, Princess Qinghe, and awarded the title of Captain of the Horse and General of the Left Guard; The third son was the official to the right general Jingo.
Although the three sons are not very outstanding, they can all spend their lives in peace and prosperity, which should be what Cheng Yanjin wants.