When it comes to the famous general Lü Bu at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, I believe that many people first think of not even his unparalleled martial courage in the world, but his capricious character. In the classic "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", for the gold and silver jewelry and the red rabbit BMW that Dong Zhuo rewarded, Lü Bu killed his righteous father Ding Yuan, who had the grace of knowing him; because of the contradiction between him and Dong Zhuo, Lü Bu did not hesitate to get rid of Dong Zhuo. Later, Liu Bei was kind enough to take Lü Bu in, but Lü Bu took advantage of his outing to attack Xuzhou.
However, everyone said that Lü Bu was capricious, in fact, just over a hundred years after Lü Bu's defeat and death, there was another general in the world who was even worse than him, that is, Wang Zhen. Wang Was originally a Later Zhao general, and then in the next two years he successively switched to four regimes, it can be said that when it comes to capriciousness, Lü Bu must be solemn and ashamed of this "junior".
In the last years of the Western Jin Dynasty, the world was in chaos, and many nomadic peoples outside the West, led by the Xiongnu, Xianbei, Xianbei, Xianbei, Xian, and Qiang, took advantage of the opportunity of the Chaos of the Western Jin Dynasty court due to the chaos of the Eight Kings to enter the Central Plains, known in history as "Wuhu Chaohua". Among the many ethnic minority regimes, The Later Zhao was founded by Shi Le, the leader of the Xiongnu, but the Wang Zhen we want to talk about today is not the Qiang people, but the Tu tribes from the Xiongnu.
The details of Wang's origins are not available today, but according to the Zizhi Tongjian, in the second year of Jianyuan (344), he had already engaged the Former Liang general Zhang Wan at Sanjiaocheng as a Later Zhao general and was defeated by the other side. Two years later, Wang Huan sent an army to attack Qianliang, and successfully defeated Qianliang, not only capturing several enemy generals, but also relocating more than 7,000 households in Qianliang to Yongzhou under his control. The following year, Wang continued to fight against Former Liang, but after several victories, he was defeated by former Liang's famous general Xie Ai and fled back to the south bank of the Yellow River.
In the seventh year of Yonghe (351), Later Zhao declared its demise after a series of internal struggles, and in July of the following year, Wang Huan surrendered to the Eastern Jin Dynasty and was given the title of General of Zhenxi and Assassin of Qinzhou. In October, after defeating Ran Wei and occupying Hebei, murong Juan, the king of Yan, declared a break with the Eastern Jin Dynasty and ascended the throne himself as emperor, and his regime was also known as Former Yan. Seeing this, Wang Immediately abandoned the Eastern Jin Dynasty in a remote corner of the city and instead submitted to Murong Juan, and was given the title of Yizhou Assassin.
In November, Former Qin's chancellor Xiang Xiangxiong sent an army to Longxi, but Wang Was unable to defeat the powerful Former Qin army, so he had to defect to the neighboring Former Liang, and was made a general of the Former Liang Dynasty, Zhang Chonghua, who had been seen many times by the former Liang Emperor. As for Wang's treatment in Qianliang, the history books say that Zhang Chonghua was "particularly favored" by him, which shows that he was very much valued.
In the ninth year of Yonghe (353), Wang Was promoted to Zhang Chonghua's orders, together with two generals Zhang Hong and Song Xiu, led 15,000 soldiers and horses to fight against Former Qin. However, under the command of Gong Xiong, the Former Qin army won a great victory over QianLiang, beheading more than 12,000 people, and Zhang Hong and Song Xiu were also defeated and captured. Wang Zhen, who had escaped from heaven, had to abandon Qin Prefecture, which was nominally under his jurisdiction, and fled to Guzang. Three months later, Zhang Chonghua, who still had great trust in Wang, allocated him 20,000 soldiers and horses to retake Qin Prefecture and defeat former Qin's appointment of Shi Yuan.
Fortunately, Wang's dispatch of troops was echoed by counties and counties throughout Qin Prefecture, and his ability to wish was also very mediocre. Under the influence of various favorable factors, Wang Zhen finally won a great victory and recaptured QinZhou. In the tenth year of Yonghe (354), Huan Wen led the Eastern Jin Dynasty soldiers and horses to northern Expedition to Former Qin, and Wang Huan led an army to capture Chen Cang in response. However, Former Qin reacted quickly after falling into an initial decline, not only recapturing Chen Cang from Wang Huan, but also using the tactics of jianbi qingye to force Huan Wen, who was short of food, to withdraw.
After the defeat of Chen Cang, Wang was jealous of the new monarch Zhang Zuo, and was even attacked by his former colleagues. In order to protect himself, Wang Had to defect to Former Qin in November of the same year and was given the title of Shangshu. From July of the eighth year of Yonghe (352) to the surrender of the Eastern Jin Dynasty in November of the tenth year of Yonghe (354) to the surrender of Former Qin, Wang Huan switched to four regimes in two years.
Objectively speaking, Wang Huan defected to the Eastern Jin Dynasty because of the demise of the original motherland after Zhao, surrendered to Liang because he lost his foothold in the former Qin crusade, and defected to Former Qin because he was suspected and even attacked by the monarch. However, he switched to Former Yan only three months after he had returned to the Eastern Jin Dynasty, which was completely capricious. Of course, Wang Was Born in a Xiongnu tribe and did not accept Confucian ideas such as loyalty to the king and patriotism and sacrifice of life for righteousness from an early age, for him, perhaps respecting the strong is the most fundamental value orientation. On the other hand, in those chaotic times, it would have been very difficult to enforce loyalty and faithfulness.
It is precisely because loyalty is precious that people from ancient times to the present will pay special respect to loyal people, but the truth is that most people, like Wang Promotion, will pay more attention to their own safety and interests when faced with choices. After the fall of the country, Wang Huan turned to the Eastern Jin Dynasty not because he had special feelings for the Eastern Jin Dynasty, but to protect himself. In the same way, three months later, he switched to Former Yan, also because Former Yan was in a strong period, which was more conducive to his own development than the Eastern Jin Dynasty. To figure this out, perhaps Wang's "capriciousness" seems a little more helpless and realistic.