In ancient Chinese history, it was not unusual for ministers to rebel and rebel, and it was not unusual for emperors to be controlled by rebellious ministers. If the ministers who plotted rebellion and supported the emperor, the ministers who led the army to quell the rebellion were brothers, which was relatively rare in ancient history. What I want to talk about today is that the brothers are tit-for-tat, one is a riot, and the other is an interesting thing to calm the chaos.
Sima Rui, the founding emperor of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, lived in the capital Luoyang when he was young, and when he was 14 years old, he caught up with the Death of Sima Yan, the Emperor of Jinwu, and was succeeded by the idiot prince Sima Zheng as Emperor Hui of Jin. Sima Rui's friend of the same age, Wang Dao, a member of the Lang Evil Wang Clan, had a premonition that the world was about to go into chaos. Wang Dao was also known for his political ambitions, and he vigorously encouraged Sima Rui to flee the capital with him to avoid disasters and find opportunities to do something. From this point on, the lives of Wang Dao and Sima Rui were firmly tied together. Later, Sima Rui participated in the Rebellion of the Eight Kings, and Wang Dao followed Sima Rui and advised him. During the reign of Sima Yue, the king of the East China Sea, under the careful planning of Wang Dao, Sima Rui was transferred to health. After Sima Rui arrived in Jiankang, after several plots by Wang Dao and Wang Dun's brothers, Sima Rui established himself in Jiangnan. In 316, Chang'an was attacked by a Xiongnu army led by Liu Cong, and Sima Yi, the last emperor of the Western Jin Dynasty, was captured and killed the following year. Sima Rui then naturally declared himself emperor at Jiankang, for Emperor Yuan of Jin.
In fact, as the founding emperor of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, the ascension of the Jin Yuan Emperor was somewhat different from other founding emperors in history. The founding kings of successive dynasties were often brilliant and capable of fighting good wars. However, Sima Rui did not have any talent, no meritorious reputation, no heavy soldiers, and was not a relatively close ethnic group to the imperial family. His ascension to the throne was the result of the joint efforts of the magnates and the clans. This has created a situation in which the subject is strong and the king is weak. It is inevitable that conflicts will arise between monarchs and courtiers in order to compete for power. This contradiction was not obvious before Sima Rui became emperor, because the two sides still had common goals. After Sima Rui became emperor, he could not wait to regain power from his ministers. The contradiction between the monarch and the subject naturally intensified.
Sima Rui claimed to be the empress dowager, and selected many talented people from the Northern soldiers who fled south, and gradually installed them in important posts, while formulating new laws and policies to suppress Jiangnan's powerful strength and cultivate his own armed forces. Sima Rui's series of moves eroded the power of Wang Dao, who was in charge of the imperial government. This made Wang Dun, who was in charge of the soldiers and horses, feel wronged and complain for his brothers.
Wang Dun originally looked down on Sima Rui and had long wanted to abolish Sima Rui to stand on his own, but he was worried about the forces of Zhou Guan and Zu Ti, and he did not dare to do anything. Later, Zhou Visit and Zu Di fell ill and died one after another. In January 322, Wang Dun rebelled in Wuchang in the name of killing Liu Kui, which is known in history as the Wang Dun Rebellion.
Emperor Yuan hurriedly sent Dai Yuan and Liu Kui back to defend Jiankang. Liu Kui and Diao Xie took the opportunity to persuade Emperor Yuan to kill all the Wang clan, but Emperor Yuan did not agree. When Sikong Wang Dao learned that his brother Wang Dun had raised an army, he hurriedly led his cousin Wang Jie( Wang Jie), the general of the Left Guard, Wang Kan of Shizhong , Wang Bin , and more than 20 sons and nephews of the clan to enter the court early every morning to be convicted. Because of the rescue of other ministers, Emperor Yuan sent people back to Wang Dao's imperial clothes and summoned him. Wang Dao sighed and said, "Contrarian thief, which dynasty did not." I can't imagine that today is in our royal family! ”
Emperor Yuan took Wang Dao's hand and said, "Mao Hong, I was about to let you take charge of the government decree on your behalf. ”
After saying that, he immediately ordered Wang Dao to be the forward governor. He also passed down an edict: "The king will destroy his relatives with great righteousness, but he may bring him the festival when I was a general of Anton." Emperor Yuan handed over the festival to Wang Dao, which meant absolute trust in him. As a result, the cousins of Wang Dao and Wang Dun, as the side of the rebellion and the side of the peace, met each other on the battlefield.
However, Wang Dao failed to stop Wang Dun from descending the river. Wang Dun attacked Jiankang City and killed Diao Xie, Dai Yuan, and others. Liu Kui fled to Hou Zhao. Wang Dun already had political ambitions, and when Chang'an fell and the northern and southern shi clans urged Sima Rui to advance, he wanted to monopolize the government, but he was worried that Sima Rui was old and not easy to manipulate, and he wanted to establish another emperor, but his brother Wang Dao did not listen. And attacking Jiankang, Wang Dun rebuked, saying, "If you don't listen to me, you will almost wipe out your clan." Wang Dao still ignored the way. Dun has the ambition, supports the army, and lives and kills in his hands, "the four parties contribute more to their own houses, and xiangyue mu is out of his door." Emperor Yuan was anxious and angry, and soon died of grief.
After the death of Emperor Yuan of Jin, Emperor Yuan's eldest son Sima Shao succeeded to the throne as Emperor Ming of Jin.
When Emperor Ming ascended the throne, Wang Dao was entrusted with an edict to assist the government, and always guarded against his brother Wang Dun usurping the throne. In order to realize his ambition to usurp power, Wang Dun moved the military town to his sister-in-law, who was not far from Jiankang, tun his troops at The Lake, led the Yangzhou Pastor himself, and plotted and plotted with Qian Feng day and night to raise an army again.
After Wang Guided Wang Dun plotted a rebellion to the news, he immediately reported to Emperor Ming and made preparations. At this moment, Wang Dun suddenly fell seriously ill, and Wang Dao heard the news, that is, he led his brothers and nephews to mourn Wang Dun. The crowd thought that Wang Dun was dead, and they thought they could rest assured. Unexpectedly, although Wang Dun's illness became more and more serious, the thief's heart did not die. In order to rush to pass the emperor's addiction before his death, Yu Taining hurriedly raised an army in June of the second year of Taining (324). He ordered his eldest brother Wang Han to be a marshal, and qian Feng and others to lead 50,000 water and land directly to the Beijing Division. Unexpectedly, due to the haste of the incident, the rebellion was quickly suppressed, Wang Han was killed, and most of the other generals were also killed. Wang Dun on the hospital bed was completely desperate, and cried out for his life in a serious illness.