Two Jin Dynasty And Northern and Southern Dynasties Character Zhi - (Sixty) Tan Daoji
Patton said that the best fate for a soldier is to be killed by the last bullet in the last battle.
I don't know who said it, but the greatest praise for a soldier is that his death can make the enemy ecstatic.
Very few can do one of these two. However, there are many military generals who did not die on the battlefield, but died in the calculations of their own people. For example, Yue Fei of the Song Dynasty, or Tan Daoji of another Song Dynasty.
When Yuan Ren revised the History of Song - Yue Fei Biography, he compared Yue Fei with another Song Dynasty tan daoji seven hundred years ago:
Xi Liu Song killed Tan Daoji, and Daoji went to prison, and he said with disgust: "Self-destructive Ru Wanli Great Wall!" Emperor Gaozong forbeared himself in the middle of the plains, so he endured killing and flying, and whined unjustly! Woohoo!
Objectively speaking, Tan Daoji and Yue Fei have similar components, but also have great differences. The biggest common denominator is naturally the "whining and wrongdoing" mentioned in the "History of Song"; and the biggest difference is that Yue Fei is the most capable general under Zhao Shuo; and Tan Daoji is the last general under Liu Yu to fight.
Like Yue Fei, Tan Daoji was also from the Han Dynasty, and his early years were more difficult than Yue Fei's—he had both parents die early on, and had to join his brother Tan Shao and Tan Qi in his uncle who served in the Beifu Army. Among these people in the Tan family, Tan Daoji was most appreciated by Liu Yu, and soon became the first to join the army of Taiwei Fu, and in 417, he served as a forward together with Wang Zhenxian in the famous Northern Expedition, attacking the city all the way, and was the first to plant the red flag above Tongguan.
After the end of the Yixi Northern Expedition, Liu Yujun ascended the throne, and Tan Daoji also ascended to heaven with the chicken dog, becoming one of Liu Yu's most trusted military generals, and was ranked among the four ministers who took care of his orders. And for this old subordinate, Liu Yu also has a more accurate judgment:
Although Tan Daoji has a strategy, but has no far-reaching ambitions, it is not like brother Shao has a difficult temperament.
The final outcome, as Liu Yu expected, was at least half right: when Xu Xianzhi and others were preparing to depose Liu Yizhen, Tan Daoji objected several times; but when Xu Xianzhi plotted to depose Liu Yifu's throne, he obediently returned to Jiankang from Danyang and lived with Xie Han. And when Liu Yilong began to settle the general ledger of killing his two brothers to Xu Xianzhi and others, Tan Daoji turned the muzzle of the gun in time to hit his former colleagues, and successfully won the trust of the new owner, although it was only temporary.
The reason why it is temporary is because although Liu Yilong pardoned Tan Daoji for "accessory", he did not reuse him. Yuan Jia's eight-year Northern Expedition did not initially use Tan Daoji. It wasn't until a few young generals fought the battle and were about to wrap dumplings by Northern Wei that Liu Yilong used Tan Daoji with a hard scalp.
At that time, the Song army was no longer a question of whether it could win this war, but a question of how to retreat safely under the conditions of lack of food and fatigue. Although Tan Daoji fought dozens of battles with the Wei army after taking over the military power, it still could not reverse the situation, and the most fatal thing was that the Wei army knew that the Food and Grass of the Song Army was about to run out through the internal situation, and began to prepare for a war of attrition, and the Song army died on the front line of the Yellow River!
At such a time, the level of the general can be reflected. At night, the Tan Dao Ji ordered the people to stuff each grain truck with sand and cover the surface with a layer of rice, giving wei jun the illusion of being full of grain and grass. After the Wei army learned of the intelligence, it lost interest in continuing to fight and retreated from the squad. Tan Daoji was able to retreat with the main force.
Yuan Jia,the tiger-headed and snake-tailed Yuan Jia made the first Northern Expedition and used the strength of Tan Daoji to turn the tide without losing too badly. However, when the Second Northern Expedition attracted Tuoba Tao's crazy revenge, Liu Yilong could only sigh at the Great River and the Wei army on the KuahBu Mountain on the opposite bank: "If Daoji is here, it will be here!" "Because at this time, Tan Daoji has been in a different place for many years.
The reason why Tan Daoji was brutally killed was nothing more than two points - to shock the lord and participate in the abolition.
As mentioned earlier, Tan Daoji was the last general under Liu Yu who could fight. During Liu Yilong's reign, the veteran generals of the Beifu soldiers had basically withered away, and Tan Daoji's two older brothers also swallowed before Liu Yu stepped on his legs. Therefore, for Liu Yilong's imperial court, Tan Daoji was the last veteran left by the previous dynasty. However, this veteran general has made outstanding achievements, so that almost no one in the civil and military officials can match his merits now.
With such a great merit, it was already easy to incur the disaster of killing himself; and the case of Tan Daoji and Xu Xianzhi and others to abolish Liu Yifu made Liu Yifu's brothers even more unforgettable. Perhaps Liu Yilong is confident that he can easily control it by relying on his own power, but when Liu Yilong cannot grasp the situation, things will become uncontrollable.
At this time, Liu Yilong, who was only thirty years old in the spring and autumn, was often bedridden. And when he was unable to look at the dynasty, the power was handed over to his younger brother Liu Yikang. This younger brother was not only very jealous of Tan Daoji's fame, but also resentful of his killing of his eldest brother and second brother. The result of Tan Daoji can be imagined.
When Liu Yilong was already in a coma, Liu Yikang falsely preached the Holy Will and summoned Tan Daoji to Beijing. All his men advised him that this trip must be a sheep into the mouth of the tiger, but Tan Daoji was awe-struck and determined to go. As a result, as soon as he got off the ship, he was arrested by people sent by Liu Yikang and executed shortly after. Tan Daoji's subordinates and sons were all killed, and except for a young grandson, almost all the men of the Tan family were beheaded and paraded in public.
When he received his arrest warrant, Tan Daoji angrily threw his turban on the ground, drank a pot of wine, pointed at the people and scolded: "It is the Great Wall of Ru Wanli!" This is the origin of the later idiom "self-destruction of the Great Wall". And when Northern Wei received the news of Tan Daoji's death, it actually held up a carnival and congratulated each other: "Once Tan Daoji dies, the Wu people will not be troubled after that!" This is the best footnote to the effect of Tan Dao Ji.
Tan Daoji died, and Liu Yilong's illness also improved. Ten years later, he tasted the bitter fruit of self-destruction of the Great Wall. Soon, he gave liu Yikang, who had killed Tan Daoji without authorization, although the reason was not to avenge Tan Daoji, but it also indirectly comforted the general's heroic spirit.
However, the death of Liu Yikang opened Pandora's box, which heralded the beginning of the mutual slaughter between the Liu Song royal families. What Liu Yilong did not expect was that he himself would soon die under the butcher's knife of Liu's descendants.
So, how did Liu Yilong die? After his death, where will Liu Song go? We'll talk about it next time.