In today's society, it happens from time to time, and as a boss, I am happy to see that my subordinates are capable. But in ancient times, if you did your best to cover the Lord, then your good days would be considered to be over. As the emperor,the most intolerable person is the person who has done great service to the lord, and generally in this case, the emperor will regard this person as a thorn in his eye and want to get rid of it quickly. In history, there have been three people who can really be called the Lord of Merit.
The first is Wang Qi during the Warring States period. When he was young, he was very fond of the military, and later he has been following the qin king Yingzheng. When Wang Qi led the army to attack Zhao Guo's Fu He, he only led the army for eighteen days, and then ordered the lieutenants in the army who were less than a hundred stones to disarm and return to the field, and selected talents from the original army, leaving only two out of every ten people, and as a result, all the elites left were the elites in the army. Wang Qi used this reduced elite force to capture Fu He in one fell swoop, and successively captured nine cities in the Zhao Kingdom.
After the eradication of Lü Buwei and Yan Yi, Yingzheng was officially pro-government. The war for the unification of the Qin State officially began, which lasted for 15 years. During this period, all five other kingdoms, except For Korea, were destroyed by Wang Qi and his son Wang Ben.
In the battle with Li Mu, a famous general of the Zhao State, the two sides held each other for no less than a year. Later, Wang Qi used a counter-plan to get rid of Li Mu. After the death of the famous general Li Mu, the Zhao army was vulnerable, and Wang Qi was like a bamboo all the way, passing through the pass, killing the Zhao army's main general Zhao Liang, and capturing the capital of the Zhao state, Handan, and capturing the King of Zhao. Since then, the royal land of the Zhao state has been owned by the qin state.
Later, Jing Ke stabbed the King of Qin and angered the King of Qin, So he sent Wang Qi to take advantage of this opportunity to attack the State of Yan. The King of Yan and the King of Dai joined forces to resist the Qin army's attack, and finally the commander of the coalition army, Prince Dan, was defeated at the Yishui River. Wang Qi took the opportunity to pursue all the way and directly captured the capital of the Yan state, Jiji, and the King of Yan was forced to flee to Liaodong.
During the attack on the State of Chu, King Yingzheng of Qin gathered his ministers to discuss a plan, and Wang Qi thought that 600,000 troops were needed to be able to fight down, but Li Xin, who was also a general, believed that only 200,000 people were needed to capture the State of Chu. King Yingzheng of Qin thought that Wang Qi was old, and finally followed Li Xin's advice. Wang Qi also resigned his official post and returned to his hometown because of this incident.
As a result, the Qin army was defeated, and King Yingzheng of Qin heard the battle report from the front and was furious. He then personally went to Wang Qi's hometown to apologize to Wang Qi and ask wang Qi to fight. Wang Qi repeatedly asked the King of Qin to grant him land before the expedition, and after five consecutive times, even the generals felt that he had gone too far. After Wang Qi heard this, he explained to the soldiers: Now that I have led an army of 600,000, the King of Qin will certainly have doubts in his heart, afraid that I will support the army and respect myself and try to rebel. Only in this way can the King of Qin understand that I have nothing but money and land.
Wang Qi is worthy of a generation of famous generals, leading the army along the way like a broken bamboo, when the Chu army moved to the east, taking advantage of its lack of preparation, along the way to break the Chu army, capture the King of Chu, the Chu state was also destroyed in his hands. Wang Qi was also given the title of Marquis of Wucheng. After that, he retired and returned to his hometown. The Six Kingdoms destroyed five of his family, and he was truly worthy of the title of Lord of Meritorious Service. It was also because qin shi huang had great trust in him that he was able to be safe and sound.
The second is Han Xin, who is revered by posterity as one of the "Four Saints of the Bing Family". His life can be described as a great achievement in battle, since he was a child, he was familiar with the art of war, first followed Xiang Yu, but did not get attention, and finally submitted to Liu Bang and pacified the world with Liu Bang.
When he first came to Liu Bang's camp, Liu Bang did not pay enough attention to him, and gave him a very small official position, until Xiao He strongly recommended him later, and was able to show his military talent. In the Chu-Han War, Liu Bang was defeated at Pengcheng, the situation was urgent, and at this critical time, Han Xin quickly gathered the remaining troops to successfully meet Liu Bang, and thus resisted the Chu army, giving the Han army a chance to breathe. Later, Han Xin used the strategy of attacking the west with his voice from the east, leading the Han army to cross the Yellow River, pacify the State of Wei, and capture the King of Wei.
After Liu Bang established the Han Dynasty, Han Xin and Zhang Er destroyed the State of Dai and the State of Zhao. Later, Han Xin led his troops to fight Qi, and after Xiang Yu learned of it, he joined forces with the State of Qi to resist Han Xin's attack. In a situation where the enemy was outnumbered, Han Xin sent people to make more than 10,000 bags overnight, which were filled with sand and flooded the enemy army. After the enemy was counted, Han Xin quickly led the army to counterattack, and the Chu army suffered a heavy defeat, so Han Xin was crowned the King of Qi. Later, in the Battle of Xiaxia, Han Xin directly annihilated the Chu army, and Xiang Yu was also defeated by the army.
Along the way, Han Xin has made great achievements in battle and made great contributions to Liu Bang's pacification of the world. Unfortunately, it is also a sin to do so. In the end, he was accused of treason, beheaded in the bell chamber, and was destroyed by the three tribes.
The last one is Guo Ziyi, who is a martial artist, not only has great martial arts, but also has first-class military ability. After the outbreak of the Anshi Rebellion, Guo Ziyi was in the period of filial piety, and had to be "seized" by the imperial court. After Guo Ziyi returned, he led an army to attack An Lushan in the east, and along the way passed through the pass, recaptured the Jingbian army, and beheaded the rebel generals Zhou Wanqing and Gao Xiuyan. Countless lost lands were recovered along the way.
After An Lushan was killed by his son An Qingxu, the imperial court wanted to take advantage of the opportunity to attack the rebels. Guo Ziyi was made a marshal, led an army to the capital to engage the rebel general An Shouzhong, and after the defeat, he withdrew to Wugong and immediately asked the emperor for a demotion. The emperor was also pleased with this and trusted him very much.
Later, Guo Ziyi recaptured Chang'an twice, and Emperor Tang Dynasty said to Guo Ziyi after returning to Chang'an: "I appointed you too late to come to this step." He said to the ministers: "Guo Ziyi is a loyal minister of the state. It can be seen that Emperor Tang had great trust in Guo Ziyi, and Guo Ziyi's military power could have deposed him, and in the end he did not fail him and welcomed him back to Chang'an.
When Tubo, Hui, and Dangxiang invaded the Tang Dynasty, Guo Ziyi guarded Fengtian. When Emperor Daizong asked him if he could resist, he replied, "These soldiers were once my subordinates, and they will not come to attack me." Sure enough, when the rebels attacked Fengtian, they found that the town was guarded by Guo Ziyi, and the soldiers refused to fight and had to retreat. Later, the rebels besieged Jingyang, and the Hui army had fought alongside Guo Ziyi, who thought that Guo Ziyi had died before jointly attacking the Tang Dynasty with the Tubo army. Now that I heard that Guo Ziyi was still alive and well, I knew that I had been fooled by thieves. Subsequently, he withdrew his army and reconciled with Guo Ziyi. Tubo was therefore difficult to resist, and finally ended with Guo Ziyi's great victory.
If Guo Ziyi had supported the army and respected himself and abolished the Tang Dynasty Sect, history might have been rewritten. Guo Ziyi also died well because of The Absolute Trust of Emperor Daizong.