Everyone has a pivotal moment—sometimes history gives you only a moment, and it depends on whether you can make the right judgment in that short period of time. Often it is this thrilling moment that determines whether you become a king or a loser!
Cao Cao
In the Battle of Chibi, Cao Cao made successive decision-making mistakes, resulting in the defeat of the great cause of reunification! Li Zicheng founded the country "DaShun", all the way north, destroyed the decay, buried the Zhu Ming Dynasty, but suddenly fell at the peak of glory, leaving a hasty 41-day imperial dream.
There is also the Former Qin King Jian Jian, who we are going to talk about today, who commanded a million troops to go south and wage a deadly battle with the 80,000 Northern Province army of Xie An of the Eastern Jin Dynasty. Before the war, Jian Jian successively attacked and destroyed four countries, including Former Yan, Qiuchi, Former Liang, and Daiguo, successfully unified the north, confronted the north and south of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, and had the potential to unify the world.
Lee Zi-cheng
In the era of cold weapons, the biggest difficulty in conquering the Eastern Jin Dynasty was the natural danger of the Yangtze River. In this regard, Jian Jian did not pay attention to it at all, but on the contrary, he believed, "With my many brigades, throw the whip at the river, cut off its flow, and what a dangerous foot." I threw all the horse whips into the river and I was able to cut off the flow of water, which is what to worry about! What a confidence, and what a conceit!
After the war, the former Qin state was greatly weakened, and Jian Jian was devastated, dying and dying, and hating eternity.
In the eyes of many people, what Jian Jian left to posterity is the pejorative idiom allusion of "wind and crane" and "grass and trees are soldiers", which is a typical person who did not grasp his own achievements at a critical moment.
However, the famous writer Bai Yang gave a high evaluation to Jian Jian: "In china's thousands of years of history, there are only five people who are qualified to be called emperors, they are Qin Shi Huang, Han Wudi, Former Qin Wang Jian, Tang Taizong Li Shimin and Kangxi." In Bai Yang's mind, the Former Qin king Jian Jian was able to be on a par with Qin Shi Huang, Emperor Wu of Han, Tang Taizong Li Shimin and Kangxi.
Qin Shi Huang, Emperor Wu of Han, Li Shimin and Kangxi were all emperors with great talent and great talent, both civil and martial arts, and were qualified to be ranked with them?
Qin Shi Huang
Of course. If you carefully turn to the historical chapters, you will find that Jian Jian was by no means an arrogant, reckless, cruel and unkind king, but an enlightened and generous, humble and benevolent, Muyi Huaide, good at advice, and a generation of ethnic minority heroes with great talent and strategy, but also completely Sinicized. In the three aspects of employment, governance, and martial arts, he can definitely stand out from the crowd.
Let's start with hiring people. Jian Jian employs people in an eclectic manner. Wang Meng was born into poverty, and when he was a teenager, his family was poor, and he used to sell dustpans like Liu Bei. Regarding Wang Meng's talent, the minister at the time, Lü Polou, said, "His people's strategies are not out of the world." The modern historian Fan Wenlan also said: "Jian Jian is an excellent emperor among the emperors. His closest assistant, Wang Meng, was also the first-class general in the general group."
Later, Lü Polou recommended Wang Meng. Jian Jian had great trust in Wang Meng at first sight, and "the government could not help it", and asked him to cut off all military and domestic affairs. In that chaotic world where "the emperor takes turns to come to my house next year", it is not easy for Jian Jian to do this. In addition, Jian Jian can broaden the source of talent. He ordered officials at all levels to vigorously recommend talents, and through inspection, test whether the recommendations were fair and clearly distinguished between rewards and punishments. Even if you are a relative of the clan, you will not use it without talent.
In terms of governing the country, it is very bold to promote the advantages and eliminate the disadvantages and vigorously carry out reforms. The period of the Five Hu and Sixteen Kingdoms was an era in which the strong were kings, killing people like hemp, and human life was like grass. The emperor is still precarious, not to mention the ordinary people! This period produced Shi Hu, the most brutal emperor in Chinese history. Even Gong Jian's predecessor, Zhi Sheng, was also a notorious tyrant: whenever he received a minister, he let the attendants wind their arrows, sheath the sword, and place them in front of them, such as iron tongs and hacksaws, to see who was not pleasing to the eye, and then kill them immediately. If any minister advises him, he is considered slanderous and killed; if anyone says flattering words, he is regarded as flattering and killing.
Tomb of Gong Jian
After Jian Jian took the throne, he vigorously rectified the administration of officials. The empress's younger brother was an alcoholic and arrogant man, robbing other people's belongings and children, and harming one side. When Wang Meng learned of this, he did not hesitate to order him to be beheaded. He recuperated, advised farmers, reduced taxes, helped the poor, and provided relief to orphans and widows. In order to solve the problem of frequent drought in Guanzhong, he built water conservancy, diverted water, repaired channels to irrigate fields, and popularized the regional field method. In addition, he actively restored Taixue and local schools at all levels, extensively repaired the Xuegong, and promoted Sinicization.
It was under the administration of Jian Jian that former Qin's economy developed rapidly, the people were stable, the country was rich and the people were strong, and it became the most dynamic country in the country, so it dared to compete with the crowd and became stronger and stronger.