A shoe seller to the founding emperor, Liu Yu's magical life

Also Emperor Liu, Liu Yu and Liu Bei's experiences are so similar, they are both Han clan relatives, when they were young, they sold shoes to live a life, and both stood out in the chaotic world, occupying a large piece of land. Of course, Liu Yu's achievements seem to be much higher than Liu Bei's, compared to Liu Bei's three worlds, Liu Yu occupies half of the southern half of the country.

First, from "shoe seller" to fierce general

Liu Yu was born in the Eastern Jin Dynasty, a descendant of Liu Bang, the ancestor of Liu Bang, the younger brother of Liu Bang and the King of Chu Yuan, but by the time Liu Yu was born, his family was already in decline and very poor.

Liu Yu was born in Jingkou, Dantu County, and when he was still in his infancy, his mother died, leaving an orphan and widowed father to live a difficult life.

In this case, Liu Yu's father Liu Qiao wanted to throw him away, but Liu Huaijing's mother, a native of tongxian County, was Liu Yu's aunt, and she took Liu Yu to raise him, and for this reason, she also cut off Liu Huaijing's milk to feed Liu Yu.

It is precisely because of the reason that he was fostered in someone else's home since he was a child, Liu Yu has the nickname of "slave".

Liu Yu has been ambitious since childhood, because of his poor family, he has not received a good education, and he does not know many words, and he has learned a lot of survival since he was a teenager. Liu Yu not only chops firewood, farms, and fishes, but also sells shoes to make ends meet, similar to Liu Bei. At the same time, Liu Yu was very filial to his stepmother and was famous far and wide.

In November 399, Sun En raised an army against the Jin Dynasty at Huiji, and the eight southeastern counties responded, and the Eastern Jin court sent the former general Liu Gaozhi to suppress it. At this time, Liu Yu joined the army and served Liu Gaozhi. As an adult, Liu Yuren was tall and tall, "seven feet and six inches long, with strange wind and bones." During the battle, Liu Yu was not only brave, but also scheming, and Liu Gaozhi admired him very much and promoted him to the post of joining the army.

In the years-long counterinsurgency operations, Liu Yu served as a pioneer many times, defeated the enemy army again and again, and his military ability was revealed, and more importantly, Liu Yu's troops had strict military discipline, did not harass the people, and were praised by the people.

Second, the continuation of the Eastern Jin Dynasty regime, the monopoly of power

In 402, Liu Yu led the water army to continue to pursue Sun En, forcing Sun En to throw himself into the sea and die. Although Sun En failed to overthrow the eastern Jin dynasty, he consumed the eastern Jin dynasty's troops, giving Huan Xuan, who was entrenched in the Jingzhou area in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, an opportunity to take advantage of it.

Huan Xuan was the son of Huan Wen, the Grand Sima of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, who took advantage of the chaos to occupy Jingzhou and disobeyed the dispatches of the Eastern Jin court. After Sun En's defeat, Huan Xuan led his troops to attack the Eastern Jin Dynasty, and the Eastern Jin Dynasty general Sima Yuanxian led the troops to meet the attack, and Liu Gaozhi and Liu Yu both participated in the battle.

Sima Yuanxian and Liu Gaozhi were killed one after another, and Liu Yu saw the situation and defected to Huan Xuan. After that, Liu Yu repeatedly made military merits and was also very prestigious in the Beifu Army, so Huan Xuan looked up to him and appointed him as a lieutenant to join the army.

In early 403, Sun En's brother-in-law Lu Xun raised an army again, and Huan Xuan sent Liu Yu to fight. Liu Yu won a great victory and was appointed as the history of Peng Cheng.

Huan Xuan had the idea of usurping the throne of the Eastern Jin Dynasty at this time, and he told Situ Wang Mi that Liu Yu was extraordinary, and he was really a hero among people. Huan Xuan deliberately co-opted Liu Yu and doubled his favor.

However, Huan Xuan's wife Liu Shi repeatedly persuaded Huan Xuan to get rid of Liu Yu. Huan Xuan did not think so, he thought that he was about to pacify the Central Plains, and at this time he needed Liu Yu to take on a heavy responsibility. After the pacification of Guanzhong and Hebei, it is not too late to solve Liu Yu's problem.

In order to consolidate his power, Huan Xuan restricted the original Beifu Army and tried to disintegrate it, causing dissatisfaction among the generals of the Beifu Army.

Liu Yu secretly contacted these people and waited for the opportunity to launch a counterattack against Huan Xuan. At this time, Huan Xuan accepted emperor's concessions from Emperor An of Jin and replaced the Eastern Jin Emperor as emperor. Huan Xuan's previous fiefdom was in the ancient Chu state, so the new regime was named "Chu" and historically called "Huan Chu", which was generally only regarded as a pseudo-regime under the Eastern Jin Dynasty.

In February 404, in the name of hunting, Liu Yu gathered more than 1,700 people from the old headquarters of the Beifu Army, raised an army at Jingkou, eliminated Huan Chu's forces here, and then spread the word to all sides, calling on everyone to oppose Huan Xuan's rule.

After defeating Huan Xuan, Liu Yu did not take credit, and invited the abdicated Emperor An of Jin to Jiankang, and the Eastern Jin dynasty was continued, but the actual power was controlled by Liu Yu.

Third, end the Eastern Jin Dynasty and unify the South

The Eastern Jin Dynasty had been facing threats from the north since the southern crossing, and Zu Ti, Yu Liang, Chu Qi, Yin Hao, Huan Wen and others had all been on the northern expedition for this purpose, but none of them could succeed.

In order to strengthen his own strength, Liu Yu was also determined to revitalize the Northern Expedition. In 409, the Southern Yan lord Murong De died, and his nephew Murong Chao succeeded to the throne, after which the arsonists ravaged Huaibei, capturing two county guards of the Eastern Jin Dynasty and plundering 1,000 households, which gave Liu Yu an excuse for the Northern Expedition. Liu Yu immediately went to the table and sent out his division, and then led the Jin army to advance north.

Under the command of Liu Yu, the Jin army marched forward in a high voice, capturing many important towns in Southern Yan, and finally approaching the southern Yan capital guanggu. Although the Battle of Guanggu was fought very hard, Southern Yan eventually failed, and the last emperor Murong Chao fled the city with dozens of people around him, and was finally captured, and Southern Yan perished.

In the late Eastern Jin Dynasty, the Han dynasty established the Later Shu regime in Shu Prefecture, covering most of the Sichuan Basin and establishing a state for nine years.

In 413, Liu Yu commanded the Jin army to attack Chengdu, committed suicide, and After the fall of Shu, Liu Yu incorporated the Bashu region into the territory of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, and then attacked Hanzhong with his division, incorporating Hanzhong into his sphere of influence.

In 416, Liu Yu had unified the whole of the south, and his sphere of influence also extended to many northern states, and Liu Yu alone controlled 22 prefectures such as Xu, Nanxu, Yu, Nanyu, Yan, Nanyan, Qing, Ji, You, He, Si, Ying, Jing, Jiang, Xiang, Yong, Liang, Yi, Ning, Jiao, Guang, and Southern Qin.

In October 419, the Eastern Jin Emperor made Liu Yu the Prince of Song. Although Liu Yu was born in Jingkou, his ancestors lived in Pengcheng for generations, which was the old land of the Song Kingdom during the Spring and Autumn Period, so Liu Yu named his fief "Song".

Under Liu Yu's control, the Eastern Jin Dynasty had already died in name only. Liu Yu believed the words of a mysterious prophecy book: "After Changming, there are still two emperors." He believes that "Changming" refers to Sima Yao, the Emperor of Jin, because his epithet is "Changming", and according to mysterious prophecy, there are two emperors behind him.

The emperor of the Eastern Jin Dynasty at this time was Sima Dezong, the Emperor of Jin'an, and Liu Yu sent people to poison him to death, and sima Dewen, the evil king of Lang, was appointed as the new emperor. After that, Liu Yu hoped that Sima Dewen would cede the throne to himself in the form of Zen concessions, but it was difficult to open his mouth.

Therefore, Liu Yu summoned the ministers to a banquet, and said casually during the banquet that he planned to return his official position and title to the emperor and return home to recuperate. The ministers all pretended not to understand the meaning of this sentence, and had to blindly praise Liu Yu's merits, and only Zhongshu made Fu Liang understand Liu Yu's meaning.

Fu Liang hinted in euphemistic language that Sima Dewen ceded the throne to Liu Yu and drafted an edict of abdication. Sima Dewen read it and read it and read it happily, and copied it himself. Sima Dewen told the left and right that the Jin Dynasty had lost the world at the time of the Huanxuan Rebellion, and later fortunately the King of Song was able to continue for nearly 20 years, and today the Zen throne was given to the King of Song, and he was willing.

In June 420, Liu Yu replaced the Eastern Jin Emperor as emperor and demoted Sima Dewen to the position of King of Lingling, and the Eastern Jin Dynasty fell. Liu Yu changed the name of the country to "Song", and the history called it "Southern Dynasty Song" or "Liu Song".

Fourth, carry out reforms and eliminate ills

Liu Yu was born in poverty, completely relying on his personal ability and hard work to create a career, becoming an important figure in the opening of an era, and is considered to be a generation of heroes.

During Liu Yu's reign of power, he actively carried out reforms, eliminated some ills in the late Eastern Jin Dynasty, eased class contradictions, and promoted the development of production, all of which were highly praised by later generations.

The establishment of backdoor valves in the Jin Dynasty was prevalent, which was reflected in the serious situation of land annexation in the economy, and from the Western Jin Dynasty to the Eastern Jin Dynasty, there was no effective solution to this phenomenon. After Liu Yu came to power, he suppressed the door valve politically and suppressed mergers economically.

Liu Yu carried out the household registration reform, so that everyone must have a household registration, in order to compile a unified household registration, Liu Yu ordered the redrawing of the boundaries of counties and counties, adjust the affiliation, inventory hidden and leaky households, focusing on cleaning up the hidden private belongings of the Hao clan, and bringing them into the unified management of the state. This reform, known as the "earth break", violated the interests of the great clan and was initially resisted.

In the face of this situation, Liu Yu did not show any leniency, and once ordered the execution of Yu Liang, who had hidden more than 1,000 fugitives who had escaped from the household registration, exterminated the Diao clan, shocked the Hao clan, and significantly curbed the phenomenon of land annexation. After the reform, the government's revenue has greatly increased, expanded the source of troops, and realized the "wealth and national abundance."

Liu Yu also vigorously straightened out the administration of officials, and severely punished officials who were "arrogant and extravagant and did not sympathize with government affairs," and those who were serious were put to death.

In the selection and promotion of qualified personnel, "we should "affirm the old system and still plan for testing" and use the method of examination to screen these "reserve cadres."

At the same time, Liu Yu reused the Han clan and demanded that the original intention of the establishment of the Nine-Pin Zhongzheng system be restored and that truly talented people be selected. During Liu Yu's reign, a group of people from humble backgrounds were appointed.

Liu Yu also reformed the criminal law, the principle is light punishment, once issued an edict: "The punishment is not serious, all are originally reduced." ”

Liu Yu also ordered on many occasions that taxation be reduced or reduced, that local officials were strictly forbidden to levy taxes and servitude indiscriminately, and that all materials needed by the palace and the government should be purchased and given money at a price, "with the people and the city," and not be requisitioned at will.

What is even more rare is that although Liu Yu himself is not highly educated, he attaches great importance to the development of cultural undertakings and has ordered the collection of scattered books for protection. Due to the chaos of the war, a large number of classic books were lost, and the official collection of books in the Eastern Jin Dynasty was less than 10,000 volumes, which increased to more than 60,000 volumes in the early years of the Liu Song Dynasty.

Liu Yu not only had outstanding military and political talents, but also had a pure heart, a simple life, simple clothes and residences, and not many concubines in the harem.

Liu Yu put all his property in the state treasury, and the concubines in the harem did not hide privately, practicing strict economy, and no one dared to waste extravagantly. When Liu Yu's daughter got married, the dowry was only 200,000 yuan, and there were no luxury goods such as splendid embroidery.

Liu Yu put an end to the chaos in the south and contributed to history. Wang Fuzhi, a thinker in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, said: "Yuzhi is meritorious to the world and fierce to Cao Cao." "It can be seen that the evaluation is very high.

5. Kill the former emperor Sima Dewen, and his reputation will be damaged

However, from the overall evaluation of later generations, Liu Yu seems to be inferior to Cao Cao, mainly because he has a place that is criticized by later generations: killing the Eastern Jin Emperor who has ceded the throne to himself.

Prior to this, there were several famous Zen concessions in history, such as Han Wei Chan Rang and Wei Jin Zen Rang, but the abdicated emperors were all treated preferentially and could all receive a good death, while Liu Yu did not do so.

After the abdication of Sima Dewen, the Emperor of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, Liu Yu still considered him a threat and wanted to get rid of him.

Once, Liu Yu handed over a jar of poisoned wine to Zhang Wei, the former emperor lang of Lang, and asked him to poison Sima Dewen. Zhang Wei thought that it was better to poison his own king and seek his life than to die, so he opened the crock pot on the road, drank the poisoned wine, and committed suicide.

Sima Dewen also felt that he would be poisoned at any time, so he usually only lived in the same room with Princess Chu Lingyuan, even cooking rice and cooking soup in front of the bed, all the food and drink was handled by Princess Chu Lingyuan herself, and Liu Yu did not have a chance to start for a while and a half.

In November 421, Liu Yu sent Chu Tanzhi, the brother of Princess Chu Lingyuan, to visit them, and then had his own soldiers secretly follow behind. When Princess Chu Lingyuan heard that her brother was coming, she opened the door and went out to meet her, while Liu Yu's soldiers took the opportunity to climb over the wall and enter Sima Dewen's house.

The soldiers put the poisonous wine in front of Sima Dewen and forced him to drink it, but Sima Dewen desperately shook his head and refused in order to survive.

At this time, the soldiers stepped forward, pressed Sima Dewen down on the bed, covered his face with a quilt, and killed Sima Dewen.

Liu Yu killed Sima Dewen, the deposed Emperor Gong of Jin, and created a bad start in the Zen concession system, which eventually affected his own descendants.

In May 422, Liu Yu died of illness in Jiankang, and before his death, he entrusted several ministers to assist the crown prince in succeeding to the throne. 57 years later, Liu Zhun, the last emperor of the Liu Song Dynasty, was forced by the powerful minister Xiao Daocheng to cede the throne to Xiao Daocheng, and was later killed.