Author: Zhao Xinfang
In the Five Hu and Sixteen Kingdoms, a special period in Chinese history, there was a mighty Hero Liu Chengzhi.
He was originally a general in the Northern Prefecture Army of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, and became famous in the famous Battle of Shuishui. Because he commanded Youfang bravely and fiercely, he led the vanguard troops to first win the victory, and then took advantage of the situation to follow up until the victory of the entire war, which made great contributions to the survival of the Eastern Jin court.
But why did he hang himself in the end? Here's a special story of him.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="5" > (i) the source of the idiom grass and trees</h1>
Liu Jiaozhi (劉牢之), courtesy name Daojian, was a native of Pengcheng (彭城; present-day Xuzhou, Jiangsu), a great-grandfather of Emperor Wu of Jin, and a general of the Jin Dynasty after his southern crossing. Because he was influenced by a good education and family style from an early age, coupled with his tireless study, especially good military, and quite scheming, his father Liu Jian repeatedly praised everyone, and he was imprisoned as a thousand-mile foal of the Liu family.
After Fu Jian established Former Qin to unify the north, he often sent troops to harass the Eastern Jin Dynasty on the left side of the An River. The original army of the Eastern Jin Dynasty was not strong in combat, and in order to deal with the fierce enemy Former Qin, a new army was formed, the Beifu Army, commanded by Xie Xuan, the cousin of the chancellor Xie An.
Liu Prison went to join the army before, and after Liu Prison's generals, he was dignified, shrewd and determined, and well-versed in military affairs, Xie Xuan immediately looked at him and was soon selected as a general when he was admitted to the army.
Due to the support of Xie An and Xie Xuan, who were sent by the real powers, and because he himself had strong military ability, he was able to return victoriously on several expeditions, and gradually became a famous warrior in the Beifu Army, which attracted the attention of the government and the opposition.
In order to annex the Eastern Jin Dynasty and unify the north and south, in 383 Fu Jian frantically recruited troops within the scope of his rule, cobbled together 800,000 horses and horses called millions, personally served as the commander, and launched a full-scale attack on the Eastern Jin Dynasty. The main direction of attack is Huaibei and Shouyang. The famous Battle of Shuishui in Chinese history began.
Xie Xuan led the Beifu army to meet the battle, and Liu Gaozhi was ordered to command five thousand elite soldiers as the vanguard. Liu Gaozhi led his troops to Luojian and quickly crossed the water, ventured forward, and rushed to the death. The Former Qin army collapsed.
Seizing the favorable opportunity, Liu Gaozhi cut off the enemy's retreat route by dividing his troops, killing more than 15,000 enemy personnel and capturing a large amount of ordnance and materials. In this battle, Liu Gaozhi fought a mighty battle, and Former Qin soldiers trembled when they heard his name.
According to historical records, when the Former Qin Emperor Fu Jian first ascended the Bagong Mountain, he saw the grass and bushes all over the mountain swaying in the wind, suspecting that there were soldiers of the Eastern Jin Dynasty ambushing him, which frightened him solidly, and he was eager to slip away immediately, which gave rise to the idiom of "grass and trees are soldiers". This idiom is still in use today.
After Liu Gaozhi led the army to destroy the Former Qin army in Luojian, the retreating Former Qin army affected the morale of its follow-up troops, and they all believed that the Former Qin army was completely defeated, coupled with Liu Gaozhi's division of troops to cover the enemy's troops constantly harassed and shouted "The Former Qin army was defeated", Zhen Ge was defeated like a mountain, and Fu Jian, who wanted to make an immortal contribution, could not clean up this situation, so he had to flee under the protection of his own soldiers.
Xie An, the prime minister of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, received a good report from the front line, and was so excited that he fell down as soon as he entered the house, his shoes were knocked off by the threshold, and his teeth were knocked out several times. It is not an exaggeration to describe the degree of his happiness with great surprise.
The reason why the Eastern Jin Dynasty was able to win the Battle of Shuishui was that the pioneer Liu Gaozhi made a good start and made great achievements. In addition to the commendation, the imperial court promoted him to the post of general of Long Jun and gave him a knighthood.
After the Battle of Shuishui, Xie Xuan sent Liu Gaozhi to lead an army to accept Fu Pi's surrender, defeat Murong Chui, and rescue Taishan County... It made great contributions to the power of the Eastern Jin Dynasty reaching Henan, Shandong and Hebei.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="18" > (ii) was snubbed for the first time</h1>
In 385 AD, Xie Xuan, the prime minister of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, died of illness, and a new pattern of power struggles within the imperial court took shape. After Sima Daozi, the king of Huiji, who had a bad stomach, took over the power of the dynasty, he showed a vicious face, and immediately colluded with the eunuch Wang Guobao to commit adultery, manipulate the government, sell officials and lords, and vigorously reject those who attacked the Xie clique. Liu Gaozhi's life was getting worse and worse, and he was very uneasy about it.
Although Sima Yao, the Emperor of Jin Dynasty, coveted pleasure and indulged in wine, Sima Daozi acted so recklessly that Sima Yao was still very worried about the fall of royal power. Sima Yao pondered and decided to adopt the method of decentralization to deal with it. The appointment of the chancellor Wang Gong as a servant, to paraphrase the current rank comparison, the servant is equivalent to the vice premier, and sima Daozi holds the power of the dynasty, in addition to appointing Yin Zhongkan as a general, commanding part of the army to guard Jingzhou and contain Sima Daozi outside the imperial court.
Not long after such a relatively peaceful day, Sima Yao died, and his stupid and non-verbal idiot son Sima Dezong succeeded to the throne, known as Emperor An of Jin. Sima Daozi saw that the situation was even more arbitrary, and the struggle between the two factions reached a white-hot level. In order to gain a firm foothold in the dynasty, Wang Gong tried his best to win Liu Gaozhi over, but Liu Gaozhi, who had been snubbed by Sima Daozi, did not listen to his family's advice to be careful, and gladly agreed to join Wang Gong's alliance against Sima Daozi.
After a series of behind-the-scenes plots by Wang Gong and his confidants, in the second year of the emperor's reign (397), Liu Gaozhi and Yin Zhongkan took over the head and raised an army at Jingkou in the name of crusading against the kingdom treasure. Sima Daozi was forced to kill Wang Guobao and ask Liu Gaozhi for peace. After Wang Guobao's death, Sima Daozi took an arm, and his power was greatly reduced, while Wang Gong's power increased unprecedentedly.
Wang Gong is a person who is very kind to people on the surface, but in fact, his heart is very deep, which is elusive. After seeing his prestige in the court rising, he felt that his purpose had been achieved, and his attitude towards Liu Gaozhi had changed greatly, such as in the past, when Liu Gaozhi asked to see him, Wang Gong got up to greet him and got up to send them off when he said goodbye.
Now he was sitting high in the north and south, calmly letting Liu Gaozhi see him. This performance of the former gong and the back of the court made Liu Gaozhi's self-esteem suffer a lot, and Zhen Ge was more and more unhappy the more he thought about it, always looking for an opportunity to give Wang Gong a chance to get over, and out of this evil breath in his heart.
Later, Sima Daozi was removed from his post and was succeeded by his son Sima Yuanxian. Sima Yuanxian would also seize power than his old son, and Wang Gong of course did not accept it, so he repeated the same trick and ordered Liu Gaozhi to lead an army from Jingkou to Jiankang and attack Sima Yuanxian in the name of the Qing Emperor.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="26" > (3) Fame and fortune and then reverse water</h1>
When the news reached Jiankang, the government and the public were horrified, Sima Yuanxian lacked military strength, and there was no way to talk about the use of force, but he had a very good idea of fighting crooked. He found a former general of the Northern Prefecture Army, Gao Su, an old acquaintance of Liu Gaozhi, to be a lobbyist and instigate Liu Gaozhi's rebellion.
Gao Su is very good at doing work. He recalled the old friendship between the two of them, and also mentioned that Xie An Xie Xuan was dead, and after this moment, he said, You have made a great contribution to Wang Gong, what reward does he have for you? Officials are not but generals, and they must also be angry. If you turn to Sima Yuanxian, add officials to the knighthood, and become a great general in the dynasty, you will shock the world... Where to go, please break the army quickly.
After listening to Gao Su's words, Liu Gaozhi thought of the change in Wang Gong's attitude and felt that Wang Gong was really untrustworthy and unlovable, so he listened to Gao Su's lobbying and decided to betray Wang Gong.
One of the anti-water Liu Prisons entered Jiankang and caught up with the fleeing Wang Gong and killed him. Sima Yuanxian also did not lose faith, ceding Wang Gong's official title to Liu Gaozhi and taking charge of the military of seven prefectures. Liu Gaozhi became a well-known figure.
In fact, Sima Yuanxian only made this kind of commitment under very urgent circumstances at that time, and from his heart, he did not want Liu Gaozhi to share power with himself, so he was often in a contradictory mentality of being afraid of Liu Gaozhi but not daring to fall out with him. Liu Gaozhi was a man who understood and fully understood Sima Yuanxian's thoughts, so the relationship between the two was in a delicate state of appearance and separation for a long time.
Three years after this relatively peaceful day, there was another storm. Huan Wen of Zhenshou (镇守荆襄) was succeeded by his son Huan Xuan (桓玄) after his death. Huan Xuan was majestic and famous, but few people knew that he was an ambitious man. He despised the mentally handicapped and scum of the Sima family when the emperor took charge of the government. After inheriting his father's title, he had capital, so he raised the army of the Ten Towns of Jingxiang and went down the river to attack Jiankang. The government and the public were shocked, and the then emperor Sima Dezong appointed Sima Yuanxian as the governor of the capital and Liu Gaozhi as the forward governor to attack Huan Xuan.
Huan Xuan is "a wise man who has a thousand worries will have a mistake"! He did not count liu gaozhi so brave and good at fighting, and he could not break through Liu Gaozhi's defense line with all his strength. Qian Donkey had a plan in mind, and sent people to Liu Gaozhi as a lobbyist, and after the fact that the matter was accomplished, he was given the official position of Sima Yuanxian.
Liu Gaozhi was a little undecided, thinking that if he held the defensive line and defeated Huan Xuan, he would have the merit of rebuilding the society, but the gong gao zhen lord Oh, sima Yuanxian can accommodate himself? If he is defeated by Huan Xuan, there will be no way back. He planned to repeat the scene of the crusade against Wang Gong. His confidant Liu Yu persuaded him that it was not good to lose the hearts of the people after another, and that huan Xuan should be directly confronted to gain the name of zhongjun.
Liu Gaozhi was fascinated by the ghost, and was completely unwilling to listen to the advice of others, so he turned to Huan Xuan. Huan Xuan invaded Chang'an and killed Sima Yuanxian, but his promise to Liu Gaozhi was forgotten beyond the clouds of the Nine Heavens, and only a minor official such as Huijian Neishi was sealed.
Liu Gaozhi was furious, and he planned to gather his subordinates to attack Huan Xuan. Liu Yu also advised him, if you oppose Huan Xuan, you will have three rebellions in your life, and who in the world can tolerate you!
The stubborn Liu Gaozhi did not listen to Liu Yu's advice, and led his subordinates to set out for Jingkou, and it did not take long for his subordinates to disperse. Liu Gaozhi thought that he was alone and had done nothing, and he would not be tolerated by Huan Xuan, so he had to hang himself. The hanging of the heroes of the Battle of Shuishui ended his life, which is sad and sad.
【About the author】Zhao Xinfang, pen name Zhao Shi, is a director of the Chongqing Miscellaneous Literature Association and a director of the Chongqing Nan'an District Writers Association.
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