One
The rise and fall of a country sometimes has a lot to do with the person at the helm.
During the Five Hu and Sixteen Kingdoms period, Former Qin and Former Yan were typical cases.
The three generations of Murong of the Yan State relayed the Kanto half of the country, and once the helmsman was absent, he immediately died in government. With the assistance of Wang Meng, Fu Jian of the State of Qin took the opportunity to destroy the State of Yan and unify the Central Plains, but after Wang Meng's death, Fu Jian was defeated in Feishui, and the Jiangshan community was reduced to nothing.
There are sometimes coincidences and unchangeable historical trajectories, and reading the past again cannot but be thought-provoking.
Two
As early as after the outbreak of the "Rebellion of the Eight Kings" in the Jin Dynasty, Murong Xianbei of Liaodong began to work hard.
At that time, the Central Plains was turbulent and war-breaking, and displaced people left their hometowns and migrated to the frontier, hoping to live and work in peace and contentment in a place where there was no war.
As a result, the displaced people in the west entered Liangzhou (Gansu) and Yizhou (Sichuan), bringing abundant manpower and capital to the separatist regimes in these two places, while the displaced people in the east went to Youzhou (northern Hebei) to attach themselves to Wang Jun.
The displaced people who went to Liangzhou and Yizhou were basically properly resettled, but Wang Jun of Youzhou saw the chaos in the world and had the ambition to fight for the world, constantly collecting taxes, arresting Ding Zhuang, and developing armed forces, but did not properly resettle the displaced people.
Since Youzhou is not a frontier paradise, the displaced people who hope for stability can only continue to migrate north to the Xianbei tribe outside Serbia to make a living.
"Dispatch is annoying, unbearable, and betrays into humility."
At this time, Murong Xiang, who had been entrenched in Liaodong for generations, gave the displaced people a way to live. He took in hundreds of thousands of displaced people, distributed land and cattle, and provided the most basic means of production, so that the displaced people could work with peace of mind and no longer run for war.
Regardless of the quality of life, the displaced people can at least survive, and in troubled times, this is the greatest benevolence.
Moreover, Murong Xian also set up counties independently for the people of each prefecture according to the origin of the displaced people, which slightly eased the psychological burden of the displaced people from their hometowns:
"At that time, tens of thousands of displaced people in China returned to the household, with Jizhou as Jiyang County, Yuzhou as Chengzhou County, Qingzhou as Yingqiu County, and Hezhou as Tangguo County."
There must be talent among these displaced people, so Murong Xian selected the Han elite and added it to Murong Xianbei's ruling team:
"With Hedong Pei Ling, Beiping Yangyan, Lujiang Huanghong, and Daijun Luchang as the masterminds, Guangping Youxi, Beihai Fengxian, Beiping Xiqian, Xihe Song Xi and Feng Shu, Pei Kai as the strands, Pingyuan Song Cai, Anding Huangfu, Qiandizhen, Lanling Miao, Changli Liu Bin and Feng Yi, Feng Yudian Secret."
Look at the county and surnames of these people, almost all of them are famous families of the Jin Dynasty. They abandoned the Sima clan and followed the Murong clan, indicating that in their opinion, the so-called Chinese orthodox Sima clan was not as good as the barbarian Murong clan.
In terms of diplomacy, Murong Xian became a vassal to the Eastern Jin Dynasty, and was appointed by the Eastern Jin Dynasty as the military governor of Liaozuo Zayi Province, the general of Long Xiao, and the Duke of Changli, becoming the nominal town of Liaodong Domain in the Eastern Jin Dynasty.
Later, Shi Le wanted to befriend Murong Xiang, and Murong Xian arrested the envoys and sent them to Jiankang by sea, where they were handed over to the Eastern Jin Dynasty to deal with.
This diplomatic strategy meant that Murong Xianbei and the Eastern Jin Dynasty formed a united front to attack the Zhao state from north to south, and Murong Xian could also crisscross between the various forces in eastern Liaoning under the banner of orthodoxy.
In 333, Murong Xian died and was succeeded by his son Murong Hao.
In addition to continuing his father's successful policies, Murong Hao also gathered Duanbu Xianbei's men and horses, sent his sons Murong Ke and Murong Chui to defeat Yuwen Xianbei, and personally commanded 40,000 troops to conquer Goguryeo and resist the crusade of Zhao Guoshihu, and his power further developed and expanded.
In 341, the Eastern Jin Dynasty sent envoys to Liaodong and appointed Murong Hao as an envoy, a general, a military governor of Hebei, Youzhou Mu, a Da Dan Yu, and the king of Yan, officially recognizing Murong Xianbei's hegemony of Liaodong.
At this point, after thirty years of painstaking management, Murong Xianbei finally established the Murong Yan state regime under the command of Murong Zong's army, the Han elite administration, and the integration of Hu and Han, dominating Liaodong.
In terms of population, political system, and military strength, Murong Xianbei was no less than the Manchurian Houjin a thousand years later, and his strength was extremely strong.
In this context, after the outbreak of civil strife in the state of Zhao in 349, the new Yan king Murong Jiao appointed Murong Ji as a general of the auxiliary state, Murong Jian as a general of the auxiliary state, and Yang Qi as a general of the auxiliary righteousness, known as the "three auxiliaries", and Murong Chui as the governor of the forward capital and the general of Jianfeng, commanding 200,000 troops, and took the opportunity to send troops to the Central Plains.
Three years later, the Yan state defeated Ran Min and basically occupied Jizhou.
In this process, the Yan state continued to maintain a good style and actively recruited Han people into the ruling team.
For example, after entering Jixingcheng, thousands of people were captured, and Murong Zhuo was ready to kill them all according to the habits of troubled times, but Murong Chui suggested that we save the people of Li from fire and water, and if we kill prisoners, who will follow us in the future? Murong Zhu felt that it made sense, so he gave up the idea of killing prisoners.
Murong Ke's entry into Zhongshan County was also a military order that Yan Mingqiu did not commit any offense.
As a result, "Zhao generals supported the prefecture and county, and each sent envoys to surrender Yan", and it didn't take long for the Yan state to occupy the entire Kanto region, copying the successful path of Liu Xiu, Yuan Shao, Cao Cao, and Shi Le.
In 352 AD, Murong Zhuo ascended the throne as emperor, and informed the envoys of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, saying - the Central Plains is in chaos, I have been elected emperor, and we will no longer be monarchs in the future, I am really embarrassed...
A similar scene was seen in Guanzhong at the same time.
Taking advantage of the great chaos in the Central Plains, Fu Jian first claimed the Heavenly King of Great Qin and Da Dan Yu in Chang'an, and became emperor in the first month of 352 AD, abolished the harsh maladministration promulgated by Shi Hu, and reduced taxes to select Han elites, so "Qin people were happy" and annexed to Fu Jian one after another.
It was precisely because Murong Yanguo and the Qin State had qualified helmsmen who could take care of the practical interests of the masses that they could become the rulers after the collapse of the State of Zhao and go hand in hand in the Central Plains.
Three
After occupying half of the Kanto region, the Yan Kingdom continued to prosper, and the most important thing was that Murong Ke, the king of Taiyuan, continued the policy line of three generations at the helm.
In December 359, Murong Jiao, the emperor of the Yan state, became seriously ill, but the crown prince Murong Wei was only ten years old and was not suitable to be the emperor of the troubled times, so Murong Zhuo prepared to pass the throne to his younger brother, Murong Ke the Prince of Taiyuan.
Faced with the low-hanging throne, Murong Ke said: "If Your Majesty is a minister who can take over the world, can't you help the lesser", if Your Majesty feels that I have the ability to be the emperor, then I will definitely be able to assist the crown prince in governing the country.
Hearing these words, Murong Yan was very moved: "Ru can be the Duke of Zhou, why should I worry", since you can imitate the Duke of Zhou and assist the king, I can go with confidence.
In the first month of the following year, Murong Ji died, and the crown prince Murong Wei succeeded him, and appointed Murong Ke, the Prince of Taiyuan, as Taizai to oversee the imperial government, Murong the Prince of Shangyong as Taifu, Sikong Yangqi as Taibao, and the leading general Mu Yugen as Taishi, as Murong Ke's deputy, to participate in the imperial government.
In this way, Murong Ke, the king of Taiyuan, became the de facto fourth generation helmsman of the Yan state.
Regarding Murong Ke's governance of the Yan Kingdom, the history books clearly wrote in a few sentences——
"Although he is a great task, the courtesy of the imperial court is conscientious and rigorous, and everything must be discussed with the imperial master, and there is no arbitrary decision. Be humble, consult the good way, appoint according to the merits, and do not sit in the position. The official office and the courtiers may have made mistakes, and they do not show their status, and they are as they please, and they do not make them inconsistent, but they are degraded by this, and people think that they are ashamed and dare not commit them. ”
Murong Kei commanded the Yan dynasty, but did not seek power and usurp the throne like Cao Cao and Sima Yi, but set an example and became a moral model for the Yan dynasty and the public, adhering to democratic centralism in handling military and administrative affairs, and consulting with other auxiliary ministers on everything.
When officials were selected and employed, Murong Ke's energy was hired, and officials made mistakes, and Murong Kei was only degrading, and would never be humiliated in public.
In general, Murong Ke, the king of Taiyuan, was able to unite the masses to the greatest extent, and a peaceful atmosphere appeared in the Yan Kingdom, and everyone talked about it.
Against this backdrop, the Yan regime transitioned smoothly and flourished on the previous strong foundation.
If it goes on like this, it will definitely be the Yan Kingdom that will determine the Central Plains in the future.
However, history has no ifs.
During the period of the Five Hu and Sixteen Kingdoms when the kingdoms competed for hegemony, heroes could lead the country to rise, and once the hero died, the country may decline until it was eliminated by competitors. This characteristic is completely different from the great unified regime of later generations.
In 367, Murong Ke became seriously ill and recommended to Emperor Murong Wei that his younger brother, Murong Chui the Prince of Wu, succeed him as Grand Sima, command the Yan state and serve as chief auxiliary minister.
Murong Ke's seven years of assisting the government caused great pressure on the emperor Murong Wei, and Murong Wei was also very jealous, and now Murong Ji was going to die, and there was another highly respected Murong Chui, they would never allow it.
Therefore, after Murong Ke's death, they did not appoint Murong Chui as the Grand Sima of the auxiliary government, but instead appointed Murong Chong, the young and frivolous king of Zhongshan, as the Grand Sima to participate in imperial politics.
Because Murong Chong was the younger brother of Emperor Murong Wei, he was very close, and he was also the nephew of Taifu Murong Ping, and his low rank would not affect his power and status.
Murong Chui the King of Wu could only accept orders as a general of the chamberlain and the general of the horse and serve as their pawn.
In this way, the Yan Kingdom was no longer a heroic figure at the helm, and the policy line of the four generations at the helm had no heir, chaos soon emerged, and the national strength gradually declined.
First of all, the political order of the Yan State was not maintained, or the emperor and auxiliary ministers were unable to maintain it, so the princes and nobles annexed land and hidden the population, which directly led to the empty treasury and a sharp reduction in the mobilization of troops.
"The national account is less than the private one, the warehouse is empty, and the use is insufficient."
This situation is a hidden worry of a prosperous era, and it is also a talisman for troubled times. The correct way to deal with this should be to severely punish the princes and nobles, return the annexed land to the yeomanry, and re-register the hidden population, so as to strengthen the power of the state on the one hand, and give the peasants a prosperous and stable life on the other.
But the court of the Yan Kingdom did nothing, allowing the princes and nobles to run amok.
Shang Shu's left servant Shu Yue Yue couldn't stand it, and put forward a suggestion: "It is advisable to destroy all the Yin households and return all the counties to the counties", since we cannot redistribute the land, then we make a compromise choice, clear out the hidden population of the princes and nobles, and ensure the country's military strength.
Emperor Murong Wei said, then you go and do it.
Yue Xuan accepted the emperor's order, and after a toss, he cleared out 200,000 households and nearly one million people from the homes of the princes and nobles.
Population is productivity, population is wealth, Yue Xuan deprived the population of the princes and nobles, is to deprive them of vested interests, so "raise the dynasty and resentment", not long after, Yue Xuan died of a serious illness, and died a very strange death.
And the failure of Yuejiu's reform means that the Yan Kingdom missed the opportunity to innovate and never returned on the road to the death of the country.
Secondly, the political struggle of the Yan imperial court became increasingly fierce.
Murong Chui, the king of Wu, commanded his army at the age of thirteen and made great military achievements for decades, and was the most famous king of the clan after Murong Ke, the king of Taiyuan, even if he was not an auxiliary minister, his words were extremely weighty.
In order to preserve his position, Murong Chuan of the Empress Dowager Fu joined forces with the Empress Dowager Kezhuhun to find an opportunity to kill Murong Chui and eliminate hidden dangers on the road to power, and Murong Chui went straight to Chang'an in 369 to protect himself and surrendered to the Qin state.
At this point, the defeat of the Yan state, which lost wealth and people, was decided, and it was only two short years since the death of Murong Ke, the king of Taiyuan.
Four
Compared with the decline of the Yan state, the Qin state has a thriving and magnificent atmosphere, for the simple reason that the political genius Wang Meng controlled the military and political affairs of the Qin state and in fact became the helm of the Qin state.
In 355 AD, the emperor of the Qin state, Fu Jian, died and passed the throne to the crown prince Fu Sheng, and before his death, he left him a sentence: "The chief of Liuyi and the ministers in power, if they do not obey the Ru order, they should be gradually eliminated", if there are disobedient Hu Han ministers, get rid of them yourself.
Fu Sheng was originally a ruthless person who could handle fierce beasts, and he was born with a mixed personality, and after hearing this sentence, Fu Sheng called out - Dad understands me.
As soon as he became the emperor of the Qin State, Fu Sheng killed Lei Weaker, his nine sons and twenty-seven grandsons because of the strong character of Prime Minister Lei Weaker, his rampage speech, and some disrespect for himself, and destroyed the whole family.
This killing opened the door to the tyranny of the Qin State.
After that, wherever he went, he carried bows and arrows, long knives, sledgehammers, chisels and other tools with him, and immediately killed people who saw them that were not pleasing to his eyes, and dismembered the corpses with the tools he carried with him-
"Before he ascended the throne, as for the servants below the queen concubine and the secretary, those who killed more than 500 people, cut off the shin, saw the neck, and cut the fetus, there were more than one."
In less than a year, nearly 500 people died at the hands of Fu Sheng, which was too cruel.
Through the killing, Fu Sheng not only eliminated those who were a threat to him, but also created an atmosphere of terror in the court of the Qin State, and the ministers and ministers lived trembling and living like years.
However, political terror is a double-edged sword, and it can establish the authority of the emperor in the early stage, but if it does not grasp the scale, it is very likely to cause insecurity for everyone and eventually eat the emperor.
Obviously, Fu Sheng did not grasp the scale of political terror, so that neither the clan nor the public secretary knew whether they could see the sun tomorrow.
Since Fusheng does not give others a way to live, then others will cut off Fusheng's way of living.
In 357 AD, Elder Cheng Liang Pinglao, Tejin Guanglu Dafu Qiang Wang, Shangshu Lü Polou and others supported the twenty-year-old Donghai King Fu Jian to launch a mutiny and abolish the tyrant Fu Sheng in one fell swoop, and then Fu Jian ascended the throne and became the third emperor of the Qin state.
It took two years for the Yan Kingdom to go from rule to chaos, and it took two years for the Qin State to clear the chaos anyway, do you say it was a coincidence?
As early as before the mutiny, Lü Polou recommended Wang Meng to Fu Jian, saying that Wang Meng had a strategy that came out of the world. Fu Jian believed Lu Polou's vision, and immediately summoned Wang Meng, and fell in love at first sight: "I see Wang Meng like Liu Bei sees Zhuge Liang." ”
When Wang Meng saw Fu Jian, he also decided to follow to the death.
A few years ago, Huan Wen went to Guanzhong on his Northern Expedition and invited Wang Meng to go south, but Wang Meng believed that Huan Wen's army was not a stone's throw away from Chang'an but did not attack the city, indicating that Huan Wen was using the Northern Expedition to make a name for himself and was not willing to do his best to restore the Central Plains, and his future business scope would still be in Jiangnan.
And under the nine-pin zhongzheng system in Jiangnan, Wang Meng, who did not have a prominent family, never came out in his life, so Wang Meng rejected Huan Wen.
Now that the Qin Kingdom is in chaos, it is the time to employ people, and Fu Jian is attracted to himself at first sight, what reason is there not to follow?
The eldest husband made a contribution, at this time.
Against this background, Wang Meng soared into the sky in the Qin state and in the same year that Fu Jian ascended the throne, he appointed Wang Meng as Shangshu Zuocheng, and in 359 AD, he was promoted to Shizhong, Zhongshuling, Shangshu Zuo Servant, Shangshu Shangshu, Fuguo General, and Sijian Lieutenant, leaving all the military and administrative affairs of the Qin State to Wang Meng to handle.
So what are the results of Wang Meng's governance?
The answer is excellent.
In terms of politics, Fu Jian and Wang Meng "raised different talents, abolished their posts, taught peasants and mulberry, cared for the poor, paid homage to the gods, established schools, practiced righteousness, and succeeded the peerless", basically straightening out the political order of the Qin state and restoring the official and popular hearts.
In terms of economy, the Qin State lifted the ban on public areas such as mountains and forests, lakes, and allowed the people to use mountains, rivers and lakes to make profits, which generated economic increments outside agriculture, released productive forces, and achieved the purpose of "public and private cooperation, and supporting the people".
In terms of the rule of officials, he severely punished dozens of people, such as the lawless Guzang Marquis Fan Shi and the Guanglu Dafu Qiangde who robbed the people's property, which had the effect of "the imperial court is shocked, treacherous and holds its breath, and the road is not forgotten", even Fu Jian sighed, it turns out that there is still a royal law in the world.
Although these decrees were issued in the name of Fu Jian, Fu Jian was only about twenty years old at that time and had no experience in governing the country, so Fu Jian issued the decree just to go through the process, and the person behind it was Wang Meng.
And Fu Jian also trusted Wang Meng very much - "Fierce time Chinese New Year's Eve sixth, power is tilted inside and outside, people have ruins, stubbornly guilty, so the ministers dare not repeat", who dares to slander Wang Meng behind his back, Fu Jian must deal with it seriously and resolutely safeguard Wang Meng's ruling position.
The rulers are clear, the economy is active, the monarchs know each other... If the country is governed like this, the country will be strong.
Five
The fundamental reason why the State of Qin was full of weather and the State of Yan was in chaos was that after Murong Ke's death, the State of Yan had no qualified helmsman, and Wang Meng became the helmsman and exhausted his efforts for the State of Qin.
Such a difference also gave Fu Jian the ambition to annex the Yan Kingdom, but he was afraid of Murong Ke in the early stage, and Murong Chui in the later stage, and did not dare to send troops easily.
In 369, after Murong Chui defected to the Qin state, Fu Jian personally went to the suburbs to greet him, and said happily:
"Born virtuous, they will achieve great achievements together, and this natural number should also be determined with Qing, and become Daizong, and then return Qing's own state, and the world will be sealed Youzhou."
Fu Jian knew that the Yan Kingdom, whose national strength had declined, had lost Murong Chui and had no chance to turn over.
In April 370, Fu Jian ordered Wang Meng to become a commander, commanding ten generals and 60,000 horses to attack the Yan state. In July, Wang Meng conquered Huguan and captured Murong Yue the King of Nan'an, Shangdang Taishou and Murong Yue of the Yan State, and "all the counties he passed were expected to be subordinate", and then Wang Meng raised his troops north to conquer Jinyang, capturing Murong Zhuang the King of the Eastern Sea of the Yan State. In October, Wang turned around and headed south to confront Murong Ping, the crown prince of the Yan state, at Luchuan.
In just half a year, Wang Meng cleared the perimeter and decisively fought the main force of the Yan army.
However, Qin Yan's decisive battle was without suspense.
The fact that Murong Chuan, the Prince of Yan Guo, excluded Murong Chui shows that this person was a vulgar bureaucrat who only wanted personal self-interest and did not consider the state at all. This time stationed in Luchuan, Murong Ping's moral standards also directly affected the war situation.
At that time, the weather was already winter, and the soldiers of the Yan Kingdom needed to chop wood for heating, and the soldiers were stationed together, drinking water very much. These two things made Murong Ping smell money. So he took advantage of his position and sent his henchmen to seal the mountain, and if the soldiers wanted to drink water and heat, they had to pay Murong Zhan money to buy drinking water and wood.
After a period of time, Murong Ping did make a fortune in war, but the soldiers of the Yan State complained - "We are fighting to the death, just to defend Murong Ping's interests, on what basis", basically have no will to fight.
After Wang Meng heard this, he looked up to the sky and laughed: "Murong Pingzhen slave, although hundreds of millions of trillions are not fearful, but hundreds of thousands? I will break it today. ”
Subsequently, Wang Meng sent the guerrilla general Guo Qing to command 5,000 cavalry, and at night went around the rear of the Yan army camp, set a large fire, and burned the ordnance and grain and grass clean. After dawn, Wang Meng commanded the Qin army and the Yan army to face off head-on, beheading more than 50,000 people, the Yan army was defeated and fled, and the Qin army pursued all the way and killed more than 100,000.
The Qin army won a big victory.
At this point, the Qin state fixed that there was no more obstruction in the Central Plains, and Wang Meng immediately commanded the Qin army to cross the Taihang Mountain and go straight to Yecheng, the capital of the Yan state, and strictly forbade the Qin army to rob and plunder to pacify the people of the Yan state.
When the people of Yan Kingdom saw Wang Meng's policy, they sighed: "I don't want to see King Taiyuan again today." ”
They regarded the Qin army that destroyed the Yan Kingdom as a king division to correct the chaos.
After the end of the war, the 157 counties and nearly 10 million people of the Yan state were included in the territory of the Qin state, and the Yan emperor Murong Wei and his concubines, the official secretaries and 40,000 Xianbei families were also moved to Chang'an by Fu Jian, and the palace maids and treasures were rewarded to the Qin generals.
It can be said that if Murong Ke's lifespan can be longer, Yan Kingdom is definitely not such a fate. Wang Meng became the helmsman of the Qin State, not Wang Meng's luck, but the luck of the Qin State.
Six
Murong Ke's early death led to the decline and demise of the Yan state, and Wang Meng's death also catalyzed the collapse of the Qin state.
The relationship between Wang Meng and Fu Jian, an evaluation in the history books is very interesting: "Fierce for the face, strong to the top, the hundred officials are always below, and the affairs inside and outside the military are all for granted" - Fu Jian does not personally handle military and political affairs, playing the role of a "false king", the civil and military officials are only under Wang Meng's orders, and the military and political affairs of the Qin state are also handled by Wang Meng.
If Fu Jian created the entity of the Qin State, then the soul of the Qin State was given by Wang Meng.
As for Fu Jian, who came to the throne through a mutiny, he had never experienced grassroots training before, and then did not follow Wang Meng to learn how to govern the country, more like a rich son who inherited the family business, selected genius professional managers, and then sat back and enjoyed his success until the company was listed.
This inevitably leads to a series of problems -
First of all, although Wang Meng created the Qin State from weak to strong, having personally experienced this process, Fu Jian had the illusion that "Wang Meng can do it too".
Secondly, the Qin state's destruction of the Yan state and the Dingding Central Plains aroused Fu Jian's ambition, and he was very eager to eliminate the Eastern Jin Dynasty and completely dominate the world in his lifetime.
In the end, Fu Sheng's wanton slaughter aroused the dissatisfaction of the ministers, and after Fu Jian rectified the chaos, he had to do the opposite and take leniency and benevolence as his political line. Therefore, Fu Jian was not only very tolerant of the ministers of the Qin state, but also very generous to the leaders of the Xianbei and Qiang people.
For example, after the death of the Qiang leader Yao Xiangzhan in battle, his younger brother Yao Feng led his people to surrender to the Qin state, and Fu Jian gave him rich treatment.
The Yan kingdom perished, and Fu Jian did not clean up the Murong kings, either staying in Chang'an to command the soldiers and horses, or sending him to Bian County as a taishou, showing an attitude of not doubting the use of people.
Wang Meng may also have seen these problems and tried to make the final salvage.
In July 375, when Wang Meng was about to die, he took Fu Jian's hand and instructed: "After the surrender of the courtiers, may you not use Jin as a goal." Xianbei and Western Qiang, my enemies, will eventually become afflicted by people, and it is advisable to gradually eliminate them so that the society can be reconciled. ”
Do not ask for the Eastern Jin Dynasty, deal with hidden internal dangers, adhere to the principle that the outside must first settle the inside, and do it step by step.
Realistically speaking, Wang Meng's last words are the right direction for the Qin State.
Unfortunately, Wang Meng saw the crux of the problem and made the right suggestions, but he was unable to reverse the fate of the Qin state.
Because of the above three problems, it was decided that Fu Jian was not a qualified helmsman, but he would inevitably send troops to fight the Eastern Jin Dynasty, and at the same time he was unwilling to use the means of killing to eliminate the hidden dangers of the Qin state.
After Wang Meng's death, no one could restrain Fu Jian, and what to do and did not do depended on Fu Jian's personal will.
An incompetent and ambitious man with heavy historical baggage can only bring disaster to the country.
So, the Qin Kingdom rushed towards the abyss of destruction.
In February 376, seven months after Wang Meng's death, Fu Jian felt that it was very difficult to handle military and political affairs: "To get the prime minister, it is often called the emperor Yiyan. Since he went against the world, his hair was white, and every thought he thought about was not sour. The phrase "white in the hair" explains the hardships of Fu Jian's governance of the country.
In 377, the political order of the Qin state began to collapse, and Fu Jian gradually became extravagant, and even Murong Nong, the clan of the Yan state, saw that "since the death of Wang Meng, the legal system of Qin has been declining day by day, and now it is again extravagant, and it is about to die", and persuaded his father Murong Chui to prepare to raise troops and revive the Yan state.
In September 382, Fu Jian ordered the general Lü Guang to conquer the Western Regions as an envoy and governor, commanding 100,000 soldiers and horses to conquer the Western Regions, preparing to open a copy of the coming dynasty of all nations. In October, Fu Jian decided to recruit 970,000 troops to personally conquer the Eastern Jin Dynasty and dominate the world.
Fu Hong, the crown prince of the Qin state, Shangshu Zuo Shu Shu Quanyi, and Yangping Gong Fu Rong did not agree to the conquest of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, and they, like Wang Meng's opinion, believed that the Xianbei and Qiang tribes were unstable factors, and that the army would inevitably do something for them when they went out to fight.
Fu Jian's response was "None of them listened." ”
The sober opinions of the ministers of the Qin State were in Fu Jian's view as a stumbling block on the road to success.
Only Murong Chui, the champion general and Jing Zhao Yin, encouraged Fu Jian to send troops, because Murong Chui knew that once the Qin state fought unfavorably, internal conflicts would break out, and he could fish in the water.
He is ready to use Fu Jian's ambition to realize his own ambition.
Seeing Murong Chui's statement, Fu Jian was very happy: "Those who decide the world with me are only alone."
When Qin Guo came to this point, there was basically no room for turning back.
In August 383, Fu Jian sent 600,000 infantry and 270,000 cavalry to attack the Eastern Jin Dynasty. Fu Jian led the Chang'an soldiers and horses to Xiangcheng, Henan, the Liangzhou soldiers and horses to Xianyang, and the Youzhou soldiers and horses to Pengcheng.
The inability of the Qin army to act in unison means that it cannot form a joint force, which seems to be huge, but in fact the local advantage is not large.
Therefore, after Xie Shi, Xie Xuan, Liu Jiaozhi and other Eastern Jin generals commanded the Beifu troops and broke the vanguard of the Qin army, the horror of "defeat" spread in the Qin army, and all Qin troops immediately retreated, trampling each other along the way, accompanied by hunger and disease, and suffered heavy casualties.
"The Qin army was defeated, and those who died from their own mistakes, sheltered the wild and blocked the river, and they all thought that the Jin soldiers had arrived, and they did not dare to rest day and night, and they slept in the grass, and they were hungry and frozen, and the dead were seven or eight."
Hundreds of thousands of Qin troops were defeated.
After the defeat of a country that started with war and was supported by its army and military merits, the result was that the pressure of various forces suddenly disappeared, and they all looked for a chaotic ladder to maximize benefits.
In the winter of 383, Murong Chui raised troops to revive the Yan state.
In April 384, the Qiang native Yao Feng proclaimed himself the Great General, the Great Dan Yu, and the King of Wannian Qin.
In August, the Eastern Jin Northern Expedition recaptured Xiaping and Pengcheng, and immediately marched into Henan and Hebei.
In August 385, Fu Jian was defeated by Yao Cang and hanged in a Buddhist temple.
In September, Lü Guang returned to Dunhuang from the Western Regions, claiming to be the Assassin of Liangzhou and cutting off the Hexi Corridor.
It was also two years from the time Fu Jian sent troops to conquer the Eastern Jin Dynasty to the time the country was destroyed.
Sima Guang made a very accurate evaluation in the "Zizhi Tongjian": "The reason why Jian died was because of sudden victory and arrogance", Fu Jian's success too quickly led to a skyrocketing ambition, but he did not have the ability to match it, and finally broke the sand.
Wang Meng's success made Fu Jian think that he was the chosen one, so he gambled on the fate of the country. It turns out that Wang Mengxing does not mean that you are strong, you think you can, but the result will not lie.
The rise and fall of the Yan Kingdom and the Qin Kingdom profoundly illustrates a truth, in the world of great controversy, the helmsman of the country is too important.