In the previous article, it was said that Chao Ang was beheaded, it was Yuan An's strategy to Emperor Jing, Yuan Ang and his people, and we will talk about it in detail later. Let's take a look today, why is the rebel army led by Liu Bi, the king of Wu who has been in obscurity for more than 40 years, so vulnerable?
Let's take a look at the grievances between King Wu and Emperor Wen's family, why don't other princes rebel, but he King Wu wants to rebel?
It turned out that during the reign of Emperor Wen, the prince of Wu entered Beijing to meet Emperor Wen, and accompanied the crown prince to drink and play during the period. When two young people are together, it is easy to have conflicts, not to mention that one is the crown prince and the other is the prince Wu, they are respected on weekdays, and their temperament is arrogant, so they are naturally more prone to disputes.
In the process of playing, Prince Wu and the crown prince, who later became Emperor Jing of Han, argued about the chess path, and their attitude was very disrespectful. "Zizhi Tongjian" cloud: contention, disrespect.
As a result, when the crown prince was angry, he picked up the chessboard and threw it at Prince Wu, killing Prince Wu at once.
After the death of Prince Wu, the imperial court sent him back to Wu for burial, but King Wu said angrily, "The world is the world of the Liu family, and if you die in Chang'an, you will be buried in Chang'an, why should you send it back!" King Wu sent his son's coffin back to Chang'an.
Since then, King Wu has not acted much according to the rules of the vassal king, often claiming that he is not feeling well and does not come to see Emperor Wen.
Of course, Emperor Wen knew it, but this was not in line with etiquette, once or twice, and it would not work in the long run, so the imperial court began to detain and interrogate the envoys of Wu.
King Wu was scared in his heart. "Zizhi Tongjian" said that at this time, King Wu "began to have a counter-plot", and only then did he begin to have the idea of rebellion.
Later, King Wu sent an envoy to exercise the etiquette of meeting the emperor in the autumn for him, and in the face of Emperor Wen, who repeatedly asked why King Wu did not come, this envoy was very smart, and he said frankly that King Wu was indeed not sick, seeing that the court had detained several groups of envoys of Wu, King Wu was afraid in his heart, and naturally he did not dare to come, so he said that he was sick and sent a messenger to see him.
He also persuaded Emperor Wen to say, "Seeing the fish in the abyss is ominous", seeing that the fish in the deep pool is unlucky, it is better not to pursue it anymore, let him reform himself.
Emperor Wen was indeed a good emperor with a good mind, he understood the meaning of the envoy's words, not only let the envoys go back, but also rewarded King Wu with several cases and crutches, saying that he was too old to take care of him and did not need to come to the court again.
King Wu saw that the court no longer pursued his own crimes, and his heart of rebellion slowly faded.
However, from Emperor Wen to Emperor Jing for more than 40 years, King Wu has been mining copper coins in his own country, boiling the sea for salt, and has quite a set of methods of governing the country. It is precisely because he has the financial resources to smelt copper and make salt that he does not levy taxes on the people, and even when the people want to serve the imperial court, he will always pay the service fee and hire someone to serve.
Not only that, but every holiday, he will also go to condolences to the virtuous and aspiring, and give benefits to the common people. He even sheltered outlaws fleeing from all over the country and stopped the officials who came to capture them. As a result, more and more outlaws have chosen the state of Wu as their refuge.
During the reign of Emperor Wen, he allowed King Wu to operate independently. After Emperor Jing ascended the throne, Chao mistakenly considered the long-term of the Han Dynasty, and repeatedly said that he wanted to cut the fiefs of the princes, and the first to bear the brunt was King Wu.
In Chao Cuo's view, King Wu can be said to be extremely arrogant, and everything he does shows that he is in Taoguang, and sooner or later he will rebel. It is better to seize his fief while he is not enough to confront the imperial court, so as to prevent future troubles forever.
This story has already been talked about in the previous article. We also already know that the Rebellion of the Seven Kings was finally put down by Zhou Yafu. However, why did King Wu, who seemed to be a force to be reckoned with, fail so quickly?
According to historical records, there are two main reasons for this:
First, although King Wu is nominally recruiting talents, as Yuan An, the former prime minister of Wu said, what he recruited are actually some ruffians, how can there be any real talent and learning, because of this, he will discuss the rebellion with him, if it is a real righteous gentleman, how can he not stop the princes from doing this?
The second is that King Wu himself acted arbitrarily and could not adopt the opinions of others.
At the beginning, Tian Lubo, the minister of Wu, said that if you want to succeed, you must be able to use surprise soldiers to win. Therefore, Mao then recommended himself and asked King Wu to give him 50,000 horses, go upriver from another route, and finally join forces with the army, forming a surprise trend.
However, King Wu was worried that this would weaken his own strength, so he did not agree to Tian Lubo's request.
There was also a young general Huan, who analyzed the advantages and disadvantages of the Wu State and the Han army of the imperial court, the Wu infantry was good at fighting in places with steep terrain, while the Han army was good at fighting on the plains with chariots and cavalry as the main force.
Therefore, it is recommended that the king of Wu should not attack the city along the way, do not fall in love with the battle, should move forward, first occupy the Luoyang weapons warehouse, then use the grain of Aocang as a supply, and finally occupy the favorable terrain with the natural dangers of the mountains and the Yellow River, and will definitely be able to command the world.
However, when King Wu consulted the old generals, they all said that General Huan was young and knew what the overall strategy was, and at most he could charge into battle, which was not worth mentioning. As a result, King Wu did not take General Huan's suggestion either.
When King Wu raised his army, he appointed all the guests who had taken refuge in him at that time to be generals and other ranks, but he did not appoint Zhou Qiu, who made a living by selling wine. Zhou Qiu himself went to apply for an envoy and ambushed Xiapi County by stratagem. is such a capable person, but King Wu did not appoint him.
But even if Zhou Qiu proves himself here, it is meaningless, because King Wu has been defeated, and in the end, Zhou Qiu himself died of poisonous sores on the way back to the army.
Looking at the vigorous Seven Kings Rebellion, it was quickly suppressed, and the hero of it was Zhou Yafu, and King Wu himself also had an unshirkable responsibility.
It's just that he was pitiful and was pushed out by Emperor Jing and died in the emperor's luck.