As we all know, Liu Bang was born as a commoner, and after conquering the world of the Han Dynasty, some political problems also followed.
One of the most important things to ignore is the relationship between the Han Dynasty and the Nanyue Kingdom.
However, the rash use of force would be a great loss to the vitality of the Western Han Dynasty, which had just been established, and under many measures, Liu Bang, the ancestor of the Han Dynasty, discussed with his group of heroes what should be used to deal with the enemy's means.
Because of the good effect of this method, it was called "the game of cloth and clothes" by later generations, and it also let us see Liu Bang's great wisdom.
So, what exactly did he use?
"The situation of cloth and clothing" was formed and the internal and external troubles in the early days of the founding of the Western Han Dynasty
In 202 B.C., Liu Bang proclaimed himself emperor and established the Western Han Dynasty, and the civil and military officials who followed him all became the founding fathers, and they held important positions and formed a ruling group dominated by the landlord class, many of whom were born from commoners or small and medium-sized landlord classes, and the Qing Dynasty historian Zhao Yi called this phenomenon "the bureau of cloth and clothes in the early Han Dynasty".
Liu Bang himself was born in the common class, and once served as the head of the Surabaya Pavilion at the grassroots level of Qin, although his family had land, his family still had to participate in production and labor, and he himself often owed others money for wine and could not afford to pay it back. At that time, a large number of outstanding talents joined Liu Bang Group.
From the list of eighteen meritorious heroes listed in the "Hanshu Gao Hui Gao Houwen Meritorious Heroes Table", we can know the origin of these founding heroes: Xiao He was once the chief official of Pei, Cao Shen was a prison peng, Zhou Bo made a living by weaving thin songs, Fan Xu slaughtered dogs before joining the rebel army, Li merchants were poor and destitute, and infants used to sell silk for a living.
"Judging from their origins or original occupations, among the eighteen people, ten were born as petty officials or 'Zhongjuan' and 'Sheren', four were born as small handicraftsmen such as 'weaving thin music for a living' or from 'poor families', and the remaining four were Zhang Ao, the son of Zhang Er, and the other was Chen Wu, whose identity was unknown. It is clearly indicated that only Ding Fu is a 'Yue General' and Wang Ling is a 'County Hao', accounting for only one-ninth of the eighteen people." The above people constituted the highest ruling group in the early Han Dynasty, that is, the "cloth clothes generals" meritorious group.
A large number of people from the lower strata entered the supreme ruling group and became the formulators and promoters of the country's major policies, and they all experienced the history of the rapid demise of the Qin Dynasty due to its extremely brutal rule, and felt the powerful power of the peasants in the peasant uprising at the end of the Qin Dynasty and had a certain understanding of the people's suffering, and clearly realized that the entire society at that time was withering and the economy was extremely poor.
Therefore, after the establishment of the Western Han Dynasty, in order to stabilize the social order and develop production, the oppression and exploitation of the peasants by the ruling class of the Han Dynasty were reduced to a certain extent, and limited compromises and concessions were made to the working people, which eased the social contradictions since the end of the Qin Dynasty. The social and economic recovery and development of the early Han Dynasty laid the foundation for the next stage of prosperity and prosperity, and the social economy of the Western Han Dynasty was able to recover and develop rapidly after the adjustment of economic policies by the emperors of Xiaohui, Gaohou, Wen and Jing.
In the Chu-Han War, in order to win the allies, Liu Bang gathered powerful generals to eliminate Xiang Yu together, and successively divided eight princes and kings with different surnames. By the twelfth year of Emperor Gao (195 BC), the main princes with different surnames were eliminated, leaving only the weakest state of Changsha as a buffer between the Han Dynasty and the Nanyue Kingdom.
At the same time of eliminating the princes and kings with different surnames, Liu Bang also sealed the children of the Liu family as the princes and kings with the same surname, in order to be able to defend the central government, after Emperor Wen ascended the throne, in order to consolidate the position and continue to divide the princes and kings, to the time of Emperor Jing of the Han Dynasty, the princes and kings with the same surname were strong enough to confront the central government, seriously threatening the centralized rule, and finally caused the rebellion of the Seven Kingdoms, after the rebellion of the Seven Kingdoms was suppressed, the central government of the Western Han Dynasty took a series of measures to weaken and control the power of the princes and kings, which greatly strengthened the centralized rule of the central government.
In the northern frontier region, the founding period of the Western Han Dynasty was the period of development and expansion of the Xiongnu, and the Western Han Dynasty in the Central Plains was unable to resist the southern invasion of the Xiongnu in terms of economic and military strength. In 200 B.C., Liu Bang's crusade against the Xiongnu was trapped in the Baishan Mountain in Pingcheng, and the soldiers of the Han army were not allowed to break through for seven days and seven nights, and the situation was extremely critical.
The siege of Baideng made Liu Bang realize the true level of national strength in the early Han Dynasty, and it was unrealistic to completely defeat the Xiongnu through war, so he turned to a policy of peace and proximity, and sent a large amount of silk, grain and wine every year to alleviate the harassment of the Xiongnu in the border areas.
The policy of the "cloth generals" group towards the South Vietnamese state
After Qin Shi Huang conquered Baiyue, he placed Nanhai, Guilin and Xiangjun in the Lingnan region. At the end of Qin, the world was in turmoil, and Zhao Tuo, the captain of Qin Nanhai, cut off the road to the Central Plains and defended himself. After the fall of Qin, Zhao Tuo established himself as the Wu King of Nanyue in the third year of Emperor Gao (204 BC). In this way, to the south of the newly established Han Dynasty, an independent state emerged. In the early years of the Han Dynasty, Liu Bang was busy dealing with the rebellion of the princes with different surnames in China and the invasion of the Xiongnu in the north, so he had no time to take care of the Lingnan region.
In 196 BC, with the gradual stabilization of the domestic situation, Liu Bang had time to deal with the problem of Nanyue, but after all, the domestic social economy had not yet recovered, and even if the rulers of the Han Dynasty had the intention of conquering Lingnan, there were certain difficulties in recruiting soldiers and raising materials. Based on this, Liu Bang chose Lu Jia, a member of the "cloth generals", as the envoy to South Vietnam. After Lu Jia saw Zhao Tuo, he said:
Zhao Tuo took the opportunity to inquire about the situation in the Central Plains, and Lu Jia said:
Zhao Tuo laughed and said: "I can't afford China, so the king is here." Let me live in China, why not be as good as a man? Zhao Tuo then accepted the canonization of the Han Dynasty and was willing to follow the edict of the Han Dynasty and become a vassal state of the Han Dynasty. The policy of harmony between the Han and the Nanyue Kingdom was beneficial to both sides, but the political pattern was never static, Liu Bang had already named Wu Rui as the king of Changsha in 202 BC before he named Zhao Tuo as the king of Nanyue, and divided the three counties of Lingnan to the king of Changsha, intending to make enemies for Zhao Tuo. Zhao Tuo was also full of suspicion of the Han court, and constantly strengthened the border defense. However, on the whole, during the Liu Bang period, the two sides basically maintained peaceful and friendly relations. During the reign of Emperor Hui of the Han Dynasty, Liu Ying, continued to maintain peaceful and friendly relations with the South Vietnamese State.
After the death of Emperor Hui, Empress Lü reigned, in the first four years of Empress Lü's reign, the relationship between Han and Vietnam remained the same, and in the fifth year, that is, in the spring of 183 B.C., Empress Lü began to adopt a discriminatory policy against the South Vietnamese State, "to have a division to prohibit the gold and iron, field utensils, and horses, cattle, sheep, and livestock in Nanyue Guan City, and not to be shut down, and to order the border", although the economy of Nanyue has developed greatly, but the production tools required for agricultural production still have a great dependence on the Central Plains, once the ban of the Lv Hou is implemented, It is bound to deal a great blow to the economy of South Vietnam.
Zhao Tuo sent high-ranking officials to Chang'an many times to ask Empress Lü to change the economic blockade policy, but Empress Lü not only did not allow it, but instead detained the envoy of the South Vietnamese State, and also killed Zhao Tuo's relatives in the Central Plains, and destroyed the graves of Zhao Tuo's parents in the Central Plains. Empress Lü's actions angered Zhao Tuo, who publicly condemned Empress Lü's policy of "not being a barbarian" against the South Vietnamese State. In 183 BC, Zhao Tuo proclaimed himself emperor, established himself as Emperor Wu of Nanyue, and officially fought against the Han Dynasty. After hearing the news, Empress Lu sent his generals to the south to conquer, because the soldiers of the Central Plains were not adapted to the hot and humid climate of Lingnan, many soldiers fell ill, resulting in perennial defeat.
It was not until after the death of Empress Lü that this war, which was not beneficial to either the Han Dynasty or the Nanyue Kingdom, came to an end, and the Han-Vietnamese relations at this time fell into a low ebb. In 180 B.C., Emperor Wen of the Han Dynasty ascended the throne, Emperor Wen's political situation was unstable in the early years, in order to stabilize the situation, Emperor Wen relied on the "cloth generals" group, and important members Zhou Bo, Wang Ling, and Chen Ping successively served as prime ministers, and they continued to implement the "rest and recuperation" policy formulated by Liu Bang.
In order to have a relatively stable external environment for the development of domestic social economy, Emperor Wen of the Han Dynasty, after succeeding to the throne, began to correct the erroneous policy adopted against Nanyue during the reign of Empress Lü with the support of the group of meritorious heroes. At this time, Zhao Tuo seemed to see the change in the political policy of the Han Dynasty and predicted what was about to happen, he took the initiative to contact Emperor Wen of Han through Zhou Zao, a general of the Han Dynasty stationed on the border between Han and Vietnam, and after receiving the letter, Emperor Wen of Han repaired Zhao Tuo's ancestral tomb and rewarded Zhao Tuo's relatives who remained in the Central Plains, which made Han-Vietnamese relations take a turn for the better.
In order to further improve the relationship with Nanyue, Emperor Wen of Han decided to send an envoy to Nanyue, Emperor Wen of Han asked Chen Ping who could send an envoy to Nanyue, Chen Ping thought that Lu Jia had sent an envoy to Nanyue when Gaozu of the Han Dynasty, and was more familiar with the situation of Nanyue. After Lu Jia came to Nanyue, he presented a letter from Emperor Wen of Han to Zhao Tuo, which is the famous "Book to Zhao Tuo, King of Nanyue".
Emperor Wen said at the beginning, "The emperor respectfully asks the king of Nanyue, he is very hard-working", and greeted Zhao Tuo with a peaceful and friendly attitude instead of the momentum of the king's vassal state, and then "I, the son of Emperor Gao's side room, abandoned the northern domain in the dynasty, the road is far away, and I have not tried to write a book", frankly admitting that he was not the son-in-law of Gaozu and had no blood relationship with Empress Lü, which helped to alleviate Zhao Tuo's disgust with Empress Lü's sanctions, and showed that his vassal state was far away from the capital and was not involved in the disputes between the imperial court and the affairs of Nanyue.
"Emperor Gao abandoned the ministers, Emperor Xiaohui was born, Empress Gao came to his own time, unfortunately there was a disease, and the day is not declining, so he is rebellious and violent", Emperor Wen pushed the responsibility for the incompatibility of the Han-Yue relationship to the Empress Lü, and then shirked it with the illness of Empress Lü.
After recounting that Empress Lü's cronies were eliminated and he was elected emperor by his ministers, Emperor Wen naturally turned to the theme of repairing relations between the two sides: "Nai heard that the general of the king's widow was thinking about the Hou book, begging for his brother Kundi, and asking for the dismissal of the two generals in Changsha." I dismissed the general Boyang Marquis with Wang Shu, and the pro-Kundi was in the real determination, and he had sent people to ask questions and repair the ancestral tombs", Emperor Wen met some of Zhao Tuo's requirements, which was not only a concession, but also a condition to force Zhao Tuo not to be the emperor.
Emperor Wen analyzed and persuaded Zhao Tuo to invade the border of Changsha State: "At that time, Changsha was bitter, especially Nanjun, although the king's country was mediocre and profitable!" I will kill many soldiers, hurt good generals, widowed wives, lonely sons, only parents, and I can't bear to do it", regarding the territorial dispute between Nanyue and Changsha, Emperor Wen wrote, "I want to settle the land and ask the officials, and the officials say, 'Emperor Gao is so Changchang Tuye', I can't change it without permission." ”
At the same time, "the land of the king is not great enough, and the wealth of the king is not enough to be rich." Here, Emperor Wen of Han put forward the issue of the northern boundary of the Nanyue Kingdom and the highly creative political concept of the relationship between the central and local governments.
Finally, Emperor Wen pointed out the key issue of Zhao Tuo's claim to be emperor and the confrontation between the central government: "The king's name is the emperor. The two emperors stand side by side, and the death of one multiplies the way to get through, which is also a struggle; Fight but not let go, the benevolent do not do it. May I abandon the past troubles with the king, and from now on, the messenger will be the same. ”
Zhao Tuo
This remark was very tactful, pointing out the unreasonable, illegal and direct consequences of Zhao Tuo's claim to be emperor, and the Han Dynasty did not want to come to this point, the war would be injured, and the cooperation would benefit both sides, so I hope that Zhao Tuo would give up the title of emperor, and the Han Dynasty would not pursue it, exchange envoys, and always be good.
Zhao Tuo has been operating in Lingnan for many years and knows that although Lingnan has improved its social and economic development level after more than 40 years of development, it is still much inferior to the Han Dynasty in the Central Plains. Judging the situation, Zhao Tuo agreed to go to the emperor to "thank you, and I am willing to serve the edict and become a vassal for a long time". Lu Jia's second envoy restored the friendly relations between Nanyue and the Han Dynasty during the Liu Bang period, and for a long time afterward, the Nanyue Kingdom served the Han Dynasty as a prince, and sent people to Chang'an to meet the Han Emperor in the spring and autumn every year, and the two sides coexisted peacefully for many years.
But in South Vietnam, Zhao Tuo still continued to use the name of emperor. In 156 BC, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty ascended the throne. The ruling policies and guiding ideology of the Han Empire began to change, and the political influence of the "cloth clothes generals" group in the early Han Dynasty began to weaken and eventually withdrew from the stage of history. After more than 60 years of recuperation in the early Han Dynasty, the Han Dynasty prospered economically, and Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty implemented the "Tui En Order" to consolidate centralized power, and the emperor monopolized the government.
In dealing with the relations between the South Vietnamese countries, the "Buyi Generals" group took the restoration and development of the domestic economy as the fundamental task, properly handled the relations between the Han and Vietnamese, maintained a relatively peaceful and stable situation for a long period of time, and made its own contribution to the prosperity of the Han Dynasty and the Lingnan region.