Le Yi
Le Yi attacked the State of Qi on the orders of King Yan Zhao, and along the way, the State of Qi was beaten to the point that only the two cities of Ju and Jimo remained. Seeing that Qi Zhuang's move was within reach, but at this moment, King Yan Zhao died and King Hui of Yan succeeded to the throne. Because King Hui of Yan had a conflict with Le Yi when he was crown prince, the state of Qi provoked the relationship between King Hui of Yan and Le Yi, saying that the reason why Le Yi was able to conquer more than seventy cities in the state of Qi, but in the end he could not defeat Ju and Jimo, was because Le Yi wanted to hold himself hostage and proclaim himself king in the state of Qi. As a result, King Hui of Yan planned to recall Le Yi, so that Le Yi's feat of destroying Qi was a failure.
So, why can't Le Yi attack Ju and Jimo for a long time? Did he fail only because of the suspicion of the monarchs? Or is there something else in it! To answer this question, we must start from the rebellion of the sons of the Yan kingdom.
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After King Yan succeeded to the throne, he did not know which tendon was wrong, and wanted to learn from the ancients to give up the throne to Xiang Guozizhi. Although Zen concessions are good things, they are also conditional, and the most important thing is that the chosen successors must first have virtue and second, they must be capable, because only in this way can they serve the people and govern the country well. And the successor chosen by The Yan King, Xiang Guozizhi, neither of these two accounts.
Let's start with virtue, right? In Chinese history, Shun and Yu, who had the world because of Zen concessions, regarded the world as a mustard, and did not have that desire for power at all, while Zizhi was different, in order to gain power, he not only married Su Qin, a powerful minister of the Yan state at that time, to consolidate his power in the dynasty; later, he also let Su Dai do the ideological work of the Yan King from the side, and persuaded the Yan king to reuse his own state minister, for this reason, Zizhi also "left Su Todai a hundred gold, and listened to him", which is a typical way to spend money to buy honor. Morally, Zizhi is indeed thousands of miles away from Shun and Yu.
Let's look at the power of the Son. The son's ability to mix with the position of the Yan state may have a certain ability, but a person who will stop at nothing to gain power will not think about the life of the world, so when the king of Yan let "the south of the son do the king's affairs" and "the affairs of the state are decided by the son", "three years, the country is in chaos, and the people are afraid." Although this history book does not write about how Zizhi abused the people administratively, it tells us that under the rule of Zizhi, the Yan kingdom was in chaos and the people were panicked.
As the saying goes, if the road is uneven, someone shovels it; if things are uneven, someone takes care of it. The State of Yan was so bad under the rule of Zizhi that Prince Ping of Yan and General Shi were decided to have an armed uprising to overthrow Zizhi. The result of fighting a war is to kill people, and the result is that "because of the hardships for several months, tens of thousands of dead, the people are afraid, and the people are away from their aspirations", that is to say, in these months of armed struggle, only the bones of the corpses are killed, the blood is flowing like a river, and only the people of the Yan kingdom are scared and frightened, full of resentment towards the rulers of the Yan country, and they wish that someone would come to save themselves from the upside down. Then who can save the people of the Yan kingdom from water and fire? At this time, the King of Qi led a large army to appear.
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Who was the King of Qi when the Qi army attacked the Yan state this time? The historical record is slightly different. The "History of the Duke of Yanzhao" records that he was the King of Qi. The book "Mencius" records that it was King Qi Xuan, the father of King Qi. But no matter which king it is, it is inseparable from Old Mr. Mencius.
According to the "History of the Yan Zhao Gong ShiJia", when the Yan kingdom fell into civil strife, Mencius said to the king of Qiyu: "Now that Yan is cutting down, this time of writing and martial arts, do not lose it." That is to say, Mencius advised King Qi that there was no way for The Yan King, and the people of the Yan Kingdom were in a deep and fierce situation like the people of the Shang Dynasty, and you should send troops in time like King Wen and King Wu to relieve the people from hanging upside down. As a result, the King of Qi sent troops to attack the State of Yan, and the result was that the State of Yan "did not fight, the city gates were not closed, the Yan Jun was killed, and Qi won a great victory."
According to the book Mencius, King Xuan of Qi, after taking advantage of the rebellion of the Sons of Yan to defeat the State of Yan, wanted to annex the State of Yan and asked Mencius for his opinion. Mencius clearly objected, saying that the reason why the State of Qi was able to easily win the battle this time was that the people of the State of Yan thought that the arrival of the army of the State of Qi would save themselves from water and fire, so they "ate pot pulp to welcome the king's master", and if you occupied the State of Yan and made the situation of the people of the State of Yan more difficult, "like water is deeper, like fire is hotter", there will be no good ending.
However, King Xuan of Qi did not listen to Mencius's words and occupied the State of Yan, so the other princely states could not bear it, so under the banner of saving Yan, they wanted to jointly send troops to attack the State of Qi. So many countries fight a country, King Xuan of Qi was frightened, and asked Mencius what to do: "Why should the princes treat those who plot to cut down the widows?" Mencius replied that originally the people of the Yan Kingdom thought that the State of Qi had sent troops to rescue themselves, but now you were "killing his father and brother, tiring his children, destroying his ancestral temple, and moving his heavy weapons", plundering in the Yan Kingdom, how can this work? Although the State of Qi has now occupied the State of Yan and the land has doubled, if it does not practice benevolent government, it will attract opposition from the world. If the great king could immediately issue an order, "Turn against him, stop his heavy weapon, conspire with the Yan people, and leave the king and then go away, then he can still stop it." That is, Mencius persuaded King Xuan of Qi to practice benevolent government, release the old and young prisoners of the Yan kingdom, stop carrying the treasures of the Yan kingdom, and then consult with people from all walks of life in the Yan kingdom to select a monarch for them, and then withdraw the army of the state of Qi from the Yan state. In this way, it will also be time to stop the various countries from raising troops to attack the State of Qi. The implication is that if you do not practice benevolent government, sooner or later you will fail.
According to the Mencius Gongsun Ugly, King Xuan of Qi eventually failed to listen to Mencius and continued to act recklessly in the Yan kingdom, with the result that the chaotic Yan state united to defeat the invading Qi army. After the defeat, King Xuan of Qi felt that he had no face to see Mencius and said, "I am very ashamed of Mencius." It is a truth to support one's own failures, "If you do not practice benevolent government, sooner or later you will fail."
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After talking about "Qi Ren Fa Yan", let's look at Le Yi Fa Qi again.
Le Yi Vaqi is closely related to the "Qi Ren Vayan". I think that in those years, when the army of the State of Qi withdrew from the State of Yan after plundering the State of Yan, the newly succeeded King Hui of the State of Yan, looking at the devastated country, secretly swore that this vendetta would not be repaid, and that he would not be a man. In order to revitalize the Yan kingdom, he honored corporal Xian and recruited talents from various princely states—Le Yi was the talent he had recruited from the Wei state—so that the Yan kingdom slowly flourished. The "History of the Duke of Yan", the record is, "The King of Yan hanged himself and asked for wounds, and he was bittersweet with the people." In the twenty-eighth year, the Yan state was rich, and the soldier Le Yi fought lightly, so he made Le Yi a general and conspired with Qin, Chu, and the Three Jins to fight Qi."
Just when the Yan State was working together and sharpening its sword and preparing to seek revenge on the State of Qi, what was the situation of the State of Qi? The Chronicle of Le Yi records that "when it was, Wang Qiang of Qi, defeated Chu Xiang tang in the south at Chongqiu, destroyed the three Jins in the west at Guanjin, and then fought with the three Jins to attack Qin, helped Zhao destroy Zhongshan, broke the Song Dynasty, and spread the land for more than a thousand miles." Contend with King Qin Zhao as emperor... The king is self-effacing, and the people are blessed." That is to say, the King of Qi Yu maintained that the country was strong and strong, and he was poor and militaristic, fighting on all sides, resulting in the people's lack of livelihood and the people's suffering.
From the above records, we can know that the situation between the State of Yan and the State of Qi at this time was different from the situation of yan and Qi at the time of the rebellion of the Sons of Yan. That is to say, if the State of Yan attacks the State of Qi at this time, it will also have the effect of saving the Qi people from water and fire, as Mr. Mengzi said, and will easily win. This is exactly the case, when Le Yi led the five armies of Zhao, Chu, Han, Wei, and Yan to attack the State of Qi, the seemingly powerful Qi army was vulnerable. After that, it was Zhao, Chu, Han, and Wei who returned to China, leaving only the Yan army led by Le Yi, which was also invincible in the State of Qi, "more than seventy cities in the lower Qi, all of which were counties and counties belonging to Yan." It is reasonable to say that according to this rhythm, Yan queuing Qi Na is already a matter of raising hands, but the fact is that although the State of Qi has been captured by more than seventy cities, there are still two places where Le Yi led his troops to attack for five years and failed to capture, and these two places are ju and Jimo of the State of Qi.
As to why these two places could not be conquered for five years, so that when King Yan Zhao's death and King Yan Hui succeeded to the throne, Tian Shan of the State of Qi took advantage of the contradiction between King Yan Hui and Le Yi to use counter-strategies, so that Le Yi's great cause of destroying Qi failed, and the historical speculation is various. Although these speculations have some truth, they often ignore the root cause of this result - the atrocities of the Yan army in the State of Qi.
Le Yi Fian Qi, like the "Qi people cutting yan" in that year, began to fight smoothly, but Le Yi also made the mistake that the Qi army had made in those years, that is, attacking a country, not to save the people of that country from water and fire, but to plunder, thus causing the people of this country to "become deeper than water, like fire and heat." According to the "Chronicle of The Chronicle of Le Yi", "Le Yi invaded Linzhi and took all the treasures of Qi treasure and sacrificed the instruments to lose the Yan", and the King of Yan Zhao, in the face of these treasures, was "a great saying, personally to the labor army of Ji Shang, to reward the soldiers, to seal Le Yi in changguo, the title of Changguo Jun". After the reward was over, King Yan Zhao returned to China happily with these treasures, and then continued to send "Le Yi to fight the soldiers who could not defeat the city", that is, King Yan Zhao said to Le Yi, I have returned to China, and those who do not surrender in the State of Qi, you will beat me fiercely!
Just as the Yan people in those years would "Yan people" and unite to defeat the powerful Qi state after being hanged and beaten by the Qi army; today's Qi people will see the Yan people fighting, even more brutal than when king Qi Luo ruled, and their lives will be even more difficult than in the past, and naturally they will unite to resist the Yan army just like the Yan people united to resist the Qi army. This is the fundamental reason why Le Yi has been unable to conquer Ju and Jimo for a long time.
Le Yi led the Yan army to attack for a long time, which gave Tian Dan the opportunity to perform a counter-plan. From this we can see that from the surface, Le Yi's defeat in destroying Qi's great cause was due to the suspicion of the monarchs and courtiers, but in the final analysis, it was caused by the Yan army led by Le Yi "benevolent government and no administration" in the State of Qi, which aroused the unanimous resistance of the people of the State of Qi.
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Mencius once said, "He who is not merciful and wins the kingdom, there is nothing; Those who are not merciful to the world, there is no one. A person who does not practice benevolent government may achieve partial victory - "winning the country", but he will eventually go to failure - "those who are not benevolent and win the world, there is nothing.". From this, it can be seen that Le Yi's "unkindness" in the State of Qi is that he does not meet King Hui of Yan, and he will eventually fail like the "Qi people cutting down the Yan" and finally the "Yan people pan".
Author: Zhao Xianwen, our special guest author