In the late Three Kingdoms period, from November 279 to March 280 AD, the Western Jin Dynasty launched the last battle to unify the world, that is, the army attacked Eastern Wu, after this battle, the Western Jin Dynasty achieved unification, and if you ask who was the first to attack Jianye, everyone will inevitably say that it is the general Wang Mao, who led the elite water division from Yizhou all the way down the Yangtze River, the Yangtze River defense line of Eastern Wu was difficult to resist, quickly collapsed, Wang Mao quickly broke into Jianye, and Sun Hao, the lord of Eastern Wu, could only surrender.
In fact, at that time, it was inevitable that the Western Jin Dynasty would compete for merit, after all, not everyone could encounter the matter of accepting the surrender of a monarch of a country, which was a great merit, especially this was the greatest merit after the establishment of the Western Jin Dynasty, when the Shu dynasty was destroyed, even if Sima Shi was in charge, but it was also a matter of the Cao Wei period, so the temptation to destroy Wu Zhigong for the Jin generals was great.
And Wang Mao's efforts to destroy Wu were actually given to him by a person, and this person was Tang Bin, who was a general under the command of Wang Mao when the Western Jin Dynasty destroyed Wu, and was the "vanguard officer" of Wang Mao's water division moving eastward.
Book of Jin. After Tang Bin's biography, he and Wang Hao jointly attacked Wu, and Bintun was charged with the army, for the vanguard of the army. Every time a suspicious soldier is set up, it should be won by chance, and Xiling and Lexiang should be trapped, and many of them should be captured. From the east of Baling and Qiukou, all the thieves gathered, and they were not afraid, and they turned against the flesh. Knowing that the thief Kou had been killed, Sun Hao would surrender, and before he reached Jian'an for two hundred miles, he said that he was late in his illness to show that he was not competing.
At that time, the Western Jin Dynasty multi-road army was cutting down Wu, and Tang Bin, as the commander of the vanguard of the water division, quickly defeated the Wu army stationed in various places, and in addition to the strong combat strength of the Jin army's water division, there was a more important point, that is, the Eastern Wu generals had no intention of resisting.
After the fall of the Shu Han Dynasty, Eastern Wu was also waiting to be destroyed, during which I don't know how many Eastern Wu officials and generals fled north and surrendered to the Western Jin Dynasty, which Sun Hao could not contain, plus Sun Hao was not a monarch who could turn the tide, and the strength of Eastern Wu was declining.
At the same time, the Jiangdong Shi clan was not really true to the Sun clan this time, even if during the Sun Quan period, the Sun clan and the Jiangdong family clan carried out a large-scale intermarriage to consolidate the position of the Sun clan, but in the face of the great changes in the world, the family did not plan to give the Sun family a funeral.
Therefore, as long as it faced the Conquest of the Western Jin Dynasty, unless a miracle occurred, the Wu army was difficult to resist, after all, the generals had no intention of fighting, that is, they surrendered after a little resistance.
It was precisely because of this that Tang Bin's vanguard troops were able to advance rapidly, and when his troops reached 200 miles outside Jianye City, they said they were sick and did not move forward.
This is Tang Bin's wise move, some of the credit is indeed great enough, but it does not mean that anyone can catch it, Tang Bin realized that now that the State of Wu has destroyed the country itself, no matter who leads the army to reach Jianye City, it can force Sun Hao to surrender, and the merit of destroying Wu can be easily obtained.
But Tang Bin also understood that he didn't have the life to enjoy this credit.
First of all, Sun Hao was also unwilling, and when he was destroying the country, he also played a careful trick, that is, before surrendering, he sent three emissaries to send surrender letters to the three main generals of the Jin army, Wang Hun, Wang Mao, and Sima Ling, the evil king of Lang, who was deliberately provoking the competition between the generals of the Western Jin Dynasty, so that the State of Wu might still have a glimmer of vitality.
At that time, the two main generals of the Jin army, Wang Hun and Wang Mao, were in a fight because of their struggle for merit.
Book of Jin. The biography of Wang Mao was poured into the stone, Hao Nai was prepared for the subjugation of the country, the white horse of the plain car, the flesh was tied with the face, the sheep was tied, the doctor was in decline, the scholar was born in the gate.
Book of Jin. The biography of Wang Hun (王浑傳) is based on the river first, breaking the Hao Chinese army, and the case is not advanced, after Wang Hao. It means great shame, there is unevenness, and it is frequently played with accusations of guilt, and people ridicule it at the time.
Wang Hun thought that he had defeated the main force of the Wu army, and the first merit of destroying Wu Zhigong should be his own, and Wang Hun only took advantage of the fact that the main force of the Wu army was attracted to him, and he marched all the way east before he "luckily" attacked Jianye, and it should have been wang Hun who should have arrived in Jianye to be surrendered, not Wang Mao.
In fact, Wang Hun failed to get the annihilation of Wu Shougong, and he also had a reason, in the face of the overall situation, Wang Hun was too conservative and worried that the soldiers would encounter setbacks, so when Wang Hun rushed to the east, Wang Hun "did not dare to enter", which gave Wang Hun the opportunity to destroy Wu Shougong alone.
But Wang Hun didn't care about those, in short, he was dissatisfied when he saw that Wang Hao had won the first merit, so he immediately wrote a letter to impeach Wang Hao for not listening to the matter of moderation, at that time the imperial court was already preparing to arrest Wang Mao, it was Sima Yan who put this matter down, even if Wang Mao returned to the dynasty in victory, it was not uncommon for the court to impeach Wang Mao.
It can be said that this great hero who destroyed Wu would have been torn apart long ago without Sima Yan's protection, and he would have died without a whole body.
And this was what Tang Bin was afraid of at the beginning, what he was worried about was not a high merit, but that his status could not bear this merit, and too much credit was a sin for him.
What would have happened if he had been impulsive and had been surrendered alone? In the short term, he will have unlimited scenery, he will be famous in history, but his ending will certainly not be good, Wang Mao's family is deeply favored by Sima Yan, while Tang Bin is not.
Therefore, after he had obtained the credit he did not deserve, surrounded by a group of red-eyed generals, what would be his result, people would casually make up an unknown number of guilty responsibilities and hold them on Tang Bin, at that time, how many people could intercede for Tang Bin, and Would Sima Yan try to protect him? Even if Sima Yan protected Tang Bin once, could he protect the second time and the third time?
Therefore, Tang Bin's initiative to claim illness and not to grab the credit is very wise, his vision is still very far, even if it is not to destroy Wu Shougong, he is also by virtue of military merit, no one will resent him, on the contrary, there are many people praising Tang Bin's decision-making, the "Book of Jin" evaluation of him is, "Tang Bin is afraid of avoiding disputes, it is a disease and a late stay, the wind of concessions, and the sage is far away."
This incident tells us that there are some things that are wise not to grab the credit that has already been obtained.
References to the Book of Jin. The Biography of Wang Hun", "Book of Jin. The Biography of Wang Mao", "Book of Jin. Biography of Tang Bin