The Northern Zhou Dynasty was an important turning point in Chinese history.
As we all know, the Northern Zhou Dynasty is one of the Northern Dynasties of the Northern and Southern Dynasties in Chinese history, also known as the Later Zhou and Yuwen Zhou. It was laid by the Western Wei chancellor Yuwen Tai and formally established by his son Yuwen Jue under the auspices of his nephew Yuwen Hu, and lasted for twenty-four years. At the end of the dynasty, due to the Northern Zhou Xuan Emperor Yuwen Yun's fainting and self-destruction of the Great Wall, his father-in-law Yang Jian became rebellious.
Soon, Yang Jian deposed the young emperor and established Sui as emperor, and from then on, Northern Zhou collapsed.
Recalling the history of the rise and fall of the Northern Zhou Dynasty, people are lamented, and the dynasty that seems to be gradually becoming stronger quickly collapsed after that. When it was prosperous, it was like a rainbow to destroy Northern Qi with troops; when it fell, it mutilated the famous general Yuwen Xian and self-destructed the foundation, and Emperor Xuan of Zhou repented of not being the first.
It can be said that yuwen xian's death caused the Northern Zhou Dynasty to lose its last barrier. As a prominent figure who destroyed Northern Qi, Yuwen Xian was respectable, but his fate was sad. A famous general of a country, who made a name for himself in the enemy line, did not die after hundreds of battles, and in the end, he died at the hands of the emperor of the dynasty, which is inevitably regrettable.
Yuwen Xian was born in the imperial family, the fifth son of Emperor Wen of Northern Zhou Yuwen Tai, and he had the capital to make meritorious achievements since childhood; but in the same way, the merits were easy to shock the lord, not to mention, the current emperor was a very suspicious Zhou Xuan Emperor, so this also doomed Yu Wenxian's fate.
It can be said that the establishment of the Northern Zhou Dynasty was indispensable to the meritorious yuwen tai.
In the early years, Yuwen Tai joined the rebellion with his father, and in the following years of conquest, his father and three brothers were killed on the battlefield. Subsequently, Yuwen Tai relied on his own courage and strategy, and gradually had his own team in the rebel army, successively sweeping through the Southern QingJianghan, Western Kebashu, and Northern Control Desert, and dividing the world with other forces, and his exploits were comparable to that of Emperor Wu of Wei.
Yuwen Tai had twenty-five sons in his lifetime, and Yuwen Xian ranked fifth. Unexpectedly, soon after the founding of Heshan, Yuwen Tai died of illness, and his son was still young, and he had no choice but to hand over power to his nephew Yuwen Hu before his death. Yuwen Hu was one of the many powerful courtiers in Chinese history, and during his lifetime, he assisted three emperors and killed three emperors. The first three emperors of Northern Zhou were established by Yuwen Hu, and the Northern Wei Gong Emperor Tuoba Kuo, the Northern Zhou Xiaomin Emperor Yuwen Jue, and the Ming Emperor Yuwen Yu were all killed by him.
Yuwen Xian grew up in such power struggles, and he witnessed too many royal infighting and power killings. He was only twelve years old when his father, Yuwen Tai, died. The first Northern Zhou Emperor, Yuwen Jue, was his elder brother, who was only fifteen years old. After a year on the throne, Yuwen Jue was killed by Yuwen Hu, and was succeeded by Yuwen Xian's cousin Yuwen Yu, who was forty-four years old and in his prime.
Many imperial power struggles, Yuwen Xian looked at it.
Although he was young at that time, his mind was very old, and he was intelligent and courageous from an early age. It was precisely because of this that he was only ten years old and was given the title of Duke of Fucheng County. With his outstanding ability to govern, Yuwen Xian's career was unstoppable, step by step, and during the period of Emperor Xiaomin, Yu Wenxian was successively enfeoffed as the Duke of Ancheng County, the Grand General of the Dang Banner, and the Kaifu Yi Tongsan Division; during the Zhou Mingdi Period, he was promoted to the rank of Grand General and the Governor of Yizhou, and was given the title of Duke of Jinguo and 10,000 households, at that time, Yu Wenxian was only thirteen years old.
Yu Wenxian's ability to govern in this way quickly attracted the attention of the powerful minister Yuwen Hu, who did not get rid of Yu Wenxian's ideas, but wanted to co-opt it and use it for himself. Soon, Yuwen Xian was recalled to the capital and followed Yuwen Hu in his conquest of Northern Qi. It was also at this time that Yuwen Xian's military ability gradually came to the fore. The biggest opponent of the Northern Zhou Dynasty was Northern Qi, and the two countries fought for many years, and it was difficult to solve the victory or defeat. Mainly because there was a general in the Northern Qi army, Huo Luguang.
This man was strict in military discipline, not greedy for personal gain, and good at riding and shooting, fighting bravely, and was the biggest threat to northern Zhou. In contrast, in the Northern Zhou Dynasty, there was a shortage of military command generals, and whenever they fought, they were often in a weak position. Yu Wenxian's arrival just made up for this gap, and he fought with Huo Luguang several times, which can be described as comparable, with wins and losses. Although Huo Luguang was not removed, Yuwen Xian's command ability was still impressed by the Officers and Soldiers of Northern Zhou, who had never had the upper hand in Northern Qi before.
In the end, under the command of Yuwen Xian, they were able to stand in an invincible position, which undoubtedly gave the Officers and Men of Northern Zhou a shot in the arm.
After the Zhou Wu Emperor Yuwen Yong ascended the throne, he eliminated the powerful minister Yuwen Hu, and in order to end the war in the northern region as soon as possible, Northern Zhou launched the Battle of Qi, with Yuwen Xian as the forward general, leading the Northern Zhou army to attack Northern Qi. Under the leadership of Yuwen Xian, the morale of the Northern Zhou officers and soldiers was high, and they were invincible and invincible along the way, and soon reached the last defensive place of Northern Qi, and the general stationed here was Huo Luguang.
Yuwen Xian, who had fought with him many times, knew that this person was extremely difficult to deal with. Sure enough, in the next siege battle, the Northern Zhou army suffered a lot of losses, and it was always difficult to gnaw the last strongest force of Northern Qi, so Yuwen Xian had a plan in mind, slandering Hu Luguang for plotting rebellion, causing internal contradictions in Northern Qi. Sure enough, Gao Wei, the lord of Qi Hou, listened to the rumors and killed Huo Luguang and killed Manmen, so that the last threat of Northern Zhou no longer existed.
After that, Yuwen Xian once again attacked the city with his troops and easily took the city, and then, Emperor Wu of Zhou and Yu Wenxian joined forces and forced the Northern Qi general Han Jianye to surrender, and at this point, Northern Qi was destroyed.
After destroying Northern Qi, Northern Zhou finally unified the north and completed the feat of Cao Cao, the emperor of Weiwu.
Since ancient times, there have been countless Chinese doll emperors, and there are often questioning voices asking: "Can dolls govern the world?" The answer is yes, in most people's minds, a person's talents are matched to different age groups, but in reality, age is never the shackles of imprisoning talents. As the saying goes, since the ancient heroes came out of the youth, Ganluo, Huo Went ill, Zhou Yu, which one is not a famous young talent, Yu Wenxian is the same, whether it is to govern one side or lead the battle, it belongs to the unyielding.
However, after northern Zhou unified the north, Yuwen Xian was trembling and unable to sleep at night.
Growing up in the imperial family, I am afraid that no one understands the horrors of imperial power disputes better than Yuwen Xian, he is well versed in politics, he knows that he has achieved great success, and a little carelessness may lead to the disaster of killing. At the time when Yuwen Hu was eradicated, Yu Wenxian was once terrified, afraid that he would also be linked, but fortunately, Emperor Wu of Zhou did not act at that time, which made him slightly relieved. After the Battle of Qi, Yuwen Xian began to stay out of the house for a long time, reducing his intersection with the outside world, lest he arouse the suspicion of the emperor of the dynasty.
How did The Zhou Wu Emperor Yuwen Yong not understand Yu Wenxian's concerns, and he fought jointly with Yu Wenxian to jointly fight against Northern Qi, and he still trusted Yu Wenxian in his heart. Therefore, Emperor Wu of Zhou not only did not suspect it, but also comforted: "That Yuwen Protector has no one in sight, mutilates the imperial family, and also intends to rebel, I will eliminate him, just for the sake of Northern Zhou stability." And you and I are brothers, fighting side by side, I trust you in my heart, don't worry too much. ”
Even, in order to further reassure Yuwen Xian, Emperor Wu of Zhou also made him the Prince of Qi, one person above ten thousand people.
But the more this happened, the more frightened Yu Wenxian became, he knew that the high place was not cold, the higher he was framed, the more miserable he fell, and the most important thing at the moment was how to achieve success and retire. In the subsequent external conquests of the Northern Zhou Dynasty, Yu Wenxian was absent for many times, and finally simply let the illness idle at home, deliberately avoiding the affairs of the court, and diluting his own existence. At this point, Yu Wenxian was far-sighted, and it was not a good choice to retire in time, however, he ignored the same thing, that is, his royal status: born in the royal family, he was doomed to be unable to return to the mountains and forests and travel around like Fan Li.
Emperor Wu of Zhou was a ming emperor of the ming dynasty, and during his reign, he had great trust in Yuwen Xian and had no worries. However, his son Yuwen Yun was an out-and-out fainting man. Perhaps, Yuwen Xian himself did not think that he had escaped the era of Emperor Wu of Zhou, but did not escape the era of Emperor Yuwen Yun of Zhou.
After the death of Emperor Wu of Zhou, Yuwen Yun ascended the throne and was known as Emperor Xuan of Zhou. Emperor Xuan of Zhou was suspicious by nature, and during his father's reign, he showed great deference to Yuwen Xian, and after the death of Emperor Wu of Zhou, Yuwen Yun's true side was completely exposed. At first, his interest was only wine, he did not ask about the government all day, indulged in female sex, and established five queens in one breath.
Among them, one was Yang Lihua, the daughter of Emperor Yang Jian of Sui.
In order to be able to take out more time for pleasure, Yuwen Yun retired from the throne and let his seven-year-old son take over, becoming the Emperor Taishang himself, and even more hemoronizing day and night. For a long time, they did not ask about state affairs, and the people complained that some courtiers did not dare to advise Yuwen Yun and could only go to Yuwen Xian to complain. Yuwen Xian did not intend to get involved, but only wanted to continue to live a plain life.
However, the fact that the chancellor was looking for Yuwen Xian to file a complaint somehow reached Yuwen Yun's ears and immediately aroused his vigilance. Yuwen Yun felt threatened, afraid that the emperor would break his own good deeds, then this emperor was not improper, I am afraid that the emperor will also be robbed. The more Yuwen Yun thought about it, the more frightened he became, and he originally thought that this emperor had long since stopped asking about the government, but now it seemed that this was not the case.
Therefore, he wanted to emulate his father in getting rid of Yuwen Hu and quietly get rid of Yu Wenxian, but there was trouble. During this period, someone once said to Yuwen Xian: "With the situation of the Great King today, how much do you need to say?" It's easy to get the world. Yuwen Xian replied, "I am in a very senior position, once I reach such a point, life and death are subject to the destiny of heaven, do I still want to live?" It's just that because the old mother is still there, I'm afraid I'll leave regrets. ”
Subsequently, Emperor Xuan of Zhou designed to kill Yuwen Xian in front of the palace gate, a generation of famous generals, and died at the age of thirty-five.
Even, in order to cut the grass and remove the roots, Yuwen Yun also beheaded the Yuwenxian family, and all the ministers who were close to Yu Wenxian were executed for the crime of treason. After Emperor Xuan of Zhou executed Yuwen Xian, he could not find the crime, so he executed Him on the pretext that the general Wang Xing of An Yi and others conspired with Yu Wenxian. At that time, people knew that Dugu Xiong, Dou Lushao, Wang Xing and others had been wronged, and they all said that they accompanied Yuwen Xian to death.
This incident was the largest unjust case in history in which a large number of ministers were brutally murdered without trial, and it also laid hidden dangers for the collapse of Northern Zhou. Rather than being taken by Yang Jian, Northern Zhou was better said to be Yuwen Yun digging his own grave. Two years after Yuwen Xian was killed, Yuwen Yun also died of excessive indulgence at the age of twenty-two. Subsequently, Yang Jian killed the Young Emperor Yuwen of Northern Zhou and established the Sui Dynasty, and Northern Zhou officially fell.
In history, Yuwen Xian is a tragic figure who has witnessed the rise and fall of a dynasty.
But obviously, Yuwen Xian was not decisive enough in dealing with the world, or his heart was not fierce enough, if he decisively seized power during Yuwen Yun's absurd government, Yu Wenxian would not have the same fate as later. However, history has no ifs, everything is developing according to the cycle of cause and effect, such as: the national fortunes of the Northern Zhou Dynasty are in Yuwen Xian, flourishing here, dying here, and finally all will be attributed to the dust of history.
In the third year of Tang Jianzhong, yan Zhenqing suggested to Tang Dezong that sixty-four famous ancient generals be posthumously awarded and a temple should be set up for them, including "Yuwen Xian, king of Zhou Dazuka Zaiqi". In the fifth year of the Northern Song Dynasty, the Song Dynasty set up temples for famous ancient generals in accordance with the tang dynasty customs, and the seventy-two famous generals also included Yuwen Xian. In the "Biography of the Seventeen Histories and Hundred Generals" written during the Northern Song Dynasty, Yuwen Xian was also included in it.
Resources:
"Book of Zhou, Vol. XIV, Liechuan No. 6, Biography of Guangming Generals, "Veteran Generals Who Lost Their Plans and Returned Their Masters and Were Captured-Emperors and Heirs to the Throne of the Emperor shen", "Biography of the Seventeen Hundred Generals".