Among the many tyrants in the late Sui Dynasty, Feng Ang of Lingnan should be regarded as the only one who finally died well. I don't believe that everyone can count themselves, Xue Ju and Lin Shihong died of their own illness, Li Rail, Li Mi, Wang Shichong, Dou Jiande, Xiao Milling, all died directly or indirectly at the hands of Li Yuan, Du Fuwei surrendered to the Tang Dynasty, but the final death is unknown...
Only Feng Ang, although his strength was far inferior to that of Li Mi, Wang Shichong and others, he was able to die well in the end. Moreover, not only was Feng Ang himself able to die well, but the Feng family had achieved the point of resting with the country. Throughout the Tang Dynasty, the Feng family has always been the uncrowned king of the Lingnan region, and his descendants have continued to this day.
Then, as a rebel king of the late Sui Dynasty who was not particularly powerful, why was only Feng Ang able to die well?
Before telling the story of Feng Ang, we must first tell the story of the Feng family. Because the Feng family's family business is not laid by Feng Ang, but through the joint efforts of several generations of the Feng family, it has been created.
The glorious history of the Feng family can be traced back to the Sixteen Kingdoms period of the Eastern Jin Dynasty. The Northern Yan in the Sixteen Kingdoms has half of the shares of the family.
The reason why I say half of the shares is because the history of Beiyan is more complicated. After the fall of the Western Jin Dynasty, the nomadic tribes led by the Xianbei Murong clan established the State of Yan. The Murong Fu in the "Eight Parts of the Heavenly Dragon", who chanted every day about the Great Yan to be revived, was this Yan kingdom. Later, this Yan kingdom was once destroyed and rose again, and then split again. At the end of the Later Yan dynasty, a general named Feng Bao (冯跋) was sent to establish Northern Yan by Murong Yun, who was in charge of the imperial family. Later, Murong Yun was killed by his generals, and Feng Bao avenged Murong Yun and directly became the emperor of Northern Yan himself.
However, after only less than thirty years of existence, Northern Yan was destroyed by Northern Wei. After the fall of Northern Yan, the remaining descendants of the Feng family fled to Goguryeo in an attempt to rely on Goguryeo to restore the country, but in the end Goguryeo did not help them, but killed the principal of the Feng family. The Feng family saw that Goguryeo did not help, so they divided up a tribe of tribes and took the sea route south in an attempt to create another family business. At that time, the Eastern Jin Dynasty had perished and was replaced by the Liu Song regime of the Southern Dynasty. After this branch of the Feng family surrendered to the Liu Song regime, the Liu Song regime was quite kind to them, and feng ye, the head of the Feng family, was appointed as the assassin of LuoZhou.
From this time on, the Feng family took root in Lingnan.
After the Feng family arrived in Lingnan, the story was also more legendary. During the Southern and Northern Dynasties, Lingnan was a barren land, and the local life was basically uncivilized local indigenous people. It is obviously not so easy to get down in such a place. However, the Feng family worked hard to govern the land, especially in the generation of Feng Ye's great-grandson and Feng Ang's grandfather Feng Bao, and even married the local slang leader Xian Shi. After receiving the help of local slang people, the Feng family began to mix and become the local overlord.
By the way, this Lady Sin who Feng Bao married is a more legendary figure in history. To this day, many places in Lingnan still have temples dedicated to Lady Xian. The story of this Lady Sin is much longer, if you want to elaborate, than the story of her grandson Feng Ang. Interested friends, you can go to check it out.
In short, because of the marriage with the local slang, the Feng family completely took root in the local area, and became more and more branched, becoming a large family in the Lingnan region, with great influence in the Lingnan region. Therefore, although during the Southern and Northern Dynasties, the South had to change regimes every few decades, the Feng family was not greatly affected. Regardless of the change of dynasties, the Feng family will only prosper more and more.
By the time of the Sui Dynasty, the Feng family was in the Lingnan region, not only had great influence, but also had a large number of clansmen. For such a huge family, the Sui Dynasty naturally could only be based on solicitation. Therefore, Feng Ang had just reached adulthood and became the commander of Song Kang County, and Song Kang was today's Yangxi, Guangdong. Later, by suppressing the rebellions of various ethnic groups in Lingnan, Feng Ang was gradually promoted to Gaozhou Assassin And Hanyang Taishou. In the last year of the Sui Dynasty, Yang Guang conquered Goguryeo, and Feng Ang also went out with the army and was named the General of Zuo Wuwei.
By this time, Feng Ang was already a real high-ranking general of the Sui Dynasty. Analogous to the present, it is roughly equivalent to the commander of the grand military region. Coupled with the influence of the Feng family in the Lingnan region, the status of Feng Ang himself can naturally be imagined. After the End of the Battle of Liaodong, within a few years, Yang Guang was strangled to death by his forbidden army, and the Sui Dynasty was completely destroyed. After the fall of the Sui Dynasty, Feng Ang was in the north at the time. After learning the news of the demise of the Sui Dynasty, Feng Ang returned to Lingnan for the first time and did not stay in the north.
For Feng Ang, Lingnan is his hometown and the real base of the Feng family.
After returning to Lingnan, Feng An quickly gathered the Feng family, gathered the people, and announced the autonomy of the land. Because the Influence of the Feng Family in the local area is too great, so the Feng Family declared independence, basically without any twists and turns, just as simple as changing the banner of the city. After Feng An declared independence, relying on the Feng family's accumulation in Lingnan for many years, he soon gathered 50,000 soldiers and horses and firmly controlled Cangwu, Gaoliang, Zhuya, Panyu and other areas.
Feng Ang, who successfully occupied a large area of Lingnan, although he had a heavy army and occupied a large area of territory. But then, Feng Ang did not expand with all his might, but chose to rely on Lin Shihong, the leader of the peasant army in the south.
With Feng Ang's strength at that time, he was actually fully capable of establishing himself as king, but in the end, he chose to rely on Lin Shihong. This choice may seem unexpected, but when you think about it, it is full of wisdom. Feng Ang was not unseen in the world, during the Battle of Liaodong, Feng Ang had seen the Sui Dynasty commanding a million troops to fight, how powerful it was. Therefore, Feng Ang knew very well that the tens of thousands of soldiers and horses under his command and the territory of several counties were actually not enough to see in front of the real Central Plains Tyrants.
Feng Ang knew very well that in terms of his strength, the attack was insufficient, and he had more than enough to protect himself.
Since this is the case, it is better to choose to be as independent as possible and then rely on other big forces. Anyway, with the influence of the Feng family in Lingnan, no matter who sits in the world in the future, they must win over the Feng family well. As for fighting for the world, Feng Ang knew very well that he didn't have that skill, and the Feng family didn't have that skill. During this period, some people also suggested that Feng Ang should lead his troops out of Lingnan and go to the Central Plains to compete for the world, or establish a country on his own, following the example of Zhao Tuo at that time. But in the face of these suggestions, Feng Ang rejected them all.
Later historical developments proved that Feng Ang's choice was right.
In the following years, the central plains were full of wind and clouds, and the Li Tang regime gradually swept the world and unified the entire Central Plains. In the wars between the major forces at the end of the Sui Dynasty, hundreds of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of people participated in the war. With these tens of thousands of soldiers and horses under Feng Ang's command, if they were thrown in, it would really not be enough to see. However, it is precisely because Feng Ang is smart enough that he never goes out to fight for the world. During the period when the Li Tang regime swept the world, Feng Ang did not have any conflicts with the Li Tang regime. The Lingnan region, also under the governance of the Feng family, is orderly and has become a rare piece of pure land in the chaotic world.
In the fifth year of Wude, with the defeat of Lin Shihong, the Tang Dynasty began to gradually unify the south. At this time, the Tang Dynasty handed an olive branch to Feng Ang, who had originally submitted to Lin Shihong. In the face of the Tang Dynasty's solicitation, Feng Ang did not refuse, but gladly accepted and directly surrendered to the Tang Dynasty. After that, Li Yuan made Feng Ang the Duke of Wu, and later changed his title to the Duke of Yue, still ruling the lingnan land he originally controlled.
Although he surrendered to the Tang Dynasty, the Feng family was still a well-deserved overlord in Lingnan, and Feng Ang was still the uncrowned king. I have to say that Feng Ang's choice is still very clever.
In the years that followed, the struggle between Li Jiancheng and Li Shimin occurred in the upper echelons of the Tang Dynasty. During this period, Feng Ang still did not have any participation, but stayed far away in Lingnan, honestly protecting the border and anmin, and being his King of Lingnan.
Later, in the early years of Zhenguan, because Feng Ang fought with the local slang people, he did not enter the pilgrimage for a long time. Many officials of the Tang Dynasty said that Feng Ang wanted to rebel and persuaded Li Shimin to send a large army to conquest. However, At wei Zheng's suggestion, Li Shimin simply sent emissaries to inquire. Later, Feng Ang decisively sent his own son to the worship, which saved him from a disaster.
In the fifth year of Zhenguan, Feng Ang personally entered the dynasty and went to Chang'an to meet Li Shimin, who also received him warmly and let him continue to guard Lingnan. After Feng Ang returned to Lingnan, he did not live up to Li Shimin's expectations, and he honestly protected the border and the people until he died of illness when Zhenguan was twenty years old. After Feng Ang's death, he was posthumously honored by Li Shimin as the Grand General of Zuo Xiaowei and the Governor of Jingzhou.
After Feng Ang's death, although the Tang Dynasty officials consciously sent officials to Lingnan, hoping to dilute the Influence of the Feng family in Lingnan, it always had little effect. Coupled with the fact that the Feng family has always been honest and honest and protects the border and the people, so later, the Tang Dynasty also acquiesced to the Influence of the Feng Family in Lingnan, and the two sides formed a balance. It was not until after the fall of the Tang Dynasty, because of years of war, that the Feng family gradually declined in Lingnan.
From Feng Ang's story, we can see that the most important reason why Feng Ang can die well is because he can see himself clearly, know his own range of ability, and firmly control his core competitiveness. For the Feng family, the real core competitiveness is actually the influence in the local area. As long as we firmly grasp this trump card and let the regime change, the Feng family will not change anything.
From the perspective of the Tang Dynasty, it was actually not difficult to destroy the Feng family. In terms of the exaggerated military strength of the Tang Dynasty, the tens of thousands of troops under Feng Ang's command are really nothing. But the question is, after destroying the Feng family, how to rule the local area? After destroying the Feng family, the Tang Dynasty would only face a more difficult Lingnan to rule. Since this is the case, it is better to acquiesce to the feng family's status in Lingnan! It is also for this reason that Feng Ang can be the king of Lingnan for a lifetime, and finally be able to die well.
Feng Ang's story also gives us a revelation: in the competition of modern enterprises, in fact, we do not have to pursue too much to be big and strong, and we do not necessarily have to pursue the unification of the entire market. Like Feng Ang and the Feng family, they should hold their core competitiveness and establish a moat for their core competitiveness, so that others cannot replace them, but may be able to live better.
At the end of the Sui Dynasty, there were some forces that were stronger than Feng Ang, but in the end, only the Feng Ang family could survive for a long time, and the others were annexed by the Li family. However, the weak Feng Ang can rely on his influence in the Lingnan region to live longer and live more moistly, which is really a very worthy thing for our descendants.