The person who destroyed the most countries was not Qin Shihuang, but Duke Xiang of Jin!
The person who destroyed the most countries was not Qin Shihuang
but Jin Xiangong
In the Spring and Autumn Period, every move of the Jin Kingdom affected every fiber of the princes in the world. Nerve, why is this happening? Just because the Kingdom of Jin gave birth to a pioneering king - Duke Xiang of Jin!
However, because of the occurrence of the "Liji Rebellion", many people believed that Duke Xiang of Jin was a fatuous king, and that he was the cause of this civil strife in Jin.
If you think so, you are completely wrong. The historical Duke Xiang of Jin was not only a mediocre person, but a heroic hero in the Spring and Autumn Period, but he was controversial because of this.
It can be said that if Duke Xian of Jin had not laid a solid foundation, his son Duke Wen of Jin might not have been able to become the overlord of the Spring and Autumn Period. As the saying goes: The predecessors planted trees, and the descendants enjoy the shade!
Let’s continue with Duke Xiang of Jin. In 677 BC, Duke Wu of Jin, who brought Jin to prosperity, passed away. His son Guizhu succeeded him. Guizhu was Duke Xiang of Jin, and his wife was Qi Jiang, the daughter of Duke Huan of Qi, the leader of the Five Hegemons in the Spring and Autumn Period.
When he succeeded to the throne, Duke Xian of Jin was also not confused. At this time, Qi's hegemony was at its peak, Chu had also risen, Zheng had formed a situation of "Zheng and Zhuang Xiaohe", and Qin also dominated the west and had significant development.
Foreign aggression is not Jin Xiangong’s biggest headache yet. You must know that the Jin Kingdom has just ended more than sixty years of internal strife caused by "taking concubines for heirs".
Therefore, the first issue that Duke Xiang of Jin faced after he came to the throne was: how to strengthen centralization of power and avoid the tragedy of "taking concubine for heir" from happening again.
When it comes to "taking concubines for heirs", we have to say that the vassal state of Jin is very rebellious. Although its ancestor is Shu Yu, the youngest brother of King Wu of Zhou, he can be regarded as the closest relative of the Emperor of Zhou. , but did not strictly follow the "legitimate son inheritance system" to complete the inheritance of the great throne, but preferred to do the thing of "taking the concubine for the legitimate son", that is, "the small sect destroyed the big sect".
The first inheritance dispute in the Jin Dynasty occurred in the early Spring and Autumn Period. It originated from the improper naming of two sons by Marquis Mu of Jin at that time.
Marquis Mu of Jin named his children very regularly. He liked to name his sons after victory or defeat in battles. The prince was named Qiu, because he was born when he was defeated in the Battle of Tiao; the younger son was named Chengshi, because he was born during the battle of Tiao. During the victory in the Battle of Thousand Acres.
Shifu, the senior official of the Jin Dynasty at that time, had no idea. He saw the signs of seizing the legitimate son, so he was worried. He put forward a lot of warnings about "names are used to control righteousness", and predicted that there would be civil strife in the Jin Dynasty. ——The elder brother’s position will be replaced by his younger brother.
Sure enough, after the death of Marquis Mu of Jin, his younger brother Uncle Shang first usurped power and established himself as king, causing the prince to flee. However, Prince Qiu later led his troops to capture Uncle Shang and established himself as king again, namely Wenhou of Jin.
Jin Wen Hou Chou reigned for thirty-five years, but failed to protect his son and nip it in the bud, allowing his younger brother's reputation to become a master to gradually increase. In this way, Jin Wenhou died and his son Jin Zhaohou succeeded to the throne.
However, Jin Zhaohou did not learn the lesson of Uncle Shang's usurping the throne, but in the name of enfeoffment, he turned his uncle, whose reputation was higher than his own, into a teacher and rushed to Quwo.
Quwo's land is larger than that of Jindu, and Chengshi is an outstanding talent. He is also assisted by Jinghou's grandson Luan Bin and others. Soon, Quwo's power gradually overtakes Yi. .
In 739 BC, civil strife broke out within the Jin state. Minister Pan's father killed Jin Zhaohou and opened the city gates to welcome the Cheng army into Jin.
When you become a master, you are naturally ambitious and ready to become a king. Unfortunately, the old man of Jin did not respond. Chengshi suffered a setback and had to retreat to Quwo. Jin also split into two opposing political forces: "Jin" and "Quwo".
In fact, Duke Xiang of Jin’s father, Duke Wu of Jin, also took over the “big clan” as a “small clan”. In 679 BC, Duke Wu of Jin killed Jin Hou Min and officially became the state of Jin. The king of the country. Take a look, "taking concubines to seize direct descendants" has a long historical tradition in the Jin Dynasty.
Therefore, Duke Xian of Jin had already taken precautions against Quwo’s historical lesson of replacing Jin with concubines and seizing concubines with concubines. In addition, the power of the public clan at that time was huge and always threatened the monarchy, so he wanted to eliminate it. Then quickly.
What did Duke Xiang of Jin do? He first turned his attention to the country and prepared a ruthless and cruel killing plan step by step.
Under the suggestion of the doctor Shi Jiang, Duke Xian of Jin first alienated the relationship between Uncle Quwohuan and the descendants of Uncle Zhuang, and made them kill each other and create conflicts.
It has to be said that Jin Xiangong's methods are very clever, which is equivalent to making friends at a distance and attacking closely, uniting with secondary enemies and attacking the main enemies, but the methods are more insidious and vicious.
In order to consolidate his monarchy and power, he ignores the blood relationship and resorts to cruel tactics, which makes people shudder!
Then they adopted various methods to defeat them, and finally killed almost all of them. A few were lucky enough to escape and fled to the Jin State's mortal enemy Guo State for refuge. This became This solved the worries of Duke Xiang of Jin.
The Guo State took in these exiled aristocratic children of the Jin State, which also laid the foundation for its own destruction. However, these princes did not give up, and Guo State was instigated by them to continue to invade Jin, which eventually led to the tragedy of "false attack on Guo"!
After Jin Xiangong consolidated his power, he deliberately rebuilt a new capital city, Jiang, and moved into it.
After settling things internally, Jin Xiangong also started the road to external expansion. He first sent troops to defeat Li Rong in the rear. Li Rong could not resist the attack of Jin, so he offered his own pair of stunning daughters to please Duke Xiang of Jin. These two beauties were Li Ji and her daughter who caused the subsequent chaos in Jin. My younger sister, Shaoji.
Then Duke Xiang of Jin set his sights on the three kingdoms of Geng, Huo and Wei around him. Duke Xiang of Jin first expanded one army into two armies. He personally commanded the upper army and handed over the lower army to his eldest son Shen Sheng.
The three kingdoms of Geng, Huo and Wei were destroyed in this way. Duke Xian of Jin also granted the captured land of Geng to the hero Zhao Su (ancestor of the Zhao family), and the land of Wei to the hero Bi Wan (the ancestor of the Wei family). ancestors).
Finally, Duke Xian of Jin decided to take action against his mortal enemy Guo State. Although Guo State had the aura of protecting the North Gate of Emperor Zhou, the bad luck of being destroyed still came.
The strength of Guo State is not as weak as we imagined. After all, it can serve as a barrier to protect Emperor Zhou! After Duke Xian of Jin was fully prepared, Jin began to attack Guo.
But there is the Yu State between the Jin State and the Guo State. If the Jin State wants to attack the Guo State, it must pass through the Yu State or destroy the Yu State first.
Although the Yu State is not strong, it will be difficult to deal with if it joins forces with the Guo State. So Duke Xian of Jin adopted the strategy of Xun Xi, a great hero, and bribed the state of Yu to destroy the state of Guo by borrowing a road.
The king of the Yu State was a man who was greedy for small profits. He forgot the principle of losing his lips and his teeth. After accepting bribes from the Jin State, he allowed the Jin State to destroy the Guo State.
What the king of the Yu State did not expect happened, that is, when Duke Xiang of Jin returned to his army, he actually destroyed the Yu State. This is the story of "the false way destroys Guo".
Jin Xiangong also captured a famous figure from the State of Yu, and later the prisoner was sent to the State of Qin as a dowry by Jin Xiangong. Who knew that this prisoner would lay the foundation for the subsequent strength of the State of Qin? The miraculous achievement is that of a strange man of a generation: Baili Xi.
In any case, Jin Xiangong’s talents and strategies have been vividly interpreted by himself, opening up the strategic channel between the north and the south for the Jin State and laying the foundation for a powerful Jin State.
This man has passed away. Although he laid the foundation for the "Liji Rebellion", maybe it was Duke Xian of Jin who laid a big game for his successor to continue the internal reforms?