Zhu Chao accompanied me to watch short videos

Chapter 326: Darkened

[Even the usurper was so Buddhist, what did Huan Wen of the Eastern Jin Dynasty do from being a great hero to a powerful official? Historical trivia and historical figures]

He practiced martial arts hard just to avenge his father.

At the age of 15, he challenged three enemies and killed all of them, thus becoming the emperor's consort. He used 1 soldiers to pacify Shu and nearly lost his life on the battlefield, but due to a wrong order, he won a key victory and thus controlled the heavily-trooped land in winter.

The phrase "If a man cannot leave a good reputation for centuries, it is better to leave a bad reputation for thousands of years" made him a controversial figure between heroes and tyrants. In this video, let us understand what kind of existence Huan Wen of the Eastern Jin Dynasty was in history.

The Eastern Jin Dynasty was a dynasty established after Sima Rui, a member of the Western Jin royal family, moved south. Its political system was mainly composed of aristocratic clans. It coexisted with the Sixteen Kingdoms of the Five Barbarians in the north, and was also known as the Sixteen Kingdoms of the Eastern Jin Dynasty.

The Eastern Jin Dynasty had tried many times to conquer the north and recover the Central Plains, but all failed. Of course, this was not because there was no one available in the Eastern Jin Dynasty, but because of internal disunity, the most typical example of which was Huan Wen's deeds.

Huan Wen was born in Longkang County, Qiao State, which is today Longkang Town, Huaiyuan County, Anhui Province, in 312. His father was Huan Yi, who was one of the eight great men in Jiangzuo. In 327, a large-scale rebellion broke out in the Eastern Jin Dynasty, which was the Su Jun Rebellion. Huan Yi was killed by the rebel generals in the rebellion.

The 15-year-old Huan Wen vowed to seek revenge and began to practice martial arts. Jiang Bo, the county magistrate of Jing County, also participated in the murder of Huan Yi. When Huan Wen was about to seek revenge three years later, Jiang Bo suddenly died.

Huan Wen was ready to kill Jiang Bo's family at his funeral. When the three sons who were mourning for Jiang Bo heard that Huan Wen was coming, they were very scared and prepared their weapons to prevent any accidents. In the end, they were all knocked down by Huan Wen, who was highly skilled in martial arts, and no one survived.

In that era when filial piety was highly valued, revenge was considered a matter of course. Not only did Huan Wen not receive legal sanctions, he was also praised by everyone.

According to records, Huan Wen was a generous man with a majestic appearance and extraordinary demeanor. In addition, his deeds of risking his life to avenge his father were spread to the palace, so he was favored by the eldest daughter of Jin Ming Emperor Sima Shao, Princess Nankang, and then became the emperor's son-in-law.

Yu Liang, the governor of Jingzhou, once commented that Huan Wen possessed heroic talent and would surely make contributions to the Jin Dynasty in the future. Therefore, in July 343, the court asked Huan Wen to assist Yu Liang in the Northern Expedition.

During this period, the two became good friends and agreed to pacify the world together. However, Yu Liang died of illness not long after, and Huan Wen was recommended to take over the post of governor of Jingzhou and nominally controlled the military power of the middle and upper reaches of the Yangtze River. Liu Yu, the governor of Danyang, believed that Huan Wen was indeed a genius, but also ambitious, and proposed that he should not be allowed to control the important area of ​​Jingzhou, but was rejected by Sima Yu, the King of Kuaiji, who was in charge of the government.

Huan Wen once said: "If a person cannot leave a good reputation for a hundred years, then he will be infamous for ten thousand years." This is where the phrase "leaving a bad reputation for ten thousand years" comes from. This is enough to show that he was indeed quite ambitious.

In order to truly control the middle and upper reaches of the Yangtze River, he began to prepare to occupy Bashu as soon as he took over Jingzhou, targeting the declining Cheng Han regime.

So Huan Wen wrote to the court and requested 1 elite troops to pacify Shu. He led his army westward without waiting for a reply. At that time, all the ministers in the court thought that he would lose this time, but they did not expect that this would be a dramatic battle. Even Huan Wen himself did not expect that he could turn defeat into victory when he was about to lose.

At first, the Jin army won three battles as soon as they entered the battlefield. However, although the Emperor of Cheng Han, Li Shi, was extremely licentious, he was not someone to be trifled with. He immediately gathered all his forces to fight the Jin army to the death.

The Jin army suffered heavy losses, and Liu Shi even shot Huan Wen's horse. He was so frightened that he quickly ordered a retreat, but the drummer who beat the war drum beat the retreat drum instead of the advance drum. The soldiers thought it was an order to fight to the end, so they simply charged forward with all their might, and eventually unexpectedly destroyed the Cheng Han regime, making Huan Wen famous in one battle.

This time, he completely controlled the military power in the middle and upper reaches of the Yangtze River. At this time, Huan Wen already had the land of Bazhou, and he often recruited soldiers and deployed resources on his own, which indirectly revealed his rebellious heart. Sima Yu began to think that Liu Xuan's worries were not unreasonable, so he thought of a way to let Yangzhou Governor Yin Hao participate in government affairs to suppress Huan Wen.

In 349, Shi Hu, the emperor of Later Zhao, died of illness, and the situation in the north was in chaos.

Huan Wen took this opportunity to launch another northern expedition. However, Sima Yu believed that Huan Wen only had eight states at the moment. If he won again and controlled other regions, he would become the biggest threat to the throne of the Eastern Jin Dynasty. So he rejected his request and asked Yin Hao to lead the northern expedition.

As a result, Yin Hao's performance was horrible, and a large amount of supplies were plundered. Huan Wen took the opportunity to impeach him on many charges, and Yin Hao eventually became a civilian.

Huan Wen's son Huan Xi took control of the internal and external power. He launched three northern expeditions. The first was to attack the Former Qin, but withdrew due to lack of food and grass; the second was to attack Yao Xiang. Although he won the battle and recovered Luoyang, Huan Wen had just returned to Jingzhou and lost some areas that had been recovered not long ago; the third was to attack the Former Yan. In this battle, the Jin army was defeated and lost more than 3 people. In fact, Huan Wen had long wanted to usurp the throne and become emperor.

However, he wanted to establish unparalleled merits through the Northern Expedition, so as to expand his prestige and then be supported to take the throne. However, he gained something in the first two times, but the third time directly ruined his reputation.

He was over 60 years old and finally chose to depose and enthrone emperors to establish his prestige, and his method was also extremely insulting. He falsely accused the current emperor Sima Yu of having physiological dysfunction and being unable to have children, and that his three sons were all the result of an affair between a favorite minister and a beauty in the harem. He used this to force Empress Dowager Chu to depose Sima Yu as King of Donghai and enthrone Sima Yi as emperor.

After Sima Yi ascended the throne, he asked Huan Wen to assist in the administration of the country in Beijing twice, but he declined both times. What he wanted was not a regent, but waiting for Sima Yu to abdicate. Sima Yu suddenly became seriously ill and summoned Huan Wen four times in one day, but Huan Wen still refused to come to the court. Seeing that Huan Wen was slow to come, Sima Yu asked him to be regent in his will, but the word "regent" was changed to "assistant" by Wang Biaozhi, the ancestor of the Wang family.

Huan Wen thus missed the best chance to become emperor. Crown Prince Sima Yao ascended the throne. In 373, Huan Wen was seriously ill. He repeatedly urged the court to grant him the Nine Gifts, which was the highest reward bestowed by ancient emperors on ministers. However, the Wang and Xie families saw that his time was running out and delayed it for various reasons.

Huan Wen ultimately did not receive the Nine Gifts and died of illness in July of the same year at the age of 7.

Although Huan Wen had ambitions to become emperor, he has received many praises in history and is often called a hero.

The reason is that he adhered to the principle of orthodoxy, convinced people with military merit, and never used any violent means to forcibly seize the throne. Even his failure in the Northern Expedition could not be attributed to him alone, which also had a lot to do with the Eastern Jin court.

The emperor and his ministers were only interested in self-preservation and had no intention of recovering lost territory. In addition, the imperial court was deeply wary of Huan Wen, so he did not receive any real support.

For the imperial court, Huan Wen's refusal to obey the transfer order and his self-determination did indeed seem like treason. But for the Eastern Jin Dynasty, which was isolated in a corner, he also brought a glimmer of hope for the country to recover the Central Plains.

Of course, some people say that he is an ungrateful person, because Yu Liang had helped him in the past, but after his death, Huan Wen destroyed the Yu family in order to eliminate dissidents, which shows that he would do anything to achieve his goals.

[He was a founding hero with outstanding military achievements, but was regarded as a traitor who murdered loyal officials by later generations! Historical trivia and historical figures]

He is the worst historical figure to be blackened. He pacified Southern Tang, defeated Northern Han, and defeated Khitan. His achievements could make him a famous general of the founding of the country, but he was portrayed as a traitor by the people because of an action of his "pig teammate".

In this video, we will understand why Pan Mei, a founding father, was regarded as a treacherous villain who framed loyal officials.

Pan Mei was born in 925 and was a native of Daming, Hebei.

Because his father was an official in the court, he already held an official position when he was young. In 950, the fourth regime of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms, the Later Han Dynasty established by Liu Zhiyuan, was declared destroyed due to Guo Wei's rebellion, and the Later Zhou Dynasty was established. After Guo Wei's death, his adopted son Chai Rong succeeded to the throne.

Zhao Kuangyin, a fierce general under Chai Rong, admired Pan Mei very much. We have talked about Zhao Kuangyin before. Interested friends can go to the homepage to watch. After the Chenqiao mutiny, Zhao Kuangyin led Zhou Jiansong, but he was afraid of Yuan Yan, a fierce general in Xiazhou. This person killed people for money and was repairing weapons.

Zhao Kuangyin was afraid that Yuan Yan would rebel, so he asked Pan Mei to meet him in a false way, but in fact to monitor the movements of his army. This job was very dangerous. If Yuan Yan rebelled at this time, Pan Mei would be the first to die.

But the result surprised Zhao Kuangyin very much. Pan Mei actually successfully appeased Yuan Yan and eliminated the biggest danger for the newly established Song Dynasty.

However, the Song Dynasty was not stable because of this. In the three years after 960, Guo Wei's niece Zhong Ye and Hunan Southern Tang general Wang Duan rebelled one after another, causing unrest among the people. So Pan Mei was ordered to fight against them and put down the rebellions one by one.

Later, the Southern Han regime, one of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms, began to invade parts of the Song Dynasty. Pan Mei led his troops to attack again and defeated the enemy completely.

It can be said that Pan Mei played a very important role in the gradual stabilization of the Song Dynasty regime, and thus became a founding father of the Song Dynasty.

Starting in 970, Zhao Kuangyin launched a plan to unify the country, first attacking the Southern Han. Pan Mei used fire to break through the enemy camp, and the Southern Han was defeated. Tens of thousands of people were beheaded and the Southern Han was destroyed.

Then Zhao Kuangyin began to send troops to Southern Tang to pacify Jiangnan. In this battle, Pan Mei not only led the army to avoid the enemy's night attack, but also attacked the enemy's 10-man army.

The Southern Tang emperor Li Yu's request for peace was rejected, and was eventually pacified by Pan Mei and General Cao Bin. After Zhao Kuangyin's death, Zhao Guangyi became the second emperor of the Song Dynasty. He ordered Pan Mei to assist General Dang to attack the Northern Han.

Pan Mei captured the Northern Han capital Taiyuan in 979 and pacified the Northern Han, causing the Northern Han emperor Liu Jiyuan to surrender to the Song Dynasty. It was also during this battle that Yang Ye, the founder of the Yang Family Generals, finally surrendered to the Northern Song Dynasty under the persuasion of Liu Jiyuan and started a perfect cooperation with Pan Mei.

In 980, the Liao Kingdom in the north attacked Yanmen Pass with an army of 10. Pan Mei was ordered to resist and let Yang Ye lead a small group of cavalry to go around the rear of the Liao army, thus forming a pincer attack on the enemy army, and finally defeated the Liao army and killed the enemy general.

Pan Mei was named Duke of Dai. It seems that Pan Mei had made great military achievements, and he and Yang Ye had no grudges against each other, and they had very good cooperation. But why was he slandered as a treacherous minister who did all kinds of evil?

This brings us to another battle with the Liao Kingdom.

In 986, Emperor Taizong of Song decided to march north to attack the Liao Kingdom, dividing his troops into three groups to recover the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun. Pan Mei, Yang Ye, Cao Bin and others led the troops respectively. Although Wang Quan, the military supervisor, did not hold a higher position than Pan Mei, he represented the imperial power and supervised the various armies.

As a result, Cao Bin was defeated by the Liao army. Although Pan Mei and Yang Ye had recovered four states, they could not advance deep into the enemy's territory alone and had to withdraw to Shuozhou.

However, when Yang Ye and Wang Quan were discussing how to evacuate the people of the four states, Yang Ye's plan was rejected by Wang Quan, who slandered Yang Ye as a coward and had ulterior motives.

In order to show his loyalty to the Song Dynasty, Yang Ye decided to lead his troops to attack the Liao army and asked Wang Quan and Pan Mei to set up an ambush at the entrance of Chenjia Valley, waiting for them to lead the enemy there before starting the ambush. However, Wang Quan waited for a long time but did not see Yang Ye, misjudged the situation, and withdrew his troops from the entrance of Chenjia Valley.

When Yang Ye arrived, he saw no soldiers and could only fight desperately. He was eventually captured and died of starvation.

At that time, Pan Mei was opposed to Wang Quan's withdrawal and had tried to dissuade him. However, because Wang Quan represented the imperial power, even though his official position was higher than Wang Quan, he had to obey his orders and could only retreat with him.

Yang Ye was a favorite general of Emperor Taizong of Song Dynasty. Upon hearing the news of his death, Emperor Taizong was both sad and angry. He immediately dismissed Wang Cong and exiled him, and demoted Pan Mei by three levels.

Although he was promoted three times in the year after he was demoted, he died not long after, at the age of 67. It can be seen here that Pan Mei did not bear a major responsibility in this incident.

In the Ming Dynasty, people compiled the story of the Yang family generals into "The Romance of the Yang Family Mansion".

In this novel, the generals of the Yang family fought bravely on the battlefield and sacrificed their lives for their country, and they could be said to be the backbone of the Song Dynasty. In order to highlight the loyal and righteous image of the generals of the Yang family, a treacherous minister named Pan Renmei was created in the story.

This person used all kinds of insidious means to persecute the Yang family, which was extremely hateful. The author may have designed the name of the treacherous minister Pan Renmei to be similar to Pan Mei in order to attract traffic.

Therefore, Pan Mei was defined by the public as a character like Pan Renmei. In addition, the spread of novel interpretations and film and television works is more widespread than the real history, so most people regard Pan Mei as a benchmark figure among traitors.

By comparing the official history with the novel, the images of the two Pans are completely different. It can even be said that there is no connection between them except for the name. It is completely a plot imagined by the author of "The Romance of Yang Family Mansion" inspired by the incident of Yang Ye. As a result, Pan Mei has been blackened for so long.

——"Pan Mei is okay, Pan Renmei is the worst. He has been slandered for many years. In fact, there is no such person."

——"No? I thought there was. The story was so convincing."

——"Aren't all ancient stories like that? If they're not realistic, no one will read them."