King Yan Zhao’s Golden Platform
Black clouds are pressing down on the city, threatening to destroy it, and the light of armor opens towards the golden scales of the sun.
The sound of the trumpet fills the autumn sky, stuffed with swallow fat and the night is purple.
A half-rolled red flag is near the Yishui River, and the sound of heavy frost and cold drums cannot be heard.
I will report to you on the golden platform and support the jade dragon to die for you.
——Li He's "Yanmen Prefect's Journey"
This Yuefu poem was written by Li He, a talented man from the Tang Dynasty, who was inspired by the ancients building a golden platform to recruit talents. It also expressed his depression of longing to make contributions to the country but having no channels.
Since the golden platform recruiting talents, countless talented people have used the golden platform recruiting talents as an allusion to express their ambitions to establish fame.
Li Bai wrote: "Yan Zhao extended Guo Wei's advice and built a golden tower. When Zhao arrived, Zou Yan came back together." (Li Bai's "Ancient Style Fifteen") This means that King Yan Zhao followed Guo Wei's suggestion and built a golden tower. Taiwan, recruiting talented people from all over the world. After hearing about it, all the talented people in the world fled to Yan State one after another. Even Zou Yan gave up the superior life in Jixia Academy and went to Yan State.
As mentioned earlier, King Kuai of Yan was deceived by his courtiers and rashly surrendered the country to the Prime Minister, which eventually triggered civil strife. When civil strife broke out in Yan State, Qi State and Zhongshan State took the opportunity to send troops to invade. Qi State occupied Yan State, and Zhongshan State also seized large areas of land.
The State of Zhao was not angry with the State of Qi and the State of Zhongshan for taking advantage, so it protected the prince who was still a hostage in South Korea and returned to the State of Yan to succeed to the throne in order to get a piece of the pie. The country suffered a great humiliation. After King Yan Zhao succeeded to the throne, he determined to retaliate against Qi and avenge his previous humiliation. However, Qi State was the overlord in the east at that time, and even Qin State did not dare to attack Qi State rashly, let alone Yan State, which had just suffered from war and had not yet recovered.
After succeeding to the throne, King Yan Zhao recruited talents on a large scale, but the effect was not ideal. Several years passed by, and Yan State still had no talents to govern the country. The depressed King Yan Zhao asked Guo Wei the reason. Guo Wei did not answer directly, but told a short story to King Yan Zhao.
Once upon a time, there was a rich man who loved horses very much. For a good horse, he would not hesitate to spend a thousand taels of gold to buy it. However, three years have passed, and the rich man has not even seen the shadow of the good horse. Soon, a man who claimed to be Bole told the rich man that he could find a good horse.
Sure enough, within three months, he informed the rich man that he had found a good horse. However, what made the rich man angry was that the other party actually gave him a horse head and spent 500 taels of gold on it.
The rich man told the other party that what he wanted was a live horse, and a dead horse's head was of no use to him. The other party said that using five hundred taels of gold to buy a dead horse's head was just a symbol. This behavior shows the rich man's love for horses. If word of this spreads, all the best horses in the world will be transported to the rich man one after another.
The rich man did as the other party said, and within a year, he acquired three fine horses.
What Guo Wei means is that if you sincerely seek talents, you can't just give up a big price, but you must also have a precedent. If King Yan Zhao was willing to treat the people around him with generous gifts and money, even talented people thousands of miles away would defect to him one after another.
After hearing this, King Yan Zhao knelt on the ground and worshiped Guo Wei as his teacher, and built a mansion for Guo Wei.
Immediately afterwards, King Yan Zhao spent a lot of money to build the Golden Platform, which was the envy of countless people with lofty ideals. Golden Terrace, also known as Talent Recruitment Platform, is located in the west of Beizhang Village, Gaoli Township, Dingxing County, Hebei Province today.
Not long after the Golden Tower was built, General Le Yi left the State of Wei and went to the State of Yan alone. Le Yi's trip not only started the glorious path of his life, but also opened the curtain of Yan's revenge on Qi.
After Le Yi became a famous general, his ancestor was Le Yang, the favorite general of Wei Wenhou. Le Yang once destroyed the domineering Zhongshan Kingdom. Le Yi was originally a general of Zhao. After King Wuling of Zhao suffered the Sand Dune Coup, Le Yi was extremely sad, so he left Zhao and went to Wei to seek the position of a doctor.
However, Le Yi was unable to fulfill his ambitions in Wei. Three years after the golden platform of Yan State was built, Le Yi left Wei State and went to Yan State. When he met King Yan Zhao for the first time, Le Yi was an envoy of Wei State. King Zhao of Yan gave Le Yi generous gifts, and Le Yi was moved and agreed to serve as a minister of the State of Yan.
To express his gratitude, King Yan Zhao granted Leyi the title of Yaqing. The position of Yaqing is second only to Shangqing. "Historical Records" records: "King Yan Zhao hanged himself to death and asked about his orphans, sharing the joys and sorrows with the people."
If a king is like this, all frustrated talents will be admired by everyone. Li Bai once hoped that someone would "sweep the golden platform and invite Qingyun guests" (Li Bai's "Send to the King of Wu Qi San"); Liu Chenweng said, "I have a jade dragon on my sleeves to carry me, and my eyes are full of golden platform bones" (Liu Chenweng's "Golden Thread Song: Congratulations to the Bridegroom") "); Li Shangyin even said, "Return to the Jieshi Pavilion at night and go up to the golden platform" (Li Shangyin's "Thirty-two Rhymes of the Cao Pavilion").
With the help of Huangjintai, Yan State recruited three powerful figures, the military strategist Le Yi, the strategist Su Qin and the philosopher Zou Yan.
Taking the cycle of the five elements of metal, wood, water, fire and earth as the historical development trajectory, Zou Yan proposed his philosophical insights to King Yan Zhao. He said that the fate of the Shang Dynasty lies in the virtue of gold, advocating white, and its geographical location is in the west; the thing that can restrain gold is fire, so the fate of the Zhou Dynasty lies in the virtue of fire, advocating red, and its geographical location in the south; the thing that can restrain fire is water, The destiny of the next dynasty must be water virtue, advocating black, and being geographically located in the north.
During this period, the most powerful general Le Yi was in the Yan State, and the most powerful strategist was working for the Yan State. It was fate that the Yan State grew up in the far north, so King Zhao of Yan became very ambitious and decided to annex the Qi State first, and then dominate the world. .
At this time, history has reached 286 BC, and the Song State has been annexed by the Qi State. The king of Qi is a new king, known as King Qi Min. The states of Yan, Chu, and Song were defeated by Qi one after another, and Han and Wei surrendered. Qi helped Zhao completely destroy Zhongshan. King Qi Min was not only proud of his foreign strategy, but also deliberately attacked Lord Mengchang. The most prominent example is that King Qi Min and King Qin Zhaoxiang made an appointment, and they both proclaimed themselves emperors at the same time. King Qin Zhaoxiang called himself the Western Emperor, and King Qi Min called himself the Eastern Emperor.
The arrogant King Min of Qi aroused the resentment of the people at home, and foreign princes and states opposed him one after another. Qin was the first to attack Qi. When Qin attacked Qi, there were competitions for national interests and private interests. After Qi State annexed Song State, Tao County, which Qin State Prime Minister Wei Ran longed for, fell into the hands of Qi State.
If Wei Ran wanted to seize Tao County, he could only use force to rob it.
In 285 BC, in order to jointly attack Qi, King Zhaoxiang of Qin and King Qingxiang of Chu met. With the Qin army as the main force and the Chu army as the supplement, under the leadership of Qin's general Meng Qian, the coalition crossed the borders of Han and Wei, invaded Qi's Hedong area, and robbed nine cities.
Even its allies Han and Wei did not help Qi State, which showed that Qi State had fallen into a desperate situation of rebellion and alienation, so King Yan Zhao ordered Le Yi to attack Qi State.
reason to live
King Yan Zhao had made up his mind, but Le Yi couldn't bear to go against his will and agreed to send the army. However, he put forward a condition: unite other vassal states.
What Le Yi means is that although the Qi State has declined, "a centipede insect is dead but not stiff". Its foundation is still very deep, and the power of the Yan State alone may not be able to completely occupy the Qi State.
King Yan Zhao thought it was reasonable, so he sent people to unite Chu and Wei. Le Yi was once a famous general in Zhao State and was highly regarded by Zhao State. King Zhao Hui not only agreed to hand over the army to Le Yi, but also used the benefits of occupying Qi to induce Qin to send troops.
After some hard work, in 284 BC, Le Yi wore the seals of Yan and Zhao and led the armies of Yan, Zhao, Qin, Han, and Wei to march toward Qi in a mighty manner. This was what Le Yi had in mind. "Lift the world and attack it."
In order to attract Qi's main force, Qin's general Meng Zhuan attacked from the Hedong area. The Qi State was indeed fooled and mobilized the main force of the country to rush to the Hedong area to resist the Mongolian army.
At this time, Le Yi commanded the main forces of Yan and Zhao to attack from the southeast of Zhao State and captured Lingqiu (now Gaotangnan, Shandong), a border barrier in the northwest of Qi State.
After Lingqiu fell, Qi was exposed to the sword of the coalition forces, and the whole country was in panic. King Qi Min hurriedly appointed Huzi as a general and Dazi as a deputy general, and ordered them to rush to Jixi to face Leyi.
The two armies set up camp along the Jishui River. Chuzi believed that the coalition forces were powerful and powerful, so they should avoid their momentum first, hold on by the river, wait for a while, and wait until the coalition forces were tired before attacking.
However, King Qi Min thought that the enemies were already at his doorstep. If he didn't attack with all his strength, wouldn't he lose face? He threatened Chuzi that if he did not go out to fight, Chuzi's whole family would be beheaded, and even his ancestral graves would be dug up.
Chuzi was kind-hearted. He couldn't bear the murder of his whole family and the excavation of his ancestral graves, nor could he bear to drive his soldiers to die. So when the two armies were in formation and fighting was about to begin, Chuzi suddenly called for gold and retreated his troops, and quietly escaped without a trace.
I think back when Qi and Chu fought in the Battle of Chuisha, the reason why Qi was able to win was that General Kuang Zhang was able to withstand the threat of the monarch. However, Chuzi could not resist the threat of the king and fled in the face of the battle. Le Yi saw that the Qi army was leaderless, so he drove his troops and horses to kill all the Qi troops.
The coalition forces took advantage of the victory and pursued it with overwhelming momentum. The deputy general of the Qi army, Da Zi, gathered the remaining defeated generals and retreated to the west gate of the capital Linzi. If Qin and Zhou were captured, Linzi would be in danger.
In order to stimulate the fighting spirit of the soldiers, Dazi suggested that King Qi Min reward the sergeants. At this time, Qi State was on the verge of collapse and had no extra savings and rewards. If a reward is really wanted, it can only be withdrawn from the monarch's private treasury.
King Qi Min was very angry when he asked him to use his private treasury. Not only did he not distribute the money, he also cursed Dazi, saying that Dazi and Chuzi were the same as each other.
The ruler is dishonest, the soldiers are despondent, have no fighting spirit, and are vulnerable to a single blow. Qin and Zhou were captured, Da Zi died in battle, and Linzi City stood abruptly in front of Le Yi.
The Qi State had suffered a disastrous defeat, and the princely states had benefited a lot from it, so they gave up when the situation was good and withdrew their troops one after another. Only the Yan army marched straight towards Linzi.
Le Yi's speed caught the people of Linzi off guard, and the capital was quickly captured. At that time, King Qi Min had already escaped. After King Yan Zhao heard the good news that Linzi had been captured, he quickly came to the shore of Jishui and named Le Yi the Lord of Changping. He held a grand investiture ceremony and appointed Le Yi as his plenipotentiary representative stationed in Qi. .
The so-called "Thirty years in Hedong, thirty years in Hexi" means that what the Qi army did in the capital of Yan 30 years ago was repeated in Linzi 30 years later.
After escaping from the capital, King Qi Min ran south all the way to Weiguo like a lost dog. Once upon a time, the state of Qi was kind to the state of Wei. King Wei was grateful for his kindness, so he gave up his palace to King Qi Min to live in, and gave up his daily utensils to King Qi Min. In short, King Qi Min received the same treatment in Wei State as he did in Qi State.
However, King Qi Min did not learn the lesson of the country's subjugation, and regarded himself as the former King Qi Min. He actually played the king's temper in Weiguo, bossing around Weiguo's monarchs and ministers without any respect. In anger, Weiguo cut off supply to King Qi Min.
King Qi Min had no choice but to flee again. He came to Zou and Lu, but neither country accepted him. Not being accepted by other countries and having nowhere to go, King Qi Min could only flee back to his own country and live in the small southern town of Ju.
Just when King Qi Min was desperate, Chu State extended a helping hand to him and sent General Nao Chi to lead more than 10,000 people to protect King Qi Min. The reason why Chu State sent troops to help Qi State was just to contain Le Yi so that he could not completely occupy Qi State.
Seeing a glimmer of hope, King Qi Min put on airs again and appointed Nao Chi as his prime minister.
Despite these wars, King Qi Min's arrogant character has not changed, and he has always been contemptuous and insulting to others. Nao Chi was neither Chuzi nor Dazi, so he raised an army to resist.
King Qi Min had no power to restrain a chicken and was easily controlled by Nao Chi. Nao Chi asked King Min of Qi if he knew that the rain from the sky from Qiancheng to Bochang was blood rain. King Qi Min said proudly that he didn't know.
Nao Chi's eyes were about to burst into flames, and he said that in the area of Ying and Bo, the earth suddenly cracked, and black spring water burst out, roaring, and asked King Qi Min if he knew these things. King Qi Min still said arrogantly that he had no idea at all.
Finally, Nao Chi asked again, these days people often hear the cries of lonely ghosts in the valley, and asked King Qi Min if he knew. King Qi Min still replied arrogantly that he knew nothing.
Nao Chi, who couldn't bear it anymore, said directly that the rain of blood in the sky was a warning from God to King Qi Min; the black springs on the earth were an expression of the earth's resentment towards King Qi Min; as for the cries in the valleys, it was the people's warning to King Qi Min. Accusation.
Nao Chi means that since heaven, earth and the people all hate King Qi Min, King Qi Min has no need to live in the world. A burly and clever man walked up to King Qi Min, suddenly pulled out a knife, and cut off King Qi Min's tendons one by one like he was dissecting a corpse. Immediately afterwards, King Qi Min was put into a big drum, and the drum became King Qi Min's final destination.
