Qi was defeated, its capital was destroyed, and its monarch was killed. As a symbol of Qi State, where is Mengchangjun? At that time, Lord Mengchang was in Wei State and Qi State was conquered. He also "contributed" a lot of strength. Therefore, historians such as Sima Qian and Sima Guang detested his betrayal of Qi.
Sima Qian said that Lord Mengchang "joys himself in being hospitable", which means that although Lord Mengchang had three thousand diners, his starting point was not for the benefit of Qi, but for his own personal benefit. Sima Guang put it more clearly, Lord Mengchang "stole his monarch's salary to establish a private party, build a false reputation, insult his monarch by insulting his superiors, and beetle his people below. He is a hero of traitors, and he has nothing to lose"! What happened was this. After Mengchangjun was deposed, Feng Xuan, who played the sword and sang songs, told him that cunning rabbits have three nests. As long as Mengchangjun gives him a carriage, he can find three shelters for Mengchangjun. When all the diners left Mengchangjun, the loyal Feng Xuan continued to stay by Mengchangjun's side, and Mengchangjun let him do the work.
Feng Xuan drove a carriage to the state of Wei. He told King Wei Hui that the great sage Mengchang Jun had been dismissed from his official position by Qi. If Wei could hire Mengchang Jun with humble words and generous gifts, Wei would be able to find out the truth about Qi. In this way, it would be easier for Wei to dominate the world. After hearing this, King Hui of Wei quickly sent someone to invite Lord Mengchang.
Feng Xuan went to see King Qi Min immediately at a faster speed. He told King Qi Min that the reason why Qi was so powerful was because of Lord Mengchang's contribution. The State of Wei heard that Lord Mengchang had been dismissed, and had already sent people to pick him up. If Lord Mengchang is taken away, Wei's strength will surpass Qi's. Therefore, for the sake of the national interest, King Qi Min should restore Lord Mengchang to his official position as soon as possible.
King Qi Min suddenly woke up and quickly sent envoys to pick up Lord Mengchang. At the same time, he sent people to the border to intercept the people who came from Wei to pick up Lord Mengchang. When the Wei envoy heard that Lord Mengchang had resumed his position in Qi, he returned in despair.
Lord Mengchang told Feng Xuan that he hated the diners who abandoned him when they saw him losing power. Now that he has regained his high position, if those diners come to seek refuge again, he will definitely spit in their faces.
In order to enlighten Mengchangjun, Feng Xuan used the market as a metaphor. At dawn, everyone crowded into the market because the market had everything they needed; after dusk, people left one after another without even looking at the market. This does not mean that people love the morning and hate the evening.
What Feng Chen means is that it is normal for many people to attach themselves to the rich because they can get what they need from the rich.
Under Feng Xuan's lobbying, King Wei Zhao made King Mengchang his prime minister in order to deal with Qi in the east and Qin in the west.
When the princes jointly attacked Qi, Lord Mengchang also made suggestions, and King Zhao of Wei trusted him very much. After King Qi Xiang succeeded to the throne, Lord Mengchang adopted a neutral status, indicating that he did not belong to any king.
Without participating in any struggle, Lord Mengchang spent his old age peacefully in the state of Wei and died in peace.
The powerful countries in the East were severely damaged, and international forces were reorganized. First of all, under the leadership of Le Yi, the Yan State rose rapidly and ranked among the seven heroes of the Warring States Period. The princes hated and feared it; secondly, the Song State, which was annexed by Qi State, was divided between Qin and Wei. Wei Ran, the Marquis of Rang, finally won the Song Dynasty. The richest Tao County in the country and the surrounding areas were occupied by the Wei State; finally, the Huaibei area returned to the embrace of the Chu State.
Yan State is a small country and does not have enough troops to occupy Qi State. Therefore, Le Yi fought a blitzkrieg, that is, leading the army to attack quickly and attack Qi's strategic center. After occupying important areas, go back and clean up Qi's remaining defeated troops.
Under the sweep of the elite division led by Le Yi, most of Qi State fell, leaving only the two cities of Ju and Jimo (southeast of today's Pingdu City, Shandong Province). King Qi Min was killed by the Chu general Nao Chi in Jucheng.
The rampant naochi aroused the anger of the people of Qi, especially the royalist faction headed by Wang Sunjia. The reason why Wang Sunjia dared to openly resist Nao Chi was because of his mother.
Wang Sunjia has been serving King Qi Min. When the Yan State invaded the capital, King Min of Qi fled, but Wang Sunjia did not know where King Min fled to. After returning home, his mother said to him: "You go out early and come back late every day. I always lean on the door of the house and look forward to your return. If you don't come back at night, I will still lean on the door of the house and look forward to your return. You serve The king has escaped, but you don’t know where he has fled, so why do you want to come home?”
After hearing the old mother's scolding, Wang Sunjia was very excited, so he ran to the alley, exposed his right arm, climbed up and shouted: The Chu general Nao Chi killed our king, and the people of Qi should avenge him.
Before long, more than 400 burly men were participating. The crowd gathered their strength and, under the leadership of Wang Sunjia, attacked the Chu army's camp aggressively. Nao Chi was unprepared and was killed in the war. The Chu army was defeated.
Wangsun Jia was brave and incapable of leading Qi, so he could only search for the prince Tian Fazhang everywhere. A few days later, the prince was finally found in a wealthy family. At that time, the prince had already made a private decision, which surprised everyone.
It turned out that after King Qi Min was killed by Nao Chi, the terrified Tian Fazhang secretly changed into a servant's clothes and ran away. After wandering for a period of time, he went to Tai Shi's house and was responsible for watering vegetables.
Taishi Huansheng had a daughter who was in her prime. The girl saw Tian Fazhang's extraordinary bearing, so she entrusted him with her life. Soon, after Wang Sunjia and others found the prince, they temporarily made Ju the capital. Tian Fazhang succeeded to the throne and was known as King Qi Xiang.
The Taishi girl was named queen, but her father was not happy at all because without his knowledge, his daughter had a private life-long contract with the gardener. Although the father was unhappy, the daughter was still polite to him. From this small incident, we can see that King Qi Xiang and Queen Qi Xiang are very clever. It is not difficult to explain why she has been able to dominate Qi's foreign policy for decades.
For Qi State, the victory in Jucheng was only a small victory, because Jimo produced a more strategic leader, Tian Dan. This is what Qi State is really thankful for.
Tian Dan was a minister of King Qi Min, but his official position was very small. When Le Yi was about to capture Linzi, the whole city was panicked and fled one after another. Tian Dan was one step ahead of others and fled to Anping first.
Soon, the Yan army rushed towards Anping again. The people of Anping were panicked, but Tian Dan was the only one who commanded calmly. But he only commanded his own servants. The city was about to be destroyed, and many wealthy families took their valuables and fled quickly in carriages. Tian Dan was not in a hurry. Instead of running in a hurry, he first installed two hard and heavy iron bridles on the axle.
When we arrived at the gate of the city, there were so many carriages that they inevitably collided with each other, and the axles of many carriages were broken. However, Tian Dan's carriage was safe because it had two iron halters.
After fleeing to Jimo, people found Tian Dan to be the most strategist and elected him as their leader. Jimo is an isolated city, surrounded by Le Yi's army, and the possibility of being captured is very high.
What made Tian Dan even more troublesome was that in order to stabilize his mood and win over the people, Le Yi continued to spread news in the occupied areas. As long as he surrendered sincerely, the Yan army would not arrest him and would provide him with food and drink. When King Qi Min was in power, he was very arrogant and had many harsh punishments that were criticized. Le Yi not only abolished harsh punishments and laws, but also improved the public security environment, lowered taxes, attracted sages from Qi to join the court as officials, and rewarded farming and weaving.
Surrounded by the prosperous post-war situation, people in Jimo City wanted to come out and surrender because they had been besieged by Le Yi for three years.
Qi Jun’s secret weapon
During the three years of siege, Tian Dan did not stop. Like Le Yi, he also carried out psychological tricks to tightly tie the people in Jimo City to their emotions for their ancestors.
At the same time, Tian Dan also used a divorce plan to drive a wedge between Le Yi and King Yan Zhao. Some people slandered King Yan Zhao, saying that Le Yi could capture more than 70 cities in Qi in a short time, and even the capital Linzi could be captured. It has actually taken three years now to capture a small Jimo city. From this point of view, it is not that it cannot be attacked, but that Le Yi does not want to attack because he wants to wait for the price. The slanderers even said that Le Yi wanted to dominate Qi and proclaim himself the king of Qi.
But King Yan Zhao did not listen to the slander. In order to support and encourage Le Yi, he held a grand banquet, attended by hundreds of civil and military officials and envoys from various countries. At the banquet, King Yan Zhao publicly reprimanded the people who had slandered Le Yi. What he meant was: The reason why the Yan Kingdom is what it is today is all because of respecting talents and trusting in the use of talents. The State of Qi took advantage of the internal chaos in Yan and sent troops to invade and even kill King Kuai of Yan. This kind of deep hatred is difficult to avenge, because Qi is a powerful country. Without Le Yi, King Yan Zhao alone would not be able to defeat Qi, let alone capture more than 70 cities of Qi.
King Yan Zhao once promised that as long as someone can avenge him, he will not hesitate to give half of the Yan Kingdom to the other party. Le Yi led the army to occupy Qi State. It can be said that Qi State belongs to him and he has the right to be king. Besides, if Le Yi becomes the Queen of Qi, Yan State can become a brotherly country with Qi State and jointly resist foreign enemies. It is really a great thing.
Some people have ulterior motives and deliberately drive a wedge between King Yan Zhao and Le Yi, a crime that can lead to death. King Zhao of Yan gave an order, and those who were slandered and slandered were dragged out and chopped.
Afterwards, King Yan Zhao sent the queen's clothes to Le Yi's wife and the crown prince's clothes to Le Yi's son. He also ordered the prime minister to go to the front line and read out the edict for Le Yi to be the king of Qi.
Le Yi burst into tears with gratitude and refused to accept it. Unfortunately, the good times did not last long. Two years later, King Yan Zhao died and King Yan Hui, who was at odds with Le Yi, succeeded to the throne.
Just as the death of King Xuan of Qi was a turning point in Qi's hegemony, the death of King Yan Zhao was also a turning point in Yan's invasion of Qi. It marked the beginning of the failure of Yan's invasion of Qi.
Tian Dan seized the opportunity and once again used a stratagem to drive a wedge between King Yan Hui and Le Yi. The content of the slander this time was the same as last time. The difference was that King Yan Zhao did not believe it, but King Yan Hui believed it. At first, Leyang was able to destroy the Zhongshan Kingdom only because of the trust of Wei Wenhou, but King Yan Zhao, who trusted Leyi, had left.
Le Yi, who was suspected by King Yan Hui, no longer dared to return to Yan State, but went straight to Zhao State. When Le Yi left, "the people of Yan were very angry." After that, King Yan Hui reused Qi Jie who could only talk eloquently.
Taking advantage of the unstable morale of the Yan army, Tian Dan made a big splash. First of all, before every meal in Jimo City, ancestors must be sacrificed. There were so many good meals and vegetables that the birds in the sky flew down to eat. As time passed, countless birds circled and danced over Jimo, which was very spectacular. The Yan army outside the city looked at it and felt that gods were helping Qi. Not only that, Tian Dan also threatened that gods would descend to earth to help Jimo City defeat the enemy. In order to be more realistic, Tian Dan changed his tone and said that gods would send teachers to guide him.
"Can I be your teacher?" One day a soldier said to Tian Dan, but he ran away as soon as he finished speaking. Tian Dan grabbed the soldier, asked him to sit on the upper seat facing the east, and treated him with the etiquette of serving a teacher.
"I lied to you. In fact, I am useless." The soldier said in panic.
"You don't need to say anything." Tian Dan said firmly.
From then on, whenever Tian Dan gave an order, he would consult this "teacher sent by the gods to earth."
Immediately afterwards, Tian Dan said again: The people of Jimo City are most afraid of seeing the Yan army cutting off the noses of Qi prisoners. If the Qi army cuts off the noses of prisoners, the next time the two armies meet, Jimo City will definitely not attack itself. break.
Qi Jie naively believed it, pulled out the Qi army prisoners, and lined them up in a straight line under the scorching sun. After giving the order, the noses of the prisoners of Qi army fell to the ground one after another, and their screams of pain shook the sky and the earth.
Seeing this tragic situation, the people of Jimo City were filled with indignation and hated the Yan army to the core. On the other hand, they completely gave up the idea of surrender for fear of having their noses cut off.
A few days later, Tian Dan said again: The people of Jimo City were most afraid of having their ancestral graves dug outside the city because it would insult their ancestors.
This time the robbers believed it again, and even dug up all the graves outside Jimo City and burned the bones to ashes.
Seeing the ashes flying all over the sky, the people of Jimo cried bitterly. Their anger suddenly increased tenfold, and they all asked to go out of the city to kill the enemy.
When the time came, Tian Dan began to build fortifications. Not only did he pick up a plywood shovel and build fortifications with the soldiers, he also organized his wives and concubines into the team and rewarded the soldiers with all the food.
Not only that, Tian Dan also collected all the property of the people and obtained a total of one thousand yi of gold, and asked the richest and most powerful people to give it to the Yan army, and asked the Yan army not to capture their wives, sons and daughters after they broke through Jimo City.
Yan Jun took a closer look and saw that the guards in Jimo City were all old, weak, sick, and disabled, and there were even women. His guard was relaxed. At this time, Tian Dan sent people to the Yan army camp to discuss surrender.
General Le Yi fought for five years, but Jimo City was impregnable, with no results. As soon as Qi Jie took office, Jimo called for surrender, and the Yan army was extremely happy.
At the agreed time and place, Qi Jie leisurely waited for Tian Dan's surrender. But what he was waiting for was not the surrender of the army, but more than 1,000 colorful monsters that suddenly rushed out of Mo City. These monsters were still burning with fire.
These monsters alone are terrifying. Who would have thought that behind these monsters, there are more than 5,000 burly men holding big swords.
It turns out that the old, weak, sick and disabled guards on the city wall were an illusion and were all Tian Dan's deception. He had long secretly trained a group of death squads.
These flaming monsters are not mythical creatures, but tall and massive cattle. Tian Dan covered them with quilts made of bright red silk, painted some colorful dragon patterns on them, tied sharp knives to the horns of the cows, and tied a reed soaked in grease to the cows' tails.
In order to enable more than 1,000 fat cattle to attack the Yan army at the same time, increase the terrifying momentum and kill the opponent by surprise. Tian Dan risked the city wall being breached and secretly dug dozens of large holes. Wherever the fields have been cut, the city walls are very thin. If there are smart people in the Yan army, they will definitely find it. It's a pity that it was not Le Yi who was riding high, so he didn't find out.
The cattle were in pain from the fierce fire and rushed towards the Yan army camp like crazy. It was night again, and the Yan army was defenseless. They were either injured by the cattle or hacked to death by the 5,000 strong men behind the cattle. At the same time, the old, weak, sick and disabled guards on the city wall beat drums vigorously to cheer, and some even shouted loudly behind the 5,000 warriors, which was really loud.
The original text of the historical records is, "The ox-tailed torches showed off brightly, and the Yan army regarded them as dragons, and all those who touched them were killed or injured. Five thousand people attacked them with their titles, and the city made a noise to follow them. The old and the weak all struck the bronze vessels to make a sound, which moved the heaven and earth. .”
When Wu Jiansi of the Qing Dynasty was reading "Historical Records: Biography of Tian Dan", he made an annotation: "Tian Dan is a strange person in the Warring States Period, and the fire ox is a strange thing in the Warring States Period, so it became a strange article by Tai Shigong. His voice, appearance and momentum are like windmill rain. The formation was crowded with people, and almost people abandoned their books and went to the table." ("Historical Essays")
Amidst the shouts of killing that resounded throughout the world, Qijie was unable to quickly organize a battle formation, and even he himself died in the chaos. The Yan army broke up and fled for their lives. The Qi army took advantage of the victory and pursued them, killing them very hard!
At this time, other fallen cities counterattacked one after another. Without the leadership of a general, the Yan army was like a mob and was expelled from the borders of Qi in a matter of seconds.
After Tian Dan took back more than 70 cities occupied by the Yan army, he went to Jucheng to welcome King Qi Xiang back to Linzi.
In 279 BC, King Qi Xiang returned to Linzi. In form, Qi State is still the former Qi State. However, in essence, Qi has become a small country and is no longer the overlord of the East.
Although Le Yi did not completely occupy Qi State, and Yan State did not completely destroy Qi State, Qi State was defeated by Le Yi's army and by King Yan Zhao's recruiting platform.
It was not until Qi Jie was killed and the Yan army was forced to retreat to the Yellow River by Qi that King Yan Hui realized that he regretted that Qi Jie should not have replaced Le Yi. At this time, Le Yi was in the state of Zhao. The state of Zhao rewarded Le Yi with Guanjin and named him Wangzhujun.
Although King Yan Hui regretted it, he still resented Le Yi because he was afraid that Le Yi would lead the Zhao army to attack Yan for revenge, so he sent an envoy to rebuke Le Yi:
"King Yan Hui had just succeeded to the throne and was not familiar with the affairs of the country, so he was deceived by the slanderous words of traitors. At that time, he transferred you back to the Yan Kingdom because he felt sorry for you who had been away at war for many years and wanted you to have a rest. Who would have thought that you would actually listen to the slanderous words? , mistakenly thought that the king wanted to harm you, and secretly ran to the State of Zhao. After you left, the Yan army was defeated by the Qi army. How could you be worthy of the kindness of King Zhao of Yan?"
These words put all the responsibility on Le Yi, and King Yan Hui became the victim.
To show his ambition, Le Yi wrote an impassioned letter to King Yan Hui. Le Yi first talked about King Yan Zhao's great use of him and his desire to retaliate against Qi State, and then pointed out that he united the vassal states to defeat Qi State and achieved the greatest achievement for King Yan Zhao since the Five Hegemons. King Yan Zhao was also very satisfied. However, "A good author does not necessarily have to be a good author, and a good beginning does not necessarily have to end well." Wu Zixu did not understand this truth and eventually died at the hands of Fu Chai. Wu Zixu died with his eyes closed, and Le Yi did not want to make the same mistake as him, so he had to flee to other vassal states. He promised, "A gentleman will never make a bad sound in his dealings" ("Historical Records: Biography of Le Yi"). No matter what, he will definitely not lead troops to attack Yan for Zhao State because of personal grudges.
Since Le Yi was chivalrous and not an enemy of the Yan State, King Yan Hui named Le Yi's son Le Jian the King of Chang State. From then on, Le Yi traveled between Yan and Zhao and became friendly with King Hui of Yan. Both Yan and Zhao appointed him as a guest minister. Finally, Le Yi died of old age in Zhao State.
"Historical Records" records: "In the beginning of the Qi Dynasty, Kuai Tong and his father-in-law read Le Yi's letter to King Yan, and they cried without discarding the book." Because Le Yi was magnanimous and a gentleman of noble character, and what he faced was, He is a king who always treats a gentleman with a villain's heart. The contrast between the villain and the gentleman highlights the noble character of Le Yi.
Like King Yan Hui, King Qi Xiang was also a villain with a rat's belly and a chicken's heart. He was jealous of talents and talents. The kings of the vassal states are not as good as one generation after another, so it is not difficult to understand their demise.
At that time, Tian Shan recovered more than 70 cities in Qi State in one fell swoop, and his hard work was very successful. The people of Qi all believed that Tian Dan would proclaim himself king. But Tian Dan did not do this. He was content to be subordinate to others and welcomed King Qi Xiang. He only served as prime minister. After becoming the prime minister, Tian Dan had to take care of everything in order to help Qi recover from the war as soon as possible.
Once, Tian Dan saw an old man lying by the Zi River, his feet bare and about to freeze to death. It turned out that this old man in thin clothes crossed Zishui alone.
Looking at the poor old man, Tian Dan hurriedly took off his fox fur coat and wrapped the old man up. Tian Dan never thought that just because of this small thing of saving people, he almost died in the hands of King Qi Xiang.
In Qi State, Tian Dan's reputation was already very high. If others spread the beautiful story about him as a "man undressing his clothes", his reputation would be as high as his master's.
The corrupt aristocratic officials in Qi were jealous of Tian Dan's talents and always wanted to rectify Tian Dan. Taking advantage of this "great opportunity", they turn good things into bad things and small things into big things.
King Qi Xiang listened to the slander and said to himself: "Tian Dan does everything he can to win people's hearts. He has only one purpose, which is to plot my throne. If he doesn't strike first, he will definitely fall into Tian Dan's hands."
As soon as the words came out of his mouth, King Qi Xiang regretted it, because there was an attendant beside him, known as the Pearl Fisher.
"Did you hear anything just now?"
King Qi Xiang asked in fear, because he was really afraid that Tian Dan would strike first.
"Heard everything."
King Qi Xiang was really shocked by the pearl diver's bold answer, and suspected that he was Tian Dan's confidant.
"Since you heard everything, what do you think I should do?" King Qi Xiang asked this deliberately, because he wanted to confirm whether the pearl diver was Tian Dan's confidant.
The pearl diver told King Qi Xiang not to worry, as long as he followed the current, all difficulties would be eliminated invisibly. First of all, King Qi Xiang should reward Tian Dan. If Tian Dan was rewarded, the world would think that Tian Dan did good deeds for King Qi Xiang. In this way, all the hearts and minds won by Tian Dan belonged to King Qi Xiang.
Secondly, King Qi Xiang should punish those who slandered Tian Dan so that others would not dare to sow discord again. If someone instigates the relationship between King Qi Xiang and Tian Dan, it will prove that Tian Dan and King Qi Xiang are not in harmony, and the world will not transfer the gratitude towards Tian Dan to King Qi Xiang.
A few days later, in the court hall, in front of all the officials, King Qi Xiang treated Tian Dan with great courtesy and expressed his deep condolences for Tian Dan's behavior as a "undresser".
King Qi Xiang said that he was very concerned about the suffering of the people and hoped that someone would fulfill this duty for him. Tian Dan gave the people food and clothing, which was in line with his wishes.
After this funny performance, King Qi Xiang took away the credit of Tian Dan's "undresser".
Not only that, but a few days later, government relief offices were set up in the streets and alleys of Qi State, specifically to provide relief to the hungry and cold.
After the people received the relief, they all said: "Tian Dan's lover! Alas, this is the king's teaching benefit!" ("Warring States Policy·Qi Ce Liu·Yan Attack Qi Qi Defeat")
It means, oh, it turns out that the reason why Tian Dan loves and protects the people is all because of King Qi Xiang’s good teaching!
Therefore, King Qi Xiang did not kill Tian Dan after all, nor did he design to drive Tian Dan out of Qi State, but instead named Tian Dan Lord Anping.
Sima Qian admired Tian Dan's combat strategy and pointed out that "the soldiers can win with righteousness and strangeness. Those who are good will have endless surprises. Strangeness and righteousness also create each other, just like the unprovoked ring."
These few sentences are consistent with Wu Jiansi's view of the Qing Dynasty, that is, Tian Dan was a strange person in the Warring States Period, and the Battle of Jimo was a far-reaching war in the history of the Warring States Period.
