One day, Liu Bang happened to see Chen Ping, and the two began to discuss this issue in depth.
Having said this, I must mention that Chen Ping has been promoted. The captain who assisted in supervising the generals became a lieutenant in charge of supervising the generals.
It turned out that since Liu Bang asked Chen Ping, who had just arrived, to assist in supervising the generals, Liu Bang's highly qualified military generals were unhappy. He thought to himself that he had been with the King of Han through life and death, and had to be managed by a Confucian scholar. It was really irritating!
Among the military generals under Liu Bang, Jianghou Zhoubo and Changwenhou Guanying were the most temperamental. They took the lead in expressing dissatisfaction with Liu Bang: "Your Majesty, how can you use Chen Ping so highly? He only looks glamorous on the surface, but he may not have real materials in his belly." ! We have also inquired about Chen Ping's moral character. When he was in the Wei State, he was not tolerated, so he went to the Chu State. If he could not stay in the Chu State and defected to you, this is disloyal. I heard that he He committed adultery with his sister-in-law at home, and he was still lustful and shameless. Especially recently, we heard that he accepted bribes from generals in private. The more gifts he gave, the greater the benefits he gave. This is a capricious and sycophantic villain, please Your Majesty is aware of this!"
Liu Bang was shocked when he heard this. This is amazing! At that time, Confucianism was just a family tradition, and although incest was ridiculed behind the scenes, it was not a big deal. But if there is no loyalty and there is corruption, this is serious. Liu Bang immediately investigated. Chen Ping explained calmly: It's heavy. Liu Bang immediately investigated. Chen Ping explained calmly: "It is completely unjust to say that I am disloyal. Wei and Chu are unwilling to use me, so how can I not leave? It is true that I have accepted bribes. When I came to join the king, You can’t live without a penny from the State of Chu, and you can’t live without receiving money! Although I charge money, I don’t recommend the people I recommend to you casually. They are all really suitable. If you don’t believe me, go check it out. If I’m right, your Majesty, you can Accept it; if what I say is wrong and I haven’t touched a cent of the money given by others, you can remove me from my post and I will go home and farm."
After checking again and again, Liu Bang found that there was nothing wrong with Chen Ping. What was rare was that Chen Ping took money to do good things. Such talents are rare. Instead of blaming Chen Ping, Liu Bang rewarded him generously and made Chen Ping the lieutenant of the guard army, changing from assistant manager to supervisor. After that, the generals told Chen Ping that they could not defeat him, so they had nothing to say.
In fact, Liu Bang was currently blocked by Xingyang and was already at his wits' end. By promoting Chen Ping, he also found himself someone to talk to. He called Chen Ping to discuss what to do. Chen Ping said: "Although Xiang Yu respects those good men, he is stingy with rewards; Your Majesty, you are not stingy with rewards, but do not respect people. You both have your own strengths and weaknesses. Short. If you can both respect people and not be stingy with rewards, the world will soon be yours. But this is a situation that cannot be changed for a while. Now there is a quick and effective way, which is to use countermeasures. Xiang Yu's men are currently short of talents. Only Fan Zeng, Zhong Limei, Long Qie, and Zhou Yin are his right-hand assistants. If the king can spend huge sums of money to drive a wedge between these few people and Xiang Yu, given Xiang Yu's suspicious and soft-eared character, it will definitely work. In this way, What difficulties do you have in bringing peace to the world?"
Liu Bang was so impressed with Chen Ping's idea that he immediately gave Chen Ping 40,000 kilograms of gold and told Chen Ping to use it to win people's hearts.
In order to defeat Xiang Yu, Liu Bang was willing to spend money. Of course, these 40,000 kilograms of gold were not what we call gold today, but brass. Copper was a valuable thing at that time. It could be used to make money, mirrors, and handicrafts. It was a hard currency. Ordinary people could not afford copper. Real gold is of course more valuable. But at that time, gold production was too low. As mentioned earlier, Xiang Yu once rewarded Chen Ping with four hundred taels of gold. At that time, one catty was equal to sixteen taels, and four hundred taels was equal to twenty-five catties. This was already a huge sum of money.
Chen Ping is very efficient and takes action immediately after taking the money. He sent spies to sneak into the Chu army's camp with huge sums of money and spread rumors everywhere, saying that Zhong Limei and others had repeatedly made military exploits but could not be crowned kings. They were dissatisfied and planned to return to Han and destroy Xiang Yu together to divide the world. The rumors spread more and more widely and reached Xiang Yu's ears. As expected, Xiang Yu became suspicious of Zhong Limei and others.
Fan Zeng is Xiang Yu's number one adviser, and Chen Ping wants to get rid of him. However, Fan Zeng is Xiang Yu's younger brother. He is very old. He does not seek official positions or wealth. He just wants to protect Xiang Yu's empire. He wants to spread rumors about Fan Zeng. not easy. So Chen Ping had to make other plans.
At that time, Chu and Han were at war, and quarrels were inevitable. Envoys were constantly coming and going. On this day, Xiang Yu sent another envoy to Xingyang. Chen Ping couldn't let go of this opportunity and immediately took over the reception of the envoys. When it was time to eat, I saw the waiter enthusiastically carrying a fragrant and oily roast cow to the banquet. When the envoy from Chu State saw it, he was extremely satisfied. Killing a cow for food is called Tailao, and it is a very solemn dish. This dish is used to worship ancestors and heaven. Just as the envoy was about to say a few words of humility, the waiter looked up and was shocked. He quickly apologized: "This is for Yafu's envoy. This is not yours." The waiter carried the cow down, and in the blink of an eye he Bring the cups and dishes. The Chu envoy blinked and looked at it, and he was so angry: The table was full of vegetarian dishes. Compared with the roast beef just now, the gap was really huge!
The envoy was very angry and told Xiang Yu about it when he got back. From today's perspective, this is a child's play. Even if Fan Zeng really sent an envoy to see Liu Bang, the waiter could not have brought the wrong dish. It was obviously intentional. It's easy to figure things out if you think about it carefully and investigate carefully. However, Xiang Yu was deceived and thought that Fan Zeng had an affair with him.
The more Xiang Yu thought about it, the more wrong he became, and he felt that Fan Zeng was suspicious. At this time, Fan Zeng saw that Xiang Yu had besieged Xingyang for a long time without attacking. He was worried and frequently came to persuade Xiang Yu to quickly launch a decisive battle. Xiang Yu thought that this might be Fan Zeng's plot to frame him, so he resolutely refused to fight. After Fan Zeng returned, he was very strange. He didn't know why Xiang Yu suddenly changed his gender and no longer dealt with Liu Bang. He inquired secretly and suddenly realized that Xiang Yu suspected that he had colluded with Liu Bang.
Fan Zeng was heartbroken, thinking that he was more than seventy years old. Since he followed Xiang Liang, he had devoted himself to making suggestions for the Xiang family and worked hard, but in the end he suffered suspicion. Thinking of this, Fan Zeng asked Xiang Yu to resign: "The world's major events have been decided. Your Majesty, please take care of it yourself. I am old and can't do anything anymore. Please let me go home to retire." Fan Zeng had already predicted that he would win the world. It's Liu Bang. Fan Zeng resigned, but Xiang Yu immediately approved it without holding back. Fan Zeng was sad, sad and angry. He got angry and developed back gangrene. According to traditional Chinese medicine, dampness, heat and fire toxins are accumulated inside, causing heat accumulation in the internal organs, stagnation of qi and blood, and the formation of large sores on the back. Before returning to Pengcheng, Fan Zeng died of illness.
Fan Zeng's life was an unlucky one. He proposed to establish Yi Emperor, but Yi Emperor died; he followed Xiang Liang, but Xiang Liang died; he wanted to kill Liu Bang, but Liu Bang escaped; he helped Xiang Yu, but Xiang Yu doubted himself. Fan Zeng came out of the mountain at seventy, ten years younger than Jiang Taigong who met King Wen at eighty. It's a pity that none of the great things he planned for and entrusted to others were truly successful, which is really a shame for future generations.
In the final analysis, celebrities still have not met the master of the Ming Dynasty.
As a monarch, he actually had doubts about his own father-in-law, who was also his side's greatest adviser.
Back then, your sub-father kept urging you to kill Liu Bang, but now you actually suspect that he has secret connections with Liu Bang and is disloyal to you because of some rumors.
This is true: I treat others with sincerity, but others do not treat me with sincerity.
