In the twelfth lunar month of the first year of Long'an in Ji Han Dynasty, Emperor Liu Xie led the generals from the Eastern Expedition back to Luoyang.
As mentioned above, Zhuge Liang had already set the tone for this matter, saying that this battle was a great victory. All the officials had even written congratulatory messages and sent them to Taichung as soon as the emperor returned to the court. To everyone's surprise, the first thing the emperor did after returning to the palace was to issue an edict to punish himself. The edict first stated that he was "eager for success and profit, and acted inappropriately". He originally wanted to "renovate the administration of officials and govern the people with public service", but he did not want "the two bandits from the north and the south to fight for troops", so that in Kanto "wars broke out and there was no crops in the fields." , so the emperor "thought about it day and night, and was so sad that it was difficult to express".
But in the later part of the edict, the emperor changed the topic again and excused his generals: "The emperor Xuan used force and fought three battles with Shang Yun. The original evil has not been eliminated, so we should work together. Meng Jin Muye will wait for a while. I will be with you. Let's encourage each other!" That is to say, when he thought that this battle was a defeat, he actually did not punish many people who accompanied the army. Including Liang Shuang, who died in ambush in Yanshan Mountain, according to the law, he should be stripped of his title and his land should be taken back. However, the court wanted to remember that he had served in the army for more than ten years and had toiled a lot, so not only did he not punish his wife and children, but he also ordered Liang Shuang's son to seize the title. .
In addition, Zhou Buji, the left supervisor of Shanglin, Sima Yi, the right supervisor of Shanglin, Liu Bao of the Shaofu, Zhao Yun, the former general, and other people who have made meritorious service in the war also have their own rewards. Especially for Zhou Buyi, the court thought that he took the lead and used clever tactics, so he should be given a special reward. So he was promoted to the general of Fujun of the Shanglin Army, with a thousand households in the city. He jumped several levels in a day and actually controlled the power of the Shanglin Army. Even Zhou Bujie felt that this kind of favor was a bit excessive. Solid words are not accepted. But Liu Xie issued another edict, allowing him to take office safely.
Such actions were nothing more than the emperor hearing the rumors when he came, and just trying to quell the controversy between the government and the opposition. Now that he had seized the opportunity and made a good gesture, the courtiers naturally had nothing to say, and instead wrote another letter to praise Liu Xie's saintliness.
In February of the second year of Long'an, in order to commend Tuoba Li for his ability in guarding the frontier, the imperial court sent Liu Dan, the king of Pingyang, Zhu Hao, the newly appointed governor of Youzhou, Du Ji, the chief governor of Yunbei, Yanmen Taishou Xuan, Liu Bao of the Shaofu and others. King Tuoba of Beiyi Heng was weak and offered a reward of tens of millions. At the same time, he also agreed to marry Princess Heng as his concubine.
Tuoba Liwei was naturally overjoyed and donated thousands of good horses to the court as military supplies. He also hinted in his words that the reason why the Liao army was able to invade was because Daibei Youku humiliated the officials and the Murong tribe, hoping that the emperor would grant him the right to attack. But this was not something Liu Dan and others could agree to, and they all said they would discuss it later.
For the imperial court, the recruitment of 200,000 troops this time was also a large expense. Although it was not enough to damage the vitality, it had an impact on the people's morale. In addition, Sun Quan in the south gradually withdrew his army after seeing Liaodong's failure, so the fighting on both fronts temporarily stopped. The Jihan court also felt that it wanted to rest with the people. Beginning in February, Liu Xie went out of Beijing on a public trip to inspect the prefectures and counties in Hebei and Henan, and then went down to release slaves and untouchables into civilians.
There was no war in the country during this year, and appointments and inquiries between the north and the south could be considered a peaceful year. But at the beginning of autumn, two things happened that I have to mention.
And after the war, it was not that there was no punishment at all. Wei Yan, the nominal commander of the campaign and the general of the Northern Campaign, was dismissed by Liu Xie and demoted to the prefect of Yinchuan, part-time in charge of Longyou Ma Zheng. Longyou provides tens of thousands of war horses to the country every year, and all the armies of the five prefectures rely on it to support them. Their responsibilities are not unimportant. However, since the system has been established long ago, there is no merit in providing horses, and young horses will have to suffer. Moreover, the country here has been cultivating for many years without any military disturbances. Although it is a good thing for the people, for the warriors who rely on licking blood with their swords to gain wealth, it is really a hard job that others can avoid.
The reason why Wei Yan ended up like this was because of the conversation he had with Liang Shuang in Zhuoxian County. After Liang Shuang's defeat, the court sorted out what happened. Somehow, someone spread this conversation to Liu Xie's ears. After hearing this, Liu Xie remained calm and sent an envoy to ask Wei Yan if this happened. Wei Yan was sincere. After hearing what the messenger said, he didn't think the matter was serious, so he honestly admitted: "It is indeed true."
Unexpectedly, when the envoy came for the second time with an edict, he was rebuked like a storm. Liu Xie claimed in the edict that Wei Yan had "presumed his own will and used troops privately", and "made unreasonable statements and disturbed the morale of the army" and "appointed They are not human beings. They make friends with each other from top to bottom and belong to each other with selfish motives." As a result, they "lose their troops and generals and bring humiliation to themselves."
At that time, all the generals of Beifu were watching. Originally, although Wei Yan had military skills, he was not good at dealing with interpersonal relationships. During this campaign, many Beifu generals had problems with him. Therefore, when everyone first listened to the edict, most of them came to see Wei Yan's jokes. But after hearing the imperial edict, many people's expressions changed. After all, according to the imperial edict, almost every article could be used to convict Wei Yan of death. People who didn't know about it thought that the angel had brought a knife and axe-hand and was about to behead Wei Yan. It was not until they heard that Wei Yan was to be demoted to Yinchuan as an official that everyone heaved a sigh of relief. Many people understood that this was probably because of Prime Minister Chen Chong's sake, and it was not easy to operate on him.
But Wei Yan was so angry that he turned livid. He was a direct follower of Liu Bei and Chen Chong. He began to join the army at the age of fourteen and made countless achievements. Later, he was promoted to the governor of Nanfu and became a prominent official, but no one dared to scold him. Unexpectedly, Liu Bei died of illness less than a year ago. Not only did he surrender his military power, but he also heard such a reprimand from the new emperor. He was so angry that he almost drew his sword on the spot! It's just that he also knew that his words and deeds had a wide impact and it was not easy to lash out in public, so he almost gritted his teeth and accepted the edict.
Ten days later, when Wei Yan was handing over all military affairs, he left Luoyang and said that he would go to his hometown in Nanyang before taking up his post. As a result, when he returned to Nanyang, he immediately fell seriously ill, and after several months he was still alive. There are no signs of improvement.
Then there is the matter of Ma Dai, the guard of Muling Gate, being imprisoned. Speaking of which, this was another verbal crime, but unlike Wei Yan who reported on others, Ma Dai brought the disaster upon himself. This also starts with the personnel changes in Henan.
Although the imperial court fought against the Liao army in Hebei, it also suffered many losses in Huaibei. After all, although Sun Quan did not have the guts to launch a decisive battle against the imperial court, he was able to take the opportunity to send troops to plunder the populations of Qing and Hezhou in order to enrich Xuzhou. From July to October of the first year of Long'an alone, he ordered Lu Meng to move more than 3,000 households and more than 10,000 people to farm in the Xiapi and Donghai areas.
The imperial court was unwilling to start another war with the Wu people, but it could not sit back and watch their wanton exchanges. Then Hao Zhao was appointed as the cavalry captain to guard Guyang, and Ma Dai was appointed as the heroic cavalry general to guard Muling Pass. Unexpectedly, after Ma Dai took office, he was quite dissatisfied with his current status.
It turned out that before Liu Bei's death, he had made arrangements for the generals in the Xifu and transferred them all from Longyou to Shu. Although it nominally strengthened their power, it actually reduced their foundation. After Liu Xie came to power, he began to unscrupulously transfer the generals of the Xifu to separate them from the tribe. Among them, the focus was on the Ma family in Fufeng. Except for Ma Teng, who had retired in Luoyang, the most prominent Ma Chao was put on hold. Ma Xiu was transferred to Nanfu as the Fengche Captain, and Ma Tie was transferred to Shanglin as the Cavalry Captain. , while Ma Dai was first transferred to Shanglin, and then moved to Dongfu to guard Mulingguan.
It should be noted that although Mulingguan is known as the gate of Qingzhou, it is only a small city in the mountains after all. The garrison only has more than 2,000 soldiers, and they are not elite soldiers. Compared with the eight thousand fine cavalry commanded by Ma Dai before in Shanglin Army, the difference is insignificant. Even if there is another war in the country in the future, what use will he have? It can be said that not only has the residence been changed to a small border town, but the relatives can no longer speak, and there is probably no hope of promotion in the future. Thinking that his family had worked hard for the country for half his life, but quickly lost power in the new dynasty, Ma Dai could not help but feel dissatisfied. Especially when I saw the emperor placing cronies in the army, the younger generation such as Zhou Buyi, who was more than ten years younger than me, actually became the general of the army that he had dreamed of in one breath! It made him even more angry.
It would be fine if he was just relying on his talent. I had already packed my luggage and was about to leave Luoyang for Muling Pass. However, I was speechless and complained to Liu Fang, who came from the palace to announce the edict and supervise me. Is the mausoleum guarding Guan An? Now there are powerful enemies in the north and south of the imperial court, and we need the service of a veteran minister like me who has experienced many battles!"
Liu Fang remained calm and only reported back to Liu Xie what Ma Dai said. Liu Xie was dissatisfied when he heard this: "If you ask him to guard the gate, he will guard the gate. Who does he think he is? Has he made any meritorious service in Hebei this time? Why, do you still want to return to Longyou and become a local emperor?"
He ordered his envoy to bring an oral message to Muling Pass to blame Ma Dai. He repeated the original words to Ma Dai and ordered him to reflect on his mistakes. After the envoy finished pronouncing the decree, he asked one more question before leaving: "What message do you want to bring to His Majesty?"
Ma Dai was suppressing his anger. Hearing his question, blood rushed to his forehead and he said carelessly: "Your Majesty said this, but he underestimated our family. Back then, we surrendered to the late emperor, and the prime minister incorporated me into the Shanglin Army. My family contributed 10,000 songs. Later, I conquered the Western Regions for thousands of miles, and I was there, drinking the wind and sand, without complaining. I also defeated other countries, and I personally captured the general of Qiuci, which was a great achievement. Not to mention the battle in Pingcheng. , the late Emperor almost died. It was I who burned down the camp of the Cao thieves and forced the thieves to retreat, thus saving the late Emperor's life. In the ancient sage dynasty, I would have been a Marquis of Ten Thousand Households for these merits. It was only because of my heart to serve the country that I could Just don’t care!”
The messenger was silent. Ma Dai continued to talk, and he would not feel happy unless he said it out loud: "In this battle in Hebei, Your Majesty did not dare to take the lead. Instead, he commanded remotely from Xindu. The generals were not allowed freedom in front of them, and they were not allowed to command after them. It is rare to be able to expel them from the country. If you still want to achieve great achievements, isn’t it just a dream? Instead of blaming me for failing to achieve great achievements, Your Majesty, why not think carefully about the next campaign strategy and the suitable commander-in-chief? How can it be difficult to pacify Liao and destroy Wu?"
Speaking of this, Ma Dai seemed to feel that he had already said it, and changed his words: "I just want to serve the country! I hope your Majesty will learn from it!"
Liu Xie was in charge of matters in Chang'an at this time. When he heard what Ma Dai said relayed by the envoy, he became furious. He immediately ordered Sun Zi beside him to write an edict, and Liu Fang took him with him. He led the Qingqi to fly to Muling Pass and ordered Ma Dai to return to the court to punish him.
