Topics in this issue
Wei Ran served as a chancellor for nearly 30 years during the reign of King Qin Zhao, and was popular among his henchmen in the dynasty. However, such a powerful minister was defeated in the power game with King Qin Zhao. Not only Wei Ran, at the beginning of the reign of King Yingzheng of Qin, the powerful minister Yan Yi rebelled, and also suffered a similar fate to Wei Ran.
Why can't the qin's vassals succeed in rebellion? What is the secret of the King of Qin sitting firmly in the country?
Although it is regrettable that King Qin Zhaowang showed a slow appearance in the matter of receiving and eventually appointing Fan Ju, the arrival of this Kwantung wanderer will correct the increasingly distorted political ecology of the Qin State, but it seems that fate is predestined
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In 272 BC, when Fan Ju entered Qin, King Qin Zhao, still immersed in the joy of Huayang's great victory, may not have known that the Qin army still had the opportunity to jia Yuyong and conquer Daliang in one fell swoop, but the words of The Wei state's master Xu Jia to Qin Xiang Wei Ran made the plan to occupy Daliang abort.
Xu Jia said to Wei Ran:
"Fu lightly betrayed Chu and Zhao's soldiers, the city of Lingqi, and fought 300,000 people, and Zhi bi lifted it, and the subject thought that since the beginning of the division of heaven and earth to the present, there is no one who has not tasted it." If you attack and do not pull out, the Qin soldiers will stop, And Tao Yi will perish, then the previous achievements will be abandoned. (Omitted)
And if a king gains the land, will he be a soldier? Dividing the Jin dynasty, the Qin soldiers did not attack and Wei Bi followed suit and An Yi,
And opened two lanes for Tao, and almost exhausted the Song Dynasty
, Wei Bi follows the single father. Qin bing can be complete and monarchical, why not? What is not the case? May the King be careful and not endangered. ”
- "The Chronicle of the Marquis of Yong"
Xu Jia warned Wei Ran that if the State of Qin's determination to attack Daliang was irreparable, then the State of Wei, facing a test of life and death, would mobilize the country's armed forces—at least 100 counties, totaling no less than 300,000 troops—to launch a fierce battle against the State of Qin to defend the capital.
In case the Qin army lost, Wei Guo's follow-up counterattack would definitely threaten Wei Ran's Fengyi Dingtao.
In order to ensure Tao's safety, Xu Jia suggested that Wei Ran cancel the offensive operations against Da Liang, and in return, the State of Wei would sacrifice Dai County and An Yi to the State of Qin. In this way, the connection between Dingtao and the Qin state itself is expected to be strengthened, and the defense security will be more secure.
Xu Jia's remarks finally worked, because he firmly grasped Wei Ran's core interests and concerns—if Wei Ran had been on the side of Qin Xiang for the sake of Qin Xiang's hegemony in the past 20 years, then now
He was apparently more willing to imagine himself as the head of state of the Tao state to be established in the future, and to fight for more benefits for his "pro-son" Dingtao
Whether or not doing so would hurt the Qin state to which he had once been loyal.
The expansion of Xiang Guo's selfish desires was tantamount to an elbow for King Qin Zhao, and its threat far exceeded that of the soldiers of the Six Kingdoms of Shandong.
Praying mantises catch cicadas, yellow finches in the back. Wei Ran cat secretly dug the corner of the Qin state under the eyes of King Qin Zhao, but he himself was also stared at by a person behind him, that person was Fan Ju.
Wei Ran made secret diplomacy with the State of Wei before attacking Daliang, and the envoy of the State of Wei who was responsible for contacting him was The Great Master Xu Jia. Coincidentally, Fan Ju, a wanderer from the State of Wei, was a protégé of Xu Jia before entering Qin, and he was forced to flee to the Qin State because he was jealous of Xu Jia.
From the beginning of his entry into Qin, Fan Ju repeatedly wrote to King Zhao, reminding him that the State of Qin was in danger and attributing wei Ran to the scourge that endangered the country.
A foreigner who had escaped into exile dared to bite the country like this, and if he didn't know anything about Wei Ran's secret deal with Xu Jia, it was difficult to imagine where Fan Ju had such a confidence
Beginning in 269 BC, the Qin army encountered successive blockades from Zhao Andi in Yique and Jiyi. These two defeats not only left Wei Ran's Qin Xiang career with a rare failure, but also shook King Qin Zhao's confidence in him.
The bitter King of Qin zhao finally accepted Fan Ju's proposal to attack from afar, shifted the focus of the Qin army's attack back to the two weak neighbors of Han and Wei, and successfully captured Huaiyi and Xingqiu from the State of Wei.
The Qin army regained its prestige, the Eastern Crusades improved, and King Qin Zhao's trust in Fan Ju also deepened.
Seeing that the time was ripe, Fan Ju finally shot a fatal arrow at Wei Ran, who had lost his position.
He once again applied for a secret conversation with King Qin Zhao:
"The present minister heard about the Empress Dowager qin, the marquis of Yong, Gaoling, Huayang, and Jingyang Zuozhi, and the king of Qin, and this is also the case with the likes of Empress Dowager Qin and Li Dui. And the three generations of husbands have been destroyed by the country, the monarch has been entrusted with the government, the wine has been galloped, and the hunting has not listened to the affairs of the government. Those who are given it, jealous of their abilities, are concealed by their subordinates for their own selfishness. If the Lord does not plan for the Lord and the Lord is not enlightened, he loses his kingdom.
Now there are those who have ranked above and above the ranks of the great officials, down to the king, and there are no one who is not a person of the kingdom. Seeing that the king is independent of the dynasty, and the subjects are afraid of the king, there are Qin people, not the princes and descendants.
”
- "The Biography of Fan Julie"
In this secret conversation, Fan Ju gave the most serious warning to King Qin Zhao. He warned King Zhao that Wei Ran of Xiangguo had inserted eyeliner all over the court to isolate Junshang. If it is allowed to develop, the community will be worried about overturning and usurping.
Wei Ran served as an assistant minister for nearly 30 years, and his protégés were all over the country. At the same time, the conspiracy at this time established an independent state in Dingtao, and he did pose a serious threat to King Qin Zhao.
However, we should not overestimate Wei Ran's political energy and mistakenly believe that at this time he already had the ability and tendency to overwhelm King Qin Zhao
Looking at the history of the Qin State after the Shang Martingale Transformation Law, the foundation of the monarchy of this country is very solid, and the institutional guarantee is relatively perfect, the key of which is
The command of the armed forces of the Qin state has always been firmly in the hands of the monarch
According to the provisions of the Qin system, all requisitions or mobilization of the army must be based on the jade seal, the envoys who send troops must be tested by the tiger symbol, and the troops who are recruited must hold the festival, otherwise the key roads in all places must not be passed through customs clearance and release. In this strict system of the trinity of seals, symbols, and knots, the key link is the tiger symbol. The inscription of the new Tiger Rune that now exists reads:
Whoever is armoured and employs more than fifty soldiers will be able to meet the king's charm and dare to do it. Burnt things, although they do not know how to spell, do the deeds.
- "The New Tiger Rune"
Usually, to mobilize an army of more than 50 people, it is necessary to meet the tiger symbol.
Strict control of military command minimizes the risk of rebellion among the powerful.
When King Qin Zhao's great-grandson, The Prince of Qin, Yingzheng, was in power, there was also a power traitor in the court—Empress Dowager Zhao's mother-in-law, Empress Dowager Zhao's concubine, Whose power was even worse than that of Marquis Wei Ran. The "History of Qin Shi Huang Benji" even said that the Qin court at that time "decided everything big or small" .
However, such a hot power minister called the army a rebellion, and Yingzheng only went through a small-scale battle, beheaded hundreds, and then destroyed him.
The real reason for this is that although Yan Yi forged the jade seals of the King and Empress Dowager qin, she could not get the tiger charm, so she could not mobilize troops on a large scale
Although Wei Ran planted private parties around King Qin Zhao, as long as he could not shake this three-in-one military power system of seal, charm, and festival, there was no way to openly compete with King Qin Zhao for the highest power.
In fact, Wei Ran's conspiracy to establish a state in Dingtao without choosing to directly subvert the State of Qin has confirmed the fact that the Qin State is powerless to compete with the royal power from the opposite side
Comparing the strength of King Qin Zhao and Wei Ran, Fan Ju must have a clear account in his heart, otherwise he would not dare to lean on King Zhao and attack Wei Ran.
But even if Wei Ran could not subvert The King of Qin Zhao, it was not an easy fact, Fan Ju said that "after the subject steals for the king, there are those who are afraid of the Qin state, not the princes and grandchildren", which is still not a purposeless empty word.
Because in this year, the "History of Qin Benji" impressively recorded:
(King Zhao of Qin) forty years, mourning the death of the prince of Wei, buried in Zhiyang.
- "History of Qin Benji"
Why did King Qin Zhao's crown prince die in the State of Wei? Mr. Yang Kuan analyzed in the "Chronicle of the Warring States Historical Materials":
Prince Mo was sent to Wei before Fan Ju implemented a policy of long-distance and close-range attacks. If Fan Ju wanted to attack Han and Wei from afar and Chu, he did not have to produce protons to Wei. When Prince Mo was in power, he wanted to join Han and Wei to attack Qi.
—— Chronicle of the Warring States Historical Materials
The so-called "time when Wei Ran was in power and wanted to join Han and Wei to attack Qi", specifically, should refer to the time when King Qin Zhao's thirty-sixth year (271 BC) Ke Qingzao led an army to attack Qi Guogang and Shou, and expanded wei Ran's fiefdom. In order to unite with the Wei army to capture Gang and Shou, Wei Ran did not hesitate to question Wei with Prince Zhao.
As a result, Gang and Shou were taken into the pockets of Wei Ran, but Prince Zhao died in a foreign country, which was tolerable and intolerable!
Another piece of news that was extremely unfavorable to Wei Ran was that in 265 BC, the forty-second year of King Zhaoxiang of Qin, Empress Xuan died. This meant that the in-law bond between his cousin Wei Ran and King Qin Zhao was suddenly broken.
Losing the shadow of Empress Xuan, Wei Ran fell into the wilderness at the end of that year, and the vacant position of chancellor was taken over by Fan Ju, who was hand-picked by King Qin Zhao
bibliography:
Fan Xiangyong's "Warring States Policy Notes";
Takikawa Ziyan "Notes on the History of the Society";
Lin Jianming's Draft History of Qin;
Yang Kuan's Chronicle of the Warring States Historical Materials
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