Zhang Wen was a minister at the end of the Han Dynasty and died both innocently and tragically. In the second year of Chuping, Taishi looked up at the stars and the night and claimed that a minister had been killed. At that time, Dong Zhuo's dictatorship was chaotic, and he was afraid that the celestial elephant should be on his body, so he falsely accused the wei wei Zhang Wen of secretly colluding with Yuan Shu, sent someone to arrest Zhang Wen, and tortured Zhang Wen to death in the downtown area to respond to the celestial phenomenon.
Speaking of which, Zhang Wen had been an official to the rank of Grand Si Nong and Tai Wei, and he could also be regarded as an extremely popular courtier. Moreover, Zhang Wen was also Dong Zhuo's direct boss, and had a good excuse and opportunity to kill Dong Zhuo, but because of Zhang Wen's thoughts at that time, when he was constantly broken, he did not decisively get rid of Dong Zhuo, but now he is in turmoil, which is really regrettable.
In the second year of the Reign of Emperor Zhongping of Hanling, Emperor Fusong, who was in charge of the Yellow Turban Rebellion, was framed for offending Zhao Zhong and Zhang Rang, and was deposed from his post as a cheqi general, and Zhang Wen took over as cheqi general.
At that time, the Qianghu chieftain Beigong Boyu also launched a rebellion in Liangzhou in conjunction with Song Yang, Bian Zhang, Han Sui and others in response to the Yellow Turban Rebellion. Zhang Wen, who had become a general on horseback, then made Yuan Huan the commander of Jin Wu as his deputy general, Zhonglang general Dong Zhuo as a general who broke the prisoner, and Zhou Shen as a general who was a general of Lang Kou, and led and rode more than 100,000 troops to conquer Beigong Boyu.
Zhang Wen commanded a large army to Meiyang (in present-day northwest of Wugong, Shaanxi), and an encounter broke out with Bian Zhang and Han Suibu, resulting in Zhang Wen's ineffective combat and was defeated by Bian Zhang and Han Suibu. In November, Dong Zhuo, along with Right Fufeng Bao Hong, and others attacked Bianzhang and Han Sui, breaking the Western Qiang army under their command and forcing Bianzhang and Han Sui to retreat to Yuzhong.
On the one hand, Zhang Wen sent Zhou Shen to lead 30,000 troops to pursue Bian Zhang and Han Suibu, and on the other hand, he ordered Dong Zhuo to lead 30,000 troops to attack the Xianzhi tribe of the Qiang.
At that time, Sun Jian served as a member of the army under Zhou Shen's account. He believed that Bian Zhang and Han Sui's troops were guarding Yuzhong City, and they would soon be short of grain and would have to be transported from outside. Therefore, Sun Jian suggested that Zhou Shen allocate 10,000 troops to cut off the grain delivery routes of Bianzhang and Han Suibu, and Zhou Shen would personally unify the army behind. In this way, Bian Zhang and Han Suibu would inevitably be tired and hungry and did not dare to fight and retreat to the hinterland of the Qiang people. At that time, if the other armies join forces to encircle and suppress them, the Liangzhou rebellion can be put down.
However, Zhou Shen did not take Sun Jian's advice, but led an army to besiege Yuzhong City. As a result, Bian Zhang and Han Sui seized the opportunity to divide their troops to garrison the Kuiyuan Gorge, but instead cut off the grain transportation road of Zhou Shenjun. Zhou Shen panicked and had to abandon the heavy retreat.
On the other hand, the 30,000-strong army led by Dong Zhuo advanced to Wangyuan (present-day west of Shuishi) and also fell into the encirclement of the Qiang and Hu forces.
Dong Zhuo's army was short of food and planned to retreat, but the Qiang and Hu forces had been looking at the tiger on the side, and once they found that Dong Zhuo was retreating with his army, they would definitely take advantage of the loosening of Dong Zhuo's defensive formation to launch an attack, so that Dong Zhuo could not take care of the situation in the first place.
What to do?
Dong Zhuo played a small trick with the Qiang and Hu forces. He ordered people to build a weir on a small river in front of the two armies, pretending to fish and fill the hunger, and then used the cover of the to let the large army retreat quietly, and when the Qiang and Hu coalition forces found out and pursued, Dong Zhuo ordered people to break the weir, so that the Qiang and Hu coalition forces could not cross the river to catch up. Therefore, the 30,000 soldiers led by Dong Zhuo were finally saved, and they withdrew their troops safely and retreated to Fufeng (present-day Baoji City, Shaanxi Province).
When Zhang Wen heard that Dong Zhuo had retreated to Fufeng, he sent someone as a leader to recruit Dong Zhuo to come and meet him, but Dong Zhuo deliberately delayed for a long time before coming to see Zhang Wen. What is even more infuriating is that when Zhang Wen blamed Dong Zhuo for this, Dong Zhuo did not regard Zhang Wen as a leader at all, and did not have the slightest respect for Zhang Wen in his speech and demeanor.
At this time, Sun Jian happened to be next to Zhang Wen, and he saw that Dong Zhuo was so big, small, and lawless, but Zhang Wen tolerated him in every way, and he really couldn't look at it anymore, so he went forward and whispered in Zhang Wen's ear: "Dong Zhuo not only does not admit guilt, but his arrogance is still so arrogant, and his tone is so big, he should be killed according to the military law of 'summoned and not arrived in time'." ”
However, Zhang Wen believed that Dong Zhuo had great prestige in the Yellow River and Longshan Area, and if he was executed, the Western Expedition would lose its important reliance. Therefore, he hesitated and could not bear to kill Dong Zhuo.
Sun Jian saw that Zhang Wen was so indecisive, and further advised:
"Ming Gong led the Wang Shi, wei zhen the world, He Lai Yu Zhuo!" Guan Zhuo said, not false minggong, light and rude, one sin is also; Zhang and Sui Bao have been in the past years, when they are in the discussion of time, and Zhuo Yun is not able to, frustrated the army and suspicious of the people, the two sins are also; Zhuo is appointed without merit, and should be summoned to stay, and Xuan Ang is exalted, and the three sins are also. The name of the ancients will come to the multitude, and there will be no one who continues to kill the successful. Now that ming gong is interested in Zhuo, he will not immediately add to the curse, and the loss will be punished, so he is in charge. ”
Sun Jian's words have three meanings:
First, Sun Jian pointed out that Zhang Wen's Western Expedition was commanded by a royal army, which was mighty and powerful, and there was no need to rely on Dong Zhuo.
Second, Sun Jian pointed out that Dong Zhuo had committed three crimes: First, Dong Zhuo had no respect for the chief, despised the chief, behaved rudely, and could be killed; second, Lian Zhang, and Han Sui had rebelled for more than a year and should be consulted in time, but Dong Zhuo said that it was impossible, this was to shake the hearts of the army and could be killed; third, Dong Zhuo accepted the appointment of the conscription but returned without success, and the chief was delayed in recruiting, and he was arrogant and arrogant, and he could also be killed.
Third, Sun Jian made it clear that the reason why the ancient famous generals were ordered to lead the army to go on a campaign was to rely on the decisive decision of killing and cutting, and if Zhang Wen did not decisively kill Dong Zhuo, but wanted to tolerate him and win him over, then the fault of damaging the majesty of the commander-in-chief and the laws and regulations of the army was all on Zhang Wen's body.
Sun Jian's words were blunt enough, but Zhang Wen still had the benevolence of a woman in his heart, and he couldn't bear to do it, and even said to Sun Jian: "You go back first, after a long time, Dong Zhuo will be suspicious." Sun Jian had no choice but to resign.
In this way, because of Zhang Wen's one-minded mistake, he missed the best excuse and opportunity to kill Dong Zhuo, and also laid the foundation for his own later unjust and tragic death.
In April of the sixth year of Zhongping, the Han Ling Emperor Liu Hong died, the young and ignorant Han Shao Emperor Liu Wei succeeded to the throne, Empress He bowed to the curtain, the general He Jin presided over the imperial government, the imperial power was even weaker, and the struggle between eunuchs and foreign relatives to obtain the special power to control the imperial power became increasingly fierce.
In order to force Empress He to make up her mind to kill the eunuchs, He Jin followed Yuan Shao's advice and recruited various roadside troops, including Dong Zhuo, to enter Beijing. Taking this opportunity, Dong Zhuo quickly led an army into Luoyang, deposed the Young Emperor and established the Emperor Xianliang, killed Xianliang, excluded dissidents, stirred up trouble, and controlled the political power of the Eastern Han Dynasty in one fell swoop.
After Dong Zhuo took power, he appointed the former old chief Zhang Wen as a wei lieutenant, but Zhang Wen did not appreciate it, nor did he take the initiative to make friends with Dong Zhuo, which made Dong Zhuo very unhappy and very angry, so there was the mention at the beginning of this article, Dong Zhuo took the opportunity to slander Zhang Wen for secretly colluding with Yuan Shu, and tortured Zhang Wen to death in the downtown area on the first day of October of the second year of Chuping.
For Zhang Wen's death, what else can we say except that "when the break is continuous, it is chaotic"?!