In the process of rectifying internal affairs, strengthening strength, and preparing for hegemony, there was one person who played a very important role, and this person was Wei Jiang of the Wei family.

Wei Jiang, surnamed Ji, Wei, is the grandson of Wei Zhun and the son of Wei Wuzi, and was born in a big family. In the first year of the reign of Mourning Duke, in order to win over the strong clan and reward the children of the family extensively, Wei Jiang himself was appointed as the Sima of the Chinese Army at this time, responsible for taking charge of the law in the army, and his status was equivalent to that of Han Ju in the Zhao Dun era.

Although Wei Jiang was able to rank as the eighth secretary because of his family relationship, he really put the interests of the country first during the period of assisting the Jin and mourning dukes, and he made every effort to give advice to the monarch. Wei Jiang's most praised achievements are mainly the following four points:

1. Enforce the law strictly and be not afraid of the powerful.

Wei Jiang is upright and upright, and his law enforcement is very strict, even if he treats the nobles and strong families, he does not treat them equally, and he will never tolerate compromises. In order to achieve fair and just law enforcement, Wei Jiang even put his life and death out of the question.

In the fourth year after the accession of the Duke of Jin, he convened an alliance of princes, one was to show off the strength and status of the Jin State, and the other was to test the attitude of the princes towards the Jin State and prepare for the hegemony of the Central Plains. However, Yang Gan, the younger brother of Mourning Gong, ignored the law and discipline and wantonly disrupted the ranks of the honor guard accompanying Mourning Gong. Wei Jiang, as the Sima of the Chinese army, in order to strictly enforce military law and not fall for the prestige of the Jin State in front of the princes, risked his life to execute Yang Gan's servant who drove in public. Although this move made Wei Jiang famous and won him a life of honesty and integrity, it made the Duke of Jin Mourning very angry. Mourning Gong believed that Wei Jiang was insulting himself by insulting Yang Gan, and his behavior was a "great disrespect" to the monarch, so he insisted on putting Wei Jiang to death despite the dissuasion of everyone.

And Wei Jiang was already ready to die, and after the law enforcement was completed, he wrote to Mourning Gong to state the reason for the execution, saying that "the military advisor is not martial, the deacon is disrespectful, and the crime is great", indicating that as a Sima, he is not strict in management on weekdays, which will lead to Yang Gan's behavior of disrupting military discipline, and he should be responsible for this matter; However, when the princes met the alliance, if they did not put the interests of the country first and indulged Yang Gan's servants in vain, they were afraid that they would be ridiculed by the princes, which would not be conducive to the future hegemony of the Jin State. At the same time, Wei Jiang stated that he failed to fulfill his duties and rectify military discipline in the front, humiliated the nobles in the public office, and was willing to die to apologize. Jin Mourning Gong felt deeply guilty after reading Wei Jiang's love letter, and hurriedly ran barefoot to the court to pardon Wei Jiang, and afterwards set up a special banquet to apologize to Wei Jiang.

Second, far-sighted, advocate peace.

The killing of Yang Gan's servant made the Duke of Jin Mourning fully realize Wei Jiang's virtue and ability, and he was soon promoted to the general of the new army. It was also during his tenure as the general of the new army that Wei Jiang proposed the "peace" strategy to Mourning Gong, which can be called the greatest contribution of his political career.

Rong Di was adjacent to the Jin State and repeatedly invaded its northern counties, which became one of the important disasters of the Jin State and an important obstacle for the Jin Mourning Duke to go south to compete for hegemony. Before Wei Jiang, the Jin State's method of dealing with the relationship with Rong Di had always been to wage war with it, and there was never such a thing as "peace with Rong".

Therefore, when Wei Jiang initially proposed the policy of "harmony with Rong" to Mourning Duke, Mourning Gong could not understand the positive significance of this plan, but refused to say: "Rong Di is greedy without relatives, it is better to cut it down." Wei Jiang was not discouraged, starting from the overall situation of the country, moving with emotion, knowing with reason, and explaining the five benefits of "Herong" to the mourning duke with reason and evidence:

First, "Rong Di recommends living, through the goods and land, and the soil can be Jiayan", Rong Di is a horse nation, mainly nomadic, so he despises the land and attaches importance to property. The Jin state could take advantage of this characteristic of Rong Di to exchange goods for land, thus expanding the northern borders of the Jin state.

Second, "the border is not shrugged, the people are in the wilderness, and the people succeed", the continuous war with Rong Di led to the abandonment of agriculture in the north of the Jin Kingdom, and the people were also very tired. If the people are reconciled with Rong Di, the people can live and work in peace and contentment, return to the land, and agricultural production can be guaranteed.

Third, "Rong Di is Jin, and the neighbors are vibrating", Rong Di will return to the Jin Kingdom, and the princes will inevitably be shaken, so the national prestige of the Jin Kingdom will be greatly shaken.

Fourth, "Suirong with virtue, the master and apprentice are not diligent, and the soldiers are not stopped", eliminating the war can not only rest the army, but also save and preserve war materials.

Fifth, "in view of Houyi, and with virtue, as far as Er'an", Wei Jiang started from history, took history as a mirror, and believed that only by convincing people with virtue can we truly achieve long-term peace and stability.

Jin Mourning Gong was finally persuaded by Wei Jiang and ordered Wei Jiang to send an envoy to Herong. Eight years later, Jin and Rong Di lived in harmony, there was almost no war between the borders, and the Jin Mourning Gong went south to fight for hegemony and relieved his worries.

3. Leading the troops to fight and not being proud of their achievements.

In addition to being upright and far-sighted, Wei Jiang was also a rare general, and he had many merits in leading the army: in the ninth year of Lu Xianggong (564 BC), Wei Jiang and Zhao Wu led their divisions to behead them; In the tenth year (563 B.C.), he and Shi Yi and the system; In the thirteenth year (560 B.C.), General Zuo Luan sent an army to save the temple; In the eighteenth year (555 B.C.), with Luan Ying under the Junke Temple. Although it is impossible to know the details of its marching and formation due to the lack of historical data, it can be imagined from the comments of "Wei Jiang's many merits".

But what is rare is that although Wei Jiang has made great achievements in the foreign conquest of the Jin Kingdom, he is not proud of his achievements, and is willing to be the deputy of others, and has handed over his military exploits to others many times. Although this is due to Wei Jiang's humble and polite style, it is objectively also conducive to maintaining harmony among the generals of the Jin Mourning Prince, and minimizing the decline of national strength caused by internal strife.

Fourth, be prepared for danger in times of peace, like walking on thin ice.

In the eleventh year of Lu Xianggong (562 BC), the twelve kingdoms of Song, Qi, Jin, and Wei jointly attacked Zheng. Emperor Zheng panicked and ordered people to sue for peace with the Jin state, the most powerful of the twelve kingdoms. At the behest of the Duke of Jin, the other eleven kingdoms also stopped their siege of Zheng. In order to express his gratitude to the Jin Kingdom, Zheng Guojun sent people to give a large number of gifts to the mourning prince, including 16 Kabuki, 3 musicians, and 100 military chariots with complete armor.

Jin Mourning Gong was very happy, and gave Wei Jiang "half of happiness", and said: "Zijiao widow and Zhu Rong Di to correct Zhuhua." In the past eight years, the princes of Jiuhe, such as the sum of music, everything is harmonious, please be happy with the son. "Jin Mourning was not yet 30 years old when he was in mourning, and in the past eight years, he has allied with the princes nine times, and the degree of scenery can be said to be unique for a while, so it is inevitable that he will be arrogant.

Wei Jiang was keenly aware of the signs of pride and complacency of the mourning duke, although he had to accept the gift after repeated thanks, but he admonished the mourning duke: "Fu is happy to be virtuous, righteous to deal with it, courtesy to act, trustworthy to keep, benevolent to be strong, and then you can palace the country, with Fulu, come to the distant people, the so-called happiness." The book says: "Be prepared for danger in times of peace." 'Think is prepared, be prepared. Dare to rule once. Wei Jiang's words are intended to warn the Jin Mourning Duke that although the Jin State is now strong, it must always think about the danger, and only in this way can we always be prepared to avoid disasters.

After listening to Wei Jiang's admonition, the Duke of Jin Mourning was deeply ashamed, and understood that Wei Jiang was always concerned about the comfort of the monarch of the Jin State and the people, so he respected him even more after that.

Looking at Wei Jiang's life, since his family lineage, he has been conscientious, cautious, loyal to the mourning duke, and has made great contributions in the process of the hegemony of the Jin State. He finally changed his seal in Anyi (now Yuncheng, Shanxi) because of his merits, and after his death, he was called "Zhuang", and later generations also called him "Wei Zhuangzi".

When the Duke of Jin Mourning returned to China to inherit the throne of the Marquis of Jin, he was only fourteen years old, but he walked from the border into the national capital, and every step from the national capital to the court was calm, neither the urgent desire for the throne, nor the flattery of the Qu Jie of the powerful family. It can be said that the fourteen-year-old son Zhou's debut in the Jin court was very exciting, and it effectively shocked the ministers.

Subsequently, with his extraordinary political talent and keen political observation, the Duke of Jin opened up a road to hegemony for the Jin State under the situation of internal and external troubles, and became the Zhongxing of the Jin State's hegemony. After the Duke of Mourning ascended the throne, the first thing he began to deal with was to rectify the internal affairs of the Jin Dynasty and change the chaotic situation that had lasted for twenty or thirty years since the Duke of Ling.

The reform of Jin Mourning Gong in internal affairs mainly focused on the following aspects:

1. Appoint hundreds of officials, employ virtuous and virtuous, and avoid disgrace.

When Mourning Gongfu ascended to the throne of the monarch, he carried out drastic personnel reforms. First of all, the mourning of the Duke of "seven people who did not chase out the ministers", the rebellious ministers and thieves who flattered and led the monarch to chaos, such as Yiyang Wu and Changyujiao, as well as the Lishi Qingfulu ("Historical Records" as Xu Zhiyi) and others who assisted Changyujiao in the action of Li Gong's crusade against Sanhe, were either expelled from other countries or beheaded on the street, one showed his political tendency and his determination to govern the country, and the other was also to show goodwill to the old ministers such as Zhongxing Yan and Luan Shu, looking for external support for further consolidating the position of the monarch.

After the dethronement and purge, the mourning duke also paid attention to the selection of virtuous and virtuous people, and encouraged his subordinates to choose virtuous and virtuous people to use them for their own use. Although the reign of Mourning Gong was only 15 years, he really achieved "internal promotion without avoiding relatives, external promotion without avoiding hatred", so that officials do their best and do their jobs: he appointed Wei Xiang, Shi Yi, Wei Jie, and Zhao Wu as secretaries; Promote the Xun family, Xun Hui, Luan Huang, and Han Wuji as the doctors of the public family, so that they can teach the children of Zhuqing the virtues of courtesy, frugality, filial piety, and piety; Let Shi Wu Xun serve as the Taifu, so that he will follow the law determined by the Shi Hui; Youxing Xin was given the position of Sikong, and the original law of Shifang was used as the standard; The military and political aspects are in charge of Ben Jiao, Qi Xi, Xun Bin and others.

2. Restore the status of the family and consolidate the ruling foundation of the Jin State Office.

The social problems in the Jin Dynasty were already very prominent during the reign of the Emperor Li of the Jin Dynasty, and they were on the verge of collapse in the early days of the reign of the Duke of Mourning. At that time, the royal power of the Jin Kingdom was in decline, and if the Duke of Mourning wanted to solve this series of social problems, he had to rely on the power of the princes and scholars to expand the ruling base of the office.

In the long-term struggle within the ruling group of the Jin State, many powerful families declined. For this reason, Mourning Gong abolished the Jin State's policy of cracking down on strong clans since Linggong, and selected talents among the descendants of the family to make them among the ministers, thus ensuring the absolute loyalty of these families to Mourning Gong.

As far as Wei is concerned, although Wei Qi complained a lot because he did not get the Marquis of Jin, he made many contributions in the foreign wars of the Jin State: in the Battle of Tan, he served with Xun Shou in the lower army and captured the prince of Chu, Gu Chen, and the important minister of the Jin State, who was defeated and captured and trapped in the Chu army, was exchanged for Gu Chen, the son of Chu; In the Battle of Yanling, he won the first battle and personally shot the eyes of the king of the Communist Party, causing chaos in the Chu army, and the Jin army took the opportunity to defeat the Chu army; In the Battle of Ma Tunnel, although Wei Qi did not participate in person, his son Wei Xiang (Lü Xiang) made a great contribution to the Qin. In 594 B.C., the Qin State took advantage of the destruction of the Jin Jinggong and the emptiness of the country, invaded the Jin Dynasty on a large scale, and it was Wei Jie who led the army to resist the enemy Yu Fu and thus ensured the success of the extermination.

Therefore, after the accession to the throne of Jin Mourning Gong, the Wei family was rewarded, Wei Xiang and Wei Jie were named secretaries, and Wei Mourning's son Wei Jiang was promoted to the Chinese army Sima, and Wei's family reputation was once again prominent.

The Zhao family was reduced to sinners after the disaster in the palace, and at the request of Han Ju, Jing Gong agreed to be the heir of the Zhao family by Zhao Wu (Zhao Wenzi), who was only ten years old at the time, in order to prepare for the temple sacrifice. When mourning the duke, Zhao Wu was getting older, and his talent was gradually revealed, so the mourning duke appointed Zhao Wu as the secretary and ordered him to accompany the new army. The Zhongxing of the Zhao family began, and then Zhao Wu gradually took charge of the state from the end of the Eight Qings, and made a significant contribution to the alliance of Jin and Chu.

As for the two families of the Luan family and the Bank of China who supported the meritorious service of mourning the duke, on the one hand, the mourning duke dismissed Luan Shu home on the charge of "killing the king", but on the other hand, he promoted Luan Shu's eldest son Luan Huang to the prince doctor and awarded him the post of military general, and Luan Jie (a Ben Jie) was also appointed as the imperial rong. The Zhongxing clan, the Xun family and Xun will be appointed as the doctor of the public family, and Xun Bin will serve as the right of Rong.

As for the Fan and Han clans, they adopted an uncooperative attitude in the process of Luan Shu and Bank of China killing Jun Gengli: after Li Gong died in prison, Luan Shu "summoned the scholars, and the scholars resigned; Summoning Han Ju, Han Ju resigned". In order to obtain the cooperation of these two families, Duke Mourning first appointed Han Ju as the general of the Chinese army, making him the post of Luan Shu, and later promoted his eldest son Han Wuji to the doctor of the Gong family. The Fan family's Shi bream ("The Legend of the Ram" as Shi Peng, Shi Hui Zi Yu Gongzi) and Shi Wu Xun were also promoted to Qing and Dafu respectively.

3. Reform the tax system and lighten the peasants' burdens.

Due to years of foreign wars and the ruling class's extravagant and hedonistic style, the Jin State had a difficult national economy, a withering economy, and a very strict endowment system, resulting in the people's misery. Mourning the accession to the throne, vigorously advocating the style of frugality, and punishing the extravagant behavior of the ruling class, to a certain extent, lightened the people's burden and eased social contradictions.

First, the mourning public and private debts were abolished, and grain and cloth were taken out from the government to organize sales, relief from famines, and subsidies were given to widows and lonely people; Second, he enacted a new law of taxation and servitude, reduced the proportion of taxation, and ordered the government not to encroach on agricultural time, and not to levy people at the time of agricultural harvest, thus ensuring agricultural production; Third, extravagance and waste were strictly prohibited, public and private expenditures were ordered to be reduced, and the construction of civil works by the great families was restricted; Fourth, the ban on fishing, fishing, and hunting in the mountains and rivers should be relaxed, so that the mountain people and peasants can take what they need according to the law, so that "the public has no forbidden profits, and there is no greed for the people." The measures to mourn the public greatly improved the lives of the lower classes of the people and gradually enriched the treasury of the state.

Fourth, carry out legal reform, rectify armaments, and enhance the military strength of the Jin State.

For example, in order to strengthen the status of the office and weaken the status of the prince, the Duke of Jin Jinggong ordered the abolition of Zhao Xuanzi's law and ordered the scholars to rebuild the code, but because the policy was too tough and the reform was too strong, it was stubbornly resisted by the strong clan, so it ended in failure, resulting in a more humble status of the office. In order to reduce the resistance to reform, Jin Mourning Gong adopted more moderate measures. He ordered Shi Wu Xun to be the master and ordered him to rebuild Fan Wuzi's method. After the implementation of the code, the domestic political situation of the Jin State was completely changed.

In terms of military system, the Jin Mourning Gong merged the original upper, middle, lower, and new fourth armies into three armies. A large number of redundant officials and idle posts in the army were abolished, while the leadership of important departments was strengthened, such as the abolition of the imperial army of the secretary and the appointment of the lieutenant in wartime, and the imperial appointment of the monarch was changed from temporary appointment in wartime to permanent posts. In addition, Mourning Gong also set up posts such as Sima and lieutenant in each army to strengthen the management of military discipline. He also attached great importance to the domestication of war horses, and specially set up the post of horse riding royal.

After the reform, the Duke of Jin Mourning truly achieved "the promotion of the public is not dereliction of duty, the official is not easy to be square, the lord is not more than morality, the division is not upright, the brigade does not force the teacher, and the people have no slander" ("Zuo Chuan: The Eighteenth Year of Chenggong"). The Jin State also initially had the strength to go south and compete with the Chu State for hegemony, and always held the initiative in the later Jin and Chu hegemony struggles, forming a situation of "the three Jin drivers and the Chu cannot fight".

At the age of twenty-six, he dominated the Central Plains and created the most glorious situation of the Jin Kingdom since the prosperous era of Wenxiang, and it is no wonder that future generations will mourn the greatest monarch of the Jin Kingdom after the Duke of Wenxiang!