Man lives, and everywhere there is a "chain of contempt". Those who have money despise those who have no money, and those who have culture despise those who have no culture. During the Eastern Jin Dynasty, the powerful and wealthy were all the children of cultured families, and they especially liked to squeeze, ridicule, and persecute those who could not make puns on their speeches, talked about philosophy for less than two hours, and always wanted to climb up.

Between such a group of sons and brothers who use "culture" as capital to compare with each other, Huan Wen, who is from an average background, bears a deep hatred of blood, and wants to climb up, is an outlier, and will always be excluded and ridiculed, and everything is wrong. But Huan Wen dared to go head-to-head with these sons and brothers, and it almost became their nightmare.

Huan Wen's family is not a family, his father Huan Yi (although some people have verified that Huan Wen's ancestor may have been the Dasi Nong Huan Fan who killed out of the city to defect to Cao Shuang during the coup d'état in Gaopingling) Although it is also one of the "eight masters" of China and North Korea, compared with those families who have been governors since the beginning of the Three Kingdoms, Huan Wen's family background is obviously shorter. What's even worse is that when Huan Wen was very young, Xuancheng Taishou Huan Yi was killed by Han Huang because of Su Jun's rebellion. In order to take revenge, Huan Wen, who is a young orphan, completely abandoned his father's life law of drinking and eating meat without asking about the world, and poverty and hatred made him have to consider problems with an extraordinarily practical thinking. In order to get rid of poverty, he used to gamble with others, but the level was not enough to gamble and lose, and he was forced to flee in embarrassment by the creditor.

Huan Wen was a bit like Luoyang's evil young Cao Cao when he was a child, but Cao Cao had a rich and powerful father to support him, and he was more of a gentleman, and Huan Wen's bad was to beg for the strength of life. It's a pity that this is not the era of the former Three Kingdoms, and Huan Wen and the people around him are out of place, so they become the object of goodwill or malicious ridicule.

At that time, the children of the aristocracy loved to talk about Xuan, and Huan Wen occasionally talked about it, but he lacked the cultivation of pondering, so his level was not high. When others are talking, he won't refute, so he can only be anxious. And his friends did not shy away from taking pleasure in burying him. For example, Huan Wen once listened to others talk about "The Book of Rites" with Liu Yi, and Huan Wen thought that person spoke very well and entered the door of mystery. Liu Yi immediately said, generally. Meaning, Huan Wen is really tasteless.

This kind of threshold of insufficient family background has been lingering around Huan Wen since then, like a lingering shadow. Huan Wen once proposed to Wang Tanzhi's daughter for his son, Wang Tanzhi went home to ask his father's opinion, Wang Tanzhi's father Wang Shu originally hugged Wang Tanzhi on his lap quite affectionately, and heard him scold him for raising this matter, your brain is broken! Huan Wen, how can that soldier-like marry my granddaughter! The six generations of the Taiyuan Wang family, the last three generations are the Wang Cheng, Wang Shu, and Wang Tanzhi we said, all of whom are accessible and interesting celebrities, but on the issue of marriage, they are immediately not accessible, and the marriage barriers of the family are strict - in short, Huan Wen, don't want to mix into our VIP club, you are not qualified.

There are two choices in front of Huan Wen, the first is to study hard and talk about metaphysics every day, and try to blend into the circle of metaphysicians, but it takes a lot of time and does not necessarily work; The other is to go your own way and be different to the end.

Huan Wen didn't think about it, so he chose the latter. Like Wang Dun, the general he admired, he was a little unaccustomed to seeing that all the sons and brothers in Jiangdong were still pretending to talk about their hometowns, and felt in their hearts that it was better to be a soldier than to open a salon crookedly, be a good general, and go back to the Central Plains. This is the great ambition of people who do great things, those elegant etiquette, if you can learn it, it is not a big deal if you can't learn it. So later Huan Wen, when the cultural people laughed at him, he could also laugh back with disdain, and he was not inferior at all.

In the era when Huan Wen lived, the disciples of the family were ashamed of the murderous appearance of riding horses in military uniforms, so one winter, when Huan Wen went hunting in full gear, he met Liu Yi and a group of people, Liu Yi wanted to laugh at Huan Wen again, so he asked: "What are you doing dressed like this, old thing?" Huan Wen sneered at each other: "If I don't do this, how can you talk so leisurely." "It means that if I hadn't pretended to kill the enemy, you would have been arrested by the ethnic minorities with the same tail fan as Wang Yan.

It is difficult to be a good general: no merit is incompetence, and high merit is trouble. Especially those ambitious generals, who are almost all the objects of the emperor's vigilance. Cao Cao said it well, he said, I support the army and respect myself not to usurp the throne, but once I have no military power, my life will have to be in your hands. This is the sorrow of those who want to do great things. The so-called death before leaving the army is not at the hands of the enemy, but from suspicion and jealousy in one's own camp. Huan Wen is keenly aware of this weakness of human nature, and his countermeasures are simple and domineering: be a big man, tilt the power towards the government and the opposition, and wait to make himself invincible in Jiangdong and then march to the Central Plains to unify China in one fell swoop.

Huan Wen's poverty made him think twice before doing anything, and never do it without absolute certainty. Therefore, he walked far-sightedly, steadfastly and steadily on the road of power.

First of all, it's famous. The story of the Three Kingdoms tells Huan Wen that if you want to be famous, you must first find a famous person to blow it to him. This is a good foundation for Huan Wen: when he was not yet a year old, his father's friend Wen Qiao saw him and praised him and said that this baby had strange bones, crying and crying. Huan Wen cried, and Wen Qiao said again, this is a hero. Huan Yi was very happy, so he let Huan Wen's name follow Wen Qiao's surname, and the name Huan Wen was the best advertisement that was once praised by Wen Qiao. Later, Huan Wen hooked up with Liu Yi again, and Liu Yi did not hesitate to praise his words, saying that he looked like "eyes like purple stone ridges, and he had to be a hedgehog hair", and he was a first-class figure of Sun Quan and Sima Yi. In short, the big hero must look weird and very abstract, for example, Liu Bang has seventy-two pockmarks on his buttocks, and Huan Wen has seven stars on his face.

Born with a vision, it is also a famous way. Huan Wen, who took the path of mysticism, finally married Princess Nankang, the daughter of Emperor Ming of Jin. It is said that although the power of the royal family of the Eastern Jin Dynasty has plummeted, the princess is still a princess, and there are many people who want to marry her, so why did she choose Huan Wen, who has no father and no family power? Otherwise, it was love at first sight between Huan Shanbo and Sima Yingtai (it is really unimaginable that Princess Nankang could fall in love with an abstract man with a pockmarked face at first sight), or Emperor Jin Ming learned the lesson of his father Emperor Jin Yuan because he neglected army construction, and was beaten to Nanjing by Wang Dun, and decided to choose a son-in-law who had a military genius and could defend the royal power. No matter what the reason, marrying a princess anyway is a surefire deal for Huan Wen, not to mention that this princess's uncle is Yu Liang. In short, Huan Wen's marriage began to put him on the track of rapid development and became the first turning point in his fate.

Next, Huan Wen watched the struggle between Yu Liang and Wang Dao as the son-in-law of the Sima family and the son-in-law of the Yu family. Helplessly, Director Wang didn't survive Yu Liang, and finally Yu's sprint was successful, and he won later. The better thing is that Huan Wen's father-in-law only reigned for three years and died in Jiankang Palace in vain, and the legend is that Queen Yu killed him. Empress Yu's son, Emperor Sima Yan of Jincheng, ascended the throne. Yu Liang led the three states of Jiangzhou, Jingzhou, and Yuzhou as the emperor's uncle, and supervised the military affairs of the six states and the town of Wuchang. Yu Liang was prosperous at this time, and he ascended to heaven with the Yu family chicken dog. Yu Liang controlled almost the entire upper reaches of the Eastern Jin Dynasty and prepared for a Northern Expedition. Yu Liang may be one of the contemporaries who had the greatest influence on Huan Wen. At this time, Huan Wen had a rare opportunity to observe and expand his personal influence.

But there were too many obstacles for Yu Liang's Northern Expedition to overcome. Jiangzhou between Jingzhou and Yangzhou was not under his control, and the upper and lower reaches of the Yangtze River were opposed, and he tried his best to seize control of Jiangzhou. After Yu Liang's death, Yu Yi served as the general of Anxi and replaced Yu Liang to guard Wuchang. Yu Yi was a good friend of Huan Wen, and he also advocated the Northern Expedition. During his tenure, Yu Yi contacted Murong Hao, the king of Yan, and Zhang Jun of Liangzhou, who ostensibly proclaimed himself a vassal to the Eastern Jin Dynasty, and hoped to attack Shi Zhao left and right, but he soon died.

The successive deaths of Yu Liang and Yu Yi gave Huan Wen a chance, and he succeeded Yu Yi as the general of Anxi, supervising the military of Jingzhou, Liangzhou and other four states. Huan Wen discovered that the successive defeats of the Yu clan were due to their reliance on the exiled generals from the north and the failure to build their own ranks. Xi Jian, Su Jun, and Tao Kan all have their own important places, and when they encounter major events, the public says that the public is reasonable, and the mother says that the mother is reasonable, but they don't listen to the central government anyway. Now, what Huan Wen has to do is to build a high wall and accumulate grain and run Jingzhou. He had enough patience to make this his home base.

The identity of the dual sons-in-law of the Yu family and the Sima family gave Huan Wen the space to develop independently. Originally, Yu Yi wanted to give his youngest son Yu Ai, the position of governor of Jingzhou, but at that time, it was already in the Yonghe period of Emperor Mu of Jin. Emperor Mu of Jin was the son of Emperor Kangdi of Jin, and Emperor Kangdi of Jin was the younger brother of Emperor Cheng of Jin. Yu Yi, the emperor's uncle of Emperor Kangdi of Jin, arrived here with Emperor Mu of Jin, and he was already unable to beat the edge. Moreover, Emperor Kangdi of Jin also had a rather powerful team of relatives: the Chu group led by Empress Chu Youzi, Empress Chu and her father Chu Li and He Chong to suppress the power of the Yu family. He Chong did not agree with the surname Yu of the important town in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, and the two factions pinched, and Huan Wen, who was also the son-in-law of the Yu family and the Sima family, picked up this bargain and became the successor who made He Chong and Yu Yi step down.

During the Yonghe period, Huan Wen accumulated strength in Jingzhou, and at the same time, he also watched several struggles for the transfer of political centers in the early Eastern Jin Dynasty: first Wang Dao and Yu Liang, and then Yu and Chu. In this frequent transfer of power, Huan Wen saw the hidden danger behind the Northern Expedition: whichever side he chooses, he may become a political enemy that will not be tolerated by those in power in the future. But he has an advantage, he has an army, he has the capital to stand on his own. It was enough for him to run Jingzhou and be a warlord like Tao Kan, but his ambition was more than that, he wanted to go on a northern expedition. If you want to go on the Northern Expedition, you must first suppress these people in the rear.

Soon the opportunity arose. The imperial court decided to clean up the independent Hou Shu regime that had been fighting since the Jin dynasty moved south, and Huan Wen finally had the opportunity to expand his prestige and ranks. The imperial court was unwilling to let Huan Wen fight - no one wanted to control the warlords in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River and then control Bashu. But except for Huan Wen, no one else was sure of victory, so he had to nod his head. Huan Wen fought three battles and won three victories, directly entered Chengdu, destroyed this small kingdom that had been independent for more than ten years, and brought back a beautiful Sichuan girl, which made his wife jealous. That's an afterword.

In short, after pacifying Bashu, Huan Wen relieved the danger of being attacked from both sides militarily, and the rear was worry-free, and he concentrated on preparing for the Northern Expedition. However, after destroying Bashu Li Shi, Huan Wen still made the central government nervous, and Sima Yu, the king of Langya, who entered the auxiliary government of the dynasty, began to support Yin Hao against Huan Wen. In the fifth year of Yonghe, Shi Strangle died, and a bunch of emperors surnamed Shi appeared, Huan Wen was very excited, thinking that it was a good opportunity for the Northern Expedition. As soon as Shi Le died for two months, Huan Wen went out of Jiangling, stationed troops in Anlu, and wanted to pull out the village and open the way. Sima Yu was so nervous that he hurriedly ordered Chu Li to pull out the village from Jingkou, preemptively open the way, and seize the opportunity of Huan Wen. As a result, Chu Li quickly failed. So there was the Northern Expedition that Yin Hao snatched in the sixth year of Yonghe.

Historically, when historians talk about this section of Huanwen's Northern Expedition, they always say that this is a trick by Huanwen to increase his own strength and threaten the imperial court. However, if you want to blackmail the imperial court, Huan Wenda can go directly to Nanjing like Wang Dun and Su Jun, why bother to write to the Northern Expedition again and again, and persevere? It is the talent of a politician to know how to turn around, and if it is not an obsession with this matter, it must be done, and there can be other ways to increase prestige and blackmail the court. It can be seen that Huan Wen is determined to go on the Northern Expedition.

The Yonghe period was a rare era of peace in the Eastern Jin Dynasty, pacifying Bashu and civil strife, and the north had no time to take care of itself and had no way to invade the south. The original plan of the Northern Expedition, which was based on attack and defense, was gradually replaced by the comfortable enjoyment of the present. The book of war is the most unpopular thing, except for the homeless marshal, everyone is not interested in the military, and it is no wonder that Yin Hao and Chu Li lost as soon as they fought. Living in such an atmosphere, Huan Wen is particularly an anomaly, others look at him uncomfortable, and he looks down on these people in the court, and he looks at each other with disgust. In the tenth year of Yonghe, Huan Wen was finally approved for the Northern Expedition. The first Northern Expedition was fought all the way to Bashang on the outskirts of Xi'an, and the morale was very strong and won the hearts of the people. The common people are sending water and food, which is simply "eating pot pulp to welcome the king".

Bashang is already on the outskirts of Chang'an, and Chang'an, the ancient capital of the Han people for hundreds of years, is just a stone's throw away. It is the place where Wang Cang "climbed the shore of the tomb in the south and looked back at Chang'an", and it has always been a tradition to go out of the city from Chang'an and say goodbye to the tomb. Meng Jiao also said, "Ba Shang is light and thin, and Chang'an has no slowdown".

But just on Ba, which was so close to the old capital, Huan Wen stopped. Attacking Chang'an may not be able to be defeated, and if it can be defeated, it may not be able to be defended. Huan Wen decided to use Jiangdong as a base to fight a sports war. With many skirmishes, destroy the enemy's living forces. Even if you can't recover it right away, it can still have the effect of intimidating the enemy. It's a good way to beat the strong with the weak.

In the twelfth year of Yonghe, Huan Wen made another northern expedition. This time it hit Luoyang, the capital of the Western Jin Dynasty, the ancestral home of many clans in Jiangdong, and the army of the Central Plains was separated from the city for more than 40 years. Standing at the head of Luoyang City, Huan Wen looked at the land that should have belonged to him being occupied by the Hu people at this time, and couldn't help but be indignant, "Shenzhou Lu Shen, Wang Yan and these people are to blame!" This sentence made the cultural people in the court very unhappy - Wang Yan is a representative of cultural people, although he messed up the Western Jin Dynasty, but he can't say that he is wrong, to say that Wang Yan is not right, that is, to say that cultural people are not right. The cultural people who were suppressed by the warlords in the Jian'an era turned over at this time, and they were not allowed to say empty words about them as soldiers.

Therefore, although Huan Wen won the battle at this time, he was still depressed: the court did not trust him. Not only did he not interfere in internal affairs, but also in the military, the management of Yuzhou and Xuzhou was not in his hands. With the power of half of the south of the Yangtze River, the Northern Expedition was originally a matter of fighting big with a small one, and throughout Chinese history, no Bian dynasty was able to succeed in counterattacking. What Huan Wen needs most at this time is the same hatred and hatred, and the support and honesty of the imperial court. But no emperor dared to give it such a go: isn't life unbearable, as for betting such a big bet?

Huan Wen's stubborn temper came up, and he made a recital: Please return to Luoyang. The court is naturally unwilling, who likes to send himself to the tiger, the Hu people are all cannibalistic without blinking. How happy it was to stay in Jiangnan, after the Wang Dun Rebellion, Wen Qiao suggested that they move their nests from Nanjing and move to other places, but Wang Dao did not agree, not to mention crossing the Yangtze River to Luoyang, which was so far away.

Huan Wen didn't expect the court to agree, he just let out this evil anger of deviating from morality: I knocked down the place for you, and I also notified you to come, if you don't come, it's none of my business. So Huan Wen withdrew his troops from Luoyang, neither went to Chang'an again, nor did the whole army nest in Luoyang, and retreated to Jiangdong.

Luoyang soon fell again.

Huan Wen began to understand one thing: in order for the Northern Expedition to succeed, in addition to leading troops, he had to take power. Otherwise, if anyone pinches him in the grain and grass and makes a bad thing behind his back, he will die without a place to be buried. Many generals understand this truth, but they don't have the guts, because a bad handle is a rebellion, which is a taboo for loyalty. But Huan Wen didn't care.

With the great merit of this Northern Expedition, Huan Wen got the position of governor of the Chinese and foreign military, although his influence in Yuzhou and Xuzhou is still not very effective, but nominally it is under his control. Below, Huan Wen wrote a book, pointing out seven ills in politics, each of which hit the nail on the head:

First, the friends are similar, and the private discussion is boiling.

Second, the hukou is withering, and the population of the whole country is not as large as that of a large city in the late Han Dynasty.

3. Procrastination, it is common to do one thing for ten days and half a month (they all went to open a salon, who works, and they don't raise their wages).

Fourth, loyal and diligent officials should have their salaries increased (for the solution of Article 3).

Fifth, praise and punishment should be fair (not only look at family background, but also look at personal efforts).

Sixth, it is necessary to select official textbooks and let everyone go to the royal Bible reading hall to read the Bible (all go to the salon and talk about the crooked affairs of the court, it is better to read honestly to make people worry).

Seventh, it is necessary to elect a historian and write the "Book of Jin" (the "Book of Jin" was started by Ruan Ji and them, but then everyone was busy fleeing and no one cared about it).

Huan Wen's seven suggestions show the style of a big man in the dynasty, from the economy, official governance to culture, all in charge. Originally, Huan Wen didn't bother to care so much, but each of these seven points to one center: stabilizing people's hearts. This is the most important thing before going to the big battle. After two Northern Expeditions, Huan Wen deeply realized the truth that if you go outside, you must first settle inside.

Next, at the beginning of the first year of Emperor Xingning of the Jin Dynasty, Huan Wen presided over an important reform: the Gengxu Tu Break.

Gengxu Tuduan actually took money out of the pockets of the big families for the central treasury. Directly aimed at the second of the seven political ills, the withering of the hukou, one reason is that the war killed everyone, and the more important reason is that the big families have collected all the displaced people into their own estates to farm, and they are not given hukou. If you don't have a hukou, the country will naturally not be able to collect taxes, and these people will become the tenants and tribes of the big clans themselves. As a result, the family is richer, and the country is even less rich. The war had to be spent by the state treasury, and the family could not be asked to donate money, so they could only be asked to hand over their accounts.

Emperor Jin Ai is the son of Emperor Jin Cheng, the same generation as Huan Wen, but Huan Wen is already an old minister of the Three Dynasties, he wants to reform the system, and Emperor Jin Ai really has nothing to say. After this restructuring, the household registration of the Eastern Jin Dynasty has been roughly organized, and there is more money and more people. This is also a very strange thing, the reform has always been bloody and bloody into a pot of porridge, and nine out of ten people who presided over the reform failed and did not end well, but Huan Wen did it. After the Gengxu soil was broken, Huan Wen moved to the town and choked the south gate of Jiankang. In this way, the inward is almost cleaned.

Emperor Ai of Jin died, his son Sima Yi came to power, and in the fourth year of Taihe, Huan Wen began to plan his third Northern Expedition. The struggle is fierce, the desire is strong, Huan Wen is no longer young, this expedition, there is the courage to aspire to win, but also the tragedy of victory and defeat in this move.

This time, the army set out from Guyi, and on the way to Guangcheng, he passed through Jincheng. He once planted a willow tree here. When it was planted, it was still a small sapling, but now it has grown into a big tree with ten circumferences (about the same as Yu Yu's waist circumference), Huan Wen couldn't help but burst into tears, "The wood is still like this, how can it be embarrassing." After all, merit can wait, and reunification is only a historical account a hundred years earlier and a hundred years late, but for a general who wants to complete his career, time is the most powerless for him to deal with after he has cleared all obstacles. In the face of the cruelty of the years, his strength is only the weight of a tear. This sentence has a kind of resonance for life as a guest in later generations, and the later poet Yu Xin wrote a poem "Withered Tree Fu" based on this incident: planting willows in the past, relying on Hannan. Look at the shaking and falling today, sad Jiangtan. The tree is like this, how can a person be worthy.

At this time, the Central Plains entered the Former Yan era. This time the Northern Expedition started well, and at the beginning, Murong Zhong, the general who captured Murong Wei alive in Hulu. After that, Huan Wen met Murong Trai in Lin Zhu, but Murong Trai didn't fight hard and was defeated by Huan Wen. Huan Wen took advantage of the momentum to pursue and chased until Fangtou. But soon Murong Trai discovered his weakness: at that time, the weather was dry, and Huan Wen introduced the water of the Yellow River into Juye for more than 300 miles, and wanted to use a boat to transport it. But protecting this waterway requires the capture of Shimen. Huan Wen gave this task to Yuan Zhen, and he asked Yuan Zhen to attack Qiaoliang, and after laying Qiaoliang, he could occupy the stone gate and open the waterway. Murong Chui quickly guarded the stone gate with heavy troops, and Yuan Zhen couldn't defeat the stone gate, and the military rations were exhausted at this time.

Huan Wen thought that he was ready for everything this time, but he didn't expect to face a harsh choice here. If you insist on moving forward, you can only go deep into the enemy's territory and respond to the battle with a tired army, and it is not impossible for the whole army to be annihilated. But as long as he retreats, those scholars who have been robbed of the tenants by him will definitely fall into the well and beat the water dogs. He also knew that no matter what he chose, there would be no chance to do it again. But the strong Huan Wen was still unwilling to give up, and after thinking about it again, he decided to burn the boat, retreat on foot, and walked more than 700 miles from Dongyan to Cangyuan, digging wells to get water. But the consequences were also very disastrous, the soldiers lost most of them, and in the end they had no choice but to retreat.

Originally, Murong Chui fought well, but Huan Wen had to catch Yuan Zhen as a scapegoat in the wave of Xingshi's questioning, and when he came back, he played to depose him as a concubine. Yuan Zhen didn't want to carry this black cauldron for him, but instead.

Huan Wen's dream of the Northern Expedition was severely hit by the defeat of half of the soldiers this time, and he himself was getting older. Huan Wen vented his dissatisfaction with this unpaid ambition in the court, demanding his political power like a child. first abolished Sima Yi and let Sima Yu, who was originally singing rival with him, come to the stage. Sima Yu was only resigned, just wanting to save his life. Huan Wen died without illness after three Northern Expeditions, and his mood became more and more unbalanced in old age, and finally he did a stupid thing when he was terminally ill, so that he and Wang Dun entered the "Book of Jin" into the biography of traitors from then on.

He asked the imperial court for nine tins, which was something that the emperor would give to another person when he was about to give it. But his opponent has changed, and Xie An and Wang Tanzhi have newly emerged in the court. His time is destined to have passed. Responsible for drafting this "Let Jiuxi Table" was the great writer Yuan Hong, Xie An and Wang Tan asked Yuan Hong to repeatedly revise the "Let Jiuxi Table", and finally dragged Huan Wen to death.

Huan Wen also had a son named Huan Xuan, who later really rebelled and became the emperor. But his father, obviously just wants to gallop happily to restore his homeland, but because he doesn't like to engage in culture and has a tough personality, he has been scolded by the "old thief" and "old thief" for thousands of years. reminds people of the famous sentence when Liang Qichao wrote a biography of Li Hongzhang, resting on Huan Wen, which is also very appropriate:

There are only mediocre people in the world, who are blameless and have no reputation.

The reputation of the world is not necessarily not for the wishes of the country; Slander the whole world, not necessarily not a great man.