The Rebellion of the Seven Kingdoms can be simply understood as a conflict between the family of Emperor Wen of Han and the other princes and kings of the Liu family.
Emperor Wen of Han and Emperor Jing of Han, as emperors, had the primary task of maintaining the first imperial power. However, the strengthening of imperial power inevitably offended the interests of the local princes and kings, leading them to revolt.
The cause of the Rebellion of the Seven Kingdoms is this. To understand the ins and outs of the Rebellion of the Seven Kingdoms, it is necessary to start with the background of the princes surnamed Liu. During the Chu-Han War, Liu Bang united with other kings with different surnames and finally defeated Xiang Yu, but it also led to the increasing territory of the remaining princes.
At the end of the Chu-Han War, Liu Bang controlled territory equivalent to the basic territory of the Qin Dynasty before the Qin Dynasty unified the Six Kingdoms. The territory of the Six Kingdoms of Shandong was mainly controlled by princes with different surnames, which Liu Bang could not tolerate.
Therefore, from the establishment of the Han Dynasty to the death of Liu Bang, his main job was to eliminate these kings with different surnames. However, after eliminating these kings with different surnames, Liu Bang could not directly take the territories of these vassal states under the ** administration, because this might repeat the mistakes of the Qin Dynasty.
An important reason for the rapid demise of the Qin Dynasty was the full implementation of the county system, which led to the dissatisfaction of the old nobles of the Six Kingdoms of Shandong. Therefore, in the early days of the Han Dynasty, the conditions were not yet ripe for the implementation of the county system throughout the country, and the existence of these vassal states had to be retained.
After weighing the pros and cons, Liu Bang decided to eradicate the king with a different surname, keep the feudal state, and pass the throne to his sister-in-law Liu Ying. Liu Bang had a total of eight sons, and in addition to his sons-in-law, the remaining seven were named princes.
In addition, Liu Bang also has three brothers, and the eldest brother's family has a general relationship with Liu Bang, and he is only named a marquis. Although the second brother had a close relationship with Liu Bang, he was not very capable, and soon after being named acting king, he fled due to the invasion of the Xiongnu and was deprived of the throne by Liu Bang.
Despite this, on his deathbed, Liu Bang canonized the eldest son of the second brother's family as king, that is, one of the main participants in the later rebellion of the Seven Kingdoms, Liu Bi, the king of Wu.
Liu Bang's fourth brother, Liu Jiao, was named King of Chu and succeeded Han Xin. Liu Jiao's lineage remained stable in later generations, except for his brother and son, Liu Bang did not give anyone else a title, even his cousins.
However, there is one person who is an exception, he is Liu Jia, who has been following Liu Bang since he started his army, so he was also crowned king after the founding of the Han Dynasty. However, before Liu Bang's death, the Yingbu Rebellion broke out in the Han Dynasty, and Liu Jia was killed by Yingbu.
After Liu Jia's death, Liu Bang did not let his descendants inherit his fiefdom, but gave his territory to his nephew, Liu Bi, the king of Wu. Therefore, when Liu Bang died, none of his cousins were sealed.
With the death of Liu Bang, the existing princes of the Liu family in the Han Dynasty were mainly divided into nine veins, including Liu Bang's second brother, fourth brother and seven sons, princes and kings.
During the reign of Empress Lü, the situation changed for Liu Bang's sons. Empress Lü began to actively target them, and among Liu Bang's eight sons, the elder.
3. Old. Fifth, the sixth and eighth were all removed, and their feudal states were also taken back by Empress Lu, either to their son-in-law, or to the people of the old Lu family, or temporarily managed by the Han Dynasty.
However, for the throne of Liu Bang's two brothers, Empress Lu did not hinder too much, and nothing happened during this time.
Before Empress Lü's death, the princes and kings of the old Liu family were reduced from nine to five, namely Liu Bang's second and fourth brothers, as well as his eldest son, fourth son, and seventh son.
And the princes of the Lü family and the son-in-law of Empress Lü were also deprived of the throne during this period. Later, Zhou Bo staged a coup d'état and proclaimed Emperor Wen of Han, so that the bloodline of the original emperor Liu Ying was excluded.
In the end, when Emperor Wen of Han ascended the throne, the princes of the Han Dynasty were only Liu Bang's second brother, fourth brother, eldest son, and seventh son.
After Emperor Wen of Han ascended the throne, in order to consolidate the throne, it was necessary to balance the power of all parties. At that time, the strength of the meritorious group was strong, and Emperor Wen of Han had to strengthen the strength of the princes and kings of the Liu family. Therefore, he named Liu Bang's distant cousin Liu Ze as the king of Yan, and found the descendants of the sixth child who was eliminated by Empress Lu, and named him the king of Zhao again.
Although Liu Ze was just an ordinary marquis in Liu Bang's era, he played a major role in this action to eliminate the Lu family and played a key role in supporting Emperor Wen of Han.
Therefore, Emperor Wen of Han named him king, which was also a reward for his efforts. In this way, the princes and kings of the old Liu family added the two veins of cousin and the sixth vein, and they became six veins again.
After Emperor Wen of Han sat on the throne, he began to solve the problem of weakening the princes surnamed Liu, and although he encountered many difficulties in the process, including the rebellion of the eldest son and the seventh son, he still did not find a suitable solution.
Because the situation at that time was that Emperor Wen of Han could not directly bring the vassal states under the management of **, and continuing to let the princes and kings of the old Liu family take power would threaten the rule of **. In the end, the appearance of Jia Yi solved this problem for Emperor Wen of Han.
Build many princes and few of them": This strategy divides a powerful vassal state into multiple pieces and entitles multiple vassal kings, keeping the territorial area of the vassal state unchanged, but reducing the power of each vassal king.
During the reign of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, this strategy was changed to the "Tui En Ling", which was originally proposed by Jia Yi. Emperor Wen of Han appreciated this plan very much and immediately implemented it. With the help of the Tui'en Order, Emperor Wen of Han succeeded in dividing some of the vassal states into many and weakening their power to gain better control over the vassal states.
It turned out that before the death of Emperor Wen of the Han Dynasty, the princes surnamed Liu had been divided into six veins, including Liu Bang's second brother's family, the fourth brother's family, the eldest son's family, the sixth son's family, the seventh son's family and the cousin's family.
Among them, Liu Bang's eldest son's family was divided into six princes and kings, and the seventh son's family was divided into three princes and kings. Although the number of princes and kings has increased, the overall strength has weakened.
The reason is that the increase in vassal states has led to the shrinkage of the territory into scattered sand, and at the same time, the Han Dynasty has become more powerful after the development of the era of Emperor Wen of Han.
After Emperor Jing of Han ascended the throne, his father had already arranged everything for him, and he just had to act according to the plan. Before Emperor Wen of Han, he had successfully weakened the power of the vassal kings, and now Emperor Jing of Han aimed to further deprive them of their territory and assign them to the direct subordinate of **, and finally achieve the goal of eliminating all vassal states.
In addition, when Emperor Wen of Han died, he left behind two sons, the eldest of whom was Emperor Jing of Han, and the other was crowned King of Liang. At the same time, he also left behind a grandson who was crowned acting king.
King Dai and King Liang are descendants of Emperor Wen of Han, and they are both staunch supporters of **. However, during the Rebellion of the Seven Kingdoms, it was the King of Liang who could really help.
After Emperor Jing of the Han Dynasty ascended the throne, the entire Han Dynasty was divided into two major factions. One faction is the ** directly subordinate territory with Emperor Wen of Han and his son Emperor Jing of Han as the core, as well as the land of King Dai and King Liang.
The other faction was composed of six princes and kings who were not of Emperor Wen of Han's bloodline, including Liu Bang's second brother, fourth brother, eldest son, sixth son, seventh son, and cousin's family. This ** is the pattern of princes and kings within the Han Dynasty before the outbreak of the Seven Kingdoms Rebellion.
Since Emperor Jing of the Han Dynasty ascended the throne, the contradictions between the two sides could not be reconciled. Emperor Jing of the Han Dynasty was committed to centralizing power, while the local princes and kings were committed to protecting their own interests.
After Emperor Jing of Han ascended the throne, the game with the princes and kings of his family actually began as early as when he was still the crown prince. The incident originated from a murder case, when Liu Bi, the king of Wu, sent his son to the capital, and he did not think about rebellion.
Although he was Liu Bang's nephew, he did not have an advantage when it came to competing for the throne. Emperor Wen of Han also had a friendly attitude towards Liu Wei and did not suppress him too much.
Liu Bi also knew how to exchange courtesies and exchanges, and often sent envoys to the capital to strengthen the relationship between the two sides.
Surprisingly, in order to pay tribute to Emperor Wen of Han, Liu Bi, the king of Wu, actually sent his son to the capital to worship. Emperor Wen of Han attached great importance to this prince of Wu and saw this as a good opportunity to strengthen the relationship between the two sides.
Therefore, Emperor Wen of Han instructed the then crown prince Liu Qi to personally receive this prince of Wu. However, instead of forming a friendship after the two young people meet, they have a bad conversation.
While playing chess, the prince of Wu was disrespectful to the crown prince Liu Qi. The angry Liu Qishun picked up the chessboard and smashed it into the head of King Wu's son. This smash led to tragedy.
When Emperor Wen of Han learned about this, it was irretrievable, so he could only send troops to send the body of King Wu back to Liu Bi. Liu Bi was furious when he learned of this, and the relationship between the two sides broke down completely.
Since then, until the death of Emperor Wen of the Han Dynasty, Liu Bi, the king of Wu, never came to the capital to worship again. Because of his own mistakes before, Emperor Wen of Han did not punish King Wu. After Emperor Jing of Han ascended to the throne, the situation changed.
For King Wu, the emperor had a grudge against killing his son, and he could not really help. For Emperor Jing of Han, a hateful vassal king had to be eliminated.
This knot could no longer be untied, and King Liu Wei and Wu understood that Emperor Jing of Han would not let him go easily. As a result, King Wu began to communicate privately with other princes and kings, making this civil war of the Liu family gradually escalate to the point of inevitability.
And the fuse of this war is a key figure - Chao Cuo. As early as the time of Emperor Wen of the Han Dynasty, Chao Cuo was already an important figure in the imperial court. He once proposed to Emperor Wen of Han such as immigrating to Shibian and Ma Fuling, and these plans had a profound impact on the Han Dynasty.
Chao Cuo was deeply appreciated by Emperor Wen of Han for his outstanding talents, and was appointed as Emperor Jingdi of Han's teacher. After Emperor Jing of the Han Dynasty ascended the throne, Chao Cuo was even more highly used, and his suggestion of cutting the feudal domain was also fully adopted by Emperor Jing of the Han Dynasty.
Although Chao Cuo's plan seemed to be impeccable, it was too radical and caused some princes to be dissatisfied. Liu Bi, the king of Wu, secretly conspired, and finally announced a rebellion in the first month of 154 BC, three years after Emperor Jing of Han ascended the throne.
When Liu Bi raised his army, under the banner of the Qing monarch's side, the spearhead was pointed at Emperor Jing of the Han Dynasty, believing that he was bewitched by mistakes and imposed unfair treatment on the old Liu family's family. Liu Bi's rebellion provoked a response from other disgruntled old Liu vassal kings, who also announced their rebellion and began to rebel.
According to the previous analysis, we can see that at this time in the Western Han Dynasty, in addition to the princes and kings of Emperor Wen of the Han Dynasty, there were six veins, namely Liu Bang's second brother's family, Liu Bang's fourth brother's family, Liu Bang's eldest son's family, Liu Bang's sixth son's family, Liu Bang's seventh son's family and Liu Bang's cousin's family.
Among these six veins, Liu Bi is the only vassal king of Liu Bang's second brother's family, and his strength is the strongest.
After Liu Bi raised his army, Liu Bang's four younger brothers and one son's prince in the family began to respond. Among them, the six princes of the eldest son's family originally planned to launch a rebellion at the same time, but Liu Jianglu, the king of Qi, chose to wait and see, and Liu Zhi, the king of Jibei, was hijacked by his subordinates before launching the rebellion, so only four princes really participated in the rebellion.
In addition, King Zhao of Liu Bang's sixth son's family also participated in this rebellion. Therefore, Liu Bang's second brother's family, the fourth brother's family, the four princes of the eldest son's family, and the sixth son's family all participated in the rebellion, because it involved seven princes and seven feudal states, so it was called the Rebellion of the Seven Kingdoms in later generations.
At the moment when the Rebellion of the Seven Kingdoms broke out, there were actually many princes and kings who chose to stay on the sidelines. For example, neither Liu Bang's cousin's family nor Liu Bang's seventh son's family were involved in the rebellion at that time.
However, these people are not without the idea of rebellion. Once Emperor Jing of Han's position is shaken, they may see the opportunity to act. In addition, immediately after the outbreak of the rebellion, Liu Bi made contact with the Xiongnu and Baiyue, planning to jointly attack the Han Dynasty.
Moreover, Liu Biao, the king of Wu, who has the most powerful strength, bet all his chips this time. All men between the ages of fourteen and sixty in the state of Wu were drafted into the army, and he quickly assembled an army of more than 300,000 men.
This is only the strength of the state of Wu, if you add the other six princes and kings, as well as threats such as the Xiongnu and Baiyue, the pressure faced by Emperor Jing of Han is self-evident.
When faced with the threat of the rebels of the Seven Kingdoms, Emperor Jing of Han chose to negotiate with them first, but under the pressure of the rebels of the Seven Kingdoms and the central ministers, he finally chose to kill Chao Cuo in order to eliminate the rebels' reason for rebellion.
Although this decision was controversial in history because it sacrificed Chao Cuo, he did prevent the rebels from moving further and avoided a situation of misrepresentation.
However, Chao Cuo's death did not quell the rebel attacks, and Emperor Jing of Han chose to take tough measures next, and Zhou Yafu came into play.
Before the outbreak of the Rebellion of the Seven Kingdoms, Zhou Yafu was already waiting in the waiting area. Although during the period of Emperor Wen of the Han Dynasty, Zhou Yafu's role was limited, but the importance attached to him was extraordinary. Because with the death of the founding fathers and generals one after another, the Han Dynasty military lacked real combat effectiveness.
In this case, Emperor Wen of Han had to use the sons of those founding generals, among whom Zhou Yafu performed well. Once, Emperor Wen of Han placed heavy troops around Chang'an City, and after inspection, it was found that Zhou Yafu's troops were the most orderly.
Zhou Yafu's inspection of the "military fine willow" not only left a deep impression on him in the heart of Emperor Wen of the Han Dynasty, but also became an excellent general in his mind. Even Emperor Wen of Han, on his deathbed, specially instructed Emperor Jing of Han to list Zhou Yafu as an important candidate.
Therefore, after the outbreak of the Rebellion of the Seven Kingdoms, Zhou Yafu became the main force in quelling the rebellion. Emperor Jing of Han quickly counterattacked, dividing the Rebellion of the Seven Kingdoms into three battlefields. Among them, Liu Bi, the king of Wu of Liu Bang's second brother's family, and Liu Bang's fourth brother's family of the king of Chu's first line were adjacent to each other, so they merged their forces after raising troops.
In contrast, the other five vassal kings were much less stressed.
Emperor Jing of the Han Dynasty adopted a series of subtle tactics when dealing with the Wu-Chu coalition forces. First, he used the territory of Liu Wu, the king of Liang, as a line of defense, and successfully resisted the attack of the Wu-Chu coalition army.
Then, he sent Zhou Yafu to lead the ** main force to make a detour through Wuguan and cut off the grain route of the Wu-Chu coalition army. Zhou Yafu is well versed in the art of war, and he understands that the ** army of the Western Han Dynasty does not have an advantage in terms of strength, but it can effectively contain the Wu-Chu coalition army through strategic space and supply advantages.
Zhou Yafu adopted a strategy of defending instead of attacking, constantly harassing and cutting off the grain routes of the Wu-Chu coalition army, and finally succeeded in disintegrating this seemingly powerful rebel army.
The two-sided attack of Zhou Yafu and King Liang put the Wu-Chu coalition in a difficult situation. They first attacked King Liang's position, but failed, and then launched a fierce attack on Zhou Yafu's position, which also failed to do so.
During this period, Zhou Yafu dispersed with the main force of the coalition army and sent elite troops to seize the confluence of Surabaya into Huaishui, cutting off the grain route of the Wu-Chu coalition army. This move put the Wu-Chu coalition army at a disadvantage, and it was only a matter of time before it was completely annihilated.
At the same time, Emperor Jing of Han also achieved steady victories on other battlefields. He sent the second-generation military general Li Ji against the army of Liu Bang's sixth son, King Zhao. After Liu Bang entered Guanzhong, Li Ji's father, Li Shang, led his troops into Sichuan and took the lead in helping Liu Bang control the Hanzhong region.
Li Shiqi, a famous lobbyist in the early Han Dynasty, had single-handedly persuaded Qi to surrender during the Chu-Han War, but during the negotiations, Han Xin raided Qi and caused him to be killed by Qi. In the operation to eradicate the Lu family, Li Ji played a key role in deceiving the Lu family to leave the city, so that Zhou Bo was able to regain military power and successfully eradicate the Lu family.
In the era of Emperor Wen of the Han Dynasty, Li Ji was a highly used second-generation military general. However, compared to Zhou Yafu, his talent is slightly inferior. After going to the battlefield of Zhao, the two sides fell into a stalemate, although the king of Zhao was defeated by Liji, but he could not hold out, and the battlefield of Zhao was at a stalemate.
Among these three major battlefields, the Qi State Battlefield is the most fascinating.
The eldest son of Liu Bang, the four princes of the Qi State, participated in the rebellion at the same time, but before they could go on the expedition, there was civil strife in the boss's vein. There were originally six princes and kings in the boss's line, four of them were rebelling, one wanted to rebel but was stopped by Lang Zhong under his command, and the other wanted to sit on the mountain and watch the tiger fight, and he had not participated in the war for the time being.
Unexpectedly, these four brothers killed each other instead, besieging the prince who originally rode the wall, but there was no progress for three months, and the prince who originally built the wall was also forced to the Han Dynasty.
Wu Wang Liu Bi's luck is really not good, his teammates are too weak. If there was even one teammate who could fight, the outcome of the Rebellion of the Seven Kingdoms would have been different.
But this is actually not unexpected, because Emperor Wen of Han had long expected the infighting in the boss's line. In order to prevent this from happening, Emperor Wen of Han did not hesitate to expend a lot of energy to divide the state of Qi into six.
In this way, the ** and infighting of the boss's vein are almost inevitable. For this reason, Emperor Jing of Han was not very worried about the rebellion of Qi, but only sent a lesser-known veteran Luan Bu to quell the rebellion.
Luan Bu was not a famous figure, he had a friendship with Peng Yue, a king with a different surname, in the early Han Dynasty, and took care of Peng Yue's funeral after his death, so Liu Bang thought he was good and made him an official.
In the early days of the Han Dynasty, he was inconspicuous, but by the time of the Rebellion of the Seven Kingdoms, it was a miracle that he was able to survive. He was later sent to the state of Qi, albeit with limited contributions, as Zhou Yafu had already made progress.
In fact, the two battles of Qi and Zhao were not important and did not pose a threat. The real key battle was with the Wu-Chu coalition forces. Moreover, after arranging three battlefields, the Han Dynasty still had leeway.
Therefore, Emperor Jing of the Han Dynasty sent his mother's relative Dou Ying to lead troops to guard Xingyang.
When Emperor Jing of the Han Dynasty dealt with the rebellion of the Seven Kingdoms, he took a backward move, and if the three major battlefields were lost at the same time, he would rely on the advantages of the Xingyang region to fight the rivers and lakes again. However, the development of history did not go according to his plan, because Zhou Yafu, who he trusted the most, did not give him this opportunity.
After the outbreak of the Rebellion of the Seven Kingdoms, Emperor Jing of Han responded appropriately, and several battlefields quickly fell into a stalemate. In the end, it was Zhou Yafu who broke the deadlock, and he led his army to capture the area where Surabaya entered Huai, cutting off the grain route of the Wu-Chu coalition army.
The victory in this battle completely cut off the grain routes of the Wu-Chu coalition army, and soon hundreds of thousands of troops began to be directly defeated.
The hundreds of thousands of Wu-Chu allied troops may sound formidable at first glance, but in fact most of them were ordinary people who had not experienced the battlefield before, and were forcibly recruited by Liu Bi, the king of Wu.
As soon as the food ** is cut off, they lose the will to fight and can only be defeated. Zhou Yafu did not kill these defeated Wu-Chu coalition forces, but tried to surrender.
In this way, after the rout, most of the soldiers of the Wu-Chu coalition army collapsed in an instant, leaving only a few thousand elites around Liu Bi, the king of Wu. Subsequently, Liu Bi led these thousands of elites to flee to the Baiyue region, but the Baiyue side chose to fall to the Han Dynasty** and finally eliminated Liu Bi.
And the king of Chu, who had joined forces with Liu Bi, knew that he had no way to survive after learning of the defeat of the coalition army, so he chose to commit suicide. In this way, more than two months after the outbreak of the rebellion, the strongest kings of Wu and Chu both died.
Luan Bu, the savior of the Qi country, his arrival made the Qi ** team that originally besieged the wall-riding faction withdraw from their feudal state. Wherever his army went, it was natural to surrender, and even the four rebellious princes and kings surrendered directly.
The state of Qi was pacified with almost no hard battles. Then, he quickly supported the battlefield of Zhao, and although Zhao was trapped in Handan City, he still did not surrender. However, Luan Bu, relying on his experience and strategy in the Chu-Han War, joined forces with Liji, flooded Handan with water, and easily broke the city.
This was not uncommon in the Chu-Han War that year, and the famous generals Zhang Han and Xiang Yu at the end of the Qin Dynasty died like this.
King Zhao committed suicide after the city was broken, and the rebellion of the Seven Kingdoms was completely quelled, which lasted only three months, which is a true record in history.
The Rebellion of the Seven Kingdoms seems to be huge, but it doesn't really have real strength. First of all, none of the rebellious princes and kings had military talent. Secondly, after years of recuperation and recuperation, the Han Dynasty was peaceful, and the people were not willing to start war.
The most important thing is that Emperor Wen of Han had long been prepared for this rebellion, and the Han Dynasty had already formulated a detailed response plan before the outbreak of war. Therefore, Emperor Jing of the Han Dynasty was able to react quickly and quickly quell the civil strife.
At the end of the day, this is a battle within the Liu family, lacking great strategy. Compared with the Chu-Han War of that year and the later war of Liu Bang to pacify the king with a different surname, this rebellion is really not worth mentioning.