Diqin Designer

Chapter 79: The Three Heroes of the Early Han Dynasty

Ying Zheng felt inexplicably happy. He said, "You mentioned in your speech just now that Pei Gong said that he could conquer the world only if he could use Xiao He, Zi Fang, and Han Xin. Who are these three people?"

Xiao He and Han Xin are still okay, but what about Zhang Liang? He is the one who assassinated the First Emperor in history. Li Nian hopes that Zhang Liang can hide well and not be arrested because of him.

Li Nian said: "These three people are called the 'Three Heroes of the Early Han Dynasty'. Of course, there were more heroes in the early Han Dynasty than just these three, but they were the best among them."

"Xiao He, the first meritorious official of the Western Han Dynasty, was a native of Fengyi, Pei County, like Pei Gong. In his early years, he became the chief clerk of Pei County because he was familiar with the laws and enforced the law fairly without any harm."

He is actually an official of our Great Qin?

It seems that the Qin Dynasty is really unpopular, and even the original officials of the Qin Dynasty have rebelled.

Ying Zheng was thinking, Li Nian continued: "When Pei Gong was still a commoner, Xiao He had been friends with Pei Gong and had helped him many times. When Pei Gong started an uprising in Pei County, it was with the help of Xiao He and Cao Shen that he succeeded."

"At that time, after the uprising and the killing of the county magistrate, everyone was worried that the uprising would fail and their clan would be exterminated, so they pushed each other away and dared not take the position of new county magistrate. Pei Gong then became the new county magistrate and was called 'Pei Gong' according to the old system of the Chu State."

The name "Pei Gong" originally came from this.

Ying Zheng commented: "Since you cherish your life and property so much, it's no wonder you can only be a minister and not a king."

Li Nian said: "In terms of military achievements, Xiao He is not as good as Cao Shen and Zhou Bo, and in terms of strategy, Xiao He is not as good as Zhang Liang and Han Xin, but he is responsible for guarding the rear and managing logistics for Pei Gong, so that Pei Gong and his generals do not have to worry about lack of soldiers and food when leading the army to fight. He can be said to be Pei Gong's most solid backing."

"When Pei Gong first entered Xianyang, he saw the prosperity of Xianyang and the soldiers plundered the property. Even Pei Gong couldn't help wanting to rest and enjoy himself in the palace. Only Xiao He, after entering Xianyang, did not covet property or beautiful women. Instead, he rushed to the residence of the prime minister and the imperial censor to protect the collection of laws and books kept in the residence."

Upon hearing this, Ying Zheng commented: "This Xiao He is a man of foresight. He knows laws and books, which are more valuable than money and beauties. With his help, it is no wonder that the Duke of Pei was able to gain the world!"

Li Nian nodded in agreement and said, "That's right. The legal books collected and protected by Xiao He played a huge role in Pei Gong's victory. Xiao He also recommended Han Xin, one of the 'Three Heroes', to Pei Gong, leaving behind the story of 'Xiao He chasing Han Xin under the moon' for later generations."

Is Xiao He also related to another of the “Three Heroes”, Han Xin?
Yes, they were both ministers under the Duke of Pei, so even if they were not very familiar with each other, they must have known each other.

"After Chen Sheng and Wu Guang's uprising, Han Xin successively joined Xiang Liang and Xiang Yu, but was not valued by both. He then joined Pei Gong, but was still not valued. But when he was under Pei Gong, Han Xin had many conversations with Xiao He, who thought he was a genius!"

"Although Xiao He thought he was a genius, Han Xin had not been valued by Pei Gong for a long time, so he wanted to leave. When Xiao He heard that Han Xin had run away, he went to chase Han Xin himself without reporting to Pei Gong. Pei Gong almost thought that Xiao He was going to run away too."

"After recovering Han Xin, Xiao He formally recommended Han Xin to Pei Gong and called him 'a peerless national talent'."

Speaking of "unparalleled national talent", Li Nian thought of the chef boy's exam, which used "unparalleled national talent" as the exam question.

"Under Xiao He's persuasion, the Duke of Pei ascended the altar and appointed Han Xin as the general in charge of the army. After that, Han Xin offered advice to the Duke of Pei to conquer the Three Qins, capture Wei, replace, defeat Zhao, threaten Yan, attack Qi, and destroy Chu. Han Xin also commanded Xiang Yu's siege at Gaixia."

"Han Xin was invincible in battle and conquered every city. He was honored as the 'Military God' in later generations. When later dynasties established military temples, Han Xin was often listed among them, and ranked first."

Being called the "God of War" is enough to show how strong his ability to command troops is.

Ying Zheng asked: "How does Wang Jian rank in the Temple of Martial Arts?"

When Li Nian heard this, he knew that the First Emperor was not really asking about Wang Jian's ranking, but was asking: Who is better, Wang Jian or Han Xin?
Of course it was Han Xin. Although Wang Jian had the merit of destroying a country, what kind of war did Wang Jian fight and what kind of war did Han Xin fight?

Compared with Han Xin, Wang Jian obviously fought more battles. Han Xin was deprived of his military power several times by Liu Bang and had to recruit soldiers himself, but Han Xin was still able to defeat the enemy with fewer troops and new soldiers. If the soldiers under Han Xin were replaced by the Qin army led by Wang Jian, it would be unimaginable!
"Later dynasties established a military temple to honor ten famous generals from ancient times as the Ten Sages. Han Xin was included among them, but General Wang Jian was not."

Li Nian deliberately added: "Wu Anjun was once listed as one of the Ten Sages!"

However, Bai Qi's position in the Temple of Martial Arts was kicked out by Emperor Taizu of Song during the Song Dynasty.

The reason is that Bai Qi killed the surrendered soldiers and was not worthy of being worshipped in the Temple of Martial Arts.

"Han Xin's ability is comparable to that of Wu'an Jun. I wonder if he can be used by me?"

Li Nian continued: "However, Han Xin's death and the extinction of his clan were also due to Xiao He, so later generations said, 'Success is due to Xiao He, and failure is also due to Xiao He.'"

Upon hearing this, Boss Zheng was immediately happy. Did Pei Gong kill Han Xin?
It seems that his tolerance is just this level!

Look at him, all his meritorious subordinates are living well.

Boss Zheng felt that he had found a place that was stronger than Pei Gong, and asked with great interest: "Why did Pei Gong kill Han Xin?"

Li Nian said: "There are many reasons why Han Xin was killed. He was too successful and threatened the lord. He was too greedy. He also disobeyed the orders of Pei Gong and had a grudge against Pei Gong."

"Han Xin's achievements were the greatest among all the generals in the early Han Dynasty, and his prestige in the army was extremely high. When Pei Gong was besieged in Xingyang, the situation was critical, but Han Xin did not save Xingyang, but instead wrote a letter to Pei Gong asking him to be crowned king..."

Just from these two points, Ying Zheng understood why Han Xin was killed.

It should be said that it was normal for Han Xin to be killed, and it would be strange if he could survive. That would require the monarch to be extremely tolerant.

Anyway, if it were him, he would definitely kill Han Xin.

No matter how talented you are or how strong your army is, what does it matter?
If you disobey the king's orders, or even dare to threaten the king in danger, you will be killed and your clan will be destroyed.

I am not much better than Pei Gong!
The joy in my heart suddenly disappeared.

"Han Xin was killed because of the fault of Pei Gong. When Han Xin was leading the army, Pei Gong had seized his military power several times, causing Han Xin to fear that Pei Gong would harm him."

Ying Zheng commented: "It is not surprising that the king and his subjects are suspicious of each other and have such a result!"

Li Nian said: "Han Xin's death was not directly caused by Pei Gong's hand, but by Pei Gong's wife. When Pei Gong learned of this, later history records that 'he returned to Luoyang and heard about the death of Huaiyin Hou, and he was both happy and pitiful'."

Ying Zheng said, "I am glad that Han Xin is dead and no longer a worry in his heart. I pity Han Xin's talent. There is no other such a peerless man in the world. Pei Gong only found out about it afterwards, but I don't believe it. If he hadn't agreed, how could his wife dare to harm the general?"

Li Nian corrected Ying Zheng and said, "Your Majesty, you don't know that even without the Duke of Pei's permission, his wife would still dare to kill Han Xin."

Ying Zheng uttered a puzzled "Oh?", and then he realized that this woman must not be an ordinary woman, and might be a woman like Queen Dowager Xuan.

　After careful consideration, he found that it was not feasible to let Lu Zhi become Fusu's wife. If Fusu was enfeoffed overseas, it would be okay, but if he was within the territory of Qin, Qin Shihuang would not allow it.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)