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Chapter 195: The Kings Who Lost Their Nation

In 263 BC, King Kaolie of Chu ascended the throne and appointed Chunshen Jun as prime minister to organize the last cooperation of the eastern countries, but was defeated by the Qin army. After the death of King Kaolie of Chu, his four sons successively became kings of Chu.

The eldest, King You of Chu, killed Lord Chunshen, and the Chu State never recovered. The second, King Ai of Chu, was slandered by the third, King Chu, as the son of Lord Chunshen and usurped the throne two months after he ascended the throne.

In 223 BC, the Qin veteran Wang Jian led 60 Qin troops and captured the King of Chu, Fu Chu, after a stalemate in Shouchun for a whole year. Xiang Yan supported another son of King Kaolie of Chu, Changping Jun Xiong Qi, to succeed to the throne.

Xiong Qi was originally the prime minister of Qin State. He also helped to suppress the Lao Ai Rebellion together with Lü Buwei and Chang Wenjun. After being sent back to Yingdu by the overlord, he rebelled against Qin State. After Xiang Yan was defeated, Xiong Qi died and the State of Chu was destroyed.

[A quick review of historical facts about the kings who lost their country]

I have the will to kill the enemy, but I am powerless to turn the tide. The kings who founded a country are all the same, but the kings who lost their country are all unique. Some are born as puppets, while others are crazy and die. In this video, let us take stock of the kings who lost their country in history.

First: Emperor Xian of Han, Liu Xie. Emperor Xian of Han, Liu Xie, is the most famous king who lost his country in Chinese history. He was held hostage by powerful officials all his life. When Liu Xie was born, his mother, Concubine Wang, was poisoned to death by Empress He. He was raised by his grandmother, Empress Dowager Dong, since childhood.

When he was 8 years old, Emperor Ling of Han died, and Empress He's son Liu Bian ascended the throne. General He Jin was killed in a power struggle with eunuchs, and the eunuch Zhang Rang took Liu Bian's brothers hostage and escaped from the palace.

Dong Zhuo led his troops to invade, which physically solved the problem of eunuchs' monopoly of power, but also made the emperor his puppet. Soon Dong Zhuo deposed Liu Bian and replaced him with Liu Xie. All states and counties raised troops to attack Dong Zhuo, which marked the beginning of the warlords' melee at the end of the Han Dynasty. Dong Zhuo took Liu Xie hostage and moved the capital from Luoyang to Chang'an, and looted Luoyang before leaving.

Soon Dong Zhuo was killed by Wang Yun and Lu Bu, and Li Jue and Guo Si led their troops to counterattack Chang'an, where they fought fiercely. Liu Xie fled back to Luoyang under the escort of Yang Feng and Dong Cheng, but Luoyang had already become a ruin.

Cao Cao led his troops to welcome Liu Xie to move the capital to Xuchang, and used the emperor to control the princes. Liu Xie was unwilling to be controlled, and secretly contacted Dong Cheng to plot to kill Cao Cao, but the plot was exposed, Dong Cheng was killed, and his daughter Dong Guiren was also executed. Liu Xie was strictly controlled by Cao Cao.

In 214 AD, Cao Cao forced Liu Xie to depose Empress Fu, poisoned his two sons with Liu Xie, and made his daughter Cao Jie the empress. Soon after, he asked Liu Xie to crown him the King of Wei and establish the Kingdom of Wei. In 220 AD, Cao Cao died and his son Cao Pi ascended the throne. Liu Xie was forced to abdicate and the Eastern Han Dynasty fell.

Cao Pi named Liu Xie the Duke of Shanyang and promised that all the good things in the world could be shared with him. In 234 AD, Liu Xie died at the age of 54. He was buried with the rites of an emperor and was posthumously named Emperor Xiaomin.

Second: Emperor Yang Guang of the Sui Dynasty. If Liu Xie became the king of a fallen country against his will, then Yang Guang personally sent himself to the path of national destruction.

When Yang Guang ascended the throne, there was a good situation created by Emperor Wen of Sui, Yang Jian. However, the first thing he did after he ascended the throne was to kill his brothers. He killed the deposed Crown Prince Yang Yong and imprisoned King of Han, Yang Liang. He ascended the throne on the blood of his brothers and began his own grand cause.

During Yang Guang's reign, he carried out large-scale construction projects. He first ordered the construction of Luoyang, the eastern capital, and then ordered the construction of temporary palaces in various places to connect the North-South Canal and the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal. From time to time, he took Empress Xiao on tours to the south.

What really led to Yang Guang's death was the three expeditions to Goguryeo, all of which were led by the emperor himself. Due to the long battle lines and improper command, the losses were very heavy and civil unrest broke out in the country.

Yang Guang knew that his end was coming, so he went to the palace in Jiangdu, where he lived a life of drunkenness and debauchery. One day, he looked in the mirror and sighed, "Who should chop off my head?" In 618 AD, during the Jiangdu Incident, Yang Guang was strangled to death by Linghu Xingda at the age of 50.

The third: Tang Zhaozong Li Ye. Tang Zhaozong Li Ye was the son of Tang Yizong and the younger brother of Tang Xizong. When he was 14 years old, he fled to Sichuan with his brother because of the Huang Chao Rebellion.

Huang Chao's Rebellion completely destroyed the foundation of the Tang Dynasty's rule, and various vassal states that emerged for the purpose of judgment established their own regimes. In 888 AD, Emperor Xizong of Tang became seriously ill after returning to Chang'an, and the military governor Yang Fugong led his army to support Emperor Zhaozong of Tang to ascend the throne.

The two most powerful vassal states at that time were Zhu Wen in Kaifeng and Li Keyong in Hexi. In addition, there was Li Maozhen in Fengxiang who was very dissatisfied with Emperor Zhaozong of Tang. Li Maozhen led troops to force the emperor to abdicate several times, which frightened Emperor Zhaozong to flee Chang'an.

As an emperor, Tang Zhaozong was not only unable to control the vassal states, he could not even command the judges around him and was even imprisoned by eunuchs. In the end, it was Zhu Wen who led his troops to kill the eunuchs, physically eradicating the problem of eunuchs' monopoly that had plagued the Tang Dynasty for hundreds of years.

However, Tang Zhaozong became a puppet of Zhu Wen from then on. In 904 AD, Tang Zhaozong was killed by Zhu Wen. Three years later, the Tang Dynasty fell.

Fourth: Emperor Gong of Song, Zhao Xian, was the son of Emperor Duzong of Song, Zhao Xie. He was only 3 years old when he ascended the throne, so his grandmother Xie Daoqing ruled the country from behind the curtain. In fact, the power of the government was controlled by the treacherous prime minister Jia Sidao.

At this time, the Southern Song Dynasty was already in the countdown to its demise. The Yuan army had occupied Sichuan and the middle and upper reaches of the Yangtze River and was approaching Lin'an. When the three-year-old child did not even know what an emperor was, he had to take the responsibility for the country's demise and began a rough and tragic life.

In 1276, the Yuan army arrived at the city of Lin'an. Empress Dowager Xie Daoqing ordered Zhang Shijie, Lu Xiufu and Wen Tianxiang to escort the two brothers of Emperor Gong of Song to escape, and then opened the city to surrender.

The 6-year-old Song Gongdi went to Yuan Dadu with the royal family and officials to pay homage to Kublai Khan, the founder of the Yuan Dynasty. Kublai Khan spared the king of the fallen country from the humiliation of the Northern Song Dynasty. However, the Southern Song Dynasty imperial mausoleum had been completely destroyed by the evil monk Yang Lianzhenjia. One of Zhao Xian's two brothers died of illness during exile, and the other was hugged by Lu Xiufu and jumped into the sea in the Yashan naval battle in 1279.

The Southern Song Dynasty was completely destroyed. As the king of the fallen country, Emperor Gong of Song was named Duke of Ying by the Yuan Dynasty, and his mother, Queen Quan, became a nun in Dadu. When he was 12 years old, there was a rumor in Dadu that someone wanted to restore Zhao Xian to the throne, so Kublai Khan moved Zhao Xian to Shangdu. Six years later, he ordered him to become a nun in western Tibet. Legend has it that Kublai Khan dreamed that Zhao Xian was standing in front of the Panlong Pillar, so he sent him to western Tibet.

In 1323, Emperor Gong of Song was sentenced to death by Emperor Yingzong of Yuan at the age of 52. His son Zhao Wenpu also became a monk and was exiled to the northwestern border by the Yuan Dynasty, where his fate is unknown.

The fifth one: Chongzhen Emperor Zhu Youjian, Chongzhen Emperor Zhu Youjian is the most controversial one among all the emperors who lost their country. In history, the emperors who lost their country either made a series of stupid decisions and ruined their country;

Or the dynasty was already in a mess when he ascended the throne, and there was no way to save it. Chongzhen, on the other hand, brought down the Ming Dynasty with his diligent and hard work. Chongzhen Emperor Zhu Youjian became emperor through the succession of his elder brother. His elder brother Zhu Youxiao asked him before his death, "My brother should be like Yao and Shun."

After Chongzhen ascended the throne, he liquidated Wei Zhongxian and his followers, restored the reputation of the Donglin Party, and often used Yuan Chonghuan to guard Liaodong, which brought a new atmosphere to the court and the public. However, the good times did not last long. Due to constant natural disasters, serious land annexation, and intensified social contradictions, civil unrest broke out. The Later Jin outside the Great Wall was becoming increasingly powerful and often invaded the Great Wall.

In 1629, the Later Jin army made several detours through Mongolia and arrived at the gates of Beijing. After looting the surrounding counties, they fled. Chongzhen was very angry and ordered Yuan Chonghuan to be thrown into the Tianlao and executed by slow slicing.

Whether Chongzhen's killing of Yuan Chonghuan was right or wrong has been debated for hundreds of years. But this incident fully demonstrates Chongzhen's suspicion. During Chongzhen's reign, 50 cabinet ministers were replaced, known as the ministers of Chongzhen. As the famine became more severe, the scope of the uprising expanded.

The financial and military pressures of the Ming Dynasty were also increasing, and corruption was rampant. Without the skills and abilities of our ancestor Zhu Yuanzhang, the situation would only have deteriorated further.

In 1642, the Songjin War outside the Great Wall was defeated, and the Kaifeng City inside the Great Wall was flooded and destroyed. The following year, Sun Chuanting died in Tongguan, and the Ming Dynasty had no strength to fight again. In 1644, Li Zicheng captured Beijing, and Zhu Youjian hanged himself in Jingshan.

[Why the Ming Dynasty is called a tough dynasty historical knowledge]

Why is the Ming Dynasty known as the most powerful dynasty? The 276-year-old Ming Dynasty refused to marry off princesses, pay indemnities, submit to the emperor, or pay tribute. It expelled the Tatars, crushed the Japanese pirates, and even drove away the Dutch colonists during the Southern Ming exile period.

So how strong was the Ming Dynasty, and why did it fall? In this video, let us walk into the rise and fall of the Ming Dynasty.

The Ming Dynasty was the last dynasty established by the Han people in Chinese history. From the founding of the country by Emperor Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang in 1368 to the suicide of Emperor Chongzhen Zhu Youjian in 1644, there were 16 emperors in total and the dynasty lasted for 276 years.

The Ming Dynasty was established by breaking away from the rule of the Mongol Empire. In 1367, Zhu Yuanzhang sent Xu Da and Chang Yuchun to lead an army of 25 to the north to attack the Central Plains. The following year, they conquered the Yuan Dynasty's capital Dadu, drove the Mongol Yuan Dynasty royal family out of the Central Plains, and expelled the remnants of the Yuan Dynasty.

Through several northern expeditions, the north no longer had any military threat to the Central Plains, and a unified multi-ethnic country was established and consolidated.

During the Ming Dynasty, China had frequent exchanges with other countries in the world. Zheng He made seven voyages to the West, and the farthest he reached was the Cape of Good Hope. In the late Ming Dynasty, a large amount of American silver flowed into China, the commercial economy flourished, and culture, art, and science reached new heights. Works such as Compendium of Materia Medica were published.

Three of the four great classics were written during the Ming Dynasty. During the 276 years from its founding to its demise, the Ming Dynasty maintained a relatively stable rule without falling into major civil strife or division, and the central government was never attacked from within or outside.

The Mongol cavalry that roamed across Europe and Asia were turned into guerrillas by the Ming Dynasty, and Toyotomi Hideyoshi's Japanese army was driven back to his homeland by the Ming army in Korea. Strong military strength and a stable political system are necessary conditions to ensure the existence of a country.

Zhu Yuanzhang was born in a poor family, and most of his generals were also from the grassroots, including some militia leaders who brought capital into the army. How to effectively control the internal situation while responding to external threats became Zhu Yuanzhang's number one problem.

The secret police politics of the Ming Dynasty has always been criticized by later generations. Long before the establishment of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang established the Jinyiwei organization to monitor generals in various places. For generals who were difficult to control, such as Shao Rong, an old subordinate of Guo Zixing, and Guo Tianjue, the son of Guo Zixing, were both executed by Zhu Yuanzhang on charges of treason.

While eliminating internal threats, Zhu Yuanzhang adopted the strategy of building high walls, storing up grain, and delaying the declaration of kingship. He established a military settlement system and, after the establishment of the Ming Dynasty, promoted it throughout the country, setting up military garrisons to fight in wartime and farm in peacetime.

In the early Ming Dynasty, when wars were frequent, the military settlement system could effectively restore production and achieve self-sufficiency. However, as peace lasted for a long time, the soldiers lost their fighting power and gradually became no different from civilians.

The biggest change in the Ming Dynasty was the Mongolia in the northern desert. In addition, the Mongolian tribes could be united, but they eventually fell into internal strife and could not form a unified regime like the Mongol Empire, which threatened the Ming Dynasty.

In the southwest, after conquering Yunnan, the Ming Dynasty sent Mu Ying to guard Yunnan for generations and set up three Xuan and six Wei. During the reign of Emperor Zhu Di of the Ming Dynasty, the GZ Province was established and the policy of changing the natives to the officials was started, aiming to gradually bring the southwestern ethnic minorities under the control of the central dynasty.

The Nurgandusi was also established in the northeast to pacify the local indigenous tribes.

The Jingnan Campaign from 1398 to 1402 and the Tumu Incident in 1449 were the greatest crises faced by the Ming Dynasty. Although their scale was much smaller than the Anshi Rebellion and the Jingkang Incident, they still had a huge impact on the Ming Dynasty.

The former was when Yan Wang Zhu Di ascended the throne and used an almost militaristic posture to expand territory, build large-scale projects, move the capital to Beijing, and establish the Ming Dynasty's tradition of the emperor guarding the country's borders. The latter completely changed the Ming Dynasty, forcing it to move into a passive defensive state.

In 1449, the Ming army was completely wiped out in Tumu Fortress, and Emperor Yingzong Zhu Qizhen was captured by the Oirat. When the news reached the Beijing court, it shocked the country. Yu Qian stepped forward, supported Zhu Qiyu to ascend the throne, led the Beijing defense war and repelled the Oirat's attack, so that the Ming Dynasty did not repeat the mistakes of the Jingkang Incident.

By the middle of the Ming Dynasty, the government was increasingly corrupt and border troubles were frequent. Japanese pirates attacked the southeast coast. Emperor Wuzong Zhu Houzhao named himself a mighty general, secretly ran out of the pass, and repelled the attack of the Tatar prince in Yingzhou, so that the Tatars did not dare to invade the border for several years.

However, in the late Jiajing period, due to the slackness of military preparations, Altan Khan actually fought all the way to the outskirts of Beijing, almost repeating the Beijing Defense War 100 years ago.

After receiving the Ming Dynasty's promise of tribute, Altan Khan left the country in disarray and fled. The situation in Beijing was not much better in Nanjing, the capital of the Ming Dynasty.

In 1555, a group of Japanese pirates landed in Shaoxing, burned, killed and looted, and finally ran to the city of Nanjing. The nobles and officials in the city were in a state of panic, and their homes were almost stolen by the pirates. Emperor Jiajing was very angry and issued an order to punish the officials along the way. This incident fully demonstrated the poor coastal defense of the Ming Dynasty and the severity of the Japanese invasion.

In the second year, Jiajing issued an edict appointing Hu Zongxian as governor to fight against Japanese pirates. Hu Zongxian recruited Xu Wei, Shen Mingchen, Mao Kun and Wen Zhengming as his aides, and Yu Dayou, Qi Jiguang and Lu Tong as generals. He divided and disintegrated the Japanese pirates, used both teaching and auxiliary methods, and gradually put down the Japanese invasion.

In 1561, Qi Jiguang won a great victory in Taizhou and completely wiped out the Japanese pirates in Zhejiang. However, it was the opening of the Longqing Port that completely solved the problem of Japanese pirates that had troubled the Ming Dynasty for hundreds of years.

In the early Ming Dynasty, the southeastern coast was harassed by Japanese pirates, and Zhu Yuanzhang ordered the implementation of a maritime ban policy, strictly prohibiting private overseas trade. However, this led to rampant smuggling along the coast, and coupled with the Warring States Period, the defeated ronin in the homeland concocted Chinese looting.