At the beginning of his reign, Emperor Chu had been relieved of his military power, and no more than a few thousand troops could be mobilized.
On the other hand, the imperial court frequently deployed hundreds of thousands of soldiers, which competed with the human and financial resources of the whole country and gained the upper hand morally. Why did it fail? Patience and not rashness, a careful examination of the "change of Jingnan" will reveal that the significant difference in the quality of the supreme commanders of the two sides is the fundamental reason for winning or losing.
First of all, Emperor Wen Jian was young and impetuous.
After Wen Jian ascended the throne, he took the initiative to deal with the vassals. If kindness and power are combined to deal with individual princes when the time is ripe, kings will have to give in.
However, less than a year after he became king, he abolished five kings in succession.
This caused the prince to rebel helplessly, and also made the people sympathize with the prince and then support him.
On the other hand, Judy, the prince of Yan, has long had the ambition to seize the throne, but he has been forbearing it.
The warlock Yuan Xun visited his fortune teller. Yuan Xun called him "the future peace emperor". He pretended to be puzzled and deported Yuan Xun to Tongzhou.
Yuan Xun once boarded a boat and went south along the canal, convinced that Yuan Xun was not a secret agent of the imperial court, so he recalled it, showing how careful he was.
Zhang and Xie Gui were ordered to surround the palace with heavy troops. The problem of the prince could have been solved in one fell swoop, but the prince pretended to be willing to hand over the men the court wanted to arrest. Zhang and Xie were tricked into the house and killed. The troops around the house quickly disintegrated and the situation reversed.
Later, until the invasion of Nanking, the prince of Yan was still under the banner of "Fengtian Jingnan", "Jun Qing side" and "Duke Zhou became king again", but he did not announce his true intention to seize the throne, which not only blinded a large number of officials and people, but even made Emperor Wen Jian have fantasies.
He always thought that it was not a problem to destroy the Yan army with the strength of the whole country, so he took it lightly, which was another important factor of his failure.
After the uprising of the Prince of Yan, war broke out in the north, but Wen Jian concentrated on changing the official system. It seems that he has never considered personal expedition, and only hopes to have people like Li Jinglong.
In the fourth year of his reign (1942), in April, the Yanjun attacked the Huaihe River. Because Ping An and Hefu won several battles, the court thought that Yan Jun was careless and told Xu Huizu to lead the army back to Ning, making Ping An and Hefu fight alone. The Yan army took the opportunity to counterattack, and the imperial army was defeated and lost the last chance to destroy the Yan army.
In stark contrast to Emperor Wen Jian, Prince Yan will went all out in every battle, taking the lead and fighting high spirits; We all know the characteristics of the generals of both sides, the morale of the troops, the difficulty of attacking and defending the city, the interests of the geographical situation, the gains and losses of the war, and so on.
Source: Leader Cui Wen (20 18 04)