Zhou Yafu

Zhou Yafu

Zhou Yafu (199-143 BC) was born in Fengxian County, Peijun county (now Fengxian County, Xuzhou City, Jiangsu Province). During the Western Han Dynasty, he was the second son of Zhou Bo, a famous general and prime minister.

During the period of Emperor Wen of the Han Dynasty, he was granted the title of marquis Jiang and served as the prefect of Hanoi. Garrison Xiliu camp to resist the invasion of Xiongnu. He was good at running the army and leading the army, which was praised by Emperor Wen of Han Dynasty. Promoted to lieutenant in charge of the safety of the capital. Emperor Jing of the Han Dynasty ascended the throne and became a general of chariots to pacify the rebellion of the seven kingdoms. By virtue of meritorious service, he became prime minister and changed the title of tiaohou.

In the first year of the Yuan Dynasty after emperor Jing of the Han Dynasty, he was sentenced to prison and committed suicide on hunger strike.

Life of the characters

Succession to the title

Zhou Yafu was the son of Zhou Bo, marquis Jiang of the Western Han Dynasty. In the second year after Emperor Wen of the Han Dynasty, he took his father as Marquis Jiang. At first, Zhou Yafu was a prefect of Hanoi. At that time, there was an old woman, Xu negative, who was famous for her good looks. Once, Zhou Yafu asked her to go to her government to look after her face. Xu negative said to him: "your life is more noble. After three years, you can be a marquis. After eight years, you can be a prime minister and have a high status. But in nine years you will die of hunger. "

Zhou Yafu didn't believe it at all. He said, "I'm sure I won't be made a marquis, because my brother has inherited his father's marquis. Even if he dies, his nephew will inherit it, not me. It's impossible to say I'm starving, because since I'm noble, how can I starve to death? "

Xu said that she only came to a conclusion based on her face. She also pointed to the corner of Zhou Yafu's mouth and said, "there is a vertical line on the edge of your mouth. It's a face of starvation." Zhou Yafu was surprised.

It happened that after three years, Zhou Shengzhi, Zhou Yafu's brother, was deprived of the Marquis's position for murder. Emperor Wen nianzhoubo made great contributions to the founding of the Han Dynasty, so he did not want to deprive the Zhou family of the title, so he ordered to elect the best of Zhou Bo's sons to inherit the title. Everyone unanimously elected Zhou Yafu, so Zhou Yafu inherited his father's title.

Xiliu parade

In 158 BC (the 22nd year of Emperor Wen of the Han Dynasty), the Xiongnu invaded the northern border, and Emperor Wen quickly transferred the border officers to defend. In order to guard the capital, Wendi sent three-way troops to resist the guards near Chang'an. Zong Zhengqing, Liu Li, and Zhu Zihou, Xu Li, were stationed in Bashang, Jimen, and Zhou Yafu, the prefect of Hanoi, guarded Xiliu.

In order to boost the morale, Emperor Wen personally went to the Third Route Army to reward and express sympathy. He went to Bashang first, and then to Jimen. There was no need to inform him of these two places. When he saw the emperor's chariots and horses coming, the barracks took the initiative to let them go. And the generals of the two places didn't know the news until Emperor Wen arrived, and they were flustered when they met. When sending Emperor Wen away, he also led the whole army to the gate of the camp.

When Emperor Wen arrived at Zhou Yafu's camp, it was quite different from the two places he went first. The one who opened the way in front of him was stopped outside the camp. After telling the emperor that he would come to express his sympathy, the guard Du Wei of the army said, "the general has orders. The army only listens to the general's orders, not the emperor's edicts." When Emperor Wen arrived, he sent his envoys to inform him of his talisman. Then Zhou Yafu ordered to open the gate of the village to greet him. The soldiers in charge of the camp also seriously told the followers of Emperor Wen: "the general has an order: no cars and horses are allowed to gallop in the camp." The coachman had to control the reins to keep the horse from going too fast. In front of the big tent in the army, Zhou Yafu, dressed in military uniform, came out to greet him and saluted Emperor Wen with weapons in his hand: "if you don't worship the people of Jiezhou, please allow your majesty to see them in the army." After hearing this, Emperor Wen was very moved and bowed down to support the beam in front of the car to salute the soldiers.

After the end of the labor force, out of the camp, Emperor Wen said with emotion to the surprised officials: "this is the real general! Those who dominate the army and Jimen are just playing games. If the enemy sneaks in, I'm afraid their general will also be captured. But how could Zhou Yafu be attacked by the enemy? " For a long time, Emperor Wen praised Zhou Yafu.

A month later, the Huns retreated. Emperor Wen ordered the troops of the third route to withdraw, and then promoted Zhou Yafu to the rank of lieutenant, who was in charge of the military power and the security of the capital.

Later, when Emperor Wen was dying, he told Prince Liu Qi, who was later emperor Jing, to use Zhou Yafu at a critical moment in the future. He is a general who can use Zhou Yafu with ease After the death of Emperor Wen, Emperor Jing made Zhou Yafu a general of motorcycles.

Pacify the seven countries

In 154 BC (the third year of emperor Jingdi of Han Dynasty), King Liu of Wu joined forces with King Liu Wu of Chu, King Liu ang of Jiaoxi and other seven countries to launch a rebellion, with the banner of "killing Chao CuO and the emperor of Qing Dynasty". Emperor Jing then promoted Zhou Yafu to be a Taiwei and led the troops to fight the rebellion. At this time, the rebel army was attacking Liang, but Zhou Yafu didn't want to rescue directly. He put forward his own strategic plan to Emperor Jing: "the Chu army has always been fierce and has strong fighting capacity. If it is a decisive battle, it is difficult to win. I'm going to give up Liang for a while, cut off its food supply from behind, and then wait for an opportunity to defeat the rebels. " Emperor Jing agreed to Zhou Yafu's plan.

So Zhou Yafu made a detour to March. When he got to Bashang, he met a scholar named Zhao she. Zhao she suggested that Zhou Yafu make a detour to the right to avoid being attacked by the rebels on the way. Zhou Yafu followed Zhao she's advice, walked through Lantian and Wuguan, and quickly arrived at Luoyang. After searching, he caught the ambush.

At this time, Liang was attacked by the rebels in turn, and the king of Liang asked Zhou Yafu for help. However, Zhou Yafu sent his troops eastward to Changyi City (today's Juye in Shandong Province) and could not get out. The king of Liang sent for help again, but Zhou Yafu did not send any help. Finally, King Liang wrote a letter to Emperor Jing, who issued an imperial edict to Zhou Yafu for reinforcements. Zhou Yafu remained unmoved. But he secretly sent troops to cut off the food supply of the rebels, and also sent troops to rob them of their food. The rebels had to attack Zhou Yafu first, but after several challenges, Zhou Yafu did not fight.

One night, chaos broke out in the camp. The noise could be heard even in Zhou Yafu's tent, but Zhou Yafu was still in bed. After a while, the chaos naturally subsided. A few days later, the rebels attacked the southeast of the camp in a big way, but Zhou Yafu sent his men to the northwest to defend. As a result, he met the main force of the rebels in the northwest. Because of the preparation, he soon repulsed the rebels.

Because the rebels were short of food, they finally had to retreat. Zhou Yafu took the opportunity to send elite soldiers to pursue and win. The head of Liu Liao, the rebel leader, was also cut off by the Yue people. After three months, the rebellion was soon put down. After the war, people praised Zhou Yafu's military tactics. But because Zhou Yafu didn't rescue him in time, the king of Liang had a feud with him. The pacification of the seven King rebellion safeguarded the unification of the Western Han Dynasty and strengthened the centralization of power.

Tragic ending

In 152 BC (the fifth year of emperor Jing of the Han Dynasty), Tao Qing, the prime minister, retired from his post when he was ill. Emperor Jing appointed Zhou Yafu as the prime minister. At first, Emperor Jing attached great importance to him. Once, Emperor Jing of Han Dynasty wanted to abolish Liu Rong. Liu Rong was born to Li Ji, so he was called Prince Li. However, Zhou Yafu objected, which led to Emperor Jing's estrangement from him. And the king of Liang, who had a grudge against him, spoke ill of Zhou Yafu in front of the Empress Dowager every time he came to the capital, which was also very bad for him.

Later, two things led to Zhou Yafu's tragedy. One is the Marquis of the elder brother of the queen, and the other is the Marquis of the general of Xiongnu. Empress Dowager Dou wanted emperor Jing to be the Marquis of Wang Xin, the elder brother of empress dowager, but emperor Jing was not willing to. She said that empress dowager Dou's nephew had not been a marquis when her father, Emperor Wen, was alive. Empress Dowager Dou said that her brother was not a marquis when he was alive. Although her nephew was a marquis, she always felt sorry for her brother, so she advised emperor Jing to make Wang Xin a marquis. Emperor Jing had to shirk and said that he wanted to discuss with the minister. During the discussion between emperor Jing and Zhou Yafu, Zhou Yafu said that Liu Bang had said that those who did not have the surname of Liu could not be granted the title of king, and those who did not have the merit could not be granted the title of marquis. After listening, Emperor Jing had nothing to say.

Later, the Xiongnu general only allowed Lu and other five people to submit to the Han Dynasty. Emperor Jing was very happy and wanted to make them marquis to encourage other Xiongnu people to submit to the Han Dynasty. But Zhou Yafu objected and said, "if these people who betrayed the country are made Marquis, how can we punish those ministers who are not chaste in the future?" Emperor Jing was very displeased: "the prime minister's words are pedantic and useless!" Then the five people were sealed. Zhou Yafu resigned from his post in despair. Emperor Jing approved his request.

After that, Emperor Jing called him to the palace for a banquet, trying to test whether he had changed his temper, so he didn't put chopsticks in front of him. Zhou Yafu asked the steward for chopsticks unhappily. Emperor Jing said to him with a smile, "can't this make you happy?" Ashamed and indignant, Zhou Yafu knelt down and apologized to Emperor Jing. As soon as emperor Jing said "get up", he immediately stood up and left without waiting for him to speak again. The king sighed and said, "how can such people help the young master?"

Zhou Yang, Zhou Yafu's son, saw that he was old, so he secretly bought 500 armor shields to be used when he died. This armor shield is prohibited from personal trading by the state. Zhou Yafu's son didn't want to give money to the servant earlier because he had a short time limit. As a result, the resentful servant told him that he had bought articles prohibited by the state and wanted to rebel. Emperor Jing sent people to investigate the matter.

The person in charge of the investigation called Zhou Yafu and asked why. Zhou Yafu didn't know what his son had done. He didn't know how to answer the questions. The person in charge thought that he was angry, so he reported to Emperor Jing. Emperor Jing was very angry and handed over Zhou Yafu to the supreme judicial officer Ting Wei for trial.

Ting Wei asked Zhou Yafu, "why did you want to rebel?"

Zhou Yafu replied: "what my son bought were all funeral goods. How can we say it was treason?"

Tingwei said sarcastically: "if you don't rebel on the ground, I'm afraid you have to rebel underground."

Zhou Yafu was so humiliated that he couldn't bear it. When he was called to court by the official, he would commit suicide. He was stopped by his wife. This time, he was humiliated and even more unbearable. He closed his food and protested. Five days later, he died of vomiting blood.

Character evaluation

Chinese PinYin : Zhou Ya Fu