World history is very interesting: Yuan Tengfei talks about Japanese history

Chapter 17
Ping Weisheng was defeated and returned to Fukuhara. Grandpa Ping Qingsheng was furious and scolded his grandson: "The day you are ordered to be the general general, you should give your life to the emperor, shrouded in horse leather. But now you have not fought with the enemy. The whole army Annihilated, you still have the face to come back?" Ping Qingsheng was annoyed, after all, he was facing his own grandson, and he didn't give any punishment.

After the Battle of Fujikawa, Minamoto Yoritomo became more and more powerful.He made a strategy to manage Kanto first, and not rush to march to Kyoto.According to the plan, Minamoto Yoshitomo pacified the eight countries in the Kanto step by step and obtained a large amount of land in the Kanto.He allocated these lands to the samurai who were loyal to him, so that these samurai were closely united around the Genji regime with Kamakura as the core, and became the royal family of Minamoto Yoritomo.

In order to manage these imperial family members, Minamoto Yoritomo set up a special institution called a servant, and appointed his cronies as the highest officials.In fact, from this time on, the embryonic form of the Kamakura Shogunate has been formed.

Ping Qingsheng burns three major temples
After the rise of Minamoto Yoritomo, the Heike family was already in crisis.In his later years, Hero Kiyomori fell into a coma, completely ignoring the unfavorable situation that Genji samurai, royal family, nobles, and Buddhists in Nanto all opposed him, so that even the common people opposed him.

It is said that in order to consolidate his position, Kiyomori Hira selected more than 300 half-year-olds to sneak into the streets and alleys, specializing in public opinion supervision, to find out if anyone was speaking ill of the Heike family.Relying on Ping Qingsheng's prestige, these middle-aged and middle-aged men wore short hair and fancy clothes. Each of them held a plum blossom in his hand and a bird on his arm. They even went in and out of the palace without giving their names.No matter who it is, once they catch a little bit of information, they will be arrested and tortured, which is somewhat similar to the East Factory and West Factory in the Ming Dynasty.

All of a sudden, the capital was flying like cats and dogs, and the common people were all panicked, which aroused resentment among the people in Kyoto.One month after the Battle of Fujikawa, Kiyomori Taira ordered the capital to be moved to Fukuhara, his old base.Emperor Goshirakawa, Emperor Takakura, and Emperor Andoku all received forced eviction orders.

The trade between Taira Kiyomori and the Song Dynasty was based on Fukuhara as the main port, and the Itsukushima Shrine that protects the Heike family is also in this place.Kiyomori Taira considered that if he fought Genji decisively, he would have to rely on Fukuhara for supplies.More importantly, Fukuhara is a good natural port, the Heike sea power is strong, and the Minamoto army is strong.The Heike family was good at boating, and the Minamoto family was good at riding horses.Moving the capital to Fukuhara can give full play to Heike's maritime military advantages.

Although this idea is not too outrageous, it is not easy to implement in practice.Unprepared, the royal family was inexplicably driven away by the Heike samurai, abandoned the colorful Kyoto, and went all the way to the desolate and desolate Fukuhara.What's more, things happened in a hurry and the capital was moved in a hurry, so that the emperor's palace hadn't been built yet, so he had to temporarily replace it with Hira Kiyomori's residence in Fukuhara.

Because Fukuhara's infrastructure construction could not keep up, and the monks of Enryakuji Temple in Mount Hiei exerted pressure, they demanded that the capital be moved back.Therefore, half a year after the capital was moved, the capital was moved back to Kyoto, which was a waste of money and aroused great dissatisfaction.People who read Japanese history generally think that from 794 AD when Emperor Kanmu moved the capital to Ping An, to 1868 when Emperor Meiji established Tokyo as the capital, Japan's capital was in Kyoto for nearly 100 years, but in fact it was in Fukuhara for half a year.

After returning to the capital, Kiyomori Hira took aim at one of his most serious problems.When King Yiren raised his troops, temples in the southern capital, such as Mitsui Temple and Kofukuji Temple in Nara, had strongly supported King Yiren.Kofukuji is very powerful, and Kiyomori Taira originally hoped to resolve it peacefully.Unexpectedly, the monk soldiers in the temple arrested more than 60 of Ping Qingsheng's subordinates and beheaded them.

In a fit of rage, Ping Qingsheng sent Ping Chongheng as the general, and led an army of 7000 men straight to Xingfu Temple in a murderous spirit.The monks and soldiers of Xingfu Temple concentrated more than 500 people to resist.The Ping family's soldiers are numerous and powerful, and they have the upper hand. Although the monks and soldiers in Nandu are strewn with corpses, they have firm beliefs and will not retreat in deadly battles.In order to break the stalemate, Ping Zhongheng ordered a fire attack. Together, the fires burned down all Tofukuji, Todaiji, and Kofukuji Temples.

This is an unprecedented and lawless act in Japanese history.Since Buddhism was introduced to Japan, it has always been very important.After Emperor Huanwu, Buddhism became the state religion. Until the Meiji Restoration, for more than 1000 years, Japanese officials and aristocrats, including ordinary people, have been vegetarians, and at most they ate some seafood. Only people like hunters engaged in cheap jobs eat meat.Even warriors who kill without batting an eyelid on the battlefield are usually vegetarians.Now that the Heike family dared to set fire to the temple, doing such an outrageous thing, many people at the time believed that the Heike family would definitely suffer retribution.

Sure enough, after the Nandu temple was burned down, retribution came.At the beginning of the fifth year of Zhicheng (1181), Taira Kiyomori's son-in-law, Emperor Takakura, who had always supported the Heike family, died.A month later, Ping Qingsheng also fell seriously ill. When he was dying, he left his last words: "Since Baoyuan and Pingzhi, I have defeated the enemy many times. As the grandfather of the emperor, I was promoted to be the minister of the Taizheng. Extending to my descendants, I have no regrets. The only shortcoming is that I did not see the head of Minamoto Yoritomo, an exile from Izu country. After I die, don’t build a tomb tower for me, and don’t make offerings to me. Just send crusades The army beheaded Yoritomo and hung it in front of my grave, which is the best contribution."

After explaining this matter, Kiyomori Taira, the hero of the generation, died in Kyoto at the age of 64.

Abandon Kyoto and go to the West

After Kiyomori Taira's death, the Taira family entered the countdown to extinction.

It was not Minamoto Yoshitomo who gave the Heike family the first major blow, but Minamoto Yoshinaka, a cousin of Minamoto Yoshitomo.After the defeat of the Yuan family, Minamoto Yoshitaka lurks in the valley of Kiso to avoid the pursuit of the Hera family.His father was Mina Yoshitomo's uncle Yoshihyun Minamoto, who was killed by his own nephew, Yoshihira Minamoto, who was known as Evil Gentai.It can be seen that the Minamoto family has always had a tradition of fratricide, and it still retained this characteristic after the establishment of the Kamakura Shogunate.

After 20 years of hiding his name in the mountains, Yuan Yizhong finally exposed his identity. He simply did not stop, entangled the township party, and blatantly obeyed the decree of Emperor Yi Ni, and responded to his cousin Minamoto, and officially raised the flag of rebellion. Minamoto Yoshinaka, a 27-year-old young man, is unstoppable. After starting from Kiso, he is invincible.

In June of the following year, the Heike family sent a large army to conquer. As a result, in the battle of Yokotagawara, Minamoto Yoshinaka killed almost none of them.There were not many generals who could lead the troops into battle at that time.Hei Weisheng served as the general again, mobilized more than 6 troops from all over the country, and marched into the Hokuriku Road in a mighty manner, intending to overthrow Yoshinaka Hiragen in one fell swoop, revive the prestige of the Heike family, and then wipe out Yoritomo Minamoto, taking the shame of the defeat of the Fujikawa.

Minamoto Yoshitaka fought at the foot of Kurigara Mountain, using night raids and using the fire bull tactic of Tian Dan, a famous Chinese Warring States general, to storm the Heike camp, killing the Heike army, and countless fell into the mountain stream and fell to their deaths.The army of more than [-] lost one-third, and many brave generals of the Heike family also lost their lives in this battle.

Ping Weisheng's old shame has not yet been revealed, and new defeats have been added. He revived the dream of the Heike family and wiped out the foothills of Kurikara Mountain, so he had to resort to his housekeeping skills again and fled all the way.Yuan Yizhong led an army of [-], and pursued him relentlessly to Xiaoyuan.The monks and soldiers near the capital responded one after another in order to avenge the burning of the Heike family, and Yizhong's momentum became even more powerful.

The civil and military ministers of the Manchu Dynasty were terrified, and Empress Hou Baihe urgently called a meeting to discuss countermeasures.As early as Minamoto Yoritomo occupied Kamakura, he wrote a letter to Hira Kiyomori's younger brother, Hira Yorimori, asking for peace with the Heira family.At the same time, a memorial was also presented, hoping that the emperor could preside over the peace talks between the two Genpei families and assist the royal family together.It's a pity that the Heike family regarded Minamoto Yoritomo's begging as weakness, and rejected it straight away.At this time, the Pope had no choice but to repeat the old story, Yuan Yizhong is about to call, what should we do?The only feasible way is to pardon Genji's crimes, make peace with Genpei, and help the royal family together.

But the Ping family couldn't swallow this breath, and dropped the discussion again.Minamoto Yoshinaka's army went straight to the foot of Mount Hiei on the outskirts of Kyoto, seeing that Kyoto was in danger.At this time, the backbone of the Heira family, Hei Zongsheng, saw that the situation was over, and summoned the clansmen, saying that he would take Empress Goshirakawa and Emperor Antoku to take refuge in the Western Kingdom, Xu Tu said again.Ping Zongsheng's younger brother, Ping Zhisheng, persuaded his elder brother: "This must not be the case. Our Ping family is originally a descendant of the royal family, and the eighth generation is a military official. We can't back down. We would rather fight here. The sword is broken." The two uncles of Ping Zongsheng also thought that Can't give up on Kyoto.

Ping Zongsheng insisted on going his own way and insisted on retreating to Xiguo, his general base.Before he left, he sent someone to invite the emperor, but he didn't think the emperor was cunning, so he had already disappeared.He had no choice but to take the little emperor, the empress dowager—that is, his younger sister Ping Dezi, and the three artifacts and his clansmen to the west.

Rush first
Minamoto Yoshinaka led his Tokoku samurai swaggering into Kyoto after the Heike had retreated.

Minamoto Yoshinaka grew up in the Kiso Valley, and he is an out-and-out old hat.When he came to the capital, he saw the colorful world and the beautiful world, and his eyes dropped to the ground, thinking that this is the life of a human being.His soldiers from the Eastern Kingdom were as rough as he was, uneducated and lacking in upbringing. After entering the capital, they became wild, raped and looted, and did everything.

The people in Kyoto were harassed by these people unbearably. Comparing the two sides, Minamoto Yoshinaka is not as good as the Heira family. Two evils are the lesser of two evils, so I began to miss the days when the Hera family ruled Kyoto.

The Emperor successfully escaped from the Heira family's kidnapping. He never expected that a more ruthless one would come, and he was also panic-stricken. Give him a lot of territory, and hope he can restrain his subordinates and stop doing anything wrong.

Although the poor imperial court tried their best, Yuan Yizhong didn't eat oil, salt, soft and hard, and the imperial court was helpless against him.The corruption of Guangjun's discipline is still a trivial matter. The key is that Yuan Yizhong is very stubborn. He feels that he has made great achievements through hard work, and he also wants to intervene in the internal affairs of the royal family.Emperor Antoku fled to the West, and now there is no one in the country. Minamoto Yoshinaka wanted to make King Ni's son the new emperor.

Regarding Yuan Yizhong's meddling in the royal family, Empress Hou Baihe and Gongqing Chaozhong were very resentful.Regardless of Yoshinaka Minamoto's objections, they preemptively established another son of Emperor Takakura as his successor, Emperor Gotoba.Yuan Yizhong was originally a rough warrior, but he failed to succeed in his plan, and his behavior became more violent in addition to resentment.

The emperor was restless, so he had to trick him into sending troops to the west to attack the Ping army.Xiguo is the base of the Heira Clan, where the ancestors have built their business for generations, has a wide network of contacts, and can take advantage of the Heike Navy's advantages, so it is not good for Yuan Yizhong to be a teacher.

At this time, Yuan Yoshitaka's cousin Yuan Laichao sent two younger brothers Yuanfan Lai and Yuan Yoshitsune to lead the army westward.Although Minamoto Yoshitaka and Minamoto Yoshitomo are both Genji, they have long had hatred. Minamoto Yoshinaka's father was killed by Minamoto Yoshitomo's brother.Genji's internal fighting is very fierce, and there is no harmony at all.Minamoto Yoshitomo had a lot of eyes and ears, and he found out clearly about the quarrel between Minamoto Yoshinaka and the royal family, and he got the court announcement of Hou Shirakawa's crusade against Minamoto Yoshinaka.

Minamoto Yoshitaka's crusade against the Western Kingdom was unfavorable, and after returning to Beijing, he was full of anger when he heard that Minamoto Yoshitomo raised an army, and suspected that the Emperor was secretly instigating it.In a rage, he set a fire and burned down the hall where the Emperor lived. He also beheaded more than 600 warriors and soldiers guarding the Emperor, dismissed 49 ministers, and publicly imprisoned the Emperor and the Emperor.

Yuan Yizhong acted in such a perverse way, it was even more betrayal of relatives.Soon, Minamoto Lai and Minamoto Yoshitsune's army approached the capital, Minamoto Yoshinaka fought in a hurry, defeated again and again, and finally ended up decapitated, his head was hung in front of the Kyoto Imperial Gate.

A generation of fierce generals, their prosperity is also vigorous, and their death is also sudden. When he died, he was only 31 years old.

After Minamoto Lai and Minamoto Yoshitsune pacified their compatriot Minamoto Yoshinaka, the next step was to launch a general attack on the Heike family.The death knell sounded for the Heike family.

(End of this chapter)