In the Rebellion of Hou Jing, Southern Liang turned from prosperity to decline, and the national strength of the Southern Dynasty also went downhill. In this turmoil that affected the entire territory of the Southern Dynasty, almost all the Southern Liang Xiao clans and the Gate Valve Clan were involved. In order to compete for power and profit, they launched various political and military struggles, which greatly damaged the strength of the Southern Liang state and reached the point of collapse. Especially after Hou Jing invaded the imperial city of Jiankang, he controlled the entire Southern Liang imperial court, and the strength of the army was as high as 100,000, becoming the de facto ruler of Southern Liang. However, what is surprising is that Hou Jing did not fulfill his promise to support Xiao Zhengde as emperor, nor did he depose Xiao Yan, the Emperor of Liangwu, nor even had the intention of claiming the title of emperor himself, which made many people who read history books feel puzzled.
Judging from the feudal system of ancient China, the pursuit of supreme imperial power was the highest ideal of every warlord. Especially in the chaotic world of the Southern and Northern Dynasties, warlords and mongol clans from all sides did everything in their power and profit, and set off round after round of war. And the victors of these wars have no opportunity to control the emperor and the government, and there is no one who does not depose the emperor and usurp the throne. Such a situation became the norm at that time, and it was also the root cause of the frequent occurrence of short-lived dynasties during the Southern and Northern Dynasties. However, Hou Jing, as a great warlord who first rebelled against Wei and then against Liang, after taking control of the Southern Liang court, actually did not directly depose Xiao Yan, the emperor of Liangwu, and even did not move the crown prince Xiao Gang, which was very inconsistent with his greedy nature.
Many history textbooks say that Hou Jing did not depose Xiao Yan and Xiao Gang, but that he was intimidated by the prestige of the emperor and the crown prince, and when he met the emperor, he was trembling, so he did not dare to act rashly. Putting yourself in the shoes of the world, this kind of statement is completely ridiculous, and the historian is putting gold on Xiao Yan and Xiao Gang, a father and son who are extremely nested. Hou Jing first rebelled against Wei and then rebelled against Liang, facing the siege of Hundreds of Thousands of Troops in Southern Liang, he still did not change his color, and after controlling the palace, he was still afraid of what illusory imperial authority? Hou Jing was from the Qi clan, in his early years under Erzhu Rong, and later followed Gao Huan, and there were many famous emperors who betrayed him, and the so-called imperial authority was not worth mentioning in his eyes. Therefore, this statement is just the self-consolation of the Southern Liang Historian, and has nothing to do with the facts.
What is certain is that Hou Jing did not abolish Xiao Yan and Xiao Gang after capturing the imperial city and controlling the imperial court, and he also fell into a disagreement with Xiao Zhengde because he did not keep his promise to support Xiao Zhengde. Judging from the historical records, Hou Jing acted arbitrarily and arbitrarily after controlling the imperial court, and did a lot of things that were angry and resentful. For example, he appointed himself the Governor of Dadu, forced to marry the Princess of Liyang, and also appointed himself the "Great General of the Universe", during which Hou Jing and Xiao Yanhe had many conflicts. Hou Jing adopted arbitrary coercive measures, but did not take any drastic measures against Xiao Yan, who opposed him. This caused Xiao Yan to die and not be deposed from the emperor's throne, but to be starved to death in the palace when he was old and infirm and lacked food. And this method is still relatively mild compared to Hou Jing's consistent cruel style.
Hou Jing was able to win a complete victory in the early stages of this unrest, capturing Jiankang and taking control of the Southern Liang court, which was inseparable from the infighting between the Southern Liang magnates for power and profit. As mentioned earlier, Xiao Yan originally used Hou Jing to weaken the strength of the Gate Valve Clan, who knew that the Gate Valve Clan actually caused trouble in the east, causing Hou Jing to aim the spearhead at Xiao Yan's confidant Zhu Yi. In the process, the army led by the Menmen Clan could not contribute to the work when facing Hou Jing, and they demolished each other and dug pits, making the Liang army vulnerable in front of Hou Jing, which caused the danger of Jiankang being besieged. Many of the officials of the Gate Valve Clan acted as two-faced factions and secretly connived with Hou Jing, which made the situation unmanageable. Among them, Xiao Yan's nephew Xiao Zhengde was a typical representative and a person who made great contributions to Hou Jing's attack on Jiankang.
Xiao Zhengde was originally Xiao Yan's nephew and the third son of Xiao Yan's sixth brother Xiao Hong, the Prince of Jinghui of Linchuan. Because Xiao Yan was childless in his early years, he adopted Xiao Zhengde under his name, so he became Xiao Yan's adopted son. Later, Xiao Yan's eldest son Xiao Tong was born, and Xiao Zhengde was sent back to Benzong, and Xiao Tong became the crown prince of Southern Liang. Because of this matter, Xiao Zhengde complained about Xiao Yan and once defected to Northern Wei. Later, Xiao Zhengde was ostracized by Xiao Baobao in Northern Wei, the southern Qi emperor,leading him to receive courtesy in Northern Wei and had to return to Southern Liang. Xiao Yan, seeing the relationship between the two men, did not blame Xiao Zhengde, but also restored his knighthood and appointed him as a general of zhengyu. Despite this, Xiao Zhengde did not miss Xiao Yan's goodness and was always plotting rebellion.
In the early days of Hou Jing's rebellion, he also found many people to cooperate, but the Gate Valve Clan, which was closely related to the Northern Wei court, ignored him and even reported the information of his rebellion to Xiao Yan. Later, Hou Jing found Xiao Zhengde, and the two hit it off and reached a cooperation agreement with internal and external collusion. According to this agreement, Xiao Zhengde helped Hou Jing to attack Jiankang, and Hou Jing supported Xiao Zhengde as emperor after taking power. To Xiao Zhengde's surprise, Hou Jing did not fulfill his promise after taking control of the Northern Wei court. He personally met Xiao Yan and Xiao Gang, but did not mention the abolition of the establishment. Xiao Zhengde, who had been supported in advance, was also thrown aside and demoted to the rank of Grand Sima (大司馬). Even after Xiao Yan was starved to death, Hou Jing also supported the crown prince Xiao Gang, which made Xiao Zhengde's dream of emperor come to naught.
The imperial authority mentioned in the history books is completely untenable, Xiao Yan and Xiao Gang really have this kind of prestige, and Hou Jing dared to lead an army to fight in the inner and outer cities of Jiankang for several years? From the analysis of the records in the history books, it can be found that Hou Jing did not abolish Xiao Yan and Xiao Gang, which had multiple considerations and was also determined by the political environment at that time. It can be said that Hou Jing's choice is very clever, temporarily saving his own life.
At the beginning of Hou Jing's rebellion, Xiao Yan did not take it seriously, believing that he only had a few thousand people and could not threaten the rule of Southern Liang. However, the outcome of the war almost uprooted Southern Liang, which Xiao Yan did not expect. Does this result really show the strength of Hou Jing's army and the cowardice of the Southern Liang army? In fact, this does not explain the problem at all, but a special phenomenon in special circumstances.
In fact, the Southern Liang army could not defeat a few thousand people in the Hou scenic area, not because the army's combat effectiveness was not good, but because the leaders of the army were each pregnant with a ghost fetus. Among these leaders were either officials of the Mengmen Clan or relatives of the Xiao Clan, who obeyed Xiao Yan's edicts to serve the King of Qin, but in fact they were in violation of the Yin and Yang dynasties. These people fought with Hou Jing and stopped, and used the war to dismantle each other, with the purpose of fighting for power and profit. In particular, the princes of the Xiao clan, in order to compete for the throne, did not contribute to the process of encircling and suppressing Hou Jing, and they thought that after Xiao Yan and Xiao Gang died, they could justifiably seize the throne. In this special political environment, military choices must be subordinated to political needs, so there is a tragic image of Liang Jun's crushing of Hou Jing.
From the history books, the Liang army was not weak, and it was the Liang army led by Wang Shengquan and Chen Baxian, who later quelled the rebellion of Hou Jing. At that time, Hou Jing was no longer betraying the eight thousand people pointed out, but had a lineup of 100,000 troops, controlling the Southern Liang court, which could be described as the power of the world. In this case, Wang Shengquan and Chen Baxian were also able to defeat Hou Jing, which showed that Hou Jing's true strength was not as strong as imagined.
At the time of entering Jiankang, Hou Jing's strength was even weaker, except for the army of a few thousand loyalists, the rest was the Southern Liang army that had surrendered during the siege of Jiankang, which was even more vulnerable than later. Although such a weak army took advantage of the infighting between the Southern Liang clan and the Gate Valve, it seized Jiankang, controlled the imperial court, and gained great power. But this power is illusory without the support of a powerful army.
Outside Jiankang City, hundreds of thousands of troops of King Qin were still surrounded, and the leaders of these large armies appeared to be obeying Xiao Yan's orders, but in fact they were all thinking of seizing imperial power and imperial court. If Xiao Yan and Xiao Gang did not die, these people would not act rashly, and no one would want to bear the insult of betrayal, be besieged by other Qin Wang's army, and then lose the qualification to seize the throne. None of them wanted to take the lead in attacking Hou Jing, because Hou Jing and the crown prince were hostages, and whoever did it first would suffer political losses and become the target of hundreds of thousands of troops. It can be said that at that time, there was such a delicate balance outside Jiankang City, and it was Xiao Yan himself who maintained this balance. As long as Xiao Yan does not die for a day, this balance will not be broken for a day.
Hou Jing was weak at that time, and he had to use Xiao Yan's imperial prestige to balance the political situation inside and outside Jiankang. He needed time to reorganize his army, divide and disintegrate the Qinwang coalition outside the city, and prepare himself for further progress. If he hastily abolished Xiao Yan or Xiao Gang, he would inevitably upset this balance and return himself to the situation of being besieged. Without Xiao Yan and Xiao Gang as hostages, the Qin Wang army outside would not be polite, but would instead sacrifice him for imperial power, which would only be a dead end. Supporting Xiao Zhengde was the same effect, and from a political point of view, it was no different from usurping the throne of the Dynasty, which gave the army outside the city a reason to move. Therefore, for the sake of future interests, Hou Jing must maintain the reign of Xiao Yan and Xiao Gang and buy enough time for himself.
From this point, it can be seen that Hou Jing is not the kind of cruel reckless man that many people imagine, but a tyrant with great ambition. He saw it very clearly politically, and he also had a very deep understanding of the military and political situation, so he made the choice to stabilize Xiao Yan xiao gang and sacrifice Xiao Zhengde. This also won the opportunity for him to abolish Xiao Gang and plot to usurp the throne. But he ignored the fact that he was not from Nanliang and had no foundation in Nanliang. Even if he strengthened his army by attacking and suppressing the Menmen Clan army, his strength was far inferior to that of the GateMen Clan. When the Menmen clan gave up the infighting and began to gather strength, Hou Jing began to fall into the whirlpool of the Southern Dynasty civil war, and in the face of famous southern generals such as Wang Shengquan and Chen Baxian, his defeat was logical.