Hou Yao was a native of Sichuan, called Chongguo County, Bashi County during the Southern and Northern Dynasties, now called Nanchong, Sichuan Province, Hou Yao's father was called Hou Hongyuan, the Hou family had been the leader of the Western Shu for generations, and hou Hongyuan was also a local Haojie after becoming the leader. At that time, the Shu rebel Zhang Wencao occupied the White Cliff Mountain, and there were more than 10,000 minions, and Zhang Wencao led them to rebel in the local area. Xiao Fan, who was then the King of Poyang, ordered Hou Hongyuan to lead his troops to attack Zhang Wencao. Hou Hongyuan was killed in battle, and Hou Yan asked to lead troops to attack Zhang Wencao to avenge his father. Xiao Fan agreed to his request, and when attacking Zhang Wencao, Hou Yan took the lead and was unstoppable, killing Zhang Wencao.
Xiao Fan saw Hou Yao as brave and fierce, and promoted him to a partial general, when there were several ethnic minorities in the Western Shu region who were reluctant to submit to Southern Liang. Xiao Fan sent Hou Yao to lead troops to go on a crusade, and after many crusades and meritorious service, Xiao Fan promoted him to join the army as a middle soldier, and later promoted him to a chaowu general. Hou Fan had been following Xiao Fan, and when Hou Jing's rebellion broke out, Hou Jing led his troops to besiege Taicheng, and Taicheng was in a hurry, and Xiao Fan ordered Hou Yao to assist his eldest son Xiao Si and lead the troops to the rescue. Since the capital was breached by Hou Jing, Xiao Si and Hou Yao had to return with their troops.
Hou Jing attacked the capital of Southern Liang, imprisoned Emperor Wu of Liang, and installed Xiao Gang as a puppet emperor, xiao Fan went to Eastern Wei to ask for help, and let his two hungry sons be taken hostage. After being deceived by Eastern Wei, Xiao Fan was depressed on the march, and Hou Yan commanded Xiao Fan's men. Before going to surrender to Yuzhang Taishou Zhuang Tie, Zhuang Tie suspected that Hou Yao had ulterior motives and was ready to kill Hou Yao and swallow his soldiers and horses, Hou Yan was very scared after knowing this, so he attacked first and killed Zhuang Tie. Occupied Yuzhang.
Hou Jing's subordinates attacked Yuzhang, and when Hou Jing was cornered, he could only surrender to Yu Qing, who captured him and handed him over to Hou Jing. Hou Jing had a list of talents, and he was the same surname as Hou Jing, and this pen could not write two Hou characters, so the two called brothers and brothers, and Hou Jing was also quite good to Hou Jing, at this time, the counties of Linan also broke out in rebellion against Hou Jing. Hou Jing then ordered Hou Yao to quell the chaos, and fearing that Hou Yao would never return, he took Hou Yao's wife and children as hostages.
Hou Jing led his troops to quell the rebellion, at this time Hou Jing was defeated at Baling, Hou Jing's generals Song Zixian and Ren Yue were captured, and Hou Yan simply killed Hou Jing's close associates at his side in response to the rebels who rebelled against Hou Jing. Don't take the lives of a family seriously at all, Hou Jing looked at it, you don't care, then I still keep them to waste grain! He killed all his wife, children, and brother. This is the most controversial place for Hou Zhen, why he is desperate to avenge his father, but does not care about the lives of his wife and children.
Emperor Xiaoxuan of Liang appointed Hou Yao as a general of Wuchen and followed Wang Sheng's defense against Hou Jing, who was a forward in every battle, defeating Hou Jing's army all the way, Hou Jing abandoned Taicheng and fled, and Wang Shengfeng took advantage of the victory to pursue and fought a decisive battle with Hou Jing at Wusongjiang. Hou Jing fled in defeat, and the generals Xie Daren and Lü Zirong surrendered to Wang Sheng.
Both Northern Qi and Western Wei knew of the chaos in Southern Liang and wanted to take advantage of the opportunity, so Northern Qi sent the general Guo Yuanjian to attack Southern Liang. Wang Sheng ordered Hou Yao to lead thousands of men and horses to block the attack, and Hou Yao defeated Guo Yuanjian. Western Wei attacked Jingzhou again, and Wang ordered Hou Yao to support Jingzhou, and by the time his army arrived, Jingzhou had already been breached by Western Wei.
After Chen Baxian and Hou An both secretly murdered Wang Shengxian, Wang Shengxian's younger brother Wang Shengxian prepared to attack Chen Baxian, and secretly wanted to murder Hou Yao and seize Hou Yao's army to oppose Chen Baxian, Hou Yao learned of this, and arrested all of Wang Shengxuan's party, and wang Sheng, seeing that the plan failed, fled to Northern Qi overnight.
Chen Baxian supported Xiao Fangzhi as empress, and at this time, Hou Yao's army was strong, ostensibly submitting to the new imperial court, and secretly he also had his own ideas, after all, he was also powerful now. Yu Xiao was appointed as the Taishou of Yuzhang, Hou Yao was hostile to the people sent down by the imperial court, and the two sides did not obey and went to work, because the internal subordinate Hou Fang'er turned against the enemy, and robbed Hou Yao of all his belongings and defected to Chen Baxian, and hou Yao, who had no supplies in the rear, had no choice but to surrender to Chen Baxian.
Chen Baxian usurped the throne to establish the Chen Dynasty, appointed Hou Yao as the general of the Che Cavalry, Wang Lin disobeyed Chen Baxian, defected to Northern Qi, and borrowed troops in Northern Qi to attack Chen Baxian, and in the first battle captured two of Chen Baxian's generals, Zhou Wenyu and Hou Andu. Hou Andu and others successfully escaped by buying Wang Lin's men, and the following year Chen Baxian fell ill and died, and his nephew Chen Xuan succeeded him to the throne as Emperor Wen of Chen, and promoted Hou Yao to the rank of lieutenant.
Wang Lin gathered his men and horses again, ready to defeat Nan Chen in one fell swoop, at this time the heavens were not beautiful, Wang Lin arranged the warships on the west bank of the Yangtze River, but at night there was a strong wind, which blew Wang Lin's warships and sank them, drowning hundreds of people, and then another meteor just fell in Wang Lin's camp, and Wang Lin had to gather the army and did not dare to fight.
When Wang Lin was resisting Hou Yao, the Western Wei general Shi Ning led his troops to Wang Lin's upstream, and natural disasters and man-made disasters led Wang Lin to a great defeat. Wang Lin had to flee to Xiangcheng with a few of his cronies, and originally wanted to gather the remnants of the army in battle, at this time no one was willing to follow him, Wang Lin had to flee to Northern Qi with her family.
Yuwen Jia usurped the throne to establish Northern Zhou, and sent the general Du Gusheng to lead a water army to attack Bazhou and Xiangzhou, along with He ruodun by land and water, and Emperor Wen of Chen ordered Hou Yao to set out from Xunyang to defend. The two sides fought at the mouth of the Xijiang River, and Hou Yao was defeated by Du Lonely Sheng, and Du Lonely Sheng fled back to the rear and closed the city. Hou Yao was made the Duke of Lingling Commandery for his merits, and Hou Yao asked the imperial court to go back to recuperate because of illness, but died of illness on the way back to the dynasty, and Emperor Wen of Chen gave him the title of Emperor Wu of Chen's Taimiao Temple.