"The famous master and general Mo Zi are imprisoned, and thousands of troops and horses avoid white robes." In China Shenzhou, this famous saying is still surging with blood after a thousand years. This famous quote depicts exactly a war myth that shook the world at that time- Chen Qingzhi, a famous general of Southern Liang. In the Book of Liang, which ranks twenty-four in history, Chen Qingzhi swept away the Northern Wei, and 7,000 white-robed disciples broke through more than 500,000 Wei troops, invaded Luoyang, and established an immortal legend. However, when we really look through the historical materials and dig deeper, it is easy to find that there seems to be many places to be discussed about Chen Qingzhi's achievements.
In fact, not only Chen Qingzhi, if we think carefully, it is not difficult to find that those "gods of war" in history seem to have some strange blind spots, so in the end is it to create or record the gods of war in history?
Above_ Yue EWang Statue ("Nanling Peerless Spectrum") Yue Fei statue
First, the famous general of ancient times, Han Bai first
Looking through history, we will find a strange and interesting phenomenon. In the history of our country, often the gods of war came from the ancient pre-Qin period, and by the Three Kingdoms and two Jin Dynasties, they were greatly reduced, and after the Tang Dynasty, there were not many famous generals except Yue Fei. The Ming and Qing dynasties were even more lackluster, and it seems that the level of China's generals from ancient times to modern times was a slippery slope, and the level plummeted. Similar to the decline in the level of generals, there are also troops participating in the war, during the Qin and Han Dynasties, China's troops were often one million, the Battle of Changping in Qin and Zhao, the Zhao army alone had 450,000 troops, Wang Qi destroyed Chu and sent 600,000 troops, Liu Bang Xiangyu's Battle of Pengcheng sent 560,000 troops, not to mention the battle of Shuishui in Jianjian.
However, in later generations, the number of people is getting smaller and smaller, for example, at the time of the Ming and Qing dynasties, the Ming Dynasty's national strength fought in the Liaodong Dynasty, the first Battle of Salhu was only 110,000 people, and the 130,000 troops in the Battle of Songjin were also pieced together. But in contrast, China's population was only 20 million at the time of the Qin and Han Dynasties, but by the Ming Dynasty there were already 200 million people, why is the larger the population, the smaller the size of the army?
Above_White up (?) –257 BC), courtesy name Bai (芈), bai (白氏), courtesy name
In fact, it is easy to find a problem, the birth of many famous generals is often inseparable from the lack of historical records, in other words, the less records, the easier it is for generals to become "famous generals". For example, Bai Qi Han Xin, Bai Qi's Warring States era, the historical materials are extremely scarce, although Bai Qi is invincible in the existing records, but the details of the war are very scarce, we often can only know the number of heads killed by Bai Qi and the opponents of the battle, but we cannot know the details of the war. Han Xin's records exist only in the two books of the Book of Han and the Book of History, and the records of the Book of Han in this part are completely copied from the Records of History.
Han Xin (c. 231 BC – 196 BC)
In fact, we can find that the reason why the generals of the Ming and Qing dynasties often evaluated far inferior to the generals of the Three Kingdoms period of the Qin and Han Dynasties was not so much that their abilities were not good, but that their records were too much, resulting in a lot of ugliness. There are many anonymous generals recorded, especially the more historical materials there are, the clearer people's understanding of history, and the more rare the name of "God of War" is. Even if Yue Fei's achievements in the past are often questioned, after all, there is evidence to rely on, but if han xin is questioned, in fact, there is no way to start. This is also a big reason why their famous names will be widely recognized.
In fact, we can find that these periods of lack of records are often in an extremely chaotic world, which can also be called "gaps in history", and often at this time it is easy to give birth to some "super gods of war", and the protagonist of our article is born in such a "gap".
Above_The Rebellion of the Six Towns, also known as the Six Towns Uprising (Woye Town, Huaishuo Town, Wuchuan Town, Fumu Town, Rouxuan Town, Huaihuang Town)
Second, multi-party comparison, dial the clouds to see the day
In 528, liang and northern Wei of the Southern Dynasty were facing each other. Due to the large-scale massacre of the imperial court of The Northern Wei dynasty official Erzhu Rong, and the outbreak of a large-scale six-town uprising in Northern Wei, a serious split was caused. At that time, The Northern Wei King Yuanhao of Beihai decided to be a "Wei traitor" to borrow troops from liang dynasty to fight against Erzhu Rong's restoration, and Emperor Wu of Liang considered that he could take advantage of the chaos and profit, so he decided to send Chen Qingzhi to lead 7,000 people north to make this big gamble. The reason why there are only seven thousand people is actually very obvious, the bet to win is to earn double, directly put the old enemy Northern Wei even the pot end, bet to lose does not matter, anyway, only seven thousand, can afford to lose.
(Book of Liang: At the beginning of the Datong Dynasty, Yuan Hao, the king of Wei Beihai, took advantage of the chaos of the dynasty and pulled himself down and asked to be established as the lord of Wei.) Gao Zunazhi, taking Qingzhi as a false festival, sent Yuan Hao back to the north. ）
However, Emperor Wu of Liang did not expect that these seven thousand people would really make earth-shattering movements.
Emperor Xiao Yan of Liangwu (464 – June 12, 549), courtesy name Shuda
Among the twenty-four histories, there are several books that are very special and extremely distinctive, including the History of Liao, the History of Yuan, the History of Song, the Book of Northern Qi, the Book of Wei, and the Book of Liang. The characteristics of the first few books are that they are repaired quickly, for example, the "History of Liao" was actually written in a month, which is almost like a joke, so the result of the revision of history is naturally full of loopholes and problems. However, the problem with the latter few books is not the speed of repair, but the repair of a very "stance".
At the time of the Wei and Jin Dynasties, the door valves were rampant, and the centralization of power was greatly weakened, in this case, the birth of the door basically determined the social status of a person, so the question is, how to judge a person's door origin? The answer is actually very simple – look at the historical data.
The Jiupin Zhongzheng system, also known as the Jiupin Official Law, was an important official selection system during the Southern and Northern Dynasties of the Wei and Jin Dynasties
At that time, ancestral fame was an important factor in determining a person's origin, and birth meant the "fixed product" in the nine-pin system, so the people who revised history were not only cultivating history, but also of great practical significance. For example, when Wei Collected wrote this "Book of Wei", he openly shouted: What a boy, dare to share Wei's harvest! If you lift it up, let it go to heaven and enter the earth according to it.
To put it bluntly, I want to write as much as I want, you see I am not happy, and there is no use.
Therefore, the characteristic of Wei Shu's "Book of Wei" is that when it involves many characters, they often thunder and rain, such as combat feats, such as "Wei Shu. The Biography of Xiao Yan of Daoyi records that the Wei general Wang Zu actually killed more than thirty generals (and all of them had names) such as Lu Fangda and Wang Mingda of Southern Liang in one battle, but only 2,500 Southern Dynasty soldiers were captured.
(In July, Wang Zu broke the crowd again, beheading more than 30 generals, including Shi Lufangda and Wang Mingda of the Second Prefecture of Qin and Liang, and took 2,500 prisoners.) ）
However, we can also see one thing from this, although the Book of Wei likes to boast about the number of generals who killed the other side, it is still honest about the troops, and it is clear that it is 1510. But the Book of Liang on the opposite side of it is completely different.
For the "Book of Liang", it is characterized by a great exaggeration of the battle record, the author of the Book of Liang, Yao Silian, was born in the Liang Dynasty, spanning the four imperial courts of Liang Chen, Sui and Tang, which can be said to have amazing experience, but because of this, they have special feelings for the old lord. Therefore, the achievements and achievements of the Liang Dynasty are vigorously praised, so the deeds of place names recorded in the Book of Liang are generally verified and confirmed, but they are often exaggerated.
The Book of Liang is a chronicle written by Yao Cha and Yao Silian in the early Tang Dynasty
Knowing the above two points, it is easy to know what Chen Qingzhi's myth is all about.
According to historical records, the highlight of Chen Qingzhi's Northern Expedition was to attack the Northern Wei important town of Xingyang, and according to the Book of Liang, after Chen Qingzhi first broke through the girder defended by 170,000 people on the hill, he wielded his army and pointed his sword at Xingyang. At that time, Northern Wei's Xingyang was defended by 70,000 troops, (Wei Zuo's servant Yang Yu, Xi'a Wang Yuanqing, and Fujun general Yuan Xiangong led the imperial battle Yulin Zongzi Shuzi to 70,000 people, according to Xingyang refused. But the funny thing is that Chen Qingzhi only has seven thousand, and he is attacking the city, which is simply incredible in ancient times.
Moreover, just before Xingyang City was taken, reinforcements from Yuan Tianmu, one of the most powerful warlords in Northern Wei at that time, had arrived. However, Chen Qingzhi suddenly broke out and took Xingyang City. What is even more strange is that Chen Qingzhi encountered a greater crisis at this time, when the Wei general Yuan Tianmu actually led 300,000 troops to personally surround Chen Qingzhi, and there was a pessimism in Chen Qingzhi's army at that time:
I have only seven thousand and more than three hundred thousand, and today's things are not worth saving.
However, at this time, a magical scene appeared, Chen Qingzhi actually used three thousand soldiers and horses to back the city in a battle, frontally broke 300,000 Northern Wei troops, captured countless advances into Luoyang, and completed the peak of the Northern Expedition.
Above_Floor plan of Luoyang City in Northern Wei
However, unfortunately, Chen Qingzhi finally faced Erzhu Rong's "millions", coupled with the outbreak of flash floods, or a tragic end, losing Luoyang and fleeing back to the Liang Dynasty, but even so, Chen Qingzhi had already achieved an immortal miracle, but was this really the case?
In fact, when we compare historical materials, it is easy to find that this is not the case.
According to the Book of Wei, the so-called opponent of Chen Qingzhi's first battle, Qiu Daqian, had no possibility of having an army of 70,000 at all, and the population of the area at that time was only "135,990 households and 25,995 mouths" even if men, women, and children fought together, there were not 70,000 people. And the 70,000 defenders of Xingyang City were even more vain, what was the level of Erzhu Rong, the strongest military strength in Northern Wei at that time? In the face of millions of Ge Rong rebels, Erzhu Rong's troops were only 70,000, of course, there is a saying from the Northern History that 7,000, but whether it is 70,000 or 7,000 are hugely different from the so-called "millions", the strongest warlord is only more than 70,000 people, which shows the falsehood of the numbers.
As for Xingyang's army, it was even more exaggerated, not to mention that if 70,000 people defended the fortified city, Chen Qingzhi was afraid that he would not be an opponent at all. What's more, at that time, Yuan Tianmu could not have appeared in Xingyang at all, according to the "Biography of Northern Shi Feimu": (Fei Mu) and the great general Yuan Tianmu discussed Xing Gao. Shi Yuanhao entered the Beijing Division, and Mu and Tianmu were on an equal footing, and they would strike hao.
That is to say, Yuan Tianmu only met Chen Qingzhi's Northern Expeditionary Army after sweeping away the rebel army Xing Gao in Qidi, and the so-called 300,000-strong Xingyang War recorded did not actually exist, but it was just an exaggeration. Therefore, as the "Biography of Wei Shuyuan Tianmu" says, Chen Qingzhi is: "Taking advantage of the void to trap Xingyang".
The Book of Wei is one of the Twenty-Four Histories, and the theme of the Ji Chuan body is a chronicle of the Broken Dynasty written by the Northern Qi man Wei Shu
You may wonder if the Book of Wei and other Northern Dynasty historical sources deliberately discredited Chen Qingzhi. In fact, the key is that if they can hide their battle records, according to the records in the Book of Liang, Yuan Tianmu's "single horse was spared" by Chen Qingzhi was already the commander of the light pole, and how could the loss of 300,000 troops send Luoyang to attack Chen Qingzhi? Even if he re-gathers the people and horses, where will he have the confidence to "gather all the generals to plot"?
Although we should see Chen Qingzhi's amazing courage and wisdom in daring to face the powerful enemy of the Northern Expedition and eventually enter Luoyang, we should also understand that in the long river of history, even the most famous generals are human beings, not gods. For historical records, we can neither listen to partiality nor believe, nor can we be historically nihilistic, and only by insisting on analysis and comparison can we get the truth.
Text: A cloud of smoke and rain
bibliography:
[1] Wei Collects the Book of Wei
[2] Yao Silian's Book of Liang
[3] Li Yanshou's "History of the North" and "History of the South"
[4] Tang Changru's Treatise on the History of the Southern and Northern Dynasties of Wei and Jin
[5] Sima Qian's "Records of History"
[6] "Luoyang Jia Lan Ji"
The text was created by the History University Hall team, and the picture originated from the Internet and the copyright belongs to the original author