After the Xianbei Tuoba tribe ruled northern China and established the Northern Wei Dynasty, it was infected by the culture of the Central Plains and began to implement a sinicization policy, integrating the original loose tribes into the Central Plains' policy of weaving households and people to achieve the purpose of centralized power. The Sinicization policy penetrated a little throughout the Northern Wei court, and after Emperor Xiaowen moved the capital to Luoyang, through the Xiaowu and Xuanming dynasties, the degree of Sinicization reached its peak.
At a time when the central area of the Northern Wei regime was actively sinicizing, the xianbei nobles and soldiers located in the six towns of the Border Area still maintained their original customs, but their treatment and status were far inferior to those of the Sinicized nobles. The higher the degree of Sinicization in the central area of the Northern Wei regime, the more violent the reaction of the nobles of the six towns, which eventually led to the rebellion of the six towns, and the nobles located in the central area of the regime were almost lost.
A Northern Wei imperial family named Yuan Hao survived and fled to the southern state of Liang, hoping that the state of Liang could help them become emperor. It is this background that leads to the military myth of a generation of war god Chen Qingzhi's seven thousand iron horses sweeping through the north.
Chen Qingzhi, Ziyun, a native of Guoshan, Yixing County. He followed Emperor Xiao Yan of Liangwu from an early age, and after Emperor Wu of Liang pacified Jianye, he appointed him as the chief secretary. He scattered his money and recruited soldiers, hoping to one day serve the imperial court.
Although Chen Qingzhi's official position was not prominent, he was deeply pleased by Emperor Wu of Liang, why? It turned out that Emperor Wu of Liang loved to play chess, and as long as the game began to be endless, often up all night. Almost all the ministers thought that playing chess with the emperor was a chore, but Chen Qingzhi was not tired of it, as long as Emperor Liangwu wanted to play chess, he would accompany him at any time.
A person who has been favored by playing chess cannot help but be regarded as a courtier by others, not to mention that Chen Qingzhi is almost confused, and he himself will be anxious from time to time, is it only mediocre in this life?
Although people play a major role in historical development, they will be constrained by the environment, if Liu Bang was born in the hierarchical Six Dynasties era, he could only grow old in the seat of the chief of the Surabaya Pavilion; if Han Xin coincided with the Taiping period of the world, survival was his greatest challenge. Not to mention that most people eventually evolved into population figures in the history books.
The turmoil in the north gave Chen Qingzhi the opportunity to embark on the stage of history.
After the Northern Wei Xuzhou assassin Shi Yuanfa monks failed in their rebellion, he sent his son Yuan Jingzhong to Liang to surrender, and hoped that Liang would send troops to rescue Yuanfa monks. Emperor Wu of Liang appointed Chen Qingzhi as a general of Wuwei, and together with Hu Longya and Cheng Jingyan led various armies to receive the Yuan fa monks. Then he gave Chen Qingzhi two thousand soldiers and soldiers alone, and sent Xiao Zong, the king of Yuzhang, to guard Xuzhou and supervise the whole army.
Xuzhou was a strategic location, and Northern Wei immediately sent Yuan Yanming, the king of Anfeng, and Yuan Yu, the king of Linhuai, to lead a 20,000-strong army to compete. Yan Ming sent his general Qiu Daqian to build a fortress and watch the troops approaching the border. Chen Qingzhi led his army to attack the Wei army camp and defeated the Wei army with one blow. Just as the army was victorious, Xiao Zong, who had come to oversee Xuzhou, actually ran to the State of Wei.
The Lord ran away, and the hearts of the army were immediately shaken. Chen Qingzhi was not in danger, fully demonstrated the demeanor of a general, and the troops he led "cut off the pass and retreated at night" and were saved. Then, the Anxi general Yuan Shu went out to Shouchun, and Chen Qingzhi was a fake festival and a general who knew the military. Li Changjun, son of Li Xian of northern Wei Yu prefecture, built two cities to resist the Liang army, and Chen Qingzhi's lianke enemy forces entered his city. Later, he was transferred to the Zhige Pavilion of the Eastern Palace and was given the title of Marquis of Guanzhong.
Woyang, located in the northwest of today's Anhui Province, although the city is small, but occupies an important communication line, whether it is the Southern Liang, or the Northern Wei, all regard this small city as extremely important. Therefore, when Emperor Wu of Liang ordered Cao Zhongzong and Wei to send troops to Woyang in 527, Northern Wei immediately reacted with the general Yuan Zhao of Changshan who immediately led a 150,000-strong army to reinforcements.
Just when the Northern Wei army was forty miles away from Woyang, Chen Qingzhi, who was accompanying the army, requested to go to war and give the Wei army a head-on attack, but Wei Fang did not agree with his approach. After a heated argument between the two men, neither of them convinced the other. Chen Qingzhi had no choice but to lead his 200 cavalry to the Wei army, which was defeated and 200 soldiers unscathed.
The Liang army faced the Wei army, which was several times larger than itself, and experienced hundreds of major battles and small battles, and could not win. Seeing that the Wei army had reinforcements behind the Liang army that were about to be encircled, Cao Zhongzong, as the main general, was afraid of being attacked by the enemy on his belly and back, and thought of withdrawing, and the army suddenly had no intention of fighting. Chen Qingzhi once again stood up and stood at the military gate shouting:
He must encircle and then fight; if he wants to be a teacher, Qingzhi has a secret edict.
Chen Qingzhi's implication was that the emperor already knew that you people were unreliable, so he specially gave me a secret decree, you must fight, and if you don't fight, you must fight. Is there really a secret edict? Where there is, it is just "soldiers are not tired of deception", this trick is not only effective against the enemy, but also against their own people at critical moments.
As soon as the generals heard the emperor's secret edict, they immediately expressed their willingness to obey Chen Qingzhi's dispatches. Chen Qingzhi led the army to rob the camp at night, conquered four of the thirteen camps of Northern Wei in one go, cut off the left ear of the Wei army prisoners, and every time he attacked the remaining camp, he lined up the left ear, and then shouted loudly to kill, causing psychological pressure on the Wei army, and the Wei army was frightened and frightened, and suddenly collapsed into an army, "cutting out a little, swirling water and swallowing."
In the Battle of Woyang, Emperor Wu of Liang heavily rewarded Chen Qingzhi, and for Chen Qingzhi, the above battles were just small tests. The arrival of the Northern Wei imperial family Yuan Hao truly pushed Chen Qingzhi to the peak of the legend.
In April 529, Chen Qingzhi left Jiankang with an army of 7,000 men and escorted Yuan Hao north to seize the throne. Yuan Hao was also an acute son, and as soon as the army captured the State of Liang (present-day Shangqiu, Henan), he could not wait to hold the enthronement ceremony and made Chen Qingzhi the general of Zhenbei, the protector, and the former governor of the army.
Chen Qingzhi then led an army from Chengxian County to conquer Xingcheng and push straight for Suiyang.
Suiyang's keeper will be Chen Qingzhi's old "friend" Qiu Daqian. Qiu Daqian had dealt with Chen Qingzhi before and knew how powerful Chen Qingzhi was, but he thought that the last time Chen Qingzhi was a fluke, this time he had an army of seventy thousand in his hand, thinking that the opportunity to shame before the snow had arrived. Qiu Daqian built nine cities to defend the enemy, Chen Qingzhi led his army to capture three cities within a day, and Qiu Daqian had to surrender.
The news of Suiyang's loss made Northern Wei uneasy. Northern Wei sent Yuanhuiye, the king of Wei Jiyin, to command an army of 20,000 tun troops to test the city and curb Chen Qingzhi's northward advance. Kaocheng is steep in terrain and surrounded by water on all sides, making it easy to defend and difficult to attack. Chen Qingzhi ordered his men to build military fortifications on the water surface, capture Kaocheng, and completely annihilate the Wei army.
Xingyang, a city that has witnessed too many wars, is a wordless history book: the Spring and Autumn Jin and Chu Wars for Hegemony were fought here; Wu Guangzhan died here at the end of the Qin Dynasty; during the Chu and Han Dynasties, Liu Bang and Xiang Yu held each other for a year. And today it will witness a military miracle in which less wins more.
Northern Wei sent Yang Yu (杨昱), the King of Xihe (西河王元悰), and the Fujun general Yuan Xiangong (元明恭) to command an army of 70,000 to meet Chen Qingzhi. The long battle made the Liang army feel tired, and the steady stream of Northern Wei reinforcements made Chen Qingzhi's men panic.
"For the sake of the way, first heal the heart." Tarzan collapses in front of the front and the color does not change, the elk is happy on the left and does not look at the moment, and then it can control the interests and the enemy." In the face of a strong enemy, Chen Qingzhi seemed very relaxed, he unsaddled his saddle, fed his warhorse, and said to his soldiers:
Since I have come here, I have slaughtered the city a little, it is really quite a lot; the king and others have killed fathers and brothers, and omitted the children of others, and they have not counted. I shall ride on the indisputable plains of the enemy, and before I reach the end, I shall level the fortresses, and the kings shall have no false fox doubts, and they shall slaughter themselves.
"Throw the land of death and then survive, fall into the land of death and then live", in the face of the desperate situation, Chen Qingzhi led the soldiers to attack xingyang city with a single blow. Today, we cannot know the details of this war, nor do we know what kind of tactics Chen Qingzhi used to achieve victory, leaving only two words for posterity. After the victory of Xingyang, the harvest was very rich, and the history books recorded that "the Niu Ma Valley is invincible."
At this time, Luoyang had already been shaken, and Emperor Xiaozhuang of Northern Wei fled to The Prefecture. The old northern Wei ministers, represented by Yuan Yu ,王元彧( 元彧) the King of Linhuai of Northern Wei and Yuan Yanming (元延明) the King of Anfeng, led the Wen and Wu officials to welcome Yuan Hao to the imperial palace in Luoyang.
After the capture of Luoyang, Emperor Wu of Liang personally wrote an edict to commend him, and surprisingly, he did not send reinforcements from soldier to pawn.
Chen Qingzhi led his men from Chengxian to Luoyang in less than four months, passing through thirty-two cities, forty-seven battles, and invincible.
Chen Qingzhi's men were all dressed in white robes and galloped above the battlefield, like a beautiful landscape. Whether it is the Book of Liang, the History of the South, the Book of Wei, or the Zizhi Tongjian, the same sentence is recorded:
The famous master general Mo Zi was imprisoned, and thousands of soldiers and horses avoided white robes.
Chen Qingzhi's achievements naturally aroused the doubts of later generations, some people said that he did not encounter a strong opponent, and had to admit that at this time, the main Northern Wei army led by Erzhu Rong was fighting with the rebel army led by Ge Rong in Hebei, while Yuan Tianmu and Gao Huan were entangled by Xing Gao and had no time to take care of this assault army of Southern Liang.
However, the chaotic situation in the Northern Wei Dynasty may have been an important reason why Chen Qingzhi dared to go alone, otherwise no one would dare to joke with his life to challenge an impossible task.
After the capture of Luoyang, Yuan Hao seemed to have forgotten his past when he was tired of running for his life, and drank day and night in the harem, living a luxurious life. Chen Qingzhi, who had helped Yuan Hao, and the army he led became a thorn in Yuan Hao's eye, and the rift between the two sides grew wider and wider, and Chen Qingzhi's request to go out to garrison Xuzhou was also rejected by Yuan Hao.
After dealing with the Internal Rebellion of northern Wei, Erzhu Rong and Yuan Tianmu finally freed up their hands to deal with Yuan Hao and Chen Qingzhi. According to legend, Erzhu Rong gathered a million troops to attack Luoyang.
Chen Qingzhi saw that Erzhu Rong was coming menacingly, and crossed the Yellow River town to defend the north zhonglang city to wait for Erzhu Rong. Helplessly, the difference in strength was too great, Yuan Hao was captured, and Chen Qingzhi had no power to return to heaven, leading the remnants of his troops to return to the south.
On the way back to the south, Chen Qingzhi encountered a flash flood, leaving himself to return to Jiankang disguised as a monk. The Book of Wei records:
Only one of the Qing people was spared, and the rest of the people were captured.
Back in Jiankang, Emperor Wu of Liang gave Chen Qingzhi a great reward and promoted Chen Qingzhi to the rank of Right Guard general. Many people here will definitely have doubts, Emperor Wu of Liang would rather give Chen Qingzhi the rank of knight, why not send troops to reinforce Chen Qingzhi?
Emperor Wu of Liang himself had his own difficulties. Compared with the war in the north, the excessive and relatively peaceful regime in the south is precisely so, in favor of the feudal aristocratic political system, and has not changed because of the change of dynasty, those clans have huge power in the dynasty, annexing land at the local level, and the self-cultivating farmers who originally owned their own land have slowly become the tenant farmers of the clan. Faced with this situation, Emperor Wu of Liang was also helpless. The more serious problem is the lack of money.
The lack of currency was not caused by Liang, but had already laid the foundation since the time when Liu Song replaced the Eastern Jin Dynasty, and by the Liang Dynasty, the lack of currency had reached its limit. In a healthy society, the total amount of money issued should be consistent with the needs of the market, so as not to cause the result of "money is difficult to use". In the absence of money, the crops produced by the peasants will inevitably become more and more cheap, and the poor income in the hands of the sharecroppers will be invisibly cut.
Under the conditions of being exploited by both power and economy and overburdened, the peasants can only become displaced people, and after becoming displaced people, they in turn affect the conscription of the state, and some displaced people hide in the manors of the nobles, but the manors are limited and there are more and more displaced people. When the contradiction intensifies to a certain extent, it is only a matter of time before it breaks out.
Emperor Wu of Liang had long been troubled by this problem, and he had no time to go north, he only wanted Yuan Hao to become a barrier in front of him, and it was enough to block the Wei army from going south.
In 536, Hou Jing, who later called himself the "Great General of the Universe", led 70,000 people to invade Chuzhou and take advantage of the victory to march into the Jianghuai region, while Chen Qingzhi was sitting in Jianghuai. Hou Jing wrote a letter to Chen Qingzhi, hoping that Chen Qingzhi would surrender.
Emperor Wu of Liang, fearing that Chen Qingzhi was outnumbered, sent reinforcements. Reinforcements had not yet arrived, and Chen Qingzhi had already defeated Hou Jing and had confiscated all of Hou Jing's grain and grass. Chen Qingzhi may not know that this is the last time he will go to the battlefield.
Chen Qingzhi had seen the ruins in northern Wei and naturally understood that the country's strength and prosperity depended on the army on the outside and on the political system on the inside. After his return, Chen Qingzhi served as the local administrator, while vigorously developing agriculture, opening up 6,000 acres of land; on the other hand, he lightly dispensed with thin endowments and rested with the people, and in only two years, he ruled the government treasury sufficient. Yuzhou famine, Chen Qingzhi opened a warehouse to help the victims, Yuzhou people on the table to request Chen Qingzhi's "tree monument praise".
In 539, the fifty-six-year-old Chen Qingzhi completed his brilliant life.
Whether it is the current world or the later generation, the most appropriate evaluation of Chen Qingzhi is nothing more than the praise of Emperor Wu of Liang:
Ben is not a general, nor is he a rich family, and he looks forward to the storm, so much so. Can think deeply, and be good at the end. Open the Zhu Gate and wait for guests, and raise your reputation in the bamboo veil, is it not a big husband!
Who would have thought that Chen Qingzhi, who had achieved fame in martial arts, was actually a scholar who "couldn't shoot through the zha, and ma was not convenient".
Of course, this is not surprising, that Zhang Zifang, who is strategic and decisive, still looks like a woman!
Therefore, Confucius said: "Take people by their appearance, and lose their sons and feathers." ”
Believe it!