In the last year of the Northern Wei Dynasty, Empress Dowager Hu Ling abused her power and dictatorship, killed Emperor Xiaoming of Northern Wei, Yuan Xue, and made Yuan Zhao emperor. Erzhu Rong, the chief of Qihu prefecture who had long been dissatisfied with Empress Dowager Hu, conspired with Yuan Tianmu to attack Luoyang under the pretense of Emperor Xiaoming and establish The Prince of Changle, Yuan Ziyou, to take the throne, that is, Emperor Xiaozhuang of Northern Wei.
On April 13, 528, in the first year of the Northern Wei Dynasty (528), Erzhu Rong drowned Empress Dowager Hu and the young emperor Yuanzhao at Taozhu in Heyin (present-day Mengjin County, Henan), and surrounded and killed more than 2,000 officials of the princes and princes, and all the northern Wei kings Yuanyong, Yuanqin, Yuanluo, and Yuanshao were killed, which is known in history as the "Change of Heyin". "The words of the Rong confused Wuwei general Fei Mu said that it was advisable for the world to take advantage of the opportunity, and that the imperial warriors would swear an oath of alliance and would go three miles northwest of Heyin. To the north and south of the long causeway, he was ordered to get off Ma Xidu, that is, to send Hu to ride around on all sides. Falsely claiming that the king of Gaoyang wanted to rebel, he killed more than 2,000 people of the hundred officials, princes, and secretaries, and all of them were killed. "It was ordered that forty or fifty people move the emperor to the river bridge, and the empress dowager Shen Ling and the young lord to the river."
The change in Heyin led to the annihilation of the Han xianbei nobles who moved south to Luoyang and the Han clan who had served in the Northern Wei Dynasty, and Erzhu Rong also took the opportunity to completely control the Northern Wei dynasty government, completely changing the quality structure of the Northern Dynasty ruling group, and finally changing the historical trend of Northern Dynasty society. A few years after the change in Heyin, the Northern Wei was divided into two, splitting into Eastern Wei and Western Wei.
Erzhu Rong
After the change of Heyin, Erzhu Rong and Yuan Tianmu established Yuan Ziyou as puppet emperors, and the Northern Wei regime nominally hung the banner of the Yuan clan, but in fact it was already the domain of the Erzhu clan.
Erzhu Rong supported the puppet emperor and controlled the Government of the Northern Wei Dynasty, but did not stay in the capital Luoyang, nor did he keep Emperor Xiaozhuang by his side, but only sat in Jinyang for remote command, which gave Emperor Xiaozhuang the space to plot the Erzhu clan
Erzhu Rong created the appalling "Heyin Revolution", killing more than 2,000 people in the princely family and the civil and military officials, almost bringing the central system of the Northern Wei court to a nest, and even Empress Huling and Emperor Yuanzhao were drowned in the river, thus making the people in Luoyang City panic and everyone endangering themselves. At the same time, Erzhu Rong, who was extremely indignant because of too many killings, did not dare to stay in Luoyang City, but moved to Jinyang City to remotely control the imperial court in Luoyang. The person in charge of the power was not around, which gave the puppet emperor Yuan Ziyou, who was already dissatisfied with erzhu's monopoly, calmly plan to eliminate Erzhu Rong.
Judging from the lessons of history, if the powerful ministers want to control the government for a long time and blackmail the son of heaven to order the princes, they must keep the emperor at their side so that they can monitor and control it at any time. The abduction of Emperor Xiandi of Han by Dong Zhuo and Cao Cao at the end of the Han Dynasty is a good example, but Dong Zhuo failed unpopularly.
Cao Cao
However, Erzhu Rong did not learn from this experience, first, he did not stay in the capital Luoyang to directly control the imperial government, and second, he did not leave Emperor Xiaozhuang by his side to monitor his movements at any time and firmly control the imperial power. Erzhu Rong's mistake laid the groundwork for his eventual defeat.
Erzhu Rong's carelessness and mistakes gave Yuan Ziyou a chance, and the indefensible Emperor Xiaozhuang personally killed Erzhu Rong and got rid of the identity of the puppet emperor
After Erzhu Rong seized power in Northern Wei, he was first made a great general of the Pillar State, but Erzhu Rong was not satisfied with this and wanted to usurp the throne. However, at that time, the world was undecided, the subordinates had different opinions, and the conditions for usurping the throne were not ripe. In addition, Erzhu Rong himself was also very superstitious, and when the Northern Wei Dynasty made major choices, it often cast gold people to be auspicious. Erzhu Rong once had people cast his own golden statue, but he did not succeed in casting it four times. And a wizard whom Erzhu Rong trusted also advised him, saying that at this time, everyone was immature. "Rong ren admonished the sergeant, the Yan Yuan clan was destroyed, and the Erzhu clan was xing." Long live its people. Rong Sui cast gold as his own image, and the number of four is not successful. Liu Ling, a youzhou man whom Shi Rong believed, helped to divinate and said that personnel were not available at this time. Rong Nai said, "If I am not lucky, let the heavens be upon mulch." Lingsuke said, "Tianmu is not lucky, but the King of Changle has Wang Zhao'er." ’”
Under the dictatorship of Erzhu, Emperor Xiaozhuang was surrounded by most of the Erzhu clan's confidants, and there were not many people available, and only a few people could rely on, such as Wang Yuanhui of Chengyang in the Northern Wei Dynasty, Yang Kan, gao Daomu, and so on. Several of the emperors plotted to wait for Erzhu Rong to come to Luoyang to see him in the palace to kill him, and at this time, Erzhu Rong's right-hand man Yuan Tianmu was still in Hezhou, in case Luoyang changed, Yuan Tianmu sent troops to rebel, so Yuan Ziyou made up a reason to trick Yuan Tianmu into Luoyang together and prepare to get rid of them together.
Yuan Ziyou
The plot of Emperor Xiaozhuang's Yuanzi you had actually been leaked in advance, and Erzhu Rong's eyeliner installed in Luoyang erzhu Shilong told Erzhu Rong of Tianzi's plot, but the arrogant Erzhu Rong did not believe it, and he did not take the puppet emperor Yuan Ziyou in his eyes at all, believing that as long as he arrived in Luoyang, Tianzi could only be captured. So he boldly entered the palace with confidence.
Emperor Xiaozhuang's first assassination was unsuccessful. Emperor Xiaozhuang's assassination plan was as follows: first erzhu Rong and Yuan Tianmu were tricked into the palace, and then the ambush troops suddenly rose up, rushed up, and slashed to death with knives; at the same time, in order to ensure the safety of Emperor Xiaozhuang, once the troops were dispatched, Emperor Xiaozhuang would immediately come out of the side door to prevent Erzhu Rong from killing, and Emperor Xiaozhuang also hid a sharp blade on his body for self-defense.
As a result, the plan could not catch up with the change, and although Erzhu Rong and Yuan Tianmu were tricked into entering the palace to meet the Heavenly Son, Erzhu Rong sensed the dangerous atmosphere just after the third round of the wine and hurried out of the palace, while Yang Kan and others who had been ambushed in advance did not get the news in time, and it was too late to arrive in a hurry.
However, due to Erzhu Rong's own stupidity and arrogance, he vowed to send the head to the end. The second opportunity soon came, and Emperor Xiaozhuang, under the pretext that the empress (Erzhu Rong's daughter) was going to have a child, asked Erzhu Rong, who was his grandfather, to visit him in the palace. Erzhu Rong did not doubt that he had him, and entered the palace again in order to visit his grandson, and it turned out that this time there was no entry or exit. "Sit on the east and west sides of the Mingguang Hall, rong and Tianmu sit south on the northwest bed of the royal bed, and the city is sunlit, and the first worship is started." Rong mi guanglu qing lu an and others entered from the east with a knife, that is, they rushed to the imperial seat, and the emperor drew a thousand cattle sword, and cut it with his hand, and the Chinese New Year's Eve eight. ”
The process of assassination was thrilling, and Erzhu Rong, who had been in battle for a long time, saw the ambush soldiers everywhere, and his eyes were fast, and he immediately pounced on Yuan Ziyou, wanting to make a final attempt with Emperor Xiaozhuang as a hostage. As a result, he was killed by Emperor Xiaozhuang with the Qianniu knife that had been prepared on his lap, and a knife was stabbed straight into the abdomen, and a generation of tyrants were killed in response. Being able to kill the foreign generals who had been in charge for many years showed that Emperor Xiaozhuang was not emperor Wen weak. Subsequently, Yuan Tianmu was also hacked to death by ambush soldiers.
However, emperor Xiaozhuang, who had killed the two powerful ministers together and got rid of his puppet status, was not long before he was captured by Erzhu Zhao and went north and hanged at the third-level Buddhist temple in Jinyang at the age of twenty-four.
The reason why the two powerful ministers of Erzhu Rong and Yuan Tianmu would be put on the pot by Emperor Xiaozhuang was first because of the arrogance of the two, and the other was that they did not keep Emperor Xiaozhuang closely by their side, and Jinyang's remote control command was a laughing stock, and the third was Emperor Xiaozhuang's plot and determination to kill the rebels.