During the Southern and Northern Dynasties, although the dynasties changed from time to time, no matter how they changed, they had several common characteristics: the usurpers had made great contributions to the neutrality of the old dynasties due to internal strife or external troubles, held a powerful army in their hands, seized power by virtue of personal prestige and strength, and then realized the change of dynasty.
However, when it came to Northern Zhou Yangjian, it became an exception. Yang Jian has neither special military merit nor an army, and is completely a lucky person who has achieved things because of people. So much so that Zhao Yi, a famous scholar of the Qing Dynasty, once said: "In ancient times, it was easy to gain the world, and there was no one like Emperor Wen of Sui, who was the relative of a woman, who died early on the occasion of the early death of Emperor Xuan of Zhou, and who was translated by Zheng Yi, etc., and who entered the auxiliary government, and then sat down and took the throne." ”
In fact, this comment by Zhao Yi was also a common view during the Sui and Tang dynasties. At that time, after Yang Jian stole power, there were many jealous, disgusted and even rebels. The first person to pull the flag and rebel was Chi Yuan, the governor of Xiangzhou.
The reason why Wei Chiyi was indignant and indignant about Yang Jian was that Wei Chiyi's granddaughter married Yuwen Wen, the son of Yuwen Liang, the Duke of Qiguo, and once when a woman from the clan entered the palace to see Emperor Xuan of Zhou, she was favored by Emperor Xuan of Zhou and accepted as the fifth empress. Yuwen Wen could not swallow this breath, so he rebelled and eventually lost his family, but Wei Chiyi was complacent about it, after all, his granddaughter-in-law was changed from a prince to an emperor, and his status was also improved.
Wei Chiyi considered himself to be the emperor's father-in-law and grandfather, so he always compared himself with Yang Jian, and the more he compared his mentality, the more unbalanced he became. His beloved step-wife Wang Shi continued to stir up trouble, and at that time Yang Jian was also worried about Wei Chiyi's rebellion, so the imperial court ordered Wei Xiaokuan to be sent to take over Wei Chiyi's position as governor of Xiangzhou. However, what made Wei Chiyi even more unacceptable was that the emissaries sent by Yang Jian actually secretly sent a letter to Shi Jinchang, the governor of Xiangzhou, to make him do the internal response, and when Wei Chiyi got the news, he was furious and immediately beheaded lai and Jin Chang, and quickly gathered his men and horses to decide to break with Yang Jian.
At that time, Northern Zhou had just destroyed Northern Qi, Northern Zhou's roots in Shandong were not deep, the people's hearts had not yet completely surrendered, and many people who were plotting for power had to surrender to Northern Zhou, but once there was a disturbance, these people would never be satisfied with the status quo. Now that Wei Chiyi had decided to break up with Yang Resolutely, these people seemed to be an opportunity to take advantage of, and they saw Wei Chiyi shouting with his arms raised, so they responded one after another. Wei Prefecture (衛州, in present-day Qi County, Henan), Li Prefecture (present-day Jun County, Henan), Huan Prefecture (present-day Yongnian, Hebei), Bei Prefecture (present-day Qinghe, Hebei), and Zhao Prefecture (present-day Longyao, Hebei) immediately responded by the banner of overthrowing Northern Zhou after Wei Chiyi announced that he had broken up with Yang Zheng, so for a time Henan, Hebei, and Shandong were quite likely to be full of mountain rain.
With Wei Chiyi's constant agitation, more and more people joined his ranks, and the most serious thing for Yang Jian was that some feudal officials gradually embarked on the road of confrontation with themselves from the initial wait-and-see wavering, such as Sima Que, the governor of Meteor Prefecture (present-day Anlu, Hubei), who rebelled against Chen in the eight towns of Jiuzhou under his jurisdiction, and Wang Qian, the governor of Yizhou, who led the eighteen prefectures under his jurisdiction to rebel, and the yuzhou, Xiangzhou, and Jingzhou regions also rebelled.
In addition to Wei Chiyi, Yang Jian was actually most worried about Sima Que and Wang Qian. Sima Quenan was originally the founder of Northern Qi, and his father Sima Ziru was a hero of Northern Qi, who had served as Shang Shuling, while Sima Quenan himself was Gao Huan's son-in-law, and the official Ma Duwei and Guanglu Qing left the town of Northern Yu Prefecture (北豫州, in modern Xingyang, Henan). Sima Que nan was a talented man, some of them were picky of flowers and grass, liked the new and tired of the old habits, so the relationship with the princess was not good, and he was often impeached by the imperial historians for embezzlement and perverting the law, so Sima Que Nan's reputation was not good. During the reign of Emperor Wenxuan of Qi, due to his natural suspicion, Sima Quenan was also jealous, so in order to prevent himself from being implicated in the disaster, he preemptively colluded with Northern Zhou and eventually surrendered to Northern Zhou, and Emperor Xuan of Zhou took his daughter as his son Empress Jing of Zhou, and Sima Xuannan also took advantage of this to promote himself to the rank of Empress Dowager, and soon after he left Zhenzhou.
Wang Qian was the son of Wang Xiong, a hero of the Northern Zhou Dynasty, who had no talent himself, but was humble, so he had a good reputation in the imperial court, inherited his father and held a high position, and had deep feelings for the Northern Zhou regime. After Yang Jian assisted the government, Wang Qian was undecided, and for personal gain, he once sent his subordinates to Beijing to show obedience. In addition, he was ashamed of his disloyalty to the Northern Zhou royal family, and always felt ethical and moral guilt. Therefore, when his emissaries returned from the capital to tell him about the situation in the imperial court, he finally made up his mind to raise an army against Yang Jian.
With the slogan of Kuangfu Northern Zhou's imperial family, Wei Chiyi, Sima Quenan, and Wang Qian raised an army together, which was superficially powerful, but all three of them had their own calculations. Together, Wei Chiyi joined forces with Gao Baoning to unite with the Turks and in the south to unite the Chen Dynasty, and ceded the two prefectures of Jiangsu and Huai to the Chen Dynasty; In order to get the support of the Chen Dynasty, Sima Que sent his son to the Chen Dynasty as a hostage.
In fact, when rebellions broke out in various parts of Northern Zhou, the strategically significant areas were basically controlled by Yang Jian. For example, the seven towns of Youzhou and Dingzhou were in the hands of Yu Yi, which blocked the connection between Wei Chiyi and the Turks, and made him have great worries; Xuzhou (present-day Xuzhou, Jiangsu), which was known as the "southeastern stronghold", had its general Yuanxiong resist Wei Chiyi's solicitation, sent troops to attack Wei Chiyi's generals Bi Yixu, Xi Bi, and Cao Xiaoda, and at the same time repelled the reinforcements of The Southern Chen army, breaking the attempt of Wei Chiyi and Southern Chen to unite; He Ruoyi, the governor of Miao Prefecture (present-day Anhui Province), blocked Sima Qi's difficulties, rejected Wei Chi in the east, and quelled the rebellion of Shi Lihui of Shen Prefecture. Divided the two armies of Wei Chi And sima to eliminate the difficulties; Dou Luqin, the governor of Lizhou (present-day Guangyuan, Sichuan), stubbornly guarded Honshu, opening the door for the army to enter Shuzhong.
Looking at the whole situation at that time, although there were many rebels, the rebel forces in various places were basically separated and could not form a joint force, so it was difficult to oppose the central imperial court with Yang Jian as the core, giving Yang Jian precious time to fully mobilize troops to suppress the rebellion one by one.
After some planning, Yang Jian, in the name of Emperor Jing of Zhou, issued an edict to make Wei Xiaokuan the marching marshal against Wei Chiyi, and at the same time appointed the veteran general Liang Rui as the governor of Yizhou, sent troops to attack Wang Qian, appointed the general Yang Su to send troops to fight against Yuwen Xuan, the general Wang Yi to fight against Sima Ji, and Wei Shikang as the assassin of Dai Prefecture (绛州, in modern Wenxi, Shanxi), and sat in Guanzhong to ensure the safety of the capital division.
In the eyes of some counterinsurgency generals, they were originally on par with Yang Jian, but now their status has changed, and it is inevitable that they will be dissatisfied, and these people do not know how Yang Jian will treat them after the success of counterinsurgency, so many people are very suspicious, which affects the morale of the counterinsurgency team. What was even more serious was that at that time, Wei Chiyi also used the high-ranking official Houlu to lure these people, and it was not known whose hand Yang Jian and Wei Chiyi had killed, so some people began to take a wait-and-see attitude, and even secretly looked at Wei Chiyi.
At that time, Li Mu's nephew Li Xiang gave Yang Jian a detailed report on the situation on the front line, which contained a sentence that could prove the above problem: "Liang Shiyan, Yuwen Xin, Cui Hongdu, and the lieutenant Chi Yuanjin, strange in the army, and greatly different people's feelings." "
Wei Xiaokuan did not have any good advice on this at that time, after all, he was the commander of the army, and the generals were all leading the troops, and at that time, Wei Xiaokuan was not in good health because of his age, and he could not lead the army, so he let his wife pass on the orders on his behalf. However, on the surface, the counterinsurgency army seemed to be leaderless and had a sense of scattered sand, so Li Qian suggested that Yang Jian send heavy subjects to the front line to supervise the army.
Although Yang Jian had long been mentally prepared for the rebellion of Wei Chiyi, Sima Quenan, and Wang Qian, he was not fully prepared for the current dangerous thinking from within, and coupled with the urgency of the military situation, Yang Jian was very anxious in his heart, so he consulted with Liu Fang, Zheng Yi and others to replace Wei Xiaokuan and hoped that some of them could go to the front line to oversee the army.
At that time, Li Delin saw that Yang Jian's thoughts and behaviors were a little off track, so he hurriedly stood up and made an analysis for Yang Jian.
In Li Delin's view, Yang Jianchu took power, much like Cao Cao blackmailing tianzi to order the princes, and many people were not convinced. Under such circumstances, if we listen to the rumors and hastily replace the front-line generals, I am afraid that it will be counterproductive, it will only make everyone endanger themselves, and the army will collapse as a result, and at the moment, we should send an old and heavy-handed person with some prestige to the front line to stabilize the situation.
Just at this time, Dongjun Taishou Yu Zhongwen was defeated by Wei Chiyi, his wife and children were brutally killed, and he fled back to Chang'an, and Yang Jian immediately appointed Yu Zhongwen as the commander of the Henan Province, and together with Gao Po, went to the eastern front to assist Wei Xiaokuan in handling military affairs. Yu Zhongwen was a Northern Zhou Xungui, similar to many generals on the front line, and had a common language with many people, which was easy to communicate. When the generals learned of Yu Zhongwen's arrival, they all asked him about the news of the capital, especially Yang Jian's personality.
Yu Zhongwen actually understood very well that what the generals were concerned about was actually what benefits they would get after the future change of dynasty. He also understood that his statement would determine the hearts and minds of the people, so he praised Yang Jian vigorously, telling everyone that Yang Jian was a person who was "generous and generous, more than more than knowledgeable, able to be sincere, and must have no heart".
Yu Zhongwen's arrival gradually stabilized the hearts of the army, and with Gao Ying's meticulous management of military affairs, the counterinsurgency army began to twist into a rope again. With Gao Ying and Yu Zhongwen in his position, Wei Xiaokuan was also able to free up his military talents and launch a fierce offensive against Wei Chiyi.
After the army was stabilized, Wei Xiaokuan led a large army to Advance towards Wuzhi (武陟, in modern Wuzhi, Henan) to confront the 100,000-strong army led by Wei Chiyi,000, who was entrenched in Wude Commandery (武德郡, in present-day Qinyang, Henan). In order to cross the river quickly, High Cheek recommends building a bridge immediately. Three days later, Wei Xiaokuan's leading troops began to cross the river, and Wei Chi huan wanted to attack while Wei Xiaokuan was halfway across, but he did not expect that Wei Xiaokuan would instead take advantage of his army's slight retreat to suddenly attack, and as soon as the army crossed the river, Gao Ying ordered the bridge to be burned. The soldiers marched forward, defeating Lieutenant Chi, and then repelling Wei Chi's ambush at Mustanggang and Caoqiao, and the army marched straight to Yecheng.
Wei Chiyi really did not expect that his son would be defeated so quickly, and seeing that the situation was not good, he immediately gathered 130,000 troops, led the second son, Wei Chiyu and Wei Chiyou, to deploy in the southern city of Yicheng, And Wei Chiyi was old and strong, personally put on the battlefield, and led the "Yellow Dragon Soldiers" wearing green turbans and brocade jackets to form a formation, and all of them were Guanzhong soldiers, all of whom fought hard for them.
In order to ensure the safety of Yecheng, Wei Chiqin's younger brother Wei Chiqin led 50,000 Qingzhou soldiers to reinforcements, and the 3,000 cavalry vanguard troops who took the lead in coming into battle threw themselves into battle, and the two sides launched an extremely fierce battle under Yecheng, and the people of Yecheng City rushed out of the city to witness this thrilling scene.
Wei Chiyi was indeed a brave general who could fight a good battle, and his might was not inferior to that of his youth, and as soon as he came out of the horse, the whole army was excited by it, and he rushed to Wei Xiaokuan's army with all his strength. Wei Xiaokuan's men and horses could not resist immediately, and the whole army gradually retreated under the oppression of the enemy. Gao Ying, Li Qing, and others saw that the situation was critical, and they did not care about any moral norms, so they hurriedly straightened out the people and horses and launched an attack on the onlookers, and those who were excited to watch the big battle did not expect that there were soldiers rushing towards them, and they were immediately frightened and scattered, and fled in all directions in a panic, so they immediately rushed Wei Chiyi's formation into chaos.
Wei Xiaokuan's general Yuwen Xin saw that the situation had turned around, and immediately shouted "Thieves defeated", and then the whole army was shaken and re-attacked Wei Chiyi's army, while Wei Chikuan's men and horses were obviously affected by morale, and the formation was rushed to pieces, and Wei Xiaokuan's army also took advantage of the situation to attack the city of Yecheng.
The general Liang Shiyan first attacked from the north gate, chased all the way to the west gate, and then took Yuwen Xin's men and horses into the city, Wei Chiyuan retreated to defend the small city tower in the city, the general Cui Hongdu chased after him, Wei Chi turned back and opened his bow and arrow to shoot, and when he saw that it was his daughter-in-law's brother Cui Hongdu, thinking that the general situation had gone, it was useless to resist stubbornly, it was better to be a Shunshui person, so he threw his bow and arrow on the ground, scolded Yang Jian and then killed himself. Cui Hongdu was probably not embarrassed to pick up the ready-made cheap back, so he called his younger brother Cui Hongsheng and cut off Wei Chiyi's first rank and asked him to go back to receive the merit and reward.
After the defeat of Wei Chi's army, Wei Chiqin, Wei Chiqin, Wei Chiyou, and other uncles and nephews fled east to Qingzhou, only to be pursued by Wei Xiaokuan's general Guo Yan, and then the rebellions in various parts of Shandong were put down one after another.
Wei Chiyi was the strongest of the three rebels at that time, and with the pacification of Wei Chiyi's rebellion, Sima Zhi's situation became more and more difficult. On August 27, ten days after the rebellion of Wei Chi, Wang Yi led the four generals into the prefecture of Xia, and Sima Que fled to the Chen Dynasty overnight, so the rebellions in Jing and Ying prefectures were also put down. Yang Su conquered Rongzhou, Yuwen Stomach fled, and was eventually chased to beheaded. Liang Rui led 200,000 troops into Shuzhong, Lian Zhan Lianjie advanced into Chengdu, on October 26, Wang Qian led 50,000 elite soldiers to form a battle behind the city, ready to fight to the death, Liang Rui's column attack defeated Wang Qian, beheaded him and passed the capital, so that the three rebellions were all put down.