In the last year of the Northern Wei Dynasty, the Six Towns Revolted. Source/Screenshot of the documentary "General History of China"
The northern Zhou and Northern Qi were far less well-known than the Sui and Tang dynasties. However, the actual founders of the two countries, Yuwen Tai and Gao Huan, were much luckier than their old superiors, Erzhu Rong, who once quelled all the chaos in the north in the last years of the Northern Wei Dynasty, and their descendants who claimed to be emperors were posthumously crowned emperors, at least in history. However, Erzhu Rong died at the hands of the puppet emperor Yuan Ziyou, whom he had fostered, and his descendants were unable to establish a dynasty, and only a small number of history lovers will know anything about his deeds.
To put it simply, Erzhu Rongming got Dong Zhuojia Cao Cao's script, but died at the hands of Emperor Xiaozhuang, who got the script of Emperor Xian of Han, and this sharp turn, I am afraid that Erzhu Rong did not think of it until his death.
Dong Zhuo reincarnated and killed all the courtiers
Erzhu Rong's ancestor Erzhu Yujian belonged to one of the "Zahu", and their ancestors were attributed to the Qi people after Shi Le established the Later Zhao regime, but due to the remoteness of the Erzhu tribe, they were not directly affected by the demise of Later Zhao. After the reputation of the Karma and Zahu was ruined, the Erzhu clan preferred to call themselves "Qihu".
When the Northern Wei Dynasty was founded, Erzhu Yujian followed the Taiwu Emperor Tuoba Jue on his southern expedition to the North and obtained the Northern XiuRong River near the Northern Wei capital Pingcheng as a fief. The Erzhu family provided war horses for the Northern Wei royal family and had a good relationship with the Tuoba family of the Northern Wei royal family. The generation that passed down to Erzhu Rong's grandfather, Erzhu Daiqin, also realized the marriage with the royal family. The empress dowager of Emperor Taiwu was the niece of Erzhu Daiqin. Erzhu Rong's father, Erzhu Xinxing, was deeply influenced by Emperor Xiaowen Yuanhong
(After the Northern Wei Dynasty moved the capital to Luoyang, the Tuoba clan changed its surname to Yuan)
Appreciation. Taking advantage of the emperor's trust and appreciation, Erzhu Xinxing would lead the tribes in the tribe every summer, and enter the government in the winter. Erzhu Xinxing was good at socializing during his time in Luoyang, and he selected the rarest nobles in the horses raised by his tribe to give gifts and attract affection, and befriended a large number of high-ranking nobles. There were people in the DPRK who were good at doing things, the Erzhu family's pastures were becoming more and more prosperous, and the strength of the clan was further expanded.
By the time the chiefship of the Erzhu family reached Erzhu Rong, the world was gradually in turmoil. After the Northern Wei Dynasty moved its capital to Luoyang, its focus was slightly on the crossing of the Huai River in the south to the southern dynasty, and the status of the soldiers who had originally been on the northern border plummeted, and they were subjected to a series of discrimination both economically and politically, and the dissatisfaction gradually accumulated, which finally led to the vigorous Six Towns Uprising.
Ruins of Xiurong Ancient City. Source/: Sun Haifang, Hu Yang, "Pastoral Rhymes, Ancient Chinese Nomadic Cultural Relics, Xianbei Scrolls"
Initially, Empress Dowager Hu, who was in power in the Northern Wei Dynasty, borrowed troops from the Rouran Khan Anahu on the Mongolian plateau and barely suppressed the first wave of uprisings. However, this temporary calm did not cure the symptoms, and hundreds of thousands of borders soon returned, forming multiple forces to attack and kill each other, and one of the rebel leaders named Ge Rong gradually became the leaders of various mutants in the game and reorganization.
Erzhu Rong used the chaos to recruit a large number of displaced soldiers from the six towns, and his strength was greatly inflated. At this time, the celebrities who joined his camp were: the three brothers of the famous northern border general He Bayue, who laid the foundation for the Northern Zhou Dynasty, Yuwen Tai, the actual founder of the Northern Qi Dynasty, Gao Huan, the actual founder of the Northern Qi Dynasty, Hou Jing, who turned Jiangnan upside down, and the famous generals Murong Shaozong and Li Hu
(Grandpa Li Yuan)
, Li Bi
(Li Mi, a prominent minister of the late Sui Dynasty, and Li Bi, a famous minister in the middle of the Tang Dynasty)
et al.
It can be said that most of the members of the first generation of major civil and military groups in Northern Qi, Northern Zhou, and even The Sui and Tang Dynasties were under the command of Erzhu Rong. Erzhu Rong also became the last hope of the Northern Wei dynasty and the opposition to suppress the rebels.
In early 528, Emperor Xiaoming of Northern Wei was poisoned by his birth mother Empress Dowager Hu for a power struggle, which gave Erzhu Rong, who had been dormant for a long time, an opportunity. Under the banner of avenging Emperor Xiaoming and supporting the imperial family, he led his troops south to the capital Luoyang. Before entering Luoyang, Erzhu Rong had sent people to secretly contact the famous Prince Yuanziyou of Changle, the son of King Yuanxun of Pengcheng, to cooperate with him against Empress Dowager Huan, and promised to make Yuanziyou emperor after the event was completed.
Erzhu Rong's troops reached Heyang on the Yellow River, and Yuan Ziyou, with the cooperation of Erzhu Rong's cronies, slipped out of Luoyang and succeeded him as Emperor Xiaozhuang of Northern Wei at Heyang. Empress Dowager Hu's army soon broke up, and after entering Luoyang, Erzhu Rong sank Empress Dowager Hu into the Yellow River along with the infant puppets she had erected.
Erzhu Rong supported Yuan Ziyou as emperor. Source/Editor-in-Chief by Cheng Guangyuan; Edited by CAFA Sunshine: General History of China Vol. 4 Juvenile Short Reading Edition
The story could have ended there. The newly succeeded Emperor Xiaozhuang, Yuan Ziyou, was neither a minor to be manipulated by others, nor a weak and incompetent person. As a close branch of the imperial family, he served as a companion of Xiao Ming's brother Yuan Xue, and later left the town of Hebei as a prince, and was closely related to the local clans in Hebei and the Wubao armed forces they owned, which was quite popular. Gao Qian and Gao Brother of the Bohai Gao clan, and later the famous Western Wei general Wang Sizheng, were all hardcore supporters of Yuan Ziyou. Empress Dowager Hu's clique was completely lost, and Yuan Ziyou, whether it was his blood, experience, and popularity, could be called one of the most qualified clans to succeed to the throne. However, Erzhu Rong's next move shocked everyone.
After sinking Empress Dowager Hu and her infants into the Yellow River, Erzhu Rong, in the name of Emperor Xiaozhuang, informed his courtiers that the new monarch's succession required sacrifices to the heavens and that he could not take leave unless necessary. When hundreds of officials gathered, Erzhu Rong rebuked the courtiers, and the chaos today was caused by them only taking money and not working well. After the reprimand, a large number of cavalry that had been ambushed in advance rushed out and slaughtered all the civilian and military officials present, and the scene was covered with blood. Nearly 2,000 officials below the death, including Yuanyong the Prince of Gaoyang, Sikong Yuanqin, and Wang Yuanluo of Yiyang, including Emperor Xiaozhuang's brother Yuan Shao, were almost all spared, and the imperial court was empty. This is the famous "Change of Heyin" in history.
Erzhu Rong did not have the confidence to directly usurp the throne. Therefore, after the situation in Luoyang was initially settled, he chose to return to his base in Jinyang.
The change of Heyin. Source/Fu Yao: "Hunting the World"
Cao Cao possessed and swept away the crowd
Emperor Xiaozhuang's succession did not end the chaos in the world, and Erzhu Rong's devastating massacre of the Northern Wei court greatly weakened the imperial power, and the whole country of Northern Wei was chaotic.
The remaining Ge Rong in the north, who divided Hebei, and Xing Gao, who divided Shandong, were already powerful forces that could establish political power and claimed to have more than 100,000 troops.
Xiao Baoyu of the Guanzhong region was an exiled royalty of the Southern Dynasty State of Qi, and he was responsible for suppressing all kinds of local mutants, and both sides had their own victories and losses. Xiao Baoyu assassinated Li Daoyuan ,郦道元, who was sent by the imperial court to supervise him, and established himself as emperor in the Guanzhong region, with the name of the state still qi and the division of the side.
In the south, after the "Heyin Revolution", many princes and local powerful factions on the border defected to Southern Liang, among which the Beihai king Yuan Hao was on a par with Emperor Xiaozhuang in terms of fame and lineage, and Emperor Liangwu tried to support him to seize the throne, sending his confidant general Chen Qingzhi to lead 7,000 troops to escort him back to Luoyang.
At this point, Erzhu Rong in Jinyang was both the greatest hope of Emperor Xiaozhuang's son You to pacify the world, and the greatest threat to the imperial power of Northern Wei. Surrounded by strong enemies, Erzhu Rong showed amazing military ability.
The first target he had to deal with was Ge Rong, who was in Hebei. Ge Rong had a large number of elite border troops, and due to the change in Heyin, many warriors in Hebei accepted Ge Rong's united front. At present, its unit is called a million, and the actual power that can be controlled is more than 300,000. Ge Rong led a large number of people from the six towns to the south, and after capturing Yicheng, tried to further encroach on the Northern Wei control area, but due to the large size of the troops, after entering the hinterland of Hebei, Ge Rong instead needed to collect grain from the Hebei Shi clan who had come from the United Front, and even so, the food supply was still often in short supply.
Faced with this situation, Erzhu Rong saw the opportunity of the united front, and he sent his subordinates, who were also from the six towns, to win over many people in Ge Rong's army, and Gao Huan alone persuaded Ge Rong's army from the background of Wanyu Huaishuo Town. Emperor Xiaozhuang sent envoys with edicts to appease the Hebei Shi clan, and Gao Qian, Gao Ao Cao, and others returned to the imperial court camp one after another. Under these circumstances, Erzhu Rong, whose entire strength was only 70,000 men, directly took Hou Jing as the vanguard and led 7,000 elite cavalry around him out of Fukou Pass in the east and directly attacked Yecheng.
Today's Yecheng Museum. Photography / Dazzling Dots 2012, Source / Figureworm Creative
Although the fighting strength of the Ge Rongbu people was not low, they were temporarily put together by different military towns and local armies, and the management and organization were quite chaotic, and there was a lack of sufficient food.
Erzhu Rong formulated a decapitation tactic in response to this feature: he organized elite cavalry to forcibly break through Ge Rong's position in dense formations, concentrated attacks only on the headquarters of Ge Rong's army, and only tried to disperse other armies.
Before the war, Erzhu Rong even strictly forbade beheading and snatching merit. Ge Rong was captured under a powerful assault, but the 300,000 people under his command seemed difficult to deal with. Erzhu Rong pretended to dismiss them in situ, and when these people dispersed, the main force behind Erzhu Rong had already followed and had the ability to dismiss and resettle them separately. Soon, Erzhu Rong's partner Yuan Tianmu and others destroyed Xing Gao, who had divided the territory in Shandong, and the Wei army in Guanzhong also defeated Xiao Baoyu's Qi army, forcing Xiao Baorong to defect to other rebel groups in Guanzhong, which were his former targets of annihilation.
Just as Erzhu Rong was sweeping away the mutants and rebels everywhere, an unexpectedly strong enemy appeared. At first, the King of Beihai, Yuan Hao, defected to Southern Liang, and Emperor Wu of Liang sent Chen Qingzhi with 7,000 troops to help him compete for the throne, but because Emperor Xiaozhuang Yuanziyou, who was sitting in Luoyang at the time, and Yuan Tianmu, who was nearby, still had at least 100,000 troops, no one took Yuan Hao seriously. Surprisingly, Chen Qingzhi showed terrible combat effectiveness, advancing all the way with his seven thousand concubines, successively conquering Suiyang, Kaocheng, Xingyang, Hugao and other places, and finally occupying Luoyang, which was also the only time that the Southern Dynasty captured the capital of the Northern Dynasty during the Southern and Northern Dynasties. Emperor Xiaozhuang's son, Emperor Youcang, fled north of the Yellow River.
The change in Heyin made many people disapprove of Yuan Ziyou's succession, and many clans and powerful factions in Henan adopted a wall-riding attitude, so Yuan Hao took Chen Qingzhi's seven thousand elites as the core and snowballed all the way, and when he arrived in Luoyang, this army was "not more than ten thousand people in Luoxianan, ten times that of Qiangyi", that is, Yuan Hao had already collected about 100,000 people.
Erzhu Rong learned of the news of the occupation of Luoyang, and immediately led the main force south, Chen Qingzhi chose to cross the Yellow River to meet the battle, Erzhu Rong, although he had the advantage of troops, but encountered hard stubble, in successive fierce battles failed to capture Chen Qingzhi's fortified North Zhongcheng, but suffered heavy losses. However, the contradictions between Yuan Hao and Liang Jun were doomed to be irreconcilable, after all, Yuan Hao's purpose was to inherit the Northern Wei throne rather than to make Southern Liang a vassal, and the poor discipline of Liang Jun during luoyang also made the general disappointment of the scholars. Therefore, Erzhu Rong smuggled the Yellow River from elsewhere and attacked Yuan Hao's department. Although Yuan Hao had a crowd of 100,000 people, basically newly attached wall grass, he was quickly defeated, and Yuan Hao himself was captured and killed. Chen Qing's troops had no choice but to slowly withdraw their troops, and were eventually basically destroyed under the pursuit of Erzhu Rong.
Erzhu Rong vs. Chen Qingzhi (redrawn from the original book illustration). Source / Kwon Wai-dong, Wen Qiaoxiang: The Legend of famous generals
Two years later, when Erzhu Rong re-entered Luoyang, he had gone from being a powerful local warlord to the de facto controller of all parts of northern Wei. Seeing that Erzhu Rong had replaced Dong Zhuo's script with Cao Cao's script, why did Emperor Xiaozhuang, who had obtained the script of Emperor Xian of Han, treat himself?
"It is better to die for the noble township than to live for the common life of the changdao township"
If it is said that at the beginning, Emperor Xiaozhuang Yuanziyou could still be called a partner of Erzhu Rong, after the Eastern Expedition and the Western War in the past two years to pacify the world, Erzhu Rong's strength has occupied an overwhelming advantage. A serious problem was before Emperor Xiaozhuang: the chips in his hands were completely different from Erzhu Rong. Dragging it on any longer, I only have to obediently zen to let a script.
Erzhu Rong dared to swing into the capital because he believed that Yuan Ziyou did not dare to do anything to him. Successfully killing your opponent does not mean that you can swallow the opponent's power and complete the aftermath. Yuan Ziyou clearly remembered that after Wang Yun killed Dong Zhuo, he could not control the Liangzhou warlords, and finally lost a jingguang. Yuan Ziyou hesitated at this moment, a few years later in Guanzhong, there was a more extreme case, Hou Mo Chen Yue assassinated He Bayue at a banquet, but as a result, he was unable to annex the latter's army, He Bayue's army instead supported a Much stronger Yuwen Tai than He Bayue came out, and Hou Mo Chen Yue was quickly destroyed by Yu Wentai. It can be seen that killing a political enemy or a potential enemy is one thing, but after killing him, you can't control the situation, just in vain to cause trouble for yourself, cheapening the third party forces. Because of this, Erzhu Rong, with the strong strength behind him, did not worry about Yuan Ziyou attacking him.
Yuwentai film and television image. Source/Screenshot of the TV series "Lonely World"
Yuan Ziyou carefully estimated the strength at hand, and many of the hundred officials of Luoyang only escaped the change of Heyin for some reason, and would not agree with Erzhu Rong. However, the armies around Luoyang surrendered three times in a few years, twice against Erzhu Rong and once against Yuan Hao and Chen Qingzhi, and these troops did not have much combat effectiveness. The Gao Qian, Gao And other warriors in Hebei are the strength they can rely on, and their combat effectiveness can also be guaranteed.
The difficulty of Yuan Ziyou is that the key is how to balance the members of the Erzhu family after Erzhu Rong's death. Yuan Ziyou's idea was that Wang Yun did not want to be amnesty after killing Dong Zhuo, and also killed Cai Yong, a famous soldier who was not close to Dong Zhuo and only sighed, and finally forced Dong Zhuo's Liangzhou army to rebel. He wanted to fully absorb Wang Yun's lesson and grant amnesty to the Erzhu clique after Erzhu Rong's death. Yuan Ziyou knew very well that the territory of Northern Wei was full of the armies of Erzhu Rong's relatives, and even if he tried his best, it would be difficult to turn things around.
But Yuan Ziyou, who was unwilling to let Sheji break in his hands, say a famous sentence:
"It is better to die for the noble township than for the common life of the changdao township."
Noble Township Duke
It refers to the Cao Wei Emperor Cao Xian, who said "Sima Zhao's heart is well known to passers-by" and led hundreds of court personnel to attack Sima Zhao. The 20-year-old Cao Xian was spattered with blood during a failed attempt.
Changdao Township Gong
It was Cao Wan, the last monarch of Cao Wei, who completed the Zen concession ceremony, and after Zen Rang lived in the Jin Dynasty for nearly forty years, he was able to die well.
Yuan Ziyou would rather die like Cao Huan than live like Cao Yi.
In fact, starting from Liu Yu, cooperating with Zen Rang may not necessarily have a good ending. When signing the Letter of Zen Concession, Sima Dewen, the Emperor of Jin, said: "When Huan Xuan usurped the throne, the Jin Dynasty had already lost the world, but thanks to Liu Yu's extension of the state, it has been nearly twenty years. I am willing to give up today's Zen. However, Sima Dewen Chan still could not escape Liu Yu's killing in the following year. From then on, the Zen monarchs of the Southern Dynasty Jin, Song, and Qi dynasties and their close branches would all die. The Northern Wei "Suoyu" monarchs, who ridiculed the Southern Dynasty as "Island Yi", must have been quite aware of the terrible situation of the Zen monarchs, which also greatly strengthened Yuan Ziyou's determination.
In September 530, Emperor Xiaozhuang ambushed the soldiers and then sent someone to tell Erzhu Rong that he married Emperor Xiaozhuang's daughter Empress Erzhu and gave birth to a crown prince. Erzhu Rong never thought that Emperor Xiaozhuang dared to kill him, so he entered the palace to congratulate him. When he saw Emperor Xiaozhuang, the ambush soldiers quickly appeared, and Erzhu Rong reacted quickly, and his thinking was extremely clear, and he immediately tried to kidnap Emperor Xiaozhuang. However, Emperor Xiaozhuang had already made preparations, and took out the prepared knife and directly stabbed it into Erzhu Rong's abdominal cavity, and a generation of tyrants died on the spot.
Compared with the Zhou Wu Emperor Yuwen Yong dragging mud and water decades later, and finally relying on others to complete the murder of the powerful minister Yuwen Hu, Emperor Xiaozhuang's hand blade this time can be described as clean and neat. The second-in-command of the Erzhu clique, Erzhu Rong's hardcore cronies who had tried to support him, and Yuan Tianmu, a distant branch of the imperial family, were also killed on the spot. More than thirty people who accompanied him, including Erzhu Rong's concubine Erzhu Bodhi, were also killed. At the same time, Yuan Ziyou fully absorbed Wang Yun's lessons and immediately issued an edict of amnesty for the Erzhu clique, and at the same time asked Gao Qian and Gao Brothers to return to Hebei to recruit troops, and also surrendered He Basheng and others of the Erzhu clique. He even did not hesitate to reduce his self-worth and recruited a group of mountain thieves near the Erzhu family's Jinyang old lair, so that they could threaten the Erzhu clan from behind.
However, just as the Western Liang army had Jia Xu at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, Sima Ziru, the mastermind of the Erzhu family, was also a person with a poisonous vision. Under his persuasion, Erzhu Shilong, who was in Luoyang and did not enter the palace, forcibly killed luoyang city and raided and captured the northern central city with a small number of men and horses. This was the gateway to the invasion of Luoyang from Hebei, where Erzhu Rong's army had recently been defeated by Chen Qingzhi's defenders, and the fall of Northern Zhongcheng meant that It was impossible for Yuan Ziyou to organize the defense of Luoyang. When the generals of the Zhu'erzhu clan beheaded the envoys who read the amnesty documents and marched south, Yuan Ziyou was quickly captured and eventually strangled to death. Erzhu Zhao and others went on a killing spree, killing a large number of clans and ministers, and the princes born to Emperor Xiaozhuang and Empress Erzhu were also killed.
The Northern Wei Dynasty was completely divided, and after a series of reorganizations, the members of the Erzhu Rong group and the mutants of the six towns eventually formed a situation of east-west division, which was formed in the western Wei- Northern Zhou Dynasty of the Guanlong group, and later gave birth to the sui and Tang dynasties.
The Northern Wei Dynasty was divided into two. Source/Screenshot of the documentary "General History of China"
Unfortunately, the Erzhu family was soon destroyed by Gao Huan, and Erzhu Rong was gradually forgotten in the corner of history.
On the other hand, Emperor Yuanzi of Xiaozhuang, at the cost of his life, realized the famous saying that "it is better to die for the noble township than for the common life of the changdao township".