During the Southern and Northern Dynasties period, the storms and clouds were turbulent, and a series of famous heroes emerged. Being able to stand out among many heroes and build their own empire shows that the four founding kings of the Southern Dynasty are not simple people.
The four founding kings of the Southern Dynasty were:
- Liu Yu, the Emperor wu of the Song Dynasty who established the Liu Song Dynasty.
- Xiao Daocheng, the Qi Gao Emperor who established the Xiao Qi Dynasty.
- Xiao Yan, the Emperor of Liangwu who established the Xiaoliang Dynasty.
- Chen Baxian, the Emperor of Chen Wu who established the Southern Chen Dynasty.
Except for Xiao Daocheng, whose courtesy name was Emperor Gao, the other 3 were all Emperor Wu. It can be seen that the establishment of the state by force was a very popular way in the era of the Southern and Northern Dynasties. It also proves from the side that these 4 emperors are not very good. So what about their abilities?
First, on the comprehensive ability, Liu Yudang ranked first.
To be honest, Mo said that in the entire Southern Dynasty, even the entire Southern and Northern Dynasties, and even the two Jin Dynasties and the Southern and Northern Dynasties in the 370 years, there were really very few people who could surpass Liu Yu.
Xin Zhiyi once described Liu Yu in his own words:
Think of that year, Jinge iron horse, swallowed like a tiger.
It can be seen that Liu Yu's life started from the grassroots level. Constantly moving upward with outstanding military achievements, he eventually embarked on the peak of power and changed the dynasty. This is almost unimaginable in the relational theory of the Southern and Northern Dynasties.
We can briefly understand the trajectory of Liu Yu's life.
First, before joining the army, Liu Yu was a street wanderer.
Liu Yu claimed to be a descendant of Liu Bang's younger brother Liu Jiao, the King of Chuyuan, which had passed for more than 600 years, and to be honest, anyone could break this relationship blindly. And at that time, even if you were a descendant of the old Liu family, there was no appeal, because the Han Dynasty had been dead for nearly 150 years.
Therefore, Liu Yu's childhood life was very miserable, because his family was very poor, Liu Yu had to do various farm work when he was young. Going up the mountain to cut firewood, going down the mountain to weave straw shoes (which seems to be the old Liu family's family tradition), there is nothing to fish, farming, as long as it is able to support his own work, he can do it with his hands.
Liu Yu, who has such a strong desire to survive, has become an adult and has been contaminated with a bad habit, that is, gambling. Every time you earn a little money, you lose everything, so that you lose a few family properties. The villagers all looked down on Liu Yu, and Liu Yu had no choice but to dig out the well in his hometown and carry it to the field to find a job.
Second, after joining the army, Liu Yu was like a fish in the water.
When Liu Yu came out to work, it happened that after the Beifu soldiers defeated Former Qin in the Battle of Shuishui, the Beifu soldiers became famous in the Eastern Jin Dynasty, and everyone wanted to eat in the Beifu soldiers.
However, not everyone in the Beifu army could enter, and only a strong person like Liu Yu was eligible to pass the layers of screening. Liu Yu never dreamed that he was too suitable to be a soldier!
In a combat activity, Liu Yu led dozens of people to fight with thousands of enemy troops in blood, without the slightest intention of flinching. Since then, Liu Yu has fallen in love with the battlefield, and has been a pioneer in every battle, with almost no defeat.
In the process of quelling Sun En's rebellion, Liu Yu showed excellent military ability, so he was constantly promoted by military merit, and gradually grew from a small soldier to a jianwu general and a subordinate Taishou.
Third, liu yu reached the peak of his life.
This is perhaps Liu Yu's most wanton and happy day, because his life is constantly moving upwards. But the more he went up, the more he understood one thing, if he wanted to succeed, it was not enough to rely on force, he also had to have enough brains.
His former boss, Liu Gaozhi, was because of the lack of such a thing, so he ended up in disgrace and hanged himself. After Huan Xuan raised an army, Liu Yu temporarily yielded, and after he escaped, he immediately raised an army against Huan Xuan and quelled Huan Xuan's rebellion in one fell swoop.
After becoming the head of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, Liu Yu went north to Southern Yan and Later Qin, and Shun took the northern Wei to fight, all the way can be described as a triumphant song and unstoppable. At the same time, it also destroyed Yizhou's Shu, frightening Qiuchi in the northwest and immediately handing over control of Hanzhong.
In this way, Liu Yu had mastered three-quarters of the world's territory in his hands. There is only a little scrap left that has not been solved, which is really like a tiger.
In this case, Liu Yucai had the idea of changing the dynasty. It can be said that Liu Yu is full of confidence in his heart, and the usurpation of the throne is really deserved, and he is undoubtedly a generation of male lords. Overall, the 59th year of the Liu Song Dynasty is the longest dynasty of the Southern Dynasty. At the same time, the territory of Liu Song was also the largest in the Southern Dynasty.
Second, Emperor Xiao Yan of Liangwu was the second.
Emperor Xiao Yan of Liangwu, the old emperor, was all too familiar to everyone. It was the Xiao Bodhisattva who wanted to become a monk several times and let the imperial court spend hundreds of millions of dollars to redeem himself.
Xiao Yan succeeded to the throne at the age of 39, died at the age of 87, reigned for 48 years, and actually held power for 47 years. Logically, he was the longest-reigning emperor of the Southern Dynasty and the emperor who held power for the longest time.
But Xiao Yan has a good summary of himself in this life:
What is self-gained, what is the self-loss, and what is the hate?
What do you mean? That is to say, the Jiangshan of Southern Liang was fought down by Xiao Yan, but at the same time, Xiao Yan lost it, what is there to regret?
The same is true of the facts. Xiao Yan's brother was slaughtered by Xiao Qi's emperor Xiao Baojuan, and Xiao Yan, enraged, rebelled, destroyed Xiao Qi, and established Xiao Liang.
Why is it going so well? The reason is simple:
- First of all, because Xiao Yan was also from the Lanling Xiao clan, he and Xiao Dao were related to the same lineage. After Xiao Yan succeeded to the throne, although he changed the name of the country, the ministers were still inherited by Xiao Qi.
- Secondly, there was a change of big leader, and the entire leadership team did not change much blood, and even the aristocratic group did not move. Therefore, there were naturally fewer people who opposed Xiao Yan.
- Moreover, not to mention that Xiao Yan had a very good conscience and was very kind to the aristocratic group. Even the Langya Wang clan and the Chen Junxie clan left over from the Eastern Jin Dynasty could get good treatment here from Xiao Yan.
Southern Liang under Xiao Yan's rule was also relatively stable and peaceful. Unfortunately, in the matter of opening up the territory and expanding the territory, Xiao Yan's performance was very embarrassing. The Northern Expedition was basically fruitless, and it would be good to be able to hold the existing land.
Xiao Yan's end was tragic, because hou Jing, a rebel general of Eastern Wei who had taken in, established himself as a cosmic general and launched a rebellion in Southern Liang. As a direct result, Xiao Yan was starved to death in Taicheng. After his death, Southern Liang also almost went to extinction.
Third, Chen Baxian, Emperor Wu of Chen, ranked third.
In fact, letting Chen Baxian be after Xiao Yan was a bit condescending. However, Chen Baxian's reign was short, and Southern Chen's territory was the smallest in the Southern Dynasty, so it is reasonable to say that Chen Baxian ranked third.
After the chaos in Southern Liang, Chen Baxian also rose with the trend.
Chen Baxian, a humanistic martial artist, not only has a good martial art, but also is proficient in the art of Qi men and qi men, full of poetry and books, and is an all-rounder.
Coinciding with the chaotic times, Chen Baxian raised an army and joined Wang Shengjie to quell Hou Jing's rebellion. However, at this time, Southern Liang was already in a slump, and Chen Baxian, who was nominally subordinate to the Liang yuan emperor Xiao Xuan (Xiao Yan's son) who was nominally subordinate to Jiangling, actually refused to go to Jiangling for a long time in Jiankang.
After Emperor Xiao of Liangyuan was destroyed by Yuwen Tai of Western Wei, Chen Baxian once again raised an army to quell the civil unrest, seized the highest power, and supported Xiao Fangzhi's son Xiao Fangzhi as emperor and took sole power himself.
At the same time, his former good brother Wang Shengquan succumbed to Northern Qi's strength and established Xiao Yuanming (Xiao Yan's nephew) as emperor. The two sides clashed, and in the end, Chen Baxian killed Wang Shengxian.
After that, Chen Baxian went all the way through the barrier and destroyed all the opponents, which made it difficult to establish the Southern Chen Empire. Southern Chen's territory was not large, a little smaller than Eastern Wu during the Three Kingdoms period, because Jiangling was occupied by Western Liang.
Fourth, Emperor Xiao Daocheng of Qi Gao ranked fourth.
Grievances? I don't feel aggrieved at all. Xiao Daocheng was a founding prince, but in the chaotic world, he did not even mix with the title of Emperor Wu, which showed that Xiao Daocheng's level was still a certain gap with the other three.
Xiao Daocheng was from an aristocratic background, and he was also a second-generation official. In addition, he was often gilded on the battlefield, so he was soon promoted by the imperial court and gradually began to take power.
Coinciding with the continuous appearance of emperors in the Liu Song Dynasty, Liu Jun, the Emperor Xiaowu of song, and Liu Yu, the Emperor of Song Ming, slaughtered the clan chamber, and then there were small emperors such as Liu Ziye and Liu Yu who acted in a wronged manner. It is strange that Liu Song did not perish.
Xiao Daocheng also took advantage of this spring wind to successfully start a business and establish the Xiao Qi Dynasty. However, this old brother has not been able to get his hands on the performance of both civil rule and martial arts since then, which is really a bit embarrassing.
Let him be in fourth place, not a loss at all. After all, the Xiao Qi Dynasty he established was also the shortest lifespan among the four southern dynasties, only 24 years.
Summary: Liu Yu, Xiao Yan, Chen Baxian, Xiao Daocheng.
This ranking should be generally nothing wrong, basically based on their respective comprehensive capabilities and performance to evaluate. The only controversy may be the strength or weakness of Chen Baxian and Xiao Yan.
After all, Xiao Yan had a stain on this person, and this brother directly destroyed Nanliang.
Overall, Liu Song 59 years, Xiao Liang 55 years, Nan Chen 32 years, Xiao Qi 24 years, from the perspective of Guo Zuo time, such a ranking also has a certain truth, do you think?
References: Zizhi Tongjian, Book of Song, Book of Liang