Between the Southern and Northern Dynasties and the Sui and Tang Dynasties, China had a strong organization, they controlled the throne of the four dynasties, monopolized the military and political power for a hundred years, and even Li Shimin's family was able to ascend to the throne, but also relied on their support. This organization is the famous Guanlong Group, so how powerful is the Guanlong Group? Why did you control the imperial power of the Four Dynasties?
The Guanlong clique is a concept proposed by Mr. Chen Yinke, which refers to the Hanhu aristocratic group that began to form from the Western Wei and Northern Zhou Dynasties and played a great role in the political situation of the Sui and Tang dynasties. During the Northern Wei Dynasty, Emperor Xiaowen moved the capital to Luoyang, and then implemented a series of Sinicization reforms, which also made the imperial court gradually despise the six military towns in the north to a certain extent.
Originally, they were set up to resist Rouran, but at that time, Rouran's decline gradually declined, coupled with the chaotic government of Empress Hu within the imperial court, so the six towns in the north were more and more despised, and the rebellion of the six towns also broke out, and at the same time caused a large-scale peasant uprising, followed by many rebellions throughout the Guanzhong region.
In the process of quelling the peasant revolt, the Northern Wei general Erzhu Rong sent the warlord He Babing of Wuchuan town to Guanzhong to quell the rebellion. Later, after Erzhu Rong's death, Gao Huan gained military power, and He Bayue was also killed by Hou Mochen Yue, who was pro-Gao Huan. He Bayue's troop, Yuwen Tai, gradually rose to prominence and became the largest warlord in the Guanzhong region. However, at this time, Northern Wei was almost monopolized by Gao Huan, and Yuwen Tai was dissatisfied with this, and in order to oppose Gao Huan, he carried out military reforms to improve military strength.
For example, in cooperation with the Han landlords in the Guanlong area, the prefectural military system was implemented, and the Eight Pillar State, the Twelve Great Generals, and the Twenty-four Kaifu were established. Yuwen Tai was the head of the Eight Pillar Kingdom, and Yuan Xin was limited in military power because he was a royal family. The remaining six pillars of the country each lead the second general, each general leads two Kaifu, each Kaifu leads an army, and the twenty-fourth Kaifu is the twenty-fourth army. The generals of these armies were all former generals of the Wuchuan Army, and later joined the Han dynasty and the generals of the Big Landlords, the Eight Pillar Kingdom, the Twelve Great Generals, and the Twenty-Four Kaifu Generals intermarried and married each other, forming a solid military group, which was the "Guanlong Group". So to what extent did Guan long group develop later?
As early as the Southern and Northern Dynasties, members of the Guanlong clique founded dynasties, such as the Western Wei and Northern Zhou established by Yuwen Tai's father and son, followed by the Sui Dynasty established by Yang Jian and the Tang Dynasty established by Li Yuan. Initially, the Guanlong clique was only a powerful group composed of some high-ranking officials and nobles, but with the development of time, more and more people in this group slowly formed a ruling group that could be compared with the imperial court.
During the Zhou Dynasty, imperial power was scattered, and the emperor was too young to control it. The personnel of the Guanlong clique took advantage of this to grasp most of the power, and the Sui Emperor Yang Jian also took the opportunity to win the hearts and minds of the people at this time, and then established the Sui Dynasty. In fact, the Guanlong clique is a collection of people with real power from all sides, and there are also literati scholars who can govern the country, so the Guanlong clique itself is equivalent to a small court in the rudimentary form. Moreover, because there was no control of the emperor, its way of existence was quite free, and the members it formed itself were all powerful people, so more and more people moved closer to the Guanlong group for their own interests.
In this way, an orthodox imperial court was slowly and secretly decomposed by the GuanLong clique. With a power group, naturally some people want to use it, so as to seek their own interests, Emperor Wen of Sui relied on the support of the Guanlong clique to ascend to the throne, and Li Yuan was able to establish the Tang Dynasty, but also inseparable from the support of the Guanlong clique behind. It can be said that the power of the Guanlong clique is not smaller than that of an imperial dynasty, so how did the powerful Guanlong clique perish?
The Guanlong Group was mainly governed by eight pillars, namely Yuwen Tai, Yuan Xin, Zhao Gui, Hou Mo Chen Chong, Li Hu, Li Bi, Yu Jin, and Du Guxin, which was known as the "Eight Pillar State" at that time. The first to fall was the Yuan clan, a puppet regime supported by Yuwen Tai.
After Yuwen Tai's death, his son, supported by his nephew, abolished Western Wei, and Yuan Xin had no real power in his hands and gradually withdrew from the stage of history. In 581, Yang Jian replaced Northern Zhou and established the Sui Dynasty, and the Northern Zhou Emperor Yuwen Yan died that year, and his two younger brothers were also killed by Yang Jian, and Yuwen Taiyi also withdrew from the stage of history.
During the Northern Zhou Dynasty, Zhao Gui was killed by Yuwen Hu because he opposed Yuwen Hu's dictatorship. Hou Mochen Chong was also killed by Yuwen Hu during the same period, so that only four veins of the Eight Pillars State remained. In 618, Li Yuan established the Tang Dynasty, and Li Yuan was already a cousin of the Sui Emperor and the same Guan Long clique. However, in the last year of the Sui Dynasty, the world was in chaos, and Li Yuan also began to oppose the Sui, and gradually succeeded, and after the Sui Emperor was killed, Li Hu claimed that the emperor established the Tang Dynasty.
When Li Yuan came to power, his relationship with some other group members was still relatively close, but by the time of Li Shimin, the Guanlong group was already relatively weak. Li Shimin reused the Kwantung Clique, those who had defected to him in the process of fighting the world. In addition, from the Sui Dynasty onwards, the system of imperial examinations was adopted to select talents, and the status of the nobility was no longer hereditary, which was also an important reason for the weakening of the Guanlong clique, they could not form a clique, nor could they influence the political situation of the Tang Dynasty.
By the time of Wu Zetian, the Guanlong clique was too bloated, the interior had rotted, and coupled with the weakening of the previous emperors, it was finally completely solved by Wu Zetian.
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