On April 1, 528, Northern Wei welcomed its 10th emperor, a baby born less than 50 days old, who ascended the throne with the support of his grandmother Empress Dowager Hu. But less than a day later, the Northern Wei courtiers received an explosive message that the little emperor who had just worshipped in the morning was actually a daughter, and her real identity was the only concubine of Emperor Xiaoming of Northern Wei, a princess. Immediately after this time, the real ruler of the Northern Wei Dynasty, Empress Dowager Xuanwuling, issued an edict announcing the establishment of a new monarch.
On April 2, 528, Emperor Xiaowen of Wei's great-grandson YuanHong, the son of the late Emperor Yuanbaohui of Lintao, was only three years old, and was made emperor by Empress Dowager Hu and announced to the world:
The royal calendar is drawn, the year will be two hundred; the ancestors are holy, and the society is carried out in peace. Emperor Gaozu was born with Wen Si Xian, Emperor Sejong below Wu Jingshi, Qiu Weiliang, and Fuehrer Mu Mu. And the great line in the imperial court, heavy to be generous, the rate of worship, gentle and obedient. Widowed, he came to all the nations, knew Tu Shan, and de kuo Wenmu. It belongs to the demon's rebellion, and there are many reasons in the four suburbs. I hope that the spirit of the dome will descend, and the lin toes will be multiplied.
Since Pan Chong Hua has a pregnant pepper palace, Ji Birthday Chu two, while Xiong Fei [pí] is unobtrusive, and Wei Yu [huǐ] is zhang. Yu Shizhi was not healthy in the national pace, pretending to be Tongyin [yìn], wanting to determine the situation of things at the bottom, and was looking up to Chenji. Once He Tu, the bow and sword are not chased, the national road is micro, and the great line is absolutely sacred.
The emperor's great-grandson, the late Lintao King Baohui Shizi Zhao, was from Gaozu, had a remarkable heavenly appearance, and was very deep in his daily life, yiqi ruozi, and things were dangbi. And the day of the day of the healing, the great gradually dying, is extended into the Green Pu, ordained Jade. And Chen Yi was in the court, Deng Ce Jing, Yun Yi Dabao, and practiced on the same day. It is fearful and fearful, and the heart is depressed [jì].
Now that the king has been lost, the emperor [shí] is only solid, it is advisable to honor the secretaries, the emperor and the hundreds, and the reign of Fan Jie, and add a narrative. Hundreds of internal and external officials, civil and military officers, overseers and generals, suffered hardships, and were given the second rank of Military Merit; their Military Attaché of the Janissaries, who was directly subordinate to the above and above and the commander below the Direct Cabinet, could be of the third rank of military merit; his deceased officials lost their knighthoods and were reinstated. Those who conspire against the Great Rebellion are not limited. Qing yi imprisoned, also known as juān [juān]. If the second product or more can not be self-received, let the child brother. Keban Xuanyuan [ěr], Xian Zhizhi. - "Wei Shu Suzong"
Its general effect was that Emperor Xiaoming of Wei died too quickly, did not appoint an heir, and in order to stabilize the situation, he made his only concubine emperor, and the hearts of the descendants were already determined, so they established Yuan Zhao as emperor. However, this abolition led to a lot of public discussion, and many people believed that Emperor Xiaoming of Wei was poisoned by Empress Dowager Hu, and this was the case. It's all about "power."
On February 12, 515 (the thirteenth day of the first month of the fourth year of the fourth year of the reign of Emperor Xuanwu of Northern Wei), Emperor Xuanwu of Northern Wei died, and the 6-year-old crown prince Yuan Xue [xǔ] ascended the throne as emperor that night, for Emperor Xiaoming, and changed his era name to Xiping. Due to the emperor's young age, Empress Dowager Hu was able to come to the court to listen to the government.
At the beginning of Emperor Xiaoming's reign, his sons were young and strong, and the government affairs of the court all relied on his biological mother Empress Hu, but as Emperor Xiaoming of Wei grew older, the power struggle between empress dowagers became more and more intense, coupled with Empress Dowager Hu's misconduct, and had an affair with Qinghe Wang Yuanyi and other courtiers, which caused Emperor Xiaoming to be dissatisfied, and after Emperor Xiaoming executed Yuanyi [yì], the king of Qinghe who had an affair with Empress Hu, Empress Hu became more and more dissatisfied with her son, and the rift between mother and son became more and more difficult to bridge.
In order to gain real power, Emperor Xiaoming of Wei secretly ordered his father-in-law, Erzhu Rong, to march into Luoyang to coerce the empress dowager into returning to power. Erzhu Rong was originally a Hu chieftain, and his father was the Duke of Liang County, who rose up due to the suppression of the rebellion of the border people in the six towns and became a general of the fang army. Emperor Ming of Wei's proposal was discovered by Empress Dowager Hu, and he joined forces with his close subjects to begin the layout.
On February 12, 528 (the seventh day of the first lunar month of the fourth year of the spring of the fourth year of the Reign of Emperor Xiaoming of Northern Wei), Emperor Xiaoming of Wei's only daughter was born. However, Empress Dowager Hu announced that she had given birth to a crown prince, and the next day (the eighth day of the first lunar month, that is, February 13), she issued an edict to grant amnesty to the world and change the name to Yuan Wutai. In this way, he diverted his attention and plotted to get rid of Emperor Xiaoming.
On March 31, 528 (Emperor Xiaoming of Northern Wei, Emperor Wu Tai of the First Year of the Reign of Emperor Wu Tai), Empress Dowager Hu sent her favorite zhongshu ling Zheng Yu [yǎn] to the Xianyang Temple with Xu Qi [hé] of the Zhongshu Sheren to poison emperor Yuan Of Wei.
Emperor Xiaoming died suddenly, deposing the Second Emperor within a day, the world was shocked, Erzhu Rong became suspicious, and marched into Luoyang. When Empress Dowager Hu learned the news, she mobilized her army to fight Erzhu Rong in a decisive battle, but was defeated by Erzhu Rong, and the defender of the river bridge in the northeast of Luoyang surrendered Erzhu Rong, and the capital was no danger to defend, and the soldiers were scattered. Empress Dowager Hu saw that the situation was gone, and ordered the harem concubines to go to the Yongning Temple with her to become a nun.
On May 15, 528, Erzhu Rong successfully entered Luoyang and captured Empress Hu and Emperor You. Later, he established Emperor Xiaowen of Wei as the nephew of Emperor Yuanhong, and the Prince of Changle,yōu (元子佑) as emperor, and changed his era name to "Jianyi".
On May 17 (Gengzi in the first year of Jianyi), Erzhu Rong sent Empress Dowager Hu and the young emperor Yuanzhao to Heyin and drowned in the Yellow River. The next day, In the name of offering sacrifices to the heavens, Erzhu Rong gathered the Northern Wei imperial family relatives and courtiers in Heyin (present-day Mengjin County, Henan Province), surrounded them with 2,000 iron horses, flew arrows, and slaughtered them all. After that, Erzhu Rong garrisoned the Yongning Temple in Luoyang, taking charge of the imperial government, and a large number of military generals entered the imperial hall to fill the power vacuum.
On November 1, 530 (25 September of the third year of Yong'an), Emperor Xiaozhuang of Northern Wei captured and killed Erzhu Rong at the Mingguang Temple, and Erzhu Rong's nephew Erzhu Zhaoyou sent an army to Luoyang to kill Emperor Xiaozhuang, after which the Erzhu Rong family was defeated by Gao Huan. Eventually, the government fell into the hands of Gao Huan and Yuwen Tai, and then split into Northern Qi and Northern Zhou.
The Northern Wei court originally had a system of "the death of the son and the noble mother", which meant that if a son was made a crown prince, his birth mother would be executed regardless of whether he was noble or lowly, in order to prevent the emergence of a situation in which the child was young and the mother was strong, and the foreign relatives had exclusive power. When it was transmitted to Emperor Xuanwu of northern Wei, Yuan Ke, because of his belief in Buddhism, he abolished this system, but he did not expect that Empress Hu, who survived because of it, became the bell ringer of Northern Wei, indirectly leading to the demise of Northern Wei.