Stirring for four hundred years: Yuwen Tai deposed Yuan Qin plotting to go south, and Southern Liang consumed Xiao Xuan's passive actions

This article is the 625th in a long series of articles, Four Hundred Years of Turmoil

Compared with Gao Yang's southern expedition to the north, Yuwen Tai was much more stable, not only swallowing the Turks' anger, but also hitting the Southern Liang piecemeal, and only taking the shot at the right time. Moreover, he also has to deal with internal contradictions.

In November of the second year of Chengsheng (553 AD), the Western Wei Emperor and Shangshu Yuanlie plotted to launch a coup d'état and kill Yuwen Tai, but after the matter was leaked, he was killed by Yuwen Tai.

Since Yuan Lie was killed, the Western Wei puppet emperor Yuan Qin complained about Yuwen Tai and secretly wanted to execute him, but Yuanyu the King of Linhuai and Yuanzan the King of Guangping cried and repeatedly dissuaded, but Yuan Qin insisted on not listening.

At that time, Yuwen Tai's sons were still young, his nephews Yuwen Dao and Yuwen Hu were all out of town, and only a few of his sons-in-law in Chang'an City served as right-hand men, and most of the governors Li Ji of Qinghe, Li Hui, the Duke of Yicheng, and Yu Yi, the Duke of Changshan, were all appointed as generals of Wu Wei and were in charge of the palace guards.

Li Ji is the son of Li Yuan, Li Hui is the son of Li Bi, and Yu Yi is the son of Yu Jin, they have already formed a community of destiny with Yuwen Tai, and Yuan Qin's every move is under their control. Therefore, Yuan Qin's conspiracy is a fantasy after all, and it has not yet waited for the hand to implement it, and it has already been declared aborted.

In February of the third year of Chengsheng (554 AD), Yuwen Tai directly deposed Yuan Qin, sent him to Yongzhou, and established his younger brother, Yuankuo the Prince of Qi, as emperor, and the imperial family restored the Tuoba surname, and the ninety-nine surnames that were originally changed to single surnames are now restored to the old surnames. Two months later, Yuan Qin was poisoned.

When the Northern Wei Dynasty was founded, it successively unified thirty-six small states, with a total of ninety-nine surnames, and most of them later became extinct. Yuwen Tai gave the most meritorious of his generals thirty-six surnames, those with less meritorious service were given ninety-nine surnames, and the soldiers under his command also changed their surnames to the surnames of the main generals.

On March 23, Yuwen Tai sent his attendant Yuwen Renshu to southern Liang to spy on Xiao Xuan's falsehood.

It just so happened that the Northern Qi emissaries were also on an envoy to Jiangling, and Xiao Xuan was generous and deliberately snubbed Yuwen Renshu, and after Yuwen Renshu returned to China, he told Yuwen Tai about it.

Soon, Xiao Xuan asked to demarcate the border according to the old territory, and his words were quite arrogant, and Yuwen Tai sneered: "The ancients said well, the heavens have abandoned, who can rejoice, it is Xiao Xuan who is talking!" ”

ChangSun Jian, the assassin of Jingzhou, repeatedly stated the strategy of attacking the Liang Dynasty, and since Yuwen Tai had the intention of plotting against Southern Liang, he recruited ChangSun Jian into the dynasty, asked him about the plan to attack the south, and then ordered him to return to the place where the town was defended and secretly prepare for the southward attack on Liang.

After Ma Bofu, an old minister of the Liang Dynasty who had surrendered to Wei, learned of Yuwen Tai's plot, he had his heart set on his homeland and secretly sent emissaries to report the matter to Xiao Xuan, but Xiao Xuan did not think so and did not take any precautions.

In May, the Western Wei people Le Chi and the Yangzhou people Huang Guo rebelled, and Kaifu Yi, together with Sansi Tian Hong and He Ruodun, was ordered to go on a crusade, but could not break the enemy. Yuwen Tai was greatly enraged, and then ordered the general Li Qianzhe to join He Ruodun in a crusade against Le Chi and others, and finally put down the rebellion.

After quelling the rebellion, Li Qianzhe and He Ruodun continued to march south, attacking the city and plundering the land all the way to Bazhou. Shi Mu'anmin of Bazhou was forced to surrender, and the people of Bazhou and Puzhou also attached themselves to Western Wei.

Soon, the barbarian chieftain attacked the White Emperor City to the Five Sons King, Li Qianzhe sent troops to attack, fled to the Five Sons King, Li Qianzhe pursued, and broke it. Yuwen Tai then made Li Qianzhe the Assassin of Shinshu and guarded the White Emperor's City.

Xinzhou (in the area of present-day Wanzhou District, Chongqing) was remote and had no grain and grass reserves, and after Li Qianzhe arrived in office, he and the soldiers picked wild vegetables and wild fruits such as kudzu root as grain, and as long as they picked a novel taste, they were distributed to the soldiers to taste, and the soldiers were pleased and gladly used their lives.

After stabilizing his footing, Li Qianzhe attacked the rebellious barbarians many times, and won many battles, and all the barbarian tribes were deterred by his army, and they all sent grain to pay tribute and sent their sons to be hostages.

Since then, the Shinshu border has been stable, the people have been able to recuperate, and the military reserves have become abundant.

The internal contradictions had been resolved, Shinshu was on the right track, and Yuwen Tai's plan to go south was finally about to be implemented. Before that, it is necessary to understand the internal situation of Xiao Xuan.

After pacifying Xiao Ji, Xiao Xuan became the nominal co-lord of Southern Liang, but the military strength of the capital City of Jiangling was very empty, because Chen Baxian was not a concubine, xiao Xuan did not dare to completely hand over Yangzhou to him, and Wang Shengquan had to take the main force to jiankang and face the pressure of Northern Qi.

In fact, except for Wang Sheng' argument, the other forces in Southern Liang were all independent warlords, selectively obeying Xiao Xuan's orders, and also suspicious of each other and infighting.

For example, Xiao Fan, the Marquis of Wuzhou and the Marquis of Kaijian, with his own strong military strength, did not pay tribute to the imperial court at all. Dissatisfied, Xiao Xuan secretly instructed his general Xu Fo to be reckoned with.

Xu Fo sent his henchmen pretending to be people in the lawsuit to ask xiao Fan to see him, and took the opportunity to arrest Xiao Fan. Xiao Yi then made Xu Fofu the Taishou of Jian'an and the prince of Shizhong the Assassin of Wuzhou.

However, after wang qian arrived in Poyang, Xu Foshou placed him in Jincheng, occupied Luocheng himself, mastered the key to the city gate, devoted himself to repairing ships, and trained soldiers, and Wang Qian did not dare to fight with him for power.

Soon, several thousands of units that originally belonged to Xiao Fan mutinied and attacked Xu Fosheng, who fled to Southern Yu Prefecture and was killed by Hou Yao. It was only then that the hostages began to exercise state power.

Xiao Bo, the Marquis of Guangzhou and Qujiang, felt that his official position was not given by Xiao Xuan, and his heart was uneasy, and Xiao Xuan was also very uneasy about him. In order to avoid suspicion, Xiao Bo took the initiative to request a court meeting.

On May 20, Xiao Yi made Wang Lin the History of The Thorns of Guangzhou and Xiao Bo the History of the Thorns of Jinzhou. Wang Lin's army was strong and popular, and Xiao Xuan transferred him to the History of Guangzhou, with the intention of killing two birds with one stone.

As for Xiao Xuan's suspicions, Wang Lin knew it in her heart and said to her friend and master bookkeeper Li Bing: "I was born a commoner, and I was promoted by Your Majesty to get here. Now the world is undecided, but it will move me far away to Lingnan, if the situation changes and an unexpected disaster occurs, I can't do enough to help! Doesn't Your Majesty trust me? In fact, my ambitions are limited, can I still compete with His Majesty for the emperor? It is better to take me as the yongzhou assassin and guard Wuning. I will lead my troops to defend the Liang Dynasty against the enemy of the country. ”

Li Bing was deeply impressed by Wang Lin's words, but he did not dare to play Xiao Ling, and Wang Lin was so far away in Guangzhou.

At this time, The Scattered Horse Lang Yu Ji used the celestial sign to speak to Xiao Xuan: "On the sixth day of the first month of August last year, the moon offender had a star in his heart, and on the eleventh day of this month, the red qi dried up the Big Dipper. The heart is the Heavenly King, the Lord of Chudi, the subject is worried that there will be a large army attacking in the month of Jianzi, and His Majesty should leave the heavy minister to guard Jiangling, and also build a kang to avoid military trouble. If Wei Yu invaded, the lost land would be limited to Jingzhou and Xiangzhou, and the country would still be in a safe position. ”

Xiao Xuan also knew quite well about astronomy, and knew that there would be a military disaster in Chuchu, but he was reluctant to go to the old nest of Jiangling, and sighed: "The misfortunes and blessings are all in Providence, avoiding disasters and avoiding disasters, in vain!" ”

One is plotting in secret, the other is resigned to fate, and the success or failure of a thing is often not determined by how you react after something happens, but how much preparation you make when something has not yet happened.