Speaking of famous generals during the Southern and Northern Dynasties, Chen Qingzhi should be a person that everyone will generally mention. There is a nursery rhyme that says it well: "The famous master and general Mo Zi are imprisoned, and thousands of soldiers and horses avoid white robes", which is exactly Chen Qingzhi. Even so, in the popular TV series "Langya List" in the past few years, many people think that the protagonist Mei Changsu in it is based on this Chen Qingzhi.
In the eyes of many people, Chen Qingzhi's record can be said to be unprecedented in Chinese history. Because, he led seven thousand white-robed troops to the Northern Expedition, defeated several times or even dozens of times the enemy army in succession, and not only successfully recaptured Luoyang City, but also created an immortal legend that even the thirty-two cities of northern Wei and forty-seven battles were invincible. Finally, if it were not for the Northern Wei puppet emperor Yuan Hao's obstruction, coupled with the flash flood, Chen Qingzhi's Northern Expedition would have been brilliant again.
So, is the historical Chen Qingzhi really so powerful?
If we look at the results of Chen Qingzhi's 7,000-white-robed Northern Expedition alone, he is indeed an unprecedented, at least in the Southern and Northern Dynasties, he is definitely the first person in the military. Then, since Chen Qingzhi was so powerful that he could sweep through the Central Plains with 7,000 men, if Emperor Wu of Liang gave him 70,000 troops, wouldn't he be able to cross the Yellow River and attack Chang'an and Yecheng in one go? The question is, Chen Qingzhi still lived for more than ten years after the Northern Expedition, why didn't he do this?
Moreover, after this Northern Expedition, Chen Qingzhi not only failed to reproduce such brilliant achievements, but after northern Wei split into Eastern Wei and Western Wei, Chen Qingzhi led tens of thousands of troops to attack Eastern Wei, and as a result, he was defeated twice by Shi Yaoxiong, the assassin of Eastern Wei Yuzhou. In the face of such a result, many people say that it was because of emperor Liangwu's fainting in his later years; or Chen Qingzhi was deeply hit by the failure of the last Northern Expedition and has been devastated ever since.
There is some truth to similar claims, but in my opinion, the reason why Chen Qingzhi's myth cannot be sustained is that the brilliant achievements of Chen Qingzhi's Northern Expedition at the beginning are themselves myths after being processed by art. In a sense, Chen Qingzhi's victory was based on certain objective conditions, far less brilliant than everyone imagined.
Next, I will give you a detailed analysis of the real battle situation behind the myth of Chen Qingzhi.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > Who is Chen Qingzhi? </h1>
Chen Qingzhi (陈庆之), courtesy name Ziyun, was a native of Guoshan, Yixing (present-day Yixing, Jiangsu Province).
Regarding Chen Qingzhi's origin, the history books do not clearly record, and most of the posterity speculates through the content written by Emperor Xiao Yan of Liangwu in his edict praising him, "This is not a general, nor a hao family", chen Qingzhi should belong to the children of the Hanmen, and it is very likely that he is the son of a Shu scholar or a minor official.
According to historical records, in 502 AD, Xiao Yan ascended the throne and established the Southern Dynasty Liang regime for Emperor Wu of Liang. Chen Qingzhi followed Xiao Yan as an entourage since childhood, so after Xiao Yan ascended to the throne, he was appointed as the chief secretary, that is, the official responsible for managing the imperial court documents, and Chen Qingzhi was 18 years old. Since then, for nearly 20 years, Chen Qingzhi has been mainly civilian.
It was not until the first month of 525 AD, due to the unsuccessful rebellion of the Northern Wei Xuzhou Assassin Shi Yuanfa monk, surrendered to Southern Liang at Pengcheng, and asked Emperor Wu of Liang to send troops to respond, at this time Chen Qingzhi took the initiative to ask for help, and Emperor Liangwu appointed him as a general of Wuwei, and let him and Hu Longya, Cheng Jingjun and others lead the Liang army to meet him, so Chen Qingzhi officially changed from civilian to military and began his military career. This year, Chen Qingzhi was 41 years old.
It is said that Chen Qingzhi was physically weak, difficult to open ordinary bows and crossbows, not good at riding horses and archery, and had never had experience in leading troops on expeditions before, but this expedition, he successfully completed the task, and later when the Northern Wei army counterattacked Pengcheng, in the context of liang's defeat to the Wei army and 78 out of 10 losses, Chen Qingzhi brought back all the troops under his command.
Two years later, Chen Qingzhi took advantage of the great chaos in Northern Wei to lead a large army to recover the entire Huainan region in one fell swoop, and on this basis, he also crossed the Huai River and recovered the vast Huaibei region. Chen Qingzhi's achievements in battle also made him a well-deserved excellent general in the history of the Southern Dynasty. In this sense, Chen Qingzhi is indeed a rare military genius.
Then, in 529 AD, Chen Qingzhi began to lead the Northern Expedition, and his "myth" began.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > background analysis of Chen Qing's Northern Expedition:</h1>
Speaking of Chen Qing's Northern Expedition, we have to mention Erzhu Rong, a gravedigger of the Northern Wei Empire.
Erzhu Rong was originally a Chehu chieftain of Northern Xiurong (北秀容; present-day northern Shuo County, Shanxi), who later coincided with the Rebellion of the Northern Wei Empire's Northern Six Towns. Against the background of this chaos, Erzhu Rong, on the one hand, openly invited rebellion, and on the other hand, he expanded his sphere of influence in the name of protecting the border and protecting the people.
In this context, Erzhu Rong not only succeeded in occupying The Prefecture, but also brought under his command the rebel forces of the Six Towns (represented by Gao Huan), the forces of the Northern Wei government (represented by the He Basheng brothers), and the minority forces in the north (represented by Huo Lujin). So by the end of the Six Towns Rebellion, Erzhu Rong had become the most influential force in the Northern Wei Empire.
At this time, another fire broke out in the upper echelons of the Northern Wei Empire, because the northern Wei minor emperor Yuan Xue (Wei Xiaoming Emperor) and the empress dowager Hu Shi were fighting for power, and there was a lot of trouble. In the end, Empress Dowager Hu was furious and sent someone to poison the little emperor to death. Erzhu Rong saw that the opportunity to enter Luoyang came, so in 528 AD, he led a large army into Luoyang Under the banner of tracking down the cause of the little emperor's death.
After entering Luoyang, Erzhu Rong first proclaimed Yuan Ziyou the Prince of Changle as emperor, that is, Emperor Xiaozhuang of Wei, and then he slaughtered more than 2,000 princes and nobles and door valve officials in Luoyang led by Empress Hu, known in history as the "Change of Heyin". After this incident, the Northern Wei Empire also existed in name only. Seeing that the Northern Wei Empire was in civil strife and the clan was slaughtered, the Northern Wei imperial family Yuan Hao, in order to protect himself, resolutely fled south to the Liang Dynasty with his sons and cronies, and asked the Liang Dynasty to send troops to help him restore the country and become emperor.
At that time, Emperor Wu of Liang also wanted to take advantage of the civil strife in the Northern Wei Empire to take advantage of the fire and robbery, and waited for an opportunity to establish a Northern Wei government controlled by the Liang Dynasty or pro-Liang, so he gladly agreed to Yuan Hao's request, and also crowned him as the King of Wei, and took Chen Qingzhi as a false festival and a general of The Yong Dynasty, and led 7,000 armored soldiers to escort Yuan Haobei back to the country. As a result, Chen Qingzhi embarked on his Northern Expedition.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > analysis of the brilliant achievements of Chen Qingzhi's Northern Expedition:</h1>
Speaking of the brilliant achievements of Chen Qingzhi's Northern Expedition, everyone will repeatedly emphasize three things:
First, Chen Qingzhi's total strength in the Northern Expedition was only 7,000 people, and this kind of troop allocation can be said to be pitifully small; second, although Chen Qingzhi's troops were small, he defeated tens of thousands and hundreds of thousands of Northern Wei troops successively, and swept through the Central Plains with thirty-two cities of Northern Wei; third, Chen Qingzhi finally directly attacked Luoyang, the capital of the Northern Wei Empire.
In a sense, if you talk about these three things separately, naturally it doesn't feel so great. Because, similar behavior, many people have done. The problem is that when these three things are combined, it will naturally make people feel amazing, because it is too difficult for one person to do all three things at the same time, so Chen Qingzhi's "myth" was born.
But in fact, behind the realization of these three things, it is because there are very important objective factors, but everyone habitually ignores these objective factors. So next, I will give you a detailed analysis of the story behind these three things.
First, why did Chen Qingzhi only lead a mere 7,000 people in the Northern Expedition?
In the eyes of many people, Chen Qingzhi can create an unprecedented brilliant record in the north with a team of seven thousand people, so that the entire Central Plains region can be looked down upon, then if he is given an army of seventy thousand people, he will certainly be able to create more brilliant records, and even for example, the southern and northern dynasties may be able to achieve reunification in advance.
In fact, it is precisely because of similar inferences that many people feel that Chen Qingzhi is too great. Of course, similar inferences are not wrong in theory, the question is, such an obvious thing, why did the rulers of the Liang Dynasty not think of it? So that in vain to miss such a good opportunity, wasting such a world-class famous player.
Some people say that it is mainly because Emperor Wu of Liang is too stupid, but in fact, the main reason why Emperor Wu of Liang let Chen Qingzhi lead 7,000 people to the north, instead of leading 70,000 people to the north, is that if the Southern Dynasty sends out so many troops, Chen Qingzhi will definitely not be able to gain a foothold in the north.
Because, at that time, Emperor Wu of Liang asked Chen Qingzhi to lead a 7,000-man Northern Expedition, and those military and political leaders in the Northern Wei Empire would not panic because of this. Because, with Chen Qingzhi's seven-thousand-strong troops, it was obviously impossible for him to occupy the entire Central Plains and even the north, which meant that Chen Qingzhi would not threaten the fundamental interests of these northern military and political leaders.
In this context, these military and political leaders in the north will naturally not regard Chen Qingzhi as their most important threat, still less will they fight a decisive battle with Chen Qingzhi with all their might, at least they will not regard this as the most important thing at present. Because, at a time when the Northern Wei Empire was in civil strife, everyone was busy taking the opportunity to expand their territory and strengthen their own strength, who would be foolish to go and consume strength with Chen Qingzhi first?
More importantly, because Chen Qingzhi's Northern Expeditionary Army was only 7,000 people, and his banner was to support the Northern Wei imperial family Yuan Hao's restoration, so that those old forces that were still loyal to Northern Wei were easier to cooperate with Chen Qingzhi's Northern Expeditionary Army.
Because with Chen Qingzhi's seven thousand people, the strategic goals that could be achieved were very limited, so that the old forces of the Northern Wei Dynasty would have more confidence when cooperating with Chen Qingzhi. On the one hand, their cooperation with Chen Qingzhi allowed Chen Qingzhi to act as their own thug, on the other hand, they did not have to worry about being controlled by Chen Qingzhi in the process of cooperation and becoming a vassal and puppet of the Liang Dynasty.
On the contrary, if Emperor Wu of Liang had asked Chen Qingzhi to lead the Northern Expedition of 70,000 people, these military and political leaders in the north would obviously not have dared to be so indifferent. Because Chen Qingzhi had such a powerful military force, this would make them very insecure, because it meant that Chen Qingzhi had the strength to directly destroy them, and in this context, they naturally had to fight Chen Qingzhi with all their might, at least as the most urgent thing.
At the same time, those old forces loyal to northern Wei did not dare to cooperate with Chen Qingzhi easily. Because, cooperating with such a powerful force is tantamount to conspiring with a tiger, and one who is not careful will be controlled and reduced to a puppet of others. Moreover, Chen Qingzhi led so many armies in the Northern Expedition, which would make everyone generally feel that the Liang Dynasty showed that it was helping Yuan Hao to restore the country, but in fact wanted to take the opportunity to annex the Central Plains.
In this context, if the old forces of the Northern Wei Dynasty cooperated with Chen Qingzhi, they would easily be cloaked in the name of "traitors" and resisted by other forces in the north. In this way, Chen Qingzhi's Northern Expeditionary Army would become a standard lone army, and then not to mention the battle, that is, the logistical pressure alone would be enough to make this lone army fail.
In this sense, don't look at Chen Qingzhi who can only lead 7,000 people to run rampant in the Central Plains, if he really leads 70,000 troops deep into the Central Plains, although his army is large, it is obviously impossible to open up the situation in the Central Plains as easily as before. Because such a huge southern army enters the north, it will naturally cause the common exclusion of the entire northern interest group.
Therefore, letting Chen Qingzhi lead the Northern Expedition of 7,000 people was by no means a manifestation of the stupidity of Emperor Wu of Liang, but a more practical decision made by the top brass of the Liang Empire after detailed analysis and weighing the pros and cons. Because the number of seven thousand people is not big, it is not small, on the one hand, he can make the northern interest groups accept, on the other hand, it is similar to the formation of a division, enough to ensure that it forms an independent combat capability on a specific battlefield.
Second, with seven thousand white-robed troops, why could Chen Qingzhi defeat the Northern Wei army that was several times or even dozens of times larger than himself?
In the course of Chen Qingzhi's Northern Expedition, he repeatedly won more with less. For example, in the Battle of Suiyang, Chen Qingzhi defeated the 70,000-strong army of the Wei general Qiu Daqian with a main force of 7,000; at the Battle of Kaocheng, he completely annihilated Yuan Hui's 20,000 troops, and finally in the Battle of Xingyang, facing more than 300,000 troops of Northern Wei, Chen Qingzhi once again won a total victory with fewer victories and more.
These victories achieved by Chen Qingzhi were naturally inseparable from his extraordinary courage and military ability. But the more important reason is that he has such a trump card as Yuan Hao in his hand, so that he can defuse the enemy through political means. Losing this background, in a specific battle, leading an army of seven thousand people with cold weapons such as swords and spears to attack 300,000 enemy troops who also held swords and spears in a frontal attack, even if Chen Qingzhi dared to do so, his men would be frightened.
Therefore, the more real situation is that although Erzhu Rong controlled the power of the Northern Wei Empire at that time and slaughtered all the officials in Luoyang City, the problem was that the old forces of the Northern Wei Empire (military and political officials at all levels, representatives of the rich and nobles) were still scattered in millions of square kilometers of land in the Northern Wei Empire. Such an interest group with many military, political, and economic resources is still the most important interest group in the empire.
It is also because the old forces of the Northern Wei Dynasty are too powerful, so Erzhu Rong will not be able to really digest it for a while and a half, which led to the Northern Wei government at that time, which was actually a government similar to "one superpower and many strong", and its internal struggle was very serious. In this process, many powerful factions and careerists will inevitably be foolish and want to stir up the situation and take advantage of the situation to expand their power.
It was precisely at this time that Chen Qingzhi and the Northern Wei imperial family Yuan Hao led an army into the Central Plains, still under the banner of restoration, so these powerful factions and careerists themselves began to fight between Yuan Hao and the Northern Wei government. In this context, although the Northern Wei Dynasty had an army of 300,000, its essence was a ragtag group. Because most of these military and political leaders are pregnant with ghosts, they prefer that the situation can become more chaotic and that they will fish in muddy waters.
Therefore, they would not go all out to fight Chen Qingzhi at all, but as far as possible to preserve their strength, and even at the critical moment, they would choose to betray the Northern Wei government, so usually, Chen Qingzhi only needed to achieve a partial military victory, and Yuan Hao could disintegrate the Northern Wei army through political means, and even let these people turn to his banner.
In fact, the army that was willing to hang up the banner of Yuan Hao later had reached more than 100,000 people. As long as we know this, we can naturally understand why Chen Qingzhi can win more with less again and again.
Third, why was Chen Qingzhi able to invade Luoyang, the capital of Northern Wei?
Because Luoyang City was the capital of the Northern Wei Empire, many of us always felt that Chen Qingzhi's recovery of Luoyang City was a very remarkable thing. But in fact, as long as we have some understanding of the history of the two Jin Dynasties and the Southern and Northern Dynasties, we will know that occupying Luoyang City is really not a particularly difficult thing.
As we all know, Luoyang City is located in the center of the world, it can touch Hebei to the north, jingzhou to the south, Guanzhong to the west, and Xuzhou to the east, so after the reunification of the world, sit in Luoyang, that is, the legendary balance of the world, referring to which to fight.
The problem is that when the day is in chaos, Luoyang will become a chicken rib. Because you can touch the four sides here, the enemy of the four sides can also attack you at any time, so sitting in Luoyang is easy to fall into the dilemma of fighting on all sides. Therefore, in the chaotic world, Luoyang has never been a strategic place, and it will not be difficult for a military and political group to enter such a place, because no powerful faction will go all out to compete for such a place.
On this point, we can see from the military and political status of Luoyang City after the fall of the Western Jin Dynasty, which has not been comparable to Chang'an and Yecheng. Even in many cases, Luoyang City is just a symbolic city and does not have much practical value. It was not until later, after the Northern Wei Unified the Whole North and entered its heyday, that the Northern Wei moved its capital to Luoyang, at which time the military and political status of Luoyang City was raised again.
However, with the collapse of the Northern Wei Empire and the beginning of chaos in the entire north, the military and political status of Luoyang City declined again, becoming a guerrilla zone and a buffer zone. Therefore, at that time, whether it was Erzhu Rong or later Gao Huan and Yuwen Tai, none of them despised to sit in Luoyang City personally.
In this context, when Chen Qingzhi and Yuan Hao's Northern Expeditionary Army reached Luoyang, the Northern Wei government, headed by Erzhu Rong, naturally would not go all out to compete with them for the city of Luoyang. Because, basing oneself in such an area to fight a strong enemy, one will only put oneself in passivity. What's more, at this time, the main military force of Northern Wei was under the leadership of Erzhu Rong and Yuan Tianmu, suppressing the rebellion in Hebei and Shandong, and they would not compete with Chen Qingzhi for Luoyang.
Because, losing Luoyang City, Erzhu Rong is still Erzhu Rong, still the biggest power faction in the north, but if Hebei and Shandong regions are lost, Then Erzhu Rong is not far from extinction. As long as we know this, we should be able to understand that Chen Qingzhi's recovery of Luoyang is not as difficult and remarkable as everyone thinks.
Of course, it was precisely for similar reasons that when Erzhu Rong put down the rebellion in Hebei and Shandong and led the main northern Wei military force back to the Central Plains, Chen Qingzhi and Yuan Hao used Luoyang as a defense, and were soon completely destroyed, and finally Yuan Hao's army was defeated and killed, and Chen Qingzhi fled back to Jiangnan alone.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > summary</h1>
In fact, Chen Qingzhi's Northern Expedition was not fundamentally different from the Northern Expedition of the Eastern Jin Empire and the Liu Song Empire before it. The goals of their Northern Expedition were all to try to take advantage of the chaos in the north to try to control the area south of the Yellow River. However, the Eastern Jin Empire and the Liu Song Empire were more confident in their own strength, so the strategic goal of their Northern Expedition was to try to occupy this area themselves. Of course, they failed in the end.
As for the Xiao Liang Empire, they were obviously not confident enough in their own strength, and they believed that they did not have the ability to directly occupy the area south of the Yellow River, so they had to use the power of the Northern Wei imperial family Yuan Hao to try to indirectly control the area by helping him restore the country and establish a pro-Liang government in the north.
In this sense, the protagonist of Chen Qingzhi's Northern Expedition was Yuan Hao, not Chen Qingzhi. Of course, it is precisely because of this that the failure of Chen Qingzhi's Northern Expedition is also inevitable, because based on Yuan Hao's interests, after he became emperor, he naturally wanted to become a real Emperor of Northern Wei, rather than being a puppet of the Southern Dynasty. If this is the case, how can the cooperation between Chen Qingzhi and Yuan Hao be stable?
In fact, the dilemma of Chen Qingzhi's Northern Expedition lies in the fact that the key to the success of his Northern Expedition lies mainly in Yuan Hao. If there were enough old Northern Wei forces supporting Yuan Hao, the Northern Expedition could smoothly open up the situation. On the contrary, it will be difficult for them to gain a foothold in the north.
The problem was that if there were enough old Northern Wei forces supporting Yuan Hao, then Yuan Hao would no longer be able to let Chen Qingzhi control him, and would even properly draw a line with Chen Qingzhi or control him, because these old Northern Wei forces would obviously not accept becoming puppets of the Southern Dynasty. In this context, the contradiction between Chen Qingzhi and Yuan Hao will naturally become bigger and bigger, and at this time, when they face the Erzhu Rong Group, what are the chances of winning? So in the end they also failed.
References: Book of Wei, Book of Liang