552 AD
Hou Jing's Death: The Price of Starving the Emperor
In April 552, the Liang Dynasty generals Wang Shengxuan and Chen Baxian combined to conquer Jiankang and quell Hou Jing's rebellion. Hou Jing was killed by his entourage while on the run.
Hou Jing's rebellion in 548 had two consequences: first, Emperor Wu of Liang was starved to death; second, the capital Jiankang and the economic center of Sanwu were greatly damaged. Wang Sheng, the governor of the Liang army, was ordered by Xiao Xuan, the seventh prince, to raise an army against Hou Jing. Chen Baxian was another warlord force against Hou Jing, and his superior was Shi Xiaobo, the assassin of Guangzhou.
When Hou Jing's rebellion broke out, Emperor Wu of Liang, who was trapped in Jiankang, urgently summoned Xiao Bo to send troops to quell the rebellion. However, although Xiao Bo was an imperial relative of the Liang Dynasty, he did not have a good feeling for Emperor Wu of Liang. Not only did he not send troops himself, but he also obstructed his subordinate Chen Baxian, planning to take advantage of the chaos after the chaos in the world. But Chen Baxian also had his own considerations: instead of obeying Xiao Bo's orders, it was better to take advantage of the chaos to rise. So he led his troops north to qinwang. The two forces went straight to Hou Jing.
At that time, Because Wang Shengquan was in the Central Plains, he first sent troops to attack Hou Jing. Who knew that the troops had not yet been mobilized, and the commander Wang Shengquan clashed with Xiao Xuan. Xiao Xuan was in a hurry to send troops, but Wang Sheng argued that the army's men and horses had not been assembled and could not rush out, so the two sides were on top. The stalemate was fruitless, and Xiao Xuan was furious, slashed Wang Shengjian, and sent him to the great prison, and chose another general Bao Quan to attack Changsha.
Although Bao Quan achieved several successes in the early stages, he did not expect the other side to pull reinforcements, and Bao Quan suddenly fell into trouble. Xiao Xuan had no choice but to release Wang Shengyi again. Wang Shengdi was worthy of being the first capable person under Xiao Xuan, and he began to send troops to deploy troops as soon as Changsha, and then led his troops into the city and won the victory.
Hou Jing found that the situation was not right, and immediately sent his own direct troops to prepare to take Wang Shengjie. Hou Jing sent a water army of 200,000 people, and the military flags were linked up for thousands of miles, which was the largest number of troops in the Jiangzuo water battle since ancient times. Hou Jing's army rushed straight towards Baling, but was repelled by the large army commanded by Wang Shengquan by means of fire arrays and long fences and ships. In this way, Wang Shengquan led the army to confront Hou Jingjun in Tunju Baling to calm the brakes, and finally even the general Ren Yue on Hou Jing's side was captured by Wang Shengquan, which frustrated Hou Jingjun's vigor.
Chen Baxian's side, on the other hand, sent troops from Nankang down the river to capture Xichang. From Jiangxi to Jiangnan, Chen Baxian's army was like a bamboo, and the fierce Qianghu elite encountered the more fierce Guangdong soldiers, and they were defeated several times, and 30,000 elite soldiers sailed eastward, and met With Wang Sheng's troops, they met Xichang.
Therefore, Chen and Wang made an alliance of blood and vowed to kill Hou Jing. At this time, it was 551, and it was also the turning point of Hou Jing's rise and fall, from rise to fall. In February of the following year, Wang and Chen Baxian joined forces and marched east to Guyi (present-day Dangtu County, Ma'anshan, Anhui). In the face of the two major coalition forces, Hou Jing's side was not inactive. He saw the coalition forces rushing towards Jiankang, and on the one hand, he directly killed the puppet emperor Xiao Gang and established himself as emperor, in an attempt to weaken the morale of the Liang army. On the other hand, he sent his son Hou Zijian to lead more than 10,000 infantry and cavalry across the water island and challenge the combined forces of King Chen on the shore.
Chen Baxian led his troops to attack the troops on the north shore, while Wang Shengquan commanded the small boats to retreat, leaving only the large ships moored on both sides of the strait. Hou Zijian mistakenly thought that the other party had retreated and rushed to catch up. Wang Shengquan took advantage of the opportunity to command the large ship to take advantage of the situation to cut off Hou Zijian's retreat and attack from both sides. Land and water were defeated, and Hou Jing's soldiers fell into the water thousands of people, leaving Hou Zijian alone to flee back to Jiankang. When Hou Jing heard the news of the defeat of the soldiers, he was shocked, pulled the quilt to lie down, and it took a long time before he got up and scolded Hou Zijian. Then Wang Shengquan and Chen Baxian's army took advantage of the victory to pursue, and fought with Hou Jing in the north of Jiankang City. The coalition troops divided into two routes and sent 2,000 crossbows to attack Stone City, and then fell. Hou Jing abandoned the crowd and fled, and was later killed by his subordinates, and Hou Jing's rebellion subsided.
Conclusion: The social economy of the Jiangnan region was devastated by the Hou Jing Rebellion, and hou Jing's death aggravated the situation of the weak south and the strong north. After Hou Jing's rebellion, Chen Baxian, who was born in the cold gate of Jiangnan, took advantage of the situation.
How tragic is Hou Jing's fate? The bones were gone, and 5 sons were boiled alive
554 AD
The Western Wei dynasty gave the nobleman Xianbei surname: based on Guanzhong
In 554, The Western Wei chancellor Yuwen Tai issued an edict under the banner of the puppet emperor Wei Gong Emperor Yuankuo, ordering all meritorious generals to change their Han surnames to Xianbei surnames.
Yuwentai was based on a distant tribal system. Legend has it that the strongest Xianbei tribe in the tribal era was composed of thirty-six tribes with large surnames and ninety-nine tribes with small surnames, and the surname formulated by Yuwen Tai was derived from this.
Yuwen Tai's purpose in giving the surname was simple— to gather the fighting forces and twist the Han and Xianbei soldiers into a rope. After the occupation of Guanzhong, with the conquest of the year, Yuwen Tai's army sources became more and more complex, in addition to the Wuchuan Xianbei soldiers from the six towns, there were also the Sinicized Northern Wei forbidden army from Luoyang and the newly defected Han powerful men and horses. The Six Towns Xianbei were yuwen tai's initial troops, and the cohesion was stronger, but the forbidden army from Luoyang was different from the Han Haoqiang. The Luoyang Forbidden Army entered Guanzhong from the end of the Northern Wei Dynasty, and most of them were Xianbei tribes, but their greatest wish was to return to their hometown in Luoyang.
Many years ago, Emperor Xiaowu of Northern Wei, Yuan Ziyou, was pursued by Gao Huan's troops and fled from Luoyang to Guanzhong. Yuwen Tai went to greet him, and Emperor Xiaowu took his hand and said, I didn't expect Ai Qing to be so loyal, and it is all your credit to be able to return to Luoyang in the future. When the emperor said this, his generals missed home and cried incessantly. Yuwen Tai said that His Majesty was assured that he would be able to return.
However, as the war situation changed, Luoyang fell into the hands of Northern Qi, and it became a fool's dream to want to return to Luoyang. The wish of the generals of the Forbidden Army in Luoyang to miss their hometown could not be satisfied, and Yuwen Tai simply asked them to change the Han surname they took during Emperor Xiaowen's reform back to the Xianbei surname, telling them that you were originally Xianbei people, luoyang is just a temporary settlement, and it is good to do with it, don't go back.
The opinion of the Han people is also very obvious, the Han people changed the Xianbei surname, is this not a betrayal of the ancestors? For example, Li Yuan's grandfather, Li Hu, one of the Eight Pillar States, was changed his surname to Daye and became The Great Wild Tiger; Yang Zhong, one of the twelve generals, was the father of Yang Jian, the later Sui Wen Emperor, who was given the surname puliuru and became Puliu Ruzhong.
It is not simple to change them to a humble surname, so while Yuwen Tai gave them a surname, he also gave them an official and a knighthood, and gave them a big reward. This satisfies the psychological state of the Han people Guangzong Yaozu, who can make a lot of money as a high official and change his surname - the job needs!
Although Yuwen Tai's army came from a wide range of sources, the most important component was the Wuchuan Army, one of the six towns of Northern Wei. Most of them were Xianbei people, and many of them were members of the Tuoba clan of the Former Northern Wei Imperial Family. However, after Emperor Xiaowen carried out Sinicization reforms and moved the capital to Luoyang, the soldiers on the border were far away from the political core and their status quickly declined.
In the last years of the Northern Wei Dynasty, the imperial court reformed the method of electing officials, but all officials of higher rank and important position were not allowed to fill the posts of military generals, and military personnel from northern border towns were deliberately excluded. Thousands of soldiers who came from the six towns to serve as a forbidden army in luoyang heard the news and ran to the home of Zhang Zhongli, a Han official who proposed the plan, to kill people and set fire to him, although Zhang Zhongli escaped death, his brother was thrown into the fire and burned alive, and his father was also beaten to the point where he had only one breath left, and died the next day.
Therefore, sinicization among the Xianbei soldiers will not work at all. Yuwen Tai could only choose to respect the cultural orientation of the Xianbei soldiers and change the Han surname to Xianbei instead of changing the Xianbei surname to the Han surname.
In addition to the uniformity of the generals' surnames, Yuwen Tai also ordered the soldiers under each general to change to the surname of the main general along with the main general. The method of changing the soldier's name is actually a simulation of the humble situation in the tribal era. Because in the tribal era, the surnames of members within the same clan are basically related. Yuwen Tai hoped that the generals, with soldiers with the same surname as him, could unite inside and outside the battlefield like a family.
After Yuwen Tai's surname reform, all the generals became the same humble surname, and the ethnic differences between the Hu and Han generals were quietly erased. And the surnames between the general and the soldier, between the soldier and the soldier, became the same, as if they were father and son brothers, became a family, and quickly narrowed the distance between them.
Conclusion: Yuwen Tai's measure of giving soldiers a humble surname was a backlash from Emperor Xiaowen's Sinicization reforms, but this measure enhanced the combat effectiveness of the Yuwentai regime and laid the military foundation for the founding of the Northern Zhou Dynasty. The Xianbei surname used by the Han generals of the Guanzhong regime objectively enhanced the contacts and exchanges between the Xianbei and Han ethnic groups. During the Sui and Tang dynasties, as the integration of the Xianbei and various ethnic groups accelerated, the Xianbei eventually disappeared.
Emperor Yuan of Liang was killed: behind the collapse of the empire
In 554, Western Wei broke through Jiangling, the Liangyuan Emperor Xiao Xuan was killed, and the Liang Dynasty collapsed.
When did the Liang Dynasty decline? Some people believe that the rebellion of Hou Jing during the reign of Emperor Wu of Liang led to the decline of the Liang Dynasty, but more people believe that the final collapse of the Liang Dynasty was that Emperor Liang Yuan led the wolf into the house and invited Western Wei to participate in the civil war of the Liang Dynasty, resulting in the loss of the land of Bashu, and Emperor Liang Yuan himself died at the hands of Western Wei.
As the emperor of the Liang Dynasty, why did Xiao Xuan borrow troops from Western Wei? Xiao Xuan was the seventh prince of Emperor Wu of Liang, and the position of crown prince had already been someone else, and he was originally not related to the throne. However, during the reign of Emperor Wu of Liang, the general Hou Jing rebelled and starved Emperor Wu to death. Hou Jing then took control of the imperial government, made xiao Gang the third prince a puppet emperor, and raised an army to invade Jiangnan. Among the three princes who had the ability to suppress the rebellion at that time, the seventh prince Xiao Xuan had the strongest ability and the fastest attack. He sent the general Wang Shengquan to join forces with Chen Baxian, who had traveled north from Guangzhou, to quell Hou Jing's rebellion, and eventually ascended the throne as emperor, with the capital at Jiangling.
The disaster was calmed down, Xiao Xuan sat firmly on the throne, and why was he later eliminated by Western Wei? This means that Xiao Xuan's own death. Xiao Xuan's emperor chair was not yet hot, and Xiao Ji, the eighth brother who had always had a bad relationship with him, was proclaimed emperor in Yizhou. Xiao Ji originally wanted to take advantage of Hou Jing's chaos to claim the title of emperor, but he did not want to be taken by his brother and had always held a grudge. Even after Xiao Xuan ascended the throne, he also blatantly opposed Xiao Xuan's rule, and even directly sent troops from Yizhou to fight against Xiao Xuan, completely opening the prelude to fratricide.
There are no two days in the sky, and there is no two masters in the people. Xiao Xuan, who was already the Emperor of Liang Yuan at that time, naturally wanted to send troops to quell the chaos. But he was very jealous of his brother. Xiao Ji's Bashu army did not lose to his own Xiangdong army, and he and Hou Jinggang had just gone through a big battle, and their strength was slightly insufficient. So Xiao Yi made an extremely wrong decision--he wrote to Western Wei to ask Western Wei to send troops to help quell the rebellion. At this time, Yuwen Tai, a powerful minister of Western Wei, had always been eyeing liang dynasty and shu. Now that xiao Ji, who was guarding Sichuan, had left to beat his brother Xiao Xuan, the emptiness of Shudi just happened to take advantage of the void. Therefore, after receiving a letter of help from Emperor Yuan of Liang, Yuwen Tai was overjoyed and quickly agreed to send troops to attack Xiao Ji's old lair.
On the side of Liang Dynasty, Xiao Xuan naively thought that Western Wei had come to help him, so he also actively took action and negotiated with Xiao Ji's main force in the east. Xiao Ji was panicked at this time, he led his army to fight Xiao Xuan in the east, but the base camp in the rear was turned upside down by Western Wei, and he could not take care of each other.
In 553, Xiao Ji was defeated and killed by Xiao Yi. After killing Xiao Ji, Xiao Xuan was preparing to reap the fruits of victory. Unexpectedly, he ushered in his own death. After the end of the war, Zhen Shoutongguan's assassin Shi surrendered to Western Wei, and Western Wei successfully captured Chengdu, and then occupied the entire Shu land. Here Xiao Xuan looked at it, Western Wei did help Liang Chao a lot, but after laying the Shu land, he did not leave, this is not a good deal. Xiao Xuan pondered and wrote a letter to Western Wei Yuwen Tai, asking western Wei to return the encroached land in accordance with the border between the two countries before the restoration of Hou Jing's rebellion.
Heaven knows what Xiao Xuan thought, he used extremely arrogant words in the letter, which immediately angered Yuwen Tai. Yuwen Tai was worried that there was no excuse to do Xiao Xuan, so he took the opportunity to send himself to the door, saying that Xiao Xuan was disrespectful to Western Wei. Immediately after that, the army suppressed the territory and decided to set up another Liang Dynasty Xiangyang to assassinate Shi Xiaojing as emperor, so that the Liang Dynasty truly became a vassal state of Western Wei.
On Yuwen Tai's side, 50,000 infantry cavalry regiments such as the great general Yu Jin of the Pillar State, the hussar general Yuwen Hu, and the general Yang Zhong of Zhenxi were sent to attack Jiangling in a mighty way. Of these three generals, Yu Jin's reputation was not great, but two of his deputies became famous later: Yang Zhong was the father of the later Sui Emperor Yang Jian, and Yuwen Hu later deposed the emperor twice in Northern Zhou.
When the Western Wei army was pressing the border, Emperor Yuan of Liang was lecturing to everyone in the court, and the enemy army only aroused alarm when it reached the city and sent troops to resist. The Western Wei army besieged Jiangling, and the situation of the Liang army was grim, and several generals were killed in battle. Some ministers suggested that Xiao Xuan take advantage of the night raid and flee from the waterway. However, Emperor Liang Yuandi was fat and incapacitated, and refused to flee; some people suggested that the death row prisoners in the city be released and incorporated into the army to resist, and Emperor Liang Yuan felt that the death row prisoners were unreliable, and the death row prisoners released by the King of Shang yi were about to defect, not only could not be released, but also killed them all. After repeated delays, the Western Wei army finally broke through the city gates, and the Liang Yuan Emperor Xiao Xuan died and the country was destroyed.
Conclusion: After Xiao Xuan's death, The Western Wei dynasty's power increased greatly, surpassing Northern Qi. It set the tone for the later Northern Zhou and Sui dynasties to unify China.