555 AD
Chen Ba's first resistance to Northern Qi: Outside must first be inside
From 555 to 556, Northern Qi invaded the Liang Dynasty twice, but was defeated by the forces led by Chen Baxian, a major minister of the Auxiliary State of Southern Liang. Chen Baxian's resistance to Northern Qi was an important battle during the Southern and Northern Dynasties, which laid the foundation for Chen Baxian's unshakable position in the Southern Dynasty.
At that time, Northern Qi, Western Wei and Southern Liang stood on three feet. As early as the time of Emperor Yuan of Liang, Western Wei divided up a large territory of the Liang Dynasty. At that time, Northern Qi was busy changing dynasties and did not gain any benefits. By the time the Northern Qi emperor Gao Yang returned to God, Western Wei's forces were already close to catching up with them, and Northern Qi also wanted to loot benefits from the Liang Dynasty. Subsequently, Northern Qi marched south to force the Liang Dynasty to recognize the "orthodox emperor" Xiao Yuanming, and under the banner of "escort", he carried out aggressive acts.
Chen Baxian opposed the compromise with Northern Qi, killed Wang Shengzheng, an auxiliary chancellor who had already compromised with Northern Qi, deposed the newly appointed emperor Xiao Yuanming, and put Emperor Liang's son Xiao Fangzhi on the throne.
How could this Northern Qi agree? It just so happened that the northern Qi army responsible for escorting Xiao Yuanming back to China had not gone far, so it decided to fight directly. As soon as Northern Qi moved, the situation on Chen Baxian's side was more critical. Since Wang Shengquan was killed, the remnants of the army have rebelled. When Chen Baxian personally led an army to defend the Yu Party against Wang Monk, Yu and Qin Erzhou assassinated Shi Xu Sihui, surrendered to Northern Qi with a fiefdom, and secretly conspired with Yu prefecture to assassinate Shi Ren and attack Jiankang with 5,000 elite troops. Northern Qi, of course, responded positively, and in November of the same year, it sent troops to cross the river to occupy Guyi (present-day Dangtu, Anhui) to support Xu Sihui and Ren Yue, and also ordered Anzhou Assassin Shi Zhai Zichong, Chuzhou Thorn Shi Liu Shirong, and Huaizhou Thorn Shi Liu Damo to lead 10,000 troops to cross the river at Hushu (present-day Nanjing, Jiangsu On the north bank of the Yangtze River) and send 30,000 stones of rice and 1,000 horses to Stone City.
Chen Baxian made a series of reactions when he was attacked in the abdomen and back. The first step continued eastward against Yixing (present-day Wuxi, Jiangsu). Wang Sheng's Yu Dang ambushed, and Chen Baxian stabilized the situation in the east. The second step was to have his general Zhou Wenyu replace him as commander to prevent the Great Wall from being captured by the Northern Qi army and defend the defense line north of the country. In the third step, he ordered his subordinate Ningyuan general Pei Ji to join him in attacking Wu Commandery (吴郡, in modern Suzhou, Jiangsu), where Wang Shengzhi's younger brother Wang Shengzhi was defending. At night, he went down to the city, clamored to enter the city, and hit Wang Shengzhi by surprise. Wang Shengzhi had no choice but to escape from the back door and run to Wuxing in a light boat. This move preserved the economic center of the Liang Dynasty. After Chen Baxian quickly controlled the Sanwu area with thunderous means, he returned to Jiankang and attacked Stone City.
Of course, Chen Baxian's road was not smooth. Hearing that the Northern Qi army had come to the rescue and had also brought 300,000 stones of grain and countless warhorses, Chen Baxian was naturally extremely worried. He garrisoned troops outside the city and repeatedly discussed countermeasures with several of his closest generals. After some consultation, everyone agreed that the most urgent task at present was to build a city in Huainan, protect the eastern grain route, and then divide the troops to cut off the supply of materials to Stone City by Northern Qi. Surround the Stone City to death, cut off from water and food, and stone city will soon be self-destructive.
Therefore, Chen Baxian followed this plan and sent his general Hou Andu to lead the Liang Dynasty water army to attack, taking advantage of the dark wind of the moon to burn more than a thousand ships in Northern Qi. The two sides were engaged in a water war, and the transportation of grain was inconvenient, but Chen Ba first protected his own grain road, and there was enough grain. On the Northern Qi side, the soldiers, horses, grain, and grass were burned down, and the strength and morale of the troops were seriously damaged, so they had to first adopt conservative tactics and set up a fence on the south bank of the Qinhuai River to compete with the Liang army. But the confrontation was nothing more than delaying time, and Northern Qi's defeat had already emerged. After a major battle, the Northern Qi army drowned countless people. Finally, northern Qi commander Liu Damo sent envoys to Chen Baxian to seek peace and lead the troops back to the north.
Emperor Gao Yang of Northern Qi heard of the defeat of the Northern Qi army and was about to execute the commander-in-chief. In June of the following year, a large army was again mobilized to the south. But this time the results were even less. Chen Baxian continued with the last battle strategy: destroying Northern Qi's ferry port on the north bank and cutting off qi supplies. In the end, Northern Qi was greatly defeated. Northern Qi suffered two major defeats in succession and suffered heavy losses. After this battle, he no longer dared to invade the Liang Dynasty in the south. After eliminating a number of Wang Monk's henchmen and effectively resisting the invasion of Northern Qi, Chen Baxian made great contributions to the Liang Dynasty and proclaimed himself the Duke of the Great Wall. His power in the Liang Dynasty was now unmatched.
In October 557, Xiao Fangzhi zen was located in Chen Baxian, and Southern Liang perished. Chen Baxian was called emperor, changed his name to Yuan Yongding, and the national name Chen was for Emperor Chenwu.
Conclusion: Chen Baxian successfully resisted Northern Qi, saved the people of Jiangnan from the infestation of war, maintained the social stability of the south, and restored the economy of the south.
Chen Baxian, a hero of the chaotic world: he used his surname as the name of the country and successfully preserved the dignity of the Han people
Chen Baxian killed Wang Monk' argument: Brothers turned against each other
In 555, Chen Ba, an auxiliary chancellor of the Liang Dynasty, attacked Jiankang and killed Wang Shengjie, who was also an auxiliary chancellor of the Liang Dynasty, and this war contributed to the restructuring of the Southern Dynasty's power and laid the foundation for the establishment of the Chen Dynasty.
Chen and Wang met during Hou Jing's rebellion, and became friends after that, they became friends because of their joint efforts to quell the chaos. The two men, who have a deep personal relationship, turn against each other because of their political disagreements. These must begin with the killing of Emperor Xiao of Liangyuan.
In 554, when the Western Wei Dynasty conquered the Liang Dynasty, Xiao Xuan, who had been on the throne for less than three years, was besieged by the Western Wei army at Jiangling, and the army of Wang Shengquan and others was too far away from Jiangling to quickly serve the king. The following year, jiangling city fell, Xiao Xuan was tortured and killed, and his sons did not escape the doom. Fortunately, when Xiao Xuan was in Jiangling, he released the ninth prince Xiao Fangzhi to serve as the assassin of Jiangzhou and escaped a disaster. As a result, Chen and Wang, two Liang dynasty ministers, supported Xiao Fangzhi as emperor, and Wang Shengwei stayed in Jiankang to assist the young lord, while Chen Baxian garrisoned Jingkou (京口, in modern Zhenjiang, Jiangsu).
At this time, the tacit understanding between the two was broken by the Northern Qi emperor Gao Yang. At that time, the situation in the world, the Western Wei, Eastern Wei, and Liang dynasties "three kingdoms were established". Among them, the Eastern Wei was the strongest, the Western Wei was the second, and the Liang Dynasty was the weakest. At the time of Hou Jing's rebellion, Eastern Wei was busy changing the dynasty to Northern Qi. By the time the dust settled, Western Wei had already taken advantage of the chaos to occupy Sichuan, Wuhan and other areas in the middle and upper reaches of the Yangtze River, and its power had expanded very badly, but Northern Qi had not gained anything. So the Northern Qi emperor Gao Yang used Xiao Yuanming, a cousin of Emperor Yuan of Liang, whom he controlled, to start an article. Northern Qi brought a message to Wang Monk, saying that Xiao Fangzhi was only 13 years old, and it was more appropriate to be emperor or Xiao Yuanming.
This caused a dispute between the two chen and wang. Wang Shengquan decided to agree to Northern Qi's proposal and made Xiao Yuanming emperor. The reason why he agreed was because Gao Yang's army was strong at that time. Emperor Xiao Fangzhi, who was supported within the Liang Dynasty, had only been in Jiankang for a month, and Northern Qi's army invaded the south under the banner of "escorting" Xiao Yuanming. The Liang Dynasty first experienced the rebellion of Hou Jing, and then suffered from the invasion of Western Wei, and its national strength had been greatly damaged, and at this time it was at war with Northern Qi, and the Liang Dynasty had a very small chance of winning. But Chen Baxian was resolutely opposed. He believed that although compromise could be exchanged for a temporary peace, Sooner or later Northern Qi would use the puppet emperor to once again wreak havoc on the Liang Dynasty, and coupled with liang Chao's repeated concessions, Northern Qi would only gain inches, and Liang Chao's own morale would become more and more depressed.
The two broke with each other under different opinions, and the fate of the Liang Dynasty changed from then on. Wang Shengdi was busy greeting northern Qi emissaries and supporting Xiao Yuanming to take the throne. Chen Baxian's side began to secretly organize an army, secretly planning to kill Wang Shengjie. First of all, Chen Baxian gave a pre-war speech to his subordinates. He said that the only person who was qualified to inherit the unification was Xiao Fangzhi, the son of Emperor Xiao of Liangyuan. As vassals of the orphans, the prince and I had already shouldered the responsibility of assisting the young lord, but now the prince had changed his mind, attached himself to Rong Di, and wanted to depose Xiao Fangzhi and establish the emperor designated by Northern Qi, which was a treasonous act. After the speech, Chen Baxian consulted with his concubines Hou Andu and Zhou Wenyu to make strategic arrangements against Wang Shengjie's forces.
Coincidentally, in August 555, the Liang Dynasty learned that Northern Qi wanted to attack Jiankang in a big way, and that the vanguard force was already approaching Shouyang (寿陽, in present-day Shouyang, Shanxi). Wang then sent an emissary to inform Chen Baxian and ask him to make preparations as early as possible.
Chen Baxian responded quickly and was indeed "prepared." He detained the emissaries sent by Wang Shengxuan to prevent them from sending messages, and then, under the pretext of sending troops to defend Northern Qi, attacked the unsuspecting Nanjing from the north. Hou Andu's vanguard troops arrived at the north gate of Jiankang, and due to the lack of siege equipment, Hou Andu's soldiers actually threw Hou Andu into the inner city of the north gate, and then Hou Andu threw the rope under the city, and everyone climbed the city wall, so that they could successfully enter Jiankang and capture the defenseless Wang Monk alive. After the army invaded Nanjing, Chen Baxian immediately deposed Xiao Yuanming, supported Xiao Fangzhi as emperor, and changed yuan Shaotai to Emperor Jing of Liang.
Although Wang Shengquan was dead, his troops were still there. The three most important forces were: Wang Shengzhi, the younger brother of Wang Shengzhi, who was defending Suzhou, Du Gong, the son-in-law stationed in Huzhou, and Zhang Biao, a close associate of the huijian. The strength of these three parts exceeded that of Chen Baxian, but because of the suddenness of the incident, the strength of Wang Shengxian's side had no time to react, and it ushered in the crusade army that Chen Baxian had already arranged.
As for Northern Qi, in Chen Baxian's eyes, the outside must first be inside. Wang's side was soon defeated by Chen Baxian's troops, and then Northern Qi was also defeated by Chen Baxian, and the Liang Dynasty was thus stable, and Chen Baxian ascended the throne as emperor and established the Chen Dynasty.
Conclusion: This infighting, in terms of scale, number of people involved, geographical breadth and intensity of the war, was one of the best wars in the North and South. As a result, the victor Chen Baxian seized the opportunity to seize power and establish the Chen Dynasty, and the political situation in the Southern Dynasty changed greatly.
Jiangling Book Burning: Reading is useless!
On January 10, 555, Emperor Xiao of Liangyuan ordered his subordinate Gao Shanbao to burn 140,000 ancient and modern books, which are known as Jiangling.
According to the "Zizhi Tongjian", Xiao Xuan loved literature since he was a child, often read all night, and was a well-known literary scholar, who often borrowed private books before he took the throne. After quelling Hou Jing's rebellion, Xiao Yi had already collected more than 70,000 volumes of Wendedian's collection of books and other public and private classics, and by the time he ascended the throne in Jiangling, his collection had reached 140,000 volumes.
Xiao Xuan burned his careful collection of 140,000 volumes of books, the most direct inducement was that the Western Wei army invaded the Liang Dynasty, Xiao Xuan's defense failed, he attributed the defeat to the uselessness of reading, so he ordered it to be burned.
In November 554, The Western Wei chancellor Yuwen Tai sent the general Jin and others to lead an army of 50,000 from Chang'an to attack the Liang capital Jiangling. Jiangling backed by the Yangtze River, the north has no danger to defend, this war lasted for a month, the Liang army did not have effective resistance, the emperor himself directly out of the city surrendered.
The reason for this was that Xiao Xuan lacked a basic judgment on the powerful enemy of the north, Western Wei. He first vainly tried to use the military power of Western Wei to help him secure the throne. When Western Wei occupied Shu land and did not leave, it did not see the ambition of the other side to seize the territory of the Liang Dynasty in time. When he received a warning secret from Western Wei from Ma Bofu, an old minister of the Liang Dynasty, he still did not believe that the other side was ready to invade. Second, compared with the military, Xiao Xuan was more concerned about academics. When the Western Wei army attacked the outer city of Jiangling, Xiao Xuan was still lecturing to everyone in the court. He overheard the oppression of the army and quickly sent troops to resist, but unfortunately they were all defeated, and several generals were killed on the battlefield. When the counterattack was hopeless, the ministers around Xiao Xuan advised him to break through by night. As long as you cross the Yangtze River, you can get the rescue of liang troops stationed at the Docks in Jiangnan. However, Xiao Xuan was not used to riding horses, believing that if this thing could not be done, it would only increase humiliation. He gave up any active transfer and stuck to the outer city.
The escape plan failed, and xiao Xuan had to go out of the city and surrender. Before surrendering, Xiao Xuan attributed his failure to the uselessness of reading, so he ordered the burning of all 140,000 volumes of the book collection. There is also a theory that Xiao Xuan regarded books as treasures and would rather burn them than leave them for others. During the book burning, he tried to commit suicide by fire several times, but was stopped by the people around him.
After the book burning, the Liang Dynasty also ushered in the end of the dynasty.
On the same day, Xiao Xuan rode out of the city on a white horse and dressed in plain clothes, and the Western Wei soldiers pulled him off his horse, changed him into a thin horse, and pushed and shoved him to Yu Jin. Accompanying him was Wang Zhao, a descendant of the Eastern Jin Dynasty's famous Xiang Wang Dao. Wang Zhen himself was a famous calligrapher in the world at that time, and Yu Jin asked him to write a few words to see. After Wang Zhen finished writing, he dropped the money as "Pillar State Changshan Gongjia Slave Wang Praise", Yu Jin laughed. The Duke of Changshan of the Pillar State was Yu Jin's title, and Wang Bao presented himself as a domestic slave, lost the face of his ancestors, and was called "literati without bones" by posterity. As for Xiao Xuan himself, after being abused for many days, he was crushed alive by a dirt bag at the age of 47, and his prince was also killed.
The Western Wei army selected tens of thousands of slaves from the liang dynasty princes and ministers and the people of Jiangling and sent them back to Chang'an as booty, and the rest of the old, weak, young and young were all killed, and only more than 300 families were pardoned. At that time, it was freezing cold, ice and snow, and two or three adults froze to death along the way or were trampled to death by people and horses.
In the Battle of Jiangling, in addition to subverting the Liang Dynasty, the biggest loss was these 140,000 books. In the case that printing technology has not yet been popularized, a large number of books are only manuscripts or a few manuscripts circulated, and the lifelong efforts of countless outstanding scholars and the crystallization of thousands of years of academic culture have been destroyed in iron blood and fire.
Conclusion: The burning of books in Jiangling can be called the second great catastrophe in the history of Chinese culture, and the precious ancient books collected by successive monarchs since the founding of the Eastern Jin Dynasty have been burned by Emperor Liang Yuan. Among them, hundreds of books such as the "Book of Filial Piety", "Notes on the Han Dynasty", "Neidian Bojiao", "Yutao", "Supplementary Quezi", "Yu Dezhi", "Jingnanzhi", "Lao Tzu Shuoshu", "Golden Wisp", "Shizan" and so on have long been scattered, and only a few kinds of "Ancient and Modern Names" and so on remain. After the establishment of the Sui Dynasty, Emperor Wen of Sui vigorously collected ancient books and classics in the folk, and the books collected by the Sui Dynasty Secret Cabinet only reached more than 30,000 volumes, which was already a dime compared with the 140,000 books of Emperor Liang Yuan.
Everyone knows that Qin Shi Huang burned books but did not know that the Liangyuan Emperor Jiangling's book burning was an unprecedented catastrophe