Hello everyone, I am Xiaojing, today we are going to talk about a legendary emperor who started from scratch.
Speaking of the self-made emperor, I think everyone must think of Liu Bang, the ancestor of Han Gao, Zhu Yuanzhang, and others. And what we want to talk about today is not these two, but the founding emperor of the Southern and Northern Dynasties and the Southern Song Dynasty, Liu Yu, the Emperor of the Song Dynasty.
Liu Yu (16 April 363 – 26 June 422), originally from Pengcheng, was the half-brother of Liu Bang, the ancestor of Han Gao, and the twenty-second grandson of Liu Jiao, the King of Chu Yuan. During the Wuhu Chaohua period, ethnic minorities occupied the north, and the royal family of the Jin Dynasty and most of the northern people fled to Jiangnan for refuge, and Liu Yu's family also moved to Dantu County (present-day Zhenjiang City, Jiangsu) south of the Yangtze River during this period.
After the Yongjia Rebellion, he crossed the south
In 363 AD, on the seventeenth day of the third lunar month of the first lunar year of the Jin Dynasty Emperor YuanXing, Liu Yu was born into a poor family. His mother also died after giving birth to him due to dystocia. Due to the poor family and the early death of his wife, his father was unable to raise the baby boy who had just been left, so he had the idea of abandoning Xiao LiuYu. Just at this time, his aunt heard the news and thought that he had just given birth to a child, and there was enough milk, and Xiao Liu Yu, who was not yet one year old, was fostered in his aunt's house. Since then, Liu Yu has had a milk name - a slave. There is a herb in Chinese medicine called Herb, which is said to have been discovered by Liu Yu. With the assistance of his aunt, Liu Yu survived.
With the passage of time, Xiao Liu Yu slowly grew up, and instead of going to private schools like other children, he fell into the habit of chopping firewood, farming and even selling straw shoes. He was once obsessed with gambling, and because of this, his family was ruined, and none of the villagers at that time could look up to him. Desperate, Liu Yu finally chose a path that transformed his life - joining the army.
At that time, it was a chaotic era, and several ethnic minorities in the north were competing with each other for territory in the Central Plains, and the people were deeply in the water. Liu Yu joined the famous Beifu soldiers at that time, most of which were composed of displaced people who fled to the south by the Northern Han people at that time, and were the main force of the Eastern Jin Dynasty at that time. Liu Yu was serving in the Beifu Soldiers at that time. Because of his outstanding performance, he soon became a Sima under the champion general Sun Wujun.
In the third year of the Jin Dynasty, in November 399, Sun En, Lu Xun, and others launched a religious (WudouMijiao) uprising in Huiji Commandery (present-day Shaoxing, Zhejiang). The rebel army was huge, and the southeast coastal area responded one after another, and the imperial court hurriedly ordered the general Xie Yan and Liu Gaozhi to lead the army to suppress it, and at this time, Liu Yu, because of Sun Wuzhi's recommendation, switched to Liu Gangzhi's account, called Liu Gangzhi to join the army.
The image is from Baidu Encyclopedia
Once, when Liu Yu was ordered to lead dozens of people to investigate the enemy situation, he happened to encounter a rebel army of thousands of people. At this time, if you escape, you will definitely be caught up by the enemy army, so Liu Yuyi did not stop and took dozens of soldiers into the enemy camp. In this battle, Liu Yu's rebels held their heads and ran away, and later encountered reinforcements from Liu Jingxuan, Liu Jingxuan's son, and the two of them joined forces to kill Sun En's rebels and take advantage of the situation to retake Shanyin City, and from then on, Liu Yu became famous in battle. Sun En, on the other hand, panicked and fled to the sea.
In the later counterinsurgency, Liu Yu, as a pioneer, broke the enemy army several times, and his military talent came to the fore in this counterinsurgency.
Later, in the first year of Yuan Xing (402 AD), the powerful ministers independently declared themselves emperors and established the Huanchu regime. Liu Yu judged the situation, avoided its sharp edge, pretended to submit to Huan Xuan, and waited for the opportunity.
Liu Yufa Sanwu
Later, Liu Yu took advantage of Huan Xuan's paralysis and led his troops to pacify Huan Xuan's regime in one fell swoop. Because of the crisis, kuang supported the crumbling Jin royal family. Since then, Liu Yu's status has been further enhanced. Most of the power of the imperial court also almost fell into the hands of Liu Yu, and Liu Yu at this time can be described as a day in the sky.
Huan Xuan's Rebellion
Liu Yu, who was in a position of great power, was preparing to use troops to the divided and war-torn north, and at this time in the north, there were ethnic minority regimes such as Later Qin, Southern Yan, Northern Wei, and Hu Xia. Before this, there were also Northern Expeditions such as Zu Ti, Huan Wen and others with the purpose of revival, but they all ended in failure. Since the Battle of Shuishui, the north had changed from a great unification to a divided situation, and in order to make himself and the imperial court stronger, Liu Yu of the Imperial Household decided to re-establish the Northern Expedition in 409 AD as a servant, a che riding general, a Kaifu Yi Tongsan division, a Yangzhou Assassin History, a Lu Shang Shu Shi, a Xuzhou Thorn History, and a Yanzhou Assassin History.
The first target of the Northern Expedition was the Southern Yan regime, which was divided into the Shandong Peninsula. Shortly after the Southern Yan emperor Murong Chao succeeded to the throne, Liu Yu sent an army at Jiankang (present-day Nanjing, Jiangsu) in April of the same year and arrived in Xiapi along Surabaya. Entering Langya, the Southern Yan emperor Murong Chao was a conceited enemy and did not fortify in the Yimeng Mountains of Lunan, and Liu Yu led a large army all the way to Linqu (present-day Weifang, Shandong) near the southern Yan capital Guanggucheng (青州, In modern Weifang, Shandong). Murong Chao ordered his generals Gongsun Wulou and Duan Hui to lead 50,000 infantry and cavalry to the battle, but were defeated by Liu Yu. Murong Chao retreated to Guanggu, and after several months of siege, the army in Guanggu city was scattered, Liu Yu attacked the city on all sides, and the rear city was broken, killing 3,000 people below the Xianbei princes on the grounds that the siege had not been surrendered for a long time. The self-righteous Murong Chao was also captured by Liu Yusheng and escorted to Jiankang, where he was beheaded and paraded to the public
Subsequently, Liu Yubu destroyed the elite cavalry of the Northern Wei Dynasty with 20,000 elite infantry, creating a major miracle in the military field.
But the moon array
In the twelfth year of Yixi, in 416 AD, Liu Yu's troops pointed again at the Later Qin regime, at this time the Later Qin Emperor Yao Xing had just died, Yao Hong succeeded to the throne, the internal political turmoil of the Later Qin regime, rebellions broke out, Liu Yu seized this opportunity, after occupying the ancient capital Luoyang, along the Yellow River into Weishui, all the way west, straight to Chang'an City. Later Liu Yu's general Wang Zhenji broke through the Tongguan defense line and attacked Chang'an City, emperor Yao Hong led his subjects to surrender, and the Later Qin regime collapsed.
Liu Yu destroyed the Battle of Later Qin
At this time, Liu Yu should take Chang'an as his base, and then swing his division north and take Hebei with a single blow, so that he can realize the scene of great unification more than two hundred years ago.
It is possible that the day will not go according to people's wishes, and his henchmen, Liu Muzhi, who stayed in Jiankang, died of illness. When Liu Yu learned of this, he ordered his twelve-year-old son Liu Yizhen, Shen Tianzi, Wang Zhenxi, Yang Xiu, and others to stay in Chang'an, while he himself went to Jiankang.
After stabilizing the power of the rear, Liu Yu, who had distinguished himself in battle, was already powerful and in an incomparably prominent position. The emperor made him Xiangguo,the Duke of Songguo,Jiajiuxi.
In 419, Liu Yu ascended the throne as King of Song. The following year, he was made emperor by Sima Dewen, the Emperor of Jin, with the state name of Great Song, known in history as the Southern Dynasty Song Dynasty, and changed to Yuan Yongchu.
Emperor Liu Yu of the Song Dynasty
Liu Yu, who was called empress dowager, learned the lessons of the previous dynasty, and in internal affairs, he strengthened the centralization of power, consolidated the imperial power over the army, and returned the military power to the imperial court after leading the army. He also issued new decrees to curb land annexation, develop production, education, and reuse people from poor backgrounds. In addition, he also straightened out the administration of officials and lightly dispensed with thin endowments. Because he was born into poverty and was well aware of the sufferings of the people, he called himself empress, simple and widowed, and lived frugally.
Militarily, he quelled rebellions everywhere and swept through the northern states of Southern Yan, Later Qin, and Qiuchi. In particular, the Moon Array, in terms of infantry versus cavalry, set a precedent and created a miracle in military history. Xin Abandoned Disease once praised him in "Yong Yu Le, Jingkou Beiguting Huaigu": "I think back then, Jinge iron horse, swallowed like a tiger. "To express the people's desire to recover the lost land at that time."
The famous "herb" in Chinese medicine is said to have been discovered and used by Liu Yu.
In 422, after recuperating, Liu Yu prepared to plan to go north to attack the Northern Wei regime established by the Xianbei people. Unfortunately, he became seriously ill not long after, and on May 21 of the same year, Liu Yu became seriously ill and died in the West Temple at the age of sixty. In July, he was buried in the Chu Ning Mausoleum in Danyang, with the temple name Gaozu and the emperor Wu.
Portrait of Liu Yu
Liu Yu's life can be described as a legendary life, he started from scratch in an ordinary family, and later made a living by fishing, chopping firewood, and even selling straw shoes like Liu Bei. However, his life was not willing to be ordinary, and he worked hard to make his own people's lives wonderful, and after joining the army, he repeatedly made miraculous achievements, and finally counterattacked to become the emperor above ten thousand people under one person. Its history of successful struggle is worth learning for our generation.
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