Chapter 9 8. Emperor Xuanwu lost power

Shortly after Gao Zhao killed Yuan Yu and Yuan Xie, he was named General of Chariots and Riders, and then he was promoted to Situ and became the third division (that is, the so-called "Three Dukes" of Taiwei, Situ, and Sikong).The fact that the villain is so powerful shows that the decline of the Northern Wei Dynasty is inevitable. Wang Yuanyi of Qinghe is a sensible person. He once satirized Gao Zhao at a banquet and said, "How many brothers can the emperor have? According to your method of killing, they will almost be cut off! In the past, Wang Mang relied on his uncle Guo You have usurped the status of the Han Dynasty; now, judging by your appearance, I am afraid that you will eventually create disasters."

Yuan Yi also advised Emperor Xuanwu to guard against incipient changes and not to relax his vigilance, and pointed out that in the Northern Wei Dynasty, "the Ming emperor lost to the superior, and the treacherous ministers stole from the inferior", and this was the root of the disaster.Emperor Xuanwu didn't take it seriously, smiled and gave up, still protecting Gao Zhao. Emperor Xuanwu held an empire in a period of great change.The systems left over from the era of Emperor Xiaowen still need to be further implemented and implemented.Emperor Xiaowen was very serious and responsible in handling political affairs.According to historical records, he "all officials, big or small, pay attention to each other and work on Zhou Qi".His philosophy of governing the world is: "Anyone who is a ruler suffers from inequality and cannot be sincere. If he can be honest, the people of Huyue can be as close as brothers." As a ruler, if he cannot be equal and sincere with a unified standard Treating different people and different things, how can we make people in the world do things equally and sincerely, and how can we carry out reform measures as before?

Emperor Xuanwu just couldn't do this.What he is best at is the principles of Buddhism.He likes to gather famous monks from all over the world in the inner palace to give lectures on scriptures and Taoism in person (the emperors in the middle and late Northern Wei Dynasty were not low in Buddhism, and Emperor Xuanwu was the best).He has talked a lot about the truth, but he himself can't understand much.For the policies and systems inherited from the previous dynasty, not only could he not implement them equally and sincerely like his father, but he also greatly discounted them, and many things changed in his hands.

For example, the "salary system" is intended to eliminate corruption and improve the ranks of officials.Emperor Xiaowen was relentless in dealing with corrupt officials, especially when dealing with the royal family and nobles who were greedy and indulgent, they were either assigned or executed.As for Emperor Xuanwu, he simply did what he wanted, and he didn't deal with it at all when his relationship was good.Yuan Xi, Yuan Xiang, and Yuan Yu, who were killed to death, were more greedy than the other. The reason for their downfall was not because of strict law enforcement, but the result of political struggle.Gao Zhao, who was suppressing them, held up the signboard of fighting corruption, while attacking more ruthlessly than anyone else: After Yuanxi was punished, all his family's property, treasures, slaves and servants' fields and houses were all taken over by Gao's family.Emperor Xuanwu was happy to be a favor, and turned a blind eye to his uncle's behavior.Other nobles, like Guangping Wang Yuanhuai, are also greedy. As long as the emperor trusts them, they don't have to worry about any punishment.

As a result of appeasing violations of law and discipline, the society of the Northern Wei Dynasty could no longer see the rigorous atmosphere of the Xiaowen era. The extravagant and comfortable life of Luoyang City cultivated a group of social moths who did not think about making progress, and even the phenomenon of selling officials and nobles appeared. "Wei Shu" believes that Emperor Xuanwu's level is equivalent to Emperor Yuan and Emperor Cheng of the Western Han Dynasty, and Emperor An and Emperor Shun of the Eastern Han Dynasty.In my opinion, this is to save face.The seventeen years of Emperor Xuanwu's reign were worse than inaction.

Emperor Xuanwu didn't want to make a difference. He once said to the envoy of Rouran who came to ask for peace: "Your ancestor Shelun is a traitor to our great Wei. The reason why you don't come to attack you for the time being is that Jiangnan is not peaceful now, so Let you live a few more days. It is impossible to make peace with our country. If you call yourself a vassal, then our country will treat you preferentially." It can be seen from this that Emperor Xuanwu's goal is the world, and his ambition is to unify the north and the south and clarify the universe.But he could neither visit the front line in person like Emperor Xiaowen and command operations, nor did he have the necessary strategic vision, which wasted the great situation that Emperor Xiaowen left him.

Before the Battle of Zhongli, he rejected Xing Luan's correct suggestions twice, gave up capturing Yizhou on the western front, and assembled the soldiers on the eastern front. After losing troops and losing generals, he also forced Yizhou governor Wang Zu to vote for Nanliang.After the Battle of Zhongli, he did not learn his lesson, and continued to focus on the Eastern Front, looking for opportunities to avenge his hatred.Unexpectedly, the old hatred has not disappeared, and a new hatred has been added. Sima Pengzhen of Yingzhou defected in the first year of Yongping (508 AD) and led Liang soldiers to attack Yiyang, the governor of Yingzhou.Xuanhu general Bai Zaosheng also killed Sima Yue, the governor of Yuzhou, and asked for help from Ma Xiangan, the governor of Sizhou in Nanliang.Emperor Xuanwu sent Yuanying and Xing Luan to go south to conquer, and they took back the rebellious cities without much effort, and Ma Xianwan was also repelled by Yuanying.The swearing Yuanying chased Ma Xianfan all the way, wanting to avenge Zhongli's shame, but when she heard that Wei Rui's reinforcements were ahead, she stopped chasing him.

It seems that Yuanying is suffering from "Weiphobia", even if there is a chance of face-to-face revenge, he dare not act rashly; at the same time, it also shows that the cohesion and combat effectiveness of the Northern Wei army are not as reassuring as in the past.One year after the end of this battle (Yongping three years, AD 510), Yuanying died of illness with lifelong regrets, and the "God of War" Wei Hu was also fixed as the nemesis of the Northern Wei Dynasty. In the fourth year of Yongping (511 AD), the situation was reversed.Civil strife broke out in Qushan in Nanliang (now southwest of Lianyungang, Jiangsu Province). The guard Liu Xi was killed by the people. The leader Wang Wanshou asked for help from Lu Chang, the governor of Xuzhou in the Northern Wei Dynasty.Lu Chang sent Zhang Tianhui and Fu Wenji, the defenders of Tancheng and Langya, to rescue them, defeated the defenders of Nanliang, and occupied Qushan.At this time, Emperor Xuanwu made another mistake in the strategic direction. He obeyed Lu Chang's request and dispatched many troops, with a total of more than 100,000 soldiers, trying to defend Qushan.

Qushan is located on the seashore, across the sea from Yuzhou (now Lianyungang, Jiangsu Province), the governing seat of Qinghai and Hebei states (in the time of Nanliang, Yuzhou was a small island in the sea, not connected to the mainland). The frontier position cannot be lost.However, the significance of this small town to the Northern Wei Dynasty is not so great. It is not located on the main line of the Northern Wei Dynasty going south, and it is not close to other strategic places in the Southern Liang Dynasty. , advancing south.Shouqu Mountain is basically a money-losing business, and the price/performance ratio is too low.

This point of view was recognized by Yushi Lieutenant You Zhao and others, but Emperor Xuanwu did not expect it.Lu Chang, who commanded the army, was the son of Lu Xuan, a descendant of a famous family in the north, who was a contemporary of Gao Yun.His army could not enter Qushan to participate in the defense, nor could it pose a threat to Ma Xiangan who was besieging the city, and even food and grass could not be transported into the city. In December, Fu Wenji, who guarded Qushan, ran out of ammunition and food, and surrendered to Ma Xianqian.Lu Chang, who hadn't expressed anything before, saw that Qushan was lost, so he rode on his horse and ran away, and the 100,000 Wei army followed suit.Heavy snow fell in Huaibei. On the road from Qushan to Tancheng, there were soldiers of the Northern Wei Dynasty who died of freezing and their hands and feet were frozen everywhere. In addition, the Liang army led by Ma Xianqian took advantage of the momentum to kill and capture them. The Wei army lost more than 80%.

The defeat at Qushan was the biggest military defeat of the Northern Wei Dynasty after Zhongli. Both of these two failures occurred during the reign of Emperor Xuanwu, and it was not accidental that he was labeled as an "outsider in foreign wars". internal signs, then the fiasco of Zhongli and Qushan can be said to be the external signs of the decline of the Northern Wei Dynasty). Inspired by the victory, Emperor Wu of Liang in the south was encouraged by the victory. Three years later (the thirteenth year of Liang Tianjian, the third year of Yanchang in the Northern Wei Dynasty, AD 514), at the instigation of his general Wang Zu, he began to build a war in Fushan in the lower reaches of the Huaihe River (now in Wuhe area of ​​Anhui). Build a large weir to block the Huaihe River, hoping to irrigate Shouyang with water, and get rid of this worry.Although China's ancient water conservancy has always been among the best in the world, Emperor Wu of Liang was still too whimsical and completely exceeded the technical conditions at that time.After the Fushan Weir project was launched, it was finally completed after nearly two years of "hard work" consuming manpower, energy, money and time. dam, but there was no Guinness World Record to apply for at that time), which made the Shouyang defenders quite nervous for a while.However, in the autumn of the year it was built, the flood flooded, the weir collapsed, and the city of Shouyang was not submerged, but the villages hundreds of miles downstream were washed into the sea.Emperor Wu of Liang failed in his plan and almost abolished his martial arts, so he had to temporarily abandon his plan to march north. In the third year of Yanchang in the Northern Wei Dynasty (AD 514), Emperor Xuanwu, who seemed to have just woken up from a dream, finally felt more confident in attacking the western front first.He appointed Gao Zhao as the general and governor of Pingshu, and led 150,000 infantry and cavalry to attack Yizhou.Two months after the army was dispatched, in the first month of the fourth year of Yanchang, Emperor Xuanwu died of illness at the age of thirty-three, the same life expectancy as his father, Emperor Xiaowen, but his achievements were far from that of his father.The last time he used soldiers in his lifetime, he gave up.After that, the Northern Wei Dynasty no longer had the power to launch a large-scale war against the south until it perished.A short-term peace was barely restored between the North and the South. Gao Zhao, who was away on an expedition, received a call. Hearing that the emperor had passed away, he felt as if he was mourning his concubine (this is inevitable, without Emperor Xuanwu, how could Gao Zhao be where he is today?). He didn't dare to neglect, he rushed back to Luoyang day and night, went to the hall to mourn.The officials in the DPRK wanted to pick out his bones and eat his flesh.Gaoyang Wang Yuanyong and the leader of the palace, Yu Zhong, had discussed it long ago, and set up an ambush on the west side corridor. When Gao Zhao finished weeping and came to the side corridor to rest, the warriors rushed up and beat him to death . Before the unlucky Gao Zhao fell from power, Emperor Xuanwu's crown prince Yuanxu had already ascended the throne as Emperor Suzong Xiaoming of the Northern Wei Dynasty.Yuan Xu is only six years old. Behind him, the political arena of the Northern Wei Dynasty has become a arena for power.