Chapter 41 Fourteen, Jiangnan catastrophe

Gao Huan's son established the Northern Qi Dynasty, and his former general Hou Jing naturally wanted to replicate history in the Southern Dynasty.While putting Emperor Jianwen on the throne, Hou Jing sent generals Ziyue, Hou Zijian, Song Zixian and others to lead the rebel army to the most affluent "Three Wu" area in the south of the Yangtze River. Sanwu, that is, the three counties of Wujun (now Suzhou, Jiangsu), Wuxing (now Huzhou, Zhejiang) and Kuaiji (now Shaoxing, Zhejiang) in the southeast of Jiankang were the most agriculturally developed areas in the Southern Dynasties.Although Song, Qi, and Liang ruled a large area in the Southern Dynasties, due to limitations in transportation and technology, most of the southern mountainous areas were wild lands, and the economic center of gravity has always been concentrated in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River in Hubei, southern Jiangsu, and northern Zhejiang today. Take San Wu as the most.

The superior economic conditions of Sanwu attracted a large number of rich and nobles to settle here. Since the Eastern Jin Dynasty, these people have been officials for eight or nine generations. They have been separated from production and labor for a long time. insect. The comment in "Yan's Family Instructions" puts it aptly: "The skin is fragile and the bones are soft, unable to walk, the body is weak and weak, and it is not resistant to cold and heat. Those who sit and die in a hurry often happen naturally." In a word, the weak official master, bookworm.The literati and bureaucrats admired brocade clothes and jade belts, big hats and high boots, and they rode in cars and sedan chairs when they went out, and helped them on the left and right when they entered the house. What's more, they couldn't even ride a horse.Wang Fu, the magistrate of Jiankang County, saw the tall horse neighing and hooving in front of him. He was so frightened that he shuddered and shouted, "This is obviously a tiger. Why do you call it a horse?"

How can such a group of people hold high positions against the Hou Jing rebels who are like wolves and tigers?Yuan Junzheng, the prefect of Wujun, had about 5,000 elite soldiers under his command. Dai Sengpi, who was stationed in Xincheng (southwest of Fuyang, Zhejiang today), proposed to refuse to defend behind closed doors, starving to death the rebels who were insufficiently supplied.Yuan Junzheng was worried that the resistance would fail and a large amount of his family's assets would be robbed. Instead of leading the army to defend, he went out of the city to meet him with food, wine, and livestock.When Yu Ziyue's army arrives, no matter how good your attitude is, they will arrest you and rob you of all your belongings and women. The "paradise on earth" Wujun became a robber's paradise overnight.

After obtaining Wujun, the rebels went south to attack Wuxing.Zhang Sheng, the prefect of Wuxing, learned the lesson from Yuan Junzheng and decided to stick to it. However, Zhang Sheng was born as a scholar and knew nothing about fighting. Wuxing had fewer guards than Wujun. He was captured by the rebels within a few days, and Zhang Sheng's family was slaughtered. The rebels went down to Qiantang and Fuyang, quickly crossed Zhejiang, and besieged Kuaiji.Kuaiji is the seat of Yangzhou in the east of Liang Guodong. There are tens of thousands of guards in the city, and sufficient food, grass and weapons. The common people witnessed the tragedy of Wu Jun and Wu Xing.

Xiao Dalian, the governor of East Yangzhou, was the son of Emperor Jianwen. He was a fool when he was King Jiankangqin. Now that the rebel army is approaching the city, he still drinks and has fun all day long, leaving important military and political matters to Sima Liuyi.Liuyi didn't even think about defending to the death. Hou Jing's tribe attacked Song Zixian, and he fled to his hometown in Dongyang (now Jinhua, Zhejiang) with his men, and then surrendered to Song Zixian.Xiao Dalian pulled a cart of wine jars, abandoned the city and fled to Poyang.Guided by Liuyi, Song Zixian's army captured the drunk Xiao Dalian at the border of Xin'an (now Quzhou, Zhejiang) and sent him to Jiankang.

So far, Hou Jing has conquered the three Wus and basically occupied the southern bank of the lower reaches of the Yangtze River. However, it is far from enough to control the entire Liang State and rule the Southern Dynasty like Gao Huan ruled the Northern Dynasty. Putting aside the ferocity of nature, the situation Hou Jing faced was different from that of Gao Huan. In the late Northern Wei Dynasty, the imperial power had been lost for more than ten years. He Bayue and Yu Wentai's Wuchuan soldiers and horses have no second force that can compete with him.The Yuan clan has been suppressed by the Empress Dowager Hu and the Erzhu clan one after another, and has no real power in their hands. The only way out is to honestly admit Gao Huan's status (Emperor Xiaowu refused to obey Gao Huan's control and defected to Yuwentai, which was nothing more than " Change the soup, not the medicine").

Hou Jing didn't have any of these necessary conditions.Although Hou Jing occupied Jiankang, the capital of the country, and supported the puppet emperor, the clan of Liang Guo still controlled most of the army and regions in the country, and they would not obey Hou Jing's rule obediently.The military force that Hou Jing relied on was the 800 soldiers brought from the Eastern Wei Dynasty when he first entered the Liang Kingdom, together with the released slaves from the North, and servants from aristocratic families, he could barely make up about 20,000 people, only a few of them were professional Soldiers, the rest of the actual combat experience is not high, and the combat effectiveness is not strong, but even so, they are already considered the elite of Hou Jing.The vast majority of the hundreds of thousands of troops who besieged Taicheng came from young men who were not only weaker in combat effectiveness, but also had a problem with their loyalty.The reason why Hou Jing was able to capture Taicheng by relying on such a low-quality army was, on the one hand, of course related to his own excellent military strategy and military talent, and on the other hand, it was also because his behavior just followed the small calculations of the kings of the Xiao clan. .When the big tree of Emperor Wu of Liang fell, the princes of the Xiao family fulfilled their wish, and the next step was to expand their military power, eliminate dissidents, and rule the world.Just as Hou Jing was dancing with Princess Liyang in his left hand and Emperor Jian Wen Wenle in his right hand in Jiankang City, the clans of the Liang Kingdom had already fought with each other.

There are many descendants, brothers and nephews of Emperor Liang Wu, but only five of them really became powerful, all of which are distributed in the middle and upper reaches of the Yangtze River, roughly in the shape of a cross.Xiao Yi, the seventh son of Emperor Wu of Liang and King of East Hunan, governor of Jingzhou, sits in the center of the cross, that is, Jiangling in Jingzhou; to the west of Xiao Yi is Xiao Ji, the eighth son of Emperor Wu of Liang who guards Yizhou; After Hou Jing captured Sanwu, he retreated to Yingzhou (now Wuchang, Hubei), the sixth son of Emperor Wu of Liang, Xiao Lun, King of Shaoling; Xiangzhou (now Changsha, Hunan), south of Xiao Yi, was Xiao Yu, the second son of Prince Xiao Tong of Zhaoming Dynasty; In Yongzhou (now Xiangfan, Hubei Province) to the north of Xiao Yi, there is Xiao Yu's third younger brother, Xiao Yu, King of Yueyang.

Xiao Yi, King of Eastern Hunan, was gifted and intelligent since he was a child. He loved reading and was very much loved by Emperor Wu of Liang.When he was a teenager, he suffered from an eye disease. Emperor Wu of Liang ordered the treatment himself, and accidentally blinded one eye.Emperor Wu of Liang was very depressed at first, but later he remembered a dream he had once had. In the dream, a blind monk said that he wanted to reincarnate the royal family. He believed that Xiao Yi was the reincarnation of an eminent monk, and loved him so much that he sent him to the palace at the age of eighteen. Jiangling, served as governor of Jingzhou.Jiangling is another economic and cultural center outside of the Sanwu area, and it is the best foreign land in Liang State.Emperor Liang Wu was really kind to Xiao Yi, but Xiao Yi, who had a large number of talents and troops in his hands, deliberately delayed when Hou Jing besieged Taicheng. It was not until the lower reaches of the Yangtze River were fragmented that he revealed his sinister ambitions.

In terms of talent and learning, Xiao Yi is outstanding, but as an upper-level ruler, he is very suspicious and disgusting.His wife, Xu Zhaopei, was the granddaughter of Xu Xiaosi, a famous official at the end of the Qi Dynasty, who gave birth to his son Xiao Fang and others.Xu Zhaopei is ugly in appearance, jealous by nature, misbehaving, not favored by Xiao Yi, so she also dislikes Xiao Fang and others. In order to prevent future troubles, Xiao Yi first sent troops to the west and wiped out his cousin Guiyang Wang Xiaozhen who was stationed in Xinzhou (now Fengjie, Chongqing). Zhou, and sent Xiao Fang and others to lead 20,000 elite soldiers to escort them.

Xiao Yi is very poisonous. He doesn't like Xiao Fang and others, and also hates Xiao Yu. In name, he transfers his duties, but actually forces them to kill each other. He waits for good news in Jiangling.Sure enough, Xiao Fang and others met Xiao Yu on the way to meet them, and almost the whole army was wiped out. Xiao Fang and others were killed in battle.Xiao Yi was not sad, and soon after his favorite concubine Wang died, he suspected that Xu Zhaopei was poisoned, so he forced Xu Zhaopei to commit suicide by throwing herself into a well. Then, Xiao Yi formally launched an attack on Xiao Yu, ordering Wang Sengbian, the prefect of Jingling, and Bao Quan, the governor of Xinzhou, to march quickly to attack Xiangzhou.Wang Sengbian asked Xiao Yi for a few days' grace because his subordinates had not yet assembled.Xiao Yi suspected that Wang Sengbian wanted to wait and see, so he was furious, and he drew his sword and cut Wang Sengbian's left leg.Wang Sengbian was almost breathless, but fortunately he was rescued in time to save him from death.Xiao Yi was still angry, and put Wang Sengbian in prison, ordered Bao Quan to go alone, and soon surrounded Changsha. Xiao Yu was in distress, so he sent someone to Xiangyang to ask Xiao Xi for help.Seeing that his elder brother was besieged, Xiao Xi personally led 2,000 cavalry and 20,000 infantry to take Jiangling directly. The momentum was huge, and he wanted to "surround and rescue the reputation".Xiao Yi was shocked, and released Wang Sengbian from the prison to ask for advice on good strategies to defeat the enemy. Wang Sengbian offered a plan: "Use the other's way, and return it to the other body." Brother Du Kui, Du An led 500 elite cavalry, marched day and night, and raided Xiangyang, Xiao Xi's lair.When Xiao Xi received the report, he quickly withdrew his army, discarding food and grass along the way, and countless luggage, which made Xiao Yi a big bargain. Xiao Xi returned to Xiangyang, still in shock, and Xiao Yi sent Liu Zhongli out of the town of Jingling to threaten Xiangyang.Xiao Xi was even more afraid. He felt that the main reason why he could not defeat Xiao Yi was the lack of troops, so he asked the Western Wei Dynasty for help, volunteered to be a vassal, and took his wife Wang and his son Xiao Yi as hostages.The Eastern Wei Dynasty seized the Huainan area, and Yu Wentai had been greedy for a long time. Now that the cake is delivered to the door, it is a god-sent opportunity.He readily accepted Xiao Xie's request to surrender, made Xiao Xie King of Liang, and sent General Yang Zhong to lead troops into Liang State to resist Xiao Yi on Xiao Xie's behalf. (Xiao Qi led the wolf into the house, which eventually led to half of the country of Liang falling into the hands of foreign enemies, thus putting the Southern Dynasty at a complete strategic disadvantage, which was probably unexpected by Xiao Qi.) Xiao Yi repelled Xiao Cha, realized that Wang Sengbian was a rare talent, and sent him to replace Bao Quan, who had been attacking Changsha for a long time.In April of the first year of Dabao (550 A.D.), Wang Sengbian captured Changsha, captured and killed King Xiaoyu of Hedong, and passed it on to Jiangling. Xiao Yu died, but the situation on the northern front was not good. Liu Zhongli was defeated and captured, and Yang Zhong took advantage of the victory to attack Shicheng (now Zhongxiang, Hubei).Seeing that the Western Wei army was no match for the enemy, Xiao Yi sent envoys to make peace, took his son Xiao Fanglue as a hostage, and ceded the east and north of the Han River to the Western Wei Dynasty, and Yang Zhong returned with a full load. After solving the danger in the north, Xiao Yi announced the funeral for Emperor Wu of Liang to the outside world. He did not recognize Emperor Jianwen's reign, and still called it the fourth year of Taiqing; Xiao Yi's rising momentum is rapid and attracts the attention of the whole country, and in his army, there is another figure whose rising momentum is about to surpass him——Chen Baxian.