Chapter 42 Fifteen, Chen Baxian Xingbing Lingnan

The Hou Jing Rebellion was a disaster and destruction for many people, but it also provided an opportunity for a very small number of people to make contributions.Chen Baxian is one of these very few. Chen Baxian was born in Xiaruoli, Changcheng County, Wuxing County, roughly located in Xiaruosi Township, Changxing, Zhejiang today.There is a well in Xiaruo Temple, commonly known as the "Holy Well". According to legend, when Mr. Chen Ba was born, he used the water in this well to bathe. It has been inexhaustible for more than 1,500 years. According to "Chen Shu", the tenth ancestor of Chen Baxian moved south to Wuxing during the Yongjia period of the Western Jin Dynasty. In the early years of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, "Tuduan" was implemented, and the native place of Chen's family became Wuxing.This statement is quite controversial. Some people think that this time the native land is broken, and some people think that it was fabricated by Chen Baxian to raise his own identity, because in the Southern Dynasties, the status of overseas Chinese from the north and south was higher than that of the native Wu in the south. People are tall.In any case, Chen Baxian's ancestors have lived in the south of the Yangtze River for more than ten generations, which is a fact that can be checked and confirmed.He is one of the only two founding emperors from Zhejiang in Chinese history, and the other is Sun Quan of Soochow. However, Sun Quan was born in Xiapi. In terms of purity, Chen Baxian is even better. (One might think of Qian Liu, the founding monarch of Wuyue, but Qian Liu did not proclaim himself emperor.)

In his early years, Chen Baxian was from a poor family. He had fished, managed an oil depot, and worked as a Li Zheng in the village.In Chen Baxian's eyes, these are just temporary jobs to support his family. In his spare time, he likes to study and practice martial arts, wielding knives and guns, especially proficient in the art of war, and gradually gained a lot of fame in Wuxing.Xiao Ying, the nephew of Emperor Wu of Liang, went to Wuxing as the prefect and held Chen Baxian in high esteem. He joined the army and took him to Lingnan, where he was responsible for recruiting soldiers. As we mentioned earlier, during the Datong period of Emperor Wu of Liang, Li Ben of Jiaozhou was entangled in the rebellion of local powerful forces, and continuously repelled the imperial conquest troops and attacked Guangzhou.Chen Baxian led elite soldiers to fight back, defeated Li Ben, and also surrendered Du Sengming and Zhou Wenyu who responded to Li Ben's army. These two generals admired Chen Baxian's military talents and soon became Chen Baxian's right-hand men.After eliminating the remnants of Li Ben, Chen Baxian was appointed as the governor of Xijiang and prefect of Gaoyao, and gradually rose in Lingnan.

Hou Jing was in chaos, and the Lingnan area was also shaken, and the warlords from all over the country had their own aspirations.At this time Xiao Ying had passed away, and the succeeding governor of Guangzhou, Yuan Zhongjing, colluded with Hou Jing and conspired to betray the imperial court. Chen Ba preemptively joined forces with Wang Huaiming, the governor of Chengzhou, and passed it on to Xizhou County. .Yuan Zhongjing betrayed his relatives and was forced to hang himself. The world is in chaos, and everyone wants to take the opportunity to make a profit.General Lan Qin's younger brother, former governor of Gaozhou, Lan Yu, instigated Shixing (now Shaoguan, Guangdong) and other counties to attack Hengzhou, and Xiao Bo sent Chen Baxian to rescue.Chen Baxian captured Lanyu alive in the first battle, so he supervised the town of Shixing to appease the local tyrants, Linhe Neishi Ouyang Wei, Shixing tycoon Hou Andu and others all came to join him.

Chen Baxian's power continued to grow, arousing Xiao Bo's jealousy, and the two became enemies from superiors to subordinates.Chen Baxian wanted to go north to conquer Hou Jing, but Xiao Bo only wanted to hold onto a small piece of land in his hands, obstructing Chen Baxian in every possible way, and joined hands with Cai Luyang, a local tyrant in Nankang (now southwest of Ganzhou, Jiangxi) in the north, to curb his actions. In the first year of Dabao (550 A.D.), Chen Baxian started his Northern Expedition. He led his troops from Shixing, crossed Dayuling, and met Cai Luyang's army.Xiao Mohe, a young player in Cai Luyang's formation, was only thirteen years old, and he was extremely brave. He rode alone in the battle, and no one could stop him.Du Sengming's horse was injured in the battle and was defeated. Chen Baxian rushed to respond and gave his horse to Du Sengming.Du Sengming's confidence was greatly boosted, he got on his horse, and commanded the soldiers of the headquarters to go into battle again, and was invincible, defeating Cai Luyang.Xiao Mahe was recruited by Hou Andu, and Chen Baxian got another strong general.

Chen Ba first stationed troops in Nankang, and sent people to Jiangling to contact Xiao Yi.With the support of the strongest military force in the Lingnan area, Xiao Yi was overjoyed, and immediately awarded Chen Baxian the regular servant, Chijie, and governor of Jiaozhou, and asked him to go north as soon as possible to join the rebellious army. Xiao Yi "calls" various vassals to crusade against Hou Jing, and the superficial writing is very beautiful.If everyone really wanted to work together to fight for Hou Jing, then Taicheng would have been successful when it was besieged, so why wait until now?

But at this time, everyone suddenly "awakened collectively". Xiao Lun, the king of Shaoling in Yingzhou, overhauled his armaments and established a hundred officials, and Xiao Ji, the king of Wuling in Yizhou, was also preparing to lead his troops eastward, saying that they would "respond to the call" to send troops and Xiao Yi meets.Xiao Yi knew how to divide and conquer. He first sent Wang Sengbian and Bao Quan to lead 10,000 sailors eastward to Yingzhou. The banner was to attack Hou Jing, but the actual task was to take the sixth brother to Jiangling to "remember the old days".Xiao Lun was afraid, so he wrote a letter to question Wang Sengbian: "The general just killed the nephew of the king of Xiangdong, and now he is attacking his elder brother, and the relatives are killing each other. How can people in the world be convinced by this!" Wang Sengbian said The letter was forwarded to Xiao Yi, but Xiao Yi didn't take it seriously, and ordered Wang Sengbian to continue marching.

Xiao Lun saw that Xiao Yi's ability to bully his own family was too strong, and he had no intention of fighting, so he abandoned Jiangxia, the governor of Yingzhou, and retreated to the Runan area, and sent envoys to the Northern Qi Dynasty to ask for peace. Emperor Wenxuan of the Northern Qi Dynasty named Xiao Lun King of Liang, Xiao Yi didn't dare to push people too far. (Unfortunately, not long after, Xiao Lun attempted to capture Anlu in the Western Wei Dynasty as a shelter, but was defeated by Yang Zhong. Xiao Lun was killed, and Xiao Yi lost another rival for the throne.) Then, Xiao Yi wrote to Xiao Ji and said: "Central Sichuan is an important military area, so don't act rashly. You should guard it carefully, younger brother. The arduous task of eliminating Hou Jing will be entrusted to my elder brother and me. After the matter is completed, you and I will make an appointment. For neighboring countries, divide the world, and get along with each other in a friendly way." (This is an obvious plan to slow down the army, and Xiao Ji didn't think about how the Xiao Yu brothers were bullied by Xiao Yi, so he obediently gave up the idea of ​​sending troops.)

Xiao Yi was very busy trying to clean up his brothers. He didn't have time to provoke Hou Jing, but Hou Jing made great strides to attack Xiao Yi.After Hou Jing captured the Three Wus, he sent his generals Ren Yue and Yu Qing to sweep the vassal kings westward, including Xunyang (now Jiujiang, Jiangxi), Yuzhang (now Nanchang, Jiangxi), and Xiyang (now southeast of Huanggang, Hubei). , Wuchang (now Hubei Echeng) and other places, the scope of rule reached its peak.Hou Jing felt that the unification of the Liang Kingdom was just around the corner, so he falsely preached an imperial decree, promoted him to the prime minister, made him the king of Han, and added special gifts; then he also named himself the general of the universe and the commander of all the military forces in Liuhe. origin.In the Northern and Southern Dynasties, the highest position of governor was "supervisor of Chinese and foreign military forces". Hou Jing added the world and the four directions to join in the fun. He really deserves to be the "general of the universe" with unlimited creativity. No wonder Emperor Jianwen exclaimed: "The general also has the title of the universe. What!"

Faced with Hou Jing's aggressive offensive, Xiao Yi sent Xu Wensheng, the governor of Qinzhou, to lead tens of thousands of troops to fight.Xu Wensheng broke Ren Yue's navy in Beiji (near Huanggang, Hubei today) and stationed in Dajukou (north Huanggang, Hubei today).Hou Jing sent Song Zixian to lead an army of 20,000 reinforcements, and Xiao Yi also sent General Yin Yue, General Anton Du You'an, and Bazhou Inspector Wang Xun to lead an army of 20,000 from Jiangxia to Wuchang, where they were escorted by Xu Wensheng. In March of the second year of Dabao (AD 551), Xu Wensheng conquered Wuchang and marched into Luzhou (now west of Echeng, Hubei).Ren Yue was in a hurry, Hou Jingliu and Wang Wei guarded Jiankang, took the crown prince Xiao Daqi as a hostage, led tens of thousands of troops back to Jiangxi, and confronted Xu Wensheng in Xiyang.When the two armies clashed on the first day of the junior high school, Hou Jing was defeated and retreated to Jiangbei.

Hou Jing was waving banners by the riverside, posing as if he wanted to fight Xu Wensheng to the death, but he secretly sent Ren Yue and Song Zixian to lead 400 elite cavalry to attack the empty Jiangxia upstream by land. After Xiao Yi drove his elder brother Xiao Lun away from Jiangxia, he appointed his second son Xiao Fangzhu as the governor of Yingzhou, and sent Bao Quan to assist him in guarding Jiangxia.Xiao Fangzhu is a half-grown child, like most of the princes of the Liang Kingdom, he only knows how to drink, gamble, play and make trouble, and he doesn't take the defense of the city seriously.Bao Quan has a cowardly temperament, and Xiao Fangzhu, who is still childlike, rides Bao Quan as a horse all day long, running around the house.

A guard on the city tower saw Ren Yue's army from a distance, so he came to report: "The enemy army has arrived!" Bao Quan shook his head and said, "Impossible, Xu Wensheng's army is still downstream, how could the enemy come here, probably we The army is back." Saying that, Xiao Fangzhu dragged Bao Quan away again, so he came up with a new trick, using multicolored silk thread to tie Bao Quan's beard into pigtails. Yue and Song Zixian attacked Jiangxia City and captured the pair of generals alive (they died soon after).When Xu Wensheng heard that Ying Province had fallen, the morale of the army was broken, and the troops fled back to Jiangling. Wang Xun and Du Youan surrendered to Hou Jing. Aizi was captured and Yingzhou was occupied, Xiao Yi panicked.He hurriedly took Wang Sengbian as the governor, and led a large army to garrison Baling (now Yueyang, Hunan Province) to prevent Hou Jing from expanding westward. Baling City is not big, but it is the predecessor of Yueyang Tower. Wang Sengbian waited for work with leisure and defended it with the city.Hou Jing assigned Ren Yue to take Jiangling directly, and led a large group of soldiers and horses to advance by land and water, and came to the city of Baling. Hou Jing ordered the light cavalry to shout to the city: "Who is guarding the city?" The city replied: "The king leads the army." Hou Jing's cavalry asked again: "Why didn't Wang lead the army surrender early?" Wang Seng replied with a smile: "Since your army is going to attack Jingzhou, what kind of obstacle is this city?" Hou Jing ordered to attack the city. No matter what the attack method was, Wang Sengbian just entertained him with arrows, rain and falling stones.Hou Jing's army suffered heavy casualties and retreated a little. Wang Sengbian immediately sent light cavalry to fight.Unlike in the past when the Liang army took advantage of the victory to pursue, Wang Sengbian's light cavalry returned to the city every time they won a battle, so they won more than ten battles in a row. Hou Jing lost many soldiers in vain and was suffering from a headache. Ren Yue who attacked Jiangling met unexpectedly in Chiting (southwest of Huarong, Hunan Province) with reinforcements from Xiao Yi's fierce general Hu Sengyou, and was defeated and captured.When the news came, Hou Jing was shocked. He burned the camp overnight, evacuated from Baling, and fled along the river to Jiankang. On the way, he was attacked from behind by Xun Lang, the governor of Yuzhou. As soon as Hou Jing left, Wang Sengbian commanded all the troops to encircle Jiangxia.Hou Jing's guards Song Zixian and Ding He who stayed in Jiangxia saw that they could no longer guard, so they negotiated with Wang Sengbian, willing to sacrifice the city in exchange for a way out.On the surface, Wang Sengbian provided a hundred ships to let Song Zixian and others out of the city, and secretly set up an ambush. After Song Zixian and others left the city and boarded the ship, they suddenly launched a fierce attack.Song Zixian and Ding He were captured and beheaded, and Xiao Yi took back Yingzhou again.