Chapter 62 15. Wu Mingche regained Huainan

As the last dynasty of the Southern Dynasties, Chen Guo has a special status in history.The class in the Southern Dynasties can be essentially divided into three categories according to their origins: the overseas Chinese from the north who spoke the northern dialect, the Wu people who lived in the south and spoke the Wu language, and the barbarian aborigines who were widely distributed in the southern mountainous areas. During the Eastern Jin Dynasty, the gentry who migrated from the north to the south controlled almost all the ruling resources. The most typical example was the heyday of the Wang and Xie families.After the mid-Eastern Jin Dynasty, the long-term division between the north and the south forced the rulers to use the southerners who had lived in Wu for a long time, that is, "the northerners use the south".When Liu Yu became emperor, the Southern Dynasty began to form a situation where overseas Chinese and Wu people ruled together. Although the influence of overseas Chinese was still quite large in the early stage, the importance of Wu people could not be ignored. Lin Zi brothers, Liu Song famous generals Shen Qingzhi and Shen Youzhi, both came from the Shen family in Wuxing (now Huzhou, Zhejiang), and the white-robed general Chen Qingzhi was also from southern Wu.From the Song Dynasty to the Liang Dynasty, the rulers relied more and more on the military power of the Wu people, and gradually developed into a situation of "co-governance between the North and the South".Hou Jing's rebellion severely damaged the vitality of the overseas Chinese and Wu people at the top of the pyramid, and the third class, which had been seldom noticed before, took the opportunity to emerge. This is the local tyrant cave master of the southern barbarians.

The issue of ethnic minorities in southern China has not been simpler than that in the north since ancient times, but the barbarians in the south are relatively less aggressive and have received less attention.There are "five barbarians" in the north, and "five barbarians" in the south: Man, Li, Xi, Liao, and Yue (the more generally refers to Shanyue. The names of the three tribes of Li, Xi, and Liao used to be next to the word "dog", starting with The "worm" under the word "Man" also has the meaning of insult. These words are abandoned today. However, some geographical names that are still in use today are similar to the word "Man" in history, such as Shu, Min, etc.). The distribution areas of the "five barbarians" are generally disjoint. The barbarians are mainly distributed in Jing, Xiang, Yong, Ying, Si and other states, which is equivalent to the area between southern Henan and Hunan today. The barbarians can also be divided into multiple groups. The Li people are distributed in Hunan and Guangzhou, which is now southern Hunan and Guangdong; the Xi people are distributed in Xunyang, Nanchang, Wuling and other counties of Jiangzhou, which is now Jiangxi; the Liao people are distributed in the west of Jingzhou, Liang, Yi, Ning, Jiao , Guangzhou, that is, the vast areas of western Hubei, Sichuan, Guizhou, Guangxi, and Vietnam (there is a saying that Laos (or Lao people), the main ethnic group in Laos, is the descendant of the Liao ethnic group); Shanyue is mainly distributed in Yangzhou, now the southern part of Zhejiang and Fujian.In addition, there are Yan people distributed in Jing, Hunan, Liang, and Yizhou, and Ba people in Yizhou, etc. The branches are quite complicated.

Chen Ba first established the Chen State, and started his army from Lingnan, where the five barbarians lived. He had to obtain the support of the five barbarians to expand his strength.During the Northern Dispute for Hou Jing, nearly half of the forces attached to Chen Baxian were southern barbarians, such as Hou Andu and Mrs. Xian of the Li nationality, Huang Faji and Ouyang Yu of the Xi nationality (some say that Ouyang is a slang), and they ruled all over the country. , Zhou Fu, Zhou Di, Xiong Tanlang, Liu Yi, Chen Baoying, Lu Xida and others who supported Chen Baxian also came from the Xi, Yue, and Man tribes respectively.It can be said that without the "Five Barbarians" in the south, there would be no Chen State. Considering that the other half of the military forces that Chen Baxian relied on, such as Du Sengming, Zhou Wenyu, Wu Mingche, Hua Jiao and other generals, were all born in Wu, And Chen Baxian himself was an out-and-out Wu people. We can say that at the end of the Southern and Northern Dynasties, the Southern Dynasties really became the world of southerners with Wu people and barbarians as the main body, that is, "Southern people ruled the south".Mr. Chen Yinke even suggested that, in a sense, "Chen can also be said to be a dynasty established by the southern barbarians".

But this situation changed a lot when Emperor Chen Xuan came to the throne.The so-called "getting the world right away, you can't rule it immediately", because the cultural level of the southern barbarians is not high, and at the same time they need to win over the remaining overseas Chinese forces after the Hou Jing Rebellion, Emperor Wu of Chen and Emperor Wen of the two dynasties appointed a large number of overseas Chinese to govern the government, such as The aforementioned Mao Xi, Cai Jingli, Dao Zhongju, Liu Shizhi, etc.In terms of generals, the major local armed forces that Emperor Chen Wen suppressed were all southern barbarians, and the conflict between the northerners and the southerners also heated up sharply. The death of Hou Andu was also related to this.

Therefore, Emperor Chen Xuan faced two major problems: 1. How to resolve the contradiction between the aristocratic families dominated by overseas Chinese and the local tyrants dominated by Wu people and barbarians in the south; With the river standing, Jiankang, the capital of the country, is in jeopardy. How to overcome the weakness in defense and seek the security of the country is the top priority that Emperor Chen Xuan needs to solve. These two questions point to the same answer—the Northern Expedition. In fact, in the third year of Tianjia (562 AD), Chen and Qi established friendly relations, and Chen and Zhou were in a state of hostility except for the three years before and after Huajiao's rebellion, and basically maintained peace.However, the process of the Southern Dynasties has repeatedly proved a truth we have emphasized: "to guard the river, you must guard the Huai River." The gains and losses of the Huai River directly affected the rise and fall of the Southern Dynasties.Whenever the Huainan line of defense was secure, the rule of the Southern Dynasty was stable, such as the rule of Yuanjia and Emperor Wu of Liang; in any era when the Huainan line of defense was lost, the rule of the Southern Dynasty was chaotic, such as the late Southern Qi Dynasty and after the Hou Jing Rebellion.On the other hand, Jiangling in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River and Yizhou in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River are also very important to the south of the Yangtze River. The so-called "Jiangzuo must have Shu", losing these two places is like being choked by the enemy, and there is a danger of suffocation at any time.Wu Mingche attacked Houliang and tried to take back Jiangling because of this consideration.

That is to say, if Emperor Chen Xuan wanted to maintain long-term stability, he had to break the blindly peaceful foreign policy and adopt a policy of attacking and defending in the military.The Northern Expedition also happened to be able to put into use the local tyrant army controlled by the southerners, so as to achieve the purpose of expanding the living space and alleviating internal ethnic conflicts. Whether it is to attack Qi or attack Zhou, Chen Guo's attitude is a very critical weight in the stalemate in the dispute between Qi and Zhou.In the third year of Taijian (571 A.D.), Emperor Chen Xuan sent his envoy to the Northern Qi Dynasty, demanding to unite Qi to attack Zhou, but was rejected.Gao Wei was short-sighted, did not think about making progress, and did not dare to take the initiative to attack the Northern Zhou Dynasty.In the Northern Zhou Dynasty, Du Gao was sent to Chen Guo again in the fourth year of Taijian, and he proposed that Zhou and Chen jointly attack Qi, and Emperor Chen Xuan was easily persuaded.

In the fifth year of Taijian, Emperor Chen Xuan decided to crusade against the Northern Qi Dynasty. General Wu Mingche, who was born in Qin County in Huainan (now Liuhe, Jiangsu), supported him most firmly.The left servant of the Shangshu shot Xu Ling and said: "Wu Mingche's family is in Huainan, and he understands the local customs; in today's dynasty, if you talk about general talents, no one can surpass him." Ji was the deputy general, leading 100,000 troops, and set out from Jiankang to attack Qin County. In addition, the governor Huang Fajiu attacked Liyang (now Hexian County, Anhui) from the west.

The Chen army going north was like a broken bamboo. It defeated the Qi army in Daxian (northeast of Hanshan, Anhui today), pulled out the wooden fence set up by the Northern Qi in the water, and surrounded Qinjun, Liyang and other cities. The Northern Qi Dynasty sent generals Wei Pohu, Changsun Honglue, and Wang Lin to lead the army to the aid of Qin County, set up a line outside the city, carefully selected a group of tall and strong strong men as the forwards, and sent a western region Hu with excellent archery skills. People are in front of the battle, and their posture is very scary.Wu Mingche's brave general Xiao Mahe said: "If you lose that barbarian, you can destroy the morale of the Qi army, which is comparable to the courage of Guan Yunchang beheading Yan Liang!"

Xiao Mahe replied: "Just tell me the clothes of this man, and I will go and take his life immediately!" Wu Mingche was very excited, and ordered someone to explain the appearance of the barbarian to Xiao Mahe one by one, and personally poured a glass of wine to comfort Xiao Mahe.Xiao Mahe took the wine glass, drank it all in one gulp, jumped on his horse and rushed towards the Qi army's phalanx. Seeing this, the barbarians of the Qi army did not show weakness.He stepped forward, bowed his bow and nocked an arrow, and was about to shoot, but Xiao Mahe saw it clearly from a distance.Xiao Mahe took out a small spear from his waist, waved his hand and threw it, hitting the barbarian on the forehead, and the barbarian fell to the ground. (The "Warming Wine and Killing Huaxiong" in the book is not a history, and its form is probably adapted from the story of Xiao Maha's "drinking and beating Huren".) The strong men in the Qi army went to battle and were also beheaded by Xiao Mahe , the Northern Qi reinforcements were immediately defeated, Changsun Honglue died in battle, and Wei Pohu fled.Wang Lin escaped alone, retreated to Pengcheng, and was sent to Shouyang by the Northern Qi Dynasty to resist Chen Jun's attack.

However, the northern Qi cities in Huainan had no fighting spirit. Huang Fajiu rushed to capture Liyang and killed all the soldiers defending the city. , Qiaojun (now Mengcheng, Anhui), and Renzhou (now Guzhen, Anhui) were also conquered one after another.By August of this year, most of the cities in Huainan and Jiangbei had surrendered to Chen Jun. Wu Mingche took advantage of the victory to capture the outer city of Shouyang, the last important town in Huainan, and Wang Lin led the Qi army to retreat to the two inner cities of Shouyang. —— Xiangguo City and Jincheng. Wu Mingche besieged Shouyang, using the tactics commonly used by the Southern Dynasties army, building dams on Feishui and diverting water to irrigate the city.The water level in the city rose, the guards were swollen, and more and more people died of illness.Seeing that Shouyang was about to fall, the reinforcements sent by the Northern Qi Dynasty also arrived. The right servant of the Xingtai shot Pi Jinghe and led the army to set up camp 30 miles away from Shouyang. The generals of the Chen army panicked. They were worried that there would be a strong city ahead and rescue soldiers behind , difficult to deal with.

Wu Mingche smiled and said: "Soldiers are expensive, but Qi's reinforcements are hesitant to move forward. They must be afraid of our army's bravery and dare not fight. Our army can concentrate on attacking the city." Wu Mingche went into battle in person, commanded the army to attack from all sides, attacked Shouyang in one fell swoop, and captured Wang Lin and other Qi generals alive.As expected by Wu Mingche, Pi Jinghe not only did not attack, but abandoned his camels and horses and fled northward with his luggage. Chen Jun made another big profit. The Northern Qi Dynasty ruled Huainan for more than 20 years. Taxation and corvee were far heavier than those of the Southern Dynasties. They had already lost the support of the people. Chen Jun encountered very little resistance in this battle.Only Wang Lin, an old general of Liang State, was fond of money and loved soldiers, and he was quite popular in the army. After being captured, many of Wang Lin's old troops in Wu Mingche's army were trembling when they saw him, and they dared not raise their heads, and they scrambled to intercede for him.Wu Mingche originally wanted to detain him to Jiankang, but he was worried that something would happen to him due to nights and dreams, so he sent someone to hunt him down. So far, Chen Jun has conquered dozens of cities in the Northern Qi Dynasty, occupying all the lands of Huai and Si, and regained the homeland of the Southern Dynasty in Huainan.When the news spread to Yecheng, Gao Wei was playing a game of holding lances with Mu Dipo, Han Feng and others, and he was very worried when he heard the news.Mu Dipo waved her hand and said: "Shouyang and other places were originally the territory of the Southern Dynasty, so let them take it. Even if the country loses everything south of the Yellow River, it will still be a Kucha country (a small country in the Western Regions). It's time to enjoy yourself, so why worry?" The ministers on the left and right also echoed, and Gao Wei immediately turned his worries into joy, and continued to drink happily, singing and laughing. A group of favored courtiers such as Mu Dipo and Han Feng even more blatantly suppressed dissidents. A few days later, they falsely claimed that the servants Cui Jishu, Zhang Diaohu and other Han ministers took advantage of the opportunity of the fall of Shouyang to plot rebellion, and encouraged Gao Wei to kill him. Cui Jishu et al.The blind Zu Teng who once slandered loyal officials with Mu Tipo was also sent to other places to be the governor because of conflicts with Lu Lingxuan and Mu Tipo. (Cui Jishu used to be a running dog under Gao Cheng and Gao Yang, and Zu Ting played power games in the Gao Zhan and Gao Wei dynasties. His character was extremely low, but he was still a talented person. Now even the talented but not virtuous people in Northern Qi It’s useless, and it’s just what deserves to hasten its demise if a treasure-level figure like Mutipo holds the power.)