Chapter 67 Twenty, the end of the great era

There are many obscene words and pornographic songs, all of which are low-key.However, Chen Shubao would occasionally compose poems to make jokes.It is said that once he suddenly thought of Empress Shen who was left out in the harem, so he went to see her, sat for a while and then withdrew.Seeing that Empress Shen didn't say a few words of warmth (far worse than Concubine Zhang!), he asked disappointedly: "Why don't you keep me?" As he spoke, he impromptuly presented a poem to Empress Shen:

"Keep people or not? Go if you don't. No one is here, and there is a place to keep people." After hearing this, Empress Shen replied angrily: "Who says you don't remember each other? You'll be ashamed when you see it. If you don't want to live if you know your love, you'll be sent if you want to stay." If this is true, I appreciate Empress Shen's dedication to love.It's a pity that the boring Chen Shubao didn't appreciate it, so he had the idea of ​​abolishing Empress Shen and changing Concubine Zhang, but this time, he was too late. In the second year of Zhenming (eighth year of Emperor Kaihuang, 588 A.D.), Emperor Wen of the Sui Dynasty issued an imperial edict listing Chen Shubao's twenty major crimes.The Sui army marched southward in a big way. Jin Wang Yang Guang left Liuhe, Luzhou Governor Han Qinhu left Lujiang (now Hefei, Anhui), Wuzhou Governor He Ruobi left Guangling (now Yangzhou, Jiangsu) and arrived at Jiangbei Ferry by land, and Qin King Yang Jun left Xiangyang along the Down the Han River, Qinghe Lord Yang Su came out of Yong'an (now Fengjie, Chongqing), Jingzhou Governor Liu Renen came out of Jiangling, Qizhou Governor Wang Shiji came out of Qichun, and went down the Yangtze River. Entering Taihu Lake by sea, the Eighth Route Army was led by Yang Guang to attack Chen Guo.

The mighty Sui army claimed 510,000 troops, which may be an exaggeration, but it is an indisputable fact that at least more than 300,000 soldiers, and more attacks made Chen Jun hard to defend.The troops deployed by Chen Jun, including Jiankang's defenders, totaled no more than 200,000, and half of them were scattered in various fortresses on the river, making it difficult to resist the dripping attack of the Sui army. The military situation is urgent, and Jiankang is reported to Jiankang. Generals Fan Yi, Pu She Yuan Xian, and Xiao Mahe think that they should increase their troops and take precautions along the river.The ministers were at odds, but Chen Shubao disagreed and said: "If you increase troops, isn't it a sign of weakness? Jiankang City has a royal spirit. I think that Qi soldiers attacked three times, and Zhou soldiers also came twice. What is the result? Didn't they get beaten hard?" Return in defeat? What can the Sui soldiers do?"

Kong Fan also echoed: "The Yangtze River cuts off the north and the south. Can the enemy still fly over? Those guards are greedy for meritorious service and deliberately exaggerate the facts; humble ministers often think that officials are small. If the enemy really crosses the river, we will You must go to battle and fight, and you will become a captain." After speaking, the monarchs and ministers laughed and continued to drink, as if nothing had happened. (Chen Shubao was too optimistic under the paralysis of alcohol. As we said, Emperor Chen Xuan tried to solve the two major internal and external problems through the Northern Expedition. After the Northern Zhou Dynasty recaptured Jiangbei, the problems remained. The contradictions among the ethnic groups are intensifying. Most of the local generals are from the five barbarians. For example, Fan Yi, who is in charge of Jiankang's defense, is a barbarian. Although he has soldiers in his hands, he is squeezed out. Similar situations of bullying between upper and lower levels, and suspicion between civil and military , and it is very common. Once a battle is started, the combat effectiveness and morale will not be high.) In the early morning of New Year's Day in the second year, the river was filled with fog.Chen Shubao in Jiankang City was still thinking about having a big banquet in the early court to celebrate the New Year.Chen Shubao was very interested, and got drunk. When he woke up in the afternoon, the situation had changed drastically: Sui generals He Ruobi and Han Qinhu broke through Guangling and Hengjiang in the north of the river respectively, crossed the Yangtze River without anyone noticing, and occupied the south bank of the Yangtze River. Jingkou and Caishi, Chen Jun who was guarding the riverside watched the wind, and the Sui army approached the city. Chen Shubao's optimism was gone. He hastily appointed Xiao Mahe, Fan Yi and Lu Guangda, the leader of the central government, as the governors to resist the offensive of the Sui army. Suzaku Gate, to protect the safety of Jiankang. But Chen Shubao, who doesn't know how to use troops, made a mistake. He pulled more than 100,000 Chen soldiers near Jiankang into a line of defense that stretched for twenty miles from north to south. Kong Fan, who knows how to fight, sent into battle.Several generals fought on their own, but He Ruobi defeated them one by one with ease, Kong Fan's troops collapsed without fighting, Xiao Mahe was captured after fighting hard, and Chen's army was defeated. Ren Zhong led his troops out of the city to resist Han Qinhu's attack, surrendered at Shizigang (now Yuhuatai, Nanjing, Jiangsu) before fighting, turned his guns and led the Sui army into Jiankang City from Zhuquemen. Chen Shubao panicked in the palace, he hugged his favorite Concubine Zhang and Concubine Kong, and went straight to the back hall to throw himself into the well.Of course, it is not to seek death, but to temporarily take shelter at the bottom of the shallow well.Soldiers of the Sui army entered the palace late at night, searched everywhere for Chen Shubao, but they couldn't find him.Chen Shubao was terrified and shouted: "There is someone! There is someone!" The soldiers of the Sui Army put down the rope and pulled him up after a long time, only to find that a man and two women were tied together, no wonder they were as heavy as pigs! Wretched to miserable, Chen Shubao's ending was better than that of the Northern Qi Dynasty and the last emperor of the Northern Zhou Dynasty.Emperor Wen of the Sui Dynasty rewarded Chen Shubao generously, and called him to the court many times to speak, and his treatment was equivalent to that of a third-rank official.In the fourth year of Renshou (AD 604), Chen Shubao died at the age of fifty-two. At that time, Emperor Wen of the Sui Dynasty had died at the hands of his son Yang Guang. The Kingdom of Chen perished, and the later Three Kingdoms period of more than 50 years was unified by the Sui Dynasty. The 170-year history of the Southern Dynasty since Liu Yu became emperor came to an end.More importantly, starting from the Rebellion of the Eight Kings in the Western Jin Dynasty, the 299 years of chaos and division in the Chinese world came to an end.If we want, we can also go back to the Yellow Turban Uprising in 184 A.D., and bid farewell to the era of great division for more than 400 years. Going back to the question raised at the beginning of this section, the Western Wei-Northern Zhou-Sui system, through Yuwentai’s military system and Zhou Wudi’s policy of exterminating Buddhism, slavery, and legislation, finally gradually replaced the old system with the Guanlong system. The powerful family system found the best route to solve the social contradictions at that time.In contrast, although Chen Guo and Northern Qi both had their own reform plans to try to resolve social conflicts, neither of them could match the advantages and strength of the Guanlong system. The rulers of Guanlong who ended the era of great division and started the Sui and Tang Dynasties were not necessarily smarter and more capable than all the rulers in the previous hundreds of years. Their success lies in the fact that they lived in a more opportune environment and encountered fewer difficulties. The strategy adopted is more appropriate. In four words, it is called "emerging as the times require", and in eight words, it is the most familiar sentence to us Chinese, but the most inconceivable to foreigners: "For a long time, we must divide. A long time must be united." The era of great division seems far away to us today, but it is not unfamiliar.In that era, birth and death coexisted, and in that era, light and darkness coexisted.Countless heroes of that era are like shooting stars in the night sky, they will always be dazzling and shining for a moment, but they can't last long, and they will eventually disappear in the night.There is only one piece of night, the unchanging depth, the unswerving eternity. Perhaps, that is the true meaning of our tireless exploration when we look back at history. At this point in the text, returning to the topic of "Rolling Yangtze River, leisurely traveling the Southern and Northern Dynasties", it ends with a song "Li Ting Yan" by Zhang Sheng, a poet of the Song Dynasty, as a postscript.