Chapter 16 15. Disruption

After the end of the Wei-Song war, the border between Wei and Song moved from the south of the Yellow River to Xiangcheng, Hulu, and Dongyang (after Shusun Jian withdrew his troops, Zhu Kui, the governor of Qingzhou, considered that Dongyang City had been basically destroyed, and moved the seat of Qingzhou Arrived at Buqicheng (now southwest of Jimo, Shandong)).Song State's defensive pressure in Huaibei area suddenly increased, and the Northern Wei Dynasty did not have a place to take all of Huaibei due to lack of clear strategic goals. The more serious consequence was that Tuoba Si's old illness relapsed due to the imperial conquest and the fatigue of the journey, and he died shortly after returning to the West Palace in Pingcheng.The 16-year-old prince Tuoba Tao came to the throne, and this is Emperor Taiwu, the most accomplished martial artist among the emperors of the Northern Wei Dynasty.As soon as Tuoba Tao came up, he crowned Changsun Song, Xi Jin, and Changsun Han as kings, and granted amnesty to the world, abolished imprisonment, and opened warehouses to release relief.After hearing the news, the refugees from Henan who had just experienced the war flooded into the territory of the Northern Wei Dynasty one after another. Jizhou, Bingzhou and other places became a "happy land" for a large number of poor people. (The new measures taken by the Northern Wei Dynasty to enthroned the new emperor can be seen as a follow-up to the Southern Expedition War. The middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River, where there have been wars for many years, are sparsely populated because the people lack a source of livelihood, and they continue to move to the relatively affluent Jiangnan area. Tuoba Si’s Although it was too late to release the relief, objectively it still played an important role in alleviating the conflict between Hu and Han and promoting national integration)

People in the Northern Wei Dynasty "cut mourning", and the people of Rouran in the north also "cut mourning".Mouhan Heshenggai Khan Datan, who had been in peace for ten years, was overjoyed when he learned that Tuobasi had passed away and the new emperor had ascended the throne. In the first year of Shiguang in the Northern Wei Dynasty (AD 424), he led 60,000 cavalry into the cloud (now Northwest of Inner Mongolia and Linger), wantonly slaughtered and captured Shengle Palace, the former palace of the Northern Wei Dynasty.The young and energetic Tuoba Tao was furious ("Dare to attack my old capital just after taking office, isn't this bullying?"), led the light cavalry in person, and rushed from Pingcheng to Yunzhong in three days and two nights.Da Tan did not show any weakness, and sent his nephew, general Zhijin, to surround Tuoba Tao's army with cavalry, and there were as many as fifty people inside and outside.All the soldiers of Wei Bing turned pale with shock, only Tuoba Tao calmed down and didn't take it seriously, which stabilized the morale of the army.Although there are many people in Rouran's army, there is no order. Tuoba Tao saw Yu Zhijin busy commanding from a distance, so he secretly ordered the sharp archers around him to shoot at Yu Zhijin.With an arrow shot, Yu Zhijin fell off his horse and died. Rouran's army lost its leader and immediately lost its position.Da Tan was frightened, and fled north with his cavalry.

In the second year, Tuoba Tao reorganized his army and led the army in five ways to go east and west, go deep into the desert, and crusade against Rouran.Rouran's ministries have never seen such a huge offensive, and they have been fleeing northward.Tuoba Tao won a complete victory, but it's a pity that the desert is too vast to chase all the way to the end and capture Dayan. The two victories against Rouran made the Northern Wei Dynasty temporarily alleviate the danger in the north, and Tuoba Tao began to have time to consider other powerful enemies.At this time, two very gratifying events happened in the eyes of the Northern Wei Dynasty: one was that the ministers abolished the emperor and the emperor punished the ministers in the Song Dynasty in the south; the other was that the tyrant Helian Bobo in the west died of illness , a civil war broke out among the sons for the position of heir.

After the Henan War, there were many internal contradictions in the Song Dynasty, and Liu Yifu did not look like an emperor.Xu Xianzhi, Fu Liang, Xie Hui and others, because they lost their land and lost their teachers, made a statement to demote themselves from their official positions, but Liu Yifu only issued an imperial edict, ignoring all crimes.Although the official position was preserved, the country's laws and regulations were violated, and the Gu Ming ministers began to secretly plan to abolish the little emperor. As mentioned above, Liu Yu has seven sons in total. If the eldest son Liu Yifu is abolished, according to the order of elder and younger, the legal successor will be Liu Yizhen, the second son who served as the governor of Nanyu Prefecture.Liu Yizhen had his own circle of friends, and the celebrities at that time Xie Lingyun and Yan Yanzhi were all his confidants.These people are very talented, but they are all extreme in temperament, indulge in their talents, and are not valued by the ministers in the court.On the one hand, Xu Xianzhi and the others wanted to establish a wise emperor, but on the other hand, they did not want to lose their special status as important officials in the court. Naturally, they were unwilling to let Liu Yizhen come to power and let him develop his own power.Therefore, Xu Xianzhi took advantage of the original conflict between Liu Yifu and Liu Yizhen's brothers to collect some evidence of Liu Yizhen's contempt and insult to the consul during his stay in Nanyu Prefecture, and wrote a statement to the court.As expected, Liu Yifu made an imperial decree to abolish Liu Yizhen as a commoner and move him to Xin'an (now Suining, Jiangsu Province) to be imprisoned.

The first step went smoothly, and the civil servants suddenly became more courageous, and the next step was to abolish the emperor.This is not a trivial matter. It is necessary to unite the armed forces of the DPRK and China to ensure nothing goes wrong.Xu Xianzhi recruited two other important figures in other places, Tan Daoji, the governor of Nanyanzhou, and Wang Hong, the governor of Jiangzhou, into Jiankang, and told them his plan to abolish the emperor.Tan Daoji did not agree with Xu Xianzhi's behavior of abolishing the prince, but his objection was not accepted, so he had to cooperate with them for the time being.

On this day in May of the second year of Jingping (AD 424), the leading general Xie Hui ordered his family members to live outside the mansion under the pretext that the houses in the mansion were damaged, and brought a group of fully equipped soldiers into the mansion for resettlement.At the same time, Xie Hui notified Liu Yifu's Zhongshu Sheren Xing Antai and Pan Sheng in advance to be in the palace.That night, Xie Hui and Tan Daoji lived together in the mansion, Xie Hui tossed and turned, unable to sleep, Tan Daoji was worthy of being a general who had fought a big battle and seen a big scene, and he slept as soundly as before in the face of a big change, Xie Hui couldn't help admiring this.

The playful emperor Liu Yifu set up a wine shop in the Hualin Garden to the north of the palace, and was serving as a bartender selling wine himself.He and the eunuchs sold and drank for themselves. After drinking too much, they took a dragon boat night trip to the nearby Tianyuan Pool, and finally slept on the boat.At dawn the next day, Tan Daoji led the army, followed by Xu Xianzhi and others, and rushed into the palace.The two insiders, Xing Antai and Pan Sheng, sent all the defenders away in advance. The sergeants rushed all the way onto the dragon boat, killed the two guards beside the emperor, cut and wounded the sleepy Liu Yifu, and even supported him. He was pushed out of the East Pavilion of the imperial palace, tied up with the Xishou, and sent to the original palace for detention.

Xu Xianzhi and others discussed it and decided to welcome Liu Yilong, the well-known King of Yidu.The ministers made an edict in the name of the empress dowager to abolish Liu Yifu as the king of Yingyang, move to Wujun (now Suzhou, Jiangsu), and succeed Liu Yilong to the throne.Xu Xianzhi was afraid that there would be a change, so as soon as Liu Yifu left, he immediately sent people to Wujun and Xin'an to kill Liu Yifu and Liu Yizhen respectively. (Xu Xianzhi and others, for the sake of the safety of the country, abolishing the incompetent emperor is not impossible in itself, but at least they should weigh their own weight first. They have their own selfishness and want to be a powerful minister like Huo Guang, but they also want to Placing hope on the new emperor, the contradictory desire just happened to be in conflict with the reality that Liu Yu took back the imperial power and restored centralized power at the end of the Eastern Jin Dynasty. Later he said: "Unfortunately in Yingyang, everyone in Qing has the name of killing the lord. If you want to stand in the world, will you get evil?")

Eighteen-year-old Liu Yilong guarded Jingzhou far upstream, and Fu Liang led all the officials to Jiangling to meet him.Xu Xianzhi was also worried that Jingzhou was important, and it would be difficult if Liu Yilong became the throne and used other people, so he wisely appointed Xie Hui as the governor of Jingzhou, and supervised the military affairs of the seven prefectures of Jing, Xiang, Yong, and Yi.The three of them are already like grasshoppers tied to a thread. If one is damaged, all will be damaged, and if one is prosperous, all will be prospered. If one of them is left outside, in case something changes, there will be a way out.

Liu Yilong heard the news of the death of his two older brothers in Jiangling, and his civil and military officials were very scrupulous. Many people advised him not to go to Jiankang and throw himself into the trap.Sima Wanghua thought otherwise. He said: "Xu Xianzhi and others were born in poor families. They were ordered by the first emperor and had heavy responsibilities on their shoulders. They didn't see the intention of rebelling. The reason why the emperor was abolished and the second king was killed should be because he was afraid of the future. They were liquidated, so they started. They have been loyal to the royal family for a long time, and it is impossible to suddenly have different ambitions. Moreover, these three people are evenly matched, and no one will accept the other. They just want to take the opportunity to seize power and strengthen themselves. Now just follow along with confidence, there is really nothing to worry about."

Wang Hua knows the situation and also knows the people. He analyzed the psychology of the three ministers very thoroughly in one sentence, which contained guesswork, but it was also very reasonable.Liu Yilong is different from his two older brothers. He loves to read instead of playing, and he can write well, which is quite reasonable.After listening to Wang Hua's suggestion, Liu Yilong said with a smile: "Aiqing wants to be Song Chang who persuaded Emperor Wenwen of the Han Dynasty to come to Beijing to ascend the throne, right?" He had the bottom line and said: "The princes in the court will not abandon the order of the late emperor, not to mention the strength of my troops is enough to control people, so there is nothing to be afraid of!" Liu Yilong left Wang Hua in Jingzhou, and asked Dao Yanzhi to guard Xiangyang in case of accidents, and then set off to meet Fu Liang and other ministers.Unexpectedly, after a coup in the palace, the south has seen a rare good situation in decades.