Chapter 39 18. Guangling in Shenqing quelled chaos

After eliminating his uncle Liu Yixuan, Liu Jun decided that he was the man of destiny, and that anyone who tried to rebel and seize power would be killed.He summoned all Liu Yixuan's daughters to the palace, changed their names and surnames, and enshrined them as concubines for his enjoyment (Liu Yixuan's daughters are also emotionless animals. Their father was killed, but they still serve their enemies with peace of mind).The most favored among them is his second daughter, who has a particularly charming smile.Liu Jun named her Shuyi and pretended to be the daughter of Minister Yin Yan to deceive others.This "Yin Shuyi" was the most favored in Liu Jun's harem, and no one could match her. Later, the two brothers and sisters gave birth to a son, who ranked eighth among Liu Jun's sons, and named him Liu Ziluan.

In addition to lust, Liu Jun is also extremely greedy and extravagant.According to historical records, he is "vigilant and courageous, knowledgeable, intelligent in writing, able to read and play, capable of all the seven elements, and good at riding and shooting". Looking at it from the present perspective, he is quite smart.But he doesn't know how to introspect himself, and he doesn't use his talents to important places.He likes to play gambling games with the ministers, and the ministers are also happy to let him win, so that he can get the official title bestowed.Once Liu Jun flourished the palace, extravagance and waste were very serious; at the same time, he liked to use the money in the treasury to reward, and there were many things that were pleasing to the eye, from the princes and ministers to the maids and guards.How can the national treasury not be short-lived day after day?But Jun Liu also has countermeasures.He made a rule that when the local governors and officials leave their posts and return to the capital Jiankang, they must pay tribute to the imperial court.Some officials searched a lot in the local area, thinking that the amount required by the emperor would be enough, but Liu Jun refused.After collecting the filial property from the officials, he left them in the palace with a smile on his face, and gambled with them until he had exhausted their pockets before he would stop.Such a rogue emperor, it is useless to talk to him about any reason.

So it is better to simply rebel, there are many people who devote themselves to trying. The first is Liu Jun's tenth younger brother, Liu Hun, King of Wuchang.As the name suggests, this guy is indeed quite muddy.In the second year of Xiaojian (AD 455), he was seventeen years old, and Liu Jun gave him the official position of being the governor of Yongzhou in Xiangyang.When he was free, he and a group of literati around him drafted a document, proclaimed himself the King of Chu, established the title of Yongguang, and named his staff and playmates as hundreds of officials.Speaking of it, the children have not grown up yet, they are just playing.But those who are interested (of course those who want to be promoted) don't think so. His long history Wang Yizhi got this document and secretly handed it over to Liu Jun.Liu Jun was furious, demoted him to a commoner, and then ordered him to commit suicide.

This belongs to the game life, or the type of looking for trouble when nothing happens.Some people are more knowledgeable, such as Liu Jun's seventh younger brother Jianping Wang Liu Hong.Emperor Wen loved him the most when he was alive, but he was humble and introverted, and he also understood politics. When you are not strong enough, you can only pretend to be a grandson, so he is more trusted in Liu Jun's court.He was also "lucky" and had a poor physique. He suffered from serious and minor illnesses when he was very young. As a result, he fell ill in the second year of Ming Dynasty (AD 458) and died well (when this kind of political chaos, people in politics can live a lifetime. Peace is worth burning incense, and sometimes getting sick and dying early is a good thing).

Of course, there are also people who really seek power and seek rebellion—the sixth younger brother Jingling King Liu Dan who Liu Jun has always been afraid of. Liu Dan is actually a very accomplished prince.During the Northern Expedition in the last years of Yuanjia, his performance was quite satisfactory, and he was also highly valued by Emperor Wen.In the war against Liu Shao and Liu Yixuan, he sided with Liu Jun and contributed a lot.From the perspective of hindsight, we can see that all of his actions were more or less for his own benefit. Liu Dan built a mansion for himself. Although the scale could not be as large as the emperor's palace, the buildings were extremely exquisite and the gardens were extremely beautiful, which was also famous at that time.What's more, he gathered all the civil and military talents in his mansion, and equipped with fine armor and sharp weapons, which aroused Liu Jun's suspicion.Liu Jun sent him to be the governor of Nanyanzhou, and took office in Guangling (now northwest of Yangzhou, Jiangsu Province) to observe him.

Liu Dan naturally understood his brother's intentions. In the name of the Northern Wei Dynasty's frequent invasion of the border, he repaired the city's defenses, gathered food and reorganized the army, and turned Guangling into a military base.Guangling is still far away from the northern border, and Liu Dan's actions have even spread rumors among the people that Liu Dan is going to rebel. It is impossible for the imperial court in the south not to react. In the third year of the Ming Dynasty (459 A.D.), Liu Jun had a showdown with Liu Dan. He ordered his superiors to play Liu Dan's crimes and demoted him to the rank of Marquis.Then he appointed Yuan Lang, the prefect of Yixing, as the governor of Yanzhou, and asked him to take the Yulin Forbidden Army to Guangling to take office, and took advantage of the gap to attack Liu Dan.It stands to reason that this matter was carefully arranged, and it should be successful quickly, but I don't know if it was because it was not properly arranged, and the Dian who was in charge of opening the door accidentally disclosed Yuanlang's action plan to Liu Dan's subordinates.Liu Dan collected the codes and closed the gates of the city.Yuanlang was unable to enter Guangling City at dawn, but was suddenly attacked by Liu Dan's elite soldiers who left the city. The whole army was defeated and Yuanlang was killed.

Liu Jun had no choice but to issue an edict of martial law inside and outside, and appointed Shen Qingzhi, the most trusted general around him, as the governor of Nanyanzhou to lead an army to crusade against Liu Dan.When Liu Dan heard the news, he sent people to forcibly burn down the houses in the outer city of Guangling, drove all the residents into Guangling City, and then closed the doors. (Just from this behavior of Liu Dan, it can be seen that even if he can become the emperor, his actions will not be much wiser than Liu Jun. The genes of the Liu family have been broken.) Shen Qing's soldiers approached the city, but Liu Dan hadn't realized the strength of the enemy, so he said with contempt: "Mr. Shen has gray hair all over his head, why bother to come here to die!"

Shen Qingzhi said: "The court thinks that Your Excellency is too arrogant and ignorant to bother those young officers." Liu Jun was worried that Liu Dan would jump over the wall in a hurry and go to the Northern Wei Dynasty, so he ordered Shen Qingzhi to cut off his escape route.Shen Qingzhi moved his camp to Baitu, 18 miles north of Guangling. At the same time, Yuzhou Governor Zongxi, Xuzhou Governor Liu Daolong, Yanzhou Governor Shen Sengming and others all led troops to help, and the army almost surrounded Guangling City. When Liu Dan saw this, he was at a loss, so he left his middle soldier Shen Lingci to guard Guangling, and took hundreds of cronies out of the city to escape by taking a trail. Shen Qingzhi sent his general Wu Nian to chase after him.Liu Dan had only walked more than a dozen miles, but his followers were unwilling to leave and called for a fight one after another.Seeing that Shen Qingzhi's pursuers were about to catch up, Liu Dan couldn't call on everyone, so he had to encourage their fighting spirit, and returned to Guangling with them.

Trembling, Liu Dan returned to the vicinity of Guangling City, looked up, was shocked, and quickly said to the left and right: "Isn't that old man with a white beard standing at the top of the city Shen Gong (Shen Qingzhi)?" Left and right replied, "Your Majesty, you must be blind. That's Shen Zhongbing (Shen Lingci)!" Liu Dan wiped his eyes, breathed a sigh of relief, and led the crowd into the city, built an altar to swear an oath, and ordered these people to be promoted. The urgent documents from the imperial court were sent to Shen Qingzhi's camp like a snowflake, and Shen Qingzhi also had to bite the bullet and lead the crowd forward.Shen Qingzhi was ordered to build three beacon towers in the southwest of Guangling City. It was agreed that if the outer city of Guangling was conquered, one beacon tower would be raised; if the inner city was conquered, two beacon towers would be raised;

Shen Qingzhi led his troops to burn the east gate of Guangling, filled the ravine, repaired the gates, and set up siege equipment such as building carts outside the city.However, at this time, it was the rainy season in the south of the Yangtze River, and the rain continued, making it impossible to attack the city.The two sides survived from April to early July, without raising a beacon.Liu Jun became angry, and while ordering Yu Hui, the imperial censor, to release Shen Qing from his official position, he issued an edict not to pursue it, hoping to arouse Shen Qingzhi's fighting spirit.

What to do, beat me to death!Shen Qingzhi took the lead, facing the arrows Lin Shiyu at the top of Guangling City, stormed the outer city together with all the soldiers, and finally broke in (it's not easy with a beacon fire).The imperial army took advantage of the victory and advanced, and soon conquered the inner city.Liu Dan had nowhere to escape, and was found by the junior officer Shen Yinzhi in his back garden, fell into the water, was dragged out and beheaded. (If we carefully compare Shen Qingzhi's attack on Guangling City with Liu Yu's previous battles against Liu Yi, Qiao Zong, and Sima Xiuzhi, they are also aimed at quelling civil strife, and their art of war is simply not the same. At this time Liu's ruling group is already competing with others for being weaker, and there is no concept of a strong one.) Liu Jun was not satisfied with such a victory. He believed that all the people in Guangling City who had held on for more than three months were against the imperial court, and no one could forgive them.So he issued a terrifying order: Massacre the city! (For my own people, this will be a turmoil, and Genghis Khan eight hundred years later will be in vain.) Of course Shen Qingzhi knew it was wrong, and repeatedly wrote to Liu Jun, requesting that the common people be spared the death penalty.To put it bluntly, in the end Liu Jun reluctantly let go, and the men under five feet can survive (basically, minors and disabled people can get away with it), and the women are of course even more pitiful. Being a comfort woman is another "absolute thing"). After filtering in this way, a total of more than 3,000 people were killed in the city, and they were not killed by a single blow.Everyone had to cut open their intestines, gouged out their eyes, whipped their bodies, and poured bitter wine on the wounds. After suffering enough, they chopped off their heads. The scene was horrible.After killing the people, Liu Jun ordered to pile up the heads under the stone city, named "Jingguan", as a scenery by the Yangtze River (I am speechless now...). Two years later, Liu Jun's fourteenth younger brother, Liu Xiumao, king of Hailing, also rose to make trouble, this time in Xiangyang again, and Liu Xiumao was also seventeen years old this year (Liu Hun was the second).The reason is that the prince's Sima Yushenzhi often advises him to act, but he likes to act arbitrarily and is dissatisfied.His right and left Zhang Bochao took the opportunity to persuade him to kill Yu Shenzhi and stand on his own, and even if he failed, he could go to the Northern Wei Dynasty (everyone wanted to use this as a retreat, Liu's children were not only bad in character, but also lacked in creativity).Liu Xiumao agreed, so he killed Yu Shen's staff and set up troops to defend Xiangyang against the imperial court.It's a pity that not many people listened to him. Within a few days, Yin Xuanqing, one of his men who joined the army, revolted and captured him alive and beheaded him. Liu Jun eliminated two elder brothers, four younger brothers, and an uncle successively.The throne is preserved, and his own country is almost exhausted.The reign title of his last few years was "Da Ming", and Zu Chongzhi's famous "Da Ming Calendar" was compiled in the sixth year of Daming (AD 462).The Daming Temple in Yangzhou was also named after it was first built in the Ming Dynasty.However, the reign title of "Da Ming" left people with more dark memories.In the eighth year of Ming Dynasty (AD 464), Liu Jun, who had been intoxicated for many years, died of depression because of the memory of his cousin Yin Shuyi who passed away before him.One tyrant fell, but more tyrants stood up.The dark ages have just begun and are far from over.