Chapter 76 The Reign of Emperor Wu of Liang

——"480 temples in the Southern Dynasties, how many towers are in the mist and rain" On June 8, the third year of Tianjian (504) of Emperor Wu of Liang in the Southern Dynasty, Emperor Wu of Liang, who had just proclaimed himself emperor for more than two years, gave a lecture on Buddhism in Chongyun Hall in person with the honor of an emperor.Suddenly, a great monk named Zhigong "danced, sang, and wept for a while", and wrote a five-character poem: There are more than thirty miles of joy, and fifty miles of sorrow.But look at Eighty-Three, the demon disaster in Zidi. A courtier acts as a deceit, and a courtier destroys a gentleman.If you don't believe my words, you will be a thief in Longshihou.

And to the middle of the horse, sad but not happy. At that time, Emperor Wu, all the ministers and monks present were all confused and thought that the great monk had gone mad.Unexpectedly, more than forty years later, monk Zhigong's prophecies were verified one by one: "Lezai is more than thirty years old", which means that Xiao Yan was only thirty-eight years old when he became emperor. "Fifty miles of sorrow" means that the Liang Dynasty lived in the country for about fifty years, and Xiao Yan himself was emperor for forty-eight years, nearly fifty years. "But look at eighty-three, and the demons in Zidi are coming." When Xiao Yan was eighty-three years old, Hou Jing asked to surrender on Xuanhu, and the land belonged to "Zidi". "Sycophant ministers are deceitful", Xiao Yan listened to the words of the treacherous minister Zhu Yi, and accepted Hou Jing's surrender. "The thief rises in the time of the dragon", and in the year of the dragon in Wuchen, Hou Jing rebelled, and finally caused Emperor Wu of Liang to starve to death in Taicheng, "there is no joy in sorrow."

The above-mentioned record can be found in "Sui Shu·Five Elements Chronicles". Judging from the monk's poetry, it seems that it should not be forged by later generations. Moreover, almost all the things predicted have come true after more than 40 years. Compared with the ambiguous words in "Tui Bei Tu", It is much more "real". In 501 A.D., Xiao Yan was killed by Qidong Hunhou because of his brother Xiao Yi. He raised his troops vigorously and finally broke through Jiankang, established a foundation and established a career. In 502 A.D., the Liang Dynasty was established.Xiao Yan became emperor at the age of thirty-eight, and died of starvation in the deep palace of Taicheng at the age of eighty-six. "What you gain, what you lose" is a rare phenomenon of emperors in Chinese history.Although Xiao Yan's descendants had three emperors after his death, all of them were short-lived, Xiao Cha was even the lord of a small city, and the puppets supported by the Western Wei Dynasty, whether they were "Zheng Shuo" or not, were basically not counted.

Xiao Yan, courtesy name Shuda, Xiaozi Lian'er, was born in Nanlanling. It is said that he was the descendant of Xiao He, a famous prime minister in the Han Dynasty. After Emperor Wu of Liang succeeded to the throne, Emperor Qihe, who gave him the "Zen throne", was named Baling King.At that time, Xiao Yan basically didn't need to eliminate the clan of Qi State, because Emperor Qi Ming and Marquis Donghun basically killed all the descendants of Qi Gaozu and Qi Wudi.Before Xiao Yan became emperor, in the name of Qihe Emperor Xiao Baorong, he first killed the brothers of Xiangdong King Xiao Baorong, and later killed the remaining sons of Qi Mingdi.Since he was in the prime of life when the country was founded, he didn't need to have the sense of urgency of "the sun is dying" like the two old men Liu Yu and Xiao Daocheng. At first, he really wanted to raise the abdicated young Qi Hedi in Nanhai County.Shen Yue, his senior counselor, was wicked and advised him to "don't seek false fame and suffer real misfortune".Therefore, Xiao Yan sent his confidant Zheng Boqin to Gushu to give a large piece of raw gold to Emperor Qihe who was only fifteen years old, forcing him to swallow it and commit suicide.Emperor Qihe, who has already "Zen", is young, but his demeanor is still undiminished, and he said: "I don't need gold to die, and wine is enough." Zheng Boqin was also very happy when he saw that the emperor was "cooperating", Then he brought a large altar of fine wine.The young man looked happy, drank big bowls and bowls, and soon became intoxicated and passed out.Zheng Boqin stepped forward and strangled this fifteen-year-old beautiful boy of dragon breed.

Although he killed a family member of Emperor Qi Ming, Xiao Yan was not too cruel to the clan of the previous dynasty.There are more than ten Xiao Zike brothers who are descendants of Xiao Daocheng's lineage, all of whom were awarded the official title of leisure, and they are living well.In fact, Xiao Yan and the Qi State in the Southern Dynasty are still of the same clan, but the clan affiliation is a little less. According to seniority, Xiao Yan's father Xiao Shunzhi is the younger brother of Qi Gaodi Xiao Daocheng. During the Southern Qi Dynasty, Xiao Yan himself was also one of the "Eight Friends of the Western Residence" of Jingling King Xiao Ziliang, so his literary accomplishment was indeed among the best (the other seven were Fan Yun, Xiao Chen, Ren Fang, Wang Rong, Xie Tiao, Shen Yue, Lu Yu).These few people also "established the grand track of parallel prose", and their poetry and prose created the model "Yongming Style" of the Southern Dynasties, so they are naturally talented people.In terms of martial arts, Xiao Yan was also a military genius in his prime. Even the famous Emperor Xiaowen of the Northern Wei Dynasty said: "Xiao Yan is good at using troops, don't compete with him."But in his later years, he was cowardly and cowardly. Seeing Hou Jing's victorious progress, the old man in his eighties lost all his spirits. He was no longer the Xiao Yan who rose up in Xiangyang in the past.

In terms of internal affairs, on the one hand, Xiao Yan issued various edicts to highlight the noble families, verify the genealogy, and strictly guard against offensive attacks; In the middle and late period, Zhu Yi, Yu Yao and others, and even Chen Qingzhi, the general who led 7,000 soldiers to rampage in the Wei territory, were from poor people.Therefore, in terms of employing people, Xiao Yan, who was in the early days of the emperor, should be a great politician with great skill. Externally, in 506 AD, just a few years after Xiao Yan proclaimed himself emperor, he sent his sixth younger brother Linchuan Wang Xiaohong to confront the Northern Wei Dynasty in Huainan. There is no future."As for Xiao Hong, this gentleman is "eight feet long, handsome, generous and honest", but he is a complete layman in war, and he will be defeated in one battle. In 507, Liang Jingzong and others defeated the Wei army in Zhongli, killed more than 100,000 Wei soldiers (mostly drowned), and captured more than 50,000 alive.Moreover, the "fire attack strategy" in this battle was directly instructed by Xiao Yan, which shows how great this emperor's military genius was in his prime.In the seventh year of Emperor Wu of Liang (526), ​​wars broke out in the territory of the Northern Wei Dynasty, and soldiers from the six towns rose and fell one after another.

In 527, Liang general Chen Qingzhi defeated the Wei army in Guoyang. In 529, in the name of sending Yuan Hao, "King of Wei", Chen Qingzhi led 7,000 people to "send from Zhi County to Luoyang, take thirty-two cities, fight for forty-seven, and conquer all directions."For more than a hundred years, it is an unheard of miracle that southern soldiers were able to invade Luoyang.At the critical moment, Xiao Yan hesitated and failed to send an army to go deep into the Wei territory to respond. Yuan Hao, the white-eyed wolf, declared himself emperor again. Soon Yuan Hao and Chen Qingzhi were both defeated by Er Zhurong's army. Yuan Hao was killed, and Chen Qingzhi was alone. People fled back to Jiankang.Xiao Liang's great military victory was really short-lived.

At the beginning, after Gao Huan forced Emperor Xiaowu of the Northern Wei Dynasty to leave, the Northern Wei Dynasty split into two Weis, Eastern and Western.In order to contain the Western Wei Dynasty, the Eastern Wei Dynasty took the initiative to show favor to the Liang Dynasty, and the two sides continued to use each other.However, after Gao Huan's death, Hou Jing rebelled against the Eastern Wei Dynasty, and Xiao Yan actually accepted this person, which not only destroyed the long-term "friendly" relationship with the Eastern Wei Dynasty, but also sounded his own death knell.

The gradual weakening of several dynasties in the Southern Dynasties was actually caused by the continuous decline of military status, just like the chaos in the Northern Wei Dynasty. "Shijia" and "Binghu" have been inherited from generation to generation since the Wei and Jin Dynasties. They not only bear heavy military service, but also have to rent the land of the government to pay various exorbitant taxes. Their lives are extremely difficult, and they are even worse than slaves. .Due to the continuous war, the source of soldiers is not only less and less, but also more and more people from aristocratic families and Fang Zhen secretly hide for their own benefit.In order to recruit soldiers, the government of the Southern Dynasties had to find a new way to conscript "outdoor" and "servant door" from the rural self-cultivating farmers. Because the chief general was greedy and violent, withholding food and military pay, the farmers and soldiers fled, and the punishment was heavy. As a result, many rural self-cultivating farmers successively Bankrupt and bereaved.In this way, the vicious circle has caused a series of consequences such as economic weakness, private land conversion, serious land annexation, and increasing miscellaneous problems other than rent adjustment.In the end, morale is getting low and combat effectiveness is getting worse.In the later years of Emperor Wu of Liang, it can be said that "everyone hates suffering, and every family thinks of chaos", and social conflicts are unprecedentedly fierce.

The most terrible thing is that Emperor Wu of Liang Xiao Yan has always been obsessed with Buddhist affairs, and he is the most famous representative of the "Ningfo" emperors.At the end of his reign, Jiankang "had more than five hundred Buddhist temples, extremely magnificent. More than one hundred thousand monks and nuns, rich in assets. The counties and counties where it is located are beyond words."Therefore, the "four hundred and eighty temples in the Southern Dynasties" rendered by the poet is not exaggerated at all.Mr. Xiao is a "sycophant", so it's okay to be a "sycophant" himself, but he is the "emperor" of the people, not only often preaching the scriptures in person, but what's more, he has "sacrificed his life" three times and entered the monastery by himself. "Temple slaves" (in 527, 529, and 547 respectively), and it took longer to "sacrifice one's life" than to "sacrifice one's life".The emperor "sacrificed his life", and the ministers had to collect money from public and private parties to "redeeme" him. The three "redeemed" emperors spent a total of more than 300 million yuan. In fact, Xiao Yan was collecting money for the Buddhist temple in disguise.The rise and fall of Buddhism not only made the people of the Southern Dynasties more "cowardly", but also a large number of men became monks in order to avoid military service and corvee service, which made the already poor and weak Liang Dynasty even worse.The North and the South confront each other, the enemy is strong and powerful, the Liang Dynasty is so fond of Buddha, so advocating mystery and extravagance, the people of the lower class are tossing and turning, and they are in pain. It can be said that the whole country is rotten from the inside to the outside.Yu Xin said that "in the past fifty years, nothing happened in Jiangbiao", referring to the fact that the ruling class of the Liang Dynasty did not fight each other too violently, and there was actually a huge crisis hidden under the prosperity and pomp.