Chapter 45 136 The capricious Hou Jing

One night in the year when Emperor Wu of Liang became a monk for the last time, he had a dream that the governors and prefects of the Northern Dynasty all came to surrender to the Southern Liang Dynasty.Of course, this is just a fantasy caused by his day and night thoughts.When he went to court the next day, he told the minister about it, saying: "I rarely dream, and this dream must be a good omen." After more than 20 days, it happened that Hou Jing, a general of the Western Wei Dynasty, sent someone to say that he had enmity with both the Eastern Wei and the Western Wei, and that he was determined to surrender to Nanliang. To Nanliang.

Hou Jing was originally a general under Gao Huan, the prime minister of the Eastern Wei Dynasty.Gao Huan asked him to lead 100,000 troops to guard the south of the Yellow River.When Gao Huan was dying, he was afraid that Hou Jing would be unreliable, so he sent someone to call Hou Jing back to Luoyang.When Hou Jing heard that Gao Huan was dead, he refused to accept the order of the Eastern Wei Dynasty and surrendered to the Western Wei Dynasty with his troops. Yu Wentai, the prime minister of the Western Wei Dynasty, didn't trust Hou Jing either. While accepting Hou Jing's offer of land, he summoned Hou Jing to Chang'an, planning to relieve him of his military power.Hou Jing refused to be fooled by Yuwentai, and turned to Nanliang to surrender.

After receiving the envoy sent by Hou Jing, Emperor Wu of Liang immediately called the ministers to discuss.Most of the ministers believed that the Southern Liang and the Northern Dynasties lived in peace for many years, and now that they accepted the rebel generals of the Northern Dynasty, they were afraid of causing disputes.But Emperor Wu of Liang thought that accepting Hou Jing would allow him to take the opportunity to restore the Central Plains, and then remembered a dream he had, thinking that it was the Buddha who came to help him.He ignored the minister's dissuasion, accepted Hou Jing's surrender, made Hou Jing a general and king of Henan, and sent his nephew Xiao Yuanming to lead 50,000 troops to meet Hou Jing.

Xiao Yuanming led his troops to the north and was attacked by the Eastern Wei Dynasty.Liang Jun had not fought for many years, and his discipline was very poor. When he confronted the Eastern Wei Dynasty, his entire army was almost wiped out.Xiao Yuanming was also captured. The Eastern Wei Dynasty attacked Hou Jing again, and Hou Jing was defeated. Only 800 people fled to Shouyang in Nanliang. The Eastern Wei sent envoys to Nanliang, advocating that the two sides re-negotiate peace, saying that they were willing to send Xiao Yuanming back.Knowing this, Hou Jing became frightened, and sent someone to pretend to be an envoy from the Eastern Wei Dynasty to send a letter to Jiankang, offering to exchange Xiao Yuanming for Hou Jing.Emperor Wu of Liang didn't know that this was Hou Jing's temptation, so he wrote a letter to the envoy, saying that as long as Xiao Yuanming was released, he would immediately hand over Hou Jing to the Eastern Wei Dynasty.

Hou Jing didn't really surrender to Nanliang at first, but after reading the letter from Emperor Wu of Liang, he decided to rebel. Hou Jing, who was beaten to nowhere by the Eastern Wei Dynasty, was still very powerful in dealing with the corrupt Nanliang.His men soon reached the north bank of the Yangtze River.Emperor Wu of Liang sent his nephew Xiao Zhengde to defend and resist on the south bank of the Yangtze River. Hou Jing sent someone to trick Xiao Zhengde, saying that as long as he was willing to act as an internal response, after the overthrow of Emperor Wu of Liang, he would support him as emperor.Xiao Zhengde was obsessed with power, and secretly sent dozens of large ships to help Hou Jing's rebels cross the Yangtze River, and personally led the rebels to cross the Qinhuai River.Hou Jing entered Jiankang smoothly and surrounded Taicheng, the inner city where Emperor Wu of Liang lived.

Hou Jing tried his best to attack Taicheng, and the soldiers and civilians in Taicheng resisted resolutely.The rebels set fire to the city, and the soldiers and civilians in the city drowned it with water.The rebels used wooden donkeys (a kind of siege tool) to cover the attack, and the people on the city threw big stones to force the rebels back.The rebels piled up two earth hills in the east and west of the city. They wanted to attack the city from the earth hills, and the people in the city also built earth hills to deal with them. In this way, the two sides held each other for more than 130 days.When Taicheng was first besieged, there were more than 100,000 people and more than 20,000 soldiers in the city.Later, some died in the war, some died of illness and starvation, and the remaining people were less than 4,000.There were dead bodies all over the city, and no one had buried them.Everyone hoped that the army of princes and kings in the states of Nanliang would come to rescue sooner or later.

How did you know that the princes and kings who came to rescue from all over the country brought two or three hundred thousand horses and stood still around Jiankang.Everyone pushed back and forth, saying that they had to wait for other rescuers to come.Liu Zhongli, who was temporarily promoted as the governor, hid in his home, drinking and having fun every day. Once, Emperor Wu of Liang asked the minister if there was any way to repel Hou Jing.The minister answered him honestly: "Your Majesty's princes and ministers are all unfaithful and unfilial. How can they deal with rebels?"

At this time, no one can restore this situation.The rebels invaded Taicheng.Emperor Wu of Liang also became a prisoner of Hou Jing. Hou Jing proclaimed himself the governor of the Great Metropolitan and took control of the imperial court.He first killed his accomplice Xiao Zhengde who wanted to be emperor, and then put Emperor Liang Wu under house arrest, even giving him little food and drink.Emperor Wu of Liang didn't care what he wanted. In the end, he starved to death in Taicheng. After the death of Emperor Wu of Liang, Hou Jing successively established two emperors of Liang Dynasty as puppets.In 551 AD, he became emperor himself.

Hou Jing massacred and plundered everywhere, bringing serious disasters to the people, and the people hated Hou Jing.In the second year, Liang Dynasty generals Chen Baxian and Wang Sengbian led an army from Jiangling to attack Jiankang.Hou Jing's rebel army immediately fell apart.In the end, Hou Jing fled in a small boat with only dozens of confidants, and was assassinated by his subordinates on the way. After this chaos, the Nanliang Dynasty was torn apart.In 557 AD, Chen Baxian established the Chen Dynasty in Jiankang, which was Emperor Chen Wu.