Hou Jing rose up with 800 soldiers, and was able to occupy one-third of the most prosperous territory of Nanliang, and finally caused Nanliang to be in chaos. It was amazing but also incredible!
Hou Jing is a native of Shuozhou, Shanxi during the Northern Wei Dynasty. He is of the Jie ethnic group. He has been restless since he was a child. In addition, influenced by the tough folk customs on the border, Hou Jing has always been characterized by being brave and fierce. At the end of the Northern Wei Dynasty, the world was in chaos. Hou Jing first took refuge in Erzhurong. After Erzhurong was destroyed by Gao Huan, he went to Gao Huan again. He was reused and was appointed as the governor of Dingzhou to rule the Henan region. According to historical records, in 542, Hou Jing was already a warlord with "a hundred thousand soldiers and dictatorship in Henan".
Hou Jing was born with a disability and his legs were of different lengths. However, he was good at riding and shooting and was brave in battle, so he was highly regarded by Gao Huan. But who is Gao Huan? He has known for a long time that Hou Jing has evil intentions. Even if he can suppress him, it will be difficult to predict the future. So before he died, Gao Huan told his son Gao Cheng to be wary of Hou Jing. "Book of Liang" records that Gao Huan said to Gao Cheng: "Hou Jing is cunning and scheming, and he is unpredictable. After my death, I will no longer be of use to you." A few days after Gao Huan's death, Hou Jing rebelled.
Gao Cheng soon sent troops to attack Hou Jing. Hou Jing first took the initiative to contact the Western Wei , hoping to cooperate. However, the leader of the Western Wei Dynasty, Yuwentai, was not a mortal. He had long known that Hou Jing was treacherous and repeated, so the Western Wei Dynasty expressed neutrality and did not want to participate in the matter. Unable to stay in the north, Hou Jing had no choice but to run south and ask Emperor Wu of Liang Xiao Yan to accept him. At this time, Emperor Wu of Liang also wanted to use Hou Jing's power to expedition to the north, so he accepted Hou Jing's surrender without thinking and gave him high treatment.
Originally Hou Jing took refuge with Xiao Yan with a generous dowry, "willing to attach the thirteen states to Liang". However, in the Battle of Guoyang, Hou Jing and Liang Jun were beaten to a pulp by Gao Cheng.
Hou Jing's growth was inseparable from Xiao Yan's enemies.
There were many knowledgeable people in the Southern Liang Dynasty who believed that Hou Jing was unreliable. For example, Shangshu Pu She Xie Ju and others firmly opposed Hou Jing's entry into the Liang Dynasty. However, they could not resist the support of Xiao Yan's favored minister Zhu Yi: "If you refuse now, you may not be able to do it later. This is easy to see, your majesty has no doubts!", so Xiao Yan appointed Hou Jing as the shepherd of Southern Yuzhou.
At first, Hou Jing did not turn back, because he was very comfortable in Liang Dynasty, even unbelievably comfortable: towards a capricious surrendered general, Xiao Yan could be said to be extremely benevolent and even pedantic.
According to the "Book of Liang", Hou Jing had something to gain in Shouyang Dan, and the court was completely satisfied. For example, when he wanted 10,000 pieces of brocade to make military robes, Zhu Yi gave them to him in full without even calculating how many robes 10,000 pieces of brocade could make. When Nanliang issued weapons and equipment to 10,000 people, he felt that the quality of the weapons was not up to standard, so he asked the craftsmen in Jiankang City to go to Shouyang to remake them, but Xiao Yan did not refuse. At the same time, he also recruited all the residents around Shouyang City to serve as soldiers and rationed the women of the common people to them. Xiao Yan also turned a deaf ear.
No matter how comfortable Hou Jing stayed, he could not withstand the Liang Dynasty's "talented soldiers and supplies." Originally, Hou Jing was "easy to change, but hard to change." The imperial court easily armed him, which made his restless heart active again.
In 548 AD, the Eastern Wei Dynasty and Nan Liang negotiated peace. After Hou Jing found out, he was worried that they would use him as a bargaining chip in the transaction, so he wrote to Xiao Yan, saying, "Your Majesty has restored peace with the Gao family. Where can the envoys go?" Xiao Yan replied that the peace talks were settled, and that towards Hou Jing, "the righteousness has been decided and will never be abandoned." But Hou Jing was still worried, so he forged a letter from Gao Cheng, saying that he wanted to exchange the captive Xiao Yuanming for Hou Jing to test Xiao Yan. Unexpectedly, something went wrong after the first try.
Xiao Yan and Zhu Yi not only agreed, but also wrote a reply, saying that "Zhenyang (Xiao Yuanming's character) arrives on the first day, and Hou Jing returns in the evening." When Hou Jing got this letter, he had no choice but to rebel.
Hou Jing then began to actively prepare. He knew that King Linhe Xiao Zhengde had a grudge against his uncle Xiao Yan, so he sent his subordinate Xu Siyu, who had an old relationship with Xiao Zhengde, to contact him and express his willingness to support him as emperor.Xiao Zhengde was so confused that Hou Jing really wanted to support him, so he agreed to cooperate with him.
At that time, many people in the Liang Dynasty had realized that Hou Jing was going to rebel, but Xiao Yan chose not to believe it. For example, several secret reports from Xiao Fan, the governor of Hezhou, were ignored by Xiao Yan, and even Yuzhou The governor Yang Yaren has obtained tangible evidence (Hou Jing sent an envoy to ask him to rebel together), but Xiao Yan still did not take it seriously and said: "Hou Jing only has a few hundred defeated soldiers, what can he do!" He even sent the envoy back to Shouyang for Hou Jing to investigate himself.
Hou Jing then became even more unscrupulous. He said back that Yang Yaren had made a false accusation and deserved to be killed, and openly demanded that the jurisdiction be expanded, otherwise he would lead his troops to the river. At this time, Xiao Yan thought that Hou Jing was speaking out "out of anger", so he generously rewarded him and said, "Jing Guwei relies on his life, just like a baby relying on someone to feed him. How can he do the opposite?" He even reprimanded the ministers for "not allowing a guest in the imperial court."
Xiao Yan, who was 85 years old at the time, was indeed old and confused, and his disobedience to Hou Jing was so comatose!
Hou Jing's Rebellion
html On August 10, 0548, Hou Jing finally rebelled in Shouyang in the name of Zhu Yi, the leader of the crusade, Xu Zuo, the Shaofu Qing, and Lu Yu, the crown prince's right guard. At that time, Hou Jing's military strength was only 8,000.
After Xiao Yan learned about Hou Jing's rebellion, he immediately ordered his sixth son, Xiao Lun, , who was stationed in Yingzhou (now Wuchang, Hubei), to be the general governor and command the troops from all directions to carry out the crusade. However, Xiao Lun did not take any measures within a month and a half, neither marching into Shouyang nor aiding Jiankang. This allowed Hou Jing to calmly follow the advice of his confidant Wang Wei, abandon Shouyang and go straight to Jiankang.
On October 3, Hou Jing captured Qiaozhou with a sneak attack. On the 20th, his troops arrived at Liyang on the riverside, and then forced the prefect Zhuang Tie to surrender without firing a single shot.
After the fall of Liyang, Xiao Yan believed that Hou Jing would never cross the river without a boat. However, his operation allowed Hou Jing to obtain dozens of large ships in an instant. It turned out that Xiao Yan absurdly sent Xiao Zhengde, who had defected to the Northern Wei Dynasty, as General Pingbei to oversee all military affairs in the capital. Xiao Zhengde had already reached cooperation with Hou Jing, so he used his authority to mobilize large ships for Hou Jing's army to cross the river.
At this time, General Ningyuan and Xiao Yan's nephew Wang Zhi were guarding the quarrying area in Jiang's defense. Chen Qingzhi's son Chen Xin returned to the capital from his post abroad. He was afraid that Wang Zhi would not be able to guard the quarrying, so he proposed to strengthen the troops, so Xiao Yan sent him to guard the quarrying. But Wang Zhi received the transfer order and left before his next appointment arrived. Hou Jing received the news and confirmed that there was no army stationed in Caishi, so he calmly crossed the river on October 22 and occupied Caishi.
That night, the imperial court declared martial law. Since the founding of the Liang Dynasty, nothing had happened in Jiangnan , and the officials and people had never experienced war. Suddenly, the rebels came to the city, and people were panicked. At this time, Prince Xiao Gang was ordered to command the war, but the only person he could rely on was Prince Zuowei, who led Yang Kan. Yang Kan's grandfather, Yang Gui, was originally a minister of Liu Song . Later, because his general Xue An was surrendered to Wei, he was forced to follow him as an official in Wei. His father, Yang Zhi, also became a Wei official, but he often taught his children to look for opportunities to return to the Southern Dynasties. Yang Kan served as the governor of Taishan County in Wei and surrendered to Liang in 528. He was a versatile man in both civil and military affairs. He not only loved reading "Spring and Autumn Annals" and "Zuo Zhuan", but he could also use a two-edged sword that was two feet and four feet long, and he was extremely brave. He was the only general with rich military experience in Jiankang City at that time, and it was his duty to command the battle.
But neither Yang Kan nor the prince knew that Xiao Zhengde had surrendered to the enemy and asked him to guard the southern gate of Jiankang - Xuanyang Gate. So Xiao Zhengde opened the door and bowed to the enemy, allowing Hou Jing to enter the city. Hou Jing's army approached the palace city. So far, there has been no battle between the two sides.
On October 25, Hou Jing began to attack Miyagi. Hou Jing ordered people to set fire to the palace gate, and Yang Kan put water on the tower to put out the fire. The rebels used a big ax to break down the door again. Yang Kan drilled a hole in the door and stabbed the enemy soldiers with his spear, so that the enemy soldiers did not dare to come forward and break down the door again.
The next day, Hou Jing used hundreds of wooden donkeys to attack the city. The so-called wooden donkeys, to put it bluntly, are hidden troops and chariots. The rebels rely on the "donkey" body to cover and destroy the city walls under the city walls. Seeing this, Yang Kan ordered the soldiers on the city to throw stones and smash the wooden donkey to pieces. Hou Jing used a pointed wooden donkey instead, which could not be broken by stones. Yang Kan used rockets to burn it.Hou Jing built another climbing tower more than ten feet high, but as soon as it was pushed to the trench beside the city, it sank in and could not extricate itself.
The two sides fought back and forth for three days. Hou Jing killed and wounded many soldiers, so he had to change his tactics, build forts, and prepare for a long-term battle. He sent an archery letter to the city, saying that as long as he killed Zhu Yi, he would be able to relieve the siege. Rewards were also shot out in the city, "Those who present Hou Jing's head will be awarded the official position that Hou Jing holds, and will be rewarded 10 million in cash and 10,000 pieces of cloth each."
The East Palace was outside the palace city, so Hou Jing distributed the girls from the East Palace to the sergeants for fun. The prince was so angry that he ordered the East Palace to be burned down. Yang Kan's son was caught by Hou Jing. Hou Jing took him to the city and forced Yang Kan to surrender, but Yang Kan remained unmoved. A few days later, he was brought again. Yang Kan said to his son: "I thought you were dead long ago, why are you still here?" He picked up his bow and shot. Hou Jing knew that killing him was useless, but he didn't kill him.
On November 1, Hou Jing asked Xiao Zhengde to ascend the throne and become the "emperor". Xiao Zhengde thought that his dream had come true, but Hou Jing secretly laughed.
More than half a month has passed, and there is still no progress in the war. Hou Jing was anxious, not only afraid of reinforcements from all directions, but also worried about running out of food reserves, so he launched another fierce attack. On November 8, Hou Jingming piled up a mountain of earth outside the palace city. The rebels captured the people to transport earth to build the mountain. They would beat them if they were slow with their hands and feet. If they fell, they would pour the earth up and use their bodies as earth and rocks. The palace city also built a mountain of earth. The prince, prince and below all carried the earth and rammed it, and then recruited death squads, put on armor, and fought on the mountain. The rebels used Tushan to attack the city, and Yang Kan managed to save the palace by building another palace wall.
On November 23, the first batch of reinforcements finally arrived at Jiangshan in the east of the city. This soldier is Xiao Lunzhi's army who was appointed as the Commander-in-Chief more than 2 months ago. Logically speaking, it would not take 10 days to go down the river from Xiao Lun's station, Wuchang, to Jiankang. However, Xiao Lun was inexplicably delayed for more than a month, and then planned to attack Shouchun via Zhongli. When he arrived at Zhongli, he discovered that Hou Jing was already quarrying stones to cross the river. Although they came really slowly, they finally arrived.
The arrival of reinforcements put a lot of pressure on Hou Jing. He gathered all the women and treasures he had snatched into Stone City , and prepared a boat, ready to escape at any time if defeated. On
24, the two armies met for the first time. Xiao Lun gained the upper hand and forced Hou Jing to retreat to Fuzhoushan. On the 28th, Xiao Lun's troops marched to the shores of Xuanwu Lake, but were defeated in a battle. With only more than a thousand people left, they had no choice but to retreat eastward.
However, at this critical moment, the 54-year-old veteran general Yang Kan passed away. Miyagi lost its backbone and did not know the arrival of reinforcements. Everyone was very nervous. Hou Jing also knew that there would be more and more reinforcements, so he took the time to attack the city.
Starting from December 12, they continued to attack for more than ten days. Thanks to Wu Jing, a junior officer in the palace, who defended the city, they were able to withstand the rebel attack. However, the situation in the city became increasingly difficult.
Xiao Lun came slowly, and there were others even slower than him. Jingzhou is an important town in the upper reaches. King of Eastern Hunan Xiao Yi received the news of Hou Jing's rebellion as early as the end of August, but he did not order his son Xiao Fang to lead ten thousand troops to rescue Jiankang until December 14. At that time, the palace city had been besieged for 49 days. Everyone can probably guess what the seventh prince is planning. He just hopes that his old father will die in a "national disaster" so that he can benefit from it.
However, there are also those who come in a hurry. Wei Can, Wei Rui's grandson, served as the governor of Hengzhou far away. He was ordered to return to Jiankang to take up a post. Halfway through, when he heard the news of Hou Jing's rebellion, he immediately led his 5,000 men to speed up the eastward march. Yang Yaren, who was far away in Yuzhou, did not ignore Xiao Yan's reprimand, but came at full speed with 10,000 troops. Sizhou Governor Liu Zhongli was Wei Can's cousin. He also led more than 10,000 troops to Jiankang. None of them delayed rescue.
In this way, by the night of the 30th, Wei Can, Liu Zhongli, Yang Yaren, Xiao Si, and Pei Zhigao's troops had gathered together, with a total of more than 100,000 people stationed in Henan of Qinhuai.According to Wei Can's proposal, Liu Zhongli was promoted to be the governor.
html On the first day of the first lunar month of 0549, the two armies started a fierce battle in Qingtang on the outskirts of Jiankang City. Wei Can's army lost its way due to heavy fog and was surrounded by Hou Jing. Wei Can, his son, three brothers, and a cousin all died fighting. Liu Zhongli rushed to support, but was also injured by Hou Jingjun.
In the next few days, more reinforcements arrived one after another. Xiao Fang, sent by the King of Eastern Hunan, and reinforcements from Gaozhou, Tianmen and other places also arrived one after another. Li Lang, Xiao Si's deputy general, used a trick to win Hou Jing's trust, and then managed to enter the palace city and informed the defenders that reinforcements were coming, which cheered up the people in the palace city.
The situation has been favorable to the Liang Dynasty, but the Liang Dynasty did not have a real commander, and the reinforcements lacked unified command. The chief governor, Liu Zhongli, was a rough man. Not only did he not pay attention to the war, but he "spent wine in high gatherings and made outstanding contributions every day", which made the generals dissatisfied. The clan princes were also suspicious of each other. Although the imperial army was large, it was like a pile of scattered sand, unable to exert its strength. The military discipline of the troops was also poor. As soon as they set foot on the north bank of the Qinhuai River, they began to plunder everywhere. The people of Jiankang originally regarded the reinforcements as their saviors, but when they saw this situation, they were greatly disappointed.
The situation remained stalemate until February 549. Both sides were exhausted and it was difficult to continue the fight.
Although the government troops had stored a large amount of food, they forgot to store fuel, fodder, fish and salt and other supplies. As a result, they could only demolish the houses and use them as firewood, and take out the grass for beds to feed the horses. Without vegetables, the soldiers caught mice, sparrows, and even boiled leather armor and mixed it with horse meat. After more than two or three months, many people were swollen and short of breath, and the number of employees was reduced by 30 to 40% due to illness.
On the other hand, Hou Jingjun was extremely short of food. Hou Jing originally stored grain and grass in Dongcheng, enough to last for a year, but the reinforcements blocked the road and could not be transported. Hou Jing was even more panicked when he heard that General Xiao Yi from Jingzhou had arrived with 30,000 elite troops.
Under this situation, Wang Wei proposed a delaying strategy to Hou Jing, that is, pretending to sue for peace, transporting rice from the East City into Stone City, and then resting his troops and horses to attack Hou Jing unprepared. Hou Jing was overjoyed and acted according to his plan.
Xiao Yan heard that the peace talks were hesitant, but the prince Xiao Gang repeatedly asked for permission to negotiate peace, so Xiao Yan had to go with him.
html On February 3, the two sides met outside the city. However, Hou Jing neither relieved the siege nor retreated north, but only rushed to transport food from Dongcheng. At this time, the main force of Jingzhou led by Xiao Yi, king of eastern Hunan, had been stationed in Wucheng, Jizhou for a month. After seeing the court negotiating for peace, they returned to Jiangling.Hou Jing here finished transporting rice and knew that Jingzhou soldiers would not come, so he immediately tore up the peace agreement and attacked Taicheng again. On the night of March 12th, the rebels surrendered to the general Neiying and boarded the northwest corner of the palace city, so the palace city was destroyed. Xiao Yan heard this and said: "If you gain something, you will lose it. How can you hate it!"
On that day, Hou Jing led his troops into the palace and met with Xiao Yan and his son. There was a wonderful conversation between the two parties. Xiao Yan asked: "How many people were there when we first crossed the river?" Hou Jing replied: "Eight thousand people." "How many people were there when we besieged the palace?" Answer: "One hundred thousand people." "How many people are there now?" Hou Jing replied arrogantly: "There is no one in the four seas who is not mine!" When Xiao Yan first met Hou Jing, his expression remained unchanged. After talking about this, he lowered his head and was speechless.
After Hou Jing left, the rebels robbed everything in the palace, including the palace residents. On March 14, Hou Jing used Xiao Yan's edict to order the reinforcements to disband. Liu Zhongli actually accepted the order, so all the troops returned to their own towns. Xiao Zhengde, who thought he was going to be the emperor, Hou Jing was no longer polite to him at this time, and only made him a Sima in name only. Xiao Zhengde realized that he had been tricked by Hou Jing, so he wrote to Xiao Fan and asked him to raise an army to rebel against Hou Jing. However, he was killed by Hou Jing after the incident failed.
Xiao Yan was so angry and resentful that he fell ill and died in May. Prince Xiao Gang ascended the throne as Emperor Jian Wen.
Hou Jing's envoy will capture Wu, Wuxing, Kaiji counties, and completely occupy Sanwu by the end of the year. When the Eastern Wei Dynasty was besieged from the palace city, they took the opportunity to plunder the territory and occupied Shouyang, Hefei and other places, including Huainan.
Just as Hou Jing said to Xiao Yan, he relied on these 8,000 troops to conquer Jiankang, the capital of Nanliang. Not only did he end up with 100,000 mercenaries, he became stronger and stronger as he fought, but he also became the actual ruler of Nanliang. People were surprised and couldn't help but sigh: Nanliang is really weak!
The weakness of Nanliang lies in Xiao Yan's stupidity and Nanliang's internal friction.
Xiao Yan's stupidity has been mentioned before, so I won't repeat it here. Let's just talk about the internal strife in Nanliang:
Emperor Wu of Liang was considered a wise emperor in the early stage, but as time went by, he also made the same mistake that kings of all dynasties usually made - being suspicious of the heroes. Although Fan Yun and Shen Yue, the two biggest heroes in the founding of Nanliang, were not killed by Xiao Yan, they were not reused, and finally died in depression. In his later years, Xiao Yan began to appoint his nephews as generals to guard various places. Among them, the three most powerful ones are his sixth, seventh and eighth sons.
The sixth king of Shaoling, Xiao Lun, garrisoned Yingzhou (today's Wuchang, Hubei); the seventh king of eastern Hunan, Xiao Yi, garrisoned Jingzhou; the eighth king of Wuling Xiao Ji served as the governor of Yizhou and the governor of the armies of thirteen states including Yiliang.
In addition, there are Xiangzhou governor of Hedong Xiao Yu who is stationed in Changsha, and Yongzhou governor of Yueyang Xiao Qing who is stationed in Xiangyang. The two are brothers, the sons of Prince Zhaoming and Xiao Tong, and the grandsons of Xiao Yan. In addition, there are Xiao Zhen, the king of Guiyang, and Xiao Xun, the Marquis of Yifeng. Xiao Zhen was the grandson of Xiao Yi, brother of Emperor Wu of Liang. He was appointed as the governor of Xinzhou. His jurisdiction was in the east of Fengjie, Chongqing City today, between the spheres of influence of Xiao Yi and Xiao Lun. Xiao Xun was Xiao Yi's concubine. At that time, he served as the governor of Liang and Qin states, and his strength was not weak.
However, with so many clan members and nephews holding heavy troops, almost all of them lost control at the critical moment.
Xiao Yi, the king of eastern Hunan who was stationed in Jingzhou, was undoubtedly the strongest among them, so he was also the one who most wanted to see his father die in a "national disaster".
If Xiao Yi could lead the main force eastward as soon as possible and join the original reinforcements, he would have an absolute advantage in terms of quantity and momentum. It was completely possible to annihilate all the rebels, but he did not. When he heard that the two sides were negotiating peace, he immediately led the main force back to Jingzhou without saying a word. Later, when he learned that the palace city had fallen, he ordered Wang Lin to sink the ship transporting 200,000 stone meters to Jiankang into the Yangtze River. This shows that Jingzhou's wealth is strong.
Let's talk about Xiao Lun, if he can gather his troops early, whether he attacks Shouyang or marches eastward to Jiankang, whether Hou Jing can leave Shouyang will be a problem. After the "peace negotiation", Hou Jing pretended to pass an "edict" to order the reinforcements to return to their own towns. At that time, someone advised Xiao Lun, "If you attack the enemy unexpectedly, you can succeed." Xiao Lun did not listen. What he was thinking about at that time was probably to preserve his strength for the future. At that time, Liu Zhongli's father Liu Jin said this to Xiao Yan, which is a classic: "Your Majesty has Shao Ling, and his ministers have Zhongli. How can we defeat thieves if we are unfaithful and unfilial!" He didn't care about his life at all. When Hou Jing besieged the palace, he didn't send a single soldier. When he sensed the will of the people, he sent his son Xiao Yuanzhao to lead his troops eastward, hoping to gain some support from the people. It was already May 550, and Xiao Yan had been dead for a full year.
Later Xiao Yi challenged Hou Jing. If he and Xiao Ji could work together, they could get twice the result with half the effort, but the mutual suspicion between the two could not succeed. After the Hou Jing Rebellion ended, the two fought for the throne, and finally gained the advantage of the Western Wei Dynasty in vain.
There were also Yueyang King Xiao Qi and Hedong King Xiao Yu. When Xiao Yi came to aid Jiankang, he ordered them to send troops together. Xiao Qi not only did not go there himself, but only sent one of his generals to lead 3,000 people to help; Xiao Yu even more simply refused to send troops in the name of each having its own military government.
The "ambitious" Xiao Yi naturally couldn't bear this tone. After he hurriedly returned to Jingzhou from Wucheng, he took the lead in attacking these two people. Finally, Wang Sengbian captured Changsha and killed Xiao Yu, while Xiao Qi directly surrendered to the Western Wei Dynasty.
In addition, Xiao Xun, the Marquis of Yifeng, and Xiao Zhen, the King of Guiyang, were also forced to rebel or killed by Xiao Yi.Xiao Zhen was one of the few vassal kings who rushed to aid Jiankang. However, when he withdrew his troops from Jiankang to Jiangling, he wanted to wait for Xiao Yi to come back and see him before returning to Xinzhou. Unexpectedly, Xiao Yi accused him of "colluding with the two kings of Yueyang and Hedong." "Xiao Xun was executed in Jiangling in the name of "Xiao Xun" because he refused to obey Xiao Yi's call to return to Jiangling. Xiao Yi used the cession of Nanzheng as a condition to induce the Western Wei Dynasty to send troops to capture Hanzhong , and finally Xiao Xun surrendered to Wei at the end of his strength.
In addition, Xiao Lun, Xiao Fan, Xiao Daxin kings also attacked each other.
The Xiao kings were busy with internal strife, which gave Hou Jing enough time to bring trouble to Sanwu. Sanwu had almost never had a war since the Eastern Jin Dynasty, so it was very prosperous. However, since Hou Jing's rebellion, Sanwu was repeatedly burned, killed, and looted by the rebels. In the end, there was basically nothing and no one to rob. Sanwu suffered an unprecedented catastrophe!
Hou Jing's demise
Hou Jing was so cruel that the people hoped that he would perish soon. In 550 AD, Xiao Yi, king of eastern Hunan, finally issued a campaign against Hou Jing after procrastinating for nearly a year. But he just wanted to gain some public opinion and did not take any action.
Not only that, when Xiao Ji sent his army eastward, Xiao Yi was worried that his brother's interference would be detrimental to him, so he ordered Xiao Yuanzhao to station in Baidi City and not to go eastward. Even when the rebels marched westward to Xiyang, Xiao Ji personally led the troops from Chengdu. Xiao Yi wrote a letter to stop them, telling him not to send troops on the pretext that " Shu people are brave and easy to move but difficult to settle down."
Xiao Yi did not take action, but at this time Hou Jing was already too swollen, and he took the lead in launching an offensive against the Xiao family vassal king upstream. He ordered Ren Yue and Yu Qing to lead their troops to the west.
html In July of 0550, Ren Yue sent his troops to Huancheng. King Xunyang Xiao Daxin (son of Emperor Jianwen) was defeated in a battle and led his troops to surrender. When Yu Qingbing arrived at Yuzhang, he was unable to withstand the enemy and surrendered.The rebel troops were approaching Yingzhou, and Xiao Lun organized his troops and prepared to resist. Xiao Yi was worried that Xiao Lun's growth would be detrimental to him, so he sent Wang Sengbian to march into Yingzhou in the name of resisting the rebels, claiming to welcome Xiao Lun back to Jiangling. Xiao Lun was so heartbroken that he said to his subordinates: "I am determined to destroy the thieves, but Xiangdong thinks that I want to compete with him for the throne. If I fight with him, I will be laughed at by the world and have no choice but to leave." In September, he went to Qichang to join the Northern Qi Dynasty and became the King of Liang of the Qi Kingdom . He was another Liang Dynasty prince who took refuge in the Northern Dynasty.
Wang Sengbian won Yingzhou, and the rebel Ren Yue also entered Xiyang (today's east of Huangzhou, Hubei). At this time, Xiao Yi sent Xu Wensheng, the former governor of Ningzhou, with an army of 30,000 to come to support, and the two sides started a confrontation in Wuchang. In November, Xu Wensheng defeated the appointed army, beheaded the generals and scolded Luo Zifang, and the king of eastern Hunan attacked Hou Jing. It was only then that actual actions were taken.
After the fall of Yingzhou, Xiao Yi, who had already reached Baling, immediately stopped advancing eastward and decided to send heavy troops to guard Baling.
Hou Jing won Yingzhou and was very arrogant. In addition to leaving troops to defend Yingzhou, he ordered Song Zixian to lead 10,000 troops as the vanguard to attack Baling; Ren Yue led 10,000 troops to enter Jiangling, and he led the main force behind, advancing both by land and water. On April 19, the rebels arrived at Baling City and began to attack the city.
htmlIn May, Xiao Yi sent Hu Senyou and Lu Fahe to rescue Baling, while Hou Jing sent Ren Yue to attack. Hu Senyou showed weakness and lured Ren Yue into pursuit. In the end, he won a great battle in Chiting and captured Ren Yue. Hou Jingze attacked Baling for more than a month, suffering more casualties and more than half of his troops due to the epidemic. He had to burn the camp and evacuate on the second day after Ren Yue's defeat. Wang Sengbian's army took advantage of the victory and went eastward, recaptured Yingzhou in late June and captured Song Zixian.In July, Wang Sengbian's army entered Kehuang City and met with Chen Baxian's army from Yuzhang. In early August, Wang Sengbian attacked Guomo City, and Yu Qing abandoned the city and fled. Soon the rebels in Xunyang City also abandoned the city and fled.After Hou Jing was completely defeated, he even wanted to "show my authority and defeat the other people's popularity" by proclaiming himself emperor, so he killed Emperor Jian Wen in October and ascended the throne as emperor in November. According to reports, Hou Jing's enthronement ceremony was very funny. When he ascended the throne, tens of thousands of his subordinates roared and clamored to the temple. This was originally created by the "Hou Family Han Dynasty".
html In February 0552, Xiao Yi ordered Wang Sengbian and Chen Baxian to continue eastward. The two made rapid progress and encountered little resistance along the way. In early March, when they arrived in Gushu, they had a fierce battle with the rebel Hou Zijian and defeated the rebels. On the 12th, we arrived at the outskirts of Jiankang City.
After hearing the news of Gu Shi's defeat, Hou Jing cheered up and ordered to block the mouth of the Qinhuai River and build a city along the north bank in a desperate struggle. Chen Baxian bravely took the lead, advanced to the north bank, and built a fence on the west side of Stone City. Each army then moved forward and established eight camps. On the 19th, the two armies fought decisively. Hou Jing led more than 10,000 infantrymen and 800 cavalry to charge eight times, but failed. Seeing that the situation was not good, the garrison of Stone City surrendered. In the end, Hou Jing personally led more than a hundred cavalry, threw away their spears, and charged at Chen Baxian's army with their swords. However, they still did not move in the conflict, and finally exhausted their energy and retreated.
Hou Jing did not dare to return to Jiankang, so he took more than a hundred cavalry and fled to Wu County. Hou Zijian and Wang Wei took another route and fled to Jingkou.
Liang Jun regained Jiankang. Wang SengbianWhen setting off from Jiangling, he asked Xiao Yi for instructions on how to treat his successor. Xiao Yi replied: "Within the six sects, you must maximize your military power!" Wang Seng argued that although he had a bad habit of commanding troops and later defected to the Northern Qi Dynasty, he refused to obey orders. He answered brilliantly, saying: "It is the minister's responsibility to pursue the thieves' plans. Please leave the matter of Cheng Ji (the person who murdered Wei Emperor Cao Mao for Sima Zhao) to someone else." Xiao Yi handed the matter over to General Zhu Maichen .
After Hou Jing was defeated and escaped, Xiao Dong and his two brothers escaped from the place of imprisonment. The two brothers said, "Finally, they can avoid death." Xiao Dong said, "It's hard to say." He predicted it well. Zhu Maichen found them, and the three brothers all became drowned ghosts.
Hou Zijian, Hou Jing's remnant party, fled to Jiangbei and surrendered to Northern Qi. Wang Wei was captured and taken to Jiangling, where he was killed by Xiao Yi. Hou Jing fled to Hudouzhou and was killed by his general Yang Kun. Hou Jing's body was sent to Jiankang. Wang Sengbian exposed his body in the market. The soldiers and civilians rushed to eat it. Even Princess Liyang, who was insulted by Hou Jing, also ate Hou Jing's flesh. At this point, the Hou Jing Rebellion, which lasted for nearly four years, was finally put down.
