Chapter One: Xiao Maha Outside the City, Zhang Lihua at the Bottom of the Well
In the ninth year of Kaihuang's reign in the Sui Dynasty, Jiyou, that is, 589 AD.
A lot of big things happened this year!
For example, on the banks of the Yalu River, a country called Goguryeo was preparing to attack the Sui Dynasty.
By the way, the people of Goguryeo are famous for being shameless. Rumor has it that the average thickness of the skin of its citizens is equivalent to the thickness of the corners of the city wall of Liaoyang City, covered with three layers of 15 centimeter-thick steel plates.
Although the face of Goguryeo is the best in the world, the overall strength of Goguryeo is actually not that good.
It happened that the King of Goryeo at this time was nicknamed "Gorgeous and Bold". It is said that this guy's courage was even bigger than that of a melon when dried.
This "bold and daring boy" was indeed extremely daring. Taking advantage of the Sui Dynasty's attack on Nanchen, he actually gathered grass and stockpiled grain and prepared to devour the Sui Dynasty. How bold and productive a man was!
After the news of Goguryeo's intention to rebel reached Chang'an, Emperor Wen of the Sui Dynasty Yang Jian was furious and sent an edict to the Goguryeo King Gaotang. The content was basically a comparison of the military strength of the enemy and ours, and then said that we were great.
It is as easy for the Sui Dynasty to punish you and Korea as it is to beat a grandson, so you sticks, wish yourselves the best!
Probably frightened by Yang Jian's bastard spirit, the "tall and bold man" was so frightened after receiving the order that he hid under the table and shook like chaff.
After holding on in fear for about half a year, the stick king Gaotang finally suffered a nervous breakdown and was scared to death!
After the death of "Gao Yuan", his son Gao Yuan succeeded to the throne.
Gao Liangzi had ulterior motives, and now he had the "revenge of killing his father". Therefore, although he did not dare to rebel openly, in fact, Gao Yuan was still secretly plotting tirelessly to subvert the reactionary plan of the Sui Dynasty.
Putting down the stick of Goryeo, not to mention the conspiracy and sneakiness, let’s just talk about the ninth year of Emperor Kaihuang’s reign. Emperor Yang Jian of the Sui Dynasty in China began to actively promote the system of abolishing counties and turning them into states.
I won’t tell you exactly how to abolish the county into a state, but there are two things that have a relatively long-term impact, that is, Qiantang County was changed to Hangzhou, and Wu County was changed to Suzhou. This is also the first time in Chinese history that the names of Suzhou and Hangzhou have been changed.
Appear.
However, the above two events are predicated on the occurrence of another event, and their influence is far less profound than the other event.
That is, under the unremitting efforts of the later master Chen Shubao, the precarious Nanchen Empire finally came to an end.
"In spring, in the first month of the lunar month, on the first day of the lunar month, Master Chen went to court to meet with his ministers. Heavy fog filled the air and penetrated people's noses, making them all bitter. Master Chen fell into a coma and fell into a coma in the afternoon."
"The first lunar month, Yi Chou Shuo" refers to the first day of the first lunar month in the ninth year of Emperor Kaihuang's reign in the Sui Dynasty.
Heavy fog filled the river that day, which made my nose feel bitter. (It was suspected to be acid fog, but there seemed to be no car exhaust in those days?)
Therefore, Chen Shubao, who had been exhausted from excessive drinking and debauchery, was fainted by the heavy fog in the morning.
In the north of the Yangtze River, He Ruobi, the wily Sui Dynasty general and chief of marching, commanded the Sui army to quietly cross the Yangtze River in Guangling under the cover of heavy fog without reporting to Marshal Yang Guang and Marshal Shi Gaojun.
The defenders of Nanchen thought that the Sui army was still feinting, and were caught off guard and defeated!
On the same day, Han Qinhu, another Sui general in charge of marching, led 500 elite soldiers out of the Lujiang River and crossed the Yangtze River at night from Hengkou to attack Quarry (southwest of today's Ma'anshan, Anhui).
On Geng Wu (the sixth day of the first lunar month), He Ruobi captured the important town of Jingkou (today's Zhenjiang, Jiangsu Province). Afterwards, he stationed his troops in Qu'a (today's Danyang), while He Ruobi himself led the main force to march westward, with his troops pointing at Chendu Jiankang (today's Nanjing).
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On the seventh day of the Xin Dynasty (the seventh day of the lunar month), Han captured Hu and attacked Gusu (today's Dangtu, Anhui) and defeated it in half a day. Then he advanced eastward along the Yangtze River and approached Jiankang.
On Renwu (the seventeenth day of the first lunar month), Yu Wenshu, the general manager of the army, led his 30,000 Sui troops to cross the river and occupy Shitou (now Qingliang Mountain in the west of Nanjing). At this point, the Sui army finally completed the siege of Jiankang, the capital of Chen...
It took a little more than half a month for the Sui Dynasty to attack them at their doorstep. This was not only because the Sui army was elite and brave and had a tenacious style, but it was also not entirely because Chen Junjun was distracted and had low combat effectiveness. The fundamental reason was that
Chen Shubao, the emperor, is really too pig-headed!
It should be noted that at this time, there were still more than 100,000 armored soldiers in Jiankang City, but all of these 100,000 armored soldiers were hiding in Jiankang City and did not move at all, allowing the Sui army to attack the city and seize the territory.
On the first day of the first lunar month, the Sui army launched an attack, but it was not until the fourth day of the first lunar month that the very nervous Chen Shubao believed that the Sui army was here to destroy the Chen State, rather than toying with the Chen State!
Realizing that something was not going well, Empress Chen quickly issued an edict to personally lead the Chen army to resist the enemy. The hussar general Xiao Mohe, the guard general Fan Yi, and the central leader Lu Guangda were also appointed as the governor.
In fact, the only one who really led the army to resist the enemy was Chen Jun. Xiao Mohe, the first brave general of Nanchen, and the governors Fan Yi and Lu Guangda were only in name. The actual tasks of these three governors were squatting in Jiankang City.
Protect Chen Shubao’s safety.
During this period, Xiao Mohe and other generals requested orders many times, but Chen Shubao rejected them all. The strategies proposed by the generals to resist the enemy were also not adopted.
There is a reason for this, that is, when Chen Shubao realized that the Sui army was coming, he was so frightened that he cried day and night and left the government affairs to his favorite minister Shi Wenqing.
But Shi Wenqing, his favorite minister, took the opportunity to slander and said that the generals complained when they were rewarded for their achievements but not enough, so they should not be entrusted with important responsibilities!
For this very poet, very literary and artistic favorite Shi Wenqing, Chen Shubao, who has a similar temperament, has a lot of trust!
Therefore, Chen Shubao opposed everything that the generals agreed with!
Until the twentieth day of the first lunar month, the fourth day after the Sui army completed the siege of Jiankang, Chen Shubao didn't know what was wrong with him, but he suddenly got the courage, got nervous, and forced Xiao Mohe to go out of the city to fight.
Xiao Maha was extremely brave and was a peerless warrior as famous as Yu Juluo of the Sui Dynasty. He was known as "South Maha, North Julu".
Although they are both brave, the two of them are slightly different.
Xiao Mohe's courage attaches great importance to "qi", and he is known as "Qi Champion of the Three Armies". The "qi" here includes not only the inner breath, but also the spirit and momentum. Xiao Maha, who has cultivated "qi" to the extreme, once leads the army
When he launches a charge, he is really powerful and invincible.
But Yu Kuluo's courage lies in his strength, and his martial arts has already reached the point where he can lift a light weight as if it were a heavy weight. It is said that this Yu Kuluo can exert great power with just a straw stick. With such extreme strength, every move and every movement of Yu Kuluo can
It has great power. For example: Even if Yu Juluo speaks in the most ordinary tone, his voice can be heard hundreds of steps away, and many of his soldiers have been shocked deaf.
The book returns to the main story and only says that this time Xiao Maha led his army out of the city to fight.
Normally, at this critical moment, with Xiao Maha's ability, if he coordinates the efforts of the three armies, even if he cannot turn the tide, he should still be able to exert some majesty and evil aura. No matter what, he can still kill thousands of people.
Tens of thousands of Sui troops!
In fact, Xiao Maha did show some military prowess.
Although He Ruobi was also a famous general in the world, there was still a big gap compared to Xiao Mohe. When the two armies faced each other, Xiao Mohe led his army to charge and killed the Sui army corpses all over the field and blood flowed into rivers.
In just one hour, Xiao Mohe broke through He Ruobi's military formation four times, forcing the Sui army to retreat four times.
Fortunately, He Ruobi always managed the army well. Although he was defeated this time, he was still able to barely keep the army from disintegrating.
As the saying goes, if you do evil in heaven, you can still forgive yourself if you do evil!
Chen Shubao, the emperor of Nanchen and empress of Chen, is obviously a self-inflicted evil master.
As soon as Xiao Mohe left the city, in Jiankang City, Chen Shubao carried Xiao Mohe's wife onto the dragon bed and went to exchange the philosophy of life in simple and easy-to-understand terms.
On the front line, Xiao Mohe was on the battlefield in high spirits. Seeing that one more charge would completely defeat the Sui army, he was suddenly shocked to hear that the helmet on his head turned green, so he fell off his horse with a somersault and was completely relieved!…
Poor Xiao Mohe, who was so wise all his life, was captured alive by a little Sui general named Yuan Ming. It was sad and deplorable!
Without their leader, the Sui army's victory turned into defeat in an instant, and the defeat was out of control.
Just when Chen's army was defeated across the board, Han Qinhu arrived on the other side with five hundred elite cavalry. Chen General Ren Zhong asked to surrender. Cai Zheng was afraid of the defeat, and Han Qinhu invaded Jiankang from Zhuque Gate.
While he was having an in-depth exchange of philosophies on life with Xiao Mohe's wife, he was suddenly shocked to hear the news that the Sui army had entered the city. Extremely shocked, Chen Shubao was so shocked that he completely withered!
In his fright, Chen Shubao no longer bothered to communicate with Xiao Mohe's wife about the principles of strangers. He didn't even bother to put on his pants, but he still remembered to grab his favorite concubine, Zhang Lihua, and hid in Jingyang Palace shivering.
Inside a dry well, he planned to play hide-and-seek with the Sui army.
Unfortunately, Chen Shubao's hide-and-seek game didn't last long before he was found by Sui Bing.
These Sui soldiers were fierce enough. They didn't like to play hide-and-seek, but liked to play whack-a-mole.
Several stones were thrown into the well, and Chen Shubao, the Empress Chen, finally gave up and crawled out of the well, rolling on the ground, and became a prisoner with honor.
Later generations wrote a poem about it:
The whole complex is sloping, and the Sui flags are clustered in the late sand.
Han Qinhu is outside the door, and Zhang Lihua is at the top of the building.
Who pities the land, but envies the frog in the well. (Du Mu's "Taicheng Song")
On Bingxu (the twenty-first day of the first lunar month), King Yang Guang of Jin entered Jiankang.
At this point, the Sui Dynasty had basically completed its hegemony of unifying the north and the south. What was left were some small groups of stubborn resistance forces in various states and counties, but they were no longer able to change the overall situation.
Although his behavior was very prodigal, he still helped the Sui Dynasty achieve unification and hegemony. From this aspect, Empress Chen was considered to have made the greatest contribution, and it was not a cheat.
However, on the twentieth day of the first lunar month, that is, the night when Jiankang City was destroyed, another very explosive event occurred, which finally made Empress Chen bear the reputation of being a cheater.
The story begins more than thirty years ago.
The founding emperor of the Chen Dynasty, Chen Baxian, who was Chen Shubao's father's uncle, once planned to kill his superior, Liang Taiwei Wang Sengbian, when he was planning to take over the world.
This year is the fourth year of Chengsheng in the Northern Qi Dynasty, 555 AD.
Wang Sengbian's second son was named Wang Fan, whose courtesy name was Jingyan. When Wang Sengbian died, Wang Fan was left in Jingzhou, so he was not implicated, and later moved to the north.
At this time, the north was still the Northern Wei Dynasty, but it had been split into the Eastern and Western Wei Dynasties. Both sides were puppet regimes established by the original Northern Wei Dynasty royal family supported by two powerful ministers.
Wang Ban arrived in the Western Wei Dynasty at that time.
Within two years, the puppet emperor of the Western Wei Dynasty was ousted by Yu Wenhu.
This Yu Wenhu was also a wonderful man. He did not rush to become the emperor himself. Instead, he promoted one of his cousins, Yu Wenjue, to the throne and continued to be a puppet. He changed the name of the country to Northern Zhou Dynasty.
During the Northern Zhou Dynasty, Wang Ban was recruited as a sergeant on the left side, and later he was appointed as the prefect of Hanzhong, with the title of "Yitong Sansi" and other positions.
The Northern Zhou Dynasty lasted for twenty-four years, during which there were a total of five emperors, and was finally usurped by the prime minister and the head of state, Yang Jian.
After Yang Jian usurped Zhou Dynasty, he changed the name of the country to Sui Dynasty, and Yang Jian was also Emperor Wen of Sui Dynasty.
Wang Fan became a minister of the Sui Dynasty. During the reign of Emperor Wen, he led an army to pacify the barbarians and was awarded the title of Duke of Kaifu and Sheqiu County for his merits.
When Yang Guang attacked Chen, Wang Fan led several hundred of his confidants and invited themselves to join the army. Following the vanguard, they experienced a hard fight and became the first batch of Sui troops to rush into Jiankang.
That night, Wang Fan did an extremely brave thing, which was to secretly summon his father's old troops to dig up the grave of Emperor Chen Wu and Chen Baxian.
Not only digging up the grave, Wang Fan also burned Chen Baxian's body into ashes.
Then they scattered the ashes into the well and drank the water from the well!
The next day, when Yang Guang entered the city, Wang Fan quickly tied himself up and went to Yang Guang to surrender and plead guilty...
When Yang Guang saw that this matter seemed to be relatively serious, he wrote a memorial to Emperor Wen of Sui Dynasty Yang Jian.
After Yang Jian saw it, although he looked calm on the surface, he was actually very happy inside! I felt that this thing was done, well, that was called, I was very relieved!
After being happy, Yang Jian said, "What Wang Fan did is also the way of filial piety and righteousness. How can I bear to do it!"
Yes, it’s reasonable to dig up people’s ancestral graves!
What's even more outrageous is that not only was he not guilty, but he was also allowed to record his military exploits. It seems that he should be able to add Zhuguo! (It seems that the Sui Dynasty had more Zhuguo, and there were simply as many Zhuguo as dogs!)
Wang Fan was quite modest, knowing that what he did was unethical and might leave a bad name in history. So he modestly said that he was digging up other people's graves for personal revenge and did not dare to become a high official, and so on.
In the end, he only received the title of governor of Daizhou.
Those tough men who drank the ashes of well water became governors. Naturally, the other generals who conquered Chen also received large or small rewards according to their merits.
Han Qinhu, who captured Empress Chen, was made a general of the Shangzhu Kingdom and was awarded eight thousand ranks. He was not awarded the title because he was impeached by Yousi for indulging his soldiers and humiliating Chen Gong.
He Ruobi, who fought hard all the way to Jiankang City, was promoted to the Shangzhu Kingdom, and was given eight thousand pieces of gifts.
My sister is my concubine, and I will worship the general who leads the army on the right.
There is also an episode here, that is, He Ruobi and Han Qinhu fought in the Jinluan Palace over who could make the first contribution, and they almost drew swords at each other.
Of course, this issue of merit and remuneration is not just a concern for Han Qinhu and He Ruobi.
For example, at this time, there were still several provincial governors in Nanchen, who were stubbornly refusing to surrender, probably because they had not reached an agreement on the treatment issue.
With no other choice, Emperor Wen of the Sui Dynasty, Yang Jian, had no choice but to order Yu Wenshu, the commander-in-chief of the march, to continue his efforts, carry forward the revolutionary spirit of not being afraid of hardship and not fear of death, and completely overthrow the small group of reactionary forces with ulterior motives.
It took about another month or so, but Yu Wenshu finally defeated Wuzhou governor Xiao Yu, and Chen Jun, who was under the command of Dongyangzhou governor Xiao Yan, captured the two men alive and sent them to Chang'an to be beheaded.
Yu Wenshu, the general manager of the marching army, was responsible for pacifying the three Wus. He worshiped a son to open his mansion and gave him three thousand items. He also paid homage to the general manager of Anzhou (I don’t know where Anzhou is). (Note: Previously, when Yang Jian usurped the throne, Yu Wenshu had already been punished for his crimes.
Ping Wei Chi Jiong paid homage to Zhu Guo, and advanced to Bao Guo to pay homage to General Youwei.)
Ignoring the rewards of other generals, let’s just talk about the future general manager of Anzhou Yu Wenshu. It was already February when he received the order from Emperor Wen Yang Jian to wipe out the stubborn resisters of Sanwu. It took nearly a month to defeat the remnants of Chen Jun.
time, and there were also follow-up matters to be arranged for countering the rebellion. Therefore, when everything was completed and the dust settled, and Yu Wenshu returned to Chang'an, it was almost the end of April.
From the time of the expedition in the eighth year of Emperor Kaihuang's reign (588), from the time he set out to conquer Chen to the time of his triumphant return, Yuwenshu had been away from home for more than a year. Now that he was back home, Yuwenshu was extremely happy.
He led a group of guards back to Duke Bao's Mansion, entered the gate and passed through the central hall. Yu Wenshu didn't find anyone there. He couldn't help but wonder, "Where are the people? Could it be that the Duke's Mansion has moved? Why didn't I know?"
When he was suspicious, he had already arrived at the door of the inner courtyard. At this point, Yu Wenshu finally saw a group of servants standing at the door as if to watch.
"Hey! How sneaky are you guys? You have forgotten the rules of my Yuwen family!"
A loud shout finally woke up a group of innocent people who were watching. They turned around quickly, only to find that the person who came was none other than their eldest man, and they couldn't help but look happy.
The clever man had already rushed to Yuwen Shu and said in a flattering voice, "Congratulations, master! Congratulations, master!"
"Hmm?" Although he was a little confused, Yu Wenshu's instincts honed over years of ups and downs in officialdom allowed Yu Wenshu to naturally make a calm face and said, "Where does happiness come from?"
"Congratulations, sir, your wife is giving birth!"
"Yes! Yes! Yes! Congratulations, sir. Congratulations, sir. Madam is indeed about to give birth! My wife has been in for almost an hour!"
A group of servants said all at once.
"I have been away from home for nearly a year and a half, why is my wife about to give birth? Whose child is that? Could it be that I have become like that unlucky guy Xiao Maha, whose head has turned green?"
"This is so, so deceptive!
Although he was cautious by nature, Yu Wenshu was still filled with righteous indignation when he thought about this. He was so angry that he almost burned a hole in the sky.
"Clang!" With a sound, Yu Wenshu had already drawn out the sword from his waist, his eyes widened with anger, and he started to kill into the Duke's Mansion with murderous intent.