freenovelworld Chapter 252: The Three Kingdoms: Red Cliff
Chapter 252: The Three Kingdoms: Red Cliff
In the Tang Dynasty, there was also an official position that had a great influence on history - Jiedushi. Jiedushi was the general manager who was in charge of the military and political affairs of several states. Originally, Jiedushi were only in border states, but later Jiedushi were also set up in the interior, which eventually led to the separatist situation, so they were called "Fanzhen".
After learning from the Tang Dynasty, the main feature of the Song Dynasty's political system was to strengthen centralization and disperse power among officials. The power of the prime minister in the Song Dynasty was divided between the Privy Councilor and the Three Commissioners.
The Central Government, the Privy Council, and the Three Departments were in charge of military, political, and financial affairs respectively. The centralization of power in the Song Dynasty reached an unprecedented level, leaving a large number of officials inside and outside the court idle. The person holding the highest administrative power was the prime minister, but his power was greatly weakened.
In the Ming Dynasty, the Secretariat was abolished, and the emperor personally handled state affairs, and appointed officials from the Hanlin Academy as palace ministers, responsible for drafting imperial edicts. The ministers gradually became de facto prime ministers and were called assistant ministers.
During the reign of Emperor Zhu Di, the Ming Dynasty established the cabinet as an advisory body for the emperor. At first, the cabinet ministers only served as advisors, and the emperor had the final say, while the ministers rarely had the opportunity to participate in the decision-making process.
During the reigns of Emperor Renzong and Emperor Xuanzong, the Grand Secretary was promoted to the third son of the Crown Prince due to his kindness as the Crown Prince's Confucian teacher, and his status became increasingly respected. During the reign of Emperor Xuanzong, all court affairs, big or small, were decided after consulting Grand Secretary Yang Shiqi's opinion, and since then the power of the cabinet has been increasing.
During the reign of Emperor Shenzong of the Ming Dynasty, Xia Yan, Yan Song and others were in charge of the cabinet, and their status was that of true prime ministers, even suppressing the six ministries.
The Qing Dynasty continued the Ming Dynasty's practice, but during the Yongzheng period, the Grand Council was established. The power of the Grand Secretaries was greatly weakened, the Grand Council became the center of power, and the Grand Secretaries' status gradually became a mere name.
[Understand the Northern and Southern Dynasties in one breath. Historical knowledge. The Northern and Southern Dynasties]
It is said that heroes emerge in troubled times, but the troubled times of the Northern and Southern Dynasties frequently produced tyrants, poets, incestuous people, monks... These lawless emperors even played the game of "Nine Clans Elimination", and they eliminated their own nine clans.
Because there were too many prodigal emperors, the dynasties during the Southern and Northern Dynasties lasted much shorter than other dynasties.
Today we will look at the chaotic era of the Northern and Southern Dynasties which began in 420 AD.
In 420 AD, the Eastern Jin Dynasty fell and Liu Yu established the Liu Song regime, becoming Emperor Wu of Song. Unlike the emperors of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, Liu Yu came from a grassroots background and climbed to this most honorable position step by step by relying on his military exploits.
As many as six emperors died at his hands. Whether it was Huan Xuan who usurped the throne, Murong Chao, the emperor of Southern Yan who ruled a region, or Sima Dezong, the Emperor An of Jin, none of them escaped his butcher knife.
Therefore, as soon as Liu Yu came to power, both the separatist forces in the north and the southern warlords who made the Eastern Jin Dynasty helpless were silent, fearing that this man who dared to kill even the emperor would send them to hell.
Perhaps it was because God was jealous of his talent. In 422 AD, Liu Yu passed away after destroying Huan Chu, pacifying Western Shu, defeating Southern Yan and Later Qin, and recovering the two capitals of Chang'an and Luoyang.
Before his death, he passed the throne to his eldest son, Emperor Shao of Song, Liu Yifeng, and left Xu Xianzhi, Fu Liang, Xie Hui and Tan Daoji to assist in the administration.
These four people were all Liu Yu's die-hards, capable and loyal. However, Liu Yu did not expect that they were loyal to him, not his son Liu Yifu.
After the fall of Liu Yu, the tiger guarding the mountain, the separatist Northern Wei became more energetic. Emperor Mingyuan of the Northern Wei, Tuoba Si, took the opportunity to send troops to stay. Although the Northern Wei won the battle, it did not gain any advantage.
However, for the Liu Song Emperor Liu Yifeng at this time, the Northern Wei was not his top concern, because another matter was already pressing - his subordinates expressed their desire to change their boss.
In 424 AD, Liu Yifu was deposed by Tan Daoji and other four regents. His third brother Liu Yilong came into the eyes of the regents. For the ministers, Liu Yilong was young, weak, and easy to control, making him a perfect puppet.
However, unlike his brother who only knew how to eat, drink and have fun, Liu Yilong was also a good politician.
Soon after he ascended the throne, he split up the four regents, and then joined forces with Minister Tan Daoji to attack Xu Xianzhi, Fu Liang, and Xie Hui. This game between the emperor and the ministers ended with the emperor's victory. Liu Yilong was able to sit firmly on the throne and recuperate.
At the same time, the newly appointed Emperor Taiwu of Northern Wei, Tuoba Tao, was also busy in the north.
He led his troops 13 times, pacified the Rouran in the northern desert, destroyed the Huxia within 10 years, defeated the Rouran, and incorporated Northern Yan and Northern Liang into the territory of the Northern Wei.
By 439 AD, Tuoba Tao had unified the north.
In order to unify the world, there must be a war between the North and the South.
In 450 AD, Emperor Taiwu of the Northern Wei Dynasty, Tuoba Tao, personally led his troops southward. However, the Northern Wei Dynasty still failed to achieve any results. After the Northern Wei Dynasty withdrew its troops, Liu Yilong decided to immediately send troops to the north. However, this northern expedition ended in a disastrous defeat.
In 452 AD, after Tuoba Tao died, Liu Yilong, unwilling to accept defeat, once again launched an expedition to the north. However, this time it ended in failure. In 453 AD, Liu Yilong was killed by Crown Prince Liu Shao in a palace coup.
After Liu Yilong's death, the emperors of Liu Song became less reliable with each generation: Emperor Xiaowu of Song Liu Jun, who gambled with his ministers, Emperor Former Emperor Liu Ziye, who committed incest, Emperor Ming of Song Liu Yu, who liked to kill his own nine clans, Emperor Hou Fei of Song Liu Yu, who played with fancy killings... They all pushed Liu Song to its end step by step. And the one who ended Liu Song was Xiao Daocheng, the target of Emperor Hou Fei of Song Liu Yu's murder.
Xiao Daocheng was a general of the Liu Song Dynasty. However, Liu Yu, the last emperor of the Song Dynasty, wanted to use him as a target for archery. It was only after people around him persuaded him that he replaced the ordinary bow and arrow with ancient arrows with little lethality, allowing Xiao Daocheng to escape.
Although this incident was accidental, there were already signs that Liu Yu was going to take action against Xiao Daocheng.
On the one hand, Liu Yu had killed a group of ministers before; on the other hand, Xiao Daocheng was a well-deserved powerful minister. He was known as one of the four nobles of Liu Song and had made countless military achievements. Therefore, it was understandable that Liu Yu wanted to get rid of him. However, Liu Yu's fancy killings still planted the seeds of disaster for himself.
In 477 AD, before Xiao Daocheng could make any move, Liu Yu was killed by his own personal guards. After Liu Yu was killed, Xiao Daocheng was quickly invited to the palace to take charge of the situation.
He first let Emperor Shun of Song, Liu Zhun, take the throne as a mascot for two years, and then forced Emperor Shun of Song to abdicate in 479 AD. He became the emperor himself and established Southern Qi. Xiao Daocheng also transformed himself and became Emperor Gao of Qi.
While the south was in turmoil, the Northern Wei in the north was working hard to govern. When Empress Dowager Feng came to power, she initiated reforms and implemented the equal-field system, the three-chief system, and the new rent adjustment system.
The equal-field system distributed land to the people, allowing them to have farmland; the three-chief system and the new rent and tax system freed the peasants from the control of the powerful, and changed them from working for the powerful to working for the state. After Empress Dowager Feng's reforms, the Northern Wei Dynasty became increasingly powerful.
In 490 AD, the seventh emperor of the Northern Wei Dynasty, Emperor Xiaowen Tuoba Hong, began to rule the country. After taking power, he continued to implement the Sinicization reform. This reform was unprecedented, and the Xianbei people in the Northern Wei Dynasty changed their language to Chinese and changed their surnames to Chinese.
Even the emperor changed his surname from Tuoba to Yuan. In addition, he encouraged marriages between Xianbei nobles and the Han people to promote ethnic integration. This move eased ethnic barriers and allowed the economy and culture of the Northern Wei Dynasty to develop rapidly.
Compared with the Northern Wei, the power of the Southern Qi was not good enough. Although Emperor Gao of Qi, Xiao Daocheng, worked hard to govern the country, his descendants were not very capable.
The second and fourth emperors of the Southern Qi Dynasty, Xiao Zhaoye and Xiao Baojuan, were both extravagant. Xiao Zhaoye squandered most of the money in the treasury within a year of his accession to the throne, while Xiao Baojuan even carved a lotus out of gold and let his favorite concubine walk on it.
At this time, Xiao Yan, an important official of Xiao Qi, began to think: The emperor is incompetent, if he doesn't take the throne now, when will he take it? It was at this time that Xiao Baojuan gave Xiao Yan a perfect excuse to start a rebellion.
At that time, he was afraid of Xiao Yan who was guarding Yongzhou, so he sent an assassin to assassinate him. However, the assassin failed and instead revealed the truth to Xiao Yan.
In 500 AD, Xiao Yan started an army. The following year, he captured Jiankang, the capital of Southern Qi. In 502 AD, Xiao Yan formally accepted Xiao Baojuan's abdication and established Southern Liang. He himself became the founding emperor of Southern Liang - Emperor Wu of Liang.
When the south was not peaceful, the Northern Wei Dynasty also embarked on the old path of "unity for a long time will eventually divide". After the Six Garrisons Uprising and the Heyin Incident, the power of the Northern Wei Dynasty fell into the hands of others and the national strength became increasingly weak.
By 534 AD, power had fallen into the hands of Gao Huan and Yuwen Tai. In this year, Yuan Xiu, the last emperor of the Northern Wei Dynasty, lost his battle with the powerful minister Gao Huan and had no choice but to surrender to Yuwen Tai who was guarding Guanzhong.
But Yuwen Tai also wanted to be the emperor. In the same year, he killed the disobedient Yuan Xiu and made Yuan Baoju the emperor. Gao Huan, who no longer had an emperor, was not to be outdone and immediately helped Emperor Xiaojing Yuan Shanjian to take the throne as a mascot.
The Northern Wei Dynasty was divided from then on: the one controlled by Gao Huan was called the Eastern Wei, and the one controlled by Yuwen Tai was called the Western Wei.
If the demise of Northern Wei, Liu Song, and Southern Qi was due to the failure of their descendants, then the demise of Southern Liang was due to the fact that the founding emperor Xiao Yan let himself go. He worked hard to govern the country in the early period, but later he became addicted to becoming a monk and could not extricate himself, becoming a monk four times in a row.
Three of them were redeemed by court officials, and the redemption of the emperor alone cost the Southern Liang Dynasty a full 400 million coins. If it was just "acting up" in life, it would be fine. In the government, Emperor Wu of Liang, Xiao Yan, was also quite confused in the later period.
He accepted the surrendered general Hou Jing from the Eastern Wei, but after his nephew Xiao Yuanming was captured by the Eastern Wei, he wanted to exchange Hou Jing for Xiao Yuanming. This move undoubtedly pushed Hou Jing to death.
Seeing this, Hou Jing took the initiative. In 548 AD, Hou Jing started a rebellion, which was known as the "Hou Jing Rebellion". The Hou Jing Rebellion caused the Southern Liang Dynasty to lose a large amount of land, and even the founding emperor Xiao Yan died in the turmoil.
In 552 AD, Hou Jing was killed by his subordinates, and the Hou Jing Rebellion came to an end. A country cannot be without a ruler for a day. After the death of the founding emperor Xiao Yan, the powerful ministers of the Southern Dynasty, such as Chen Baxian, successively supported several emperors.
In 557 AD, Chen Baxian, who held great power, deposed the young emperor and proclaimed himself emperor. The Liang Dynasty perished and the Chen Dynasty came onto the stage of history.
Chen Baxian of the south was not the only one who wanted to be emperor. There were also Gao family of the Eastern Wei and Yuwen family of the Western Wei. In 557 AD, Yuwen family deposed the emperor and established himself. The Western Wei Dynasty was destroyed and the Northern Zhou Dynasty was established.
Yuwen Jue became the first emperor of Northern Zhou, namely Emperor Xiaomin. The Eastern Wei had been usurped by Gao Yang seven years earlier. Gao Yang asked the last emperor of Eastern Wei to "apply for resignation" and ascended the throne himself, establishing Northern Qi and becoming Emperor Wenxuan of Northern Qi.
However, the emperors of Northern Qi and Northern Zhou were more absurd than each other. Emperor Wucheng of Northern Qi, Gao Zhan, passed the throne to his son early, but killed his capable general, Lanling Wang; Emperor Gao Wei of Northern Qi was even more licentious and immoral, giving titles and honors to dogs, horses, and eagles, all of which were the culprits for the fall of Northern Qi.
Just when the last emperor of Northern Qi, Gao Wei, was indulging in these absurd things, a wise ruler who was both civil and military emerged in Northern Zhou - Emperor Wu of Northern Zhou, Yuwen Yong.
On the one hand, he eliminated powerful officials in the country, and on the other hand, he developed the military system to strengthen the military strength of the Northern Zhou Dynasty. In 575 AD, Emperor Wu of the Northern Zhou Dynasty, Yuwen Yong, sent troops to the Northern Qi Dynasty.
He personally led an army of 6 and defeated Northern Qi in the Battle of Heyin. In 577 AD, Northern Zhou sent troops again and captured the Northern Qi capital Yecheng in one fell swoop, destroying Northern Qi. Northern Zhou unified the north.
If Emperor Wu of Northern Zhou, Yuwen Yong, had lived longer, perhaps history would have been rewritten and the country would have belonged to Northern Zhou. But he died young, leaving behind a son, Emperor Xuan of Zhou, Yuwen Yun, who was quite incompetent.
He spied on his ministers, established five queens, and lived a life of extravagance, all of which provided a golden opportunity for one man to usurp the throne. This man was the queen's father, Yang Jian.
In 580 AD, Yuwen Yun died of illness, and Yang Jian's grandson Yuwen Chan ascended the throne and became Emperor Jing of Zhou. However, the following year, Yang Jian seized the throne from his grandson, ascended the throne himself, changed the country's name to Sui, and became Emperor Wen of Sui. The story of the Northern Zhou Dynasty also came to an end.
In 589 AD, the Sui Dynasty destroyed the Southern Chen Dynasty and unified China. The Southern and Northern Dynasties period officially ended.
[Understand the historical knowledge of the Battle of Red Cliff in one go - The Three Kingdoms]
Is it possible to win when one is fighting four? Maybe it is possible with the bravery of a common man. But what about 5 fighting 20? Unless every soldier is as brave as a king, it is impossible to win.
However, there was such a war in 208 AD: the allied forces of Sun and Liu, with only 5 troops, defeated Cao Cao's 20 troops and forced them to flee in panic.
This battle brought the east wind, changed the situation, and redistributed the world. Today, let's take a look at the Battle of Red Cliffs, which made Liu Bei, the goalkeeper of Fancheng, the king of Shu Han.
In 208 AD, Cao Cao conquered the north. At this time, he was still two steps away from unifying the world: one was to send troops to Guanxi to capture Ma Chao and Han Sui; the other was to go south to Jingzhou to compete with Sun Quan and Liu Bei.
Who is Cao Cao? A loyal minister in prosperous times and a hero in troubled times, he has long been accustomed to looking ahead. He wants Guanxi, Jingzhou, and Jiangdong. But Liu Biao, the governor of Jingzhou, is dying. Although the risk of going south is great, the benefits are immeasurable.
Therefore, Cao Cao first invited Ma Chao's father Ma Teng to Yecheng and took him as a hostage to prevent Ma Chao from making any rash moves. Afterwards, he trained the navy and sent Zhang Liao, Yu Jin, Le Jin and others to station troops south of Xudu, ready to march south at any time.
Liu Biao was seriously ill, and the fat piece of meat of Jingzhou was within his grasp. In July 208 AD, everything was ready, and Cao Cao went south. In August, Liu Biao died, and his son Liu Cong succeeded him as the governor of Jingzhou.