Established a thousand-year family from the end of Qin Dynasty

Chapter 505 Competing in the Central Plains (38)

One month later

When the Yan people had just come out of the National Day celebrations, Wei Emperor Yuan Hong died young, posthumously named Xiaowen, known as Emperor Xiaowen in history, and his son Yuan Ke came to the throne.

Yuan Ke was a warlike emperor, and after nearly 40 years of recuperation and sinicization reforms by Empress Dowager Feng and Emperor Xiaowen, the population of Wei State increased from 2200 million to 3500 million. Chaos, down from 1500 million to 1100 million.

At this moment, the total population of the Southern and Northern Dynasties has reached 4600 million, surpassing the Sima Yan period of the Western Jin Dynasty. This shows how bad the governance of the Sima family in the Jin Dynasty was. After more than ten years of unifying the world, the population was not as large as that of the Southern and Northern Dynasties.

In this context, Yuan Ke launched the Northern Expedition against Rouran as soon as he ascended the throne.

Eating, sleeping, and playing softly have become the daily routine of Wei people.

And when Yuan Ke, the emperor of Wei State, was on the Northern Expedition to Rouran.

Jin Guo
Jiankang City

Royal Palace
"Queen, the longevity pill has been refined."

An eunuch brought a Taoist priest to the palace. The Taoist priest held a wooden box in his hand, which contained the so-called longevity pill.

This longevity pill is made of saltpeter, charcoal, sulfur, etc., and the outermost layer of the pill is coated with a layer of menstrual blood from a girl's menarche.

Because this unintentionally refined elixir will burn or even self-destruct, the Taoist believes that this is the reason why the yang energy is too heavy, and it is necessary to increase the yin qi to achieve a balance between yin and yang, and the menstrual blood of a girl is naturally extremely yin, so it can Let this longevity pill balance the yin and yang.

The elixir in front of him has a faint smell of gunpowder, and at the same time has a strong smell of menstrual blood.

Liu Chuyu first let the Taoist eat one by himself, and then saw that the other party was fine, so he ate another one himself.

It was fine at first, but after a few days, both the Taoist priest and Liu Chuyu felt very painful, and a few days later, both the Taoist priest and Liu Chuyu died of illness.

The Empress Dowager of the Jin Kingdom was poisoned to death by the elixir, and the culprit was also poisoned to death by her own elixir.

The empress dowager died suddenly at the age of 54, and the emperor was still young. The power of the state of Jin was controlled by the Wang family of Langya and the Xie family of Chenjun.

At that time, everyone called it "the king and Xie share the world".

When the state of Jin returned to the world of aristocratic families, turmoil also occurred in the state of Qi in the Shu region.

The emperor Xiao Baojuan always suspected that the ministers wanted to usurp the throne and conspire against him, and he would kill the whole clan at every turn, which made people panic. In the end, the ministers really couldn't bear it and chose to rebel, and jointly elected Xiao Yan as the commander-in-chief.

The suspicion chain between the monarch and his ministers is very obvious in this era. The monarch suspects that the ministers will rebel, so he always thinks to act first and kill the ministers before they rebel.

The ministers also suspected that the emperor wanted to kill themselves, so they also thought of preemptively, and killed the emperor before the emperor killed himself.

Under such mutual suspicion, whether it is the emperor or the ministers, they are living a precarious life every day.

Under this precarious normalization, drinking today and drinking today has become a way of life for everyone.

Since death is possible at any time, why not enjoy it before you die?If I don't enjoy it, am I dead in vain?
Everyone thinks like this, how can the country not be corrupt?

Xiao Yan was brave and good at fighting, and soon defeated Emperor Xiao Baojuan's imperial guards.

When the news of Xiao Yan's defeat of the imperial guards spread to the Qi Palace, the eunuchs who were originally loyal to the emperor immediately turned against the water, killed the emperor Xiao Baojuan, and cut off Xiao Baojuan's head to surrender to Xiao Yan.

Subsequently, Xiao Baorong, Xiao Baojuan's younger brother, was supported by Xiao Yan to ascend the throne, and the power of the government was in Xiao Yan's hands, such as Yi Yin, Huo Guang, Liang Ji, Dong Zhuo, Yuan Shao, Sima Zhao, Sima Yue, Wang Dao, Huan Wen, Liu Yu, Xiao Luan, the story of others.

As there are more and more old seniors who are powerful ministers/usurpers, the people behind will become more and more familiar with the road.

With so many precedents, it is very convenient to learn from.

For the next year, Xiao Yan kept suppressing the opposition forces, and it was not until he physically eliminated all the opponents that he finally forced the puppet emperor Xiao Baorong to abdicate.

Xiao Luan is a side branch of the royal family of Qi State, and Xiao Yan is Xiao Luan's side branch, which means that the side branch of the side branch has seized the throne.

Because the five clothes have been released, Xiao Yan has too far a relationship with the Xiao royal family of Qi State, and the same ancestor has to be traced back to the Han Dynasty, so after seizing the throne, he did not continue to use "Qi" as the country name, but changed the country. The name is "beam".

Not long after Xiao Yan ascended the throne and proclaimed himself emperor, the State of Wei conquered the State of Jin in the south. The aristocratic families of the State of Jin were still familiar with it. As always, Feila was unbearable, and a lot of resources in his hands were wasted. South Qingzhou and North Xuzhou were all lost. There was also a large-scale peasant uprising.

The monarchs and ministers of the state of Jin asked Xiao Yan for help. Xiao Yan imitated Fu Jian's annexation of the Murong Yan state and pretended to rescue the state of Jin.

The emperor of Jin Kingdom surrendered out of the city, and Xiao Yan immediately moved his capital to Jiankang City.

The emperor of Wei State was very angry when he heard that Jin State was swallowed by Xiao Yan. He worked hard to destroy the main force of Jin State, but only occupied the north of Huaihe River, and made Xiao Yan's wedding dress for nothing.

At this time, the time has come to the spring of the fourth year of Yangong 290 (504).

Wei Guo
Luoyang
Royal Palace
main hall
"A small country in the south of the Yangtze River dares to be an enemy of our great Wei, and it should be destroyed."

The national power of Wei State has increased greatly in recent years, and the national power of the Southern Dynasty has weakened, so the emperor of Wei State has looked down on the Southern Dynasty, just like Fu Jian back then, who believed that the Southern Dynasty could be destroyed by World War I.

Most of the ministers agreed with the strategy of destroying Liang in one battle, and they were very confident.

After a year of preparation, Wei Guozheng dispatched 30 troops to march south, and there were still 70 farmers in logistics and supplies. They were known as a million-strong army to attack Liang State in an all-round way, and the banner was to restore Jin and Qi.

Some clan descendants from the Jin State and the Qi State fled to the State of Wei and asked the State of Wei to help them restore their country. After the state was restored, they would give as much as the State of Wei wanted.

Three months later, Xiao Hong, the commander of the Liang army, was timid and dared not fight. Hearing that the Wei army was about to arrive, he was so frightened that he left the army and ran back to Jiankang City alone.

The [-] soldiers of the Liang army were suddenly leaderless, their morale collapsed instantly, and they fled in all directions. In the chaos, as many as [-] Liang soldiers were trampled and accidentally injured by their own people.

The [-] army was defeated without even seeing the enemy.

A minister impeached Xiao Hong, thinking that his leader was incompetent and should be punished.

However, Xiao Hong is Xiao Yan's younger brother. With the lessons learned from Liu Song and Xiao Qi, Xiao Yan is very partial to the clan's children.

He believes that the reason why Liu Song and Xiao Qi perished was because of the slaughter of the clan, which made the clan weak and unable to save the entire family when the royal family was in danger.

So Xiao Yan did not punish Xiao Hong, even though Xiao Hong caused the [-] army to collapse without a fight.

Not only was the Eastern battlefield defeated, but the guards of Liang State in Hanzhong also surrendered to Wei State one after another.

Liang Guo was defeated across the board, and only Wei Rui won a complete victory in Hefei. Relying on the fire and water attack, he annihilated the [-] Wei army who was alone and deep.

When the situation was extremely unfavorable to the Liang State, Yuan Ying, the coach of the Wei State, was overconfident and sent 20 troops across the Huai River to besiege Zhongli City.

Chang Yizhi, the defender of Zhongli, had only 3000 men, but relying on the solid city defense and high morale, he fought hard for more than a month without being captured.

At the critical moment, Wei Rui descended from the sky again, imitating Wang Jue at the end of the Han Dynasty, ignoring the terrain and logistics, marching in the Huainan swamp, eating the bark and grass root corpses on the roadside when hungry, and drinking the urine of his comrades when thirsty , arrived in Zhongli in just ten days, and came to Wei Jun with a [soldier is expensive] [surprise].

Yang Dayan, the coach of the Wei army on the north bank of the Huaihe River, wanted to go south to rescue the Wei army on the south bank of the Huaihe River, but Wei Rui stopped him and attacked him halfway.

Afterwards, Wei Rui cooperated with Zhong Li's defender and gave Wei Jun's coach Yuan Ying a [Blossom in the Center].

The Wei army, who was attacking the city, would be attacked by Liang Guo soldiers on the city wall in front, and Wei Rui's Liang soldiers' reinforcements would attack behind them.

Yuan Ying, the coach of Wei Jun, left Wei Jun whose morale collapsed, and ran away alone, and disappeared.

20 Wei soldiers fled to the north bank of the Huaihe River, and as many as 15 Wei soldiers drowned in the Huaihe River.

The strength of Wei State was greatly injured, and Liang State also suffered heavy losses. Both sides retreated their troops.

(End of this chapter)