In 523, during the Northern Wei Dynasty, the long-hostile Rouran people were once again challenged by famine to invade the border, and the target was the six towns of the Northern Wei Dynasty.
The Six Towns were originally established to resist the invasion of the Rouran people, and it should have been easy to face such a weakened nomadic people, but Huaihuang Town failed to stop the invasion of Rouran, and instead broke out civil strife first.
The direct cause of this chaos was the refusal of the commander Yu Jing to distribute food, and Yu Jing, who was originally a general of Wuwei, enjoyed a privileged life in the court, but because of his failure to participate in the rebellion, he was demoted to the barren town of Huaihuang as a guard general.
From the comfort of the Central Plains to the hardships of the frontier, Yu Jing's mood can be imagined, so he frequently abused his soldiers, and the grassroots soldiers and civilians have long complained.
In just seven years, it has had an impact on future generations for more than 300 years.
This time, Yu Jing's behavior was even more unbearable, and even the basic food requirements of the soldiers were refused, which angered the subordinate soldiers, and they rebelled to kill Jing Jing.
Knowing that the imperial court learned that they would kill their commander and would be executed, these already disgruntled soldiers decided to revolt, and the rebellion in Huaihuang quickly spread to the other five towns.
In just a few months, the rebellion in the north covered almost the entire northern region.
In fact, if the Northern Wei court had cared a little more about the Six Towns and made some changes, these low-level people would not have revolted, after all, the Six Towns were originally an important line of defense in the Northern Wei Dynasty and one of the main channels for the upper class to enter.
In the beginning, the commanders of the six towns were not only outstanding military talents among the Xianbei nobles, but even the defensive soldiers were mostly herdsmen from various tribes of the Tuoba Alliance and the children of powerful landlords in the Central Plains.
This situation lasted for more than a hundred years, until Emperor Xiaowen moved the capital and completely changed all that.
One of the reasons why Emperor Xiaowen moved the capital was that Pingcheng was no longer suitable as a capital, and he also harbored a desire to unify the world, but the full sinicization caused opposition from many conservative nobles, including his crown prince.
After years of blows, the Rouran people were weakened and no longer posed a threat to the Northern Wei Dynasty, and the enemies in the south were the real threat to the Northern Wei Dynasty, and the military and political status of the Six Towns was therefore despised.
In order to appease the people, Emperor Xiaowen temporarily abandoned the full sinicization and retained the loopholes of the traditional system of the Six Towns, the traditional system of the Northern Wei Dynasty was the integration of military and government, and the townspeople were regarded as slaves.
Before the reform of Emperor Xiaowen, the town generals could be promoted and moved by fighting Rouran, and left.
Six towns, and the townsfolk are the main force against Rouran, so the townspeople won't overpress them.
However, with the relocation of the capital, the imperial court no longer attached importance to the north, and the intrusion of Rouran also decreased, and the six towns gradually became a burden on the Northern Wei Dynasty, and the former soldiers became various criminals and exiles.
The town will lose the opportunity to be promoted, and Emperor Xiaowen's reform is mainly to implement the gate valve system of the nobility, but the six towns will be excluded, no matter how much credit they make, they will also be excluded from the gate valve, unable to enter the core political stage of the Northern Wei Dynasty, and will naturally turn to oppress the townspeople.
With the decline of the status of the Six Towns, the support provided by the imperial court became less and less, and the population was still huge, making life even more difficult for the people of the Six Towns, which were already difficult.
The internal contradictions of the six towns of the Northern Wei Dynasty, the contradictions between the military households and the newcomers, and the contradictions between the town generals and the Luoyang court intensified as Emperor Xiaowen moved the capital, and they were only about to erupt.
Although the Northern Wei court tried to pay attention to the six towns, Emperor Xuanwu sent Yuan Huai to patrol the border, and its main achievement was to deal with a group of ** filthy officials, but it did not touch the core of the contradiction in the six towns.
As long as there are restrictions on the movement of the townspeople, the conflict will continue, and no matter how many ** filthy officials are punished, it will not help.
In 523, it all finally broke out.
Although Rouran reduced the invasion, they were overwhelmed by successive years of famine, and that year, Rouran suffered a severe famine, and the Great Khan Anahuan led an army of 300,000 south, triggering the events described in the opening chapter.
In the face of Rouran's intrusion, people of insight in the Northern Wei court suggested that Empress Dowager Hu reform the system to alleviate internal contradictions, but Empress Dowager Hu devoted herself to lover and religion, and was indifferent to the life and death of the people in the six towns, and only symbolically distributed some relief.
The already small relief was withheld at various levels, and there was almost nothing in the hands of the people, and the uprising in the border towns became an inevitable result.
In April 524, the Xiongnu garrisons of Woye Town broke the Liuhan Baling Rebellion, proclaimed themselves the true king, declared independence, and soon occupied Woye Town, becoming the leader of the rebels in Six Towns.
After the Six Towns Uprising, the Northern Wei Dynasty hurriedly sent troops to suppress it, but it failed one after another, and by August of that year, the rebels had completely controlled the Six Towns.
In the face of the overwhelming rebels, Empress Dowager Hu hurriedly issued an edict to reform and invited the Rouran people to jointly suppress the uprising in the six towns.
For the Rouran people, this is a good opportunity from heaven, and the six towns that were originally set up to defend against them have now become their target, and the Northern Wei Dynasty has also provided financial and food support, so they naturally gladly accept it.
In August 525, under the joint attack of Rouran and the Northern Wei army, the main rebel force was defeated, and the whereabouts of the Baling of Poliu Han were unknown, and the remaining rebels were forced to surrender.
From the killing of Yu Jing to the quelling of the Six Towns Rebellion, it was only one year, which did not directly lead to the collapse of the Northern Wei Dynasty, and the real problem was how to deal with the remnants of the Six Towns.
At that time, there were about 200,000 remnants of the surrendered soldiers, and if they were not handled properly, they would inevitably cause **, and Yuan Shen, the general of the clan at the front, suggested that they should be resettled locally, and the land should be distributed to the people, and the imperial court could be appeased a little.
However, Empress Dowager Hu was worried that they would rebel again in the same place, so she chose to place the 200,000 remnants in Ying, Hebei, and Dingzhou, which were not rich in the first place, and the new 200,000 people added to the drought to exacerbate the contradictions.
The remnants of the Six Towns once revolted, and they might as well revolt again, and even implicated local refugees, triggering a larger-scale civil uprising.
In August 525, Du Luo Zhou of Rouxuan Town revolted in Yanzhou, continuing the banner of the true king, with great momentum, once captured Woye Town, and then surrounded the two towns of Wuchuan and Huaishuo, Huaishuo Town ordered Yang Jun to lead the army to meet the battle, but failed.
The Haoqiang Gao Huan, Duan Rong and others in the Huaishuo area were attached to Duluo Zhou, and completely occupied Youzhou and Yanzhou in the following year.
At the same time, Xian Yu Xiu in Dingzhou also launched an uprising, and Ge Rong, the general of the original Huaishuo Town, was also involved, but conflicts soon broke out within the rebel army, and the leader Yuan Hongye killed Xian Yu Xiu to surrender to the imperial court, Ge Rong and others did not agree, and finally Ge Rong killed Yuan Hongye and led the rebel army to fight in the south and north.
In September 526, Ge Rong and Du Luo Zhou joined forces to resist the Northern Wei rebels, and Ge Rong later killed Du Luo Zhou and became the sole leader of the Six Towns rebels.
With the successive defeats and retreats of the Northern Wei Dynasty, the whole territory of Hebei fell into the hands of Ge Rong, who proclaimed himself the Son of Heaven, changed his Yuan to Guang'an, and prepared to march into Luoyang and seize the world.
But soon, Ge Rong met his biggest enemy, Er Zhurong.
Erzhurong was born in the Qihu tribe, and the Erzhu family fought in the north with the Xianbei people from the early days of the Northern Wei Dynasty, and by the generation of Erzhurong, he had become the prince of Liang County, with more than 10,000 troops.
In the early days of the Six Towns Rebellion, the keen Er Zhurong began to accumulate strength, and gradually emerged by quelling the Six Towns Rebellion, rising from the champion general to the general of Zhengdong and the right guard, and supervising the six states of Fen, Guang and Yun, becoming the power center of the Northern Wei Dynasty.
During the counterinsurgency, Er Zhurong absorbed many surrendered troops from the six towns, including Gao Huan, Hou Jing, He Bayue and other famous generals, and his power increased day by day.
As his strength grew, so did Er Zhurong's ambitions, and he repeatedly asked Emperor Xiaoming for permission to march into Hebei to pacify Ge Rong, and expand his territory by the way.
However, Emperor Xiaoming was worried that Er Zhu Rong's power would be difficult to control, so he refused his request, and Er Zhu Rong could only choose to hide temporarily.
In April 528, Empress Dowager Hu, at the instigation of her lover Zheng Yan, poisoned her son Emperor Xiaoming, and then established the daughter of Emperor Xiaoming's favorite concubine as emperor, and later established Yuanzhao as emperor.
In the name of avenging Emperor Xiaoming, Er Zhurong supported Changle Wang Yuanzi as the emperor, led troops to march to Luoyang, and sank the Empress Dowager Hu, the little emperor and the Northern Wei clan who did not follow him into the Yellow River, which is known as the Heyin Change.
After this catastrophe, the Northern Wei regime basically collapsed, and Er Zhurong was in full control of the government, but he did not immediately usurp the throne, on the one hand, there were continuous internal rebellions, and Ge Rong was still a great threat, on the other hand, the Southern Liang sent Chen Qingzhi to escort Yuan Hao, intending to seize the throne of Yuan Ziyou.
Er Zhurong decided to solve Ge Rong's henchman first, and then deal with Chen Qingzhi.
Although Ge Rong claimed to be a million-strong army, the actual number of soldiers who could fight was only 200,000, and the gap between the two sides was not large.
But Er Zhurong chose not to fight Ge Rong in Luoyang, but led 7,000 cavalry, day and night, to prepare for a surprise attack on Ge Rong's army.
7,000 versus million, a seemingly impossible challenge, even Ge Rong thinks that Er Zhurong is killing himself.
But Er Zhurong has his own strategy, although the troops are not many, they still divide the troops in the valley, tie the tail of the horse to the branches and shout in the dust, confusing Ge Rong not knowing where the main force is, Er Zhurong personally led the elite troops to the rear.
Er Zhurong ordered the cavalry to change the stick without a knife to avoid damage to the knife, and the seven thousand cavalry came out together, attacking the front and rear, Ge Rong was captured, and the rest of the army was scattered.
In order to prevent the remnants of the army from regrouping and rebelling, Er Zhurong announced that he would not pursue the past, and those who were willing to continue to serve in the army could go with him, and others could go home.
In September 529, with the pacification of the remaining Han Lou of Ge Rong, the Six Towns Rebellion came to an end.
As for Chen Qingzhi, he was also defeated by Er Zhurong, after which the Northern Wei Dynasty completely fell into the hands of Er Zhurong.
Although Er Zhurong was powerful, he was assassinated by Yuan Ziyou not long after, although Er Zhurong died, but the Erzhu clan and his henchmen were still strong, Yuan Ziyou was difficult to control the government, and the Northern Wei Dynasty was even more chaotic.
On December 23, the third year of Yong'an (530), Yuan Ziyou was strangled to death by Er Zhu Rongtang's nephew Zhu Zhao, and with the death of Yuan Ziyou, the various henchmen who had been attached to Er Zhu Rong have emerged in the troubled times, such as Gao Huan, Yu Wentai, Hou Jing and others.
Gao Huan is a Han from Huaishuo Town, and his ancestors were once scholars from Hebei, and they were sent to the border of Huaishuo Town because of their crimes. Although he was poor, he was handsome and valued by the Xianbei aristocratic Lou family, and with the support of his father-in-law, Gao Huan was fortunate to make friends with Hebei Haojie and became a help in the future to compete for the world.
After the rebellion of the six towns, although Gao Huan joined the rebel army and successively threw himself into the accounts of Du Luozhou and Ge Rong, but seeing that the rebellion of the six towns was not a climate, he turned to the side of Er Zhurong, who was unrivaled for a while, and relied on his ingenuity and wisdom to decapitate his head here in Er Zhurong, and once served as the assassin of Jinzhou.
After Er Zhurong was killed, Er Zhu Zhao took power, and Gao Huan openly opposed it, but secretly expressed his support, and successfully won over the Xianbei and Han ministers who were offended by Er Zhu Zhao, and then incorporated the remnants of the rebels in the six towns.
Later, he led the rebels of the six towns to defeat the Erzhu clan twice in Guang'a and Hanling, succeeded the Erzhu clan to control the Northern Wei Dynasty, and established the Eastern Wei Dynasty, and the Northern Qi Dynasty was born from the Eastern Wei Dynasty.
Yuwentai is a native of Wuchuan Town, and like Gao Huan, he participated in the rebel army of Xian Yuxiu and Ge Rong in the Six Towns Uprising, and as the rebel army was suppressed, Yuwentai took refuge in Er Zhurong's subordinate He Bayue, followed He Bayue to quell the Guanlong uprising, and became the most powerful general under He Bayue.
And as He Batyue was killed by Gao Huan's subordinate Hou Mo Chen Yue, Yuwentai was elected by everyone to take over He Batyue's troops, occupy the Kwantung Yingli Yuanbao Torch, and establish the Western Wei to compete with the Eastern Wei, and the Northern Zhou in the future was born from the Western Wei.
Hou Jing is also a townsman in Huaishuo Town, grew up with Gao Huan since he was a child, followed Gao Huan to participate in the Six Towns Uprising, and also followed Gao Huan to take refuge in Er Zhurong.
Because Hou Jing was brave in battle and cunning, he was soon promoted to the assassin of Dingzhou.
With Gao Huan's annihilation of the Erzhu clan in power, Hou Jing relied on his old relationship with Gao Huan to take charge of Henan Province and became Gao Huan's most relied on general.
But because of his cunning personality, Gao Huan knew that his son Gao Cheng could not control it, and it was expected that Hou Jing would rebel in the future, so Gao Cheng was careful to beware, and sure enough, after Gao Huan's death, Hou Jing rebelled, and after being defeated, he first defected to Western Wei, and then took refuge in Southern Liang after being rejected.
In Southern Liang, Hou Jing rebelled again, turning Southern Liang upside down, which directly led to the demise of Southern Liang and profoundly changed the situation of Southern Dynasties, and it became a foregone conclusion that the north was strong and the south was weak.
Since the establishment of the Eastern Wei and the Western Wei Dynasty, there have been continuous wars, the Western Wei Dynasty was weak, and in the Battle of Bishan, the 100,000 troops of the Western Wei Dynasty were completely annihilated, completely defeating all the belongings of Yuwentai.
At the time of life and death, Yuwentai carried out reforms, especially the creation of the government military system that influenced the Sui and Tang dynasties, which was led by the generals of the six pillar states, plus the representatives of the Yuan royal family, Yuan Xin and Yuwentai himself, which was the Eight Pillars of the Western Wei Dynasty, and formed the Guanlong aristocracy.
In the Eight Pillars, Yuwentai's nephew Yuwenhu established the Northern Zhou Dynasty, Duguxin's son-in-law Yang Jian established the Sui Dynasty, and Li Hu's grandson Li Yuan established the Tang Dynasty.
In the end, the Northern Zhou Dynasty destroyed the Northern Qi, the Sui Dynasty usurped the Northern Zhou Dynasty and destroyed the Southern Chen to dominate the world, and the Tang Dynasty reached the peak of the feudal era.
As for the Guanlong aristocracy based on the Eight Pillars of the Western Wei Dynasty, it profoundly influenced the Northern Zhou, Sui, and Tang dynasties for hundreds of years, especially the Sui and Tang dynasties.
But can you think that the trend of these hundreds of years of history was actually changed by the group of inconspicuous characters in the Six Towns at the beginning? In just six or seven years, the uprising profoundly affected the seven dynasties of the Northern Wei, Eastern Wei (Northern Qi), Western Wei (Northern Zhou), Southern Liang, Southern Chen, Sui, and Tang dynasties.
The real history is so peculiar!