In 618 A.D., the fourteenth year of the Great Cause, Emperor Yang Guang of the Sui Dynasty was strangled by the forbidden army under his command in the Jiangdu coup, and the Sui Dynasty came to an end after 38 years.
Yang Guang's death was like a collapsing building block, which split the world in an instant. In fact, before his death, the Central Plains region was already in flames. Rebel armies rose up one after another, and some of the ancient Guanlong nobles also began to alienate Yang Guang and turn to support the new leader.
Despite this, until his death, he was still regarded as the only authentic son of heaven, and the Sui Dynasty had an extremely vast territory and strength that could not be underestimated. However, with the death of Yang Guang, the situation changed in an instant.
In many places that were originally under the jurisdiction of the Sui Dynasty, the local magnates became independent, creating an even more chaotic situation. However, this chaotic situation is only temporary. After a fierce competition, the major forces in the late Sui Dynasty quickly emerged.
The situation in the north has always been a three-legged position represented by Li Yuan, Wang Shichong and Dou Jiande, but this cannot hide the forces in the south. After all, in the history at that time, whether it was Li Yuan, Wang Shichong, Dou Jiande, Li Mi, etc., they were all in the northern region north of the Yangtze River.
Therefore, it is easy for us to have another question: then, what about the South at that time?
In the situation of the division between the north and the south, the forces in the south are complicated. Among them, Xiao Mo used to be the most likely to compete with Li Yuan for the world. However, in a bizarre way, he lost the scramble.
Xiao Mo was born in 583 AD, the third year of the establishment of the Sui Dynasty and the first year of Chen Zhide of the Southern Dynasty. Although the Sui Dynasty had unified the north, it did not immediately move south to destroy Chen.
It was not until six years later that the Sui Dynasty eliminated the Southern Chen, achieved the complete unification of the Central Plains, and ended the centuries-long division between the north and the south.
Xiao Miao's early life was decisively influenced by the general changes in the world, because his family's ancestors were emperors. The famous representatives of the surname Xiao in history are the Southern Qi and Southern Liang during the Northern and Southern Dynasties, both of which were established by the Xiao family, and the two Xiao families are actually one family, but the branches are different.
Xiao Mo is the sixth grandson of Xiao Yan, who established the Southern Liang regime. His great-grandfather was Xiao Yan's eldest son, Xiao Tong, but he died young and failed to inherit the throne. The Southern Liang regime only existed for 55 years before it was usurped by the general Chen Baxian.
Although Chen Baxian failed to inherit the entire Southern Liang, there were still some remnants of the Southern Liang in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River. However, the Northern Zhou moved south three years later and succeeded in eliminating these forces.
However, for some reason, the Northern Zhou did not directly annex these remnants, but once again supported a Xiao family member Xiao Jing as emperor and founded the Western Liang. We must understand the ancestral history of Xiao Miao, otherwise we cannot understand some of his later events.
This Xiao Jing, who was supported by the Northern Zhou Dynasty, is Xiao Miao's great-grandfather. With the establishment of the Sui Dynasty, especially the unification of the north, the Western Liang regime that was supported back then has lost its meaning of existence.
Therefore, Emperor Wen of Sui issued an edict to cancel the national name of Xiliang, and Xiliang perished from then on.
Xiao Yan defected to Nan Chen because of the destruction of the Western Liang, but soon discovered that Nan Chen was about to be destroyed by the Sui Dynasty. When the Sui Dynasty army moved south, Xiao Yan surrendered to the Sui Dynasty again. Emperor Wen of Sui Yang Jian directly killed Xiao Yan who had betrayed him, but he was open to Xiao Yan's descendants.
Xiao Miao's life can be described as ill-fated. His grandfather once rebelled, and as a royal bloodline of the previous dynasty, he naturally did not receive too much preferential treatment in the social environment at that time.
Although the Xiao family had some officials in the court, Xiao Mo still had a difficult life because of his grandfather's sins. In his early years, he lived in extreme poverty and had to sell books for a living.
However, when he was 22 years old, an unexpected event happened that changed his life completely. In that year, Emperor Wen of Sui Yang Jian died, and his second son Yang Guang ascended the throne and became the historical Emperor Yang of Sui.
This news was a huge turning point for Xiao Miao, and his fate changed as a result.
Xiao Mo had a complicated kinship with the Empress Xiao of Emperor Yang of Sui, and his cousin of the third grandfather's family happened to be the empress of Emperor Yang of Sui. Although this relationship is very chaotic, it is a good thing for Xiao Miao.
Because he was a relative of the queen, he got the opportunity to become an official and was promoted to the commander of Luochuan County. However, despite Xiao Miao's identity, his grandfather had a history of rebellion, which made Yang Guang have reservations about him.
Xiao Mo has always been just a county order the size of a sesame mung bean, and he can't be promoted. However, in the thirteenth year of the Great Cause, the situation changed. The Sui dynasty became increasingly turbulent under Yang Guang's rule, and by this year, the state was on the verge of collapse.
The following year, Yang Guang died in a coup d'état in Jiangdu. In Yuezhou in the south, Dong Jingzhen and others decided to raise troops, but lacked leaders. They remembered Xiao Miao, as the remnant of the royal family of the previous dynasty, and decided to elect him as the leader.
Xiao Mo gladly accepted and became the leader of the uprising.
This incident laid the groundwork for Xiao Miao's defeat, because since he raised his army, military power has been scattered in the hands of the generals who supported him. So he had to carry out an internal purge and seize power, thus leaving a chance for the Tang Dynasty.
But that's all for later. At least at the beginning of the army, Xiao Milling was smooth sailing. He first captured Yueyang and established a state there, and then moved the capital to Jiangling. In the second year after the army was raised, he proclaimed himself emperor.
At that time, Xiao Mill had an army of 400,000, and its territory stretched from the Three Gorges in the west, Jiaozhi in the south, and Hanshui in the north.
From the beginning of the army to the emperor, Xiao Mo occupied a vast territory in less than two years, which is a miracle. His success is due to two aspects. First of all, the Xiao family was once the ruler of the south, and went through the two dynasties of Southern Qi and Southern Liang for nearly a hundred years.
When Xiao raised his army, many people in the south still remembered the Xiao family and were willing to accept their rule again. Therefore, as long as Xiao Mill's army played the banner of the Xiao family, it could easily gain the support of most places, or even surrender directly.
Xiao Miao's rule in the south was not stable, and the foundation of his rule was not here. Therefore, almost everywhere he went, he would look at the wind. After he raised his army, he had 400,000 armor soldiers, but he did not fight too hard battles.
Xiao Mo himself is just a petty official and does not have much practical experience. This was his fatal wound, because if he wanted to serve the public, he first had to be able to fight himself. However, Xiao is only 35 years old, and his son may not be able to fight yet.
Therefore, he lacks a son who can fight like Li Yuan.
In the process of gradually expanding the territory, Xiao Milling exposed fatal shortcomings. At first, he was only supported by others, and he did not have many hardcore supporters, so he had to rely on the people who supported him to expand his territory.
He now had an army of 400,000 men, but not all of them under his direct command, but under the command of the generals who supported him. In the past year or so, these generals have expanded their power mainly by directly grabbing territory.
Although in terms of numbers, Xiao Miao's regime is quite large, in fact, its combat power cannot be compared with Wang Shichong, Li Mi and others. Faced with this situation, Xiao Mo did not sit still, he came up with a brilliant idea: to strike the army.
Xiao Mi knew that once a general with a heavy army lost control, it would pose a threat to his rule. Therefore, he decided to let 400,000 soldiers go home to farm, so that the hole cards in the hands of the generals were taken by Xiao Miao.
At the same time, these soldiers can also enrich the national strength and prepare for the domination of the world. Although later historians generally believe that Xiao Mo did this because of his inner suspicion and jealousy over himself, I believe that if he had continued to fight at that time, his subordinates would have appeared with overly powerful courtiers, and Xiao Mo would have faced the same danger at that time.
In contrast, Li Mi himself was very good at fighting, and although he killed Zhai Rang and lost the hearts of the people, he was still able to lead his troops to defeat Yu Wenhua. Moreover, in the process of conquest, he can also discover a group of talents and put those who belong directly to him into the position.
And Xiao Mo doesn't know how to fight, so naturally he can't use this method.
Xiao Miao's strategy was optimal at the time. The strength in the south is the strongest, and he is the one who takes the initiative, while Li Mi, Li Yuan and others in the north cannot compete with him because of internal strife.
The natural hazards of the Yangtze River have also reduced the threat to the north. However, the southern forces such as Feng Ang and Lin Shihong posed a threat to him. Therefore, Xiao Mo sent most of the army home to farm, leaving only a hundred thousand elite troops to guard against them.
However, at this moment when everything was going in a good direction, Xiao Mo met the biggest disaster star in his life - Li Jing, the top general of the Tang Dynasty.
They didn't expect that Li Jing, who led the army, would be so brave and good at fighting!
In order to trap Xiao Miao, Li Yuan sent three soldiers and horses. Li Xiaogong was the main leader, assisted by Li Jing, and attacked all the way from Xiangyang Road; Li Ming, the king of Lujiang, attacked from Chenzhou Road. However, the soldiers and horses of the last two lines were almost easily repelled by Xiao Miao.
Only Li Xiaogong and Li Jing have too strong combat effectiveness along the way, and they have played triumphant songs all the way. Although Xiao Mo occupied the Yangtze River and was geographically convenient, if it weren't for his previous excessive cleaning of the interior, which caused many generals to leave Germany, the arrival of the Tang Army might not have been so smooth.
As a result, Li Xiaogong and Li Jing's army hit the city of Jiangling in one go, surrounding Xiao Mian. At this time, Jiangling City, due to Xiao Miao's strike policy, there were less than 1,000 soldiers defending the city, and they could not withstand the fierce attack of the Tang army.
Moreover, the successive surrenders made Xiao Mo completely lose confidence and no longer believe that anyone would come to the rescue of Gangneung.
In the end, Xiao Mo realized the hopeless reality and chose to surrender in Kaesong. A few days later, the army of more than 100,000 troops that was originally defending against Feng Ang and Lin Shihong arrived at Jiangling City, but by this time Xiao Mo had surrendered to the Tang Dynasty and could no longer salvage the situation.
The coincidence of history is embarrassing, if there had been more defenders in Gangneung Fortress at that time, perhaps the direction of history would have been different. Xiao Mo made it clear when he surrendered: "Only I, Xiao Miao, am guilty, and the people are not guilty, please don't kill and plunder." ”
His kindness was touching, but it didn't save his life. After he was brought back to Chang'an, he was beheaded by Li Yuan at the age of Chinese New Year's Eve.
Xiao Miao's surrender actually doomed his fate. In the process of Li Yuan's struggle for hegemony, most of the leaders of the rebellious separatist forces were executed, and even though Wang Shichong promised to keep his life, he was eventually killed by Li Yuan's distant relatives in the name of revenge.
When Xiao Mo raised the army, he played the banner of Xiao Ziwang and immediately surrendered, which showed the influence of the Xiao family in the local area. For such an influential person, Li Yuan will never tolerate it.
Xiao Miao's story makes us lament the coincidence of history. If the Lingnan reinforcements had arrived a few days earlier, or Xiao Mo had been able to hold out for a few days, history might have changed completely. Sometimes, fate is really cruel.